Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Coordinator's Corner: OC Kevin McGiven, "Pleased" with the offense vs Idaho, Arkansas coming in tomorrow + more

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Coordinator's Corner: OC Kevin McGiven, "Pleased" with the offense vs Idaho, Arkansas coming in tomorrow + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:01
Speaker 1: Let's dive into this week's matchup in the coordinator's corner
0:04
Speaker 1: of the Sean O'Connell Show. OC chats with the coordinators
0:08
Speaker 1: every week of the Utah football season. On your home
0:12
Speaker 1: of the Utes and your home for football, ESPN 792.1 FM.
0:19
Speaker 2: Sean O'Connell Show continues here on ESPN 792.1 FM. Time
0:23
Speaker 2: for some coordinator's corner. Last week, we checked in with
0:26
Speaker 2: the defensive coordinator, Colton Swan, which means this week we're
0:29
Speaker 2: lucky enough... to welcome Kevin McGiven or as he is
0:33
Speaker 2: more affectionately referred to.
0:34
Speaker 3: By the players, Mac G coach. Welcome to the show.
0:38
Speaker 3: How are you?
0:40
Speaker 4: Good. I was afraid you'd go there.
0:43
Speaker 2: Well, we just, we just had a conversation with Devin
0:45
Speaker 2: Dampier and he was like, don't call him a given.
0:48
Speaker 3: You got to call him Mac G and we have
0:49
Speaker 3: to listen to QB one.
0:53
Speaker 4: I don't even know myself as anything else anymore.
0:57
Speaker 2: Well, congrats to you and the rest of the team,
0:59
Speaker 2: obviously for what happened against Idaho.
1:01
Speaker 3: I know that probably feels like.
1:02
Speaker 2: Old news for you now that you're deeply entrenched in
1:05
Speaker 2: prep for Arkansas, but if you'll indulge me and look
1:08
Speaker 2: back at least a little bit, how did you feel
1:11
Speaker 2: about the first blush.
1:13
Speaker 3: Of the offense?
1:16
Speaker 4: Good. I think first and foremost Two things we really
1:20
Speaker 4: wanted to show up was the culture that Coach Scali
1:26
Speaker 4: has been trying to instill and seeing what that looked
1:29
Speaker 4: like in a game setting if things were taking hold
1:33
Speaker 4: and just really pleased with the effort that they played
1:36
Speaker 4: with trying to finish blocking downfield, guys breaking the stack.
1:42
Speaker 4: All those things showed up in a really positive light
1:47
Speaker 4: last week. And then the operation of the offense. you know,
1:52
Speaker 4: a lot, a lot of, a lot of moving parts
1:54
Speaker 4: with personnel groups and changing surfaces and things like that. And,
1:59
Speaker 4: you know, so I thought they operated, operated really cleanly.
2:02
Speaker 4: And then the fact that we were able to come
2:04
Speaker 4: out of it with only, with only one offensive penalty.
2:06
Speaker 4: So just, just playing clean and playing with our culture,
2:10
Speaker 4: that showing up first and foremost was, you know, happy
2:13
Speaker 4: to see that in that game.
2:15
Speaker 2: I think a lot of us are looking like at
2:17
Speaker 2: Morgan Scali right now with, with a microscope, because this is,
2:21
Speaker 2: It's something that I knew he was going to be eventually,
2:24
Speaker 2: and now that it's here, I'm like, okay, does it
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Speaker 2: look how I think it's going to look? For you,
2:29
Speaker 2: who've been on the staff with him now for months
2:30
Speaker 2: and months, was game day Morgan Scali what you expected
2:34
Speaker 2: game day Morgan Scali to be?
2:38
Speaker 4: It really was. I guess I didn't know what to expect,
2:43
Speaker 4: but it wasn't any different than the Morgan Scali that
2:46
Speaker 4: we get in here on a day-to-day basis. You know,
2:50
Speaker 4: he was awesome in game. And, you know, when situations
2:58
Speaker 4: came up where, you know, four down territory or whatever
3:03
Speaker 4: it may be, very in tune situationally to game flow and,
3:08
Speaker 4: you know, kind of let me do my deal. And so,
3:14
Speaker 4: you know, but very... very supportive on game day and
3:19
Speaker 4: very calm and collected. And so I guess kind of
3:22
Speaker 4: what I've come to expect just because of what he
3:24
Speaker 4: is in the office every day.
