LeVar Woods 110823

  • last year
Iowa assistant coach
Transcript
00:00 then we'll go into questions, James.
00:02 All right, sounds good.
00:03 Hope everyone is doing well today.
00:06 Just got off the practice field.
00:08 You know, another good day for us,
00:09 special teams-wise and practice-wise.
00:11 High energy, high tempo,
00:13 trying to clean some things up for this weekend.
00:15 Obviously, you know, fairly decent
00:18 where we've been so far, special teams-wise.
00:20 Left a lot on the table last week against Northwestern,
00:23 which is disappointing for us from a special team standpoint.
00:26 However, made a couple plays in that regard.
00:29 And right now our focus is moving forward,
00:32 focus on Rutgers, who presents an unbelievably,
00:34 incredibly difficult challenge on special teams.
00:37 But it's also a great opportunity for us.
00:39 So looking forward to that and looking forward to Saturday.
00:43 Not sure if anyone has any questions.
00:44 I see a lot of hands raised.
00:46 Hello, our first question will be from Mitch Fick.
00:50 Morning, Coach.
00:51 Morning, Mitch. How are you?
00:52 Good. When you've got a guy like Cooper,
00:55 even going back to Charlie and Amir,
00:56 when you've got a guy back there returning kicks and punts
00:59 that you know is a game-breaker,
01:01 is there a way to scheme for him to help block different ways?
01:07 It's not like offense where you're just,
01:09 "Okay, let's just get him the ball as much as we can."
01:10 You got to rely on the punter
01:12 to be kicking the ball in the first place.
01:14 But how do you best utilize a guy
01:16 that can change the game with one return?
01:20 Yeah, I think that's a great question.
01:21 I mean, like I said, I just walked off the practice field.
01:24 That's what we just got done doing is scheming,
01:26 trying to get the guy the ball,
01:27 trying to get the ball in his hands,
01:29 trying to block better for him
01:31 and letting him do what he does best.
01:33 And certainly something we work on each day and each week.
01:36 It's something we focus on heavily in --
01:38 during spring football and then also during fall camp.
01:42 So more so the technical aspect of it
01:45 and the finer pieces to that,
01:48 less about the actual scheme put together,
01:51 but more about the fundamentals of how to block
01:54 and how to hold someone up so we can spring the returner.
01:57 Next question is from David Eichol.
02:00 Hey, LeVar, always good talking to you.
02:02 Appreciate you taking the time,
02:04 not to linger too much on the end of the Minnesota game,
02:07 but just given the call
02:08 and the way Cooper goes about his business,
02:11 did you have to have any talks with him afterwards
02:13 just about -- just to make sure
02:15 he doesn't overcomplicate things moving forward
02:18 and kind of keeping that momentum
02:19 just because of how controversial or crazy
02:23 the call seemed to be?
02:25 Or do you say business as usual, we move forward from there?
02:28 Yeah, I think we've all moved forward from that.
02:30 Going back to that and looking at it from a technical aspect,
02:34 you know, it felt like what he did was correct.
02:38 Obviously, officials saw it a little bit different,
02:41 which, you know, that's their job to see that
02:43 and the replay official, all those things that go into that.
02:46 But more so we're looking at moving forward
02:48 and, you know, don't ever want a guy
02:50 to take his playmaking ability away from him.
02:52 I think we've all seen Cooper make plays,
02:54 and he's one of the guys.
02:55 We also have other guys back there as well
02:57 that have done a good job and can do a good job.
03:00 And so just keep coaching and keep playing and move forward
03:04 and, you know, look for the next opportunity.
03:08 Next question is from Chad Lystico.
03:10 Hey, good morning, LeVar.
03:13 Seems like you guys have always done a really good job
03:15 of, you know, net punting advantages,
03:19 coverage advantages, return advantages.
03:21 Like, how -- can you kind of articulate
03:23 how you have tried to find edges,
03:27 I guess, in special teams in terms of field position
03:30 over the years as coordinator
03:32 and how, you know, how Iowa uses that to win games?
03:37 Yeah, kind of a standard special teams play,
03:39 obviously, is you're trying to net punt, as you talked about,
03:42 like, you know, pin them deep, send the ball down the air,
03:46 trying to flip the field, and then minimize returns
03:48 from a punt standpoint.
03:49 Same thing in kickoff.
03:51 And then from a return standpoint,
03:53 every time there's a return opportunity,
03:54 you want to maximize that.
03:56 And that's, you know, that's general special teams talk,
03:59 general special teams coaching.
