(logo chimes)
(cock crows)
- Really very pleased
with how our guys competed Saturday night.
I felt like we melted a little
bit Tuesday and Wednesday
in the heat, it was very hot.
Well, we got to handle that.
In our second ball game is at noon,
it could be hot at 7:30 on September 26,
but we really came out with
as much energy and juices
we've had throughout the entire camp,
we really challenged our guys about that,
but our guys competed their
ass off Saturday night,
and it was a beautiful
night at Williams-Brice,
had been a great night
to kick off the season.
Unfortunately we couldn't,
but really a beautiful night.
We had a little time, we treated
everything like game day.
we had a pre-game meal at 3:30,
we went through all the pre-game routine,
especially for our young players.
But I was able to walk through
the Spurs Up 2001 club,
and I want to compliment
contract construction,
Coach Tanner, our
administration on the job.
It's a first class facility.
I went in the Cockapoo's club,
down where the old weight room is.
It's going to be a great
venue for our fan base
to continue to enjoy the
best game day atmosphere
in the country.
I went to our new recruiting area,
which is where the old meeting rooms are,
have done a fantastic job there.
And then on the East side,
where the pavilion sits out,
the chair back seating
where the old red seats were
now are gray seats, and
then the club seating
and they'll be able to walk in underneath.
It's going to really enhance
the game day atmosphere
at Williams-Brice stadium and
again I compliment our administration
and the job they'd done.
But we had a great night in the stadium.
We had about 140 live scrimmage
snaps, which was awesome.
Our guys really got after
it, I thought they competed.
We had about 20 live special
teams, snaps kickoff,
kickoff return, punt, punt
block, a field goal PAT,
but a lot of situation works.
We had about 160 snaps
coming out of the scrimmage,
I think Trey Jones rolled
his ankle a little bit.
I think he should be fine, but that's it.
And so, a lot of really good competition
and competitive work done.
A lot of improvement needed,
as we went back and watched the tape today
and last night as a staff.
But if we continue to work the
way we work Saturday night,
we'll be on the verge of
some really good things.
But again, I challenged our team
when the scrimmage was over.
Now, we're going to have
our meetings on Monday,
our walk through a normal
Tuesday, a normal Wednesday,
a normal Thursday, meeting on Friday,
and we'll be back in
Williams-Brice at noon.
And I hope it's hot because
we got a battle that.
We got to get mentally
tougher as a football team
to battle through the mental fatigue.
Even my father used to always tell me,
don't let anything out of heart whip you.
And fatigue, humidity, heat, rain, snow,
none of that has a heart.
And another man may whip my ass,
but the other stuff doesn't.
So our guys got to get mentally
tougher as a football team
offensively, which conversely defensively.
Anything we do offensively,
is an issue defensively.
So, we took care of the football.
We had 160 scrimmage snaps,
the ball was on the ground one time,
which is one too many,
but we really took care of the
football, that was pleasing.
We had a lot of explosive plays.
Really, I go back to our first
scrimmage in the red zone
and the third down period,
the situationally
defensively, we did very well,
but in the move, the ball
periods all offensively,
we hit some plays.
And I think it's really
a credit to our guys
and what they were doing.
We were better in the red zone.
We were better in some
end-of-game situations
than we've been,
but too many negative
plays on first and 10.
I believe five different times,
we started first and 15
because of a procedure issue.
We didn't have any delay of games,
but flinching on the offensive line,
not covering up the right guys,
not having enough guys on the line.
And that really contributed to us
not doing very well on third down,
because we were behind in
the down and distanced a lot.
And that was frustrating.
But again, I saw a lot of improvement
from scrimmage one to scrimmage two.
Just as far as our operation
offensively coaches off,
we treated it just like a game,
and I was very pleased with that.
Defensively, a thing that
strikes you is no turnovers.
We had one ball on the ground.
We had two young Dylan and
Murphy not running to the ball.
They could have had the opportunity
to have a recovered fumble,
and a great teaching for them,
to understand you bust
your ass to the football.
At the time we had two
balls tipped in the air,
had opportunities on
both of them to get them
and we didn't get them.
So we've got to make sure
we take care of those opportunities.
In the first two scrimmage
we've tackled extremely well.
I think we had 12 miss tackles last week
in 140 something snaps, and
we had eight this week in 160.
So, very pleased with how
we've played in space,
giving up too many explosives,
not as good in the red
area and the end of game,
but very good on third down.
