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Jim Mora - Weekly Presser Temple Week · Coaches Corner

0:02
Speaker 1: All right, another important week for us. Got a team
0:08
Speaker 1: that's relatively local coming in and the last few times
0:12
Speaker 1: has kind of had their way with with this this program.
0:17
Speaker 1: So we're excited about the opportunity to go out and
0:19
Speaker 1: compete against it. I watch them on film. I think
0:21
Speaker 1: they're a good football team. I think they've got a
0:23
Speaker 1: lot of talent. I think they play hard. I think
0:25
Speaker 1: they've played some good teams. They've been in some tough games,
0:28
Speaker 1: and we'll certainly have a work cut out for us.
0:31
Speaker 1: And practiced well today, and that's that's what we have
0:35
Speaker 1: to continue to do.
0:36
Speaker 2: You know.
0:36
Speaker 1: I've said that some of the success we've had, and
0:39
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty limited, success quite frankly, has been
0:41
Speaker 1: rooted in the work that we've been doing and the
0:43
Speaker 1: attitude that we have and the potension of detail and
0:46
Speaker 1: creating the right mindset. So we just have to stay
0:48
Speaker 1: on that path. And I think it's gonna be a
0:51
Speaker 1: great challenge, I really do. So I'm excited about it.
0:54
Speaker 1: I think our players are excited about it. To play
1:04
Speaker 1: to our potential every every game. I don't think we've
1:07
Speaker 1: done that yet. I don't think we've come close yet.
1:09
Speaker 1: I think, you know, statistically, it looks pretty good. But
1:12
Speaker 1: when you when you break it down and you look
1:14
Speaker 1: at the finer points and the details, we're not close
1:17
Speaker 1: to where we need to be yet. To be more consistent.
1:19
Speaker 1: I think there's some lolls in our intensity. We're up
1:22
Speaker 1: and down a little bit too much. And so it's
1:25
Speaker 1: a constant quest, you know, to get better every week,
1:28
Speaker 1: every practice, every play of every practice. And that's what
1:30
Speaker 1: we're trying to focus on. But I didn't have any
1:34
Speaker 1: expectations numbers wise. I just my expecting expectations never changed,
1:38
Speaker 1: and that's hey max out every day.
1:43
Speaker 2: He was out there today, he was great. He looks good.
1:45
Speaker 1: He's in great spirits, bright eyed, bushy tailed, so looks good.
1:55
Speaker 1: Price he was working his tail off. So we'll see
1:58
Speaker 1: where he is on Saturday.
1:59
Speaker 2: You know.
2:01
Speaker 1: Shoot, I mean he's you know, he's if he's not,
2:04
Speaker 1: If he's not there this week, I'll be surprised and
2:06
Speaker 1: he'll be ready, you know, after the bye. But I
2:09
Speaker 1: mean he's really he's really looking good. He's really come along.
2:14
Speaker 1: Joey who who Victor Rose? Victor was with us in
2:19
Speaker 1: team periods all practice today. He sees the doctor tomorrow
2:24
Speaker 1: and uh, he should be cleared and ready to go.
2:28
Speaker 2: Attention to the program.
2:37
Speaker 1: Uh, I don't really pay attention to it, so I
2:40
Speaker 1: can't really comment on it. It doesn't matter to us.
2:43
Speaker 1: The only way you UH. In athletics, it's critical that
2:49
Speaker 1: you don't listen to the noise because when you're doing well,
2:51
Speaker 1: everyone tells you how great you are. When you're doing
2:53
Speaker 1: loudly tell you how shitty, credit you, crappy you are.
2:56
Speaker 1: And neither one of those things are true. And the
2:59
Speaker 1: only only thing that matters is when we get in
3:01
Speaker 1: a room as a team, those people in that room,
3:04
Speaker 1: and that's what our focus is. So noise is just noise.
