Fun afternoon at the football facility. Here are the notes with the conversation post practice with Joey.
Opening statement:
"For me. That was a lot of fun, you know, been doing this for a long time. I don't think I've done a spring game like that for 29 years, It's probably the 28th spring game or 27th and the way we split the team's up, the way we split the coaches up I mean it was literally in our our staff from recruiting to nutrition to the strength staff was totally spit. So that gave it extra energy. Really happy the way the guys played. I thought there were some big plays early with our playmakers the guys that we need to go make plays and then I think the defense consistently sprinted to the football, this defense kind of told y'all last week, I mean, it's gonna be kind of the no name defense. And I don't mean that as like we're not going to have some big time guys that are going to make a name but just the depth that gets to go on the field. So really happy we came out really healthy as far as everybody that started the scrimmage was able to finish the scrimmage you know we pulled some guys once we got enough reps with certain guys and played some young guys, but overall I felt the energy was great. And you know we had a lot of families here so it was good crowd and I was happy that the parents were able to get to watch their sons and few recruits and so we stayed dry. I hated not going to Midland and I've been trying to get to Midland for the last three years but I did get a picture with a lot of rain in Midland at about eight o'clock. So got lucky. Got a great indoor great facilities were able to get the spring game in."
On early offense:
"The one thing I learned a long time ago, a long time ago. 94-95. You know, it's players over plays, get your players the ball, get them involved early. I thought that they did that in the practice other day really well and I thought they did it really well today. You know the guys that needed early touches, got the early touches Caleb (Douglas), Josh Kelly, Coy (Eakin). Those guys get early touches and really kind of get the offense going."
On QBs:
"Yeah, I thought they did a really good job. I thought early in the game. Will was really on the mark. I could be wrong. I have to go back and look but you know, I think counting the interception I don't know the ball hit the ground whenever he was out there in the first half. I could be totally wrong. I don't know if we had an incompletion. I felt all three of them. You know, again, you saw some times that I think they sped the game up that they didn't have to just on they felt pressure from our defensive line and sometimes you got to step up in the pocket and make a play knowing you're gonna get hit. The one touchdown to Coy, Will would have gotten hit. It wouldn't have been a sack but he would've gotten hit and he stepped up into the pressure. I thought that was really good."
Do you have a depth chart at QB after spring?:
"We're kind of anxious to see like, no doubt, you know, Behren's number one, I think the guy that goes in after that it's going to be Cam Brown. You know, again, you want to work your tail off unless you have to, to where you don't have to play a freshman. And so I think it's you know, as you go through, Behren and Cam would be the guys we play tomorrow. The reason I say Cam, is because we've really worked on some different things. I hate to bring this up because it's a nightmare for me. But I think you would see a lot of what K-State did in that game against us whenever that was really his first extended play, their freshman quarterback. I think you'd see a lot of that style of football, whenever Cam is in the game or has to come in the game."
Update on Behren?:
"He would tell you that he could go play today. We have got a great plan with you know, our doctors and different people that are throwing experts as far as how our rehab and everything like that is going. Man, I probably would say after the second or third day of rest man, he would tell you he's pain free. He literally asked a doctor 'hey, so I'm good in the spring game?' We feel really good where we're at, as you know, I mean, the world that we live in, if we didn't, you'd probably be looking into the portal and everything like that and we feel really good about the quarterback room. Still got to grow and that's something that we've just got to grow that room and keep developing. This is going to be a big summer for those guys. Just the things that they've got to get better at. Cam can put it on a rope, he's got to continue to work on his touch on his deep balls. So that's going to be a big part of his June. talk to Jake all the time, that if you think about and you go back and you chart Jake's good plays and bad plays, the majority of his bad plays are in the middle of the field right over the linebackers level. So him getting better and better at seeing that. And then you got a freshman that you just got to keep growing into college football with Will. But though like those are the things in June that will really focus on with those guys."
