HC- JEFF SCOTT
We’ve got depth with the 21 new guys we brought in, we split up the team with offense and defenses with two equal groups instead of ones and twos. I assigned the coaches their side of the ball and they got to choose which O and which D they wanted. When you split it to two groups you can see the improvement with the depth and the talent and depth.
For the green team, Daniel Da Prato will be the head coach with QBs Byrum Brown and Tre Marsh. The white team will be coached by Xavier Dye and he will have Timmy McClain as his QB, we put all the guys in their uniforms for the game and we went white vs green. We will play it like a regular game, we will do thud on kick return, but other than that it will be live.
I’m excited about the halftime 15 current or former NFL players, five Bulls who won a super bowl. Gold led by BJ Daniels and green by Matt Grothe and Paul Julmiste.
We have an alumni event tonight for former players as well.
I’m excited about the caravan, this will be my first time getting to meet and greet our alumni and some of other HCs share our vision for our programs and talk about the big things coming up. The OCS will be a big topic, we can share some more details on that. We have four tour stops and I want to encourage our fans and alumni to join us. It is $15 and you get a meal and you get a night with Michael Kelly our AD and meet other coaches too. We want to get our fans engaged after that.
Installing the coordinators has gone well, we’ve put in 80% of the D and probably 85% of the D is installed, I don’t have a lot to gauge it against with just one other spring. I don’t feel like we have a huge learning curve. Coach Shoop is an excellent teacher and communicator and he has helped there and the guys have taken ownership. Coach Trickett is the same thing. It has been really smooth. We are do some new things defensively and a few things offensively and we will show a little of it on Saturday and some of it we will hold back for the fall.
The indoor will be big for all of our sports because they can use it. Hopefully, yesterday will be the last time we cancel practice for the weather. I walked through there yesterday and it was really impressive and you get an idea of the size and all that when you see it.
On his vision of the caravan, I think these caravan tours used to be really popular before the internet and social media that is how fans learned about recruiting classes and your new team. I was a part of many of them at FSU with my dad and then at South Carolina with my dad and at Clemson. The first 45 minutes just shaking hands and visiting with our fans. That has been one of the biggest challenges, we have not engaged with our fans and answer their questions. Covid made that not possible. I want our fans and alumni to shake hands and alumni meet them. Michael Kelly can share things that the AA is working on and what we are doing. I can share my vision and how they can be a part of it. Coach Leavitt did some of these and they called it Around the Horn, we are doing it again and the alumni office has made a commitment to get out there and spend time with them. Do a great job this year and then grow and grow and we will be opening a new stadium in a few years. In 1997 we played our first game at the Sombrero and that is a great picture. We need to do that for the new stadium and we have great fans and people have gotten busy and moved on, my goal is to get everyone back involved. I need to win games to get them back in, but we also need people to engage too. I want to share the important things going on to get to the place we want to go.
I want to see a competitive game and they need to treat tomorrow like a game and it is the last exam before we kick it off in December and you don’t want to see one side of the ball dominate, you want to see balance. If there is adversity, one group gets a lead, I’m watching the sideline, who is bringing everyone together if they get down two scores, I want to see leadership and guys rallying their teammates. I want to see a great game for everyone there. I want people to leave RayJay Stadium optimistic about this coming season.
We are not ready to play BYU tomorrow, but we will be. Depth is the thing that comes to mind, we’ve had a lack of depth the last two years, we have a lot more guys. On the DL we have five or six DEs that can play and 5-6 DTs, that has not been the case from a numbers standpoint. The other thing standing out is the RB Jaren Mangham showed what he can do, but Kelley Joiner and Brian Battie and the addition of Michel Dukes from Clemson and then a great walk-on Mychael Hamilton is great, it is our deepest position. Linebacker we have multiple guys, depth.
Also maturity and how to practice and more competitiveness in practice. In the scrimmages, we have two-minute drills and you’d think a game was on the line and that was different. There have been guys who have made plays, but our depth from top to bottom is what a D-1 team should look like for the first time since we’ve been here.
OL DONOVAN JENNINGS
Coach Trickett is a great coach and is looking to make his players better and he is looking to win, he is bonding with everyone here and I love everything he has done since he has been here.
The new additions to the OL Perkins, Bailey, and Lofton we eager to listen, ready to work and it was great to get them in and they’ve filled spots and they have great years ahead of them, they are so receptive of us, you can see the improvement from day one. I couldn’t ask for a better OL, we are together and it is a brotherhood and I couldn’t ask for more.
We will be explosive and make more plays on offense and we are new and improved.
Timmy has improved in the film room and he has been up there all day every day and I see his work ethic and improving his throws and being a team leader and stepping into that QB role to lead the offense and he has been vocal and eager to learn. He is throwing that thing great.
Jatorian the DE is arguably the best DE I’ve gone against; he is fast and powerful and it is such a great addition to add his depth to the DL. He is an awesome football player.
DL RASHAWN YATES
I feel good, I feel like I’ve progressed, I’m not where I want to be, still have summer and camp but it is a step forward I’m not where I want to be.
It does get tiring hitting each other for four weeks in a row, but we got one more opportunity tomorrow
We made a lot of strides there, it is definitely different going from a 3-man to 4-man D blitzing multiple people and we’ve got five Ol covering more than 5 guys.
We’ve got them covering four guys or more, we are not staying at the line trying to read people we are getting upfield which is dope.
Rashad Cheney and Jatorian Hansford both caught my eye they both played elsewhere and they came in ready, they were like I’m ready to play and they are acting like that
On his favorite OL to go against, Since I got here, me and Dono have battled out, I think personally he is the best OL in the conference, he makes me feel like that. I’ve been playing a lot more inside this year, but it has been fun when I play outside and go against him.