3:09
Speaker 1: We all know that in this world that this at
3:11
Speaker 1: this point in this world. Unfortunately everyone just in the
3:14
Speaker 1: social media world, they want to build you up so
3:15
Speaker 1: they can just cut you back down. And so we
3:19
Speaker 1: just we don't pay attention to the noise. You want
3:22
Speaker 1: to take all he needs to dive instead of slide,
3:31
Speaker 1: and that's what we do.
3:32
Speaker 2: We dive.
3:32
Speaker 1: I've talked to you guys about this before. You know,
3:35
Speaker 1: the first two times uranity Adobe was fine, you slide,
3:38
Speaker 1: I think, I think personally and it won't happen. But
3:41
Speaker 1: if they wanted a guy that's coached football for forty
3:44
Speaker 1: something years and been around it for his whole life.
3:46
Speaker 1: I would say that the ncaation took a take a
3:48
Speaker 1: really hard look at outlawing quarterback sliding feet first. That's
3:53
Speaker 1: when they get hurt. You go watch Steve Young play,
3:56
Speaker 1: who is in the Hall of Fame. You go watch
3:58
Speaker 1: Mike Vic play. You watch some of those other guys
4:00
Speaker 1: are running quarterbacks. They always dove. I always went head first.
4:03
Speaker 1: They got their head below the hit. They protected the
4:06
Speaker 1: ball that way, and they had their shoulder pads going
4:09
Speaker 1: first instead of exposed upper body. So if the NCAA
4:13
Speaker 1: UH really wanted to protect quarterbacks, they'd outlaw the slide.
4:17
Speaker 1: We've outlaied the slide, and unfortunately Nick decided to slide,
4:20
Speaker 1: and he took two hits when he slid, and he
4:22
Speaker 1: didn't get hits when he dove. So dive, don't slide.
4:25
Speaker 1: You know, do it the way you're coached, and you
4:27
Speaker 1: should be fine. But we're not going to not run him.
4:31
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a big part of our offense. So
4:32
Speaker 1: it's up to him to make sure that he dives well.
4:43
Speaker 2: I mean, you just got to create a new habit.
4:46
Speaker 1: You know, you got to work on it, you got
4:47
Speaker 1: to think about it, which we do, you know, but
4:49
Speaker 1: I think you're right. Sometimes guys revert, but to me,
4:52
Speaker 1: make it a rule. I mean, I don't understand why
4:55
Speaker 1: they continue to let quarterbacks slide, not only to put
4:57
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks in danger, but they make the the game
5:00
Speaker 1: incredibly hard to play for the defense, and they make
5:04
Speaker 1: it incredibly hard to officiate. And uh, you know that's
5:09
Speaker 1: that's just that's just an opinion based on sixty years
5:12
Speaker 1: of football life.
5:14
Speaker 2: I mean, who's going to listen to me? Right, Stamps coordinated?
5:21
Speaker 3: Was there certain things that he just talked to you
5:24
Speaker 3: about that you said.
5:26
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I've been around it.
5:27
Speaker 1: I've been around him for too, you know, over two
5:29
Speaker 1: years at that point, around two years at that point, right,
5:32
Speaker 1: And uh, he just always impressed me as very very intelligent,
5:36
Speaker 1: had a really great big picture awareness of the game,
5:41
Speaker 1: not just the run game. I mean he has a
5:42
Speaker 1: you know, clear understanding of the run game, great grasp
5:45
Speaker 1: it just really football in general in the past game
5:48
Speaker 1: and how to put a system together, and beyond that,
5:52
Speaker 1: just you know, you watch him and how his his
5:55
Speaker 1: group played, you know, the offensive line I came here,
5:57
Speaker 1: and that was supposed to be one of the weaknesses
5:59
Speaker 1: and it's turned into one of our strengths. And it's
6:01
Speaker 1: obviously because of the players, but it's also because of
6:03
Speaker 1: the way he's coached the players and the way they've
6:05
Speaker 1: responded his coaching. So you think, wow, if he can
6:08
Speaker 1: do that with that group, can he do it with
6:09
Speaker 1: the entire group? And you know, he on a number
6:12
Speaker 1: of occasions has spoken to the team. You know, I've
6:16
Speaker 1: had I always have the coaches talk to the team,
6:18
Speaker 1: but you know, the even nights before games, you know,
6:20
Speaker 1: and usually the coach, the head coach, stands up there
6:22
Speaker 1: and gives them kind of the final words. There's been
6:25
Speaker 1: a number of times when I've asked Fordy to do it,
6:27
Speaker 1: you know, just because he has a really good way
6:31
Speaker 1: about him that draws the players in and captures their attention,
6:35
Speaker 1: and so you know, you combine those factors and it
6:37
Speaker 1: just seemed it seemed like a really good fit.