We had a lot of favorable down
in distances, in my opinion,
to manage on third down.
And then special teams, we
covered about 10 punts live.
I thought Kai punted
the ball extremely well.
We did miss a pooch opportunity,
which he's got to understand that.
He put it at about eight deep
and we need to be able to pin our opponent
inside the 10 yard line.
We missed that opportunity,
but I thought our protection was good.
Our coverage can be better,
We've got to continue to improve there.
Kickoff and kickoff return,
the emphasis was more
on our kickoff coverage,
but we had two live reps,
I thought it was solid.
Fundamentally, we were high with some pads
and we've got to leverage
the ball a little better.
But Mitch Jeter would be our kickoff guy
if we play tomorrow,
and Parker's had an outstanding camp,
kicking the football when
he's had his opportunities.
But overall pleased,
I thought we've made some strides
from scrimmage one to now,
and now we have really
another, in essence,
week of training camp,
with a Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Thursday practice,
and another game-like
situation on Saturday,
and I'll open it up for any questions.
- [Moderator] Here's a little
raise-your-hand feature,
and we'll get to you,
David with the first one.
- [David] Hey Will, thanks for doing this.
Have you picked a starting quarterback?
- No, Mike and I met today.
You look at last week,
Ryan was the player of the day for us,
offensively did an outstanding job.
We had some discussion about
player of the day offensively,
and Collin was Saturday, I
mean, did a really nice job.
So again, we got a great battle going on.
It's making each other better,
making our football team better.
And we're going to let
it go again this week
and make a decision hopefully next week.
- [Moderator] Ben Briner.
- [Ben] Hey, Will, thanks for doing this.
I wanted to ask,
what is it about Kevin
Harris and Deshaun Fenwick
that looks different
when he watched you film,
compared to this time last year?
What are the steps that
those two have taken?
- Well, Deshaun's a year ahead of Kevin,
but, as young players, there's a lot of,
in high school, you're not
as asked in a lot of systems,
I'm not saying all systems,
you're asked to run the football,
you're not asked to block.
You're not asked to be much in protection,
as far as those things are concerned,
but there's a lot more asked of you
as you continue to elevate
yourself in the game.
And those guys, number one,
are in better shape than they've been in.
I remember Kevin last
fall, really struggling,
from a physical conditioning standpoint,
Deshaun, his first year, same thing.
But I thought both guys improved a lot
from the first scrimmage.
I thought that they both
made some positive runs.
I thought Kevin especially
made some nice cuts
in the run game when we
were alive the whole time.
So he ran through some
contact Deshaun did as well.
But again, maturity happens
in all different phases.
Some guys, when they
step on campus from...
I always tell freshmen,
playing as a freshman
has to do with ability,
has to do with opportunity,
and has to do with maturity.
So if you got to have
the ability, number one,
which the both guys do,
both got need to have an opportunity,
which I wouldn't say either
guy had a lot of opportunities
because of the the seniors
we had in that room
that were very good football players.
Rico just made it to the Dallas Cowboys,
Steven Fisher's still
bouncing to make a team.
And we had some guys Mon Denson,
that maybe were a little ahead of them.
And then maturity in both guys,
young players need to mature,
and everybody matures at different ages.
But I think both guys from
scrimmage one to scrimmage two
made some strides
- Collin Taylor.
- [Collin] Yeah, Will, I guess
how's the tight end competition going?
And is there a pecking order right now,
I guess a couple of weeks in the camp?
- I think, Collin, it's going to be hard,
when you talk in terms of pecking order,
really throughout this entire situation
that we're going through.
You look at Tennessee yesterday,
and I don't think it
was all COVID related,
but they had 40 something guys
that are unable to practice,
which means you can't even scrimmage.
And so, we had discussions
this past week as a staff,
about how, when we start game
week, how are we practicing?
Because if you just sit there
and think you're going to
go saw scout team work,
and you're going to go 30
minutes of scout team work
and your ones,
and you're going to get
majority of reps and your twos,
and then Clint Hacker is
going to walk into my office
on Friday and say, so-and-so's down.
And he's had 75% to 80%
of the reps through week,
that can't happen.
So we're going to do more crossover work,
where it's our first group
versus our second group,
offensively versus defense and others.
And we got to have guys ready to go.
Nick, I thought, had a
pretty good scrimmage.
