Fun convo with the head coach. We will have a couple of player features over tonight and into tomorrow.
Opening statement:
"Man, it was great to be back on the field today. You guys were excited. I felt you could see that with the energy that we had at practice. You know, it's interesting the the day and age we're in with football, we have the most guys we've ever had going through spring football since I've been in college and you know, really if you think about it, it's trending that way because you got two things are going on. You have mid year graduation with high school guys. So we had 13 of those guys, and then you have the transfers. You know you're losing X amount of seniors, you're losing X amount of guys that leave and then you're adding those guys back in really quickly. So I don't know if I've ever gone into a spring football and we had 19 offensive lineman practice today. Which is number one that we need. We all know that and it's really exciting. Really excited about the competition in the secondary and it showed up today. You know, we had some interceptions in seven on seven that some guys made some big plays. You're gonna ask me about some guys who are banged up, but you know, our tight end room is gonna be really special. You've got Mason Tharp coming back, you've got Jalin Conyers who's not going through spring football. But we know exactly what he can do. And then today, man, I was so impressed with John Carlos Miller. He showed up big time, right at the end of the our last team redzone he made a big catch in the endzone. You know, put one foot down like falling out of bounds, just a big time catch and so excited about that group. I feel good about practice number one. Y'all know me I'm always fired up. I'm always gonna be excited. I'm not gonna temper that excitement. So all the people that are saying hey, don't drink the Kool Aid yet. Look, I'm drinking that Kool Aid. I believe in my guys. I believe in this team. And I was excited. We've got a lot of work to do got to continue to get better, but it was a good first day."
On Clay McGuire's assimilation & the newcomers in that group:
"Yeah, he's done a great job. You know, the one thing that stands out with Clay is he's a really strong teacher. I talked to our coaches about is, you know, think about your best teachers, whether it was in school or your best coaches, and they were great teachers. And one thing that stood out is in his meeting room, just his teaching the walkthroughs that we've been able to do during football school, just the teaching progression. And so I thought it was good. You know, we're rotating a lot of guys like our ones and twos. You can look out there and you don't know who the ones or twos are. From the standpoint of, you know, even with Caleb Rogers, he's going with the twos also if he's playing like left guard. We've got, you know, 10 guys going with ones and twos and there's probably eight of them that are I think battling for, you know, who's going to be the number one left tackle or who's going to be the number one right guard. So the teaching that he's brought to that room I think it's going to accelerate you know what we can do there."
On who stood out today on the OL:
"But some guys that showed up today that you know, I was really impressed with was you know, Ty Buchanan, looks really good. He's kind of in more his natural spot. He had to play left tackle in the bowl game we've been able to move him back to right tackle. He looked good today. I thought. I thought Vinny (Scuiry) at left guard and he's going to stay at left guard. He's playing ones or twos but he's only playing left guard where Caleb's playing you know, right guard, center and left guard. DC Carter is playing right guard and center. We're gonna keep Vinny at left guard but I was really impressed with him. And you know, the one young guy that is really stood out is Jacob Ponton. You know, he's he's with the threes. But he's got a really high football IQ and he's six seven and you know, start putting on weight and build the strength."
On QBs:
"Behren took every rep that he would take with the ones today, you know, and so he had a full practice now this a little bit shorter practice because it's the first day and so there'll be times that we'll kind of pull back on him and let Jake (Strong) or Cameron (Brown) get some with the first group and the second group. Behren got all the reps are the ones today. Jake got all the reps with the twos. But whenever you're sitting there, you're looking at it with the twos or who's gonna be I mean, there's some really good competition. Will Hammond has come in and has done a great job. He's very serious about football. Brown brings a whole different level whenever you're talking about running quarterback power, quarterback counter, you know, running some of the stuff that we were able to do with Donovan that we didn't do as much with you know, we didn't want to run Behren and we didn't do as much with him. So he brings a whole different scheme. He does have a big arm, been happy with the way he's thrown the ball."
On receivers:
"So Caleb Douglas is playing outside on our right opposite of Coy (Eakin), Coy is playing on the left. Outside today you had Caleb Douglas and Jordan Brown. Josh Kelly's playing in the slot. Kelly had a huge catch today, everything that I thought that guy was gonna be that's what he is. He got really strong hands. He's a strong route runner loves football. And I'll tell you you know, he wore number three, that's a big deal to him. I told him you know, number three is earned here. And I said, I have no problem and you were in number three, but you got to earn it. And so he's wearing 18 right now and he said, Coach, that's what I need to do. Guys in this day and age. There's not a lot of guys that have wore their number for a long time. And that number is open and they transfer to a place that they're not asking for it and not upset when they don't get it. In that slot, it was he and Drae McCray. Kelby Valsin has mixed into that slot when we go four-wide...What's going to be interesting is when Micah (Hudson) gets back, it's easier to pick up outside receiver. He's gonna have a lot of time to pick everything up and you know, he knows the playbook but do we play him inside and outside?"