6:40
Speaker 2: You know.
6:40
Speaker 1: I think the outside perception sometimes when you hire an
6:43
Speaker 1: offensive line coaches, you know, it's just you're just gonna
6:46
Speaker 1: run it and pound it, and you know, the guy
6:48
Speaker 1: with the sweatshirt and whist Alan like I today.
6:51
Speaker 2: But he's just he's very very, very very.
6:54
Speaker 1: Intelligent, and he's creative. And I think the combination of
6:59
Speaker 1: him and the other guys in our staff and bringing
7:01
Speaker 1: in Brad Robbins, you know, to help with the passing game,
7:04
Speaker 1: has really helped us progress as an offense. Well, I've
7:15
Speaker 1: been impressed with him, you know, I've been impressed with
7:18
Speaker 1: Tooey really for two years now. You know, it's kind
7:21
Speaker 1: of too he started playing really well last year and
7:24
Speaker 1: he's doing some good things.
7:25
Speaker 2: And then.
7:27
Speaker 1: Bringing in Jaden McDonald I think really helped us. He's
7:30
Speaker 1: a guy who's played a lot of football. You know,
7:31
Speaker 1: this is a sixty year college football. He's been in
7:34
Speaker 1: some good programs. You know, Troy was an outstanding defense.
7:37
Speaker 1: You could see it on film that he that he
7:39
Speaker 1: loved football. And those guys have played well. You know,
7:43
Speaker 1: they're they're capable of rushing, they're capable of dropping, they're
7:46
Speaker 1: good tacklers, and I think this scheme fits them. You know,
7:49
Speaker 1: I think that, uh, this scheme plays into what they
7:52
Speaker 1: do well, which is kind of read and react and
7:55
Speaker 1: flow and then get down hill fast and pressure. You know,
7:59
Speaker 1: we we we bring them a lot you know, we
8:01
Speaker 1: we add them to the rusher, add them aggressively into
8:04
Speaker 1: the run fit a lot, and I think that that
8:06
Speaker 1: plays into their strengths. So I've been impressed with those
8:08
Speaker 1: two guys. Well you don't get to see it, but
8:26
Speaker 1: like this where the defense meets Okay, this is that
8:30
Speaker 1: intensity you see on the field, It exists in this
8:33
Speaker 1: room when he's standing up here, and during practice it's
8:37
Speaker 1: the same thing, and during meetings with the staff it's
8:39
Speaker 1: the same thing.
8:40
Speaker 2: I Mean, that's like he just he's a grinder.
8:43
Speaker 1: I mean, he's intense and he is incredibly demanding on
8:48
Speaker 1: those players, but he also feeds him confidence, you know,
8:52
Speaker 1: and he's dead honest and truthful with him all the time,
8:56
Speaker 1: I mean all the time, good or bad. And he's
8:59
Speaker 1: just got the trust of those guys. They respect him.
9:03
Speaker 1: I respect the heck out him. Mean, he's a I
9:05
Speaker 1: think he's an outstanding football coach. And I think that
9:10
Speaker 1: if the if the defense can continue to take on
9:13
Speaker 1: that that identity, then then you know, good things will happen.
9:18
Speaker 1: But you know, it's an everyday battle, man. You know,
9:21
Speaker 1: you're just never there and our guys have to understand that.
9:24
Speaker 1: And we're doing the best we can to make sure
9:26
Speaker 1: they understand.
9:27
Speaker 2: That that personal.