He's still coming off the
knee, we have limited his reps,
but he's practiced every day,
but I think he's done some
nice things, well register
he's been very dependable
on everything that we're asking him to do.
Keveon Mullins adds a
dimension to that position.
He's a guy that can really run,
and has really flourished himself
in the passing game a little bit.
Obviously there are some
things we need to tie up,
as far as the run game is concerned.
I would agree with that.
KeShawn Toney's been very
solid in what he's done.
Trey Kenion, in his
opportunities, has done a nice job
that needs to become more reliable
as far as assignment and
those things are concerned.
And Eric Shaw played about
18 snaps, I think it was,
and made two really nice catches
and athletically, shows you some things
that you really want
to see at the position.
So, he has missed some times
because of his bone spurs,
but now he's back
and we have been really
pleased with what we've seen,
as far as that's concerned.
So, we'll continue to
work through it this week.
Do we need to start narrowing
some snaps down for some guys?
Probably that's going to
probably happen next week,
as more than it would
this week, as concerned.
But again, we've got to have
all hands on deck ready to go,
as far as those things are concerned.
- [Moderator] Hiil.
- [Hill] Yeah, from the
side of it on Friday
from talking to the two coordinators,
I guess, Jahmar Brown and Zaquandre
were unable to go on Saturday night.
- Zaquandre will be back Tuesday,
he has a little bit of a hamstring.
He's practiced I would say
the first eight, seven, eight practices,
and then has been out
with a little bit of a
tweak of the hamstring,
but he'll be back Tuesday.
We were in a helmet's
practice with Jahmar.
He got rolled up on and
sprained his knee a little bit.
He should be fine.
I don't think we'll
get him back this week.
But we got still three weeks
before our first game out,
expecting back the week
before we played Tennessee.
- [Moderator] Mike Bobo.
- [Mike] Well, since we
don't have an opportunity
to be able to see you
guys practice at all,
what can you tell us about Collin
and what he brings to
that quarterback position?
And then also, what
have you seen from Ryan,
being able to grow from
year one to year two?
- Oh, I've seen a lot of growth with Ryan
from the standpoint of
asking him to do some different things,
from being under center at times,
doing some different things
on the line of scrimmage.
Mike puts a lot on the quarterback,
as far as protections are concerned,
as far as the run game is concerned.
And I've seen tremendous
improvement from Ryan.
There's no doubt about that.
Collin, to me, brings
an element of toughness,
because of what he's been through.
He's got some mental toughness about him,
I think, that's very well respected
through our football team.
Obviously we've talked
about his arm talent,
and he's got a really good
arm talent as does Ryan.
They both throw the ball extremely well.
But I think, obviously,
Collin's understanding of the system,
because he's been in it
for now for three years,
shows up a lot, and as far as
his experience is concerned,
- [Moderator] Josh Kendall.
- [Josh] Well, Mike said on Friday
that he thinks some of
the game's fundamentals
have been lost because offenses get away,
first phase offense, and overall offense
is kind of get away with stuff,
and he was bemoaning that a little bit.
First off, do you agree?
- I think, so tell me
again, I didn't hear that.
- [Josh] Mike was saying,
some of the fundamentals
of offensive football,
specifically the defensive two,
blocking, route running,
tackling, have suffered
because no huddle offense has
have kind of allowed offenses
to get away with just
catching people off guard.
Do you agree?
- Well, I don't think
there's any question,
when you talk in terms
of getting cheap yardage
in a game and you're playing
fast, and that's the advantage.
I think in the last,
I would even say two to
three, three to four years,
that tempo offenses don't have
that as much of an advantage.
In my opinion, and
especially in our league,
the officials have slowed
the game down a little bit,
to administer the game better,
to protect the integrity
of the game better.
But I also think that
defenses have caught up,
to being able to play faster
and communicate better,
than probably ever before.
So I think that again, it's
like anything else in life,
the more you see a scheme
of all offensive set,
a run game, a protection, a route concept,
the more you continue to see those things,
the easier they become
to defend, defensively,
no different on offense.
The more you see bear front,
the more you see an under
front, then over front,
whatever the case may be,
those are the things you
become accustomed to seeing.
That's some things that's
different for us defensively,
of what we're facing in training camp now
than maybe we have in previous years,
is a motion, a shift, a
double shift from a tight end,
change the string motion,
which may not make any sense
to anybody I'm talking to right now,
before a football coach
presents a lot of issues.
