Latest / Coaches Corner / Seg 3 - FB Show - Jason Candle 10-28

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Seg 3 - FB Show - Jason Candle 10-28 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We are back on the UConn Football Coaches Show here
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: on Learfield. I'm Mike Crispino along with Jason Candle, head
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: coach of the Huskies. I'm going to throw a couple
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  Speaker 1: names out at you and get your impressions. First of all,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: you messed me up, coach. You put Shamar Porter in
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  Speaker 1: the game, number 43. I did not get the announcement.
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  Speaker 1: And then he blocks the punt and makes an unbelievable
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  Speaker 1: recovery for six. And I'm trying to figure out who
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the heck number 43 is. Have you been doing that?
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  Speaker 1: Has he been playing on that special teams punt team
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  Speaker 1: all year?
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  Speaker 2: Well, he might be the first guy in the history
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  Speaker 2: of college football to score a touchdown in two different
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: numbers in the game. But yeah, you can't have duplicate numbers.
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  Speaker 2: Ricky Williams also wears five on defense. And, you know,
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  Speaker 2: so you can't put them both out there at the
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: same time. And Ricky's a great special teams player, as
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: is Shamar. So that's how that situation, you throw it,
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  Speaker 2: you throw a, you know, a jersey on them before
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  Speaker 2: you go out there so you don't have the duplicate
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  Speaker 2: number situation.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, but I think that caught a lot of people
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  Speaker 3: by surprise. It may have caught some of our coaches
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  Speaker 3: by surprise, too.
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  Speaker 1: Because they used to announce it in the press box when,
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  Speaker 1: you know, certain guys on the kickoff team were wearing
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  Speaker 1: different numbers, but they haven't been doing that this year.
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  Speaker 3: So anyway. They do it once prior to the game,
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  Speaker 3: and then after that, they don't do it anymore.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, is that right? Okay, good.
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  Speaker 3: They do it one time, and then, you know, the
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  Speaker 3: coaches get a card.
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  Speaker 2: UMass' head coach would get a card on all of
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  Speaker 2: our jersey number changes, and I got the same for theirs.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: All right. I'm going to remember that.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Xavier Watson is going to be on the show with us,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: a New York State kid who was near the Pennsylvania
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  Speaker 1: border growing up, tight end. He seems to have the
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  Speaker 1: goods for that position. Got eight catches, touchdown. He's had
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a couple catches in three different games. How do you
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  Speaker 1: assess where he's at? He's a young guy, but he
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  Speaker 1: seems to be somebody who can really help from that position.
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  Speaker 2: I think that guy's got an incredibly bright future. No-nonsense guy,
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  Speaker 2: comes to work, does what he needs to do. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know the family well yet, but I feel like
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  Speaker 2: from what I've seen, he's a product of really good
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  Speaker 2: parenting when it comes to how he carries himself. He's
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  Speaker 2: got a quiet confidence, but yet he's very humble. Just
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  Speaker 2: one of those guys that you root for.
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  Speaker 3: To have success.
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  Speaker 2: He's had a major impact on our team thus far,
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  Speaker 2: and we're going.
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  Speaker 3: To need him to be at his best down the stretch.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: You know, you've been using the running back by committee
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  Speaker 1: with Kenji Christian back healthy, had a good game against UMass,
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  Speaker 1: and sincere Bowers continues to thrive and Trey Cornist.
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  Speaker 3: Is that hard to manage? How do you do that?
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  Speaker 1: Do you sub when you see guys fatigued? What's your
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  Speaker 1: thought on that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have a good substitution plan prior to the game,
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  Speaker 2: and I think the guys know what to expect when
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  Speaker 2: it comes to that. You don't deviate much from that.
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  Speaker 2: You don't you know, score the game, you know, where
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  Speaker 2: you're at. I mean, we, we don't have different offenses when,
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  Speaker 2: when the particular players in the game. So, you know, we,
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  Speaker 2: we may have a few wrinkles and some things that
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  Speaker 2: we want to do with those particular guys.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: And that may be play specific, but for the most part.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I'm not, I don't have time to, you know,
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  Speaker 2: with all the things going on to, you know, ask
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  Speaker 2: who the running back is prior to the play being called. So,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we, we, we do a good job of
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  Speaker 2: communicating through the course of the game and what the
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  Speaker 2: sub sub plan is and, you know, what the plan
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  Speaker 2: was leading up to the game and, And really stick
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  Speaker 2: to that and let them guys go do their thing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's an obvious positive when those guys can
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  Speaker 1: catch the ball too, right? Coming out of the backfield.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's a secondary skill that you don't see
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  Speaker 1: as much, I don't think, in the NFL. But I
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  Speaker 1: think in the colleges, that is a real positive. If
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  Speaker 1: you get your running back able to catch it out
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  Speaker 1: in the flat and turn it into something.
