Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Everybody ready to go?
00:03 All right, to start off, first off, proud of our players.
00:07 I thought they came out, you know,
00:09 we talked about wanting to start fast,
00:10 and they absolutely did that.
00:12 You know, jumped out to a 22-nothing lead.
00:15 You're there in the first quarter, you know, second quarter.
00:18 You had some adversity that you struck
00:20 in a couple different ways.
00:23 You know, had some drives extended to the penalties.
00:25 Had a few drives stalled out there offensively.
00:30 But, you know, we talk all the time about our response.
00:32 You're coming out in the second half, you know,
00:34 we wanted to -- we talked about finishing strong,
00:37 and obviously the opening kickoff of the second half
00:39 did not go the way we wanted.
00:42 But you saw a tremendous response from our football team.
00:44 Two plays later, big run by Trey.
00:47 You know, obviously, just the guys, you know,
00:50 the determination, the belief.
00:51 You know, defense doesn't give up a point in the second half.
00:54 I was really proud of them for that.
00:55 I mean, that's a team that was coming in, you know,
00:57 playing -- coming off their best game.
00:58 You could see the identity of what they're trying to do,
01:02 present some challenge with their quarterback.
01:05 And, you know, I thought our guys, you know,
01:07 did a really good job there in the second half.
01:10 You know, we were better in our third down,
01:12 fourth down situations.
01:14 We're still really good in red zone situations,
01:17 you know, forcing a field goal there early.
01:19 You know, offensively, I think we scored every time
01:21 we had the ball down there.
01:23 We need to continue.
01:24 You know, there were some negative plays,
01:27 things that we're going to have to get better at.
01:28 But, you know, I was really proud of our guys
01:31 for the response and being able to finish.
01:33 And what an incredible crowd, sellout crowd.
01:36 I mean, it was awesome being back at home.
01:39 Hopeful that we can continue that again
01:41 for next week with another sellout.
01:44 But, you know, I know there's very limited tickets,
01:46 so hopefully we can put together a streak when it comes to that.
01:50 But, you know, really excited about just our fan base,
01:53 you know, being back at home, letting our guys go out there
01:55 and play at a high level here at Dill Campbell.
01:57 And, you know, just like I said, proud of our players.
02:00 And, you know, Trey had a big day.
02:03 You know, it was good to get him rolling.
02:05 You know, obviously, you know, we didn't have
02:06 a ton of offensive snaps.
02:08 You know, we're at, I think, 61 snaps.
02:10 That's going to happen when you have the explosive runs.
02:13 But I did think we played with better tempo throughout.
02:16 And, you know, definitely excited about the continued steps
02:19 that I'm seeing from this team.
02:21 Hey, Mike, obviously Trey gave you a great day.
02:26 But in general, the running attack,
02:28 Jordan also getting involved in it,
02:29 just how pleased were you with you guys coming out of bye
02:31 and doing what you did on the ground?
02:32 No, it was good. And, you know, something we talked about,
02:34 you know, wanting to be able to establish the ground game.
02:38 You know, we're going to take what teams give us.
02:39 And there were some opportunities that were created.
02:42 You know, I thought our backs ran really hard.
02:44 I thought that the O-line, you know,
02:46 created some good seams for them to run through.
02:49 And I'll tell you, there were some unbelievable blocks.
02:51 Keon Coleman had a couple of great touchdown
02:53 springing blocks, you know, on that.
02:55 I mean, it's one thing to see a great player, which he is.
02:59 And, you know, just to talk about what he does,
03:01 you know, catching the ball.
03:02 But that block that he had on the long touchdown
03:06 was just awesome. And I was so proud of him for that.
03:09 But it's, you know, being able to play without the ball.
03:11 And, you know, I think we had a lot of guys
03:13 that were really doing a good job there
03:15 because it takes all 11.
03:18 Jordan, you know, got an opportunity to pull the ball.
03:20 You know, he had a little bit of space there.
03:23 And I thought he did a great job of managing the game
03:25 and the things we asked him to do.
03:27 You know, didn't turn the ball over offensively.
03:29 That's something that we really harped, you know,
03:32 and know the importance of that.
03:34 And our guys have been doing a nice job with it.
03:36 And something we're going to have to continue.
03:38 Trey, you know, it's taking a little while to get going.
03:44 How did he handle that, like, just these last few weeks,
03:47 the way the running game wasn't performing?
03:49 Did he get frustrated at all? Or how did he handle it?
03:51 No, I mean, Trey is incredible, I mean, in all things.
03:55 And even in the Clemson game, you know,
03:57 we didn't have, you know, the success in the run game.
03:59 But he impacted that game. And he did it, you know,
04:01 as a pass receiver, you know,
04:02 had three, you know, big plays in the game,
04:04 you know, catching the ball to the backfield.
