Latest / Coaches Corner / UCFB Coach's Show Aug 24 - Seg 3

Transcript

UCFB Coach's Show Aug 24 - Seg 3 · Coaches Corner

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  Get ready for the Husky reload. Get your Ukon football season tickets, three
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  game mini plans, single game tickets, road game tickets. How about that?
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  All available at Yukon tickets dot com. I'd like to see some Husky
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  fans on the road, wouldn't it be nice? I just like seeing Husky
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  fans anywhere. It's awesome. Yes, So a night game to kick it
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  off offensive lines. Here we go. See if he's one of these people.
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  I don't know, maybe there's fifty sixty, seventy. I'd lose track.
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  But if they all went out and got four people to buy tickets,
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  we'd fill the place. We'd get people in seats. Here. We're getting
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  closer. I think excitements being generated. There's a family member of mine that's
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  putting up signs all over campus. Come to the football game Thursday night,
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  seven thirty. Take the bus, get out the bus. It's listen.
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  We're always grateful for whoever is there and the people that can't be there.
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  Hey, you know, hopefully come next week. But you know, it
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  just get I get upset when people criticize fans, because it's our job to
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  bring fans into the stadium. By the way, we play, you know.
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  I mean, you're spending your hard earned money. It needs to be
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  worth it, you know, And I always appreciate in value the people that
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  were in the stadium. Look, last year we play Liberty, and I
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  think it was one of our smallest crowds of the year. I think it
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  was like fifteen thousand people, which is, you know, that's they get
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  more than out of a high school game of Texas. But the juice in
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  that place was off the charts. I mean, you'd have thought there was
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  forty five thousand and fifty thousand people in there. So that's what matters to
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  me. I mean, I want it full, don't get me. I
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  wanted freaking of course, because that means we're having success and that means people
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  are excited about the program. But I just appreciate the people that are there.
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  By the way, when that place is full, and it has been
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  full before in the history of this program, that place rocks loud. It's
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  hard to play in there. Well, I mean, just based off that
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  Liberty game when there was, like I said, fifteen thousand people and it
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  felt like it was, you know, full to the gills. So it
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  was Yeah, I can imagine if it's if it's pack I mean, and
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  it's such an amazing well, first of all, our players who work really
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  hard for the opportunity to play in front of people, you know, they
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  love it. The energy that fans provide can't be overstated. You know,
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  there is a such there is such thing as a home field advantage, you
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  know, and it's fun. I mean, it's it's fun to be in
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  that environment. But once again, it's up to us to do something about
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  it as a team, to play the type of football that people want to
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  see in person and spend their money and their their Saturday coming to watch.
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  And so that's you know, that's part of our mission. And you have
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  a favorable schedule to begin within that your home I believe four out of five
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  weeks, and you know, September great weather in this part of the country.
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  To me, there ain't no way you're not coming to a football game
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  in September here. Yeah, if you're a football fan, well, unless
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  your team sucks, but that's not an issue for us. I mean,
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  it's the objective is that the team doesn't suck, you know. The objective
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  is that we put a team out there that people want to come and watch.
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  They want to get behind. They get excited about that. Tell their
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  friends about you know, I mean, Yukon's got a great sports history and
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  it you know, it revolves mostly around basketball and then you know, I
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  think baseball and hockey and you know, all those things as well. But
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  football. We've got to make football part of the conversation. That's our job,
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  and that's what we're trying to do. Uh, quickly. Offensive line
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  twenty nine last year out of one hundred and thirty one schools sacks allowed,
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  did a good job. Obviously, you rand the ball well, one hundred
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  and ninety plus yards a game. That's awesome. You lost your center to
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  graduation. Tell us about who's playing center and how does that offensive line come
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  back together and play like that? Again? Well, they're very well coached.
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  Number one by Gordy Sammas. He's one of the you know, I've
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  been around some great offensive line coach fortunately in my career, and he's right
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  up there with the best. And I'm talking about NFL guys that are revered
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  NFL offensive line coaches. You know, the Bob mckittricks and the Alex Gibbs
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  and the you know, Tom Cables. I mean guys that are household names
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  for a football fan, and Gordie Sammas, We've got a guy that you
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  know, I'm not afraid to mention in the same breath as those guys.
