Latest / Coaches Corner / FB Coach Jim Mora Oct 22 - Rice Presser

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FB Coach Jim Mora Oct 22 - Rice Presser · Coaches Corner

0:03
Speaker 2: Thanks for coming down.
0:06
Speaker 1: Got a great challenge this week against a good Rice
0:08
Speaker 1: team that gave Tulane all they could handle on the
0:10
Speaker 1: road last week. What impressions you the most about him
0:15
Speaker 1: is the way they're playing as a team in all
0:18
Speaker 1: three phases and especially on defense. They fly around, they're stingy,
0:22
Speaker 1: they make things happen. You know, we saw that last
0:25
Speaker 1: year we played them, Matt Rice. They got a quarterback
0:28
Speaker 1: I believe in E. J. Warner who's got incredible football intelligence.
0:32
Speaker 1: He gets rid of the ball quickly, played really well
0:35
Speaker 1: last week in the first half, and then there was
0:37
Speaker 1: just some things Tulane did. It got to him a
0:39
Speaker 1: little bit. But it's a real challenge. Their special teams
0:43
Speaker 1: unit's good. They've got good returners. Last week in their
0:46
Speaker 1: punt return game they were really good, and that was
0:49
Speaker 1: something we were not good on on Saturday. So we've
0:52
Speaker 1: got to make real improvements there. But I think for
0:56
Speaker 1: us it's just about you know, us focusing on executing
1:00
Speaker 1: at a higher level than we did Saturday, and and
1:04
Speaker 1: getting our run game going, which you know has been
1:06
Speaker 1: a little bit of a struggle the last two weeks.
1:09
Speaker 1: Taking advantage if if teams are giving us some one
1:12
Speaker 1: on one coverage outside and just as coaches making sure
1:16
Speaker 1: we're doing everything we can every day to put our
1:20
Speaker 1: players in a position to have success and then when
1:23
Speaker 1: they cross that line, it's up to them to go
1:25
Speaker 1: to go make it happen. But you know, it's about
1:27
Speaker 1: all of us doing all we can to UH to
1:30
Speaker 1: make sure that we're we're capitalizing on everything that we
1:33
Speaker 1: have in this building going forward and UH and putting
1:37
Speaker 1: the best the best effort we can as coaches and
1:40
Speaker 1: players into action on Saturday.
1:42
Speaker 2: So that's where we're at.
1:46
Speaker 1: Well, I know why it's struggling, and I think it's
1:47
Speaker 1: something that we'll let you know, our opponents figure out
1:49
Speaker 1: rather than me talk about. Well, once again, I think
1:55
Speaker 1: that's something that would it wouldn't behoove us as a
1:57
Speaker 1: Yukon football team or a Yukon nation for me to
2:00
Speaker 1: talk about why I think we're struggling and give an
2:03
Speaker 1: opponent an opportunity to listen to me say why I
2:06
Speaker 1: think we're struggling and then go, oh, this is why
2:08
Speaker 1: he thinks we're struggling. Let's zero in on that. I
2:11
Speaker 1: hope I'm not trying to avoid well, I am avoiding
2:13
Speaker 1: your question. For a strategic reason, not for a disrespectful reason.
2:20
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, Joe. So I was impressed.
2:31
Speaker 1: Listen, You're gonna get in some tough games, right, I mean,
2:34
Speaker 1: football is a tough sport, and and you know, not
2:38
Speaker 1: every week is going to be a blowout or easy.
2:40
Speaker 1: You're not always going to move the ball, You're not
2:41
Speaker 1: always going to play great defense when you watch every
2:43
Speaker 1: game on Saturday, and you know, there's some games that
2:47
Speaker 1: are tough. So what impressed me initially was the way
2:50
Speaker 1: we fought back, especially offensively, you know, late in the game,
2:53
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter, really from the ten minute mark
2:56
Speaker 1: on as a team, how he fought back and that
2:59
Speaker 1: showed maturity me, you know, because things were not going well,
3:02
Speaker 1: you know, especially offensively as you could you could see
3:06
Speaker 1: and they have been going pretty good for us, and
3:07
Speaker 1: they weren't, and yet our guys didn't blank. And so
3:10
Speaker 1: that that impressed me. And then just in the locker
3:12
Speaker 1: room after the game, their reaction to the loss impressed me.