And it presents a lot of
issues, defensively for a player
that's never had to manage that before.
And then accompanying that
with tempo involved with it,
creates some issues for you.
- [Moderator] John widdle.
- [John] Now how about what Mike,
having sort of an old school
background drew you to him,
and that grounding, that foundation?
- I wouldn't say old school background,
I'd say new school background.
You all look very similar
in some regards (chuckles).
- [John] That's why I
Put my picture up here.
(laughs)
- No, but I think that Mike,
just watching what he
did at Colorado state,
obviously his success at
Georgia speaks for itself
and what he did there, and the
stats speak for themselves.
But again, what he did at Colorado state,
and then just overall knowledge
and vast knowledge of the
game is as experienced
and experienced especially
coaching the quarterback position.
- [Moderator] John Widdle.
- [John] What would you
attribute the good tackling to
at this point?
- Well, John, that's kind of what I said.
I wish we'd be making more guys
miss some space offensively,
call it like it is, and
running through more contact,
breaking tackles.
And we'd have done that at times,
so I'm not, minimizing that.
But we always do tackling drills.
We've done probably I would
say more, not to the ground,
but thud stay up tackling
good-on-good drills,
than we have before.
Purposely, I didn't think we
tackled very well last year,
consistently well.
So we've done more of those things
as far as leveraging the ball
and tackling in situations,
(sneezes) Excuse me,
than we've done in the past.
And so maybe that's...
(sneezes) Excuse me, sorry about that.
I'm good, I've been tested,
I'm good, all right.
But, we've done more
good-on-good tackling, John.
So I would probably accredit that.
That's something we talked
about as a defensive staff today
and continuing to do those things
in our Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Thursday practice
and preparation for Saturday.
So, I think it's two-fold.
I think that we've maybe
spent a little more time
going good-on-good tackling,
and not just necessarily going
through a tackle circuit,
which we always do,
because iron sharpens iron,
you get better when you're
tackling people in space.
- [John] Is there anybody
else who stuck out,
that has been able to make people miss?
- Well, Shaw has been a guy
that's been elusive in space,
he's done a nice job.
He's got to continue to
utilize and trust to speed
on some perimeter plays on the edges.
Rashad Amos is a very difficult guy.
He's got a big lower body, all right.
And so he really moves the pile well.
He had a really nice run the other night,
where he ran through about
four tackles on one play,
so I guess half of our tackles
were missed on that one play.
BBut he ran through
contact extremely well.
Kevin Harris has run through contact well.
So again, those would be the
guys that would jump out at me
right off the top.
- [Moderator] Dick Hawks.
- [Dick] After two scrimmages,
is there any phase of the game right now,
that you may have concerns about
or may not be exactly
where you'd want it to be?
- Well, I think protection wise,
and again, I think a little bit,
it was because of some thud
down situations that we were in,
that our quarterbacks aren't live,
but we had gotten the quarterback
hit a couple of times Saturday.
So that's concerning, there's
no question about that.
We need to get Ernest Jones
back on the field at linebacker,
that position concerns you.
He has been working out with his pads.
We've been moving him around
and he's had no contact.
He will start back on the 10th,
which I believe is Thursday,
as far as full-time practice
with us is concerned.
So he has been moving around.
We do think he's in decent shape.
We need to do that, but there's
some obvious concerns there.
So again, those would be the two things
that kind of jumped out.
I thought we improved our run defense
in some spots on Saturday,
as opposed to our first scrimmage.
You're always nervous
with a new specialist
and Kai's a freshman,
although he's punted well,
since he's been here,
there's some concerns.
But yeah, I would say there's
concerns across the board.
Those are the ones that I'm
just off the top of my head
from watching Saturday
scrimmage, they concerned me.
- [Moderatro] David.
- COVID concerns me.
- [David] Will, have you
guys submitted that waiver
for Jaylin yet?
And if not, why not?
- We have, and we have
not heard anything back.
- [David] Also, I believe you
guys got an extra scholarship.
Have you awarded that to
maybe you want to walk
on so anything like that?
- I have not.
- [Moderator] Ben.
- [Ben] Hey Will, I think
it was on your call,
I'm sure you mentioned Ryan
having produced a number
of explosive plays
back in the first scrimmage.
Was that something that
continued into this scrimmage?
And what about his game
that sort of allowed him
to produce those in these situations?