On Conyers timeline & injury:
"He'll be back, but we won't do anything with him for me other than rehab he'll be back first of the offseason. so we were running our fourth quarter which is our Tuesday and Thursday mornings, a real grind in the offseason. He broke his foot but it's right on his pinky toe and right on that edge. So right now we've got him non weight bearing. We feel good everybody. I mean we feel like feel great about him and Micah being back when we get crankin in the summer, which are two big pieces. He's a guy honestly, in the first two years, that's good enough to where he could have played outside receiver and maybe even started for us at outside receiver but he's going to play tight end."
On Secondary:
"I'm really excited about the secondary. We've got competition there. There's no doubt like I'm never gonna give somebody anything. CJ Baskerville's coming back in Bralyn Lux is coming back. So those two guys, you know we play five DBS. And so those two guys they're our starters. I feel like it'd be really hard to move them out of the starting lineup. And so you've got great competition at STAR. You've got BJ Jordan and AJ McCarty playing STAR and we've moved Miquel Dingle to STAR. nd so the reason we did that is because we're thinking okay, you have Jacob Rodriguez coming back at linebacker, you have Ben Roberts coming back. You have Bryce Ramirez, you have John Curry, who's coming coming on like a freight train. And so was Miquel. He's fast enough. He's such a disrupter. Chaos follows this guy, even when he's running hurdles and and so we've moved him to STAR and really excited about that move, and he can always go back inside. The great thing with AJ, if he doesn't win the STAR position, he's a vet. So he can play free safety right now. So he's competing for where he could start. We move Jordan Sanford over to free safety. So the battle at free safety is Chapman Lewis, AJ McCarty and Jordan Sanford. At the corners, today when we went out there you had Lux and Mo Horn out there. I think if you ask anybody on our team, any player who is the number one, the biggest surprise in offseason now they every single one of them will tell you Jalen Peoples. So he's battling and then a guy that I really like is Devynn Cromwell. He is a vet, he's from Canada. He played Canadian football, so you know, the receivers can be running at you. And whenever we said that, they'll actually be in a stance and they won't run at him, he goes 'Coach, I can cover these guys.' And he did, he had a big interception today."
Opening statement:
"Man, it was great to be back on the field today. You guys were excited. I felt you could see that with the energy that we had at practice. You know, it's interesting the the day and age we're in with football, we have the most guys we've ever had going through spring football since I've been in college and you know, really if you think about it, it's trending that way because you got two things are going on. You have mid year graduation with high school guys. So we had 13 of those guys, and then you have the transfers. You know you're losing X amount of seniors, you're losing X amount of guys that leave and then you're adding those guys back in really quickly. So I don't know if I've ever gone into a spring football and we had 19 offensive lineman practice today. Which is number one that we need. We all know that and it's really exciting. Really excited about the competition in the secondary and it showed up today. You know, we had some interceptions in seven on seven that some guys made some big plays. You're gonna ask me about some guys who are banged up, but you know, our tight end room is gonna be really special. You've got Mason Tharp coming back, you've got Jalin Conyers who's not going through spring football. But we know exactly what he can do. And then today, man, I was so impressed with John Carlos Miller. He showed up big time, right at the end of the our last team redzone he made a big catch in the endzone. You know, put one foot down like falling out of bounds, just a big time catch and so excited about that group. I feel good about practice number one. Y'all know me I'm always fired up. I'm always gonna be excited. I'm not gonna temper that excitement. So all the people that are saying hey, don't drink the Kool Aid yet. Look, I'm drinking that Kool Aid. I believe in my guys. I believe in this team. And I was excited. We've got a lot of work to do got to continue to get better, but it was a good first day."
On Clay McGuire's assimilation & the newcomers in that group:
"Yeah, he's done a great job. You know, the one thing that stands out with Clay is he's a really strong teacher. I talked to our coaches about is, you know, think about your best teachers, whether it was in school or your best coaches, and they were great teachers. And one thing that stood out is in his meeting room, just his teaching the walkthroughs that we've been able to do during football school, just the teaching progression. And so I thought it was good. You know, we're rotating a lot of guys like our ones and twos. You can look out there and you don't know who the ones or twos are. From the standpoint of, you know, even with Caleb Rogers, he's going with the twos also if he's playing like left guard. We've got, you know, 10 guys going with ones and twos and there's probably eight of them that are I think battling for, you know, who's going to be the number one left tackle or who's going to be the number one right guard. So the teaching that he's brought to that room I think it's going to accelerate you know what we can do there."
