Latest / Coaches Corner / UConn FB Coach Jim Mora - Weekly Presser Sept 12

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UConn FB Coach Jim Mora - Weekly Presser Sept 12 · Coaches Corner

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  Well, we Uh, we've moved on from the disappointment of Saturday night,
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  learned our lessons, working hard to apply them and getting ready for FIU at
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  home. And we had a good practice today and the energy was good and
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  their focus was good. And now we have to, you know, we
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  have to go out and improve that. We're a better team than we've then
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  we've shown, especially last week. And I told the guys after the game,
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  I said, you know, that's not the team that I've seen in
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  meetings, not that the team that I've seen on the practice field, but
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  that, unfortunately is the team we are because we're owing two and uh,
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  we just got beat bad at Georgia State. And that's the reality of the
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  situation. So uh, we have to we have to continue to just work
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  and look for answers and put our guys in the best position and make plays
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  and then demand that they make those plays. And if we do that,
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  then then we'll we'll we'll rise up, and if we don't, then we'll
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  struggle. It's pretty some So I think we have a group that'll that'll rise
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  up. And uh, you know, we've been we've been in a hole
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  before. I think this is my first time as a head coach being owned
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  too. But we've been in a hole before, and uh, prove that
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  we can dig out of it. So uh, that's what we have to
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  do. And I like their intentions this morning. But until you until you
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  prove it on the field on game day. Uh, and I'll tell you
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  prove otherwise. You are what your record is, and you are what the
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  score says you are. So right, now, that's not that's not very
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  good for us. So obviously last year running the games, your strength,
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  what will they end up? And so what do you think you haven't been
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  able to run? Involves a fish. I think two different reasons in two
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  different games. I think in the first game, I think you're right.
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  Even though statistic looked okay. In the first game, they were skewed by
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  the one run. We were playing a really physical front there they they they
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  they beat us a few times. You know, we weren't exacting in our
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  in our getting off doubles and getting to the second level. We didn't find
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  the holes enough. We we didn't have the ability after a while to throw
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  the ball very effectively. So they're able to load up the box this past
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  week. You know, I'm not sure I think. I think the responsibility
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  of a coach is my responsibility. This coach, My responsibility is to make
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  sure that every time we go out and play a game, that we are
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  done everything we can to put our players in the best position to succeed,
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  succeed schematically and with what we've practiced and how we've practiced. And I'm not
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  sure that we did that last week. And uh, and it's a player's
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  job to go out on game day and execute. And I'm not sure,
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  well I should I shouldn't say I'm not sure. I'm sure we didn't do
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  that last week in terms of putting him in the best position. And I'm
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  sure that we didn't execute as well as we can. And you know,
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  that's probably an answer you get from every coach, but it's pretty generic,
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  but it's it's really true. That's why you get the answer, you know.
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  So we have to do a better job as a staff, starting with
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  me, of making sure that I've told you guys a million times, making
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  sure we put our players in the best position to do what they do best
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  and keep them out of situations where maybe they might struggle. And then we
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  have to do a great job of practicing what we're gonna do against what we
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  think we're gonna see, and then we have to go an execute on Saturdays.
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  And we have not been able to do that for two weeks and it's
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  disappointing. But we're going to keep keep digging and digging and digging and finding
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  answers and and and working hard. It is you have no I mean,
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  I'm never gonna lie to you guys, so you know, I don't want
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  you to ask me this question. But he's out for the year. He
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  has to have surgery Friday, so's he's done for the year. Unfortunately,
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  it's really devastating for Joe. You know, as a team we have great
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  confidence and Take One obviously and Zion behind him, but it's devastating for Joe.
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  So it's it's a fairly signi aficant injury. We didn't we didn't think
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  it was that significant until they got a real good look at it with the
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  MRI. And so Friday he's scheduled for surgery and he's he's obviously pretty down
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  about it. So kind of a reverse situation from what Takewon faced last year.
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  You know, Takewan got hurt that second drive and was lost for the
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  season and Zion came in and now this year, you know, the the
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  guy that was the starter ahead of Take one gets hurt. Now Take one
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  gets his chance again. So we have a lot of confidence him, and
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  you know, we're we're really disappointed for Joe take You know, I need
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  looking back. Yeah, I think probably the statement of empty yards, if
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  if it was came off as I was being negative about Takewan. I wasn't
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  like. I liked the way he played. I liked the certainty played with.