- Again, Mike does a really good job
of creating one-on-one
matchups down the field,
and Ryan made nice throws
at the end of the day.
And then you got to have some guys
from the receiver position,
which we have had,
that have made nice plays in 50-50 balls,
and been able to go in and win the battles
on the 50-50 balls.
So that's where a lot
of those have showed up.
We did have a busted coverage.
I want to say two weeks ago,
we didn't take the wheel
route from the backfield.
But again, you got to be
able to throw in catch.
And we were able to do in that situation,
which created one of the explosives.
- [Moderator] Collin.
- [Collin] You mentioned Jordan Rhodes,
obviously coming back and
opting back in, I guess.
What's the timeline in
terms of getting him
back into practice
and what have you kind of
envisioned his role being
this year?
- We have really spent
this entire past week,
total physical conditioning,
changing direction lifting.
he will practice on Tuesday,
for probably half of the practice,
and I would envision him doing
about half of the practice
for another week.
But, if we continue to move in,
Jordan's a bright guy, he
can learn, he'll be fine.
He's played the guard
position, he started for us.
So he's got experience.
It's not like he's a player
that's never played before.
So he's a guy that's
got experience doing it,
and he's in every meeting.
And so my expectation of
him to go compete, to play.
- [Moderator] Mike Bobo.
- [Mike] Well, I know
this whole training campus
spread out a little bit more
in comparison to years past.
Is it common for you guys, number one,
to have a third scrimmage?
- Well, we will, again, we haven't talked
in terms of how that will be structured.
I don't know that we're going to go
160 live scrimmage snaps again.
We do need to get on and
have some sustained drives
on both sides of the ball,
on offense and defense
so our guys can get used
to playing an eight, 10, 12 play drive,
and sustaining through that.
But we'll look at Saturday,
probably after Wednesday's practice,
to see the things that we
feel like and I feel like,
that we need to work
on in all three phases.
So there will be some
scrimmage snaps on Saturday.
To how much?
I don't know.
- [Mike] Yeah, the reason I asked that,
it seems like you kind of answered it,
but it seems like you're
going to figure out,
in terms of what players
might play on Saturday.
It might be one of those
things kind of like,
a fourth preseason game for the NFL,
if you had to try and make a comparison.
- Well, I think that'd be correct.
I do think that there are
some things that we know,
as a team right now, that
we really need to work on,
and that may not project to
be in a scrimmage format,
some different things, situationally
that we need to look at
before we start our
preparation for our first game.
So we'll continue to work
through those things this week
and then see how we structure Saturday.
But I was pleased
with what we were able to
accomplish Saturday night.
- [Moderator] Ben.
- [Ben] What's the status of
your offensive tackle spot?
And if you've done any shuffling there,
what was kind of the
thought process behind it?
- Yeah, we have, we've
moved some guys around.
Right now I would be hesitant
to say a starting a unit,
be honest with you.
We've looked at Dylan Wonnum
at both right tackle and left tackle.
He is certainly more than
capable of playing both.
We've looked at Justin, obviously
the left tackle position,
Jaylen Nichols and Jakai
more at the right tackle.
Vershon Lee has been a guy
that's rotated in with that
and would probably be our
fifth tackle at this time.
But those are the guys
that we're looking at,
and we need more consistency
at that position,
with those guys.
- [Moderator] Collin.
- [Collin] Yeah, Will, I guess Mike talked
in one of his availabilities
about figuring out what you're
going to kind of major in
offensively, what's kind
of the bread and butter
it's going to be.
Are you any closer to kind of
figuring out that identity?
And if so, where do you kind
of see it falling right now?
- Well, I think, looking
at personnel groupings,
is still work in itself out,
at the receiver position,
at the tight end position.
Prentice is going to be a
really good fullback for us.
There'll be some traditional two-back,
which he also can play
in a wing situation,
like you would see as a tight
end, would be concerned.
But trying to get the right
reps for these tight ends
is going to be critical
through this next week,
as we continue to evolve and look at that,
and I think that at the receiver
position, the same manner.
So we have narrowed some things down,
but I wouldn't say
that we've made some
huge answers right now,
as far as what we're doing.
I think he feels good,
coming out of last night
with the receiver position,
something we talked about today.
We've got to continue to...
It's hard sometimes calling
when you're installing
an offense or a defense,
and you're trying to install base concepts
within what you do,
and knowing that, you're
not going to ask a player
to do this on this play,
or this and this defense.
