Latest / Coaches Corner / Seg 2 - FB Show with Jason Candle 9-15

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Seg 2 - FB Show with Jason Candle 9-15 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're back with Jason Candle, the UConn football coach to
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: show Huskies now 1-1 after their nine-game home winning streak
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: was snapped by Maryland. UConn had won 12-13 at home. And, Coach,
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  Speaker 1: at home, obviously, you're trying to win them all, no question,
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  Speaker 1: because you know you've got some road games coming up.
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  Speaker 1: The difference between prepping to go on the road versus
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  Speaker 1: being at home Do you have to accelerate it a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: little bit in the sense that, you know, you've got
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to travel on Friday, so that's a day you don't
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  Speaker 1: quite have to really do stuff?
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  Speaker 2: Well, we want to keep our routine to be pretty
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  Speaker 2: similar to what we're used to. It's not going to
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  Speaker 2: be too, you know, too many different variables other than
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  Speaker 2: getting on the plane and going. You know, we don't
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  Speaker 2: have a stadium on campus here, so, you know, you
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: travel to home games here a little bit in a
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  Speaker 2: certain sense. um still gonna stay in a hotel night
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: before the game still gotta get up still gonna go
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: through your routine eat a good meal you know get
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: your guys prepped and go play so i think it's
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  Speaker 2: more about maybe the elements that don't show up you
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  Speaker 2: know we're gonna go to you know uh i mean
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: it's there's ice on my windshield this morning here right
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  Speaker 2: and we're gonna go to a place where there's it's
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  Speaker 2: gonna be 85 degrees of kickoff right so you gotta
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: deal with the heat you gotta um you know, get
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  Speaker 2: ready to go play in a different environment and, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in an away crowd. And I'm sure they'll have a
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  Speaker 2: great showing and a great following. We've got to go
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: handle those elements.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to talk about Southern Miss in a
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  Speaker 1: couple of minutes. First of all, UConn with Caleb Osborne now.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: He's had a couple games here under his belt. Ten
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: completions on the day on Saturday. He was under pressure.
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  Speaker 1: How do you think he handled that? And what do
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  Speaker 1: you do to kind of relieve that if Southern Miss
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: tries to do the same kind of thing and disrupt
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: his game?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think that, again, it comes down
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: to the level of opponent you're playing. And the unique
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: thing about college football is some guys played the best
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: player they're going to play against all year in the
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Lafayette game. A lot of guys played the best player
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: they're going to play all year last Saturday. Some guys
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: will play the best player they're going to play all
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: year this Saturday. So you got to find the other
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: team's best guys. You got to make sure that they
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: don't wreck the game and, you know, create catastrophic plays,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: sack fumbles, create turnovers, you know, those types of things,
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  Speaker 2: get out on explosive plays on your defense, that kind
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  Speaker 2: of stuff. You can't let the other team's best players
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  Speaker 2: beat you. So you got to find ways schematically to
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  Speaker 2: limit the other team's best guys, you know, and for
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: our defensive guy or, you know, for our offensive line,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: like try to protect them in situations where, we don't
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: get into these third and long situations where they are
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: obvious pass downs and you don't want to be an
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: obvious pass downs as is not alone, obvious pass downs
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: when the score is one sided. So you don't want
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: to get in a situation where you're constantly chasing your
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: tail there and you're trying to catch up because I
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: think that, you know, there's defensive line when they're, they're
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: able to pin their ears back and go, you know, they're,
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: there's better players, right.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: When that, when they're able to do that.
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  Speaker 2: So, being able to keep it manageable down a distance
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  Speaker 2: and not getting those third and long situations or second
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: long situations where we can have our, you know, our
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: whole playbook at our disposal.
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: And I think that will ultimately help Caleb. Yeah.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Offensive line for this UConn team, a new unit put together,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: guys are trying to get to know each other. How
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: do you rate chemistry with an offensive line? Is it
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  Speaker 1: something you can see week to week developing or is it,
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  Speaker 1: Is something that you can see in practice that you
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: feel comfortable with? It's a different kind of thing because
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: everyone talks about offensive linemen. Can you get five guys
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  Speaker 1: on the same page doing the right things and getting
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: holes created and protecting quarterbacks?