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  I liked the velocity put on the ball to touch, the confidence that
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  he displayed. I just don't want to get I don't want I don't like
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  to get excited about yards in the second half when you're down a lot.
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  Just like as a defensive coordinator, you know when teams get some yards on
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  us in the second half when we're up a lot, like you know,
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  you kind of play the game a little bit differently. You might have some
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  different people in there. But no, I mean, Takewan came in and
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  he absolutely gave us a spark, you know, and I would say that
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  he's probably got a chip on his shoulder, which is a good thing.
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  So you know, listen, we have all the World and Take one,
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  or he wouldn't have been named our starter last year, and it wouldn't have
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  been such a hard decision this year. It came down to the to the
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  very end. As I told you at the time, everything was so close,
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  and at the end you kind of you kind of go with your guts.
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  So you know, these are two really good players, and unfortunately,
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  you know, for Joe, he's out and he'll come back strong. But
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  I'm excited. I think everyone's excited to watch Take one. And at the
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  same time we feel for Joe. The feeling, you know, yeah,
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  yeah, you're right, you're right, you know, and you know,
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  you hate to you hate to use a player's injury is a rallying cry,
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  but I think it's kind of natural, you know. And then Alex Honegg,
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  you know, his his injury looked pretty severe. They're still looking at
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  it. They've got to let the swelling go down, so we're not sure
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  the severity of it, but he's he's out for sure this week and I'm
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  sure for several weeks. When I went over there, I think I told
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  you know after the game, his kneecap was dislocated, and uh, and
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  I thought his knee was dislocated, which would have been you know, tragic,
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  but uh, when they when they straightened his leg back out, it
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  it just popped back again and my stomach turned. So I hadn't really never
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  seen that before. Some of the things that happened on a football field are
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  unbelievable. I mean, the brutality is unbelievable. Is there's something different about
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  the offensive flying? I mean everybody expected that that you had to help you
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  rush for the lighting here at the game last year, didn't do up.
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  Sex was going to come in and get the strengthen this team they put horrible
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  so far. I mean you can say that's well when you when you consider
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  the expectations, that's an absolutely fair statement for you to make. Yeah,
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  I don't know that I'd go as strong as poorly, but you absolutely can't.
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  And that's the observation. It's because you know, we have high expectations
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  for that group, and you know, I think I go back to the
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  first thing I said, is it starts with me and the staff of making
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  sure we put them in the right position and making sure that we practice the
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  right things and play to their strengths. I'm not sure we've done that,
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  and then you know it's incumbent on them when they go out on the field
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  to execute. And I'm not sure that they've done that. And you know,
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  I think sometimes you wonder did a team did they did they get big
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  headed? Now? They didn't? They work? You know, I mean
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  they care like they You'd be surprised how much extra work our offensive line puts
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  in on their own and it hasn't jailed for us up there yet. And
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  I think, you know, when that happens, you have to back,
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  as a coach, go back and the first thing is said, are we
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  doing the right things? And we're practicing the right things and we're putting them
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  in the right position to do what they do best. And uh, I
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  think if you know, I say this is about the fourth time I've said
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  it because it's so true. Is I can't say we've done that. You
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  know that that falls on this guy right here. So we're gonna, we're
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  gonna, we're gonna make sure we have made sure that we've gone back and
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  evaluate and get them into the things that we do best. Here here's one
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  let me tell you one of the problems that happens. This is a this
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  is a common coaching problem. Work expands to time allotted. Schemes expand to
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  time allotted. We had two games where we had extra prep time. And
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  because we all think we're the smartest guys in the room, coaches, what
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  we do is we get creative. And then that created creativity sounds really good
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  on the blackboard, but in reality, you're asking guys to do too much
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  or do things they haven't done enough of. It's a very common coaching air
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  and and uh, I know I fell into it many times. And I'd
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  say every coach is a coach, has fallen into it. I think that's
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  part of the issue right here. And I interrupted you just what is what
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  is the strength of the offensive cohesiveness, size, mobility? Uh, the
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  way they the way they they care, you know they take it. Uh
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  leadership, I mean there are a bunch of leaders up there. Uh.