Young guys who stood out this spring:
"We saw him in the bowl game, I would say Amier Washington, he's like a bull in china closet. You know, should have been a huge play by the white team on on one of the run plays because we didn't set the edge and Amier chased that, it was a two yard gain because he caught the running back from behind throwing his body. So I'm really excited about him. You know, I thought he's a redshirt freshman would be a redshirt sophomore so not really young but I think Jalen Peoples has had a really good spring. He started to really grow. The guys that I'm really excited about, Jayden Cofield, he had a great spring game and he's really come on. Braylon Rigsby in that defensive line room have really come on. Sheridan Wilson has had a really great spring, done a great job at center."
On Dickey:
"He's 219, so he does a really good job in pass pro. He's very physical. I think he's got really good hands out of the backfield. That's something that's really impressive with the way he catches the ball out of the backfield. Short area burst, really good vision. He reminds me, they're different too a little bit, but reminds me a lot of Tahj (Brooks). He doesn't talk a lot he just puts his head down and tries to get better. I think that's a really good combination. Whenever you start talking about, Tahj, you're talking about Cam Valdez. Cam ran well today, and he had a huge blitz pickup. I don't know exactly who was coming, but it was great contact. We got the ball off. And then Cam Dickey, and we're gonna add J'Koby Williams, who's got one of the fastest 110 hurdle times in the country right now. He ran a 13.8 the other day. We feel really good about those guys."
On Two minute warning:
"You guys know, I follow everything, like reading stuff. There's been a lot of kind of like, why do we have the two minute warning? I think it's gonna be good, you know, because if you think about it at the end of the game, when you haven't hit your TV timeouts you get a you get a touchdown. And they go, we kick the field goal and they go to a timeout and then all of a sudden we kick the ball off and then they go to a timeout because they're trying to get all their TV timeouts in you're gonna get certain number of TV timeouts. So the way I look at it, is we already have one built in, like we know two minute warning and we have a TV timeout. You know, it will change a little bit. You know, you have I feel like you got an extra timeout early in the third or fourth quarter if you need it. We like to have three, going into the three minute, two minute area."
On in helmet communication:
"I'm extremely frustrated with a helmet communication. I thought it was ridiculous the way they decided to do it. I'm really frustrated because you had you had the perfect time in college football to get it right. And you chose not to you chose to take the easy way out and decide hey, let's just do it like the NFL. We don't play like the NFL, we don't huddle. You're going to have to signal playing us. You're going to have to signal playing majority of college football. So you got one guy, and you're talking to him and we're still having to signal, so the whole point to be able to do this was to do the communication right to where we didn't have to signal. The momentum was in that phase because you could use the situation with Michigan and everything and we chose not to. So my frustration. I've literally tried to call everybody in the committee. I've talked to different people I've talked to Coach Boles now with the AFCA about my frustration because I went into a bowl game and we had three guys on the headset. We did not signal one time on the defensive side of the ball. So that eliminates that right there on one side of the ball. Now you get the opportunity to choose how you would do it on the offensive side of the ball. Whether it's the O-Line, the quarterback and maybe somebody else or you could just have the quarterback, but man I just think they fumbled that in a big way. And it frustrates me because you had the opportunity to really help change the game. And we chose not to we chose to take the easy way out. And so that's kind of been my stance from the get go. I've made how I feel known to you know, everybody that's a part of it. And hopefully they revisit it whenever it's still the same thing. Because you're not having a lot of teams huddle. I don't know about huddle anyway facing a team that huddles just from the standpoint of, if I'm huddling up and college football, you have so many different personnel packages you got. So you got more people playing. There's more depth in college football is about as far as the amount of people and then I know I'm gonna get on a soapbox, but you asked the question. The other thing we did if we just we just put more stuff on the officials because now we have to go and I don't think this is I could be totally wrong. I don't think they do this in NFL. But think about this. Jacob Rodriguez has the green dot on, okay. Now we're gonna put Bryce Ramirez in so Jacob has to come off, now Bryce has got to wear a different helmet, if he's going to be the green dot guy. Like you can only have one on there. Well, who's officiating that? The officials and then it's a penalty. So if you end up with two guys on the field with two green dots, it's a penalty. So now I've got to have my equipment guys holding extra helmets for the green dot guys. Like literally, you had the simplest way to fix all of this and you're just like, hey, let's just put more on the officials...why do I do it that way in the bowl game and all the feedback was it worked great, and then do it this way?"