9:36
Speaker 1: I'd heard he was intense, you know, the people that
9:38
Speaker 1: I talked to, I'd heard he was intense, and I
9:41
Speaker 1: liked that about him, you know, But it was just
9:43
Speaker 1: getting to know him mostly through phone calls and then
9:46
Speaker 1: a visit that you know, in zoom calls and things
9:48
Speaker 1: like that.
9:49
Speaker 2: You just could sense it in him.
9:51
Speaker 1: You could sense how passionate he was about, you know, football,
9:55
Speaker 1: how passionate he was about helping players reach their potential,
9:58
Speaker 1: how passionate he was about being the best that he
10:00
Speaker 1: could be. And then really, you know it just uh
10:05
Speaker 1: he he had a he had a personality that I
10:09
Speaker 1: think is conducive to being a really good defensive football coach.
10:12
Speaker 1: Just an intensity that just is relentless when.
10:19
Speaker 3: Against that because that's constantly or do you see vulnerability there?
10:27
Speaker 2: You do?
10:28
Speaker 1: We we don't even watch that game because it's a
10:30
Speaker 1: different scheme.
10:31
Speaker 2: We don't watch Navy.
10:32
Speaker 1: It's a different scheme, you know, it doesn't they they're
10:35
Speaker 1: gonna play a different defense against Army and Navy than
10:37
Speaker 1: they are against US. You know, Army and Navy, they
10:40
Speaker 1: just they run the ball. And that's why I say
10:42
Speaker 1: there's statistics are skewed. I mean, you know, I mean,
10:46
Speaker 1: there's nothing we can learn from watching them play Army
10:50
Speaker 1: or Navy, nothing, because it's a totally different scheme offensively,
10:54
Speaker 1: which forces them like to play. Like when we played
10:57
Speaker 1: Army a couple of years ago, we put in we
11:00
Speaker 1: didn't play one single defense that we'd ever played before
11:03
Speaker 1: or ever have played since. You know, they that's that's
11:06
Speaker 1: what they forced you to do. That's what the Academy's
11:09
Speaker 1: forced you to do. And one of the reasons they're
11:11
Speaker 1: so successful is you had to learn something really really
11:15
Speaker 1: really quickly. And it's it's complex. You know, they line
11:19
Speaker 1: up and run the ball, but it's it's a complex
11:21
Speaker 1: run system. So we're not able to get a lot
11:24
Speaker 1: out of that film.
11:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, how much? How much does it make a difference
11:33
Speaker 2: to have it's big?
11:38
Speaker 1: It's big, you know, I mean, he's just he's got
11:40
Speaker 1: a toughness about him that I think rubs off on
11:43
Speaker 1: a lot of us. And uh, you know, he's a
11:46
Speaker 1: little beat up because he's going to get a little
11:48
Speaker 1: beat up the whey he runs. But being able to
11:50
Speaker 1: split the carrieres the way we did last week with
11:53
Speaker 1: I think he had ten and I think Durrell had
11:55
Speaker 1: ten and mel had eight, or maybe those two were flipped,
11:58
Speaker 1: but I know he had ten, and we were successul
12:00
Speaker 1: for doing it, you know, in the in terms of
12:02
Speaker 1: just the longevity of the season, it's going to really
12:04
Speaker 1: help us because they all run hard, but Cam Cam
12:08
Speaker 1: runs just you know, I mean Cam Cam tries to
12:11
Speaker 1: run through people, you know, and uh, I think our
12:15
Speaker 1: guys love that. You know, that hit he put on
12:17
Speaker 1: the guy on the sideline, I mean, you know, I'm
12:19
Speaker 1: not sure that I didn't think that guy was going
12:21
Speaker 1: to get up, you know, to his credit, he did,
12:22
Speaker 1: but you know, Cam's trying to Cam's trying to crush people,
12:26
Speaker 1: and I love that.
12:28
Speaker 2: Really, how good are your guys day? And then.
12:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good question. So we addressed out on
12:42
Speaker 1: Sunday and uh, I told him what the schedule would
12:45
Speaker 1: be like, and I said, get it fixed by Monday.
