Q: How much, I guess, easier is this spring now that you don't have to fully install the defense again with everybody, you're just kind of teaching things to the newcomers and kind of building on with the other guys who are already here and kind of learned already?
"I think the details and the foundation and how we compete and how we go about just the technique and the fundamentals, but really it's a clean start. You know, it's just start from the beginning, beginner's mentality to start practice, to start camp. So the older guys, they'll take the notes and they'll go through the things that, you know, maybe they missed last time or they can understand a little bit better this time. And then what's weak and things. You know, we're not going to be the same team as we were last year. We got to learn, you know, things that maybe we weren't as good at, weren't as successful at last year. We got to clean that up and we got to find some better answers. And then, you know, things we were good at, you know, it's going to be different players. So now we got to find out exactly what our identity is, you know, as we attack offenses and how we play. So it's a beginner's mentality for everyone, including the coaches. And we're going to make sure we're treating it that way right from day one."
Q: You had two elite guys up front last year, which is obviously very rare. How much does that make you change going into this year? You've got good defensive ends, but probably unrealistic to expect a much more level of production.
Yeah, I'm excited about the group we have. And obviously, I'm very thankful for the guys we had last year. The seniors that left and the guys that left are a very, very talented group, and they changed the game. Some of those guys were here last spring. Some of those guys weren't here last spring. I thought everyone got better through spring football, through fall camp. And we're excited for what's going to happen here in the near future. But for us, it's, you know, you're always going to be a different team. And it's not the NFL. We're not drafting. We're not trading. We're not, you know, taking someone on the waiver. It's always recruit the best players. Recruit guys that love football. Recruit guys that love to compete. And then we figure out what we are best as a team. I'm excited about the group up front. I think we have guys that get to the quarterback. We have guys who can stop the run. Now we've got to figure out what the best situations, what the best positions are for those guys, and how we rotate them and how we play them. Because one thing I definitely think is we're going to have some depth. We have guys competing right now. At every position, there's a lot of competition at all three levels. And we're just going to make us better. Because you can see guys every rep, there's nothing guaranteed. So they're competing. They're laying everything out there to get better and push themselves every single day. And our guys, they love each other. They're competing together. It's making the entire room better, which is excellent for us.
Q: Damon Wilson specifically among your new guys. Just initial impression on him and what do you think he can bring to the defensive line?
Right out the gate, and we showed a clip yesterday in one of the meetings, is how hard he practices. It doesn't matter ones, twos, threes, his first rep in this uniform. But he goes extremely hard. And then that's, when you look at the guys last year, when you look at [Rueben] Bain and [Akheem] Mez and and Blay and Wes and all the different guys, Jacoby, that's what those guys were. Every day they got better on the field because of how hard they practiced, how hard they competed. And that's one thing he brings to the program right now. And I think the competition in that room is going to make everyone in that room better because of how hard he practices, how hard he runs to the ball. It doesn't matter what group he's running with, what rack he's on. It's just every day trying to compete and get better at his techniques, at his fundamentals. Some of the things we teach a little bit different. So some of the things right now, he's going through that process of, you know, trying to learn it, trying to learn the technique, trying to learn the hand placement, the footwork, trying to get an understanding of the scheme going on around him. And then the other thing is, he's just a smart football player. You can tell he's been well coached up. And he understands what's going on so it's allowed him to adapt a little bit faster.
Q: These two guys, Marquise Lightfoot, who we'll see a bigger role this year, Hayden Lowe, who missed all of last season. With Lightfoot, just how is he maybe kind of growing now that he's got a bigger role and a more complete defensive end? And then Hayden Lowe, where is he at in terms of just, like, his development after having missed all of last year?