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  Speaker 3: Well, few and far between are there three down backs.
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  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
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  Speaker 2: There's not, not everybody can pass protect at an elite level.
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  Speaker 2: Not everybody can catch it at an elite level and
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  Speaker 2: not everybody can run it at an elite level. Right.
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  Speaker 2: And if you can find a guy that can do
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  Speaker 2: two of those three skills at a really high level,
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  Speaker 2: you feel like you've got a good one. If guys
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  Speaker 2: can do it in all three, in all three things,
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  Speaker 2: you know, at a good level, then you feel pretty confident.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's where we're at. I mean, I don't,
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  Speaker 2: I don't have any issues putting those guys in there
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  Speaker 2: to pass protect. I don't have any issues with handing
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  Speaker 2: them the ball. Like I said, we don't hold plays
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  Speaker 2: in our back pocket because of particular guys in there
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  Speaker 2: where you don't feel like you can throw it to them.
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  Speaker 1: Coach, the transfer portal, everyone talks about it. They all
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: ask me about it. Where are we getting these guys?
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  Speaker 1: Some of the guys, just going to throw a couple
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  Speaker 1: names out on your roster. Obviously, Toledo was a big,
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  Speaker 1: big bonus for you to come from there and bring
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  Speaker 1: so many good players, but You got, you know, Cam
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Abshire comes from Oklahoma State. You got Desmond Aladugi comes
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  Speaker 1: from Duke. Just to name a couple. It's a massive undertaking.
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  Speaker 1: How do you get your hands on that season to
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: season now looking forward?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot of sleepless nights in January, that's for sure.
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  Speaker 2: But I think, you know, we had to hit the
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  Speaker 2: ground running here.
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  Speaker 3: We had to get here.
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  Speaker 2: We had to put a recruiting staff in place. We
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: had to put a coaching staff in place. And then
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: we had to build a team. And you don't have
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: very much time to do it. So, yeah, it was
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  Speaker 2: a it was a chaotic, you know, three, four weeks there. But,
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  Speaker 2: you know, credit our staff did a really good job,
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  Speaker 2: you know, at least bringing guys here that, you know,
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  Speaker 2: we feel really good about being around as people.
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  Speaker 3: Right. And, you know, from there, then.
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  Speaker 2: You want to you know, you you got to check
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  Speaker 2: the heart.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: It's you know, these guys really love football because this
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  Speaker 2: is going to be a hard process for us to
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  Speaker 2: be successful in our first year. you know, but the,
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  Speaker 2: I've said this before, the seniors here, they don't give
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  Speaker 2: a damn what we want it to be in a
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  Speaker 2: year or two years from now. They, they want to
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: win now and we owe it to them to go
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  Speaker 2: in now. So you have to have, you know, guys
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  Speaker 2: that understand both and you have to, you know, really
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  Speaker 2: work on, you know, the culture of your team year round.
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  Speaker 2: It's not a speech you give in January and it's
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  Speaker 2: not a pregame speech.
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  Speaker 3: It's, it's tons of speeches.
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  Speaker 2: It's tons of, you know, molding the clay to what
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  Speaker 2: you want your team to look like and your organization
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  Speaker 2: to look like. So, and it's having understanding and having
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: enough humility as the head coach to understand you're not
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  Speaker 2: a finished product and you're, you're far from that and.
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  Speaker 3: You have to keep doing it, keep going.
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  Speaker 2: So we've got to make sure all antennas, all antennas
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  Speaker 2: are up at all times to, you know, making sure
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  Speaker 2: we build the roster and continue to mold the team
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  Speaker 2: the proper way.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. And it seems like the actions of you and
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  Speaker 1: the coaching staff have really worked and Josh Mickens, we're
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: going to talk to him in a moment, came from
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State, Indianapolis kid. He had a lot of positive
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  Speaker 1: things to say about his experience so far. All right,
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  Speaker 1: back to talk about Air Force in a moment. Jason
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  Speaker 1: Candle with us, the UConn Football Coaches Show on Learfield.