Neal Brown Mayo Bowl Media Day
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00:00 First game mentality, and so as a coach, you're worrying about all the situational
00:05 stuff, you know, like simple things like transitioning from defense to punt
00:10 return or defense to punt safe, two minute in the game situations, so you get
00:16 a little bit of concern as a coach about that just because you're not in
00:21 necessarily in a normal game mode where you're experiencing those each and every week.
00:27 And part of that concern I would imagine special teams wise, not that you have a
00:32 lot of guys that are missing, but some of them were part of special teams, so all of a sudden
00:36 you're throwing some new people out there, maybe they played a bit.
00:39 And that's good and bad, so I think, and this is what I've been talking about with
00:43 North Carolina, is the fact that they've got several new guys playing and while
00:48 they're less experienced, they're probably going to be more excited about
00:51 playing in the game, and so some of our special teams guys are going to be
00:54 playing increased snaps or maybe playing for the first meaningful time.
00:59 Some of our younger players, they're going to have great energy, they just don't have the
01:02 experience, right? So I think that, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad
01:06 trade-off in a bowl game. You know, three things that as a head coach that
01:11 worry me, and I see it because I watch all the bowl games, is taking care of the
01:15 football on offense, you know, simple exchanges, things like that.
01:18 Second thing is tackling because you don't really live tackle during the
01:22 month of December, and the third thing is the special teams. It is much the
01:25 transitions is actual schematics of it, you know, making sure you have 11 guys on
01:30 the field, making sure that they understand that, hey, people tend to fake
01:34 punts and fake field goals a little bit more in bowl games than they do during
01:38 the traditional season. So I think those are the concerns and all you can
01:43 do is you work them and get them out there and play.
01:45 So obviously you guys have relied so much on your offensive line.
01:50 Other than five snaps, you've had Zach in the middle doing that. So your thoughts?
01:56 I imagine it's still going to be the same. You guys got to control up front,
02:00 both sides, and do that. Can you control up front without Zach there?
02:03 So, you know, here's the thing. We have a lot of trust in Brandon. He's
02:09 made tremendous growth. Like, he's played at a high level, and I really think
02:13 playing center, not only in this game, but for next season, will give him a real
02:17 head start. I think he can be an NFL player. And so from an identification
02:23 standpoint, getting us on the right people, have a lot of faith in him. We're
02:27 going to treat it the same. We're going to go same run plays that we ran when
02:31 Zach was in, or same run plays that we're going to run with Brandon there.
02:35 Same way we protected with Zach, same way that we're going to protect with
02:39 Brandon. Now, will we miss Zach? You don't take that type of player off your
02:44 team, and you say, "Oh, we're just going to continue to roll." But I do think, you know,
02:50 the one positive on it, it's really given us a month head start on the 24th season
02:55 with that O-line. Last one for me, then. You've said many times that the teams that are successful in bowl games,
03:01 usually ones that want to be there, have the energy to be there. Do you feel like your guys accomplished that?
03:06 We practiced. So the only thing I can go on is how we've practiced. And we've
03:11 had great energy. We practiced hard on Christmas Eve, which was a Wednesday
03:17 practice for us. And it was competitive. We did a ton of good-on-good work, and we
03:23 had great energy. And so, if we can carry that energy that we've had during the
03:27 month of December into the game, which I'm confident we can, then I feel
03:31 confident about our guys being ready to go. Coach, you were talking about some of the
03:35 younger players having an opportunity to play for you guys. You mentioned a guy
03:38 like Corey McIntyre getting a chance in this game. What can he bring, and just
03:42 where is he at in his development as a younger player? Yeah, so Corey is a guy that
03:47 we're excited about. We were able to maintain his red shirt, which is
03:51 gonna be big. He's really changed his body since June, and that's a credit to
03:55 Mike and Strength Conditioning, and also Haley Bishop and Nutrition. They've done a
04:00 great job with him, and he's followed instructions, and he used his resources,
04:04 which is what you want for the freshman. And he's taking advantage of going
04:08 against a really good offensive line. He went against Zach Frazier for 12
04:12 straight weeks on the scout team, and that made him better. And so, I credit him a
04:16 lot. We played him a little bit toward the end of the year, and he's continued
04:20 to get better. So, I'm excited. I'm excited for him. I'm excited for DJ Oliver, who's
04:24 gonna play for the first time in meaningful snaps on offense. He's earned
04:27 that, and it's been fun. He and Corey, to me, are two guys that have really
04:32 used what we call our developmental stage, where they basically lift like
04:36 it's an offseason during the season because of red shirting. And now, they're
04:41 so much better of a player. Their body's better. Mentally, they're better as
04:44 far as what we're doing schematically. So, I'm excited to see guys like those,
04:47 like Corey and DJ, in this game.
04:50 We bring up DJ. How different is he compared to, you know, a CJ Donaldson,
04:54 Jaheim? I know those guys have a lot of versatility, but in terms of his skill
04:58 set, how different is he?
05:00 Well, he's fast. That's the one thing that by looking at him, you wouldn't
05:04 know. He can run. You know, he consistently hits above 20 miles per
05:08 hour on our GPS units. He's big. You know, he's 220 plus. He's a tough tackle when
05:14 he gets going downhill. You know, the things that he's got to continue to
05:18 improve on are catching the ball out of the backfield, understanding pass
05:21 protection. But from a run game perspective, he's really talented.
05:25 Whenever it comes to their quarterback that they're gonna face here,
05:29 Connor Harrell was just talking with Sean Martin. He said he reminds him a
05:32 lot of the way that Garrett plays. How beneficial has it been getting ready
05:36 for that type of quarterback, having someone like Garrett, who also has the
05:40 ability to run the way that he is for this defense?
05:42 Well, the difficulty is what you're watching on film with North Carolina is
05:46 not necessarily how they're gonna play in the game. And so, that's the reason
05:49 we've done a lot of good on good work during this bowl prep is because we are
05:54 a quarterback run team. A lot of the run concepts we use, we anticipate North
05:57 Carolina using in the bowl game. Connor Harrell is talented now. I watched him.
06:02 We recruited him out of Thompson High School and he's won a bunch of games at
06:06 the highest level in the state of Alabama. He's really well coached by
06:11 Mark Freeman there at Thompson. And so, he throws the deep ball really well and
06:15 he's fast. And so, we'll be prepared for it, but we expect him to play well.