As for both guys, obviously with Jesus, he's a guy that played a lot last year. Now, he was a situational guy. He was a role guy. There were weeks he was out there play one. There were other weeks he was out there in different situations. But one thing is, we played a lot of football players. In a lot of games, you saw 24, 25, 26 guys on defense on the field, on the defensive side of the ball. And then you saw a group of other guys that maybe weren't on the field on defense, but they were competing on special teams. So that all of that experience is guys that have now played football. They've been out there for game one last year. They've been out there for the last game of the year last year. Whatever the minutes were, all that stuff stacks up to get our group and our guys more experience. And Keith, you can see it already. His technique's been better. His awareness has improved. The way he competes. And then, you know, his block destruction right now. You know, last year he was a pass rush third down, put in a situational thing. And right now he's made a huge emphasis to go stop one, to attack people, to go through people, to line of scrimmage. And, you know, he's been consistently getting better. And then he's done a great job in our strength and conditioning program, our sports science program, our nutrition. He's done a great job of continuing to add good weight onto his body since we've ended the season in really a short period of time. So I'm excited to see where he's going to go before the season. Then Hayden's a guy, obviously we had an injury, but he's been in every meeting. He worked extremely hard in the off season, understanding the fundamentals, where he's got to be aligned and what his job is and where his eyes are supposed to be. And now, he's done some walk-through reps. He's been in the back and acting. And now he gets to go do it against a different color jersey. And you can see, like, he understands where to be and understands what to do. Now it's just doing it full speed. And he'll continue to get better this spring, this summer, and fall camp will be huge for his reps as he continues to compete. That's the best thing about having who we have on offense. We will get some of the best players every single day. That's just going to make our guys, force our guys to get better fast.
Q: OJ looks like he's really started to frame out, especially this offseason. What have you liked out of him in the offseason?
Yeah, it's the same thing. He's another year older, and had a really good freshman year, had a couple injuries, continued to learn, continued to grow, competed. Some of the reps he played last year, especially in the postseason, that's as high a level of football, shutting down some of those wide receivers. He got the shut down. We put him on an island playing one-on-one. I still think I remember the Louisville game, the four-minute at the end of the game. He makes a huge third down play and man-to-man by himself to get the ball back. And that's where, like, he'll continue to get better at all those situations. Now, another year in the weight room, another year with our strength coaches, another year with our nutritionists, you know, sports science, and then just, now developing more into a leadership role. Some of those older guys aren't there in the secondary. ZP's back. Fitz is still going to that role. We've got other guys competing to step up in those situations. We need those guys to step up, and I think that's a role that he's starting to grow, he's starting to learn, and he's starting to embrace, and we're excited to see where that goes.
Q: Corey, we get a linebacker, Chase Smith and Toure having two very experienced guys back in that group. How beneficial and valuable is that? And who are some of the guys maybe additionally in that group that you're intrigued by helping to see some things from this spring?
Yeah, you always want to have the experienced guys back because they understand the communication, the calls, how fast we play with the tempo, what the style is. And I thought Chase, really, as the season went on, really played, really at starter level. Especially when we got in the postseason, he was playing as well as anyone on the field. Toure, same thing in the postseason. I thought he was playing his best football. And now we're excited to just stack a year or two of both of those guys in this system. But, you know, I think there's a lot of other guys. Kellen Wiley's a guy that continues to improve day by day. We're getting a little bit better. Pruitt's a guy that we've moved back down the linebacker. And I think having him play in space in the secondary last year, whether it was as a nickel or as a boundary safety, will help to improve his game because now he gets to come to a little bit tighter to the box. He's put on some really good weight. He's competed all offseason. He's gotten stronger in the weight room. Bonner is a guy that last year was going to be in the mix. He got hurt in the opener. He probably would have played a lot more football if he doesn't get hurt early in the season. He's a guy that's done a better job of taking care of his body, being aware, you know, and playing multiple positions now. He's really stood out early here in spring practices, spring workouts. And there's a lot of guys in this freshman, I think we're excited about what those guys do. There's a lot of guys in that room that'll push to compete. And some of it might just be situational football. It might just be on third down. It might just be on first, second down. Some guys will be earning special teams jobs, but there's a lot of guys that played good roles last year that return really good roles.