But in order to install the concept,
you got to get it installed.
But you're sitting there going,
I'm never going to put
this guy in this situation,
if that makes sense,
what I'm trying to say.
But we got to get things installed
and get it exposed to the players
because it may be something
from an offensive line
standpoint that we must work on,
but maybe we're not going
to ever ask this tight to do
what we would be asking them
to do in a scrimmage situation.
And that's where it's tough sometimes
because you get yourself
in a really bad match-up
either on offense or defense,
based on trying to just
to get a look at the play,
to get a look at the defense.
And it's really from a
coordinator standpoint
or a head coach's standpoint,
you're just trying to
get a look at the player.
You get to look at the defense
and you just trying to get it repped
and to expose it to nine other guys,
knowing that there's two guys
that are not going to be in that position,
come September 26 or shouldn't be.
So again, I think that we're still working
through that a little bit.
- [Moderator] Hill.
- [Hill] No, it's not about wanting
to play the best five or six guys,
whatever the number is in the secondary.
Do you feel like you're
close to having a feel
for what that might look like?
- Well, I think, Saturday
night was a big night
for Cam and John Dixon.
And I thought both guys at
times did some nice things
and there's some things
we need to improve on.
So we put those guys
in a lot of situations
where they had some
opportunities to make plays
and they did some things well.
Again, like I said before,
there's some things we need to improve on.
Obviously Jaycee and Israel
are really playing well.
Jammie Robinson played
extremely well Saturday night.
R.J. has had a solid camp,
has continued to improve throughout camp.
as far as you would say, those four.
I thought Shilo Sanders
had one of his better
practices Saturday night.
His effort on special
teams was outstanding.
His effort on defense was outstanding.
We had cleaned some things up,
but again continues to produce.
Jaylin Dickerson has
done some nice things.
We've got to continue to get
him healthy a little bit,
had a little bit of a hamstring
the last couple of days,
but we're getting back probably Tuesday.
And then John and Cam, Joey
Hunter is a young player,
I thought came on and
did some nice things.
O'Donnell Fortune has moved back and forth
from corner to safety,
had some runs come out
on him and made a tackle
on every single tackle in the open field,
stuck his face in the fan
and really, really fit,
we we're just watching that.
So I, again, I think
that just seeing the guys
continue to develop,
Darius Rush is a guy that's
done a really nice job
as a missile on punt for us,
can really run on the top end.
He registers over 20 miles an hour,
every time we practice when
he's on the catapult system,
but a guy that certainly can help us
at the corner possession.
So we're continuing to
look work through that.
Who will be the nickel, who's
at safety, who moves inside,
who stays at corner.
Those are all things we're
still working through
as we continue to work
through those combinations.
- [Moderator] John Widdle.
- [John] Will, I think
you mentioned a minute ago
that you were encouraged
by the wide receivers
and you've mentioned explosive plays
if the performance as a
group surprised you at all,
because I think there
was some question marks
about that position going into camp.
- Yeah, well, I agree with
you a hundred percent.
I think that Shaw has been a guy
that had a couple big
plays the other night,
a couple of really nice
catches down the field,
50-50 contested catches.
Xavier had a huge reception
in what we called an overtime
situation, the third overtime,
where you had to go for two,
on RPO, across the middle,
made it really nice play on the ball,
going across the middle,
knowing he's going to get hit
and got smacked pretty good
and was able to stumble into the end zone,
it was a big play for us.
Jalen Brooks has made some plays for us,
been pleased with that Rico Powers.
I mean, people say well,
who's your first three.
I wouldn't say
that he would not be in
our first three right now.
That has been a freshman
that's really come on.
Ger-Cari Caldwell has improved
from practice one to practice 13,
I guess it was Saturday tremendously
at a really good night Saturday night,
there in the stadium made
some contested catches,
thought he did some really
good things to carry on,
continues to come on for us.
Luke is still playing quarterback
primordial at the time,
but also playing some
at the receiver position
that caught a nice screen
for about a 20 yard gain
that I remember.
So again, I think that that's a position
that has continued to come on for us
and we need to continue for
those guys to keep coming.
- [Moderator] Ben.
- [Ben] Will, two questions.
First of all, how often are
you guys testing right now?
And when do you go to three tests?
- Well, we go to three
tests during the season
and that'll be prior the
Sunday, prior to Tennessee,
we are testing one time,
the entire building
on every Monday, which
will be tomorrow again.
