Spavital talks about facing an Auburn defense that had four sacks last week
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Jake, how you doing this morning?
00:01 Doing good.
00:02 How you doing?
00:03 All right.
00:03 Can you tell us what you saw in Auburn's pressure on the quarterback the other day against UMass?
00:12 They had four sacks, six pressures, I think, quarterback hurries.
00:17 How much of a challenge will that be for your offense and your line in particular?
00:21 Yeah, that's going to be a very tough challenge for us.
00:24 I've been fortunate enough to go up against Coach Ron Roberts
00:30 a few times over the past couple years, and he creates a lot of havoc up front.
00:35 He knows how to isolate our protections.
00:37 He knows he really can do that to everybody.
00:39 He does a really good job on that.
00:41 And one of the keys is we've got to stay out of those passing downs,
00:44 so it's like third down and longs, because that's when he's very dangerous from what he does.
00:48 But I think they're a very talented front.
00:51 I think when they pin their ears back, they can go get the QB.
00:56 Obviously, they had four sacks and a lot of QB hurries,
00:58 and they were a lot more disruptive, too, on some other things,
01:01 especially perimeter screen game and all that as well.
01:03 They make it very difficult on the QB,
01:06 so it's going to be a very tough challenge for our offensive line.
01:09 And one of that is to be efficient with the play calls and try to stay out of those passing downs.
01:14 Did you feel like your run game set up your pass game pretty well last week?
01:18 It did. It did.
01:21 In going into the North Texas game, we knew that they're going to be a three-high safety team,
01:25 so you've got to establish the run game.
01:27 You have to.
01:27 And it's going to be a different scheme this week.
01:30 There's going to be more guys in the box, and they do a great job at stopping the run.
01:34 So there's going to be some things that -- and that's what Coach Roberts has done over the years,
01:39 he's very sound at what he does, and everything is going to be contested.
01:43 So going into last week's game, we knew we had to establish a run,
01:47 and that's got to be definitely a force of impact as well
01:50 for us to force the run and get that established as well.
01:53 Thank you.
01:55 Appreciate it.
01:56 All right, next question, we'll go to Nathan King from 24/7 Sports.
01:59 Hey, Jake, you mentioned your time going against Coach Roberts.
02:04 I think in '21, y'all had a really close game against them.
02:07 They had an incredible defense that year.
02:08 What were some of the, I guess, pillars of success for you guys against his defense?
02:13 And you mentioned it a little bit there with the running game,
02:16 but I guess how important is it kind of to have balance with y'all's two running backs?
02:20 Yeah, it's kind of like what you're talking about.
02:21 He just does such a great job.
02:24 If he gets you behind the chains and not playing on pace,
02:29 it's very difficult to move the ball on him when he has everything in his favor.
02:36 And I think that's just what he does is once he gets you behind the chains,
02:40 he's very disruptive.
02:41 He can get a little exotic.
02:42 He can trap coverages.
02:43 He does a simulated cover twos.
02:45 He's going to do his edge pressures.
02:47 He'll bring corner fire, and he'll bring nickel pressures as well,
02:50 and he'll keep you on your toes.
02:52 So our QBs have to be locked in.
02:54 I think he does a good job at taking away your RPOs.
02:57 So we're going to have to establish the run game.
03:00 So we've got to be creative in what we got up front and with our run game,
03:04 because if you can't establish the run game on Coach Roberts,
03:08 it's going to be very difficult to throw against him.
03:10 All right, we'll go to Michael Wagman from Bear Insider.
03:14 Hey, Coach.
03:16 Sam's status obviously still up in the air this week.
03:19 Ben came in and did some really good things with you.
03:22 I'm just curious from a play calling standpoint,
03:24 do things change much when you change quarterbacks,
03:28 or are you just basically going, look, this is what we are.
03:31 This is what we do, no matter who the quarterback is.
03:34 No, the play calling does change.
03:36 You know, one is, you know, you do a lot of reps.
03:40 You know, I had a spring and a fall camp with Sam,
03:42 and I've had a summer and a fall camp with Ben,
03:46 and you just kind of figure out what they're capable of doing
03:48 and what's their strengths, what their weaknesses.
03:51 And, you know, if they have any dynamic ability.
03:54 We know Sam can run the ball.
03:55 He's very athletic, and so you can do a lot more
03:58 different type of play calls with Sam.
04:00 But we have our base foundation of what we do offensively,
04:03 and those are always going to be a staple every single week.
04:08 But it's also when you get into kind of the game plan type of plays,
04:11 each one of those guys are going to be different,
04:13 have a comfort level for different type of plays.
04:15 So, you know, there's a good amount of just
04:18 doing the same thing for both of them.
04:20 But, you know, there is some specialized plays
04:22 for both those kids as well.
04:23 Thank you.
04:24 The next question will come from Matt Moreno from Rivals.