04:00 Think some of the things that we may do differently
04:02 or expound upon are trying to find
04:04 some of that hidden yardage, whether, you know, it's a --
04:07 whether you can get someone into a false start
04:10 or find a way to get an extra 5 or 10 yards.
04:13 Those are things that we're constantly trying to work on
04:16 and trying to find an edge.
04:18 And I can't tell you all the edges that we find
04:20 because that would be...
04:21 -Oh, come on. -...top secrets.
04:23 However, however, it is something
04:26 we definitely focus on.
04:28 Next question is from John Stephe.
04:31 Hey, Ovar. Good to see you.
04:32 Hope you're doing well.
04:33 I wanted to ask you about Kyler Fisher.
04:36 How have you seen him kind of take advantage
04:38 of the opportunities he had on special teams over the years,
04:42 and how have you seen him grow?
04:44 Yeah, Kyler's a very unique player, I think, for us.
04:46 And he started off here as a walk-on,
04:48 ability to run the ball as a running back in high school,
04:51 start off as a safety, then moved to linebacker.
04:53 He can do a lot of things.
04:54 And it's really been fun watching him grow as a person.
04:57 You know, the maturation from him as a man
04:59 and then obviously as a player,
05:01 he's been very good for us as a core special teams player.
05:04 And typically, you know, if there's a play made,
05:06 he's in the middle of it somewhere.
05:08 He certainly has room for growth
05:10 still these last few games of the season.
05:12 But just try to continue to work on him,
05:15 put him in the best position possible.
05:16 And then he spends a lot of time outside of practice,
05:19 outside of the standard meeting time.
05:21 We've talked to guys about investing extra time,
05:23 and he's one of the guys that does that,
05:25 and I think it's been paying off for him.
05:26 And then, you know, then it translates for him
05:27 into football -- or excuse me, into football, into defense.
05:31 And I think you're seeing some of that with Coach Wallace
05:33 and Coach Parker and the guys on defense as well.
05:37 Next question is from Scott Dockterman.
05:40 Mohar, how's it going today?
05:42 I'm well. How are you?
05:43 I'm doing great.
05:44 Wanted to ask you about --
05:45 we're winding down on Torrey Taylor's career here.
05:49 He's got -- and he's leading the country in a number of punts,
05:54 those inside of 20 yards, fewest touchbacks.
05:57 He's eighth in average, I think second, 50-plus.
06:02 What -- if you could kind of look back at his career
06:05 and when you went down to Australia
06:07 to get him right before COVID, and now you look at him today,
06:12 how can you kind of condense his career in that?
06:17 Is this as good of a career as we've ever seen,
06:20 not only in Iowa, but in recent times, by a punter?
06:24 You know, I think that's a great question.
06:27 I think there's still more out there for Torrey,
06:30 which makes things exciting every day
06:33 because he has done a great job being here.
06:35 I literally just had a conversation
06:37 with the specialist group today
06:39 and talking with a younger player about,
06:41 I think if we sit back and watch,
06:44 we're watching one of the all-time great players
06:46 at the position, and it's fun to watch.
06:49 You know, sometimes you're so close
06:50 because you see it every day, and you're too close to see it.
06:53 Then you step back, and the things you just rattled off,
06:56 some of those numbers, statistics, all the stuff,
06:59 then you step back and you watch the tape.
07:00 Like, man, this guy's performed very, very well for us.
07:05 You know, he'll be the first to tell you last week
07:07 was not Torrey Taylor,
07:09 not the guy we've been accustomed to seeing.
07:11 However, over the course of his career,
07:15 he's been exceptional.
07:16 And just, you know, that's on-the-field stuff.
07:18 The off-the-field stuff speaks for itself as well.
07:21 The guy's a phenomenal human being.
07:23 I've seen unbelievable growth in him as a person,
07:26 maturity-wise and then leadership-wise,
07:29 and he's in a really good place right now.
07:32 And I think we're still seeing the best football
07:36 from Torrey Taylor in front of us.
07:39 Next question is from Tom Kaecker.
07:41 Tom, I think you're muted.
07:46 Yeah, I'm muted. Hey, LeVar.
07:48 I forgot to come off of mute.
07:50 But anyway, wanted to ask you about Jon Nestor.
07:55 He's kind of jumped in there a little bit
07:56 in the coverage game, return game, that sort of stuff.
07:59 What have you seen from his development
08:01 and any of those other true freshmen
08:03 that are getting close to maybe being a contributor
08:05 still this year?
08:07 Yeah, I think Jon's been interesting
08:09 because he's definitely feisty, high energy, high effort,
08:13 and we're getting to see some of that on tape in games.