Q: The talent level in the competition on Greentree is about as nice as I've seen it in 20 years. What is your process on setting a depth chart? What is your philosophy on playing time when it comes to talent level in the competition itself?
That's what we want. The goal is to get your starters, you get your backups, you get your guys that are depth guys ready to go, and you got your guys developing. We want to develop players, and we want to play a lot of people. Last year, sometimes it was, why aren't the linebackers as productive? Or we played four to five guys in a game. We had a lot of guys to play, to compete. So for a longer season, we were fresh. Our guys were flying around. We kept them going. And, that was early in the year. Some of those games were one of our big messages to the defense right now is four quarters. Last year was a fourth-quarter team. We got to get better on defense. And that's one of the biggest things we get to strain through practice. We get to play more players early in the year. With some of those games, we have an opportunity to put the game away on defense, and we got to step up and we got to respond. And it may be different guys rotating on the D-line. Later in the year, we played nine or ten guys in the D-line. At linebacker, we played four or five guys in the secondary. We played four or five different safeties most of the season. In the corner, we rotated four and really five guys as the postseason came in. And that's what we want. We got to have the depth and it's got to be, we're not even going to blink. Next guy in rotations. It doesn't matter. And in spring ball and fall camp, one of the biggest things we try to do, I don't want the same guys playing with each other. Because all of a sudden, you start figuring out this guy makes all the calls, that guy doesn't say anything. Or we want our guys to pick each other up. Older guys playing with younger guys. I want experienced guys playing with guys that need to get the experience. We want our guys picking each other up, coaching each other up. And I love it. You see, something happens on a field. And before a coach can even do anything, you see one of the other players go jump him. In a good way, in a positive way. Hey man, this is what we're doing. Hey, keep your head up. This is how we're going to play this. Keep communicating. Just pull each other up. And it's awesome to see our veteran guys take that ownership, take that leadership. We want all our guys constantly pulling each other up. And then they can demand what the expectation is from one another when everyone's on the field. And that brings everyone on the program up, gets everyone to the same level, and then we don't blink those on the field.
"I think the details and the foundation and how we compete and how we go about just the technique and the fundamentals, but really it's a clean start. You know, it's just start from the beginning, beginner's mentality to start practice, to start camp. So the older guys, they'll take the notes and they'll go through the things that, you know, maybe they missed last time or they can understand a little bit better this time. And then what's weak and things. You know, we're not going to be the same team as we were last year. We got to learn, you know, things that maybe we weren't as good at, weren't as successful at last year. We got to clean that up and we got to find some better answers. And then, you know, things we were good at, you know, it's going to be different players. So now we got to find out exactly what our identity is, you know, as we attack offenses and how we play. So it's a beginner's mentality for everyone, including the coaches. And we're going to make sure we're treating it that way right from day one."
Q: You had two elite guys up front last year, which is obviously very rare. How much does that make you change going into this year? You've got good defensive ends, but probably unrealistic to expect a much more level of production.
Yeah, I'm excited about the group we have. And obviously, I'm very thankful for the guys we had last year. The seniors that left and the guys that left are a very, very talented group, and they changed the game. Some of those guys were here last spring. Some of those guys weren't here last spring. I thought everyone got better through spring football, through fall camp. And we're excited for what's going to happen here in the near future. But for us, it's, you know, you're always going to be a different team. And it's not the NFL. We're not drafting. We're not trading. We're not, you know, taking someone on the waiver. It's always recruit the best players. Recruit guys that love football. Recruit guys that love to compete. And then we figure out what we are best as a team. I'm excited about the group up front. I think we have guys that get to the quarterback. We have guys who can stop the run. Now we've got to figure out what the best situations, what the best positions are for those guys, and how we rotate them and how we play them. Because one thing I definitely think is we're going to have some depth. We have guys competing right now. At every position, there's a lot of competition at all three levels. And we're just going to make us better. Because you can see guys every rep, there's nothing guaranteed. So they're competing. They're laying everything out there to get better and push themselves every single day. And our guys, they love each other. They're competing together. It's making the entire room better, which is excellent for us.
