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Press Pass | Heath Farwell on ST Group: "Best Gunner Group I've Had" · Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: That you know, obviously we haven't necessarily seen in practiced
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the types of breakoffs you guys might be implementing.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: First, I guess is on our purpose. And then also
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: just have you guys sort of been working on it,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: maybe in the walkthroughs or.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: We did something the other day in practice, and in
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: fact you're gonna see something today. You'll see some kickoffs today,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a good amount of them. Hopefully get to probably seven
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to nine of them is kind of the goal.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: But we'll see some today. Get a good feel for it.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: We have been practicing in the endoor, we practice them
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: all off season. We have a decent feel for it.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: We're gonna learn more every day. That's what I continue
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: to tell our guys. Every single day is different. I
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: learned something new, and that's the That's the great thing
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: about football in general. You're always learning something new, especially
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: when it's a completely different rule.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: That's gonna be cool. We're gonna learn every single day.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: I don't know how much you ever had in your
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: trick play bag on kickoff returns, but does the new
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: format either leg itself to possibly coaches putting in some
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: kind of a reverse it or does it do you
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: think everybody will back off of that into first year
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: until totally familiar with that system.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: It's football, and I think anytime you get an advantage,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you're gonna do it. So I think there is gonna
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: be opportunities as we learn more of what type of
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: coverage we're going to see. Obviously by game plan we'll have,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: you know, we'll have some of those things, those wrinkles.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: That's part of it. But I think there's a lot
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: of unknown. You know, there's so much stuff of how
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: our team's gonna cover it. Are other coaches seeing it
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: the same way my system and I see it? I
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: think that's part of it is there's so much unknown.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: We think we have a good idea what we can anticipate,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: but that's not exact. You know, it's not exact. And
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be some fantastic coaches that have
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: been doing this a long time that are come with
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: some great schemes and some great ideas, and hopefully we
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: come up with some of those great ideas as well.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Even if you were thinking about it would almost however,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: back to see who's the first guy to try something
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: kind of freaky.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I think there's definitely a style I think as part
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: of it, you know, as far as a special teams
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: coaches perspective, Uh, some teams are maybe a little more aggressive,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: a little more risk taking, and then some are a
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: little more conservative, really clean, kind of different philosophy. So
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I think it's uh, you could probably anticipate some of those, guys, Uh,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: but it's not exact, you know, all of a sudden, uh,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: you know, or we considered a team that's gonna have
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a bunch of tricks.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's probably a question for you guys, probably,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: but uh, you know, we'll have some of those. We'll
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: have some of those things, you know, some of our
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: game plans, and we'll continue to work them and probably
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: not when you guys are out there, but we'll save
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: those for and uh, when you guys aren't out there.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: But yeah, that's part of that's part of the game.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: We're gonna have some wrinkles if we can gain some
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: advantage on another team and some gain some feel position
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: by doing something a little bit unccarcteristic.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: We're gonna do it.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Got a little process and to hearing all this album
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: as you know, as hey, I mean so long, I
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: mean there's all kinds of stuff you couldn't want to
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: tick off for the fret standards stuff that she done
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: for years.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it was a lot of unknown.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: So early on I was you know, it was a
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: little bit of a stress of of of making sure
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I was right going down the right path.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: And then uh, you know, we brought in you know,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Jody came and uh you know, came and spent some
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: time with us, and uh, he kind of reassured me
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: he felt like we were on the right path and
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: go in the right direction, and that that was helpful
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: a ton. Just kind of helped kind of calm me
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: down a little bit because there is so much unknown.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: But I think that's ball. I think that every week
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: is different. I think, uh, this is obviously a new play.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: But in football, in generally, there's gonna be some different wrinkles,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: and we're always trying to We're always as a coach,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: we're always trying to anticipate what we're gonna see and
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: prepare our guys and try to stay ahead of it.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: This is a bit different because there's no history to it.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: You know, a lot of the stuff I'm having to
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: show them with these new rules that come out. For instance, Uh,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the ball rolls off the tee, who's the holder? There's
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: a new rule came out. Uh, you know a couple
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of weeks ago. Well, of course I had to create
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a slide. I can't show them videotape of a team
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: in the past of doing this. Create a slide kind
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: of makeshift as best I could, and try to create it,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: and then of course work on it in a walkthrough
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: and and at practice.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: He came in the spring. He came into the spring,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: and it was great.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: He was part of his you know program, uh, you
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: know with their South Carolina coaches getting out and you know,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: with the NFL teams. And I took full advantage of it.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: You know, he's a brilliant guy, a good friend of mine,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: and and said, hey, okay, explained it to him detail
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the best I could, literally presented it to him. Uh,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: sat in the meetings, and then of course went out
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: to practice, and then of course picked his brain after practice.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Are we on the right path? What do we need
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: to fix? What could you do?
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: You see any wrinkles can help us out? And he
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: was great, He was a great. A lot of it
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: confirmed what I what I already believed and then with
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: a couple of wrinkles of uh, you know, some possible
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: other stuff.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: That I needed to try. And so he was a
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: great resource.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: I know, Uh, Doug said, sorry to cut you off.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: I know, Doug said on Wednesday, Keelan was dealing with
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: a little bit of a toe issue.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: We've seen him out there and he looks pretty good.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: He was a guy who you guys targeted as someone
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: that helped on special teams.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: How would you incorporated him?
