Lengthy convo with the head coach today with plenty of key points.
Opening Statement:
"Physical. That's the I'm going to say. It was really one of the most physical scrimmages that we've had since I've been here, on both sides of the ball. Guys that really stood out. Mo (Maurion) Horn at corner, had a really great scrimmage. Ben Roberts at linebacker, Harvey Dyson at outside linebacker Justin Horne, I was really pleased. I've been pleased for the last three or four days, or last three or four practices with Justin Horne, he's really starting to come on. And then our six defensive tackles that played with the ones and twos. Quincy, DB (Carroll), James Hansen, (Jayden) Cofield, (Braylon) Rigsby. I mean, they were really dominant whenever it came to the first part of scrimmage. I was really pleased with that. Defensively dominated the first part of scrimmage. I mean, there were three and outs right off the bat with the ones and the threes, and then the second time the twos came out, it was three and out. Was happy with that on the defensive side of the ball.
Offensively, Drae McCray, had a really good scrimmage. Jordan Brown, I thought had a really good scrimmage. We had some big plays with Josh Kelly, once we got into the red zone lockout period. But the kid that really stood out, and it's cam Dickey roll his ankle in practice, so he didn't go today, and so that pushed J'Koby Williams up to get some with the twos. That kid is special. I mean, in the open field, he had two big runs of 25 and 35 yards. It was really good to see.
Saying that the defense dominated the first part of the scrimmage, the offense dominated the redzone. They won the lockout 18-4. You know, again, really sharp, but a lot of teaching. You know, we had way too many pre snap penalties. We had a Big 12 officials crew, called it just like they're going to call it in September, October, November and December, January. We wanted it called just like that. So we got way too many pre snap penalties. We just got to make sure that we're focused and detailed with that stuff. That's something that's going to be really big going into next week's practice and next week's scrimmage."
How did the OL look, specifically at left tackle?
"Yeah, I thought they did some good things, especially in red zone lockout. We had some good pass pro with the ones, but there was not a lot of, whenever we were going those six guys versus our first offense in the interior, there wasn't a lot of room to run. I mean, they did a good job of, you know, maintaining their gap. They got some knock back. So, you know, excited. So we got to get better, you know, a lot of that, o-line wise is going to be keep working our pad level. We'll have 100% everybody back Monday, because we get Jaxon Hughes fully back. We didn't scrimmage him today, so we'll have all of our lines. So I think this next week is going to be really interesting. Sterling and Dalton played left tackle today with the ones. We had Ty Buchanan playing right tackle, but we had Caleb Rogers playing right tackle at times when DC went in at guard. You know, Vinny is kind of that mainstay right now but we want to make sure that we're getting a good mix of all of them playing together so we can find our best five. You know, I feel the good thing is we have good depth. I thought the twos, whenever they went out there, did a good job. And, you know, the first time the twos went out there, Cam Brown was quarterback, they moved the ball a little bit better than the ones did, but then the ones, whenever they came out in red zone. I mean, they scored twice and it wasn't, I mean, we didn't even come close to putting up a fight with those."
WR Screen & Perimeter Blocking a point of emphasis?
"That was why Drae McCray really stood out. And he stood out because he was on the screen side, as far as getting some of the screens and, you know, producing some good yardage, that probably as a whole, whenever I talk about physicality, the offense and defense of some of those screens, they're really physical. And then we had a big play to get the red zone started to Josh Kelly and Micah Hudson's out there on the edge, blocking and being really physical.
I think, you know, the coaching part is, you know, maintaining your leverage and then understanding, you know, let the defensive guys sometimes, if he starts winning, let him go where he wants to go. Just maintain contact, you know. So he's not just free, making plays on the ball. A lot of it is want to, you got to go out there and you got to want to block on the perimeter, you know, because it's tough. There's going to be a lot of bodies flying around, if we're really running to the football whenever it comes to the screen game."
I saw Bryce Ramirez the other day get dinged up, any update?
"Hamstring, hopefully getting him back. We had a red zone lockout our last one and Jalin Conyers had like a 25 yard touchdown on the red zone lock out. one was at 20.9 miles per hour, and those were 20.8 miles per hour, and you know, he was the one trying to knock him out of bounds on the one yard line and Jalin scored and he tweaked it there."
What about Joseph Adedire?
"Same thing, he got rolled up on a screen. He should be back Monday."
You mentioned Mo Horn earlier, could you go more in detail about his performance?
