Latest / ESPN 700 & 92.1 FM | Utah's #1 Sports Talk / Coordinator's Corner: Utes OC Kevin McGiven on the win over Houston, Devon Dampier taking over in the 2nd half, At Cincy this week + more
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Right now, we're talking offense, Coordinator's Corner, brought to you
- 0:03Speaker 1: by Mountain Home Services. And this week, it's the offense.
- 0:06Speaker 1: Kevin McGibbon is kind enough to join us on the show.
- 0:08Speaker 1: Mac G, how are you, sir?
- 0:11Speaker 2: Doing good. How are you guys doing?
- 0:12Speaker 3: Doing all right.
- 0:13Speaker 2: 7-0.
- 0:15Speaker 3: Tell me what's the best thing about 7-0 right now, Coach.
- 0:20Speaker 2: Oh, wow. Haven't had to see Morgan too mad yet,
- 0:23Speaker 2: I guess, maybe. Yeah. You know, it always, always makes
- 0:29Speaker 2: life easier when you, when you come off a win,
- 0:31Speaker 2: you know, and, and so being here and having, not
- 0:36Speaker 2: having had to face that adversity yet is, is pretty good.
- 0:40Speaker 1: So there was a lot of narrative about whether or
- 0:44Speaker 1: not your team was tested heading into a game against
- 0:47Speaker 1: the top 15 Houston squad.
- 0:50Speaker 3: And, you know, all you can do is beat the
- 0:52Speaker 3: teams in front of you.
- 0:53Speaker 1: But there's, I think, some validity to the fact that
- 0:56Speaker 1: the schedule gets tougher in the second half of the
- 0:58Speaker 1: season for Utah. And so maybe it felt like the
- 1:01Speaker 1: first big test. Maybe it felt like you were facing
- 1:04Speaker 1: an equal. And statistically, Houston and Utah were very similar
- 1:07Speaker 1: coming into these games. But tell me how it was
- 1:10Speaker 1: preparing for Houston and then going out and seeing you
- 1:12Speaker 1: guys execute the way they did, knowing that they were
- 1:15Speaker 1: probably a better team than any of the ones you
- 1:17Speaker 1: had faced in the six weeks previously.
- 1:20Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there was, there was a lot of really,
- 1:24Speaker 2: really focused practices, a lot of energy, you know, I
- 1:29Speaker 2: think players understood what was at stake. I think we
- 1:32Speaker 2: got a little bit of a wake up call the
- 1:33Speaker 2: week before when I'm playing Colorado, because you know, that,
- 1:37Speaker 2: that was a close game and, and we didn't feel
- 1:39Speaker 2: like we performed at our best. And so there were
- 1:43Speaker 2: some learning moments coming out of that game that we
- 1:45Speaker 2: had to apply just to be better, period, regardless of
- 1:47Speaker 2: who we were playing. But put a lot of good
- 1:50Speaker 2: preparation in on Houston. And, you know, I think, you know,
- 1:55Speaker 2: the kids kind of took it to heart with some
- 1:56Speaker 2: of the naysayers and wanted to go out there and
- 1:59Speaker 2: prove that we belonged at this level and could compete. Yeah.
- 2:05Speaker 1: We overuse in sports media, I know I'm guilty of this,
- 2:09Speaker 1: halftime adjustments. And you hear guys who are actually in
- 2:13Speaker 1: football be like, man, I've never adjusted anything at halftime
- 2:15Speaker 1: in my life. But this was a tale of two
- 2:18Speaker 1: halves for your offense. All those other previous games, you've
- 2:22Speaker 1: been off to a hot start, and that didn't happen
- 2:25Speaker 1: against Houston. Of course, things really got going after the
- 2:28Speaker 1: halftime break. So tell me what that tale of two
- 2:32Speaker 1: halves looked like from your perspective.
