OPENING STATEMENT:
First, before I get to our practice recap, I'd like to welcome coach AJ Artis here to South Florida. Coach Artis is going to be our new director of football strength conditioning. That's a huge position here within our football program. And, you know, I had five players involved in that process. And the interviewing process, we had a lot of great candidates from all over the country, big time college football programs as directors and NFL and really got it narrowed down to four finalists, and really great group. And like I said, I had five players involved with those interviews along with myself and two other administrators. And after going through the process with everybody, all eight of us, the pool of players and myself and two administrators, all had Artis number one, that doesn't really happen a lot. So I think that tells you a lot about what we think about him. very dynamic. He's only 27 years old. He's moved up very quickly as he was the director a year ago at Tennessee, and awfully excited to have he and his wife, Janelle, down here in Tampa with us.
The scrimmage Saturday, really pleased overall. I mean, our guys competed, I told the players at the end of the scrimmage, probably what I was most proud of is just watching the guys have fun. I mean, they really had had a lot of fun for about two hours as we scrimmage, everybody was engaged a lot of great energy intensity, and back and forth. And as a head coach, that's really what you want to see, you don't want to see one side, dominate the scrimmage, I felt like the offense got off to a really fast start scored three touchdowns. The first three times they had the ball, and then the defense held them out. But then the next six drives and, you know, again, we're nowhere close to where we're where we need to be. But we've made a lot of progress. I think just the overall attitude, energy leadership, overall vibe of our team is night and day from where it was a year ago. And I think we're finding out just how critical this spring practice is, as we're going through it, and really developing our team, our players learning the schemes. But really, I couldn't be more pleased after seven practices, including today.
ON THE QB SITUATION
It's a different situation than maybe where we were a year ago. You know, I think sometimes you have competitions and you're looking for somebody step up and, and be consistent enough. And then sometimes you have a situation where you have several guys, they're just playing very, very well. And right now, that's what we have. I mean, that's gonna be it's gonna be a tough decision. And again, maybe I was hoping going into spring that, you know, one person would really separate from the group coming out of spring, and we kind of know who our starter is. You know, I don't think that's gonna happen. How would they practices go, we'll see. But really, the reason is because several of these guys are playing winning football. And again, I can't say enough about Cade Fortin and the improvement that he's shown from last year to this year, is really incredible. Just his overall processing, understanding where to go with the football and the timing and delivery of the ball. He's been outstanding for seven days. And then you know, Jarren Williams, very talented. Just got here, he's probably the one that's, you know, a little bit further behind just learning the offense because he just got here compared to some of the other guys but we've seen flashes in him and I think the more he continues, the better and better he's going to be once they get more comfortable with what we're doing. Katravis Marsh, very, very strong arm, you know, just had to grow up from maybe last year and had some, you know, bumps and bruises and all that last fall, but I really pleased with what I've seen from him and then Timmy McClain is he's just special. He's gonna be a lot of fun to watch here, moving forward. So it's a good problem to have. It's good that we have several guys that I think could legitimately be the starter but it's still a problem. But we're gonna let it you know, those guys compete very well together. And we still have a long time before, you know we really have to make that decision. Hopefully, later on getting closer to the season.
ON HOW FORTIN HAS DEALT WITH ALL THE MISSING TIME
I think the first thing is, you know, he sat out the year before he got here. So he was at North Carolina, then he went home in August, to take classes. And online, and so really just kind of worked with a personal trainer, you know, by himself for that entire fall. So when he got to us last year, right, then we went through this, we didn't get a spring. So he missed that entire time. So by the time we got out there in the fall, he had really been over a year, you know, from practicing. And so I think the biggest part was a combination of him just being rusty, you know, you can only do so much when you're by yourself and getting out there with the team and actually going through it. So overall, fundamentally, I thought he was a little rusty last year, and then also learning a new system without spring practice, you know, took it a little while. But you know, if you remember back is, I don't remember the game. But his last drive he had for us before he got hurt, you know, he really moved the ball well, and so I think he, he left with some momentum, as he ended his year a little bit early. And I think he was confident and just knew, you know, they can really take a big step this spring and getting a spring practice. And he's put in a lot of work. I mean, I think a lot of these guys put in a lot of work in December in January, and part of February leading up to spring ball and, and that's very evident since the first day we got up spring, spring practice.