Q: Damon Wilson specifically among your new guys. Just initial impression on him and what do you think he can bring to the defensive line?
Right out the gate, and we showed a clip yesterday in one of the meetings, is how hard he practices. It doesn't matter ones, twos, threes, his first rep in this uniform. But he goes extremely hard. And then that's, when you look at the guys last year, when you look at [Rueben] Bain and [Akheem] Mez and and Blay and Wes and all the different guys, Jacoby, that's what those guys were. Every day they got better on the field because of how hard they practiced, how hard they competed. And that's one thing he brings to the program right now. And I think the competition in that room is going to make everyone in that room better because of how hard he practices, how hard he runs to the ball. It doesn't matter what group he's running with, what rack he's on. It's just every day trying to compete and get better at his techniques, at his fundamentals. Some of the things we teach a little bit different. So some of the things right now, he's going through that process of, you know, trying to learn it, trying to learn the technique, trying to learn the hand placement, the footwork, trying to get an understanding of the scheme going on around him. And then the other thing is, he's just a smart football player. You can tell he's been well coached up. And he understands what's going on so it's allowed him to adapt a little bit faster.
Q: These two guys, Marquise Lightfoot, who we'll see a bigger role this year, Hayden Lowe, who missed all of last season. With Lightfoot, just how is he maybe kind of growing now that he's got a bigger role and a more complete defensive end? And then Hayden Lowe, where is he at in terms of just, like, his development after having missed all of last year?
As for both guys, obviously with Jesus, he's a guy that played a lot last year. Now, he was a situational guy. He was a role guy. There were weeks he was out there play one. There were other weeks he was out there in different situations. But one thing is, we played a lot of football players. In a lot of games, you saw 24, 25, 26 guys on defense on the field, on the defensive side of the ball. And then you saw a group of other guys that maybe weren't on the field on defense, but they were competing on special teams. So that all of that experience is guys that have now played football. They've been out there for game one last year. They've been out there for the last game of the year last year. Whatever the minutes were, all that stuff stacks up to get our group and our guys more experience. And Keith, you can see it already. His technique's been better. His awareness has improved. The way he competes. And then, you know, his block destruction right now. You know, last year he was a pass rush third down, put in a situational thing. And right now he's made a huge emphasis to go stop one, to attack people, to go through people, to line of scrimmage. And, you know, he's been consistently getting better. And then he's done a great job in our strength and conditioning program, our sports science program, our nutrition. He's done a great job of continuing to add good weight onto his body since we've ended the season in really a short period of time. So I'm excited to see where he's going to go before the season. Then Hayden's a guy, obviously we had an injury, but he's been in every meeting. He worked extremely hard in the off season, understanding the fundamentals, where he's got to be aligned and what his job is and where his eyes are supposed to be. And now, he's done some walk-through reps. He's been in the back and acting. And now he gets to go do it against a different color jersey. And you can see, like, he understands where to be and understands what to do. Now it's just doing it full speed. And he'll continue to get better this spring, this summer, and fall camp will be huge for his reps as he continues to compete. That's the best thing about having who we have on offense. We will get some of the best players every single day. That's just going to make our guys, force our guys to get better fast.
Q: OJ looks like he's really started to frame out, especially this offseason. What have you liked out of him in the offseason?
Yeah, it's the same thing. He's another year older, and had a really good freshman year, had a couple injuries, continued to learn, continued to grow, competed. Some of the reps he played last year, especially in the postseason, that's as high a level of football, shutting down some of those wide receivers. He got the shut down. We put him on an island playing one-on-one. I still think I remember the Louisville game, the four-minute at the end of the game. He makes a huge third down play and man-to-man by himself to get the ball back. And that's where, like, he'll continue to get better at all those situations. Now, another year in the weight room, another year with our strength coaches, another year with our nutritionists, you know, sports science, and then just, now developing more into a leadership role. Some of those older guys aren't there in the secondary. ZP's back. Fitz is still going to that role. We've got other guys competing to step up in those situations. We need those guys to step up, and I think that's a role that he's starting to grow, he's starting to learn, and he's starting to embrace, and we're excited to see where that goes.