"It's huge because Bralyn Lux is such a good corner. You talking about a guy when you start looking at guys that have played a lot of college snaps. So we feel great about him. And I thought Mo had a really good spring, but he's taking it to another level. Even if the ball is caught, he is right there battling, you know, to knock the ball out. He's 180 pounds. So you're like, man, 180 pounds. How physical you can be. He's really physical as a corner. And man did a good job attacking the ball today. You know, I thought that the corners, especially early in the scrimmage, I thought the corners really gave our receivers on the outside all they could handle."
Where are you at in the STAR battle between AJ McCarty and Brendan Jordan?
"I feel great about both of them first, we really do feel really good about our two deep I mean, whenever I say our ones went out on defense, I bet we played, I bet we played 22 guys with our ones today, honestly. When you talk about the outside linebacker rotation. You're talking about the deep tackle rotation, and you're talking about inside linebackers. I bet we played 22 guys.
If we're starting a game tomorrow, I would say AJ would be the starter going out. But I feel really good about both of them. They both do some really good things. You know, AJ, is really, does a really good job with coverage. And then he is really, he's a really good Blitzer. I mean, he does a really good job. He's very sudden, and he takes great angles. And then, BJ, no, he's got a little bit more experience in this defense, playing last year. And then he's 210, pounds, so, you know, lining up over a tight end, being physical on the edge. Setting the edge is kind of what he's really good at."
How has Brendan Jordan improved at setting the edge from last season?
"It's all angles. He wanted to set the edge. It wasn't a lack of physicality, but, you know, it's a little bit different, you know, at this level, from the standpoint of who's blocking you at the receiver position, and you go back and you have guys that are really willing to block and do a good job, leverage wise. So so many times he was like, hey, I can beat this guy inside, and then he's getting washed instead setting the edge and he's doing a lot better job of that."
How were the QBs today?
"I thought he did a really good job. I mean, I thought all four of them, at different times, had good scrimmages. It was funny. I was walking off with Cam and and I said, 'you did a good job' and he said 'I was alright.' And I said, Well, Cam, you gotta always remember part of your game is never gonna show up in the scrimmage. I mean, I'm not gonna let anybody hit you...But you know, the quarterback run game goes to a whole different level whenever he comes in the game."
Have you seen what you've wanted from Behren, throwing the ball away when needed?
"Yeah, he through the ball out of bounds a couple times. It was really good. You know, I thought that he hung in there whenever needed hanging there. We had a couple of good plays with him scrambling. But there were two that he immediately got out of pocket and threw the ball out of bounds, where, I think, last year, in a game, if he was probably getting hit instead of getting the ball out."
Who was in that one's rotation at the OLB positions?
"Isaac at the B, Harvey at the B, Joseph since he didn't go today, you've really got three guys there. I mean, they all do good things, and there's different things that they do well. Then Charles Esters, Amier Washington has had a phenomenal camp. He kind of tweaked his groin yesterday, if it was a game, he would've gone today. I didn't want to get him out there. And then all of a sudden, he gets it worse, and now it's two or three. I mean, he's a young guy. We all saw him in the bowl. He needs a lot of reps, because he is going to make a huge impact on this team. But Esters, Ansel (Nedore) and Sam Carrell were out there with the twos and threes."
Did you mention Dylan Spencer?
"Spencer, we lost him for the year, knee...Practice number one, maybe two. Non-pads, non-contact, so he'll be out for the year...Yeah, bad step kind of over extended, and it's kind of scary when you have a non contact guy."
Have you decided on any redshirts for the year?
"Yeah, bad step kind of over extended, and it's kind of scary when you non contact guys. Cam Dickey is not going to redshirt. Micah Hudson isn't. I hope like crazy that we're not playing four quarterbacks this year or three quarterbacks. We want to play one and get get 2 (Morton) out whenever we need to, and and play 7 (Brown) in certain packages. I mean, there's some guys are really showing up, but those two, for sure, I don't see us redshirting."
How's the helmet communication going?
"Today we went into Jones AT&T stadium, and we cranked up the volume. If y'all didn't hear it, we really cranked it up. I think that's the sound system, even it has more. Gio (@Robert G) was trying to be, I guess, sweet to all the neighbors around stadium, but it was so great for us, because it's the first time, even though we played music, it was the first time that you could definitely see we even popped in crowd noise whenever we were on that the big jumbotron end, and all our quarterbacks had to cover their ears, because, you know, it was hard for those guys to hear. It's been great. You know, all the quarterbacks have the communication whenever they go on the field. And then on the defensive side of the ball, you've got Jacob Rodriguez, you've got Ben Roberts, and you've got Bryce Ramirez with the green dots. It's going to be interesting to me. It's just like it happens in the NFL, you know, you can't have two green dots on the field, so we'll have to have an extra helmet for can Brown, and then my three linebackers. By rule, the free kicks, you can have more than one green dot, meaning kickoff and kickoff return. We'll practice in a second helmet this week with those guys. So we're actually scrimmage number two. We're going to practice where we're going to have those guys on and off to where we'll have to have different helmets, because it's five yard penalty. And, man, you use think about it, it's fourth and four, they're coming out to kick a field goal, and you got cooked two green dots. You just gave him a first down. So all that stuff we gotta practice.
