Latest / Coaches Corner / UConn FB Coach Jim Mora - August 6

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UConn FB Coach Jim Mora - August 6 · Coaches Corner

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Had six practices. We've made progress every day. Today we
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: grinded it out pretty good. I mean we almost went
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: three hours, two hours and forty five minutes. They worked hard.
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  Speaker 1: I see progress with every group really, so that's encouragement.
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  Speaker 2: We got.
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  Speaker 1: We got a long ways to go, but it's fun
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  Speaker 1: to watch these guys develop. It's fun to watch and compete.
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  Speaker 1: There's a there's a to me, the right mindset, the
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  Speaker 1: right attitude. We're creating the right habits. So everything's encouraging.
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  Speaker 1: Right now, we'll have a scrimmage on Saturday. I think
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  Speaker 1: that'll give us a better feel for where we're going
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  Speaker 1: to be at.
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  Speaker 2: That'll be down at the rent.
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  Speaker 1: Take them out of this environment, which I think will
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  Speaker 1: help us when.
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  Speaker 2: We go on the road.
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  Speaker 1: It's something we haven't been able to do much my
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  Speaker 1: first two years here. Take them out of this environment
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  Speaker 1: or off we've going go to graphs it there and
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  Speaker 1: go go practice. So we're going to do that a
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  Speaker 1: few times this year, and the first time we'll be
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  Speaker 1: Saturday with the scrimmage.
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  Speaker 2: When are some of your leaders that kind of taking
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  Speaker 2: charge of it? Well, I mean Dow Price, you.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Know, Malik Durante, you know, you see guys like that
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  Speaker 1: on defense, on offense, you.
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  Speaker 2: See you see Chase, you see val Brett Buckman.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I think you guys are always kind of emerging,
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  Speaker 1: you know, but those are the guys that really stand
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  Speaker 1: out to me right now in terms of like not
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  Speaker 1: just what they say, but what they demonstrate every day.
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  Speaker 2: You talk about.
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  Speaker 1: Chasing Vat a little bit about a Yeah, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you've got two veteran tackles, and that's critical. You know,
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  Speaker 1: we know how important that position is now, especially with
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  Speaker 1: young guys on the inside.
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  Speaker 2: This year.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we lost really all three of our starters inside.
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  Speaker 1: So to have two anchors outside, I mean, that's I
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  Speaker 1: think pretty comforting, and I think they will help whoever
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  Speaker 1: lines up at guard next to them in center, I
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  Speaker 1: think that will help them just have an experience and
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  Speaker 1: confidence and and been in the system now.
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  Speaker 2: For three years.
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  Speaker 1: Who West just has a slight hamstring or I'm sorry,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: calf string, I should be back tomorrow the next day,
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  Speaker 1: very light that he needed to take the day off
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  Speaker 1: and not push it.
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  Speaker 2: You've seen from the interior at the.
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  Speaker 1: Offensive line, it's been inconsistent, which I thought it would
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  Speaker 1: be to start out with. You know, we're mixing a
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  Speaker 1: lot of rotations through there. So once we settle on
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  Speaker 1: who the three are going to be, I think, cool,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we'll see more consistency.
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  Speaker 2: But uh, I love the way they work.
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  Speaker 1: And they work and they're competing and they help each other.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, they're going against a pretty good defensive line.
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  Speaker 2: You know, when you look at.
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  Speaker 1: Jilawni and dal and Price and current Choate and Simon.
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  Speaker 1: I mean there's some you know, there's some good players
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  Speaker 1: in there they're having to compete against.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's good for everybody.
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  Speaker 3: Did you say that was one of the strengths and
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  Speaker 3: seeing the last couple of years offensive.
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  Speaker 1: Line, and I think so, yeah, I think it was,
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  Speaker 1: and I think it'll continue to be, you know, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: you lose the guys that we lost, I mean it's
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  Speaker 1: not easy to replace them, especially a guy like Christian
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  Speaker 1: Haynes is, you know, one of the best offensive offensive
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  Speaker 1: linemen in the country last year. In my opinion, he'll
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  Speaker 1: be in the NFL about the.
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  Speaker 2: Next twenty years.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the way the way he's building, the sturdy
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  Speaker 1: as he is. But uh, you know, these guys have
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  Speaker 1: been in the system, the care bringing in Jaden Bass
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  Speaker 1: helped us. Bringing in Tank Green helped us. Bringing in
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  Speaker 1: West helped us. And we brought in some guys that
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  Speaker 1: have at least played at this level. You know, Chris
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  Speaker 1: Forden has developed, Kyle Jurgens has developed, Ben Morowski has developed.
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  Speaker 1: So it'll be new faces, but I expect him to
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  Speaker 1: be to once again be a strength of this team.
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  Speaker 2: I do thrown a lot.
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  Speaker 3: Of you guys at receiver this year, but also have
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  Speaker 3: some younger guys who maybe aren't expectancy telliges that, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we all look for Kyla or Jody.