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  And and how important it is to them to be good? Like nobody's taken
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  it lightly that we haven't been able to run the ball. And we ran
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  the ball? Was it thirty one times for fifty fifty yards? Yeah,
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  at one point we had fourteen carries in At the end of the first quarter,
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  we had fourteen carries for twelve yards. You know, I mean that
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  was as you said. You said it, so it's hard to dispute thesily.
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  What's been the issue when they're down on signs different things. The quarterback
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  run obviously, you know the first game, his ability to scramble that got
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  us. You know, in this game, the quarterback run. You know,
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  a couple of the pressures. We didn't play tight enough coverage up the
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  field and they hit us. We were better in short yardage, you know,
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  one of the keys is getting him into the third and longer, you
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  know, like that that third and seventeen that they ran for twenty six yards,
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  that was on me. We were in a pressure, wanted to try
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  to keep him out of they were on the edge of field goal range.
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  Wanted to try to keep him out of field goal range. Didn't want to
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  play like a soft zone that you'd normally play on third and sixteen and give
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  him ten yards and stop them. And then they kicked the field goal.
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  And when they audibled, we should we should have came out of the pressure
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  that we're in because with our two guys walked up into the a gap,
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  it didn't give us a chance to play the quarterback run and I got stubborn,
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  and I was like, screw it, play the call rather than being
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  intelligent and getting us out of the defense. And so it goes back didn't
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  give our players a chance right there, General, fu quarterback and be true
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  freshman? General, how do you try and take a datagens to the games?
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  You know, it's what It's a good question because I told the players
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  this last night. We haven't earned the right to call any quarterback a freshman,
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  you know what I mean. Like quarterbacks have rushed for over two hundred
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  and fifty yards on us, I think in two games, right and I'm
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  not saying the completion percentage has been great, but you know, this guy's
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  a capable player. He wouldn't be starting for them. So you know,
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  it's got to be about us, you know, and just if we play
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  hard, and we play exacting, and we play together in terms of you
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  know, being on the same page, then it shouldn't matter if as if
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  a quarterback's a freshman or a senior. So I did address it very quickly,
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  and what I said is I don't want to hear anything about this guy
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  being a freshman quarterback because we haven't earned the right too to say, oh
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  he's a freshman, you know, but there's things that you try to do
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  schematically, you know, to to cloud his ability to see a coverage,
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  you know, right off the bat. So confident for you in this team's
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  ability to bounce I'm very confident in it. But I need to see it.
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  I need to see us bounce back. But I'm yeah, I'm confident,
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  and I'm confident it because I can base it on, you know,
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  a lot of things that I see behind the scenes, you know, all
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  the time, and to look on their face and energy they bring into a
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  meeting room and the intensity they take to practice, you know. But you
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  know, until it happens, it's still there's still a question. But I'm
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  confident in our ability to do that. Yes, you hear that, Yes,
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  sir. Players, position to be successful college life actually were You've got
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  to make your own decision. There's a state to get that. In position
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  to be successful. Oh, it's it's ongoing, you know, it's it's
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  certainly it starts when you start the game plan and you put your scheme together.
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  That's where it all starts. But in a game you have to be
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  ready to adjust quickly, you know, and and we did that on defense
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  for the most part, you know, I mean, we played it.
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  We played as hard as we have played since I've been here. On defense
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  on Saturday, it was so skewed by a sixty five yard quarterback run that's
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  about as ugly as it can get, right, and then we put our
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  backups in there and they hit a thirty three yard run that's about as ugly
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  as can get and like I said, the twenty six yard run when I
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  screwed up and put us in a bad call. But you're always like,
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  we made a ton of adjustments defensively and offensively. You have to too,
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  you know, it's an it's like a chess match. Everyone talks about halftime
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  adjustments, but those adjustments are going on between each series, and you're hoping
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  that, you know, as they change, and you have to adapt on
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  either side of the ball. And I think, you know, we do
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  a pretty good job of that. Haven't done a good enough job of it
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  this year, though, Does that answer your question? Yes, Okay,
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  we haven't seen a lot of the two quants so far. Is there something
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  skill that he brings that kind of that you excited or gives you some confidence
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  going forward with him. Yeah, I really like his I love the energy
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  he brings, the passion he plays with the intensity that he plays with.