It's gone well, DeRuyter is in the box it's even better for him whenever he gets to be in the box, versus practice. Today was the first day that we worked with the shut off. And so if you remember, in the bowl, we talked the whole time, we got the shut off. So today I'm really anxious to hear what they thought, the players thought, what Kitley thought."
Is Kittley going to talk from the sideline?
"Yea. Y'all have heard me gripe and gripe about this, it's really comical. You're still going to see everybody signal. You can't. Again, we're signaling a little bit different whenever it comes on the offensive side of the ball because you're still talking about your entire secondary. We actually experimented with letting linebacker that has it on tell the other linebacker, and then they were going to communicate to the two levels. We got lit up like a Christmas tree. I mean, it was, it was a fiasco. And so please for all the other coaches that we play, please, don't signal. Have one guy trying to communicate it to everybody on the field whenever you're playing college football and tempo. Hopefully they relook at this after this year, whenever everybody still sees all the boards and all that where people report you're not going to see that they didn't change anything. They just found the easy way to get it passed."
How's the kicker battle?
"I would say today, just off of my thinking, going through it, Gino won the day. They both had some kicks that were 40-plus. You know, with our kicks, we're trying to be, you know, 80 plus percent. When you start talking about 47 yards, kind of, that's the mark. And I know Reese missed one. I don't know what the distance was. I want to say it was, it was a 40 yarder. I think Gino hit all of his. I think coming into this, Reese kind of had a little bit of a lead. I think Gino, you know, won the day. We are trying to put as much pressure for two reasons. Number one, we want to create competition. But number two, Reese has earned the right to be in a battle with Gino. We want to make sure we have the best kicker out there."
Founded by a Red Raider, All Hands Craft Cocktails is proud to announce their partnership with RedRaiderSports.com. Try these bar strength, ready-to-drink vodka cocktails at Jones AT&T Stadium this football season or find them at a retailer near you. Cheers.
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Opening Statement:
"Physical. That's the I'm going to say. It was really one of the most physical scrimmages that we've had since I've been here, on both sides of the ball. Guys that really stood out. Mo (Maurion) Horn at corner, had a really great scrimmage. Ben Roberts at linebacker, Harvey Dyson at outside linebacker Justin Horne, I was really pleased. I've been pleased for the last three or four days, or last three or four practices with Justin Horne, he's really starting to come on. And then our six defensive tackles that played with the ones and twos. Quincy, DB (Carroll), James Hansen, (Jayden) Cofield, (Braylon) Rigsby. I mean, they were really dominant whenever it came to the first part of scrimmage. I was really pleased with that. Defensively dominated the first part of scrimmage. I mean, there were three and outs right off the bat with the ones and the threes, and then the second time the twos came out, it was three and out. Was happy with that on the defensive side of the ball.
Offensively, Drae McCray, had a really good scrimmage. Jordan Brown, I thought had a really good scrimmage. We had some big plays with Josh Kelly, once we got into the red zone lockout period. But the kid that really stood out, and it's cam Dickey roll his ankle in practice, so he didn't go today, and so that pushed J'Koby Williams up to get some with the twos. That kid is special. I mean, in the open field, he had two big runs of 25 and 35 yards. It was really good to see.
Saying that the defense dominated the first part of the scrimmage, the offense dominated the redzone. They won the lockout 18-4. You know, again, really sharp, but a lot of teaching. You know, we had way too many pre snap penalties. We had a Big 12 officials crew, called it just like they're going to call it in September, October, November and December, January. We wanted it called just like that. So we got way too many pre snap penalties. We just got to make sure that we're focused and detailed with that stuff. That's something that's going to be really big going into next week's practice and next week's scrimmage."
How did the OL look, specifically at left tackle?