04:06 You know, he's going to do whatever's necessary
04:08 to help this team win.
04:09 And, you know, we've got a lot of guys that are like that.
04:11 And so he maintains a focus on improvement.
04:14 You know, I loved him. I mean, he trusted his speed.
04:16 You saw a couple of seams, and he hit it.
04:17 And then, you know, he gets in the open field,
04:19 you know, it's a lot of speed and power
04:22 running down the field.
04:23 So, you know, I was proud of him for that.
04:26 You know, he's just a great player
04:28 and just a great teammate and young man.
04:30 Coach, what is it about Trey that makes him so special?
04:36 Well, I mean, he's got the combination
04:37 of all things that you want.
04:39 He's big, he's powerful, you know,
04:41 obviously he'll run tough in between,
04:43 you know, in between the tackles,
04:44 so, you know, has the home run hitting speed
04:46 when he gets out there on the edge.
04:48 I think he's improved his game, you know, as a pass receiver,
04:50 which we've seen already this season,
04:53 you know, and his willingness to do the dirty work
04:55 as a blocker, too.
04:56 So, I mean, you talk about a total back,
04:57 I mean, there's a lot of guys that are situational,
05:00 but, I mean, he can really do it all.
05:02 And, you know, he embraces that in his work ethic
05:05 and the things that he does.
05:07 You know, and he's unselfish, which, I mean,
05:09 you have a humble and unselfish player that's,
05:12 you know, he's there when another back is in there,
05:14 whether it's Rodney, LT, whoever it is,
05:17 I mean, he's the one that's there cheering him on
05:19 louder than anybody.
05:20 And, you know, he just, you know,
05:22 it's what we want our program to be built like,
05:25 and he's a great leader for that.
05:27 I guess two questions about Johnny.
05:31 First off, him getting the end zone twice,
05:32 two big catches to get the ball rolling,
05:34 and how is he after that?
05:36 Do we know at all?
05:38 No, I mean, we'll see.
05:39 Obviously he wasn't able to come back.
05:41 You know, we'll see what that looks like, you know,
05:43 as we move forward to this week.
05:44 But, man, what a great start to the game.
05:46 And, you know, Johnny's been really good for us this year.
05:50 He's had him, you know, coming in the game,
05:52 I think he was over 300 yards receiving.
05:53 You know, he's had that, but he hadn't been in the end zone.
05:55 And being able to see him, you know, do that,
05:58 you know, was big, but, you know,
06:00 made a couple really good plays.
06:02 It was good to see Destin, you know,
06:03 catch a big ball there that we needed.
06:05 We had a couple of missed opportunities,
06:07 things that we continued to get better at.
06:09 I thought Jordan, you know, really did a nice job
06:11 of operating, and even some of the times
06:12 when you might have got a little bit of pressure,
06:14 you know, he stayed patient, you know,
06:16 didn't try to force things.
06:18 And, you know, I think that was a great response from him,
06:22 which helped push our offense.
06:24 Hey, Coach, can you talk a little bit
06:27 about the offensive line rotation?
06:29 You guys talked about going 8-D.
06:30 It seemed like all eight guys got to make it in playing time
06:32 today.
06:33 Yeah, well, you know, we were a little bit short,
06:36 you know, a little bit short-handed.
06:37 Wes Harris was not able to play today.
06:40 But, you know, you saw Darius Washington
06:42 getting a start at tackle.
06:43 We knew Rob Scott, he practiced this week,
06:45 probably wasn't ready for, you know,
06:48 whatever it would be, 60, 80 plays.
06:50 But we knew that we wanted to get him in.
06:52 It was good to see him get in there
06:53 and get some productive work.
06:55 You know, obviously, you know, Mech and KJ
06:59 being able to get work there at the guard spot.
07:00 I mean, I like the growth with our offensive line.
07:03 It's going to be great when we get all eight of them
07:05 that are going, but it was also good
07:07 to see some of those young guys get in there.
07:08 And I thought some good plays there late.
07:10 You know, we've got a really good group.
07:11 And guys that are growing, they're developing,
07:13 they're working hard in practice.
07:14 But it's good to see the depth
07:16 that has been developed and created.
07:20 And, you know, I think we're seeing that,
07:21 you know, across the board.
07:23 On the offensive side,
07:24 it was good to see Hakeem Dent get back out.
07:27 You'll be able to kind of work a little bit of rotation
07:29 there at safety.
07:30 I mean, Conrad Hussey, you know,
07:31 made some really big plays, you know, true freshman.
07:33 You know, Blake Nicholson got in there as a true freshman.
07:35 I was really proud of those guys coming off the bye week,
07:38 being able to make a positive impact for us.
07:41 And, you know, I thought it was a good game for them.
