Latest / Coaches Corner / OC Gordie Sammis Aug 12

Transcript

OC Gordie Sammis Aug 12 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Midway through the camp period that's gone so far.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, they you know, we're working hard. It's been
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: tough camp, which it needs to be. We're still learning
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: how to work. It's kind of a process, you know,
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: just putting pieces together. I like our pieces. I think
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: we got a lot of talent. We just have to
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, and this is just this time of camp.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: We got to keep working every day to get better,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: even when it gets tiring, even when a lot of
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: it's the same. The great offense is the great teams
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: find ways to keep getting better every day. Okay, So
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: I feel like we're heading in that direction. We still
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: have a ways to go, but that's what camp is
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: and that's what it's for. So I feel good about
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: where we are, like our progress. I think it's a
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: work in progress. But we'll get there because it's our
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: job too. After you guys over in the tent over there,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: anything serious or we just know camp kind of the
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: regular camp, you know, nothing nothing dramatic now, thank god,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: you know. And that's I mean, that's always about staying
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: healthy and taking care of these guys and but also
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: making sure they're getting enough work to kind of harden
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: themselves and be ready to go through that stretch. So
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: it's a fine line. You know, we'll rest them when
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: we need to, and sometimes when it's time to go,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: you gotta go because there's gonna be days where games
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: you don't feel great, but you gotta go. So I
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: think that's part of this whole process. And those guys
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: who were in the tent, all the reports I got
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: as they'll be back with and you know tomorrow a
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: couple of days, nothing, nothing drastic, any more comfortable year
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: two as an offensive coordinator or doesn't matter because you've
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: been here before. Yeah, I mean I kind of it's good.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: It's definitely a different role for me because last year
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I was just so immersed right o line calling the plays,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: all that stuff. So really for me, being the coordinator
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: kind of became a Thursday, Friday, Saturday job, if that
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: makes sense, right, Because my first job, I had to
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: get the guys ready to play, make sure they were
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: prepared to play, and then I could kind of focus
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: on myself those last couple of days. So I can
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: be a lot more big picture this year. Feeling a
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: lot more comfortable. I like the role I have now
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: because now I can kind of have a relationship with everybody.
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  Speaker 2: It's not just the O line. I can go sit
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: in the wide out room and go talk to those guys.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: I can go sit in the running back room and
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: kind of get to know those guys.
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  Speaker 1: So it's been really good.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: The fight always is going to be when I with
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: more time on my hands with certain things, is not
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: to overthink things. Okay, I'm not sitting in a position
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: room all the time, so I need to Really it's
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: about getting in tune with my coaches.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Is this too much right now? All right? Do we
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: need to scale it back? Or can we push them?
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  Speaker 2: And so that's the thing I got to get used
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  Speaker 2: to in terms of as a coach. All of us
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: it's easy, right, It's easy for us to understand a
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: lot of the concepts and things like that, But for
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the guy out there playing, if it gets to be
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: too much, you know, I relied heavily now on those
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: guys to kind of scale back. Where last year when
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: I had a position group, I could.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Ask valor Chase, hey, where we at? You know, what
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: do we need to do? And they could they would
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  Speaker 1: give me an honest answer. So I'm getting a lot
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: more comfortable.
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  Speaker 2: But the thing is that it's almost learning a new
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: role too, which has been a lot of fun. So
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: it's definitely different, but it's been really good, enjoyed. I'm
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: getting to know everybody a lot better, so it's been good.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: What about the progress to be online giving that you
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: lost guys.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah, well, I think you know, obviously we have
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: enough talent right in the end, it's gonna.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Be about how those five play together.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Right, So, Coach Pace and uh, Coach Swingle and Coach
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Past is doing a great job with those guys.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: They're they're coming along. You know. The good thing for
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  Speaker 1: us is even though we lost guys, we still have
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: a lot of experience. Right.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Brady Wayvern started games, Kyle Jurgens has started games. Carston
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Cassidy has started games. Ben Morowski has started games for US.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: West started all last year for US just about. So really,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: all those guys who are battling, with the exception of
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: ty Chan who's running with the ones as well, have
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: started games. It's just what they have to do is
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: continue to learn how to play together, right, see it
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: as essentially ten I seeing it the same way, and
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Coach Pace is.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Doing a great job with those guys and bringing them along.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: So just the improvement they have made from springball into
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: right now has been really impressive to see. And you know,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: I'll be honest, I mean, like at this with where
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: we're at, I mean, it's always going to be hard
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: to replace Chase Lunt Vousen, Christian Haynes, I mean, even
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Noel Right, it's really hard to replace those guys because
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: we're such great players. But the great thing for us
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: is we had a lot of guys have experienced and
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: a lot of talent to kind of to fill in.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: From that point. Do you feel comfortable another depth you
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: do have on their line? I do.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: We want to get to eight and we're right at
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: that right now, eight to nine, and then we're just
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: asking young guys to step up, like Darren McLaughlin as
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: a center. You know, the big thing for him is
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: his development because and he's doing a great job, but
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: to keep coming along because it's one of those things
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: where we want to feel comfortable putting him in the game,
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: and that's his goal. So we don't need to move
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Carston Cassidy back to center, if that makes sense. So
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: his development's critical, But I feel good about the depth.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: But what I'll say at the same time, you never
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: feel good about your O line depth either, right, So
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: it's one of those it's a catch twenty two where
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: I feel good about it. I think those guys are
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: working hard together. It just kind of becomes you never
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: have enough. How much does a new QB's coach change
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: things somewhat? I mean, because we had a certain way
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: we do things here, right, so a lot of those
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: haven't changed.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: For what I think what Price has done a great
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: job of is bringing in new ideas.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Okay, a lot of really good, kind of thought out
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: stuff that's really been tried and tested at the SEC level, right,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: some of the stuff they did, and there's a lot
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: of stuff with a couple of new coaching points where
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: we ran the same play, maybe a little coaching point
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: here and there that's really helped improve some of those
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: as well. So I would say it not necessarily business
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: as usual because obviously Price's big.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Thing is he's the new guy, so he's had to
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  Speaker 1: fit in.