"Yeah, I thought they did some good things, especially in red zone lockout. We had some good pass pro with the ones, but there was not a lot of, whenever we were going those six guys versus our first offense in the interior, there wasn't a lot of room to run. I mean, they did a good job of, you know, maintaining their gap. They got some knock back. So, you know, excited. So we got to get better, you know, a lot of that, o-line wise is going to be keep working our pad level. We'll have 100% everybody back Monday, because we get Jaxon Hughes fully back. We didn't scrimmage him today, so we'll have all of our lines. So I think this next week is going to be really interesting. Sterling and Dalton played left tackle today with the ones. We had Ty Buchanan playing right tackle, but we had Caleb Rogers playing right tackle at times when DC went in at guard. You know, Vinny is kind of that mainstay right now but we want to make sure that we're getting a good mix of all of them playing together so we can find our best five. You know, I feel the good thing is we have good depth. I thought the twos, whenever they went out there, did a good job. And, you know, the first time the twos went out there, Cam Brown was quarterback, they moved the ball a little bit better than the ones did, but then the ones, whenever they came out in red zone. I mean, they scored twice and it wasn't, I mean, we didn't even come close to putting up a fight with those."
WR Screen & Perimeter Blocking a point of emphasis?
"That was why Drae McCray really stood out. And he stood out because he was on the screen side, as far as getting some of the screens and, you know, producing some good yardage, that probably as a whole, whenever I talk about physicality, the offense and defense of some of those screens, they're really physical. And then we had a big play to get the red zone started to Josh Kelly and Micah Hudson's out there on the edge, blocking and being really physical.
I think, you know, the coaching part is, you know, maintaining your leverage and then understanding, you know, let the defensive guys sometimes, if he starts winning, let him go where he wants to go. Just maintain contact, you know. So he's not just free, making plays on the ball. A lot of it is want to, you got to go out there and you got to want to block on the perimeter, you know, because it's tough. There's going to be a lot of bodies flying around, if we're really running to the football whenever it comes to the screen game."
I saw Bryce Ramirez the other day get dinged up, any update?
"Hamstring, hopefully getting him back. We had a red zone lockout our last one and Jalin Conyers had like a 25 yard touchdown on the red zone lock out. one was at 20.9 miles per hour, and those were 20.8 miles per hour, and you know, he was the one trying to knock him out of bounds on the one yard line and Jalin scored and he tweaked it there."
What about Joseph Adedire?
"Same thing, he got rolled up on a screen. He should be back Monday."
You mentioned Mo Horn earlier, could you go more in detail about his performance?
"It's huge because Bralyn Lux is such a good corner. You talking about a guy when you start looking at guys that have played a lot of college snaps. So we feel great about him. And I thought Mo had a really good spring, but he's taking it to another level. Even if the ball is caught, he is right there battling, you know, to knock the ball out. He's 180 pounds. So you're like, man, 180 pounds. How physical you can be. He's really physical as a corner. And man did a good job attacking the ball today. You know, I thought that the corners, especially early in the scrimmage, I thought the corners really gave our receivers on the outside all they could handle."
Where are you at in the STAR battle between AJ McCarty and Brendan Jordan?
"I feel great about both of them first, we really do feel really good about our two deep I mean, whenever I say our ones went out on defense, I bet we played, I bet we played 22 guys with our ones today, honestly. When you talk about the outside linebacker rotation. You're talking about the deep tackle rotation, and you're talking about inside linebackers. I bet we played 22 guys.
If we're starting a game tomorrow, I would say AJ would be the starter going out. But I feel really good about both of them. They both do some really good things. You know, AJ, is really, does a really good job with coverage. And then he is really, he's a really good Blitzer. I mean, he does a really good job. He's very sudden, and he takes great angles. And then, BJ, no, he's got a little bit more experience in this defense, playing last year. And then he's 210, pounds, so, you know, lining up over a tight end, being physical on the edge. Setting the edge is kind of what he's really good at."
How has Brendan Jordan improved at setting the edge from last season?
"It's all angles. He wanted to set the edge. It wasn't a lack of physicality, but, you know, it's a little bit different, you know, at this level, from the standpoint of who's blocking you at the receiver position, and you go back and you have guys that are really willing to block and do a good job, leverage wise. So so many times he was like, hey, I can beat this guy inside, and then he's getting washed instead setting the edge and he's doing a lot better job of that."
How were the QBs today?
"I thought he did a really good job. I mean, I thought all four of them, at different times, had good scrimmages. It was funny. I was walking off with Cam and and I said, 'you did a good job' and he said 'I was alright.' And I said, Well, Cam, you gotta always remember part of your game is never gonna show up in the scrimmage. I mean, I'm not gonna let anybody hit you...But you know, the quarterback run game goes to a whole different level whenever he comes in the game."
Have you seen what you've wanted from Behren, throwing the ball away when needed?
"Yeah, he through the ball out of bounds a couple times. It was really good. You know, I thought that he hung in there whenever needed hanging there. We had a couple of good plays with him scrambling. But there were two that he immediately got out of pocket and threw the ball out of bounds, where, I think, last year, in a game, if he was probably getting hit instead of getting the ball out."