3:26
Speaker 2: How did your offensive line units, I say units because
3:29
Speaker 2: we saw a bunch of different combinations.
3:31
Speaker 3: How did the offensive line grade out coach?
3:34
Speaker 4: I think they did. They did a pretty good job.
3:37
Speaker 4: There was a, you know, Idaho hit us with a
3:41
Speaker 4: lot of movement. And so, you know, I think seeing that, Fast, real-time,
3:48
Speaker 4: going against those guys. There were some things that we
3:50
Speaker 4: needed to settle in with, both our ability to hit
3:54
Speaker 4: the movement up front and then even some schematic adjustments
3:58
Speaker 4: that we made later on to try to help those
4:01
Speaker 4: guys out with some of the things that were causing
4:05
Speaker 4: us problems early on. But I felt like they settled
4:08
Speaker 4: into it and handled it really well where they– weren't
4:13
Speaker 4: as wide-eyed maybe as they were early on but they
4:15
Speaker 4: were able to settle in and do and do some
4:17
Speaker 4: really good things.
4:19
Speaker 2: It's been a major topic of discussion really all off
4:21
Speaker 2: season uh do you feel like you you have something
4:24
Speaker 2: closer to a settled true starting five coming out of
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Speaker 2: an actual game.
4:30
Speaker 4: Um you know they probably end up still being some
4:34
Speaker 4: mixing and matching as we kind of you know, get
4:37
Speaker 4: guys back and, and seeing, seeing what that looks like,
4:40
Speaker 4: but obviously getting them conditioned and getting up to getting
4:43
Speaker 4: them up to game speed. But, you know, but I
4:46
Speaker 4: felt like the five that we rolled out there was
4:48
Speaker 4: last week. You know, there's, there's chemistry, there's continuity there. And,
4:54
Speaker 4: and I feel like there's enough chemistry in the room
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Speaker 4: where you can, you can still plug and play guys
4:58
Speaker 4: on a rotational basis.
5:01
Speaker 2: Kevin McGibbon, Utah offensive coordinator, is our guest here on
5:03
Speaker 2: the Sean O'Connell Show, talking about the performance against Idaho and,
5:06
Speaker 2: of course, turning the page to Arkansas.
5:10
Speaker 3: We expect a different level of athlete.
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Speaker 2: You expect a different level of size and speed, potentially,
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Speaker 2: than you saw against Idaho. With respect to the Vandals,
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Speaker 2: because I thought they showed up ready to compete, but,
5:20
Speaker 2: you know, the SEC is supposed to be different.
5:23
Speaker 3: What are you seeing on film?
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Speaker 2: Are they dramatically different from what you saw in week one?
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you said it. Idaho came ready to play,
5:33
Speaker 4: and they were playing physical, and they were flying around,
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Speaker 4: and I thought they did some really good things defensively.
5:41
Speaker 4: I think our hope in that game was that we
5:44
Speaker 4: would have the ability to out-athlete them if everything wasn't
5:47
Speaker 4: totally clean. But obviously going into Arkansas, that's not going
5:51
Speaker 4: to be the case. You're not going to out-athlete them.
5:55
Speaker 4: They're have guys up front that are, that are big
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Speaker 4: and strong. They can, they can hold their gaps. You're
6:00
Speaker 4: going to have to try to root out of there.
6:02
Speaker 4: They have guys on the edges that are, that are
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Speaker 4: very active and very athletic. You know, linebackers have the
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Speaker 4: ability to play sideline to sideline with speed and you know,
6:12
Speaker 4: and they can, they can cover you up in the,
6:14
Speaker 4: in the secondary. And so, you know, you, you have
6:18
Speaker 4: to be physical up front and, you know, so we
6:20
Speaker 4: have to do a great job with that and, and
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Speaker 4: be ready for that. fight in the trenches, both the
6:27
Speaker 4: way the bats run, the way the offensive line mentality
6:31
Speaker 4: coming off the football, and then out on the perimeter,
6:35
Speaker 4: whether we're blocking them or whether we're in the pass game,
6:38
Speaker 4: you've got to be physical in the run game down
6:40
Speaker 4: until handling those guys. And then the pass game, you've
6:42
Speaker 4: got to be really technical and efficient with your route
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Speaker 4: running so you can get separation because it is a
6:51
Speaker 4: higher level of athlete.
