Were you aware of this coach Duggs thing or were you caught by surprise of it and did some research?
"No, I had no idea and I'm probably not on Twitter as much as some so I don't know much about it other than our staff kinda got into a staff group text and that. So I've asked a few questions but haven't done much with it. Just working on trying to get us better."
Take us through the past six weeks for you trying to coach and everything with what's going on.
"We've had a lot of Zoom meetings. Coach Wells has done a great job with kinda organizing our time to make us efficient and to really take care of our kids. The two things we talked about that we thought we could get done at this time would be to become more relationship oriented with our players and recruit. We call it 'Tech Talk' which I know is not an original term but we do that. We trademarked it so you guys owe coach Wells money now so I apologize. Every day we're calling our guys, talk to them one-on-one, FaceTime them, Zoom. Ask them how their family is, talk to them about academics ... and just talking ... We had position meetings which have been good with some special guests. We've had Wes Welker talk to our team one day. We had Zach Thomas one day and Anthony Lynn, head coach of the Chargers talk to our team. I had Davis Webb talk to the offense and he came to I think of our 10 QB meetings he came to seven or eight of them. He gave us updates, I asked him questions and now we can slow things down in position meetings. We gotta find a way to get better at this things ... We've done a lot of communications with our kids.
Our recruiting staff has done a good job along with our coaches in getting them on the phone or on Zoom calls. We've had some success in recruiting the past few weeks which is good. We need to continue that and finish it up. We're probably not going to have visits in June, might not have anything in July going. So you kinda got to get that done now so when we hit the season you can focus on football and keeping a hold of those guys we got and finish up that class."
Do you think moving forward this experience will alter how you handle the offseason? Will anything carry over?
I think we might steal some things that our guys have done in the weight room or with our strength staff that will be really, really useful because there are times when we send them away from us and they're kinda on their own that there's things we've learned and figured out this is how something should feel and that. I think they've become independent on their individual workouts because they have to be. Our big mantra on offense is stay ready so you don't have to get ready. You know once they say go it's going to be a sprint. We don't do anything slow just as things go so keeping our guys in position that way. Keeping with football - I'm better coaching over Zoom than I was before. I know some tips and tricks. Our video guy did a great job giving us a way to show video on Zoom than the other way and it works ... There's little things you learn as you go ... We'll feel much more comfortable doing it. Recruiting wise, you lose the personal side and football's the name of the game ... Coach Patterson joked today and said it's a lot faster trip from Amarillo to Wichita Falls on Zoom than in his car ... You adapt and find the best way to do it."
Lot of focus on haircuts. Home haircuts are a thing again. I'm guessing you're doing okay though, right, coach?
"Yeah, I have not had to get a haircut. It still looks tremendous. I'm sure if you're friends with my wife on Facebook not so much. But, I got one right before we went on Spring Break. I was lucky enough to get a little trim. It looks great. I'm good to go.
How much of an advantage is it that you don't have to start from scratch with a brand new QB with Alan back and good to go?
I've been talking to a few high school coaches in recruiting and a couple of them have the same deal. They got a returner and feel so lucky in picking up where they left off. Alan's going to have to compete with Maverick but he was performing at a high rate. Maverick is doing a great job coming along but Alan was doing a good job not letting Maverick take reps from him and that's how we'll start camp ... Our goal is to pick it up and go. We only got four practices in but hopefully our next practice is just number five. That's how we're approaching it. We don't want to go backwards in any way ... Alan got better after he got hurt. He's getting better right now, too. He's here in Lubbock getting better. It's been really good and it's going to get better with him."
How do you handle Donovan Smith as a freshman with not coming in already?
I have one quick question, what is up with all the moths in Lubbock? I don't remember this last year when I was here.
AD: the thing about Lubbock is there's always something that will surprise you every year. Moths, dust storms.
Level: I think it has to do with we haven't had any rain.
Yost: I'm watching out the back window in the cubicle my wife kinda locks me in to work and I watched my son take the trash out and he's dodging like 30 of them, running into the house. No, anyways, with Donovan it was working out for spring there. He was coming to position meetings because his school days were, he was kinda like an early out guy at Frenship with his classes so he would get done with school, come to position meetings and come to a couple of practice before going back for track practice. We started going to the install with him. He's got kind of a cheat with his dad so he has a basis of what we do and how. Since he's been in Vegas, it's a not by rule, allowed to have position meetings with him but when we get on the phone we do talk a little football. He's been out in Vegas, staying with his mom, finishing up his classwork online and he's throwing all the time out there. His throwing partner is Dorian Thompson-Robinson, the starting QB at UCLA. He's shot me a couple of videos of him throwing and we discuss that. He's further along than most guys with his dad. So many freshmen are playing nowadays and so many freshmen are playing at QB than they used to be. I remember when I first started you redshirted every QB because the college game is so much different than the high school game. That's not the case especially here in Texas ... Their preparation is just so much different ... It gives them a chance to come in and compete."