12:48
Speaker 2: Figure out what it's going to be.
12:49
Speaker 1: And it doesn't exist us anymore. And I think that
12:52
Speaker 1: they've done a good job. I haven't heard anyone talking
12:54
Speaker 1: about it, haven't had anyone like ask me about it
12:57
Speaker 1: since we talked about it on Sunday, But I felt
12:59
Speaker 1: like it was really important, uh to get it kind
13:02
Speaker 1: of Okay, this is what it's going to look like.
13:04
Speaker 1: This is what the week is going to look like. Okay,
13:06
Speaker 1: make the plans you need to make, and now we're
13:08
Speaker 1: on temple. You know, we're on the temple, and we
13:10
Speaker 1: need to be completely focused on temple. I felt like
13:13
Speaker 1: from the practice today and the meetings that they were
13:15
Speaker 1: focused on temple. They understand the challenge, you know, they understand, uh.
13:21
Speaker 2: That the talent level that's coming in here. So they
13:25
Speaker 2: get it. They get it. I like the way they work.
13:31
Speaker 2: I like their maturity.
13:33
Speaker 1: I like their consistency of effort every day in practice.
13:38
Speaker 1: I like how they don't seem satisfied at all. I
13:42
Speaker 1: like how how they hold each other accountable, you know,
13:47
Speaker 1: to a certain standard. And that is just critical no matter,
13:52
Speaker 1: no matter what if you if you practice that way,
13:57
Speaker 1: if you think that way, you've got a chance.
13:59
Speaker 2: If you don't, you don't have a chance. You know.
14:02
Speaker 1: So it doesn't guarantee success, but it certainly gives you
14:05
Speaker 1: a chance. And that's what I like. There's a different
14:08
Speaker 1: level of maturity, and I just it's like, you know,
14:14
Speaker 1: we say it's it's it's it's all business, No bullshit,
14:17
Speaker 1: you know. And I know you probably can't print that
14:20
Speaker 1: or show it on TV, but that's kind of what
14:22
Speaker 1: I think about when I think there's.
14:23
Speaker 2: It's all business, no bullshit.
14:25
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean they're not having fun right and enjoying it,
14:27
Speaker 1: but there's just not a lot of bullshitting around. And
14:29
Speaker 1: I think I appreciate that. I mean, he just he
14:38
Speaker 1: was out there and he was friking. He had a
14:40
Speaker 1: great demeanor to him, and you know, he just, uh,
14:45
Speaker 1: I don't know, he's excited to he's excited to keep
14:47
Speaker 1: him proving, you know, and that's fun to be around.
14:50
Speaker 2: You know.
14:50
Speaker 1: You just felt like an energy coming off him, like,
14:52
Speaker 1: hey man, I'm I'm I'm getting better. Every rep I take,
14:56
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get better.
14:57
Speaker 2: So I don't I don't know that.
15:00
Speaker 1: I mean, we still have to get through Wednesday, Thursday,
15:03
Speaker 1: Friday practices. I don't know if anyone's good to go yet.
15:06
Speaker 1: You know, we still got a lot of hard physical
15:07
Speaker 1: work to do. When you talk about.
15:11
Speaker 3: The makeup of the team is you're little your comments
15:15
Speaker 3: about that, but you said your success as far as
15:19
Speaker 3: limited is the more success just execution.
15:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I think it means that we have to
15:27
Speaker 1: start a little bit with a little bit more intensity,
15:31
Speaker 1: maintain that not have rolls and intensity during the game,
15:34
Speaker 1: and finish stronger. I think it means, you know, cutting
15:39
Speaker 1: out some of those second half penalties that I've talked.
15:41
Speaker 2: About that hurt us.