- 2:35Speaker 2: Yeah, there was pretty good ball movement going on in
- 2:40Speaker 2: the first half. A couple of third-down situations that we
- 2:44Speaker 2: got out of with some miscommunications and some lack of
- 2:48Speaker 2: execution had a turnover on a drive that I think
- 2:53Speaker 2: that's the first take that we were starting to sustain
- 2:56Speaker 2: that drive, pushing the ball down the field, and then
- 2:59Speaker 2: came away with no points in the two-minute at the
- 3:02Speaker 2: end of the first half. But did a really good
- 3:05Speaker 2: job fighting out of a backup situation, getting it down
- 3:08Speaker 2: to where we can take a shot at the end
- 3:10Speaker 2: zone with six seconds left, knowing that we're trying to
- 3:12Speaker 2: preserve time for a field goal. And so my message
- 3:15Speaker 2: to them at halftime was, you know, I didn't think
- 3:17Speaker 2: the score was indicative of what they were doing, moving
- 3:21Speaker 2: the ball and just need to go out and capitalize on,
- 3:25Speaker 2: on some situations and be able to finish some of
- 3:27Speaker 2: those off. And, you know, and so, you know, the
- 3:31Speaker 2: kids weren't even phased when I saw them in the
- 3:33Speaker 2: locker room, they were, they were, you know, they were
- 3:35Speaker 2: extremely dialed in and, and, you know, really looked unflappable
- 3:39Speaker 2: in that moment, which was good to see because they
- 3:41Speaker 2: hadn't been in that moment yet. And then, and then
- 3:43Speaker 2: there were some schematic adjustments that we had to make
- 3:45Speaker 2: with just some things Houston was doing, you know, in
- 3:48Speaker 2: particular to the run game and, and with some of
- 3:50Speaker 2: the protections and things like that, where we had to,
- 3:53Speaker 2: you know, go back to a little bit more gap scheme,
- 3:57Speaker 2: playing a little bit more, you know, some of more
- 4:00Speaker 2: of our option wrinkles, you know, getting dev more involved
- 4:03Speaker 2: as a, as a reader. And then, and then a
- 4:05Speaker 2: lot of things he could, he just kind of took
- 4:07Speaker 2: upon himself, you know, when he took the game over and,
- 4:11Speaker 2: you know, just went through his process when I called
- 4:15Speaker 2: passes really quickly. And so decided he needed to use
- 4:19Speaker 2: his feet to get us back on track, which was
- 4:21Speaker 2: definitely what we needed.
- 4:22Speaker 1: That was going to be my next question. Was that
- 4:26Speaker 1: something that you as a coaching staff decided, or was that,
- 4:30Speaker 1: Devin Dampier just recognizing the green grass in front of him,
- 4:35Speaker 1: or I imagine some balance to that.
- 4:38Speaker 2: Yeah. I think a big part of it was his
- 4:40Speaker 2: preparation going in and, you know, with the, with the defense,
- 4:45Speaker 2: with the defensive scheme, there were, there was a lot
- 4:47Speaker 2: of lift and carry where, you know, they had wall
- 4:51Speaker 2: players that were carrying verticals. And so a lot of
- 4:53Speaker 2: people that were getting depth and turning their back away
- 4:55Speaker 2: from the quarterback, you know, and so that, his ability
- 4:59Speaker 2: to recognize that and, you know, also to pre-snap diagnose
- 5:03Speaker 2: the coverage and where he needed to take his eyes.
- 5:05Speaker 2: And so, you know, it wasn't a lot of fulfilled
- 5:07Speaker 2: progressions going on. You know, he got his eyes to
- 5:09Speaker 2: a spot that he thought should be there. And then
- 5:12Speaker 2: if it looked muddy, then he was very decisive. You know, but...
- 5:16Speaker 2: Took enough time to let things lift, to kind of
- 5:18Speaker 2: let things sort out in front of him, and then
- 5:21Speaker 2: made some of those decisions to go. And I thought
- 5:24Speaker 2: it was appropriate. But I think it was also part
- 5:27Speaker 2: of him just taking over the game, putting the team
- 5:29Speaker 2: on his shoulders, and said, okay, I'm going to will
- 5:33Speaker 2: us to victory here.