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  You know, I think you see it in the way he moves around out
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  there. I think he's commanding. I think he's got tremendous arm strength,
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  sometimes too much, you know, for some of the throws that need a
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  little touch on him. But I also think he has the ability to keep
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  a play alive. I think that this is a guy that has fought through
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  a ton a ton of stuff. You know, transfers didn't get to play
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  a lot of Penn State transfers, comes here, earns a certain job,
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  gets hurt, rehabs all year. You know, it's just fighting his tail
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  out to be the starter, isn't named the starter started, gets hurt.
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  Now it's his time again. So you know, I feel like that's something
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  that is motivating to him, you know, so that that that's something that
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  gets me excited about seeing him play. Well, have you liked that the
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  team has done so far? Where can you really doing? Well? What
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  do I like? I like the way George is punting the ball, which
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  is not a great thing to say because that means we're seeing him too much
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  but honestly, and I don't not being facetious, you know, it's thinking
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  about that. It's actually thought about last night. Who's who or what has
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  been better than expected? And it's it's our punter and this it's a real
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  positive for George. But it's a sad commentary on our first two games.
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  Speaking about your special changes. Yeah, we need more speed on the kickoff
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  team. We need to do a better job of being exactly in our blocking
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  on our kickoff return teams. Like I said, we're punting the ball well,
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  Georgia's punting it well. Shoot, we haven't forced enough punts, you
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  know, so I can't give you a whole lot about our punt return.
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  I thought our kickers kicked off better, you know, I think, uh
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  shoot, I'll be transparent as hell with you guys. The first kickoff,
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  Joe puts it six five six yards deep in the end zone. I think
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  the first time we kicked off and they brought it out well to me,
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  you know, we told the players that's that's a sign of of your an
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  opponent. That's say screw it, because you know you see now guys six
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  yards deep in the ends on five six yards right, they stay in or
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  they do this and they take it at the twenty five, So you know
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  you got to take that stuff personal as a as a coach and as a
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  player. But you know, yeah, that's that's about it. As small
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  sample size, the twenty second national leading statistics wise, you're approcating, mock
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  guizing out of just overall. I never seen a plights. You're better at
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  pointing, yeah, it's better. I was disappointing a couple of the third
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  downs, Like I spoke about it earlier, I thought our coverage was a
• 17:19
  little too soft. I don't know where we rank. I think you know,
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  you said it's a small sample size and and it can be misleading because
• 17:30
  the quarterback are running so well. Now you could say that's because because of
• 17:36
  tight coverage, but I'm not sure that's always the case. You know,
• 17:37
  when you go back to Virginia, not Virginia singing a Virginia quarterback, you
• 17:41
  go back to our first game against NC State, you know that guy was
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  one read. If it wasn't there, he was he was going. You
• 17:48
  know this guy when he threw it, you know we covered him pretty well.
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  But they didn't have to throw it a lot, you know, because
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  they were having success. He was having success running the football when when it's
• 17:59
  not a quarterback running the football, we're playing really good run defense against normal
• 18:03
  runs. The problem is is that the quarterbacks are running the football and we're
• 18:08
  not stopping that. How much changes as far as offensive team playing the table
• 18:12
  on the ridge, Joe? Not much? Yeah, not much. I
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  don't think that you have to change a lot, you know. I think
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  if you went and looked at everything we did through training camp, there was
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  a rotation in practice. They were basically running the same place, getting the
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  same reps. So, uh, you know, each of them has things
• 18:33
  that they do well and things that they could do better, and so you're
• 18:36
  always going to play to their strengths. But they're they're minor, minor things.
• 18:40
  They're not not wholesale changes at all. It may look different like we
• 18:44
  can get the run game going, then that opens up everything, you know,
• 18:47
  and then people might say, well and take on throw it down the
• 18:49
  field more. It would just be a function of us, you know,
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  running the ball better, quiet as it should have been, Reflective as it
• 19:00
  should have been. You know, asked everyone after the game. Everyone,
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  you know, Uh, I understand after a game that you know, players
• 19:08
  need to blow off steam. And there's some laughter and some chatter, but
• 19:12
  I asked everyone respectfully to to respect each other and and reflect and think about
• 19:19
  what each of us can do better so that we're not in this situation anymore.