"No, I had no idea and I'm probably not on Twitter as much as some so I don't know much about it other than our staff kinda got into a staff group text and that. So I've asked a few questions but haven't done much with it. Just working on trying to get us better."
Take us through the past six weeks for you trying to coach and everything with what's going on.
"We've had a lot of Zoom meetings. Coach Wells has done a great job with kinda organizing our time to make us efficient and to really take care of our kids. The two things we talked about that we thought we could get done at this time would be to become more relationship oriented with our players and recruit. We call it 'Tech Talk' which I know is not an original term but we do that. We trademarked it so you guys owe coach Wells money now so I apologize. Every day we're calling our guys, talk to them one-on-one, FaceTime them, Zoom. Ask them how their family is, talk to them about academics ... and just talking ... We had position meetings which have been good with some special guests. We've had Wes Welker talk to our team one day. We had Zach Thomas one day and Anthony Lynn, head coach of the Chargers talk to our team. I had Davis Webb talk to the offense and he came to I think of our 10 QB meetings he came to seven or eight of them. He gave us updates, I asked him questions and now we can slow things down in position meetings. We gotta find a way to get better at this things ... We've done a lot of communications with our kids.
Our recruiting staff has done a good job along with our coaches in getting them on the phone or on Zoom calls. We've had some success in recruiting the past few weeks which is good. We need to continue that and finish it up. We're probably not going to have visits in June, might not have anything in July going. So you kinda got to get that done now so when we hit the season you can focus on football and keeping a hold of those guys we got and finish up that class."
Do you think moving forward this experience will alter how you handle the offseason? Will anything carry over?
I think we might steal some things that our guys have done in the weight room or with our strength staff that will be really, really useful because there are times when we send them away from us and they're kinda on their own that there's things we've learned and figured out this is how something should feel and that. I think they've become independent on their individual workouts because they have to be. Our big mantra on offense is stay ready so you don't have to get ready. You know once they say go it's going to be a sprint. We don't do anything slow just as things go so keeping our guys in position that way. Keeping with football - I'm better coaching over Zoom than I was before. I know some tips and tricks. Our video guy did a great job giving us a way to show video on Zoom than the other way and it works ... There's little things you learn as you go ... We'll feel much more comfortable doing it. Recruiting wise, you lose the personal side and football's the name of the game ... Coach Patterson joked today and said it's a lot faster trip from Amarillo to Wichita Falls on Zoom than in his car ... You adapt and find the best way to do it."
Lot of focus on haircuts. Home haircuts are a thing again. I'm guessing you're doing okay though, right, coach?
"Yeah, I have not had to get a haircut. It still looks tremendous. I'm sure if you're friends with my wife on Facebook not so much. But, I got one right before we went on Spring Break. I was lucky enough to get a little trim. It looks great. I'm good to go.
How much of an advantage is it that you don't have to start from scratch with a brand new QB with Alan back and good to go?
I've been talking to a few high school coaches in recruiting and a couple of them have the same deal. They got a returner and feel so lucky in picking up where they left off. Alan's going to have to compete with Maverick but he was performing at a high rate. Maverick is doing a great job coming along but Alan was doing a good job not letting Maverick take reps from him and that's how we'll start camp ... Our goal is to pick it up and go. We only got four practices in but hopefully our next practice is just number five. That's how we're approaching it. We don't want to go backwards in any way ... Alan got better after he got hurt. He's getting better right now, too. He's here in Lubbock getting better. It's been really good and it's going to get better with him."
How do you handle Donovan Smith as a freshman with not coming in already?
I have one quick question, what is up with all the moths in Lubbock? I don't remember this last year when I was here.
AD: the thing about Lubbock is there's always something that will surprise you every year. Moths, dust storms.
Level: I think it has to do with we haven't had any rain.
Yost: I'm watching out the back window in the cubicle my wife kinda locks me in to work and I watched my son take the trash out and he's dodging like 30 of them, running into the house. No, anyways, with Donovan it was working out for spring there. He was coming to position meetings because his school days were, he was kinda like an early out guy at Frenship with his classes so he would get done with school, come to position meetings and come to a couple of practice before going back for track practice. We started going to the install with him. He's got kind of a cheat with his dad so he has a basis of what we do and how. Since he's been in Vegas, it's a not by rule, allowed to have position meetings with him but when we get on the phone we do talk a little football. He's been out in Vegas, staying with his mom, finishing up his classwork online and he's throwing all the time out there. His throwing partner is Dorian Thompson-Robinson, the starting QB at UCLA. He's shot me a couple of videos of him throwing and we discuss that. He's further along than most guys with his dad. So many freshmen are playing nowadays and so many freshmen are playing at QB than they used to be. I remember when I first started you redshirted every QB because the college game is so much different than the high school game. That's not the case especially here in Texas ... Their preparation is just so much different ... It gives them a chance to come in and compete."