04:27 There's been talk about just the rules changes
04:30 and how it's maybe impacted, you know, plays that can be run
04:32 and all that type of thing.
04:33 What was your feeling on just kind of how the game flow
04:35 went with the new rules in place?
04:36 Yeah, I didn't really notice it that much.
04:40 I think we snapped it 95 times in this last game.
04:42 So it was one, you know, the defense did an unbelievable job
04:46 and gave us, you know, great field position
04:48 and got us the ball back a lot.
04:50 But it was more just about, you know,
04:53 like I thought that we'd probably be roughly around,
04:56 I think, seven to 10 plays less than what we normally do
04:58 with the running clock after a first down.
05:00 We had 30 first downs in this game,
05:03 and I still thought we snapped it a ton.
05:05 So, you know, I wasn't really done.
05:08 I didn't really notice much of the rule changes.
05:10 But I bet you this week coming into it versus Auburn,
05:14 you know, you're probably going to really recognize that,
05:17 you know, especially if both teams are going at it
05:19 and really holding on to the ball
05:22 and, you know, trying to milk the clock
05:24 a little bit at times too, you know,
05:25 you're going to have to speed up your play calling.
05:27 All right, we'll go to Thomas Dunn
05:30 from Ryfer, California.
05:31 Good morning, Jake.
05:33 So after moving the ball relatively effectively
05:35 against North Texas, how much more, if at all,
05:38 is this a benchmark test for you in the offense
05:40 with the personnel and coaches you'll be facing on Saturday?
05:42 Yeah, this is a true test this weekend.
05:45 I think Auburn is, you know, from a personnel standpoint,
05:48 I think they've got a lot of elite players.
05:49 You know, I know their coaching staff
05:51 and I got a ton of respect for them
05:54 and everything's going to be contested.
05:55 Everything's going to be earned.
05:56 And it's just going to be a physical, violent game.
06:00 It is.
06:00 And it's going to be a true test on who we are.
06:03 You know, I didn't -- I wasn't very pleased
06:05 with our practice today.
06:06 We got to have more energy because I know what type of,
06:10 you know, Colin plays in the SEC for three years.
06:12 You know, I know what it entails.
06:13 And these kids have got to be on point
06:16 and they got to bring it.
06:16 And because if not, you'll get exposed.
06:19 And this is going to be a great challenge for us.
06:22 And this is going to be a really a good kind of measurement
06:25 on who we are as an offense.
06:26 All right.
06:28 Any other questions for Coach Babitall today?
06:31 All right.
06:36 Looks like that'll -- we'll go to Steve Kroener
06:38 from the SF Chronicle.
06:39 Yeah, Jake, sorry if I got in a little late here.
06:45 All good.
06:46 I appreciate it.
06:47 You know, you talk about, you know,
06:49 you're going against an SEC team
06:51 and all the challenges that poses.
06:55 If you're on the other side
06:57 and you're going against the Cal offense
07:00 that just put up 669 yards and 58 points,
07:03 what do you think they're saying
07:05 the challenges of going against the Bears are?
07:07 Yeah, like I just know how they are as coaches.
07:11 You know, they're going to have those guys ready to go.
07:14 You know, there's not very many opportunities
07:16 you have in college football.
07:17 You know, we've already had one down.
07:19 We got 11 guaranteed more to go.
07:20 So you're going to make the most of it.
07:22 So they're going to do everything they got
07:24 to get those guys ready.
07:26 And they're going to be, you know, playing on point.
07:28 You know, that's we're expecting their best game.
07:30 You know, and that's, you know,
07:33 just kind of a testament to who they are as coaches
07:35 and just the personnel that they have.
07:37 But when you look at us offensively,
07:40 you know, there are some similarities of teams
07:42 that they play in that league.
07:43 You know, I do think that, you know, the SEC,
07:46 the trenches are the offensive line play.
07:48 There's a lot bigger bodies, you know,
07:50 and a lot, you know, more violent challenges,
07:53 I guess you could say in the trenches.
07:54 But, you know, overall, like they're going to be there.
07:57 They see a good mix of everything in the SEC.
08:00 So it's more about trying to figure out
08:02 who they believe are our best players are
08:04 and who they want to try to bracket
08:06 and eliminate out of the game.
08:08 And, and they'll have their adjustments
08:10 throughout the course of the game.
08:11 So it's, I think that they're, they've seen it all.
08:15 Like, I think their offense is very similar to us too,
08:18 you know, just in the,
08:19 so they go up against a lot in practice.
08:21 So you're going to see a lot of probably both teams
08:24 doing a lot of creativity
08:25 on just trying to cause confusion in these games
08:28 because there's a lot of familiarity
08:29 of both teams going up against each other
08:31 just from their coordinator standpoints.
08:33 Does that make sense?
08:36 -Thank you. Yeah.
08:37 -All right. If you have a last question for Coach Cavanaugh,
08:40 go ahead and put it in the chat now.
08:42 All right. Looks like that'll wrap it up.