- 5:36Speaker 1: I mean, this is probably a dumb question to ask,
- 5:38Speaker 1: but how– how nice is that to have a guy
- 5:41Speaker 1: who's capable of doing it? Because there's a lot of
- 5:44Speaker 1: quarterbacks that are technically proficient. And I don't know that
- 5:48Speaker 1: their coaches and their coordinators truly trust that. Like he's
- 5:52Speaker 1: always going to make the right decision. He is capable
- 5:54Speaker 1: of putting a team on his back and doing that. You,
- 5:57Speaker 1: you do have that. So you could call a great game,
- 6:00Speaker 1: but hopefully Devin, can you make it even better?
- 6:03Speaker 3: And I don't know how common that is in college football.
- 6:06Speaker 3: You have that luxury.
- 6:08Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And it is a, it is a luxury,
- 6:12Speaker 2: you know you know, and, and I would say, I
- 6:16Speaker 2: would say up to this point, just with the, with
- 6:18Speaker 2: the offensive scheme and philosophy, you know, where he's, he's
- 6:23Speaker 2: really tried hard to master that and, and really tries
- 6:27Speaker 2: hard to apply it in the games and doing the
- 6:29Speaker 2: right things, distributing the ball appropriately and things like that.
- 6:33Speaker 2: You know, but I don't know that I had really
- 6:36Speaker 2: seen him. I mean, seen him make a lot of plays,
- 6:38Speaker 2: but I don't know if I had really seen him
- 6:39Speaker 2: flip that switch like that before. And, you know, with
- 6:44Speaker 2: my experience with him, but I, but I told him
- 6:46Speaker 2: after the game, I was like, Hey, you got to
- 6:47Speaker 2: get on the headset and tell me when you're ready
- 6:49Speaker 2: to take this thing over. Cause I need to call
- 6:51Speaker 2: it appropriately. And he's been, he's been awesome and made
- 6:58Speaker 2: a ton of plays and he's, he's running the office
- 7:00Speaker 2: really well, but there was, there was kind of a
- 7:02Speaker 2: different level to his mindset. And so, you know, it was,
- 7:07Speaker 2: I started to kind of pick up on that and then,
- 7:10Speaker 2: you know, started to try to call it appropriately based
- 7:12Speaker 2: on what his mindset was.
- 7:14Speaker 1: I probably asked you about this before, but one of
- 7:16Speaker 1: my favorite things about getting to know Devin and, and
- 7:19Speaker 1: talking to him about mistakes that he does make is
- 7:22Speaker 1: that he's got that short memory and that he just
- 7:24Speaker 1: kind of like, he doesn't let it kill him.
- 7:26Speaker 2: Right.
- 7:27Speaker 3: He throws shots. There was a pick where he got
- 7:28Speaker 3: hit on the first one.
- 7:30Speaker 1: The second one, you know a lot more about playing
- 7:32Speaker 1: the position that I do, was just kind of boneheaded,
- 7:35Speaker 1: it looked like. It was just like a bad decision
- 7:36Speaker 1: and one you would like to have back. And he
- 7:40Speaker 1: gets over it. And he goes out and he makes
- 7:42Speaker 1: the next play. And that seems like such a crucial
- 7:44Speaker 1: thing for a quarterback to be.
- 7:45Speaker 3: Able to do.
- 7:46Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. I think there can be... there can be
- 7:50Speaker 2: a snowball effect. And as we know, you know, football
- 7:53Speaker 2: is a game of momentum and you know, and so
- 7:56Speaker 2: anytime you let those things compound, you know, that's what
- 8:00Speaker 2: can cause a lot of those momentum shifts. You know,
- 8:04Speaker 2: so I think the quarterback's ability to respond to, and
- 8:06Speaker 2: not just to dig you out of a rut, but just,
- 8:09Speaker 2: you know, to make sure they have a level of consistency.
- 8:11Speaker 2: And I think it's been a big part of what,
- 8:14Speaker 2: Coach Scali has instilled with the growth mindset of the players,
- 8:20Speaker 2: talked about it every day, that they're going to make mistakes,
- 8:23Speaker 2: they're going to grow from them. I tell them every
- 8:26Speaker 2: day that, hey, this is a learn and apply system.
