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Seg 1 - FB Show - Jason Candle 10-28 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's time for the UConn Football Coaches Show. That means
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Jason Candle joins us, the head coach of the Huskies.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I'm Mike Crispino, and we got a lot to talk about.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: A game coming up with Air Force, that's going to
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: be a big one. But the game against UMass under
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the lights, under the belt of the Huskies, a win.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: They go back over 500 at four and three. So Jason,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: that one, let's begin there. Sometimes games happen, they kind
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: of change immediately when I thought that, you know, their
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: drive off the, you know, the opening kickoff was pretty impressive.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: But even more so, the defensive stand that UConn made
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: there after that 13-play drive, I thought that was kind
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: of key to the, at least the first half of
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: that game.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it's funny that, you know, when you
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: watch football as a casual fan, the impactful plays that
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: you don't see, right? I mean, you know, a couple
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: of key things. key stops there uh the pass interference
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: call on third down against them i mean you know
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: that the course of the game right there shifts in
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: the balance very easily with momentum so um yeah we
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: want to see the kicker out there as many times
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: as we can we don't want to give up touchdowns
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: it was a good good job by our defense and
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: um you know we were able to you know go
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: down there and get a score afterwards i thought that
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: was that was a that was a key moment.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah it's a Tajay Mullicks made a nice play there,
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  Speaker 1: stopped the run after a couple yards. Anas Lukman, too.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Josh Mickens, who we're going to talk about later in
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the show, had a sack of Watson around the six-yard line.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, that would have been a huge boost emotionally
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: to UMass to come in there at UConn, run it
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: down the field at 13 plays and get seven, but
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: they only got three.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we finally won a coin toss for
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the first time all year, and then we give up
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: points on the first drive. But, yeah, you want to
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: hold them to three. But I think our defense just
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: throughout the course of the entire football game did a
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: really good job of limiting explosive plays. And then in
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: some of those tight situational things, got their cleats in
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: the ground and really bowed up and did a great job.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: And we tackled better, ran to the ball, and did
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: the things necessary to play high-level defense. And we want
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: to see that continue this week.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the answer– to their drive was yours. 13 plays, uh,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: just under six minutes, 75 yards, which also you went
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: for it fourth and one at their 28 yard line.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Obviously that's a key. You get that one, excuse me.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: And you're able to push it in for a touchdown. Uh,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: any thought there that you were going to try to
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: kick it or you're going for, you're going to keep
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: it going and try to score. Keep it going.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: You know, it's first drive of the game. You know,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: you got, you got plenty of possessions in that football game. Um, Yeah,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, we want to be aggressive, and we feel
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: like we got a good play that can get us
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: the first down.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: We're going to roll with it. Yeah, so it has
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to do with the time of the game. It was early.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Might as well take your risks right there.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Well, I think all fourth downs have their own story.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: They're not all the same, right? I mean, you know,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: fourth and one on the minus 20-yard line. Somebody did
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: that yesterday in the NFL. I mean, I'm not going
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: to go that route, but my gosh, you know, you're
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: in plus territory. you're on the fringe there. You're not,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: you know, it's a low percentage field goal. It's crazy
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: in my mind to punt, right. Um, you know, you're
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: not gaining any, you're getting 15, 16 yards of field position.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Like there's not, there's just, there's not, there's not, you
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  Speaker 2: might as well go for it. It doesn't, it doesn't
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  Speaker 2: hurt you. There's no difference between playing defense on, to
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  Speaker 2: me on a 35 yard line and playing defense on
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  Speaker 2: a minus 20. Right. So, um, Yeah, it'd be great
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: to play defense on the minus one or minus two
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  Speaker 2: like we're able to do and get a couple pinned
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  Speaker 2: down in there. But that's not realistic every drive. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and we feel like we got, you know, aggressive unit
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: on offense. And the kids, if we don't go for
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: some of these, they're going to look at me, you know,
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  Speaker 2: like you don't believe in us. And it's crazy if
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: you don't think we can get that first down. So
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of things go into those decisions.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: It's not just analytics. It's not just, you know, there's,
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  Speaker 2: like I said, every one of those fourth downs has
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: its own story.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you had a third down. inside their five or
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: at the five on that same drive. And that's when
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: you scored Osborne throwing to Porter on that nice slant pass.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: What if he didn't get, what if that didn't happen?