07:45 You mentioned a couple of players
07:48 like Robert Scott that were out.
07:50 But you got Ja'Kai Douglas and Kentron back.
07:52 What kind of impact did they make being back today?
07:54 Well, I mean, just to continue to add
07:56 to the playmaking ability of what we have.
07:59 You know, obviously those guys, you know,
08:01 it's been a challenging first month of the season for them.
08:05 You know, getting them back in it
08:06 and, you know, just building that confidence
08:08 of all the things they can do, you know,
08:10 I think it's going to continue to grow with time.
08:13 But, you know, I love the depth that we have, you know,
08:15 there at that position.
08:16 I think we have some great playmakers.
08:17 Guys that, you know, just like today when Johnny went down,
08:21 you know, obviously you saw Kentron,
08:23 you saw Hakeem Williams.
08:24 You know, really those guys stepping up, you know,
08:27 I don't know if it showed up in past receptions,
08:29 but, you know, it's going to.
08:31 And those guys are -- you're going to be great players
08:33 and just continuing to work and develop.
08:36 You talked about the adversity of the second quarter.
08:41 It seemed like there was some frustration
08:42 from defensive players in particular.
08:43 I saw some frustration from you, I guess.
08:45 How did you kind of think they handled --
08:47 My frustration?
08:49 How do you -- Yes, I was frustrated.
08:51 How do you think they handled, I mean,
08:53 the adversity of how things played out
08:55 and how big was halftime for recentering?
08:57 It seems like that made a big deal, like --
08:58 I've got to do a better job in some of those situations of,
09:03 you know, because I was frustrated.
09:04 And there's some -- you know, obviously we'll go back
09:06 and watch film and learn and teach.
09:08 And some of the things that showed up, I don't --
09:13 I mean, I wanted an explanation, and so I voiced an opinion.
09:18 But, you know, I've got to do a better job
09:20 of making sure that, you know, even in voicing that opinion,
09:24 that, you know, as a leader of this football team,
09:26 I've got to make sure that our guys
09:28 are staying focused on things they can control.
09:30 You know, there's times that I'm going to voice my opinion.
09:33 I'm going to state exactly what I believe and what I saw.
09:36 And we'll see what it says.
09:41 You know, they're here come probably Monday
09:42 on some of those thoughts.
09:44 But, you know, it's all part of it.
09:46 And, you know, our guys, you know,
09:48 they always talk about having each other's back.
09:50 I've got to have our players back,
09:51 and, you know, they've got to have mine sometimes.
09:53 And, you know, we can all continue to grow and be better.
09:55 I love coaching this team. I love their response.
09:57 And that's one of the things -- I know you all hear me
09:59 say that a million times.
10:00 That's what it was today.
10:01 And that's what I was proud of.
10:03 You know, we talk about wanting to start fast.
10:05 We've not been as good as we needed to be.
10:08 That first quarter was a great, you know, fast start.
10:12 Now, second quarter wasn't as good as it needed to be.
10:14 All right, so it provides opportunity
10:16 for continued growth.
10:17 But to see the defense pitch a shutout
10:19 and to have some big plays there offensively in the second half,
10:22 I mean, that was a heck of a way to finish.
10:24 So a lot of good things to be able to build upon.
10:27 You know, and this is coming off a team
10:28 that played their best game, you know, in Virginia Tech.
10:31 They've got some good players,
10:33 athletic guys on the defensive front.
10:34 I mean, that was a good test for us
10:38 and pretty proud of our guys.
10:42 In that second quarter, you guys could not have been
10:44 more dominant in the first quarter.
10:46 Did you sense any of what you saw at BC in the second quarter,
10:48 or was that not the case?
10:49 I mean, there's some penalties that extended your high
10:52 with interception that was overturned
10:54 that would have been a huge play in the game.
10:56 We had a couple other things that showed up.
11:00 We had, you know, on one of our drives offensively,
11:02 we had a penalty that, you know,
11:05 negated what would have been a conversion.
11:07 So, I mean, obviously, it's all things
11:09 that we can be better at.
11:11 We can continue, you know, but I didn't feel like --
11:14 Our guys that played were playing with an edge.
11:15 It wasn't, you know, some of the things
11:18 that we saw earlier in the season,
11:20 you know, there wasn't about a comfort level.
11:22 And they were playing hard. They were playing fast.
11:25 You know, we had the pick there, 22-0 in the Mets.
11:30 It's about to go a whole other way, but he landed on them.
11:34 So, that was something that we have to continue
11:36 to teach the best way we can teach,
11:38 and we'll go from there.
11:42 This wasn't the question I was going to ask,
11:44 but was the explanation that he landed on them,
11:46 was that the penalty?
11:48 Okay. Here's the question I was going to ask.
