BK Transcript: 8/9

Written by Jerry Strabley

No opening statement.

How does it feel to be back on campus?

“I think Culver has such great accommodations. I think the only comment that I got was that the walk was a little shorter in terms of Culver and the accommodations and the practice situations are pretty good. I think the routine here is going to be very comfortable for our guys. It’s business as usual on the field. Not much different from that perspective.”

Coach, you have a lot of receivers. How is this going to shake out?

“That’s what we are working on right now. I think the only guy that we know of that has a ticket on the train – and that’s a bad analogy – that’s E.Q. Everything else is pretty fluid. We are trying to mix and match. We have a lot of solid players and we are trying to take advantage of what they can do in their skill sets where we think it will best help our football team. So, we have moved guys from X to Z and W, it’s really just a rotation for us right now. Nothing really set except that Equanimeous will play the W position, that I can tell you for sure. Outside of that, we are still rolling guys in and out.”

Does that include the tight ends?

“Again, we’re playing them all. We see a lot of value in all of them being on the field. I think the latest guy that has entered into the mix there is Cole Kmet. He’s had a strong two or three days. Now it’s knowing the offense and how quickly they can pick things up. But they all are very, very capable of helping on the offensive set.”

Will Jay Hayes be sliding in and out of positions like Rochelle did before?

“No, he would be more of, if we had to do that, Isaac was somebody we felt sliding him in passing situations, but we see Jay as that strong five for us and we really want to keep him in that position.”

How would you evaluate Jerry Tillery after two years and what does he need to do to improve?

“Shock, destroy, physicalness; he obviously has the ability to move well and some athleticism, but he didn’t have that suddenness, explosive strength. I think the biggest difference in Jerry is his strength and his ability to get off the ball. So now you add that quickness that he had and that ability to move, now we have added that strength component. Now he can get on that trip and physically make it a difficult match for a center.”

Are the two Hayes', Tillery, Trumbetti, and Bonner, are they your top five and, if so, who would be your sixth?

“I would say that Khalid Kareem has done a really nice job at the defensive end position. I would say he would be the next. Micah Dew-Treadway inside and then the two freshmen, Myron and Kurt Hinish.”

Overall, what have your conversations been like with Jerry and what have you seen from him overall?

“They have been constant since January. Awareness, it starts with awareness. Aware of how he presents himself, the decisions he makes, the accountability. It sounds a lot like maturity, growing up and being much more mature. I think at the end, what we are looking for is a young man who is aware of how he handles himself and who he represents. I think he has done a really good job of taking responsibility on a day-to-day basis; along the way developing his football skills as well. Maturity, football skills, I think he has made a lot of progress there.”

How is the right offensive tackle situation looking right now?

“I think Tommy (Kraemer) is still in there as the starter but I still think we have a guy that is progressing every day, the young player, not a finished product at all but he is explosive, a big strong player that we know we are going to get ready, but we have Robert Hainsey who can shoot over there and play. We’re trying to keep Liam on the left side if we can and settle him into a position. Robert becomes that guy if we need to get him into the game, he has a really good pass set. He has the strength and is a really good pass setter for us. Tommy is a guy right now who goes with the first group, and like six, seven, or eight practices into it, he is making progress but he is still a work in progress for us.”

How deep is the rotation for receivers and if it is six or seven, would you consider moving them to defense?

“No, I don’t think so. I don’t know if there is any one guy that jumps out at us that shouts defense to us right now. We would be pressing a guy over there right now. It’s too late in the game to start doing that. We just really want to find two-deep and a swing. We have some guys who have experience, certainly with Myles, he has experience. Saint has experience. C.J. Sanders has some experience. So, we have some guys who have some experience, and we are still just trying to give everybody a chance. The thing that has made it more interesting is the two freshmen have said, ‘Don’t forget about us,’ which is great. Jafar (Armstrong) and Michael (Young), so throw them in the mix with the two transfers and now you have four new players competing for playing time with guys like Chase Claypool and Javon McKinley who are like, ‘Hey, this is my job.’ So, it is a great thing to have a lot of competition. But you know in another week, it’s going to have to start sorting itself out.”

How is Alize Mack doing?

“He was running around today. We are going to be careful with him but he was moving around today.”

With Josh Adams pretty well established, how do you maximize Dexter Williams?

“Well, he’s a very good runner with a football. Autry and I were actually having this conversation yesterday. When they all run the ball, they each have a different style and you could be very pleased with all three of them running the football. But in some of the other areas, they tend to separate themselves. Tony Jones is an extraordinary player when it comes to catching the football. That is a real strength of his. Josh is a slasher that when he gets in the second level, he is very difficult to defend. Then Dexter has that first step in the hole that none of them have. Each one of them has a secondary trait, other than running the football. So, they will all get a chance because we will need three backs. You can’t really get by a season with two. So, I think, what we know is what their weaknesses are and we continue to work on each one of their weaknesses.”