And anytime at any player or
staff member has any symptoms
as they enter the building, we test them.
- [Ben] Okay, and when you saw, I guess,
what was your reaction
when you saw that news
out of Tennessee with kind
of what happened to them
and to seeing that and seeing
how well you guys have done
sort of confirmed the way that
you've been going about this?
- (knocks) I want everybody
to knock on wood right there.
It totally jinxed us.
It's the world we're in right
now and you can be careful.
I know people that I know for a fact,
I just know them as people that
have been extremely careful,
and they've contracted the
virus, it's very contagious.
And so, it's an eye opener.
It's why we've spent as much time,
as we spend talking about
how we're going to practice
during the season, all right.
Because they can walk
in on a Friday and say
so-and-so's down and so-and-so's down
and it's not necessarily
the positives of the test.
I mean, you look at our situation,
we had four positives last
week, we've had 12 down.
It's not just the contact,
it's not just the positives.
It's contact tracing involved with that.
And so that's what's eyeopening,
alarming a little bit to me.
But again, we're going to do, what's safe
for our student athletes.
And I don't think that they
were all COVID related there,
but that's part of the world
that we're in right now.
And I saw a comment by maybe
a broadcaster, a coach,
somebody weekend's been bothered,
there's been some sloppy football.
Well, yeah, you take a guy
that's taking 80% of the reps
at a position.
And then you tell me on a Friday,
he can't travel to the game and play.
And then you're taking
a, maybe a second team,
or maybe they're roommates,
he's contact trace.
And You're moving a guy
from another position to this
position, so you can play,
and you can be able to... (chuckles)
I mean, that's the reality
that we're in right now.
And that's part of it.
- [Moderator] Collin.
- [Collin] Will you've talked
about Jahmar, obviously
taking some reps at dime linebacker,
for the people that maybe
aren't so smart at football
to understand what dime
linebacker fully is, I guess.
What are the things in his skills
that really translates to it?
What are you kind of asking
him to do in that spot?
- Well, we went into, to a fall camp.
I actually, I would say,
probably go back to in July,
just looking at our
roster and seeing a guy,
that has a really big upside
as a player in our opinion,
has box instincts, so
he can play in the box.
He can play from tackle to tackle.
He has really good run instincts,
really good run pass instincts
to key in diagnosed, play, run, play pass.
When you need to, when you don't need to,
as we continue to work, I was like,
this guy can be a really good dime for us.
Cause he's a guy that can play in space.
He can cover in man coverage,
and he can play in the box.
So now he's a guy that
can slide out of the box.
So let's go and put him in
the defensive back room,
and teach more of the
techniques and fundamentals
in that room.
And I guess where I would say,
a little bit more of
a maybe AP linebacker,
advanced placement linebacker, as I say.
But, to let him learn a little bit more
of that side of our defense.
And then as you got him in the back end,
you saw the guy can play
in the middle of the field.
He can play a half safety,
he can play a quarter safety,
and we knew he could play down in the box.
So he's just added value
to him as a player.
And then being able to do
some of the things he's
done at linebacker,
that he's already showed us, he could do,
and then be able to play man coverage.
And then now you're able to
disguise things so much better,
when you have a guy that can cover,
that can slide out of the box,
can slide in the middle of the field,
can do some different things,
and we always really haven't
had that depth really,
since we've been here, to be
able to have that kind of guy
We've had that kind of guy,
I mean, RJ can do those things as well,
but we get a little thin in the secondary
about putting the quality
player on the field
that we want to have.
So, he has a really
good skill set for that.
- [Moderator] John Widdle.
- [John] Two questions for you Will.
What does it look like in
center for you guys right now?
- Eric Douglas is our starter,
and right now Vinny Murphy and Hank Manos
are battling for the backup position.
But I think Eric's right now
really positioned himself
from a leadership standpoint,
from getting us in and out
of the right calls, John.
But, but he's had a
really solid camp for us.
Vershon Lee's a guy that
we're going to look at
a little bit this week,
and see what he can do there,
but that's where we are.
- [John] Well, so this is
a little bit off topic.
I'm not sure how much, you
know off the top of your head,
but the Fetal Euros Program
that you started back in March or April,
how is that coming along?
Is that something you're still
pretty actively involved with
even as we've gotten
deeper into this pandemic?
- Yeah, we have, it's still, working well,
I got an email on it from Joe Walker,
who really has been the
legs behind the whole thing.