6:54
Speaker 2: When a team has kind of a headliner, and Arkansas
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Speaker 2: has one of these guys, he may or may not
7:00
Speaker 2: be available for this Utah game.
7:03
Speaker 3: 97, Quincy Rhodes Jr.
7:05
Speaker 2: Is a projected first-round draft pick on some people's mocks.
7:10
Speaker 2: When you have a guy like that, and some defenses
7:12
Speaker 2: that you face this year are probably going to have
7:13
Speaker 2: multiple guys like that, do you change what you do?
7:18
Speaker 2: Is there like a philosophy that Kevin McGibbon carries around
7:21
Speaker 2: when you're playing against star players or potential star players
7:25
Speaker 2: at certain positions on a defense?
7:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think you always got to be conscious of
7:32
Speaker 4: those things. You know, I don't ever like to go
7:34
Speaker 4: into games scared of that stuff where, you know, where
7:38
Speaker 4: it talks you out of things before you kind of
7:40
Speaker 4: see the way it unfolds. Um, you know, just because
7:44
Speaker 4: different things can happen and with sequence of calls in
7:48
Speaker 4: terms of, you know, whether they're how effective they're being within,
7:52
Speaker 4: within what you're calling. And so I don't like it
7:54
Speaker 4: to scare me out of things, but I think, um,
7:58
Speaker 4: you know, but going into it, there's, there are definitely
8:01
Speaker 4: guys you're going to be conscious of and that you
8:03
Speaker 4: have to structure certain things in the, in the game
8:05
Speaker 4: plan around. He's, he's one of them. You know, we
8:08
Speaker 4: didn't see a lot of action from him in that
8:10
Speaker 4: North Alabama game, but you know, when I anticipate him
8:13
Speaker 4: maybe getting healthy and getting back and then, and then
8:16
Speaker 4: kind of within their structure where he's going to play,
8:18
Speaker 4: you know, they're, they have the ability to get into their,
8:22
Speaker 4: their odd type front and then, and then play four down,
8:25
Speaker 4: you know, and so, whether he's an interior guy, whether
8:29
Speaker 4: they're going to play him on the edge. But they've
8:31
Speaker 4: got another really good edge guy to the boundary, number 35,
8:35
Speaker 4: that has got every bit as much of our attention.
8:43
Speaker 2: Should we expect as many guys getting as many touches
8:47
Speaker 2: against Arkansas? That was one of the beautiful things about
8:50
Speaker 2: Idaho is we have all these guesses about who's going
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Speaker 2: to be what, and we got to see a little
8:56
Speaker 2: bit of everyone.
8:57
Speaker 3: Is the same possible against a team like Arkansas?
9:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say, you know, when you come out
9:05
Speaker 4: of a game and when I look at the, you know,
9:08
Speaker 4: when I look at the stat sheet and things like that,
9:11
Speaker 4: I think it's an offense that kind of relies on
9:15
Speaker 4: balance and distribution. And, you know, part of that distribution,
9:19
Speaker 4: making them defend the whole field, you know, you want
9:22
Speaker 4: to get the ball in the hands of your playmakers,
9:24
Speaker 4: but I feel like we've We've got a lot of
9:27
Speaker 4: weapons that you have trust and confidence that if the
9:30
Speaker 4: ball finds them, that they're going to, they're going to
9:32
Speaker 4: make a play. They're going to be able to do
9:33
Speaker 4: something with it. And so it kind of helps you
9:36
Speaker 4: focus a little bit more on the, on the schematics
9:39
Speaker 4: and then just on the quarterback's decision-making process, just to
9:42
Speaker 4: make sure that it's, You know, it's landing in the
9:44
Speaker 4: right hands at the right time based on his decisions,
9:48
Speaker 4: based on his reads. You know, but I love to
9:51
Speaker 4: come out of the game and see a bunch of
9:53
Speaker 4: guys with catches and a bunch of guys with carries and, um,
9:55
Speaker 4: you know, so that we're telling a defense that we
9:59
Speaker 4: can attack the whole field.