15:43
Speaker 1: We certainly know that we have to be better in
15:45
Speaker 1: the red zone on offense. You know, we were four
15:48
Speaker 1: for four scoring in the red zone, but we were
15:50
Speaker 1: only one for three scoring or one for four scoring
15:52
Speaker 1: touchdowns in the in the red zone and offense. So
15:55
Speaker 1: that's execution. That's things like that. And when I say execution,
15:58
Speaker 1: I'm not just talking about the player right. Execution means
16:01
Speaker 1: the coaches putting in the right plays, you know, studying
16:05
Speaker 1: our opponent and getting us in the right stuff, calling
16:08
Speaker 1: the game right, coaching it right, all those things, and
16:11
Speaker 1: then the players carrying it out on the on the field.
16:13
Speaker 2: So I just think there's a lot.
16:15
Speaker 1: I don't think we've we've we've come close to our
16:19
Speaker 1: potential yet, I just don't. And the only way we're
16:22
Speaker 1: going to reach our potential is to keep the pedal
16:24
Speaker 1: down and keep the pressure on and keep being demanding
16:27
Speaker 1: and keep holding each other accountable. That's the only way
16:30
Speaker 1: it works, it's the only way it works. And that's
16:34
Speaker 1: our intention, you know, that's our intention. That's what we're
16:37
Speaker 1: gonna that's we're going to keep emphasizing the.
16:48
Speaker 3: I guess that what we.
16:51
Speaker 1: Said, Well, I think it's I'll go back to that maturity,
16:56
Speaker 1: you know, competitive maturity, not it's like you know, you said,
17:00
Speaker 1: it's like not getting caught up in the noise with
17:05
Speaker 1: we're three and two. I mean, come on, I mean,
17:07
Speaker 1: that's that's that's just nothing. That's just we've won three games,
17:11
Speaker 1: big deal, you know, And if we start thinking that
17:15
Speaker 1: that's something special.
17:16
Speaker 2: Then failure will follow.
17:19
Speaker 1: And you know, we just got to have the mindset
17:22
Speaker 1: that every game it's its own entity. You know, nothing
17:26
Speaker 1: we've done in the past matters and nothing in the
17:28
Speaker 1: future matters. All that matters is a game we're preparing
17:31
Speaker 1: to play that week and then we go out and
17:32
Speaker 1: play on Saturday. And I think that's how successful teams
17:36
Speaker 1: look at life. And so we just have to continue
17:40
Speaker 1: to emphasize that. And our players, in my opinion right now,
17:46
Speaker 1: seem to have and understand that attitude. But we have
17:49
Speaker 1: to have it every single second of every single day.
17:53
Speaker 1: And that's that's that's our you know, that's our goal.
17:57
Speaker 3: You talk about receivers, you see the guys. Obviously syl
18:09
Speaker 3: is with outstanding, everybody else's in comparison.
18:13
Speaker 1: You know, Well, you don't we do a good job
18:15
Speaker 1: of on offenses spreading it around a little bit, you know.
18:17
Speaker 1: And no, Skylar's had some tremendous games and made some
18:20
Speaker 1: great plays, but it's like kind of the running game,
18:22
Speaker 1: you know, we spread that, we spread it around. If
18:25
Speaker 1: you look at targets from Saturday, I think that the
18:29
Speaker 1: top three receivers all had I think seven targets, you know.
18:32
Speaker 1: So that to me means we're spreading around, We're throwing
18:34
Speaker 1: its the right guy. But yeah, I see some guys
18:37
Speaker 1: on the practice field that are making real strides, that
18:40
Speaker 1: are ready for some some breakouts, you know, Like Josiah Gathings.
18:44
Speaker 1: I mean every day it's like, you know, game day
18:47
Speaker 1: for him out on the practice field. His intensity is focus,
18:50
Speaker 1: and I think he's a guy that, you know, he
18:53
Speaker 1: can do some things. I think that Shamar Porter is
18:56
Speaker 1: a guy that can really do some things, you know.
18:59
Speaker 2: So you know, I get.
19:00
Speaker 1: Excited about watching those guys in practice and watching them
19:03
Speaker 1: make plays and watchington practice with intensity and intent, and
19:08
Speaker 1: I know that because they are doing that, it's going
19:12
Speaker 1: to translate into them making plays on a Saturday. Okay,
19:18
Speaker 1: thanks everyone, have a good afternoon.