Latest / Coaches Corner / Jim Mora - August 8

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Jim Mora - August 8 · Coaches Corner

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  It's a lot to our players to have the lead of our state out here
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  and taking an interest taking the time out of his busy schedule to come and
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  talk to our guys, and it was outstanding. So we had another good
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  practice. You know, I don't want to jax anything, but I think
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  the thing that I've probably been most impressed with is our ability to stay healthy.
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  And I think that that's a large credit to Coach King and our strength
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  staff, and obviously Bob Howard and our our athletic training staff, and then
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  the way these guys trained this offseason to get themselves prepared for this. We
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  had some soft tissue injuries, but guys have worked themselves back on the field,
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  and so when you have your whole team practice and you get a lot
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  of work done, it's just the attitude these guys continue to display is is
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  uh. It's to me, it's inspiring and it makes me want to come
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  to work every day even that much more. And it's a fun team to
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  coach. And we just gotta, you know, we gotta, we gotta
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  keep grinding and can't can't try to survive a day. We gotta push her
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  every day, and our guys are doing that. So we we've got to
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  maintain that and we be all bad. Well, Joe, you know,
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  is a is a He's the head of a competitor, and so is No
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  Way. I think that Joe's at one hundred percent. He's he is at
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  one hundred percent and he looks really strong and uh, you know, No
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  Way is not going to give in. But right now, you know,
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  I think that Joe's probably got a little bit of the advantage, but that
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  can change, you know, with those kickers into every kid counts, you
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  know, And what we need out of that position is we need consistency.
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  We need to be able to drive the ball into the end zone. We
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  need to be able to make kicks of you know, fifty or less one
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  hundred percent of the time. And those two pushing each other the way they
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  do is only helping on a football team have the kind of relationship. Yes,
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  yeah, it's a it's a cooperative competition. They encourage each other and
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  that's what you want on your whole team. You want guys to push each
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  other to get better, but they do it in a productive way. And
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  those guys a thematic of that. And it's not often that you's spend as
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  much time talking about, you know, the kicking competition, but it is
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  ack of a problem to happen. It's a great problem to happen because I
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  we as a team and I think you ask every player they have faith in
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  both of those guys because they've seen them both do it in games to win
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  games. So it's it's it's a nice luxury for us when you're analyzing quarterbacks
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  coach in these practices in the preseason, what are you looking for? What
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  do you what do you hope to find and seeing young uh, well,
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  first of all, you want to see poise under pressure. You want to
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  see consistency U in decision making, good decision making. You want to see
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  guys that can you know, make tough throws in critical moments, that throw
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  with accuracy, that have a really good understanding of our offense and understand if
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  someone's not lined up right how to get or lined up right, that have
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  big picture where earness and it can can move the sticks. And you know,
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  we evaluate every single play every single day. We evaluate who they're going
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  against, who they're throwing to, you know, with the way they're managing
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  practice every drill, and it's been a really good competition, and we're only
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  eight days in, eight practices in but uh, you know, I don't
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  know that there's been a whole lot of discrepancy between you know, who's one,
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  two and three right now. You know, I think ideally you'd like
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  to see some separation. I think that's you know, your conventional wisdoms.
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  You'd like to see separation. But I see elevation out of all of our
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  So that's a good thing as well. Victor runs to start about last year,
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  I've set the depth charge and he gets lay how much if they get
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  helping this year? The time we got a lot year. Everyone that gets
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  where you improve is when you're playing a game. You know your biggest improvement
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  has come in competition, in competitive situations. And we saw that out of
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  victory. Remember you know the Michigan game. I mean he was thrown to
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  the fire. I mean it was not only did he have to be our
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  number one running back? Would he have to be the punt returner, I
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  think, the kickoff returner. And that was a tough day for him.
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  But he grew out of that and then we saw him every week during the
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  season grow and grow and grow. And I made the comment the other day
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  that these our third string running back, just because Rick was here and I
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  wanted to give him a little trapping. But uh, you know, we
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  we run the ball by committee. You guys pop and we run the ball
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  by committee. And Davante and Grew and Victor, now Jalen's in the mix.
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  I mean, we feel really good about all those guys, and they're
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  all a little bit different, which I think poses a problem for our opponents.
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  He said, they don't have the same style. And Victor's unique in
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  that, you know, he's just an angular runner. He he runs with
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  high knees and his elbows are out and he's hard to bring down and we
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  love that about him. And then he plays on specialist and he catches the
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  ball out of the back room. So I like Wheat as a running.