Who was in that one's rotation at the OLB positions?
"Isaac at the B, Harvey at the B, Joseph since he didn't go today, you've really got three guys there. I mean, they all do good things, and there's different things that they do well. Then Charles Esters, Amier Washington has had a phenomenal camp. He kind of tweaked his groin yesterday, if it was a game, he would've gone today. I didn't want to get him out there. And then all of a sudden, he gets it worse, and now it's two or three. I mean, he's a young guy. We all saw him in the bowl. He needs a lot of reps, because he is going to make a huge impact on this team. But Esters, Ansel (Nedore) and Sam Carrell were out there with the twos and threes."
Did you mention Dylan Spencer?
"Spencer, we lost him for the year, knee...Practice number one, maybe two. Non-pads, non-contact, so he'll be out for the year...Yeah, bad step kind of over extended, and it's kind of scary when you have a non contact guy."
Have you decided on any redshirts for the year?
"Yeah, bad step kind of over extended, and it's kind of scary when you non contact guys. Cam Dickey is not going to redshirt. Micah Hudson isn't. I hope like crazy that we're not playing four quarterbacks this year or three quarterbacks. We want to play one and get get 2 (Morton) out whenever we need to, and and play 7 (Brown) in certain packages. I mean, there's some guys are really showing up, but those two, for sure, I don't see us redshirting."
How's the helmet communication going?
"Today we went into Jones AT&T stadium, and we cranked up the volume. If y'all didn't hear it, we really cranked it up. I think that's the sound system, even it has more. Gio (@Robert G) was trying to be, I guess, sweet to all the neighbors around stadium, but it was so great for us, because it's the first time, even though we played music, it was the first time that you could definitely see we even popped in crowd noise whenever we were on that the big jumbotron end, and all our quarterbacks had to cover their ears, because, you know, it was hard for those guys to hear. It's been great. You know, all the quarterbacks have the communication whenever they go on the field. And then on the defensive side of the ball, you've got Jacob Rodriguez, you've got Ben Roberts, and you've got Bryce Ramirez with the green dots. It's going to be interesting to me. It's just like it happens in the NFL, you know, you can't have two green dots on the field, so we'll have to have an extra helmet for can Brown, and then my three linebackers. By rule, the free kicks, you can have more than one green dot, meaning kickoff and kickoff return. We'll practice in a second helmet this week with those guys. So we're actually scrimmage number two. We're going to practice where we're going to have those guys on and off to where we'll have to have different helmets, because it's five yard penalty. And, man, you use think about it, it's fourth and four, they're coming out to kick a field goal, and you got cooked two green dots. You just gave him a first down. So all that stuff we gotta practice.
It's gone well, DeRuyter is in the box it's even better for him whenever he gets to be in the box, versus practice. Today was the first day that we worked with the shut off. And so if you remember, in the bowl, we talked the whole time, we got the shut off. So today I'm really anxious to hear what they thought, the players thought, what Kitley thought."
Is Kittley going to talk from the sideline?
"Yea. Y'all have heard me gripe and gripe about this, it's really comical. You're still going to see everybody signal. You can't. Again, we're signaling a little bit different whenever it comes on the offensive side of the ball because you're still talking about your entire secondary. We actually experimented with letting linebacker that has it on tell the other linebacker, and then they were going to communicate to the two levels. We got lit up like a Christmas tree. I mean, it was, it was a fiasco. And so please for all the other coaches that we play, please, don't signal. Have one guy trying to communicate it to everybody on the field whenever you're playing college football and tempo. Hopefully they relook at this after this year, whenever everybody still sees all the boards and all that where people report you're not going to see that they didn't change anything. They just found the easy way to get it passed."
How's the kicker battle?
"I would say today, just off of my thinking, going through it, Gino won the day. They both had some kicks that were 40-plus. You know, with our kicks, we're trying to be, you know, 80 plus percent. When you start talking about 47 yards, kind of, that's the mark. And I know Reese missed one. I don't know what the distance was. I want to say it was, it was a 40 yarder. I think Gino hit all of his. I think coming into this, Reese kind of had a little bit of a lead. I think Gino, you know, won the day. We are trying to put as much pressure for two reasons. Number one, we want to create competition. But number two, Reese has earned the right to be in a battle with Gino. We want to make sure we have the best kicker out there."
Founded by a Red Raider, All Hands Craft Cocktails is proud to announce their partnership with RedRaiderSports.com. Try these bar strength, ready-to-drink vodka cocktails at Jones AT&T Stadium this football season or find them at a retailer near you. Cheers.
@ALL HANDS