3:16
Speaker 1: You know, there was obvious disappointment, but there was also
3:20
Speaker 1: a sense of resolve and I felt that when we
3:23
Speaker 1: came in Sunday. I felt that yesterday, and I felt
3:26
Speaker 1: it in the way we practiced today, And as a coach,
3:29
Speaker 1: that's encouraging, you know, when you don't feel like you
3:31
Speaker 1: always have to be the impetus or the voice or
3:35
Speaker 1: or uh, you know, the guy that's pointing out you know, hey,
3:38
Speaker 1: let's let's let's get more out of ourselves. And so
3:40
Speaker 1: we have a lot of guys that do that. And
3:43
Speaker 1: you know, it's that peer to peer accountability that's the strongest,
3:46
Speaker 1: and we have a really good sense of that on
3:48
Speaker 1: this team. Four hours after the games, you go through.
3:55
Speaker 2: Your coach.
4:00
Speaker 1: It has to happen pretty quickly. So Sundays the players
4:03
Speaker 1: are off and we bring them back for dinner. But
4:07
Speaker 1: the coaches, you know, well we all watch it immediately
4:10
Speaker 1: as soon as we have the iPads now, so we
4:12
Speaker 1: don't even have to wait for it to get up
4:14
Speaker 1: on our server and we can go back and watch
4:15
Speaker 1: it immediately. I mean I'm watching it usually on the
4:18
Speaker 1: way home. Why Kathy's driving this week was a little
4:21
Speaker 1: different from me because I had to I had to
4:24
Speaker 1: gather myself. I was I told David Bennett yesterday that
4:27
Speaker 1: was probably one of the more frustrating losses that I
4:29
Speaker 1: can remember in my career as a head coach. Just
4:31
Speaker 1: the way I felt after that game. I haven't felt
4:33
Speaker 1: that that way in a long long time. I think
4:36
Speaker 1: that that is an indicator where this program was going,
4:39
Speaker 1: you know. But then Sundays, you know, the first thing
4:43
Speaker 1: we do is we spend some time with our family,
4:46
Speaker 1: and our family, the families of coaches suffer. It's a
4:48
Speaker 1: tough business. You know, You're you're working one hundred hours
4:51
Speaker 1: a week, and we need some time around them. Then
4:54
Speaker 1: we come into the afternoon and we watched the film.
4:56
Speaker 1: Immediately we meet, you know, together, stabs off, defense, separate.
5:01
Speaker 1: We don't do this big staff meeting just because we
5:03
Speaker 1: don't need to waste that time. I can go back
5:04
Speaker 1: and forth now, which I couldn't do before, and then
5:07
Speaker 1: we were immediately onto the next opponent. Now we have
5:10
Speaker 1: already broken down their games. Our graduate assistants, our analysts
5:14
Speaker 1: have already broken down the games, got the computer work done,
5:17
Speaker 1: got drawings, gotten tendencies, all those things. And then the
5:20
Speaker 1: coaches will go back and look at it the way
5:22
Speaker 1: that they like to look at it. Like Matt Brock
5:24
Speaker 1: will start at the start of the season and work
5:25
Speaker 1: through me. Typically, I'll start with their most recent game
5:29
Speaker 1: and work backwards, but we're always kind of you know,
5:32
Speaker 1: getting to a point. And then Sunday night we start
5:34
Speaker 1: formulating the game plan on offense. Defense is more individual stuff.
5:38
Speaker 1: And then Monday morning we meet with our players and
5:41
Speaker 1: then we spend you know that late after late morning
5:44
Speaker 1: into the afternoon really doing the solid game planning, and
5:47
Speaker 1: then we start really in earnest working our opponent on
5:49
Speaker 1: Monday afternoon with the players.
5:54
Speaker 2: Is kind of an indicator programs. Does that mean that
5:58
Speaker 2: you experts? Yeah, that's exactly right. You know.