- 8:29Speaker 2: You're not always going to be perfect. We just got
- 8:32Speaker 2: to make sure we're making the right decisions most of
- 8:34Speaker 2: the time and that we're not doing things that are
- 8:38Speaker 2: going to lose his football games. You know, and so
- 8:40Speaker 2: there were a couple of those situations we'd like to
- 8:42Speaker 2: have back that you'd consider critical errors. But, you know,
- 8:45Speaker 2: right now he's doing a lot more to win his
- 8:47Speaker 2: football games than he is to lose.
- 8:50Speaker 1: Remain the close game into the crucial moments, of course.
- 8:54Speaker 1: And that's kind of what we expected in this one
- 8:57Speaker 1: is number 10 versus number 14.
- 8:58Speaker 3: At least those were the rankings at the time.
- 9:01Speaker 1: And you got to find that moment like you did
- 9:04Speaker 1: against Colorado the week previous where somebody is going to
- 9:07Speaker 1: make a play and it happened to be the defense
- 9:11Speaker 1: that had to do it.
- 9:12Speaker 3: Did you, did you even get to watch it live coach?
- 9:14Speaker 1: I know that half the time your, your head's buried
- 9:16Speaker 1: in the playbook and things like that. Did you get
- 9:18Speaker 1: to see Jackson Benny sack in real time?
- 9:22Speaker 2: I did. I did not see it. So my, my
- 9:26Speaker 2: head was down on call. She tried to trying to
- 9:29Speaker 2: figure some things out and then And then I just
- 9:32Speaker 2: heard a bunch of people erupt on the headset. And,
- 9:36Speaker 2: you know, so then I kind of looked up to
- 9:38Speaker 2: see the aftermath because obviously I had a call ready. But,
- 9:42Speaker 2: you know, but, yeah, what a big-time play by that kid.
- 9:47Speaker 2: Great call by Coach Swan. And that was really to
- 9:51Speaker 2: finish that thing off. I thought Swan, was really masterful
- 9:57Speaker 2: in the way he handled the end of that game
- 10:00Speaker 2: to get those guys off the field and some of
- 10:02Speaker 2: the things that he dialed up. Obviously, we were able
- 10:07Speaker 2: to capitalize on some of that stuff, but let us
- 10:11Speaker 2: figure ourselves out because we were playing such great defense
- 10:14Speaker 2: throughout against a really, really good offense. And then And
- 10:17Speaker 2: then we finally found our footing. And I felt like
- 10:19Speaker 2: we probably could have got a separation even earlier than that.
- 10:25Speaker 2: It would have been our third drive after we had
- 10:27Speaker 2: scored two consecutive and we were driving down again and
- 10:29Speaker 2: then had the pick on first down. But yeah, needed
- 10:35Speaker 2: a big time play in that moment. Then defense came
- 10:38Speaker 2: through and then we were able to capitalize the score
- 10:40Speaker 2: off of it with a short field.
- 10:41Speaker 1: Well, I feel sad you didn't get to watch it
- 10:43Speaker 1: in real time because it was one of the more
- 10:44Speaker 1: special moments that we've had in recent years at Rice
- 10:47Speaker 1: Cycle Stadium.
- 10:47Speaker 3: But then you've got to have that play ready.
- 10:50Speaker 1: Was there any conversation about, hey, let's take some time
- 10:52Speaker 1: and not score right away here?
- 10:56Speaker 2: You know, so we're really big into analytics. You know,
- 11:02Speaker 2: Joe DeRozzi does some in-game stuff for Coach Scali and
- 11:05Speaker 2: gives me some information and things like that. But I think,
- 11:08Speaker 2: you know, when you– when you get into that situation,
- 11:15Speaker 2: you know, you're kind of talking like you're guaranteed you're
- 11:17Speaker 2: going to score. And, and I don't know that you
- 11:20Speaker 2: can always look at it like that. You know, when you,
- 11:24Speaker 2: you know, it's kind of when you run your first play,
- 11:25Speaker 2: it's like, okay, are they letting us score because they
- 11:29Speaker 2: want to get the ball back with enough time, but
- 11:31Speaker 2: that wasn't the case either on that, on that first play.