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  Our competition coach is going to ask about the diversity kind of in the play
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  styles. You know, obviously, Liz Robert barrens, do you have a
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  powerful guy that can kind of fill that role? You know, U we're
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  using Louis Hanson a little bit in that role. You've probably seen him,
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  you know right now, kind of short guardage stuff. Louie catches the ball
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  well, We've got to find out how he is as a runner. I
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  think that Jalen can do some of those things. You know, Jalen's at
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  two hundred and ten pounders, not like Burnsy at two thirty. But that's
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  okay. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'd love to have Robert
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  Burns here another. You know, if we could get him back, get
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  some kind of waiver for the ncaa'd be great. But I think you know,
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  he's got a shot against Chicago Barty, which is awesome. You know,
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  yeah, I don't we don't have that guy right now. Hanson's playing
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  some out of the backfield, is that a little bit? Yeah? Yeah,
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  you'll see him in the backfield a little bit, sometimes in short guard
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  situations, sometimes in first and second down situations. It's not it's not a
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  mainstay of our offense, but it is a wrinkle that really use Jim.
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  How does the diversity in that rushing attack help take pressure off your quarterbacks,
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  especially since we're still trying to figure out who QUB wants. Yeah, well,
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  we always want to be able to run the football. I think that
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  you know, when you can run the football effectively, it opens up so
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  many things for you. Offensively, and I think the diversity helps us,
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  but the depth helps even more. You know, it's just being able to
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  We're not going to wear a guy down, you know. I think with
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  guys like Damonte or Brew, they put pressure on the defensive, the defense
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  better be right because those guys can find the gap, they can get through
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  it. If they get through it, they're hard to catch. You know.
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  You put Victor and Jaalen in there to pound them a little bit,
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  to beat them down a little bit. So having an effective running game opens
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  everything up. And it's no secret we've talked about it, all of us
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  have the whole offseason is seeing improvement in our passing game. And I've seen
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  that improvement and so having a healthy running game with improving our passing game,
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  you should be a more effective offense to the last year. You know.
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  It's interesting, I would say his pass protection, you know, yeah,
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  I know, and that's kind of something you overlook a little bit. But
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  backs are asked to protect. And you know, we just talk about catching
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  the ball and running the ball, but I've seen him stand in there and
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  take some linebackers on and give the quarterback just enough time to get the ball
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  off and uh, you know, for one hundred and seventy five hundred,
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  one hundred and seventy pounder, when he got two hundred and thirty pounds coming
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  at you, you know, that's not always fun. But he he stays
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  in there, he anchors down and there's just enough to look at quarterback get
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  the ball off. We didn't see much of Brutal last year. What do
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  I like about him? I think he's got really good quickness. I don't
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  know, you know, I think DeVante is probably one of the faster players
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  on our team with Bruken Ron. He's he's hard to tackle in space,
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  he's shifting and and he'll protect as well. You know, I think that
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  with both of those guys, given it, they're not the biggest guys in
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  stature, it's critical to have that depth because you can't ask one hundred and
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  seventy pound one hundred and seventy hundred and seventy five pounders just to run up
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  in there all day long. It's going to take a turn on So having
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  Victor, having Jalen along with Devonte and Bruton dhosts. Yes, I'm gonna
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  go here. I like the way that those guys are for me. I
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  think that the key thing is it was starting to develop depth. You know,
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  you want to go through the season with the starting five and you started
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  the season with and have you know, have the consistency throughout the year with
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  the lineup. But if it doesn't happen, I see us having developed in
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  the depth and I like that. And they were bigger and more physical.
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  They work well together, they understand the scheme. They are very very very
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  well coached right coach things and it was an absalonlyp coach and you know that
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  unit is typically one of the closest units on any football team I've ever went
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  on. And it's no different going on there, coach. I know it
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  focuses on your team in the upcoming season. Has three thoughts on the musical
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  chairs that's going on right now with convience, real linement, and most dissolving
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  the silver used to coach and what that means even for this program more forward.
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  Yeah, I kind of stopped when the when the last week, when
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  when all that day, that amazing and day it happened. I kind of
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  shut it down in terms of paying attention to it. But I'll answer your
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  question because you know, my dad coach in the Pack eight. You know
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  I paid in the played in the PAC twelve, and coach the PAC ten,
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  and UH coach in the PAC twelve. So you know I played at
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  the University of Washington, I coached at UCLA, my dad coached the Caller
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  out and my son goes to Collar out and my dad coach at Stanford.
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  You know, I've always had an affinity heard of the PAC twelve, and
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  so to see it this all the way, it has to me a sad.