Opening statement:
"For me. That was a lot of fun, you know, been doing this for a long time. I don't think I've done a spring game like that for 29 years, It's probably the 28th spring game or 27th and the way we split the team's up, the way we split the coaches up I mean it was literally in our our staff from recruiting to nutrition to the strength staff was totally spit. So that gave it extra energy. Really happy the way the guys played. I thought there were some big plays early with our playmakers the guys that we need to go make plays and then I think the defense consistently sprinted to the football, this defense kind of told y'all last week, I mean, it's gonna be kind of the no name defense. And I don't mean that as like we're not going to have some big time guys that are going to make a name but just the depth that gets to go on the field. So really happy we came out really healthy as far as everybody that started the scrimmage was able to finish the scrimmage you know we pulled some guys once we got enough reps with certain guys and played some young guys, but overall I felt the energy was great. And you know we had a lot of families here so it was good crowd and I was happy that the parents were able to get to watch their sons and few recruits and so we stayed dry. I hated not going to Midland and I've been trying to get to Midland for the last three years but I did get a picture with a lot of rain in Midland at about eight o'clock. So got lucky. Got a great indoor great facilities were able to get the spring game in."
On early offense:
"The one thing I learned a long time ago, a long time ago. 94-95. You know, it's players over plays, get your players the ball, get them involved early. I thought that they did that in the practice other day really well and I thought they did it really well today. You know the guys that needed early touches, got the early touches Caleb (Douglas), Josh Kelly, Coy (Eakin). Those guys get early touches and really kind of get the offense going."
On QBs:
"Yeah, I thought they did a really good job. I thought early in the game. Will was really on the mark. I could be wrong. I have to go back and look but you know, I think counting the interception I don't know the ball hit the ground whenever he was out there in the first half. I could be totally wrong. I don't know if we had an incompletion. I felt all three of them. You know, again, you saw some times that I think they sped the game up that they didn't have to just on they felt pressure from our defensive line and sometimes you got to step up in the pocket and make a play knowing you're gonna get hit. The one touchdown to Coy, Will would have gotten hit. It wouldn't have been a sack but he would've gotten hit and he stepped up into the pressure. I thought that was really good."
Do you have a depth chart at QB after spring?:
"We're kind of anxious to see like, no doubt, you know, Behren's number one, I think the guy that goes in after that it's going to be Cam Brown. You know, again, you want to work your tail off unless you have to, to where you don't have to play a freshman. And so I think it's you know, as you go through, Behren and Cam would be the guys we play tomorrow. The reason I say Cam, is because we've really worked on some different things. I hate to bring this up because it's a nightmare for me. But I think you would see a lot of what K-State did in that game against us whenever that was really his first extended play, their freshman quarterback. I think you'd see a lot of that style of football, whenever Cam is in the game or has to come in the game."
Update on Behren?:
"He would tell you that he could go play today. We have got a great plan with you know, our doctors and different people that are throwing experts as far as how our rehab and everything like that is going. Man, I probably would say after the second or third day of rest man, he would tell you he's pain free. He literally asked a doctor 'hey, so I'm good in the spring game?' We feel really good where we're at, as you know, I mean, the world that we live in, if we didn't, you'd probably be looking into the portal and everything like that and we feel really good about the quarterback room. Still got to grow and that's something that we've just got to grow that room and keep developing. This is going to be a big summer for those guys. Just the things that they've got to get better at. Cam can put it on a rope, he's got to continue to work on his touch on his deep balls. So that's going to be a big part of his June. talk to Jake all the time, that if you think about and you go back and you chart Jake's good plays and bad plays, the majority of his bad plays are in the middle of the field right over the linebackers level. So him getting better and better at seeing that. And then you got a freshman that you just got to keep growing into college football with Will. But though like those are the things in June that will really focus on with those guys."