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  And the players listen, you know, they were they were quiet,
• 19:26
  and they were tired, and it was late. Uh, but it was
• 19:30
  it was pretty. It was a pretty somber football team, you know,
• 19:33
  and it should be a somber football team at that point. So that's a
• 19:40
  good thing. It's a bad thing, but it's a good it's a good
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  reaction to a bad thing, positive reaction to a to a to a bad
• 19:45
  thing, a bad situation. Practice followers, we didn't practice Monday the game.
• 19:56
  Yeah, Oh we had dinner Sunday night. Yeah, what was the
• 19:59
  other like there? Well, it's kind of it's kind of a twenty four
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  hour rule we have, right is whether you win or whether you lose,
• 20:07
  you know, you gotta shake it at some point, right, And so
• 20:11
  you know, at dinner, I just talked to him for a couple of
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  seconds and uh, give him just a quick recap of the game. We
• 20:18
  always have a family dinner on Sunday night, so there's kids around and families,
• 20:22
  and it's it's just, uh, you know, it's kind of okay,
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  let's let's get over that one and let's get onto the next one.
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  And uh, you know, I I kind of reiterated some of the things
• 20:32
  I told him after the game, and uh but then you know, said,
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  hey, it's twenty four four hour rules in effect. Okay, it's
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  time to learn the lessons, apply the lessons, and move forwards. Good
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  he practiced today. You know, I haven't watched the film yet, so
• 20:49
  I don't know how he was moving. But what I saw on you know,
• 20:52
  with my eyes out there, and I wasn't focusing on him every play,
• 20:56
  he seemed like he was moving around. Well. I thought stand Cross
• 21:00
  played pretty darn well too. You know, we have a lot of confidence
• 21:02
  and stand back there and he gives us an element of coverage. So but
• 21:07
  of course you want you know, all your all your players available. People
• 21:11
  let to say last time, yeah, yeah, you do well. So
• 21:17
  we we you know, that was a tempo offense. They were going fast,
• 21:19
  real fast, and uh, we just felt like we need to rotate
• 21:25
  our secondary through. You know, we're always rotating our defensive line through as
• 21:27
  you guys know, that's a hard position to play, but we rotated our
• 21:30
  secondary through and I think it's good to get some of those young guys reps
• 21:34
  and then to see them play well, you know, that's a good thing.
• 21:37
  We got Isaiah Davis in there, he got to play, and getting
• 21:41
  Lee in there, he hasn't played a lot. It was good and they
• 21:44
  showed up. Lee's one guy that over the last three, four or five
• 21:47
  weeks is really kind of taken off and has done a good job for us.
• 21:51
  He's really grown up. I think he's gonna be a good player.
• 21:53
  So okay, I'm sorry to answer this whole lady. Play can talk about
• 21:57
  it by you. What they do. We haven't talked about them at all.
• 22:02
  Let's talk about them for a second, did you. Oh yeah,
• 22:08
  yes, that's okay. I'm sorry. Fy you. What they do well,
• 22:14
  they're very athletic. They have a scheme that they run that they believe
• 22:18
  in, that sound and they execute it well. They have a quarterback who's
• 22:23
  young, but he has he has mobility and he's getting you know, his
• 22:29
  third start and his confidence will grow because of it. They put some points
• 22:34
  up last week. You know. Defensively, they fly around you know,
• 22:38
  coach Mack is a defensive coach. They give you some different looks up front.
• 22:42
  They play aggressive, they play physical, you know, and and they're
• 22:48
  a good football team. I think the most important thing for us to do
• 22:51
  is, you know, learn who they are through the week, prepare for
• 22:55
  them, and then we just got to go out and we've got to really
• 22:56
  focus on playing our best, our best US football, regardless of who we're
• 23:00
  playing and what they're doing. You know, let our rules tell us what
• 23:04
  to play, and then how we play is going to be so important.
• 23:08
  So but I have a lot of respect for them. You know, I've
• 23:11
  gone against coach Mack several times. He's a really good man. He gets
• 23:17
  his teams ready to play, and they're they're disciplined and their physical and they're
• 23:21
  very athletic. Okay, thanks everyone, have a good have a good day.