ON HOW HE LANDED FORTIN
I had a one day to get it done. Pretty much. So I had my press conference on a Wednesday, and kind of do it and some some preliminary work. Looking at our roster, I think we only have one scholarship quarterback that was coming back at the time. So I knew that we had to, you know, go find somebody who really needed to find somebody before January. And you know, I came across cades name. I remembered him from recruiting process at Clemson a little bit. And I called his dad on a Friday morning and talk to his dad a little bit. And his dad said, well, when he went to sleep last night, he was planning to wake up this morning and commit to a different power five team. But now that you call this morning, I'll at least I'll let him talk to you. So that was a Friday. So I talked to him at about 11 o'clock that morning talking about uh, committing. And we were in a tight spot. It was the last weekend that you can visit. And so I ended up going up there on a Saturday evening, I had an official my first official visit weekend going on here. And Saturday morning, we were trying to talk them and to find down that night, they weren't able to make it down. So I made a split decision. And it really flew up there to Atlanta, and went into his house at about nine o'clock at night and just laid everything out there and did the best that I could explain the need that we had here in South Florida what we were going to do with him big picture wise. And then, you know, two days later, he had to make a decision and, and ended up committing to us on a Monday inside with us on that next Wednesday. So I just remember is a really quick process. And, you know, when I went into his home on that Friday or Saturday night, you know, I knew I had one shot really just to be myself and lay out our opportunity. And awfully, you know, pleased that he chose to come down here to Tampa and excited to have him on the team right now.
ON BEING ABLE TO RUN THREE HUDDLES THIS SPRING CONSISTENTLY DUE TO DEPTH ACROSS THE ROSTER
it's not just the quarterbacks obviously we have we have more players practicing right now than we had at any point in the fall. Right. And we still have 10 more scholarship players that'll be joining us coming up here in June and July. But we have close to 98 guys out there practicing. So I'm a big believer that the spring time is the time that you really develop your team and develop your roster. And so we go three groups. So every period that we do the ones get four plays the twos get four plays, and the threes get two plays. So we run 10 plays every five minutes, whenever we're going against each other. But yeah, for the quarterbacks, we got four guys really competing. And we kind of split up the reps 3-3-2-2. So they're always getting reps pretty much every period. and I are getting some good experience and we mix up who goes into the ones and twos, you know, Cade and Jared and kind of been going back and forth with the ones and twos. And then Katravis and Timmy are kind of splitting times with the threes and fours and then tres also got some reps with the two. So it's been really good. And now those guys have taken advantage. And I've seen a lot of improvement from practice one to practice seven.
First, before I get to our practice recap, I'd like to welcome coach AJ Artis here to South Florida. Coach Artis is going to be our new director of football strength conditioning. That's a huge position here within our football program. And, you know, I had five players involved in that process. And the interviewing process, we had a lot of great candidates from all over the country, big time college football programs as directors and NFL and really got it narrowed down to four finalists, and really great group. And like I said, I had five players involved with those interviews along with myself and two other administrators. And after going through the process with everybody, all eight of us, the pool of players and myself and two administrators, all had Artis number one, that doesn't really happen a lot. So I think that tells you a lot about what we think about him. very dynamic. He's only 27 years old. He's moved up very quickly as he was the director a year ago at Tennessee, and awfully excited to have he and his wife, Janelle, down here in Tampa with us.
The scrimmage Saturday, really pleased overall. I mean, our guys competed, I told the players at the end of the scrimmage, probably what I was most proud of is just watching the guys have fun. I mean, they really had had a lot of fun for about two hours as we scrimmage, everybody was engaged a lot of great energy intensity, and back and forth. And as a head coach, that's really what you want to see, you don't want to see one side, dominate the scrimmage, I felt like the offense got off to a really fast start scored three touchdowns. The first three times they had the ball, and then the defense held them out. But then the next six drives and, you know, again, we're nowhere close to where we're where we need to be. But we've made a lot of progress. I think just the overall attitude, energy leadership, overall vibe of our team is night and day from where it was a year ago. And I think we're finding out just how critical this spring practice is, as we're going through it, and really developing our team, our players learning the schemes. But really, I couldn't be more pleased after seven practices, including today.