10:01
Speaker 2: You'll never hear the old cliche come out of my
10:04
Speaker 2: mouth again. When you have two quarterbacks, you don't have
10:06
Speaker 2: one because you've got two quarterbacks coach and they're both awesome.
10:10
Speaker 3: Uh, how did, how did they play? What'd you like?
10:12
Speaker 3: What didn't you like?
10:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought, I thought they were both really effective with,
10:17
Speaker 4: with what they did. Um, you know, uh, Dev only
10:21
Speaker 4: playing a half. So both of them, I think one
10:24
Speaker 4: of the things we look at in terms of our
10:27
Speaker 4: game goals as we build toward hopefully at some point
10:33
Speaker 4: being a playoff team, hopefully sooner than later being a
10:36
Speaker 4: championship team. But one of those components is not so
10:39
Speaker 4: much the passing yardage that you put up, but the
10:42
Speaker 4: pass efficiency. Both of them were over 200 in their
10:46
Speaker 4: pass efficiency. And so just the the completion percentage, the
10:51
Speaker 4: result of explosive plays or touchdown passes when they're throwing
10:56
Speaker 4: the ball, you know, you know, so both of them over,
10:59
Speaker 4: over 200, obviously we're able to do some things package
11:02
Speaker 4: wise to get them both on the field at the
11:05
Speaker 4: same time because of their versatility. And so I think
11:08
Speaker 4: some conflict that we can get people in terms of
11:11
Speaker 4: some of those personnel groups and the, and the looks
11:14
Speaker 4: that we show them. But, but yeah, just, really really
11:18
Speaker 4: cool thing when not only you can mix and match
11:21
Speaker 4: with within a game but um you know if one
11:24
Speaker 4: or the other has to take over that you don't
11:26
Speaker 4: feel like you have to do anything different.
11:28
Speaker 2: Well i think it's pretty cool i mean like you
11:31
Speaker 2: just referenced having the two quarterbacks on the field in
11:33
Speaker 2: the backfield at the same time and keeping a defense
11:36
Speaker 2: guessing in modern football it's actually really really hard to
11:40
Speaker 2: be truly innovative to give people things that they have
11:42
Speaker 2: not seen before I don't know how many coordinators you're
11:45
Speaker 2: going to face that have seen two capable quarterbacks on
11:48
Speaker 2: the field at the same time. So I love the
11:50
Speaker 2: possibilities that that presents as the season progresses.
11:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. You know, and it's, you know, one of
11:58
Speaker 4: those things where we'll kind of come up with one
12:01
Speaker 4: thing and then it'll evolve into five. But I think there's,
12:05
Speaker 4: you know, with those two guys and what their roles
12:09
Speaker 4: can be and what their skill sets are, you can
12:12
Speaker 4: really start to elaborate and evolve those packages.
12:17
Speaker 2: People some people were you know kind of talking after
12:19
Speaker 2: the game like wow we saw a lot more versatility
12:21
Speaker 2: creativity from this offense than I expected against an opponent
12:25
Speaker 2: like Idaho so I want to ask you like how
12:28
Speaker 2: deep in your bag were you how much how creative
12:32
Speaker 2: did that feel to you because you're the guy who
12:34
Speaker 2: knows what the offense is truly capable of the depth
12:37
Speaker 2: and the breadth of your playbook uh how much did
12:40
Speaker 2: we actually see from Idaho.
