Latest / Coaches Corner / Seg 2 - FB Show w Jason Candle 9-22

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Seg 2 - FB Show w Jason Candle 9-22 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to UConn Football Coaches Show on the radio
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: with Jason Candle, the head coach. I'm Mike Crispino. Red zone, coach.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: I love these numbers. Four for four. I mean, as
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: you look at that, obviously you want to do that
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: every week, but you're not going to be able to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: do that every week. But how important is that? I mean,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: you got into the red zone and you made no mistake.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Well, you're a lot of plus four plays there. You
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: don't want to settle for field goals. You want to
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: get touchdowns. You want to make sure that you maximize
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: your opportunities when you have the ball on offense. And
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: then defensively, you know, you want to get stops and
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: force field goals, right? I mean, there's so many, you know,
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: red zone is made. There's a big, you know, there's
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: a statistical conversation every week on what that looks like and,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: you know, points off of turnovers. And really when you
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: get down into that chance to finish drives and put,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: you know, the seven on the board, you got to
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: do it. So, And, yeah, I mean, we've done a
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: good job to this point in time in the season
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: offensively with that. And hopefully we continue because, you know,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: we feel really good about our kicker. He stepped up
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: and made a couple, you know, big kicks for us
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: this week. But if we don't have to use him,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: that would be even better.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Jack O'Connor, you're talking about the freshman, 46-yarder, 29-yarder. And
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: ending the half, we're going to talk a little bit
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: later on to J.D. Willoughby. He made a big catch
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: in that late drive in the first half. I mean,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: we watch a lot of hockey up here in the Northeast,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and finishing the period is always strong for the hockey guys.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, is it the same for football in the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: sense you finish on a high note in a halftime drive,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: a late half drive? How much can that impact a game?
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Well, it's huge. I mean, momentum is so big and
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: so crucial in college athletics and professional sports, right? To
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: have that going into half and be able to get
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: points right there I thought was a big moment. good
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: job by the, the offense of executing a two minute
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: drive and ultimately a great job by Jack and knocking
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: that kick home. But, you know, started with a good
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: stop on defense. We were able to, you know, get
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: the ball there and, you know, right around that two
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: minute mark and got that timeout as well. So we,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: we felt like we had, we had an opportunity to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: still stay balanced and play offensive football. We didn't have
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: to throw it the whole time with those timeouts in
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: our pocket there. So to be able to get that and,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: you know, especially when you don't have the, you don't
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: have the opening possession coming out of the half. I mean,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I think that's crucial if you get an opportunity to
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: get points and we were able to do it.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Um, we're going to talk to JD Willoughby
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a little bit later in the program, but I want
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: to ask you about him because here's a guy who,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: you know, really didn't play last year injured. And now
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: he comes back. He was really a special teams player
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: in early in his career. He's now worked his way
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: into a wide receiver, a slot, um, you got to
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: be proud of a guy like that. Who's kind of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: worked his way into the team concept and helping the team. Yeah.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I mean, I really thought that that guy was going
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: to break out last year. You know, he injured his
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: foot in preseason camp for us, you know, and he
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: was just, he was having such a good camp. He
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: had such a great summer. And I thought that, man,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: he was really gonna, you know, take flight. And then,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: you know, so I think what you're seeing now, he's a,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: he's a good special teams guy. As you mentioned, he's
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: strong at the point of attack. He can block. He's strong-handed.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: You know, he got a touchdown against Maryland. He made
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: a couple good catches. I think the best plays made
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: all year is the big crossing around against Lafayette where
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: he kind of ripped the ball out of the guy's hands.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: He's just a good football player, and he's a tough
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: guy and, you know, a throwback in that kind of sense. So,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: you know, a guy that you want on your team
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: because he can do so many different things for your organization.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: But I think he's only scratching the surface what he
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: can be as a receiver. guys got a really bright
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: future and just a really good human being, a guy,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: like I said, you really want around.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: You know, Jason, the sports is, you know, about getting
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: players to do what you need them to do and
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: getting them to rally and all that. Having this wide
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: receiver bunch you've got right now, competition, how important is that?
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Because these guys are fighting for reps, really, right? There's
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: so many good receivers that, and I think that could
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: be a good thing. I think if guys really take
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: that to heart and try to improve what they're doing
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: week to week, boy, that could really pay off for
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: this team down the stretch.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: I look at that room. I look at the linebacker room.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: You know, if you would go back to April 11th
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: or whatever, and the first two units that we rolled
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: out there for the spring football game and what that
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: was at linebacker and what that is a receiver and
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: what that was maybe on the defensive front, that looks
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: totally different now. And the guys that were, playing and starting,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: quote-unquote starting, then they haven't disappeared. They don't play, you know,
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: they play a lot. They just don't play maybe as
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: much as the guys that are ahead of them. And
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: that could be a week-to-week thing. I mean, look, like
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Jaden Davis and Hayden Pegg both played equal reps in
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: the game Saturday at linebacker and both played their tail off, right?
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: And then they were also able to contribute on special teams.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: The wideouts, there's a lot of guys rotating in. There's
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of guys getting opportunities to impact the football
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: game and the kicking game um you don't know where
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: where or how or when you can impact the game
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: but you know you can if you're on the sidelines
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: so you got to fight for your reps you got
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: to fight for your opportunities and when you get in
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: there you got to you can't miss.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Your moment yeah competition's a great thing in sports that's
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: for sure we're talking to jason candle yukon football coaches
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: show on the radio and we're back in a moment
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: on learfield