Q: Corey, we get a linebacker, Chase Smith and Toure having two very experienced guys back in that group. How beneficial and valuable is that? And who are some of the guys maybe additionally in that group that you're intrigued by helping to see some things from this spring?
Yeah, you always want to have the experienced guys back because they understand the communication, the calls, how fast we play with the tempo, what the style is. And I thought Chase, really, as the season went on, really played, really at starter level. Especially when we got in the postseason, he was playing as well as anyone on the field. Toure, same thing in the postseason. I thought he was playing his best football. And now we're excited to just stack a year or two of both of those guys in this system. But, you know, I think there's a lot of other guys. Kellen Wiley's a guy that continues to improve day by day. We're getting a little bit better. Pruitt's a guy that we've moved back down the linebacker. And I think having him play in space in the secondary last year, whether it was as a nickel or as a boundary safety, will help to improve his game because now he gets to come to a little bit tighter to the box. He's put on some really good weight. He's competed all offseason. He's gotten stronger in the weight room. Bonner is a guy that last year was going to be in the mix. He got hurt in the opener. He probably would have played a lot more football if he doesn't get hurt early in the season. He's a guy that's done a better job of taking care of his body, being aware, you know, and playing multiple positions now. He's really stood out early here in spring practices, spring workouts. And there's a lot of guys in this freshman, I think we're excited about what those guys do. There's a lot of guys in that room that'll push to compete. And some of it might just be situational football. It might just be on third down. It might just be on first, second down. Some guys will be earning special teams jobs, but there's a lot of guys that played good roles last year that return really good roles.
Q: The talent level in the competition on Greentree is about as nice as I've seen it in 20 years. What is your process on setting a depth chart? What is your philosophy on playing time when it comes to talent level in the competition itself?
That's what we want. The goal is to get your starters, you get your backups, you get your guys that are depth guys ready to go, and you got your guys developing. We want to develop players, and we want to play a lot of people. Last year, sometimes it was, why aren't the linebackers as productive? Or we played four to five guys in a game. We had a lot of guys to play, to compete. So for a longer season, we were fresh. Our guys were flying around. We kept them going. And, that was early in the year. Some of those games were one of our big messages to the defense right now is four quarters. Last year was a fourth-quarter team. We got to get better on defense. And that's one of the biggest things we get to strain through practice. We get to play more players early in the year. With some of those games, we have an opportunity to put the game away on defense, and we got to step up and we got to respond. And it may be different guys rotating on the D-line. Later in the year, we played nine or ten guys in the D-line. At linebacker, we played four or five guys in the secondary. We played four or five different safeties most of the season. In the corner, we rotated four and really five guys as the postseason came in. And that's what we want. We got to have the depth and it's got to be, we're not even going to blink. Next guy in rotations. It doesn't matter. And in spring ball and fall camp, one of the biggest things we try to do, I don't want the same guys playing with each other. Because all of a sudden, you start figuring out this guy makes all the calls, that guy doesn't say anything. Or we want our guys to pick each other up. Older guys playing with younger guys. I want experienced guys playing with guys that need to get the experience. We want our guys picking each other up, coaching each other up. And I love it. You see, something happens on a field. And before a coach can even do anything, you see one of the other players go jump him. In a good way, in a positive way. Hey man, this is what we're doing. Hey, keep your head up. This is how we're going to play this. Keep communicating. Just pull each other up. And it's awesome to see our veteran guys take that ownership, take that leadership. We want all our guys constantly pulling each other up. And then they can demand what the expectation is from one another when everyone's on the field. And that brings everyone on the program up, gets everyone to the same level, and then we don't blink those on the field.