12:43
Speaker 4: You know, I think there's probably a lot more to come,
12:47
Speaker 4: but I think as we built this thing starting in
12:50
Speaker 4: the spring and into fall camp, it was pretty much
12:56
Speaker 4: what I, without being forced, was pretty much what what
13:00
Speaker 4: I think we've become as an offense and what our
13:04
Speaker 4: identity is. You know, there's a lot of moving parts, but,
13:08
Speaker 4: you know, I put pretty high expectations on the players
13:12
Speaker 4: early on in terms of them being able to handle
13:15
Speaker 4: all that stuff so that when we got to games
13:18
Speaker 4: or game planning that it didn't feel like there was
13:21
Speaker 4: a bunch of things on their plate. But, you know,
13:24
Speaker 4: so I would say that it's normal for us, you know,
13:28
Speaker 4: but could even get so a lot more creative than
13:32
Speaker 4: what it was.
13:35
Speaker 2: On Saturday night for this Arkansas matchup, it's also special
13:38
Speaker 2: for Utah fans because of the ring of honor in
13:42
Speaker 2: induction for Eric Weddle, who's of course a program legend.
13:46
Speaker 2: And I imagine a guy that you've seen, you know,
13:48
Speaker 2: in various capacities as you've been coaching. What are your
13:53
Speaker 2: thoughts on, on Weddle and what he has done for
13:56
Speaker 2: this program? And maybe more importantly, the fact that, you know,
13:59
Speaker 2: You're now working for a coach in Morgan Scali who
14:01
Speaker 2: wants to incorporate the alumni and people like him even more.
14:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's awesome. We have gotten to have
14:10
Speaker 4: some interaction with Eric, him being up here and around
14:15
Speaker 4: the staff and being out of practice and even going
14:19
Speaker 4: on the– going out on the road, recruiting this spring and,
14:23
Speaker 4: you know, being able to see him in a, in
14:26
Speaker 4: a coaching capacity and things like that. But just what a,
14:29
Speaker 4: what an awesome, awesome individual, awesome supporter of the program.
14:35
Speaker 4: You know, when, when he's able to get around our players,
14:38
Speaker 4: you know, just a guy that just has instant street
14:41
Speaker 4: cred and you know, what he, what he says, you're,
14:44
Speaker 4: you know, you're going to listen to because he's, he's
14:47
Speaker 4: been through it at the, at the highest level. And so,
14:50
Speaker 4: you know, any opportunity we get to interact with him
14:53
Speaker 4: is awesome and just really cool that they're, that they're
14:56
Speaker 4: honoring him. So privileged to be here. And, and, you know,
15:00
Speaker 4: when that, when those guys, when those alumni come back,
15:03
Speaker 4: you know, and being able to meet them and interact
15:06
Speaker 4: with them, but yeah, definitely, definitely one of those guys
15:09
Speaker 4: was very special in this place.
15:11
Speaker 2: This will be my last question. Cause I want to
15:13
Speaker 2: respect your time and I probably should know this. So
15:15
Speaker 2: you have to forgive me, but It is a true
15:18
Speaker 2: Rice-Eccles night game.
15:20
Speaker 3: Should be a rocking atmosphere.
15:21
Speaker 2: As a visiting coach, have you had this experience? Because
15:25
Speaker 2: this will be your first one against a big-time opponent
15:28
Speaker 2: at night at Rice-Eccles as a coach on the staff, obviously.
15:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll tell you what, I have been on the
15:35
Speaker 4: other side of a couple of those, and none of
15:37
Speaker 4: them went very well. And so, you know, we were
15:42
Speaker 4: able to compete, you know, a few times, but yeah,
15:47
Speaker 4: just that, you know, and something that a couple of
15:51
Speaker 4: us have talked about that haven't been here and experienced
15:54
Speaker 4: or have been on the other side of that, you know,
15:58
Speaker 4: just like on the offensive staff myself and Coach Wells,
16:02
Speaker 4: Coach Gunderson have coached in that venue at night and
16:08
Speaker 4: seen what that looks like. So to be on the
16:12
Speaker 4: correct sideline of that and have those people supporting you
16:16
Speaker 4: and being able to experience that is really cool.
16:19
Speaker 2: Well, Coach, we're all very much looking forward to Saturday night.
16:23
Speaker 2: Good luck and appreciate you giving us the time today.
16:26
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate it.
16:28
Speaker 2: That's Kevin McGibbon, Utah's offensive coordinator for coordinators corner Mac
16:33
Speaker 2: G as he is better known.