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  Speaker 1: You know, those two guys, Kyleieh and Zach have made
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  Speaker 1: constant progress since they've been here. We brought in five
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  Speaker 1: veteran guys, you know, so we expect a lot out
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  Speaker 1: of those older guys. We've got an older guy and Brett,
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  Speaker 1: but you know, Kylie Ish and Zach to me, the
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  Speaker 1: last couple of days have really shown up.
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  Speaker 2: Kyleeh is an outstanding blocker.
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  Speaker 1: Zach's you know, using his length and his speed to
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  Speaker 1: make good catches, and we need that, you know, at
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  Speaker 1: this at this level, uh and the way you play
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  Speaker 1: offense nowadays and the number of actually getting you can't
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  Speaker 1: just play with three or four receivers, you gotta eight
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  Speaker 1: sometimes nine. And then the things they can do on
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  Speaker 1: special teams, you know, I mean, Zach and Kylie's give
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  Speaker 1: you big, fast, physical bodies on special teams as well.
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  Speaker 1: And then and then you know, there's a young guy,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: Frock Montgomery who continues to catch my eye as well.
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  Speaker 3: How about your quarterback play?
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  Speaker 2: Happy league?
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  Speaker 3: Seeing sometimes.
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  Speaker 2: I'm getting no.
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  Speaker 1: No, I don't want to say I'm happy with anything.
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  Speaker 1: Yet I'm encouraged. I like the way they compete, and
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  Speaker 1: I like the way they encourage each other and support
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  Speaker 1: each other. I mean, it's a tough competition. What I
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  Speaker 1: do like is the room I think that you know,
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  Speaker 1: setting aside the two freshmen walk ons because I haven't
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  Speaker 1: had a chance to evaluate them yet, but the other
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  Speaker 1: guys I have you talk about Joe and Nick and
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  Speaker 1: Tucker and Cole, those are four good players. I mean
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  Speaker 1: they're all they're all good quarterbacks. It's by far the
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  Speaker 1: best room that we've had since I've been here. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I think they all have the ability to play and
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  Speaker 1: play well and win at this level. So that's very encouraging.
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  Speaker 2: Happy. Not yet, we got to win a game before
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  Speaker 2: you get happy then the rent on Saturday. What do
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  Speaker 2: you hope to see out of it?
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  Speaker 3: What do you hope the fans came out of it?
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  Speaker 2: Well?
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  Speaker 1: I hope there's some fans there obviously, you know. I
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  Speaker 1: mean I hope you know, we got it. Like I've
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  Speaker 1: said a lot of times, we got to earn We've
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  Speaker 1: got to earn them back, you know, we got to
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  Speaker 1: earn their trust again. I just want to take this
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  Speaker 1: team out of a comfortable environment like this, where it's
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  Speaker 1: easy to walk out of the locker room, walk on
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  Speaker 1: the field, take them somewhere that's new, it's a little
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  Speaker 1: more expansive, and just see how they react. You know,
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  Speaker 1: can we maintain the intensity that we have in practices
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  Speaker 1: like we did today in a new environment?
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  Speaker 3: You know?
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  Speaker 1: One of my thoughts I was hoping that we could
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  Speaker 1: kind of move around the state and do some practices
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: around the state.
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  Speaker 2: And the NCAA doesn't let you do that, so we
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  Speaker 2: couldn't do that.
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  Speaker 1: But we need to get in some environments that we're
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: not accustomed to being in every day and see how
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  Speaker 1: we see how we react.
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  Speaker 2: Do you ring and shine Saturdays? Who will? Yeah? And
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: I you know, it's a few days out but I
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: checked that.
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  Speaker 1: It's he's supposed to get rain I think in the
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  Speaker 1: morning and pretty decent in the afternoon.
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  Speaker 2: If there's lightning, then that changing everything. Yeah, certainly, no
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  Speaker 2: go ahead with the quarterbacks.
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  Speaker 3: We'll say about Joe Fromanda, just to come back from
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  Speaker 3: injury be competitive for the starting giant.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's who he is as a person. He's
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  Speaker 1: really he's kind of a stolen guy. When he got hurt,
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  Speaker 1: he never went.
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  Speaker 2: In the tank.
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  Speaker 1: You know, he stayed consistent, he stayed around, he was
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  Speaker 1: in meetings, he was encouraging. Uh you know, the take
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  Speaker 1: on and zion on.
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  Speaker 2: But it just says a lot about his resolve, I.
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  Speaker 1: Think, you know, and the way he's come back and
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  Speaker 1: he's competed.
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  Speaker 2: You don't notice that he's hurt. We brought it in
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  Speaker 2: a transfer. You know, that'd be hard on a guy
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  Speaker 2: like Joe. You know, he fought his ass off to
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  Speaker 2: win that job.
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  Speaker 1: Last year, and then he gets hurt, and then then
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  Speaker 1: we bring in a transfer to compete with him. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you could see a guy, you know, getting getting discouraged
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  Speaker 1: by that. And I don't see that at all in
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  Speaker 1: his body language and the way he talked