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: So far, he's been great. Obviously, his returner ability is unbelievable.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: Uh there's you know, he's a kick returner. He's doing
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: a really good job as a punt returner. Uh. But
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I think what the other portion of that is, what
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: can he do in other phases? He's been great. His
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: ability to play gunner. We did some punt gunner reps yesterday,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: more compete setting and he and he was winning a
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: bunch of them. And I thought, Uh, he's a guy
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: that's going to be a four phase guy. Uh, he's
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: gonna be a good player for us. So I'm happy
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: what I saw in college, and he's even better than that.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: And his energy, uh, you know, like that he's you know,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: he's not exactly one hundred percent right now. You don't
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: see that out there. He's just a guy that flies around,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: has fun, plays hard, wants to be out there again.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: We love him in the room.
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: What is that competition opposite DT at the gunner position.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I know you.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: Said you're hoping that, you know, you can keep Antonio
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: a little bit on special teams, but also recognize he
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: may have a little more responsibility on the defensive side
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: of the ball.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think this is one of the best gunner
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: groups I've ever had. Obviously, DT has done it for
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: years for it's been really really good. And Tonio did
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: a fantastic job last year. You know, he's a really
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: good gunner. Jerry and Jones is another one that's had
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: a really good off season in camp. Uh and and
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: then Keelan so between you know, as far as I'm concerned,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: I feel like we have four really really good gunners.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Uh And this is probably the best gunner group that
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: I've ever had. Uh And that's a compliment to those guys,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: those guys that we have a bunch of guys top
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: to bottom that are done a really really good job.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Like I said, this is a really good group. Kev's
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: are great. He's been really really good. He's he's so consistent,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: he's locked in, he's competitive, and he is everything I thought,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: uh when I went and worked him out, when I
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: met with him, all those those great interactions I had
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: pre draft. He's exactly what I thought, if not better.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: He's talented, he's doing it. You know, he's he's been consistent. Uh,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: he's shown the leg strength, he's done all those things.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: And then the more we could put him in these
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: tougher situations. He's gonna kick today in team period, but
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: he's also potentially getting a kick or too, and move
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: the ball situations kind of you know, move the ball
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: to win a game in the in the two minute.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: And so just let's see how he reacts in those.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: But what I've seen so far, I don't see any
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I don't see anything. We're going to see anything different.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Let's say that moments when you realize how young. I think.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: The funniest thing I had was when you know, I
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: first went to dinner with him, you know, just realized
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: he was twenty years old and couldnt get a drink. Yeah,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: you realize that you're going it's twenty years old. You
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: forget what you know, they're so young, they're so young.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: You know, he's just a young kid. It's just you know,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: coming along great. But he's actually got a birthday coming up,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: so he keeps telling him he's gonna be twenty one soon.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, finally.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: He just embraces it. He embraces the quirkiness, which I love.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, he's just the mustache everything about him. But uh,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: lovable kid. I mean the guys, you know, the guys
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: who really like him, and he's done a really good job.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: And you guys have seen on the field he's done fantastic.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Mentioned Daniel Thomas, also Andrew Wingert and Caleb Johnson, three
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: guys that have been resigned the last two off seasons.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Just what are those guys meant to your unit? What
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: will they mean moving forward? They're unbelievable.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: You know, I was fortunate obviously when Dewey was here
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: before I got here, but he was one of the guys.
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I was so excited about Daniel Thomas saying thing those
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: guys were on the roster, and of course I come
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: here and you know they're highlighted guys of we let's
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: make sure we keep these guys in the program. And
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: then Caleb Johnson adding him from Chicago. Uh, those three
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: guys are kind of the leaders, the captains. They help
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: run it. You know, they could run the punt meeting
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: or any specific you know, a phase themselves. They run it.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: They understand it. They hold people accountable. You need those
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: veteran good players not only on the field, but even
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: in the classroom in those meetings of stuff isn't do
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: stuff isn't exactly what we're looking for. They're the first
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: guys to walk up there and say, hold on a second, guys,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: we got to make this is not how we play.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: This is not what we do here. Uh, you know
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: in Jacksonville on special teams. And that's why we've had
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: such a good group. I have such good players. Uh
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: that I'm super fortunate. You know, we've had a good
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: group last two years. And uh, that's the standard, you know,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: that's what we talk about all the time. We expect
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: to be a top ten group every year.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: And that's what it is.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: And like I said, that's it, that's that's the standard.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: That's what we're expected to.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: Be standing out on special teams so far, any other
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: rookies that have been letting me down or you've noticed them
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: out there on the field so far.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think Josh Procter is the guys that
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: you know. For an undrafted guy, he's done really, really well.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I think he's a very very smart player that can
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: play multiple positions. You know, he's a he's done a
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: really good job. I really like what he's done, not
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: only in the drill work, but even the team setting.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: He's done really really well.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: Awesome