- 11:33Speaker 2: And so, you know, it happened to be that the
- 11:35Speaker 2: first place score, but I think the appropriate thing was that,
- 11:38Speaker 2: was the decision that coach Scali made and told us, okay,
- 11:42Speaker 2: go ahead and score. And then, um, kick the PAT
- 11:47Speaker 2: to make it eight points. And, you know, and so
- 11:50Speaker 2: I think those decisions were, were appropriate.
- 11:53Speaker 1: And obviously it worked out exactly the way that your
- 11:56Speaker 1: team needed it to. And I, I fully understand this
- 11:59Speaker 1: thought process that Morgan explained to us and saying like,
- 12:02Speaker 1: I'm going to, I'm going to trust my defense to
- 12:05Speaker 1: get me that stop. Like, Houston would have to have
- 12:07Speaker 1: two scoring plays to even tie it if we're up
- 12:10Speaker 1: by eight.
- 12:11Speaker 3: So let's do it that way.
- 12:13Speaker 2: And I think with Morgan and the game flow, because
- 12:17Speaker 2: the defense had been playing so well in that game,
- 12:19Speaker 2: you know, maybe a different scenario if that's like a,
- 12:22Speaker 2: you know, a 50 to 48 game or something like that.
- 12:26Speaker 2: You know, you might not feel good about that. Sure.
- 12:29Speaker 1: A couple more minutes on coordinator's corner. Kevin McGiven giving
- 12:32Speaker 1: us some time here, brought to you by Mountain Home Services.
- 12:35Speaker 1: So now you're 7-0, number six-ranked team in the country,
- 12:39Speaker 1: and you've got this weird spot where you've got to
- 12:43Speaker 1: travel to the eastern time zone against a team that's
- 12:46Speaker 1: also coming off a huge win against Cincinnati. And, look,
- 12:50Speaker 1: they can score points, but they've got some defensive vulnerabilities,
- 12:53Speaker 1: it appears. What are you seeing from Cincinnati Bearcats on film?
- 12:58Speaker 2: Yeah, I think some good players around back there. They've
- 13:03Speaker 2: got some speed and some length. I would say a
- 13:07Speaker 2: defense that is kind of opportunistic. I would say playing
- 13:13Speaker 2: with a little bit of confidence. I felt like it
- 13:15Speaker 2: was a little bit more confident group playing against Texas Tech,
- 13:17Speaker 2: or at least it grew throughout that game, especially as
- 13:21Speaker 2: they were competitive. And then And then it looks to
- 13:25Speaker 2: me over time that they've just gotten more comfortable with
- 13:28Speaker 2: their scheme. They're able to mix looks up a little
- 13:31Speaker 2: bit more than some of the other games. And there's
- 13:34Speaker 2: a little bit of flavor of the week depending on
- 13:35Speaker 2: who they play and what they have to defend. And
- 13:39Speaker 2: then we have to look back at some of the
- 13:42Speaker 2: things that have caused us issues the last couple games
- 13:45Speaker 2: with Houston and Colorado that we've been trying to address
- 13:50Speaker 2: and say, okay, Cincinnati saw this stuff works. you know, or,
- 13:55Speaker 2: or slow things down or give us problems. And so,
- 13:58Speaker 2: you know, we've got to make sure that those things
- 14:00Speaker 2: are handled as well in case they show up again.
- 14:04Speaker 1: Everybody recognizes these, we call them trap games, right? The
- 14:08Speaker 1: look ahead spot or the emotional letdown after a night game,
- 14:12Speaker 1: a blackout game with a exciting win against Houston and
- 14:15Speaker 1: everyone around college football knows that they're there, but how
- 14:19Speaker 1: do you actually avoid the pitfalls, right? It, BYU knew
- 14:23Speaker 1: this was coming when they played against UCF, and they
- 14:25Speaker 1: still found a way to lose to UCF. And it's
- 14:28Speaker 1: just like, man, there's a gap, it appears, Coach, between
- 14:33Speaker 1: knowing it's a problem and being able to solve the problem.
- 14:36Speaker 3: So how do you go about it this week?