08:16 And we saw some of that early on when he first came in.
08:19 Maybe just didn't quite know where to go.
08:21 I mentioned to Coach Ferens,
08:23 he may not know where he's going to go,
08:24 but he's going to get there fast,
08:25 and it's going to be hard.
08:26 So we all seem to be prepared for that,
08:29 but he's done a good job.
08:30 And the guy, talk about investing time,
08:33 and a message we try to share with the players nearly daily
08:36 about five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes a day,
08:39 whether it's special teams, whether it's schoolwork,
08:42 or whether it's tied into offense, defense,
08:45 those little investments don't seem like much during the day.
08:48 And then over the course of a year, they pay dividends.
08:51 I watched Cooper Dejean do that as a freshman.
08:53 Didn't say a word, just would come in,
08:54 "Hey, Coach, can I meet with you?"
08:56 10 minutes, 15 minutes,
08:57 and then all of a sudden by week 10,
08:59 shoot, we're talking about him being the starting returner,
09:02 or he's going out and making plays as a gunner.
09:05 I think we've seen some of that with John.
09:06 John's not the only guy doing that.
09:08 There's other guys doing it,
09:09 but as a freshman, it's pretty impressive.
09:12 - Next question is from Adam Jacoby.
09:16 - Hey, Coach Woods,
09:18 really appreciate your time this morning.
09:20 I wanted to ask you,
09:21 we had talked during media day before the season,
09:24 and you and Torrey both mentioned
09:27 a lot of the physical changes and improvement
09:30 that he had done over the off season.
09:32 Now that he's having such a great year,
09:35 from your perspective,
09:36 have you seen that improvement be a result
09:40 of the physical changes,
09:41 or is it a result of the maturation process,
09:44 or how has he taken that next step in your eyes
09:47 now that you've actually gotten to see it?
09:49 - I think it's a compilation of everything.
09:52 So physically, he's much more conscious about his body,
09:55 much more conscious of working on mobility,
09:58 working on stretching, flexibility, things like that,
10:00 what he eats, what he puts in his body,
10:02 and probably bigger that I've seen from him
10:05 is what he puts in his mind and what he does mentally.
10:09 And I think you're seeing a guy who maybe,
10:12 some of the things last year or years past
10:15 that would cause him to slow down or not be as efficient,
10:20 he's gotten rid of that.
10:22 And Torrey, I think mentally,
10:23 is as strong as I've ever seen a guy,
10:25 and he rises to challenges, rises to occasions.
10:28 You saw the Wisconsin game, that was a crazy win,
10:32 in that stadium.
10:33 And the guy went out and had one of the best days
10:35 I've ever seen, which Torrey, a year ago or two years ago,
10:39 that would have rattled him, got him all frazzled
10:42 and whatnot, and didn't happen.
10:45 So I think that's a sign of huge growth from him.
10:48 The guy's been working incredibly hard
10:50 on being more mentally flexible on some things
10:54 when things aren't exactly right,
10:56 or the wind's not exactly right,
10:57 or, hey, it's a little bit colder than we expected,
10:59 or however you want to see that,
11:02 just handling those challenges
11:03 and looking at those as opportunities,
11:07 and then going out and executing anyway.
11:09 And that, I think, is the biggest growth
11:11 you've seen from Torrey.
11:12 - Appreciate it, thanks.
11:14 - Next question is from Tyler Tashman.
11:16 - Hey, LeVar, hope you're doing well.
11:20 Ontario had impact in terms of blocking punts.
11:25 I think Logan Lee said earlier this season,
11:27 like he's a top five athlete he's ever seen.
11:30 Just what are some of the things
11:31 that you've kind of seen from Ontario behind the scenes?
11:35 - Yeah, I think Ontario is one of the guys,
11:36 I think, that's really sort of taking a step forward.
11:39 He's not even close to being where he's going to be
11:42 if he sticks with it.
11:42 He has a lot of ability, both physically on the field
11:47 and also in defense as well.
11:50 But I think he's capitalized
11:51 on some of those opportunities.
11:52 I think there's more out there for him.
11:54 You know, I think he missed one last week,
11:55 which we talked about,
11:56 and he missed one Western Michigan, which we talked about.
11:59 However, I do feel like he's really taking a step forward.
12:02 And he's an exciting young guy to watch
12:04 because the sky's the limit for him physically.
12:07 And just want to keep working with him
12:09 and keep seeing where that leads for him.
12:12 You know, you talk about a guy like Lucas Van Ness last year,
12:14 sort of similar where put him in a specific role
12:17 and this is what we're asking you to do.