ON THE QB SITUATION
It's a different situation than maybe where we were a year ago. You know, I think sometimes you have competitions and you're looking for somebody step up and, and be consistent enough. And then sometimes you have a situation where you have several guys, they're just playing very, very well. And right now, that's what we have. I mean, that's gonna be it's gonna be a tough decision. And again, maybe I was hoping going into spring that, you know, one person would really separate from the group coming out of spring, and we kind of know who our starter is. You know, I don't think that's gonna happen. How would they practices go, we'll see. But really, the reason is because several of these guys are playing winning football. And again, I can't say enough about Cade Fortin and the improvement that he's shown from last year to this year, is really incredible. Just his overall processing, understanding where to go with the football and the timing and delivery of the ball. He's been outstanding for seven days. And then you know, Jarren Williams, very talented. Just got here, he's probably the one that's, you know, a little bit further behind just learning the offense because he just got here compared to some of the other guys but we've seen flashes in him and I think the more he continues, the better and better he's going to be once they get more comfortable with what we're doing. Katravis Marsh, very, very strong arm, you know, just had to grow up from maybe last year and had some, you know, bumps and bruises and all that last fall, but I really pleased with what I've seen from him and then Timmy McClain is he's just special. He's gonna be a lot of fun to watch here, moving forward. So it's a good problem to have. It's good that we have several guys that I think could legitimately be the starter but it's still a problem. But we're gonna let it you know, those guys compete very well together. And we still have a long time before, you know we really have to make that decision. Hopefully, later on getting closer to the season.
ON HOW FORTIN HAS DEALT WITH ALL THE MISSING TIME
I think the first thing is, you know, he sat out the year before he got here. So he was at North Carolina, then he went home in August, to take classes. And online, and so really just kind of worked with a personal trainer, you know, by himself for that entire fall. So when he got to us last year, right, then we went through this, we didn't get a spring. So he missed that entire time. So by the time we got out there in the fall, he had really been over a year, you know, from practicing. And so I think the biggest part was a combination of him just being rusty, you know, you can only do so much when you're by yourself and getting out there with the team and actually going through it. So overall, fundamentally, I thought he was a little rusty last year, and then also learning a new system without spring practice, you know, took it a little while. But you know, if you remember back is, I don't remember the game. But his last drive he had for us before he got hurt, you know, he really moved the ball well, and so I think he, he left with some momentum, as he ended his year a little bit early. And I think he was confident and just knew, you know, they can really take a big step this spring and getting a spring practice. And he's put in a lot of work. I mean, I think a lot of these guys put in a lot of work in December in January, and part of February leading up to spring ball and, and that's very evident since the first day we got up spring, spring practice.
ON HOW HE LANDED FORTIN
I had a one day to get it done. Pretty much. So I had my press conference on a Wednesday, and kind of do it and some some preliminary work. Looking at our roster, I think we only have one scholarship quarterback that was coming back at the time. So I knew that we had to, you know, go find somebody who really needed to find somebody before January. And you know, I came across cades name. I remembered him from recruiting process at Clemson a little bit. And I called his dad on a Friday morning and talk to his dad a little bit. And his dad said, well, when he went to sleep last night, he was planning to wake up this morning and commit to a different power five team. But now that you call this morning, I'll at least I'll let him talk to you. So that was a Friday. So I talked to him at about 11 o'clock that morning talking about uh, committing. And we were in a tight spot. It was the last weekend that you can visit. And so I ended up going up there on a Saturday evening, I had an official my first official visit weekend going on here. And Saturday morning, we were trying to talk them and to find down that night, they weren't able to make it down. So I made a split decision. And it really flew up there to Atlanta, and went into his house at about nine o'clock at night and just laid everything out there and did the best that I could explain the need that we had here in South Florida what we were going to do with him big picture wise. And then, you know, two days later, he had to make a decision and, and ended up committing to us on a Monday inside with us on that next Wednesday. So I just remember is a really quick process. And, you know, when I went into his home on that Friday or Saturday night, you know, I knew I had one shot really just to be myself and lay out our opportunity. And awfully, you know, pleased that he chose to come down here to Tampa and excited to have him on the team right now.
ON BEING ABLE TO RUN THREE HUDDLES THIS SPRING CONSISTENTLY DUE TO DEPTH ACROSS THE ROSTER
it's not just the quarterbacks obviously we have we have more players practicing right now than we had at any point in the fall. Right. And we still have 10 more scholarship players that'll be joining us coming up here in June and July. But we have close to 98 guys out there practicing. So I'm a big believer that the spring time is the time that you really develop your team and develop your roster. And so we go three groups. So every period that we do the ones get four plays the twos get four plays, and the threes get two plays. So we run 10 plays every five minutes, whenever we're going against each other. But yeah, for the quarterbacks, we got four guys really competing. And we kind of split up the reps 3-3-2-2. So they're always getting reps pretty much every period. and I are getting some good experience and we mix up who goes into the ones and twos, you know, Cade and Jared and kind of been going back and forth with the ones and twos. And then Katravis and Timmy are kind of splitting times with the threes and fours and then tres also got some reps with the two. So it's been really good. And now those guys have taken advantage. And I've seen a lot of improvement from practice one to practice seven.