6:05
Speaker 1: I look back at our last two losses, you know,
6:09
Speaker 1: and I'm not talking about Maryland. I mean that one
6:12
Speaker 1: was I think, you know, an abomination. But you look
6:16
Speaker 1: at the two last two ACC games, and they really
6:18
Speaker 1: came down to the end of the game, one on
6:20
Speaker 1: the road, one at home against two really good teams,
6:22
Speaker 1: and they both came down to for whatever reason, I'm
6:25
Speaker 1: not complaining about the officiating, but they both came down
6:27
Speaker 1: to non calls on obvious pass interference plays, you know.
6:32
Speaker 1: And I want to get to a point as a
6:34
Speaker 1: football team where we can play a duke and we
6:37
Speaker 1: can play awake and it doesn't come down to relying
6:42
Speaker 1: on an ACC official to make a call against the
6:44
Speaker 1: team in their conference, you know. And I don't think
6:46
Speaker 1: those officials do that on purpose. I don't think that
6:48
Speaker 1: they consciously go, oh, it's an ACC team versus independent,
6:51
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw the flag. But you know, it's happened
6:54
Speaker 1: twice now, so there's you know that. As a coach,
6:57
Speaker 1: a competitor, you're going I don't think it's happening, but
7:01
Speaker 1: it's happened twice, you know. So But I want to
7:04
Speaker 1: get to the point as a team where that doesn't
7:06
Speaker 1: even matter, you know.
7:08
Speaker 2: And I think we're capable of doing that, you know.
7:10
Speaker 1: I mean we fight, and we scratch and kick and bite,
7:13
Speaker 1: and you know, our guys don't give up, and we're
7:15
Speaker 1: in those games. But we got to we got to
7:17
Speaker 1: find a way to win him, to win him without
7:20
Speaker 1: relying on an official who's doing the best he can
7:23
Speaker 1: to make a call. Nick was Nick's fourth quarter addicative
7:27
Speaker 1: of his progress this year and always improved, because I
7:31
Speaker 1: believe that his second half, and in particular his fourth quarter, Yes,
7:35
Speaker 1: very much so. It's the best he's played. He saw
7:38
Speaker 1: things well, he delivered the ball on time, he took
7:41
Speaker 1: care of the football. Yeah, I believe that. You know,
7:43
Speaker 1: that was progress made. And uh, he had a great
7:46
Speaker 1: week of practice last week. We had a great week
7:48
Speaker 1: of preparation, and you know, you have to convince your
7:50
Speaker 1: players that that that great week of practice, even though
7:53
Speaker 1: we didn't get the result that we wanted on the field,
7:56
Speaker 1: is compounding, you know, and it'll carry over. So it's
7:59
Speaker 1: not like we practice great and we didn't get a win,
8:01
Speaker 1: we have to start all over.
8:02
Speaker 2: No, it's compounding, you know.
8:04
Speaker 1: We have to build on that and we're and we
8:06
Speaker 1: today was an indication that we're building on it. Yeah,
8:12
Speaker 1: it is. And he'll be better this week. You know,
8:14
Speaker 1: he hadn't played in quite a while, and I'm not
8:16
Speaker 1: gonna say it was rusty, but it just he's wasn't
8:18
Speaker 1: as instinctive as he'll be going forward. Just there's nothing
8:21
Speaker 1: like getting game reps. You can get, you know, a
8:24
Speaker 1: million practice reps, but that that's not the same.
8:27
Speaker 2: As being in a game.
8:28
Speaker 1: You know, And uh, Price is really smart, he's very conscientious.
8:33
Speaker 1: He needed the snaps that he got and he'll be
8:35
Speaker 1: better this week. Yeah, it's not good for Ben. You know,
8:42
Speaker 1: he's gonna have to have surgery in the next week
8:43
Speaker 1: or two. They've got to wait for the swelling to
8:45
Speaker 1: go down. He Uh, it was a knee cap issue
8:50
Speaker 1: and UH and some other things in his knee, and
8:53
Speaker 1: they're gonna they're gonna let the swelling go down and
8:55
Speaker 1: then they're gonna come in and surgically repair it.
8:57
Speaker 2: So he's done for the season.