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  Uh. And then you know, you've got guys like Christian Haynes and Val
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  and Chase and Noel that are returning starters that really care, They work together
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  so well, they're smart. And then whoever we put at center, you
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  know, whether it's moving Christian in there and uh and having Chris Forton or
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  Yakari play guard, or putting Yukari at center or having Chris Forton play center,
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  you know, we're just going to put the best five in there and
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  hope that they all can stay healthy in the entire year, because I don't
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  know that there's a group that it's more important stays cohesive and healthy throughout a
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  twelve game season, as much as it is for the offensive line to stay
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  that way. I think one of the reasons that we were able to run
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  the ball effectively last year and limit sacks was we were able to play the
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  same guys, five guys I think started yet every game I think believe,
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  so, you know, and that's a big deal at that position. They
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  have to work, they have to work together, they have to work so
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  well together. They have to act as one on every single play or you're
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  not going to have a successful offensive play. And those guys, with the
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  combination of those types of men that we have and the type of man we
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  have coaching him, it's a heck of a group. Man, it's a
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  heck of a group. And behind that is the quarterback. Obviously, the
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  quarterback is the player that everyone talks about on every level of football. You've
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  got three good ones, maybe more coming your way as young guys. But
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  let's get to those three guys who battled for the last six weeks trying to
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  become the quarterback for Yukon. First of all, Zion Turner had a pretty
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  darn good year for a true freshman last year, helped lead the team to
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  six wins. He's a proven winner and so he's the incumbent guy. Then
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  you got Taekwon Roberson, who's got a great background, went to Penn State,
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  came here, got injured. And you got a guy from Maine,
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  Joe Finiano, who we didn't know much about. Now I watched him a
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  few times of practice throw to football and he looks legit throwing the football.
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  So tell me what goes into deciding which quarterback you're gonna use on opening night
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  against NC State. Well, every analytic imaginable in terms of, you know,
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  completion percentage, drop ratio, decision making, mental airs, mister Simon's
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  technique airs, you know, how they're comprehending the offense, decision making.
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  You know, everything you can measure goes into it. And those three guys,
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  along with Tucker McDonald who's a freshman, all just really competed their tails
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  off. I mean it was it's important to them. They're serious about it.
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  While they competed hard against each other, they also supported each other.
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  But you know, they all they all want to be the starter, you
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  know, and Tae Kwon started the year last year as a starter, got
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  hurt after the first drive, you know, takes a seven yards for a
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  touchdown. He's opening driving his college career as a starter. Then he blows
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  out his knee. Just works as hard as you can imagine, grit,
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  determination, commitment to get himself back to where he can be competitive again in
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  camp, and he was wildly competitive. And then you know you mentioned Zion
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  being the winner that he is if you look at his history as a players,
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  he's a winner. You know, last year he lost more games last
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  year in twelve thirteen games, and he's lost in his entire life combined,
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  you know. So he's a winner. And then you bring in a guy
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  you know in Joe Fignano who you know, he he's got them. He's
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  taking the most snaps of any of them, he's throwing the most passes of
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  any of him. He's thrown for the most yards and most touchdowns, a
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  few interceptions, all those things. And you know, he's our system very
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  well. He's a big, physical guy. He's six three two twenty five.
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  You know, he's kind of a prototypical, uh you know, looking
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  quarterback. So you have three guys that are really competitive and h it was
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  a tough decision. It was a really, really, really tough decision on
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  many many levels. And uh, you know, we decide to go with
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  Joe. And at the end of the day, you you you take all
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  those analytics, all those measurables, and then you have to trust your eyes.
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  At least that's what I believe, you know, and I have to
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  trust you know, what I see, what I feel, what Nick sees,
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  what Nick feels, you know, you have to pick the guy that
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  you feel is going to give you the best chance to have success offensively.
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  And uh, you know, we like them all. So the fact that
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  we chose Joe is not a slight to Zion or take One or even Tucker.