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  Speaker 1: Would you be going for that inside their five? Do
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: you think on fourth? I don't know. We got it.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: I don't know. It took you off the hook. I
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: love it. Let's talk about Shamar Porter. The pattern he
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: ran to get open and the delivery by Caleb Osborne.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, that had to be on time. It had
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to be quick. It had to be accurate. It was
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: all of those things. Yeah.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: I mean, those, those guys have, Shamar's done a great
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: job stepping up in Javon Brown's absence. Caleb continues to
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: fall into rhythm with his receivers. You know, I think
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: that that passing game starting to hit its stride a
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: little bit. I'd like to see us separate a little
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: bit better man coverage than when we did on Saturday,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Friday night, but for the most part, very efficient in
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: the passing game. We didn't have to throw it a bunch,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: you know, the running game got rolling and, you know,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: you got, We were able to control the line of
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: scrimmage like we were. There's really no need to throw
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: it unless you're going to take some shots down the field. Or,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: like you mentioned, you're third and five and you're in
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: a situation with football and you're going to come up
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: with a big play. So credit those two guys for
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: doing that.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you won the game. I think you threw 19 times,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: which is in today's college game, that's not a huge
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: amount for sure. Running game going well. I thought in
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the second quarter against UMass, field position started to become–
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: you know, important. And you guys got the best of that.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: You know, your punter doing a nice job, your coverage teams.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: But when you're starting to get field position advantages, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: this will play in, I'm sure, to the Air Force game,
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: that can sort of swing things in your direction, I
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: would think.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that, you know, specifically to the second
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: quarter Friday night, you know, we seized the momentum and
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: were able to play majority of that quarter on, you know,
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: their side of the 50, you know, and we they
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: did us a couple of favors by, you know, throwing
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: the ball a couple of times and preserving some clock
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: for us. And we were able to hold our timeouts
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: there and, you know, steal a few extra plays, but,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: you know, sincere corrupt through there and got through there
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: on that long touchdown, you know, that, that kind of
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: broke it open a little bit. And, you know, we
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: started to find, find some rhythm that way. So, you know, that's,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: that's the consistency that you're searching for. You're trying to
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: capture that and harness that and make sure that that
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: reproduces itself every drive, but that's, that's easier said than done. So,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: As it pertains to this game, you know, this team
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: we're playing this week is, you know, they got the
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: doctorate in squeezing the air out of the clock and
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: how to limit possessions and how to, you know, make
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: you maximize your opportunities. And it can't be a stressful thing.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: It can't create anxiety for you. But you also have to,
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: you know, have the proper attention to the importance of
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: playing clean football.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, getting that ball with a minute 16 to go
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: in the first half against UMass and then the sincere
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: Bauer 70-yard touchdown run. Let's talk about the offensive line
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: for a minute there, right? You know, we do these
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: coaching shows every week. We talk about stats. We talk
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: about the upcoming team. We talk big picture. We don't
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: always talk about the offensive line. Now, here's your shot.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Ty Chan, Christian Richter, I thought they opened a great
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: hole there for Bowers. But overall, I think they've been
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: doing a pretty good job the last couple weeks getting
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: that rushing game going.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they've kind of, you know, it's a hard thing.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: It's hard to explain because the rhythm of that and
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: the timing of the blocks and when you're playing multiple
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: running backs and you got multiple guys in and out
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: of the lineup, sometimes it takes a little bit longer to,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: to really, for that to look clean and crisp. And,
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: but when it does, I mean, you can get a
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: really explosive player in a one-on-one situation with a, with
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: a defender. I like our chances when sincere has got
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: that opportunity. I like our chances when Kenji has an opportunity,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: you know, we have some other guys that like the
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: opportunity that those opportunities when, you know, they're on the
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: perimeter and we're throwing the ball to them. So you,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: you're trying to put guys in position where they have
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: those one-on-one scenarios and, And if you can do that
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: in a run game by having good continuity and good rhythm,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I think that's when your offense is really operating at
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: an optimal level.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, got to love explosive plays, that's for sure. Jason
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Candle with us, UConn Football Coaches Show. More coming up
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: on Learfield.