We’ve got depth with the 21 new guys we brought in, we split up the team with offense and defenses with two equal groups instead of ones and twos. I assigned the coaches their side of the ball and they got to choose which O and which D they wanted. When you split it to two groups you can see the improvement with the depth and the talent and depth.
For the green team, Daniel Da Prato will be the head coach with QBs Byrum Brown and Tre Marsh. The white team will be coached by Xavier Dye and he will have Timmy McClain as his QB, we put all the guys in their uniforms for the game and we went white vs green. We will play it like a regular game, we will do thud on kick return, but other than that it will be live.
I’m excited about the halftime 15 current or former NFL players, five Bulls who won a super bowl. Gold led by BJ Daniels and green by Matt Grothe and Paul Julmiste.
We have an alumni event tonight for former players as well.
I’m excited about the caravan, this will be my first time getting to meet and greet our alumni and some of other HCs share our vision for our programs and talk about the big things coming up. The OCS will be a big topic, we can share some more details on that. We have four tour stops and I want to encourage our fans and alumni to join us. It is $15 and you get a meal and you get a night with Michael Kelly our AD and meet other coaches too. We want to get our fans engaged after that.
Installing the coordinators has gone well, we’ve put in 80% of the D and probably 85% of the D is installed, I don’t have a lot to gauge it against with just one other spring. I don’t feel like we have a huge learning curve. Coach Shoop is an excellent teacher and communicator and he has helped there and the guys have taken ownership. Coach Trickett is the same thing. It has been really smooth. We are do some new things defensively and a few things offensively and we will show a little of it on Saturday and some of it we will hold back for the fall.
The indoor will be big for all of our sports because they can use it. Hopefully, yesterday will be the last time we cancel practice for the weather. I walked through there yesterday and it was really impressive and you get an idea of the size and all that when you see it.
On his vision of the caravan, I think these caravan tours used to be really popular before the internet and social media that is how fans learned about recruiting classes and your new team. I was a part of many of them at FSU with my dad and then at South Carolina with my dad and at Clemson. The first 45 minutes just shaking hands and visiting with our fans. That has been one of the biggest challenges, we have not engaged with our fans and answer their questions. Covid made that not possible. I want our fans and alumni to shake hands and alumni meet them. Michael Kelly can share things that the AA is working on and what we are doing. I can share my vision and how they can be a part of it. Coach Leavitt did some of these and they called it Around the Horn, we are doing it again and the alumni office has made a commitment to get out there and spend time with them. Do a great job this year and then grow and grow and we will be opening a new stadium in a few years. In 1997 we played our first game at the Sombrero and that is a great picture. We need to do that for the new stadium and we have great fans and people have gotten busy and moved on, my goal is to get everyone back involved. I need to win games to get them back in, but we also need people to engage too. I want to share the important things going on to get to the place we want to go.
I want to see a competitive game and they need to treat tomorrow like a game and it is the last exam before we kick it off in December and you don’t want to see one side of the ball dominate, you want to see balance. If there is adversity, one group gets a lead, I’m watching the sideline, who is bringing everyone together if they get down two scores, I want to see leadership and guys rallying their teammates. I want to see a great game for everyone there. I want people to leave RayJay Stadium optimistic about this coming season.
We are not ready to play BYU tomorrow, but we will be. Depth is the thing that comes to mind, we’ve had a lack of depth the last two years, we have a lot more guys. On the DL we have five or six DEs that can play and 5-6 DTs, that has not been the case from a numbers standpoint. The other thing standing out is the RB Jaren Mangham showed what he can do, but Kelley Joiner and Brian Battie and the addition of Michel Dukes from Clemson and then a great walk-on Mychael Hamilton is great, it is our deepest position. Linebacker we have multiple guys, depth.
Also maturity and how to practice and more competitiveness in practice. In the scrimmages, we have two-minute drills and you’d think a game was on the line and that was different. There have been guys who have made plays, but our depth from top to bottom is what a D-1 team should look like for the first time since we’ve been here.
OL DONOVAN JENNINGS
Coach Trickett is a great coach and is looking to make his players better and he is looking to win, he is bonding with everyone here and I love everything he has done since he has been here.
The new additions to the OL Perkins, Bailey, and Lofton we eager to listen, ready to work and it was great to get them in and they’ve filled spots and they have great years ahead of them, they are so receptive of us, you can see the improvement from day one. I couldn’t ask for a better OL, we are together and it is a brotherhood and I couldn’t ask for more.
We will be explosive and make more plays on offense and we are new and improved.
Timmy has improved in the film room and he has been up there all day every day and I see his work ethic and improving his throws and being a team leader and stepping into that QB role to lead the offense and he has been vocal and eager to learn. He is throwing that thing great.
Jatorian the DE is arguably the best DE I’ve gone against; he is fast and powerful and it is such a great addition to add his depth to the DL. He is an awesome football player.
DL RASHAWN YATES
I feel good, I feel like I’ve progressed, I’m not where I want to be, still have summer and camp but it is a step forward I’m not where I want to be.
It does get tiring hitting each other for four weeks in a row, but we got one more opportunity tomorrow
We made a lot of strides there, it is definitely different going from a 3-man to 4-man D blitzing multiple people and we’ve got five Ol covering more than 5 guys.
We’ve got them covering four guys or more, we are not staying at the line trying to read people we are getting upfield which is dope.
Rashad Cheney and Jatorian Hansford both caught my eye they both played elsewhere and they came in ready, they were like I’m ready to play and they are acting like that
On his favorite OL to go against, Since I got here, me and Dono have battled out, I think personally he is the best OL in the conference, he makes me feel like that. I’ve been playing a lot more inside this year, but it has been fun when I play outside and go against him.