Young guys who stood out this spring:
"We saw him in the bowl game, I would say Amier Washington, he's like a bull in china closet. You know, should have been a huge play by the white team on on one of the run plays because we didn't set the edge and Amier chased that, it was a two yard gain because he caught the running back from behind throwing his body. So I'm really excited about him. You know, I thought he's a redshirt freshman would be a redshirt sophomore so not really young but I think Jalen Peoples has had a really good spring. He started to really grow. The guys that I'm really excited about, Jayden Cofield, he had a great spring game and he's really come on. Braylon Rigsby in that defensive line room have really come on. Sheridan Wilson has had a really great spring, done a great job at center."
On Dickey:
"He's 219, so he does a really good job in pass pro. He's very physical. I think he's got really good hands out of the backfield. That's something that's really impressive with the way he catches the ball out of the backfield. Short area burst, really good vision. He reminds me, they're different too a little bit, but reminds me a lot of Tahj (Brooks). He doesn't talk a lot he just puts his head down and tries to get better. I think that's a really good combination. Whenever you start talking about, Tahj, you're talking about Cam Valdez. Cam ran well today, and he had a huge blitz pickup. I don't know exactly who was coming, but it was great contact. We got the ball off. And then Cam Dickey, and we're gonna add J'Koby Williams, who's got one of the fastest 110 hurdle times in the country right now. He ran a 13.8 the other day. We feel really good about those guys."
On Two minute warning:
"You guys know, I follow everything, like reading stuff. There's been a lot of kind of like, why do we have the two minute warning? I think it's gonna be good, you know, because if you think about it at the end of the game, when you haven't hit your TV timeouts you get a you get a touchdown. And they go, we kick the field goal and they go to a timeout and then all of a sudden we kick the ball off and then they go to a timeout because they're trying to get all their TV timeouts in you're gonna get certain number of TV timeouts. So the way I look at it, is we already have one built in, like we know two minute warning and we have a TV timeout. You know, it will change a little bit. You know, you have I feel like you got an extra timeout early in the third or fourth quarter if you need it. We like to have three, going into the three minute, two minute area."
On in helmet communication:
"I'm extremely frustrated with a helmet communication. I thought it was ridiculous the way they decided to do it. I'm really frustrated because you had you had the perfect time in college football to get it right. And you chose not to you chose to take the easy way out and decide hey, let's just do it like the NFL. We don't play like the NFL, we don't huddle. You're going to have to signal playing us. You're going to have to signal playing majority of college football. So you got one guy, and you're talking to him and we're still having to signal, so the whole point to be able to do this was to do the communication right to where we didn't have to signal. The momentum was in that phase because you could use the situation with Michigan and everything and we chose not to. So my frustration. I've literally tried to call everybody in the committee. I've talked to different people I've talked to Coach Boles now with the AFCA about my frustration because I went into a bowl game and we had three guys on the headset. We did not signal one time on the defensive side of the ball. So that eliminates that right there on one side of the ball. Now you get the opportunity to choose how you would do it on the offensive side of the ball. Whether it's the O-Line, the quarterback and maybe somebody else or you could just have the quarterback, but man I just think they fumbled that in a big way. And it frustrates me because you had the opportunity to really help change the game. And we chose not to we chose to take the easy way out. And so that's kind of been my stance from the get go. I've made how I feel known to you know, everybody that's a part of it. And hopefully they revisit it whenever it's still the same thing. Because you're not having a lot of teams huddle. I don't know about huddle anyway facing a team that huddles just from the standpoint of, if I'm huddling up and college football, you have so many different personnel packages you got. So you got more people playing. There's more depth in college football is about as far as the amount of people and then I know I'm gonna get on a soapbox, but you asked the question. The other thing we did if we just we just put more stuff on the officials because now we have to go and I don't think this is I could be totally wrong. I don't think they do this in NFL. But think about this. Jacob Rodriguez has the green dot on, okay. Now we're gonna put Bryce Ramirez in so Jacob has to come off, now Bryce has got to wear a different helmet, if he's going to be the green dot guy. Like you can only have one on there. Well, who's officiating that? The officials and then it's a penalty. So if you end up with two guys on the field with two green dots, it's a penalty. So now I've got to have my equipment guys holding extra helmets for the green dot guys. Like literally, you had the simplest way to fix all of this and you're just like, hey, let's just put more on the officials...why do I do it that way in the bowl game and all the feedback was it worked great, and then do it this way?"