8:59
Speaker 1: So that means, you know, Kyle Jurgens and Uh and
9:02
Speaker 1: uh and Brady Weyburn and Tank Green. You know, we'll
9:07
Speaker 1: rely on those guys and they'll do well. You know,
9:09
Speaker 1: Kyle had to leave the game as well. He got
9:11
Speaker 1: to scratch cornea. Thought he might be able to get
9:13
Speaker 1: back in, but his vision never cleared back up. But
9:16
Speaker 1: he was fine today, he practiced, Tank was fine, Brady's fine.
9:20
Speaker 1: So we're fortunate we have some depth up front, you know,
9:23
Speaker 1: but we'll certainly miss you know, Big Ben.
9:26
Speaker 2: Consage your game because.
9:33
Speaker 1: That's a good question, like concern, yes, discouraged, No, Just
9:39
Speaker 1: you know, everyone in this building realizes that we're not
9:42
Speaker 1: running the ball to our standard. And what's great about
9:45
Speaker 1: our players is they take ownership, you know, like it
9:48
Speaker 1: bothers them as much as it bothers anybody. And the
9:51
Speaker 1: role of the coach is to give them answers, you know,
9:54
Speaker 1: and I believe that. You know, we have a good
9:56
Speaker 1: staff offensively that has come up with some things and
9:58
Speaker 1: and really looked at it har and there are some
10:01
Speaker 1: you know, there are some reasons why why we're not
10:05
Speaker 1: running it as well as we were earlier, and you know,
10:07
Speaker 1: we we hope that we've been able to fix those.
10:10
Speaker 1: We have to adjusting games when people are doing things
10:13
Speaker 1: that you know, we're not necessarily haven't prepared for because
10:16
Speaker 1: they haven't shown in the past, And we just got
10:18
Speaker 1: to put our guys in a position where they can
10:20
Speaker 1: have the success that they're working towards.
10:24
Speaker 2: Career.
10:24
Speaker 1: Yes, in whose career mixed consistency, you know, I would
10:34
Speaker 1: have to say it's consistency. I think we all see
10:36
Speaker 1: that there is talent there. He hasn't played a lot still,
10:39
Speaker 1: you know, every time like he's getting ready to play,
10:41
Speaker 1: I kind of tell you that he hasn't played a lot. Eventually,
10:44
Speaker 1: i'n't have to stop saying that, but it's still true,
10:46
Speaker 1: you know, it's still true at that position, probably more
10:48
Speaker 1: than any position in football. Snaps are relevant. How many
10:52
Speaker 1: snaps you've had, good snaps and bad snaps Where you
10:55
Speaker 1: can learn from both and he hasn't had a ton yet,
10:58
Speaker 1: you know. Unfortunately he's had to miss some games time
11:00
Speaker 1: because of the injuries. But he just needs to continue
11:03
Speaker 1: to work on being consistent and and he gets more
11:06
Speaker 1: comfortable with his own game than he can become a
11:10
Speaker 1: little bit more of a forceful leader verbally, you know,
11:13
Speaker 1: like out there today. He was a different, different kid
11:16
Speaker 1: out there on the field the day at practice, and
11:17
Speaker 1: he's been and I think that's just a function of
11:20
Speaker 1: him having some confidence built from the fourth quarter, you know.
11:24
Speaker 1: So I want to see him just continue to be
11:27
Speaker 1: consistent and take care of.
11:29
Speaker 2: The football that he's especially well, he looked different. You know.
11:36
Speaker 1: One thing that that I didn't talked about last week
11:38
Speaker 1: is that you know, he so he had we all
11:40
Speaker 1: knew that he had he got hit in the head,
11:42
Speaker 1: but he also had a toast brain. So he's working
11:46
Speaker 1: through the toast brain. And then last week, like on
11:48
Speaker 1: I think it was Monday or Tuesday, he dropped a
11:51
Speaker 1: weight on that toe and yeah, and they had and
11:55
Speaker 1: they had to remove the tony all that day. So
11:57
Speaker 1: he went through the whole week of practice without a tone,
12:00
Speaker 1: and he played in that game with these big ol'
12:01
Speaker 1: honky lineman shoes on to try to protect his toe.
12:05
Speaker 1: And he hobbled through practice last week, you know, and
12:07
Speaker 1: he kind of If you watched it closely, which I
12:09
Speaker 1: know you guys did, you could see him kind of
12:10
Speaker 1: hobbling sometimes on remember that sprint out to the right
12:14
Speaker 1: and he and he did get to throw off, but
12:16
Speaker 1: he was hobbling.
