Howard University Head Coach Larry Scott At MEAC Football Media Day
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00:00 All right, coach.
00:02 I'll think Jared Hunter had a fantastic year last year.
00:04 What's the plan for him to help continue his excellent running game?
00:08 Oh, man, just continue being who he is.
00:10 He's a hard worker, man.
00:11 He works at it.
00:12 He does things right.
00:13 He's a big student of the game.
00:15 He works hard in the weight room.
00:17 It means a lot to him.
00:19 He's a great leader.
00:20 He affects people around him.
00:22 He brings them with him.
00:23 So all he has to do is continue just being Jared, nothing more, nothing less,
00:26 because he carries himself to a standard, a pretty high standard,
00:29 and everything that he does.
00:31 So as long as he continues to do that,
00:33 Jared's going to continue to be exactly what we expect him to be,
00:36 which is a playmaker.
00:38 But not only just about the playmaker, he does really good things without the ball.
00:41 He plays in the offense.
00:42 He plays in the system, in blocks.
00:44 He does all those things really, really well.
00:46 So I wouldn't expect any fallout from Jared.
00:48 All I would expect to see is him elevate and perform at an even higher level.
00:52 Now you have a lot of talent running backs behind Jared,
00:54 but you just said how there are no egos in the running back room,
00:57 but they all want to, you know, bond to the role and understand that, hey,
00:59 Jared may be RB1, but he's really just the first of many.
01:02 How do you see your running back room kind of work together?
01:04 Well, because it's all personnel based, right, and I think they're unselfish.
01:07 They understand how we use them, where they're going to be used.
01:12 They all have a role that they take and embrace, whether that's special teams,
01:15 whether that's certain packages on offense,
01:17 or certain things that we're actually going to be going to the game to do.
01:20 And they embrace those roles and they perform those roles.
01:22 So they all have a piece of the pie, so to speak,
01:24 and they all take ownership in the overall performance of the entire room,
01:27 not just themselves as individuals, which permeates throughout our football team as well.
01:32 And that's where you're starting to see a lot of the unselfishness
01:34 and those type of things that it takes to truly be a championship caliber team come into play.
01:39 Absolutely.
01:40 Now, for one opportunity or another, Quentin Williams doing fantastic here.
01:43 Honestly, if it wasn't for Davious Rich, he might be the best quarterback in the MEAC.
01:46 So how have you seen him kind of grow in his time at Howard?
01:48 Oh, man, just his maturation process and understanding of the offense
01:51 and what we're trying to do and what we're trying to get done.
01:53 He's right where you would want a quarterback coming into a new system to probably be year three.
01:58 He's kind of mastering the understands.
02:00 I've always been involved in play calling and design of what we're doing.
02:03 So now I'm just going to take it over to the so-called play calling and those type of things.
02:08 He sees things the way that I see them.
02:09 We're thinking aligned and all those type of things.
02:11 So I expect his game to just take another level because it's slowed down for him mentally.
02:15 He's been a great leader this offseason for our team, the current guys that have been there.
02:20 And more importantly, he's really reached in and embraced some of the younger players that we brought into the program
02:24 that are talented too as well that will probably assume some roles and have some pieces of it too.
02:29 So he's just done a really good job being a leader in the things that you expect a quarterback to be.
02:33 Absolutely. Speaking of his weapons and young weapons at that, Richie Lawarza, Nishani Zakayev,
02:38 really it's a trio of wide receivers that were all top 11 in catches last year.
02:42 What is the next step for them as they progress and grow with Quintin?
02:45 I think they've all done a good job of getting bigger, stronger, faster.
02:49 They've all also became more and better students of the game and understanding the game and how to play it
02:55 and how to get open and understanding our concepts even more and the details of the concept,
02:59 not just operating and doing your job on that concept, but how does it all come together
03:03 based on what the quarterback's seeing through their eyes and all those type of things.
03:06 So we've been able to take football to level 3,000 now with these guys and some of their experience levels.
03:11 And so they've done all the right things, the weight movement on the field and all those type of things,
03:15 but they've really come together off the field as far as servicing their mental throughout football one-on-one meetings
03:20 and our continuous education of becoming better players. So I expect to see that come through on the field.
03:27 Defensively speaking, you have Kenny Gallop back, but Marcus Brown, of course, is up in the transfer portal.
03:31 What are you kind of expecting from your defense as they get ready for the 2023 season?
03:34 I think our defense will take a huge step, and it started with what we've done in the weight room and on the field
03:40 and we've added good muscle mass, lean muscle mass, and gotten in better shape.
03:45 And then also being in the year three of the system now defensively,
03:48 I have a totally different understanding of what we're trying to get done in the big picture defense
03:53 and how it all comes together, leaning on my health, knowing where I have health, all those little things like nuances.
03:58 I'm playing really good defense. Our guys have taken a giant step forward in that, even from last year,
04:03 and into the game, since last year, through our screen ball and through the offseason to do that.
04:08 So I'm really, really excited about where our defense is and a lot of the really good players we have on our defense.