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  It's just that you know, he was the guy right now that we
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  feel gives us the best chance. And uh, I think we all feel
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  pretty good about the decision. And what's great is that if for some reason,
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  and we know there's a million variables that can happen, if for some
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  reason Joe can't go, man, Take One's ready to go, Zion's ready
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  to go. So it's a it's a good problem to have, yes,
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  no doubt about that. The running backs, they're all quick, they're all
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  fast. Victor Rosa had a breakout season as a freshman and they scored nine
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  touchdowns. But Devonte Houston, Brian Bruton was hurt a lot last year and
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  you've got Jalen Mitchell coming here from Louisville to help replace Nate Carter went to
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  Michigan State. When you look at running backs, does it matter if you
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  don't have size because you kind ofn't have a lot of size guys back there,
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  but they have lightning quick speed. Well, we have two guys that
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  are not as big as you, you know, ideally like but have you
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  lightning quickness and speed and Devonte and Brew. You know, DeVante can running.
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  I mean you can run. You're not going to catch him. Brian
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  has the jitterbug quickness. But Victor's a two hundred and seven, two hundred
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  eight pound running back. Now you know he was one hundred ninety pounder last
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  year. He's put eighteen pounds and muscle. There's no fat on that kid.
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  Jalen's a two hundred and ten pounder, so there is some size there.
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  And then you didn't mention Cam Edwards because we never talked about Cam because
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  you know, he'd switched from defensive back to running back and all of a
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  sudden, you're looking at a guy and you're going to dang this guy.
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  He's not bad. You know, he was a Connected State Player of the
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  Year, uh two years ago, and we're kind of seeing why. And
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  he's fitting into that role as a running back. He's a rocked up dude,
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  like you know, you look at me that that's what running backs supposed
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  to look. Like right there, so and that's your fifth string guy.
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  You know, if you if you were to say strings, I think running
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  backs one position where you don't go first, second, third, fourth string,
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  you go you know how many? How many carries? Is this kind
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  of guy getting as opposed to this guy's opposed to this guy because you're gonna
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  use him all Like we're gonna use DeVante, We're gonna use Brian Bruton,
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  We're gonna use Victor Rossa, We're gonna use Jalen and you know, if
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  Cam can continue to develop, we're gonna use him. Can we talk about
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  tight ends? It's my favorite position. I'm I'm a whole time giant fan.
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  I'm still love marka Barrow and those guys. How important is it to
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  find a real tight end to do damage? You got a guy from TCU,
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  you got a guy from Michigan, But Joel, you have a lot
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  of tight ends. Who is going to step forward? Who's going to be
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  the guy that's going to be our Mark Navarrow? Well, what's great is
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  that they're all a little bit different, and they're all very unique, and
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  so it's a very important position for us the way we want to play offense.
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  You know, it's a defensive minded guy. The thing that caused you
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  nightmares was playing against teams that had good tight ends that were versatile guys that
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  could go in line and block. You could split them out and they catch
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  the ball. Because you're always trying to figure out a matchup how to stop
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  them. You know, do you put a linebacker on them, Well,
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  they may be out athlete the linebacker. Do you put a defensive back on
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  him, they outsize the defensive back. So you know you're playing cat and
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  mouse, and if you have a really good one, you can kind of
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  play wears Waldo with him. You know, you can put him all over
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  the field like we did with Justin Jolie. So, you know Justin Jolie,
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  who was a freshman All American last year. Just his versatility, his
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  ability to you know, go out and operate in space, his sure handedness
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  as a real bonus for us. You know Alex Hone, who's the transfer
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  from TCU. This is six foot six, two hundred and sixty five pound
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  kid that was a quarterback, has really amazing athleticism, just raw at the
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  position. He hasn't played a lot of football. Louis Hanson, the transfer
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  from Michigan has a ton of versatility. We can put him in the backfield
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  like we did Robert Burns. We can put him as on the line tight
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  end. We can flex him out. He's got really good hands, he's
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  really smart. We'll use him at fullback some you know, and that didn't
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  even count. You know Brandon Aminski and Nick Harris, who played a lot
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  for us last year. You know, Nick is right now because Alex was
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  hurt. You know, he's kind of our starting why tight end. That's
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  the on the line tight end. He was a defensive lineman when I first
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  got here, you know, in the spring. But we looked at some
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  tape of him in high school and you know, you're like, dang,
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  this guy needs to be playing on offense. So it's a deep position.
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  It's a very deep position, and the talent level there has really elevated.
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  All Right, We're gonna get to wide receivers. I gotta talk about the
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  safeties on this club. I love the safeties. We'll be back with Jim
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  Mora. We continue on the Gone Football Coaches Show on Liffield