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Well, they can be on the same page and be connected.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Now, there's another timing element to this thing where I
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: think that just playing together and having more at-bats together
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: is very critical.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: It takes time to have rhythm in the run game.
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  Speaker 2: It takes time to understand that, you know, what the
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: connection on a double team block and when I'm supposed
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: to separate to get to the second level and what
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  Speaker 2: that looks like.
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  Speaker 3: And, you know, when you.
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  Speaker 2: Have as many new faces as we do, many of
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  Speaker 2: which are playing, you know, in their, you know, early
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  Speaker 2: in their career with not very many starts under their belt.
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  Speaker 3: Like there's some growing pains when it goes through that,
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  Speaker 3: you know, throw.
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  Speaker 2: Them the element of multiple running backs because you got
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: some guys in and out of the game on Saturday
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  Speaker 2: with injuries. You, you, you, that timing element starts to
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: get challenged a little bit. And if that's not really
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: good against a good defense, those, those second level players
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  Speaker 2: and those guys from the safeties that from the safety level,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: they fit down in those gaps pretty fast.
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  Speaker 3: So, and it challenges your discipline as a running back.
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  Speaker 2: It really does challenges your discipline as a, as a
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  Speaker 2: puller or a guy that, you know, was supposed to
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  Speaker 2: block a force player. Like, so we got to do
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  Speaker 2: a good job making sure we continue to put guys
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  Speaker 2: in the position that they're going to be as close
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  Speaker 2: to game day reps as we can. We've got to
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: simulate the speed and, you know, which ultimately at the
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  Speaker 2: end of the day, I think it requires us to
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  Speaker 2: maybe work some, you know, more one-on-one and good-on-good during
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: our practice time and really just let our own iron
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  Speaker 2: sharpen our own iron here.
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  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. How important is the tight end to the blocking
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: scheme on the run game? Xavier Watson had a nice day,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: made some catches. Your other tight ends have to be, obviously,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: is it block first, catch second? What's it like for
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: a tight end?
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  Speaker 3: I think that's the hardest position besides the quarterback to
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: play on the offense.
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  Speaker 2: You ask them to play as an in-line tight end.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: You ask them to play as a fullback. You ask
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: them to split out as a receiver. You've got to
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: wear a lot of different hats. Why do you do that?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: You want to be consistent in your personnel so you
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: don't just get personnel to death by the defense. Yeah,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think there's a lot of learning on
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: that guy's plate. And, you know, those guys are young players.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Alex is young. X is young.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: You know, you got, you know, Mike Burton spelling some
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: and getting some reps there in specific situations. You just
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: got some guys that have not done it, you know,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: and they're only going to continue to improve as this
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: thing goes on.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: So UConn goes to Southern Miss. It's a night game
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: on Saturday night. Does that affect travel at all? If
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: you played a noon game at Southern Miss, would you
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: travel earlier? How do you handle that?
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: We kind of keep our routine the same, you know,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: on a Friday here, the best we can, you know,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: get our work done here, get on the plane, land,
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  Speaker 2: get off the plane, go get a meal, do a
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: couple of meetings, go to bed, get up, do our
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Saturday routine and go play. I mean, you know, now
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: going out West later in the year, you know, altitude,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: some of the elements and some of the things that may,
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: some of the variables that may show up in some
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: of those trips, you may alter that a little bit,
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  Speaker 2: but no, we're going to do what we've got to
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  Speaker 2: do on Friday. You're going to have a great practice
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  Speaker 2: is probably the most critical part about the whole trip,
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  Speaker 2: to be honest with you. And then get on that
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  Speaker 2: plane with some confidence and go down and play well.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Jason Candle with us, UConn football coaches show up
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: for one thing for sure. There's not going to be
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: any snow down there in Hattiesburg, Virginia or ice on
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: anybody's windshields. No. That's the good news. The humidity and
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: everything else, that's another story. All right, Coach, we'll be
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: back in just a moment. Jason Candle with us, the
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: UConn Football Coaches Show on Learfield.