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  You know, I don't like it. I've heard two people say,
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  probably would I feel better than I could ever say it, and that would
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  be Eli drink Witz. I thought, I don't know, if you guys
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  saw his statement the other day, you should look at it. I think
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  it's really good, like I could never be that eloquent and I and I
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  had thought what Dion said was was was right on in terms of, you
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  know, everyone's chasing the bag, and I could never say the way Dion
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  said it either. So I would say the two guys that said it the
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  best for me in terms of expressing how I feel it would be Dion and
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  Eli, and I agree with both of them. I'm sad to see what's
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  happened to the PAC twelve just being that you know, that matters to me,
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  like the Big East matters to us out here because of our history there,
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  and I'm learning it. The PAC twelve matter to me, So I
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  don't I don't like what happened, or you can end at the end of
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  all of these musical cheers, do you need to be in? I want
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  us to be in a Power five conference because I think it helps, Like
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  I said in day, when I think it helps our athletic department, I
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  think it helps every student athlete. It certainly helps this football program, and
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  I think that we're building something that is earning the right to be in a
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  Power twelve. This football team will compete with Power twelve our five. This
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  team will compete with Power five football teams. We have the facilities, we
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  have the people, We do more with less than any athletic department in the
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  country. In my opinion, when you look at all the sports and if
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  we're able to increase our revenue stream where we can, we can provide more
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  for our football team, more resources. I think we're just discerned, and
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  quite frankly, I don't understand why people don't see it because they don't come
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  here. You know I read where Well, they don't have the facilities,
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  Yes we do. You know, this program was a proud, strong program
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  years ago. We're getting back to that. And I hate to use the
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  word deserve because to me, that word deserved is an entitled word. But
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  I think we are earning the right to be in a power fine, and
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  we'll compete against anybody. It's just you see it by our schedule. You
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  know, we're not afraid to compete against anybody. Does that mean we're gonna
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  beat him right now? We'll see, you know, because we're gonna play
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  the game. But in terms of competing, we'll compete against anybody. So
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  a quarterback, you have a new guy that's part of the comp guy to
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  the team, that's part of the competition. Can you just discuss what Joe
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  Fandano brings to the table and why he's yeah, competing for the starting job.
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  Joe brings, he brings poise, he brings snaps. So for a
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  quarterback, you know, when you're an NFL scout you're evaluating quarterbacks, you're
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  looking at whins, you're looking at snaps, you're looking at throws. You
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  want to count you want to if you want to see experience that Joe's got
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  those things. He's got a lot of snaps, He's made a lot of
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  throws. Is one games he's been in pressure situations, he's responded, you
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  know, in games. He understands our system very well because he was with
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  Nick, and even though we've tweaked it and changed a little bit, Joe
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  understands it, I think above all else though, with Joe it's just his
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  his his, Uh. The poison demonstrates on the field, the confidence that
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  he garnered. He's garnered from from his teammates because the way he conducts themselves
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  themselves and workouts and meetings at practice. He's unflappable, and that's what you
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  want out of quarterback. You know. He exudes confidence, and so when
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  you're quarterback, when you're leader, when the guy taking the snaps has that
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  confidence, it rubs off on everybody else. Coach camerss the last two years
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  obviously haven't gone his way, But how have you seen him kind of come
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  back and be able to participate. Obviously he didn't, especially in that position.
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  It feels like the skill is taken to step up. But I was
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  even able to work himself into that. I mean, I have so much
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  respect for camp, you know, to go through what he's gone through the
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  last two years, I mean a lot of guys would have given it up,
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  and he hasn't. He's only worked harder, He's doubled down and everything
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  that he's done. We're being very, very very conservative with how we use
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  him this year, especially in camp, because we got to get him to
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  the starting mind, you know, and that's for our football team, but
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  maybe more importantly for the camp, and so you know, if he's not
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  feeling right, we're backing him off. Today I noticed him limp and we
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  backed him off. We got to get him the starting mind and he deserves
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  that and this team deserved that. But in terms of just attitude, personality,
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  work, ethic, resilience, he's just a great example for all of
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  our players just stick to it. You know there's going to be disappointment's just
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  keep grinding. So you love that. And he's a leader. What about
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  your secondary A lot of new faces. He sp that corner corner and on.
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  How's that competition gone. It seems that there's a lot of competition.
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  It's it's been better competition than we've had since I've been here, which is
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  one year. You know, I like the guys that we've brought in.
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  I liked the way some of the young guys have developed. I liked the
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  way Dumont Brinson's developed, Isaiah Davis's develop. You know, we got Cam
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  Chatt who can moved from safety out to corner. He's done a nice job
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  there for two days or money. Archer has done a nice job. We
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  haven't got to see torn in much, but he's working himself back into it.
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  So you got to have depth at corner certainly. You know, at
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  this day and age, when people spread the field out and they're competitive,
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  you know, and they're smart, you get a couple, you get Mumu
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  in there. So you get a couple of guys that have played, you
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  know, at the highest level. It's going to help you. So I
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  like where we sit as a secondary right now, and having two experienced safeties
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  is a really big deal.