- 14:39Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think a lot of it, you know,
- 14:41Speaker 2: going into yesterday, even into practice, was, you know, the
- 14:45Speaker 2: coaching staff maybe having to drive the energy a little
- 14:47Speaker 2: bit from the get-go when we met with the players.
- 14:52Speaker 2: you know, it was, it was a lot about, okay,
- 14:55Speaker 2: we need to be different. You know, there's, there's one,
- 14:58Speaker 2: there's a reason why there's only one champion and it's
- 15:01Speaker 2: because that team has figured out a way to be
- 15:03Speaker 2: different and everybody else had kind of settled for average
- 15:06Speaker 2: or they let complacency settle in and they thought they
- 15:09Speaker 2: were just going to show up and it was going
- 15:11Speaker 2: to happen for them just because it had happened seven
- 15:13Speaker 2: times previously or whatever. Um, you know, but, but I
- 15:17Speaker 2: think the, I think they understand where we need to,
- 15:19Speaker 2: where we need to improve that, you know, even the
- 15:21Speaker 2: last couple of games have been hard fought battles and,
- 15:25Speaker 2: and everything didn't look the way we needed it to
- 15:27Speaker 2: look to, to finish this thing out the way we
- 15:30Speaker 2: want to. And, um, and so very focused practice yesterday, very,
- 15:35Speaker 2: very intentional. And so I, I think I like what
- 15:37Speaker 2: the mindset was in terms of.
- 15:40Speaker 1: Uh, kickoff times, sorry, kickoff times have been a, uh,
- 15:44Speaker 1: extensive topic of conversation heading into last week and now
- 15:49Speaker 1: this week. And of course next week, do you have
- 15:52Speaker 1: any thoughts, any preference one way or another on when you,
- 15:55Speaker 1: your games kickoff?
- 16:00Speaker 2: I think everybody would like to play at like one
- 16:02Speaker 2: o'clock on Saturday. And so, but yeah, I haven't had
- 16:07Speaker 2: too many of those, but I will, I will tell
- 16:09Speaker 2: you this, just having been around it for the first
- 16:12Speaker 2: time is, rise cycles at night is electric and you
- 16:17Speaker 2: know so i i really enjoy those those games at
- 16:19Speaker 2: night it um it has a little bit of an
- 16:22Speaker 2: effect the next day and going into monday when you
- 16:25Speaker 2: have those when you have those late nights and early
- 16:28Speaker 2: mornings and and you got to kind of recover as
- 16:31Speaker 2: the week goes on when you have those late games
- 16:34Speaker 2: and try to get used to different different schedules surrounding
- 16:38Speaker 2: meetings and practice and walkthroughs and stuff like that so
- 16:42Speaker 2: it's A little bit tough to get into a routine,
- 16:44Speaker 2: but I think that's probably the mark of a championship
- 16:49Speaker 2: program as well, is you've just got to adapt and
- 16:53Speaker 2: roll with the punches.
- 16:55Speaker 3: Are you a Halloween candy guy?
- 16:57Speaker 1: Will you be taking a tax out of whatever candy
- 17:00Speaker 1: is being handed out or collected at the Begiven household?
- 17:02Speaker 3: No.
- 17:06Speaker 2: I will not be, but I don't even know if
- 17:08Speaker 2: there's going to be candy. My wife usually will hand
- 17:12Speaker 2: out something like pencils or something like that where kids
- 17:17Speaker 2: have got to be creative with it.
- 17:19Speaker 1: Okay. You're one of those houses, Coach. I hope nobody
- 17:23Speaker 1: eggs you or something.
- 17:24Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, the word gets out that what we're handing out,
- 17:29Speaker 2: and you don't see kids late into the night. Yeah.
- 17:33Speaker 1: Oh, well go enjoy things in Cincinnati coach. Congratulations on
- 17:37Speaker 1: everything that's happened so far. Appreciate you giving us time
- 17:40Speaker 1: as always go Utes.
- 17:42Speaker 2: Absolutely. Thank you.
- 17:44Speaker 3: Kevin McGibbon.
- 17:44Speaker 1: That's Mac G his team, his offense undefeated so far
- 17:49Speaker 1: this year, taking on a Cincinnati squad in Cincinnati, of course.