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00:00 Terrific. 70% of our season ticket holders have either donated their money back or rolled their purchase over to 2021.
00:07 That's an unbelievable number at a time where we are with with our economy. So I applaud our fans. I apologize to you that you won't be at the games. We're going to have to bring our own energy.
00:24 But we know our fans will be sitting at home screaming at the TV. So again, thank you for hanging in there and thank you for continuing to support the athletic program and the football program. I love that.
00:39 We also went back through our COVID guidelines during the game. It was helpful on Saturday night to see that game because we could see how the game worked and see how our practices are working to make sure that
00:53 we were doing the things that they were doing. So we've told our players that during the game, you don't have to wear your mask. During the game, you don't have to wear your lower shield. But when you come off of the field,
01:05 we're going to require you to either have a helmet on or we're going to require you to wear a mask at all times. And like Coach Longo's came off because he got excited and he was doing something. We got to get him another mask. And that's
01:18 something that we're going to have to look forward to as we come through. And if we dress up 120 people at home, they've extended the
01:28 coaches box to 15 yard line to 15 yard line.
01:32 But we're also having to try to figure out the guys that aren't going to play as much. Where do they stand?
01:39 How do they social distance? And the other thing that was more difficult the other day was with that sideline scattered out so much, trying to make sure that you can
01:50 do a good job with your substitution plan and in special teams because guys are scattered out a lot more than they normally would. You've got masks on, it's harder to hear.
02:01 We will not have crowd noise. So that is one thing that will be a positive, but we're all having to look at making sure that our substitutions are
02:10 staying and keeping attention, staying close enough, but social distancing. Our punters and kickers have been good, not great. And they're very, very talented. So we want to pick up in that area
02:23 over the next two weeks. Our punt coverage and our kickoff coverage was really, really good. We did a lot more kicking game in the scrimmage. Our punt return was poor.
02:34 We didn't do a good job of that last year and we didn't do a very good job of that Saturday. So we'll work hard on our punt returns this week. Defensively,
02:42 we're closer to too deep on defense than we are offense. You can put two defenses out there right now and they don't look that much different.
02:53 So that's really going to help us. And we can really run. We're a much faster defense than we were this time last year. So there aren't many guys that are playing that can't run at a high level.
03:05 Our most improved position is definitely the secondary. It's deeper and faster than this time last year and I'm really proud of Dre.
03:16 Dre Bly has got our corners playing at a high level. So it's been really, really good for our wide receivers who are experienced and good to be competing against
03:25 corners that are so good. So we're excited about them. The thing that we're not doing as well as we would like is pass rush.
03:34 We would like to be able to get a pass rush with just four pass rushers instead of Jay Bateman, our defensive coordinator, having to bring a bunch of people
03:44 which makes us play a lot more man coverage and when we have to bring extra people. So we've got to do a better job of getting to the quarterback with four people up front. Offensively, we were much better on Saturday.
03:58 I've really been pleased and our coaches have been pleased with Garrett Walson. He's doing a really good job for us at tight end. He caught a big ball the other day or two or three, but he also is blocking well
04:11 and he's playing at a high level for us. All of our older guys on offense are playing well, but we don't have the same depth right now offensively that we do defensively. So in the next 14 days, we've got to find younger guys that can play at a high level.
04:28 And I've said the recruiting class we had, I'd take all of them again. They're all talented. It'll just depend on which of those guys can step in and help us,
04:39 especially since all these guys are back on offense and they know what to do.
04:43 From the team itself, the eligibility rule is
04:48 something that's really strange for coaches and for players because basically all of our guys get to play this year and it doesn't count as a year
04:58 technically. So you don't have red shirting or you look at it another way, they're all red shirted, but they can play.
05:08 So for a young offensive lineman like John Adorno, who's the backup center right now, he can play in four games, he can play in six games, he can play in all 11 games and can still be a red shirted freshman.
05:22 So it's really a unique situation for us. All of our seniors, if they decide that they don't want to go to the NFL or they can't get drafted at a high enough level, they can all come back and play next year.
05:37 So it's very unique when you're looking at roster management and so we're trying to sit down and talk to every young man on our team right now
05:45 about his status for next year and obviously some of them won't know that, but it's a different situation than it's ever been.
05:55 And none of the freshmen are asking about how much will I play, can I red shirt, if I play four games on special teams, can I pull out then and red shirt, that's just not part of the formula that we've got.
06:10 Syracuse, I was reading the other day because we're just starting to work on them, even though
06:16 it's a new game for us, but we felt like that
06:24 and looking at them, they've got a new defensive coordinator, he came in from Arizona State.
06:29 He's got multiple looks on defense, he blitzes a whole lot. They had 10 sacks and four interceptions in their scrimmage.
06:37 So it's something that we've got to continue to look at. I like the fact that Coach Bateman blitzes a lot against our offense every day because that will help us in preparation for the Syracuse game.
06:50 Offensively, Dino Babers is one of the best offensive coaches in the country. I coached against him when he was at Texas A&M. I coached against him when he was at Baylor with the Art Brau system and
07:01 they'll wear you out. They go at a very high tempo and that's why we're working so hard on T-deep because they can
07:09 make your pass rushers wear out in the fourth quarter and that's where they get you. And they've got seven starters back on offense.
07:18 And they also have a tremendous kicking game. Their kicker was 11 for 11 inside of 40 yards last year. Their punter was third in the FBS with 43 yard average per punt.
07:29 So we are excited about playing. We're excited about the game. Everything I feel right now is that we are going to play.
07:38 I can't wait to see the games Thursday night, Saturday night again. It's exciting for college football to be back and and I can tell at rookie night last night we have our our newcomers, they all have to be in a skid or sing and it's really ugly. They're awful.
07:54 And we have to give the players 10 seconds for each act before they start booing them or throwing paper at them.
08:03 So it was pretty ugly last night, but it was fun and and you can tell the guys are excited about a game and and
08:10 excited about something coming up in the future that's fun because it's been a it's been a long time coming, but they can feel now that that we're headed that way.