11:51 Getting that kind of production out of Jared,
11:53 obviously, he's been very good all year,
11:54 but those were two monster plays that he had.
11:56 And what's that like to see him do that
11:58 and impact the game like that?
11:59 Well, I mean, Jared's been probably --
12:01 The last two games coming into this one,
12:03 he's probably been as good as he's been since he's been here.
12:05 And, you know, it's one thing you get caught up on,
12:08 you know, stats sometimes will lie to you,
12:12 and sometimes they're good,
12:14 and sometimes they're not as good, you know.
12:16 But, you know, I thought he played his last two games
12:20 as good as he's played, and then today,
12:22 you know, just continuing to build upon that,
12:24 and, you know, the production showed up.
12:26 He had two sacks.
12:27 Obviously, there were huge plays in the game,
12:29 you know, great energy for our defense,
12:32 you know, big plays, big situations.
12:34 And I'm very proud of him for just staying the course.
12:36 I mean, there's things from today's game, you know,
12:39 he'll still grow and learn and get better from,
12:41 because that's the mindset that he brings.
12:43 And I think we've seen that from a lot of guys.
12:45 I mean, our defensive front
12:47 is really doing a lot of great things, and you see the depth.
12:50 I mean, Josh Farmer's playing at a high level.
12:52 Fabian, you see him getting back into form.
12:55 You know, Dennis Briggs is out there,
12:56 you know, making good plays.
12:58 You know, Braden Fisk.
12:59 I mean, all those guys, Malcolm Ray,
13:00 I mean, they're inside.
13:02 And then I saw Gilbert Edmond flash a couple times today,
13:05 you know, and really kind of challenging him
13:08 to take that next step, and, you know, I thought he did.
13:10 Obviously, Byron, you know, and then, you know,
13:13 Pat has been coming off that Boston College game.
13:16 I think he's responded.
13:17 You know, Clemson played great,
13:19 and I saw him do some really good things here today.
13:20 So, you know, just a shout-out to our defensive line
13:23 for the work they're putting in, and, you know,
13:25 obviously the production they're having.
13:27 I know the time you spend on special teams,
13:32 I guess, what was the issue, or what VT did
13:35 and what y'all didn't do on the kickoff return that set that up?
13:37 I mean, we -- you know, obviously,
13:38 there were some mistakes on our end,
13:39 and, you know, we've got bad leverage.
13:41 We didn't -- we didn't --
13:44 we didn't set the edge where we wanted to.
13:46 You know, they were on it, and, you know,
13:48 they ran a field return,
13:50 something that we practiced for and, you know,
13:52 actually, you know, expected, but, you know,
13:56 when a couple guys that took wrong leverage angles
14:00 and got pinned and just created too much space,
14:03 and so, you know, we spent a lot of time.
14:06 We take a lot of pride in our coverage units.
14:07 For that to happen, you know, we will get it fixed,
14:10 and, you know, but that's --
14:12 obviously, it was a huge play,
14:14 and I'm grateful for, you know, all the --
14:18 all players in helping, you know, bounce back
14:20 and have that -- have the kickoff teams back
14:22 and being able to finish that game.
14:25 [Inaudible]
14:27 Two for one.
14:28 Yeah, just one.
14:29 You mentioned earlier the young guys getting in there,
14:31 and I think Coach Fuller said during the week
14:33 that they wanted to force Blake and Conrad
14:35 and some of those guys in the game.
14:36 Is that kind of with the mindset of, like,
14:38 what maybe they can do for you guys
14:40 towards the end of the season and --
14:41 What they can do for us now.
14:43 I mean, we think that --
14:45 we're not going to put somebody on the field
14:46 if we don't think they can help us win football games today.
14:49 Like, I'm not -- this is not, you know, a feel-good,
14:52 "Oh, hey, let's do --" Like, you got to go earn it.
14:54 No, we got really good players that are growing and developing
14:57 that have yet to get on the field
14:59 but are going to have incredible careers here.
15:02 Those guys have shown, whether in practice,
15:04 whether continued growth,
15:06 opportunities that they're getting,
15:07 you know, out there on the field,
15:08 that they are deserving,
15:10 and as they continue to produce and grow,
15:12 they'll get more.
15:14 But, you know, it's --
15:15 I'm excited about what this class
15:18 that we just brought in, really excited about that group.
15:20 I think we got a lot of great players,
15:22 and like I said, some of them that are not even --
15:26 not even playing very much right now or at all,
15:28 but, you know, have incredible futures,
15:31 and just, you know, that's -- it's all part of that growth.
15:34 And some are putting in the position to help us right now,
15:36 and so they're playing more.
15:39 All right. Thank you, guys.
15:41 First pair of players will be Patrick Casey and Jordan--