Carol and I were talking one night,
and then wanted to do something to help
the people that are
truly on the front line.
And that's our doctors,
nurses, medical care people
that are taken care of people
that are being with
this virus, with COVID.
But Joe Walker's really run with it,
but it's still up and
running and doing well.
- [Moderator] Hill.
- [Hill] You mentioned Rico,
obviously making it to the
Cowboys a little while ago,
and T.J. and Joe Charlton
making their respective teams,
you had a chance to talk
to any of those guys
who were fine for roster spots?
And what's it like for
you seeing guys like that,
undrafted and being able to make 53 men?
- Well, I think it was a very
difficult time for those guys.
From my standpoint, they
never had a pro-day.
They really never had anybody.
And those guys were all guys to me,
when you meet T.J. Brunson,
he's going to impress you.
He's going to impress you with
his football intelligence,
with the type of person he is.
I text back and forth with T.J.
You, meet Joe,
I couldn't believe Joe didn't
get into a camp originally,
I was shocked.
I mean, this guy is one
of the best planners
I've ever been around.
But I knew Joe would make a team,
if he could get in front of somebody
and I've text back and forth with Joe,
texts back and forth with Rico.
Leslie's mom called the other night,
a matter of fact, I need to call her.
I'm glad you said that.
And then texts back and forth
with Jovaugn and Brian the other day.
And, Brian got his name on the stadium,
texts back and forth
with Mitch Jeter's mama
to congratulate them.
And we'll take some pictures
and put a nice picture
together for them there.
And, I text back and forth with Debo,
I think he's going to be up a week one.
He felt pretty good about
where he was with those things.
So, we're proud of those guys.
I talked to Dylan, I asked
him about Dennis periodically.
So they're all doing
well proud of those guys.
Taylor Stallworth made
the Colts 53 man roster.
- [Moderator] Ben Briner.
- [Ben] What is a guy like Adam Prentice?
What does having a player like that,
allow you to differently
scheme wise in the run game?
- Well, it's interesting.
I've got Dan Quinn being one of them,
several people in the NFL call me
every single year after
our season and says,
we're really want to be some
form of a two-back team.
Somebody that has value on special teams,
but someone that can be a lead blocker.
And they're very difficult to find
because generally if
they're that body type
and they're a good athlete,
they're probably playing linebacker
based on where they are
now, in high school.
They might be rushing the passer
or they might be the feature back.
And any feature back
does not see himself ever as a fullback.
And then that just never happens.
So it's a very hard position to find.
It's kind of like tight end right now.
You either have guys that
can stretch the field
and will not block anybody,
or you got to slog who can
block it the point of attack,
but can't beat me in coverage.
So it's just hard, it's hard to find guys,
so hard to find guys like him.
He obviously knows the system.
He's very well versed in what
we do and how we do things,
But he's also going to be
a big special teams contributor for us,
as well as a fullback.
But it's just hard to find that.
And when you don't have that guy,
now you start figuring
in a two-back run game,
which is totally different
from a one back run game,
especially if you have
players in a lot of times,
you're projecting at linebackers,
the other part positioned to find.
Because generally the
guys that have length,
and have athleticism
are rushing the edges.
They're putting those guys on the edge,
letting them rush the edges.
You're always projecting
to see if a guy can play,
and to key in and diagnose a one-back run
versus a two-back run is a
thousand percent different.
So with all that being said,
it's a hard guy to find.
- [Moderator] All right,
the last question,
and it actually comes from Phil Kornbluth,
but Phil was unable to ask a question,
so he texts me to ask, coach--
- Well I can't hear you,
and he just plays at
the masters last week.
- [Moderator] He's at
Darlington this week.
And so I don't know
if there's the cars are too loud or what,
I don't know--
- Big time man, he's big time.
- [Moderator] He wants to know your view
on these recruiting visits,
organized by the recruit.
Do you think it's kosher?
And if so, will you do it?
- Absolutely, no comment.
- [Moderator] All right, I guess--
- I'll get in trouble by
commenting on that one,
but I'm going to put my
under armor mask back on,
right here under armor.
You can order them.
- [Moderator] All right, and
that is a wrap for tonight.
I appreciate everybody joining
us on this Sunday night.
- [Moderator] Wear your--
- You as well, thanks Steve.
- Thanks guys.
- [Moderator] Wear your mask.
