How things been going? We haven’t talked to you since day one busy with the other sports, right? A little bit, yeah, it’s good. Yeah, it’s a fun team to coach, you know, it’s the one thing that, uh, when you come off a season where you didn’t like the results, you know, you’re short coming up with where you wanted to end up, you know, record wise and you lost some close games, what you usually get back is a bunch of guys that don’t wanna go through that again and they’re they’re coachable, their attention to detail, they want to, it’s better, you know, and that’s been. Really refreshing. Uh, the, the practices have been high energy. There’s back and forth, competitiveness, offense, defense. Obviously there’s install going on with two new coordinators, so that’s been fun, you know, for me to watch just the process of the offense coming together, the defense coming together. Um, but it’s a fun group to coach, you know, and you can see the growth in the returning players too, so just picturing where CJ Bailey was a year ago compared to where he is now and all the reps that he’s had, uh, Lex Thomas the same way, feel really good about the two returning quarterbacks, and then Will Wilson’s just getting better and better and better. I know that’s a position most people want to hear about. But uh it’s been fun to see, you know, and some of the new players, um, JJ’s been a really good addition in the secondary. He’s made a lot of good plays on the football. uh Jaron Sensibaugh doing a lot of good things in the secondary learning, uh, a new position playing corner and nickel for us. So that’s been fun. Trey Thomas has been a really good addition, so you know, seeing him and obviously his familiarity with DJs system has been a plus. Just having that guy that can translate things to the players, the leadership. Sean Brown’s done a great job leading vocal and with his play, his effort and practice. Hollywood Smothers on offense, carious peak, like guys that were good players are now taking it to another level leadership wise, so that’s been a critical part of the spring for our team. You mentioned the two new coordinators. How have you seen, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, defensive players and coach Elliott’s relationship kind of evolve as well. There’s kind of a feeling out period at first when you have a new coach and uh for getting to know each other, you know how you’re wired, what you’re about, how he teaches, um, and then for him how they learn, you know, some guys are great classroom learners, some guys need to be on the field in the walkthroughs, some guys need reps. And so there’s that feeling out and then for him getting, you know what all the players can and can’t do well, right? And and then he had a base install this is what we’re gonna do and now you can see it start to kind of tweak and and lean in to where the players’ strengths are and and this guy can do this really well, let’s do this, this guy can do this really well, let’s do this. And so it’s been fun to see and, and that’s kind of what spring is when you’re a new coordinator in school is you have a system. But your system has to evolve to fit the pieces that you have in place and then, you know, obviously we have an opportunity to recruit a little bit after the spring. So, uh, I’ve been pleased with what DJ’s doing and I think the players today defensively they made a lot of plays, so it’s fun to watch. Is there that back and forth between the two groups, obviously, you know, they, they each wanna get the the better of the other one. Yeah, I mean, that’s if you’re going against teammates, you know, and there’s a lot of that back and forth competitiveness and and all of our skill and offense is back. So naturally those guys are gonna come out of the gates a little faster, but the defense, you know, with a lot of new guys in the secondary has played well, you know, they’re doing some good things when they give up plays, they’re learning from their mistakes. And it’s competitive. I mean, obviously Wesley and Noah and Decari, there’s some good receivers out there. They got to defend Justin in, in the tight end position. It’s very competitive, you know, and I think the, the thing that jumps out to you is Hollywood, you know, some of the things that he’s doing. The running backs in general, we have good guys that can run the football, but their protection has been really good this spring too. You see him stepping in the blitzes and playing square and playing without the football better. He talks about the changes in some of the other sports that have been happening. I mean, just your thoughts on on the Will we higher? Have you had a chance to talk to him? We’ve texted back and forth. I’ve been pretty busy. We had pro day Tuesday, the day they announced him, so I’m actually text them like might be my busiest day of the year we can get announced. So we practice. We had recruits here and we had pro day. I look forward to meeting them, you know, I mean, obviously I trust Boo and there’s been nothing but great things that I don’t read a lot of media, but I get the input from my sons and Sarah excited, you know, for the basketball programs, really excited for Wes and I did get to watch their win over Michigan State. We looked awesome in that game. So I look forward to seeing their next one. In regards to a lot of the players that registered last year, have you seen any of those take big strides in the spring? No, Chase Bond has really changed. His body is doing a great job on the defensive line. Proud of Chase. He’s worked really hard in the developmental program. Chaz Wallace, another guy that played in 4 games and we red shirted him and and he’s doing some really good things on the defensive line. Those two guys jump out to me, um. Zane, Zane Williams taking advantage of his reps, doing some really good things, tough guy, competitive, plays really hard, excited to see what he can do. Ronnie Royal, another guy that’s getting a lot of reps, had a nice interception in the scrimmage the other day, um. Trying to go through the player Rolodex, uh, on the offensive line, you know, it’s been fun to see our centers, you know, uh, Jalen Grant, Ryland Van, um, we’re playing, uh, Spike Souls at center and guard, so we’re getting to see him play a lot in different positions. Those are the ones that jump out to me. We’ve had some of the younger receivers got to play both outside and inside last year. Is there a natural slot receiver? Is there anyone that you’re seeing that that’s gonna make it as home? You know, I think it’s getting the best 3 on the field is the most important thing, you know, to say a natural slot, we don’t necessarily have the, um, the smaller body guy there that you saw maybe in our offense in the past, but it’s gonna get the best 3 on the field and you’ll see from Deari to Keenan to to Noah to Wesley, all of them can move around in the offense. And then we got to develop Teddy Hoffman. I mean he’s a guy that can really catch the football. um, he’s still learning. But he’s probably the most natural, you know, what you think about in a slot. It’s just day 11 in college for him as far as football goes with with the go ahead, go ahead. You mentioned it was a fun group. How rewarding is that for you in February, March, and, and they seem to be some a team you can embrace like that. Yeah, it makes coming to work a lot different, you know, when you’re coming in and you’re dealing with egos and attitudes, it’s not a fun job, and this has been the opposite. It’s been a really team-oriented group of guys that want to win, want to get better, very coachable. They can handle criticism, they give good feedback, you know, they’re intentional about getting better. They want to watch film, they want to meet, they want to live. There’s just no complaining and it’s very refreshing to be around that with with revenue sharing, have you had to come up with a formula for how you distribute that? Is it bottled on kind of how the NFL does it with, you know, some positions? We did a lot of study during the season on what other people were doing and and how they might do it, you know, if things get passed and as we expect here in April. Um, talking to the NFL helps, but as you know, it’s different just because we have two free agency windows more or less than, uh, and so that part, the attrition and, and, uh. Players leaving players coming in makes it more challenging, I think, than than the NFL, um, but you definitely lean on people in the business that you trust. Andy Vaughn, our GM, really, really smart guy, I trust him. He does a lot of studying with other people on the right way to do it. And works with the, you know, the admin and our collective on how we’re gonna do it. So there’s been a lot of time spent. I think the hardest part is it’s not a science that’s just like this is what we’re doing because you know in the old days you’d have your seniors, you’d have your medicals and you’d have a couple guys that went early and say it was 25, and you know you’re going to sign 25. That was it. And now it’s you think that that’s it, and then some guys leaving the portal and then you have another window coming up and so you just have to be more flexible and be able to deal with change a little bit, a lot, I shouldn’t say a little bit, deal with change a lot when it happens. Are you, are you gonna stick with 85 scholarships or are you gonna go up to? It’ll just depend on where we end up at the end of the spring. Appreciate it guys. Yeah. Yeah.

Source: wralsportsfan.com