12:17
Speaker 2: You know.
12:17
Speaker 1: Well, today at practice he was full speed, man, and
12:20
Speaker 1: he was locked in. And that's how he's going to
12:23
Speaker 1: be besides the game reps. That's how he's going to
12:25
Speaker 1: increase his consistency. And the guy cares. He's smart, he's talented,
12:30
Speaker 1: he's an awesome kid. His teammates love him. It's just
12:34
Speaker 1: getting snaps, man, and he gets snaps. He's just gonna
12:36
Speaker 1: he's gonna accelerate and we're gonna love it. Well, yeah,
12:44
Speaker 1: I think it was if they didn't give him a
12:46
Speaker 1: lot to take off and go, you know, And I
12:50
Speaker 1: don't know that. You know, you'd have to ask him
12:52
Speaker 1: if the toe is holding him back, and I know
12:53
Speaker 1: he's going to tell you no, you know, but he's
12:55
Speaker 1: he's fine now.
12:56
Speaker 2: I mean, he looked great today at practice.
12:58
Speaker 1: It was just there was a different different energy to him,
13:01
Speaker 1: and it was a real positive thing. And I just
13:03
Speaker 1: you know, that's what he's capable of, and that's what
13:05
Speaker 1: he's going to become around here.
13:06
Speaker 2: It seems like you guys have gone to sky Bell
13:10
Speaker 2: quite as much as that.
13:15
Speaker 1: It is specifically last Saturday, so they were rolling up
13:17
Speaker 1: on him, doubling him, you know, putting people around him.
13:21
Speaker 1: What's what you know? The silver lining in that is
13:24
Speaker 1: when you can you can get seven catches for Josiah Gathings,
13:28
Speaker 1: you know, and you can get catches for TJ. Sheffield,
13:31
Speaker 1: and you know, you can get catches for for Brett Buckman,
13:34
Speaker 1: and you know Schamar is going to be more involved.
13:38
Speaker 1: You know, you don't have to depend on one guy.
13:40
Speaker 1: So it's nice to have more weapons really than than
13:43
Speaker 1: we've had since I've been here, you know. And that's
13:45
Speaker 1: doesn't even include the running backs, who you know, unfortunately
13:48
Speaker 1: had some drops out of the backfield on Saturday, which
13:51
Speaker 1: is really uncharacteristic of our back We had four drops,
13:53
Speaker 1: which we you know, we don't typically have. But those guys,
13:56
Speaker 1: as you know, if we get them in space, they're playmakers.
13:58
Speaker 1: So as you present more guys offensively that that they
14:04
Speaker 1: have to defend. You know, it makes it harder to
14:08
Speaker 1: double a guy like Skyler. So it should open something.
14:11
Speaker 1: It should theoretically open some things up as more guys
14:13
Speaker 1: get involved.
14:14
Speaker 2: I think that's the third time he said more involved.
14:22
Speaker 2: Progress absolutely. You know.
14:26
Speaker 1: One of the factors on Saturday was, you know, you
14:29
Speaker 1: have a plan and going in on you know, you
14:31
Speaker 1: want to get you want to get your playmakers the ball,
14:33
Speaker 1: and that's what offense is all about, is get your
14:35
Speaker 1: playmakers the ball in space and letting them go use
14:36
Speaker 1: their athleticism and skill set.
14:38
Speaker 2: But we didn't.
14:40
Speaker 1: We didn't stay on the field, you know, we weren't
14:42
Speaker 1: on the field enough. So we got to convert on
14:45
Speaker 1: third downs so we can get more plays and get
14:48
Speaker 1: more guys involved. Guys like Shamar that can do some
14:51
Speaker 1: some things. He's a really good football player, and we've
14:53
Speaker 1: got to give him opportunities. But to get him opportunities,
14:55
Speaker 1: we've got to be on the field, you know, and
14:57
Speaker 1: that that was a little bit frustrating for.
14:59
Speaker 2: Us or the operation that people get.
15:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I look at first and second down first of all, like,
15:11
Speaker 1: what what situation have we created on third down? You know,
15:15
Speaker 1: is it a third and short, third, medium third and.
15:17
Speaker 2: Long and why why is it? What? It was? Right?
15:20
Speaker 1: And then you know when you when you're making a
15:24
Speaker 1: call on third down, it's based on a number of factors. Obviously,
15:27
Speaker 1: you know, how are you playing, are you struggling at
15:30
Speaker 1: a certain position, or how are they playing you? What
15:33
Speaker 1: have you seen on film? What do their tendency say?
15:36
Speaker 1: You know, who's hot getting the ball?
15:38
Speaker 2: So a whole lot of.
15:39
Speaker 1: Things, you know, I think sometimes for for you know,
15:42
Speaker 1: people watching a game, when you run the ball on
15:45
Speaker 1: a third and long, it might not make sense. Why
15:48
Speaker 1: did they run it on third and eight there? Well,
15:50
Speaker 1: there could be a number of reasons, you know. They
15:51
Speaker 1: could be that they're playing a particular defense where if
15:53
Speaker 1: we do get one block, we're going to gash them,
15:56
Speaker 1: you know. Or you might be setting yourself up for
15:58
Speaker 1: a field goal, or you're like on the cusp with
16:00
Speaker 1: field goal range and you don't want to take a sack,
16:02
Speaker 1: or you're backed up, you know, and you don't want
16:04
Speaker 1: to make a horrible play, get sacked, have to punt
16:07
Speaker 1: and give them good field position.
16:09
Speaker 2: So you know, all of those.
16:11
Speaker 1: Things, all those factors going to every call, and uh
16:15
Speaker 1: so it's never just as simple as you know this
16:18
Speaker 1: call right here. That's why you know, you have to
16:20
Speaker 1: study and you have to adjust, and you have to
16:22
Speaker 1: be prepared for anything to come up in a game.
16:26
Speaker 1: Progress we're seeking to get a few more here and there.
16:30
Speaker 1: So yeah, you're right, and he looks more confident. He's
16:34
Speaker 1: got a little swagger going. That was really a nice
16:37
Speaker 1: throw and catch that between Hen and Nick for the touchdown.
16:42
Speaker 1: You know, Lou plays with a lot of energy, a
16:44
Speaker 1: lot of enthusiasm. He's very very smart, he's very very tough,
16:48
Speaker 1: he's very very committed. You know, he's the kind of
16:50
Speaker 1: guy you want to bring into your program. And you know,
16:53
Speaker 1: the more the more guys that the defense has to
16:57
Speaker 1: worry about covering U, the more successful you have a
17:01
Speaker 1: chance to be offensively. Did you have a touchdown on him?
17:19
Speaker 2: Yeah? I don't. I guess I just just forgot that one, huh.
17:24
Speaker 1: I think he's becoming a really good player, and I
17:27
Speaker 1: think that the future is very bright for him.
17:29
Speaker 2: He really cares.
17:30
Speaker 1: He's athletic, he's smart, he's got good ball skills. He's
17:35
Speaker 1: like any corner. I mean, listen, if you haven't been
17:37
Speaker 1: beat at corner, it just means you're usually over on
17:39
Speaker 1: the bench, right, and uh, the thing about Cam that
17:43
Speaker 1: is encouraging is that he has been beat you know.
17:46
Speaker 1: You look think back to the Duke game, right, and
17:48
Speaker 1: they got after him a little bit. But it has
17:52
Speaker 1: the corners that let it bother them. The corners that
17:55
Speaker 1: live in the past are the corners that are not
17:58
Speaker 1: going to be successful because it's it's just like an
18:00
Speaker 1: offensive tackle, you know what, You're going to give up
18:02
Speaker 1: a sacker once in a while. As a corner, you're
18:04
Speaker 1: going to give up a play. It's nature of the position.
18:07
Speaker 1: It's the guys that can let it go and learn
18:09
Speaker 1: from it and then move on with confidence they're going
18:11
Speaker 1: to have success. And Cam has shown the ability to
18:14
Speaker 1: do that. Plus he's tough, you know, he's physical. He'll
18:16
Speaker 1: come up and he'll tackle. Okay, thanks everyone,