What have you seen from the first offensive line unit?

“Well, really good communication. They help Brandon Wimbush a lot with pressures and calling out protections. This year, we probably link in a little bit more to their calls than trumping their calls. My system of offense always had the quarterback as the final trump on all of those. We are kind of tuned in to the center and let him have the first shot at it unless something is showing that we are absolutely 100 percent certain, we are going to go with a veteran group up front to slide those protections. So that may be a little bit different from what we have done in the past.”

Inaudible question.

“Yeah, this is a physical group. We were pretty physical today. Today was fourth-down drill which is all attitude. You don’t want to be in fourth-down situations too many times on either side of the ball. It’s about attitude. You could see that coming out today. That’s a group that can exert its will. It’s a big physical offensive line.”

Is Julian Love going to play safety?

“Yes, he’ll play some safety. He will play back there in certain situations. Third down maybe and some different packages that we are putting together. We’ve had some cross-training with Julian.”

Is he going to be a starter at corner?

“He is the starting corner right now. Julian is the starting corner. He is cross-training at safety.”

Can you give us an update on Nick Coleman?

“He took all the team reps today.”

Do you have an injury update for us today?

“In terms of guys that were out of practice, we had Donte Vaughn out today with a sprained neck. We were running a tackling circuit yesterday where we used the big pads that you jump on and he missed the pad and he fell on his neck. He’s fine. Those are the kind of injuries you get in camp. So, he’s fine, he’s up and moving and running but with non-contact today. So, that is as severe as it has gotten in camp. We had a non-contact neck injury and that’s pretty good stuff.”

So, are you generally pleased with the way practice has gone so far and what is next for you guys?

“There’s no question, it is a consistent message of what I want to accomplish. They’re hearing it every single day. I just went over another story that I found in the New York Post about Jordan Spieth. He doesn’t hit it as far as some of the guys on the tour. His accuracy with irons is middle of the pack. He is a streaky putter. But he is closing in on a career grand slam at the age of 24. So, how does he do it? He doesn’t do it with talent. He does it with grit. He does it with the intangibles. I said, ‘They wrote this article for me, guys.’ They laughed because they knew what I was talking about. It’s all those things we are building with our football team. They are really coming together and understanding how important to us for our success. You have to have good players, I get that, we have to recruit good players. Jordan Spieth is a good player, but he is not closing in on the career grand slams because he outdrives everybody and he puts it within three feet. He’s got grit. He’s got resilience. He’s got laser focus. He’s got all the things I’ve been talking about. And that’s really the point. To answer your question, they are really starting to understand that as to how it relates to playing football. They kind of understood it when they were in the weight room and how it related to the discipline in and out of the classroom and in the community. Now, they are beginning to see how that translates to the football field.”

How do you judge or evaluate your team going into a new football season?

“No one really professes to being an expert in any of this. You all here don’t say that you are experts, but you are learned because you have been around the game a long time. Right? You watch football and there are still basic tenets of the game. You don’t give up the big play. You keep the ball in front of you. Run the football. Don’t turn it over. If you see a lot of that in practice, if your offense is way ahead of the defense all of the time in practice, that is a scary place to be as a head coach. So, for the first time in several years, our defense is a little bit ahead of our offense. It’s a good feeling to have. So, you kind of go into your camp, you observe things like the basic tenets of football. Like I said, there is no crystal ball but you stick to a plan. And you know if you stick with it, that those things should come together when they are needed.”

How did you feel going into last season compared to this season?

“I knew that we needed to get off to a good start. I knew that we needed confidence. That’s not the case with this group. We don’t need confidence. They just need to go play and they need to play with the traits that we have been talking about in mind. They don’t need confidence. They are confident, they know what they need to do. Last year’s group, it was a lot of things I didn’t do leading up to the first game. The pieces that weren’t in place, it was production over process, but required them to be successful in order for it to build itself.”

Inaudible question.

We’re trying to get a clear evaluation on Genmark Heath. He had a mild hamstring that has limited his teamwork. He was cleared today. I’ll give you a better indication of that. Isaiah is the swing guy right now. He would see some limited action, still learning, going to be a very good player for us. But we want to see Genmark Heath, we want to see him, and it’s going to take another week to make that full evaluation. Like today was the first day we got him in there.”

Does Greer have the skill set and talent to play multiple positions?

“He has proven to adapt well with what Mike is doing defensively. I think the way we are going defensively right now, I think we have been smart in taking both him and Te’von in all the roles and kind of mix and matching in what they can do in all of those. I think both of those guys together can handle all those responsibilities and maybe one a little bit better than the other.”