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  Speaker 2: He's done a great job with that, but he also
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: has some great ideas for us that have kind of
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: helped us expand and do some new things as well.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: So it's been a really good match and having continuity
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: with that position of Joe and oh my god.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the great thing you know, Joe, Joe's been
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: through it all, so I mean Joe's almost like a
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: coach on the field at this point too, so he
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: can almost He and Nick really and even Tuck to
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: that matter, can really help Price, help Price it first, Hey,
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  Speaker 2: this is kind of how we read it last year.
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  Speaker 1: This is what we did then Price and I could
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: talk about it.
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  Speaker 2: What do you like, all right, let's keep it that way,
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  Speaker 2: or you know, he kind of presents the new twigs.
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  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I never thought of it in that regard,
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  Speaker 2: and we can make that adjustment.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: So it's been really good when we.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Have guys like chasing Val like I don't even remember
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: that missing games really the last couple of years.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: You know, how do you keep the next guys ready
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  Speaker 1: to go?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think it's just getting them as
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: much experience as possible in practice number one, you know,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: keeping them in situations.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: This is where coach Moore does a great job of.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: But we put really throw those guys into the fire
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: in these situations, and you know, as guys get older
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: and more experience, like you're chasing about, hey, why don't
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: you take this one off.
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  Speaker 1: Let's get you know, whoever.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: It may be, and the ones that left tackle just
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: to kind of get them ready. And then obviously it
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: helps to be able to win a couple of games
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  Speaker 2: by a big margin so we can get some guys in.
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  Speaker 1: There to get some experience as well.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: It's you know, it's a great problem to have that
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: those guys didn't get hurt. But I've also been places,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: you know, my last year at William and Mary Uh,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: I think it was our first seven games, we had
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: seven different lineups right, so up front, so it's just
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: one of those things where you have.
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  Speaker 1: To be ready for everything.
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  Speaker 2: Back to the point of you can never have enough
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: depth ever because you never know when that's you know,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: when something happens. It really it kind of got us
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: on the inside last year and we had enough guys.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: To get in there, and you know, they're coach the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: same way all the time. They all know this.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: You know, we try to limit their techniques in terms
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: of what they do so they can go in there
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: and be ready to play. I guess the goal how
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: important is the culture aspect of it in helping integrate,
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  Speaker 2: you know, all these new PCs and you know, keeping
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: you know, buying into everything. Yeah, it's it's I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I think I just think this is going to be
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: the new challenge in college football.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a year by year thing.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: So showing guys how we do things our way and
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: you may have had success somewhere else, you may have
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: done it a different way somewhere else, but this is
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: how we do things here, and then making them understand
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: and then I just think that confidence in that comes
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: from demonstrated performance getting them out there, do it this way,
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: give it a shot, and just keep hammering them on
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: the details and the techniques of how we do things
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: to get them to fit in. But I mean, it's
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: just everything like and this is the beauty of kind
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: of now that I can sit back and think about
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: some big picture stuff and talk to coach. More's just
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, everything we're doing every year is gonna be Now.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: We're fortunate when we're able to keep a lot of
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: our pieces, which is not always gonna be the case,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: and we got really close to losing some of them,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: so God bless those guys were staying with us.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: But I mean, it's it's just that's.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Gonna be the challenge every year is you're gonna it's
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: gonna look it's pretty much gonna look new every year.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: And and so that's the challenge to have a system
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: that's teachable, understandable, and having a culture that they can
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: come right into and buy anything.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: And that's that's it.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: And and that's everybody in the country is gonna have
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: that right And that's gonna be the new kind of
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: facet of coaching is finding that way to get these
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: guys in there, because.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: When you think about it, you bring a guy in
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: June and he's got to be really going August, right,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: that is not much turnaround.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: So and we also don't want to sacrifice some of
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: the really good things we do because now it's too
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: hard and you don't want to get too vanilli you.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: So there's gonna be there's a fine line with everything,
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: and that's gonna be the challenge now in this new
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: era era of college football.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Okay,