On who stood out today on the OL:
"But some guys that showed up today that you know, I was really impressed with was you know, Ty Buchanan, looks really good. He's kind of in more his natural spot. He had to play left tackle in the bowl game we've been able to move him back to right tackle. He looked good today. I thought. I thought Vinny (Scuiry) at left guard and he's going to stay at left guard. He's playing ones or twos but he's only playing left guard where Caleb's playing you know, right guard, center and left guard. DC Carter is playing right guard and center. We're gonna keep Vinny at left guard but I was really impressed with him. And you know, the one young guy that is really stood out is Jacob Ponton. You know, he's he's with the threes. But he's got a really high football IQ and he's six seven and you know, start putting on weight and build the strength."
On QBs:
"Behren took every rep that he would take with the ones today, you know, and so he had a full practice now this a little bit shorter practice because it's the first day and so there'll be times that we'll kind of pull back on him and let Jake (Strong) or Cameron (Brown) get some with the first group and the second group. Behren got all the reps are the ones today. Jake got all the reps with the twos. But whenever you're sitting there, you're looking at it with the twos or who's gonna be I mean, there's some really good competition. Will Hammond has come in and has done a great job. He's very serious about football. Brown brings a whole different level whenever you're talking about running quarterback power, quarterback counter, you know, running some of the stuff that we were able to do with Donovan that we didn't do as much with you know, we didn't want to run Behren and we didn't do as much with him. So he brings a whole different scheme. He does have a big arm, been happy with the way he's thrown the ball."
On receivers:
"So Caleb Douglas is playing outside on our right opposite of Coy (Eakin), Coy is playing on the left. Outside today you had Caleb Douglas and Jordan Brown. Josh Kelly's playing in the slot. Kelly had a huge catch today, everything that I thought that guy was gonna be that's what he is. He got really strong hands. He's a strong route runner loves football. And I'll tell you you know, he wore number three, that's a big deal to him. I told him you know, number three is earned here. And I said, I have no problem and you were in number three, but you got to earn it. And so he's wearing 18 right now and he said, Coach, that's what I need to do. Guys in this day and age. There's not a lot of guys that have wore their number for a long time. And that number is open and they transfer to a place that they're not asking for it and not upset when they don't get it. In that slot, it was he and Drae McCray. Kelby Valsin has mixed into that slot when we go four-wide...What's going to be interesting is when Micah (Hudson) gets back, it's easier to pick up outside receiver. He's gonna have a lot of time to pick everything up and you know, he knows the playbook but do we play him inside and outside?"
On Conyers timeline & injury:
"He'll be back, but we won't do anything with him for me other than rehab he'll be back first of the offseason. so we were running our fourth quarter which is our Tuesday and Thursday mornings, a real grind in the offseason. He broke his foot but it's right on his pinky toe and right on that edge. So right now we've got him non weight bearing. We feel good everybody. I mean we feel like feel great about him and Micah being back when we get crankin in the summer, which are two big pieces. He's a guy honestly, in the first two years, that's good enough to where he could have played outside receiver and maybe even started for us at outside receiver but he's going to play tight end."
On Secondary:
"I'm really excited about the secondary. We've got competition there. There's no doubt like I'm never gonna give somebody anything. CJ Baskerville's coming back in Bralyn Lux is coming back. So those two guys, you know we play five DBS. And so those two guys they're our starters. I feel like it'd be really hard to move them out of the starting lineup. And so you've got great competition at STAR. You've got BJ Jordan and AJ McCarty playing STAR and we've moved Miquel Dingle to STAR. nd so the reason we did that is because we're thinking okay, you have Jacob Rodriguez coming back at linebacker, you have Ben Roberts coming back. You have Bryce Ramirez, you have John Curry, who's coming coming on like a freight train. And so was Miquel. He's fast enough. He's such a disrupter. Chaos follows this guy, even when he's running hurdles and and so we've moved him to STAR and really excited about that move, and he can always go back inside. The great thing with AJ, if he doesn't win the STAR position, he's a vet. So he can play free safety right now. So he's competing for where he could start. We move Jordan Sanford over to free safety. So the battle at free safety is Chapman Lewis, AJ McCarty and Jordan Sanford. At the corners, today when we went out there you had Lux and Mo Horn out there. I think if you ask anybody on our team, any player who is the number one, the biggest surprise in offseason now they every single one of them will tell you Jalen Peoples. So he's battling and then a guy that I really like is Devynn Cromwell. He is a vet, he's from Canada. He played Canadian football, so you know, the receivers can be running at you. And whenever we said that, they'll actually be in a stance and they won't run at him, he goes 'Coach, I can cover these guys.' And he did, he had a big interception today."
