What kind of impression have the corners made on you in camp?
I feel like they made a good impression. Really. The biggest thing I've been trying to get across to those guys is competition. Just because you started the first year doesn't mean you're going to start this year. I let them know that each year you gotta come back and compete. Last year we finished 7-4 and lost in the championship. So, you know, the standard has been said that we can't try to let that happen again.
Can you talk about your returning players and transfers that came in the spring?
I've got
Patrick Jolly and Anthony Egbo Jr., who both had good years last year; started the majority of the games for us. So really looking for to both of those guys stepping up in their senior years and having a good campaign this year.
Jordan Mukes, transferred in from Oklahoma. You know, he's doing a good job of getting accustomed to everything. We just gotta get him to the mindset of making plays every day.
Brandon Ramsey, he's a red-shirt freshman, has been coming along really well this summer. We've got Dishon Hall, another veteran guy in the room. He's a 6-2 guy. He's been making plays.
Aaron Reynolds, a transfer from Incarnate Word, has been making plays too.
Who are some of the young guys who are making an early impression?
I got true freshman,
Jalen O'Neal and
Tyson Williams. They impressed me as far as not coming in and seeming like freshmen, you know, picking up the playbook fairly well, making plays, being able to go in there with the ones.
What's the identity of this group?
So our name is Playmakers, and I feel like every one of them has been doing that.
Who's, who's emerging as leaders?
Similar to the two starters last year,
Patrick Jolly and Anthony Egbo, are really stepping up and being more vocal. Jolly, transferring from UCLA his first year, was kind of getting accustomed to everything, feeling his way that first year. But now I think he knows the team, has a good grasp of people and has the respect of the team. I'm really looking forward to seeing him step up in that role, along with Anthony Egbo. Anthony is the team chaplain. He's the SAAC president on campus. So really, people naturally gravitate to him. We're just getting him to come out of his shell and become a leader on the football field.
What's the emphasis in camp?
This, this, the emphasis is for us to get one percent better each day. You can't perfect everything at corner in one day. But the biggest thing I tell those guys who work on something, whether it's your footwork, whether it's your hands, whether it's attacking a ball in the air, just find something to get better at each day.
And competition. We brought two guys in a room. We lost two seniors last year, so we're needing to figure out who were those three, four and five corners are going to be. And if nobody emerges into those three or four rolls, I might have to rotate and get some guy some game experience to see who's going to step into those roles.
NEXT UP: Coach Conor Dubin talks Linebackers