12:19 And can you expound on that role?
12:22 I think Devin Hilson's another guy like that.
12:24 I think there's a lot out there for Devin
12:26 as a football player
12:28 and the things he's done for us on special teams.
12:30 And to me, those are opportunities for guys
12:33 to just get an opportunity and can you take this role
12:36 and can you run with it and see what happens
12:39 and then watch that grow into other roles
12:41 on offense or defense.
12:42 - Next question is from Chad Lystico.
12:46 - Yeah, it was kind of weird watching Torrey
12:49 not have the greatest game ever the other day.
12:51 It was just so rare anymore.
12:53 What would you attribute maybe his struggles the other day
12:56 and also just over time,
12:57 how have you seen him kind of embrace
12:59 what I talked about earlier, the hidden yardage?
13:01 'Cause he didn't know a lot about football.
13:02 How has he kind of embraced, you know,
13:05 that way of doing things at Iowa?
13:07 - Yeah, I think, you know, you talk about last week,
13:10 I think it's a one-off to be honest with you.
13:11 I think it's, you know,
13:13 everybody has days that aren't their best
13:14 and this happened to be that day for him.
13:18 But as far as hidden yardage, things like that,
13:19 I mean, I think we've all seen him do that.
13:22 And I just literally walked off a practice field
13:25 at some point throughout the day, watched him,
13:27 and it was just, he was in the indoor,
13:30 but he was kind of just working on some technical things,
13:32 the drops, placing the ball, some little stuff.
13:37 And I was like, man, I was just amazed watching him.
13:38 I've never seen a person own the field
13:40 the way he owns the field.
13:42 When he is on and he wants to do what he wants to do,
13:44 there's no stopping him.
13:45 And it's pretty awesome to watch,
13:48 but just really excited for him
13:50 and seeing where that goes.
13:52 But I think you're talking about last week,
13:53 it was a one-off deal.
13:54 - All right, LeBron, we're gonna go four more questions.
13:58 The first one's from John Steppe.
14:00 - How have you seen Drew Stevens grow
14:02 over the last year and a half or so?
14:05 And where do you think kind of are the next steps
14:07 for his development?
14:08 - I mentioned earlier watching Torrey work
14:12 and Drew and I were standing there
14:14 talking to each other today.
14:16 And I think the sky's the limit for Drew.
14:19 And the reason I bring that up is
14:21 I referenced Drew and Torrey,
14:23 I referenced Torrey with Drew and just said,
14:26 hey, the guy you see now is not the same guy.
14:29 Like Torrey's gone through,
14:32 he's gone through a lot of work to get to the point
14:34 where he's at a lot.
14:36 And a lot that we see here in the building
14:39 and then even more so on his own away from here.
14:42 But going back to what we were talking about with Drew,
14:46 I think the sky's the limit for him physically.
14:48 He has all the physical gifts and tools
14:51 that you want in a good kicker.
14:53 And I also think inside that there is a winner,
14:56 there's a killer inside Drew.
14:59 And a tiger just waiting to get let out.
15:01 We see it let out every once in a while.
15:04 A couple of guys in the room,
15:05 we know how to trigger that out of him.
15:07 The key is to get him to do that consistently
15:09 over and over and over
15:11 and not let some of the external factors affect him.
15:14 And that's every young player, every position,
15:17 but particularly that position where
15:19 every time he steps on the field, it's worth points.
15:22 And again, I think Drew is physically capable
15:24 to dominate a game if he wants to do it.
15:26 - Next question is from Mitch Fick.
15:30 - Coach, what's the process of recruiting long snappers?
15:34 And when you find a kid like Luke Elgin,
15:36 how important is he?
15:39 I mean, he's maybe as good of a sure thing
15:42 as you've got on specialty,
15:43 and you're just saying something
15:44 'cause we've talked about Torrey and Drew too.
15:46 - Yeah, I think it's an interesting question.
15:48 First off, specialist recruiting
15:50 is probably the weirdest thing ever.
15:52 Everyone talks about recruiting and how strange it is.
15:55 It's even weirder for a specialist.
15:57 A lot of it is word of mouth, a lot of it's recommendations.
16:00 You don't ever even think about taking a guy
16:02 unless you've seen him in person on the grass.
16:05 Whereas other positions, you may offer a guy
16:08 if a recommendation or someone,
16:12 you see them play a different position
16:14 where a specialist is different than that.
16:17 But going back to Drew, or excuse me, Luke,
16:19 I don't know there's a guy as steady for our room as Luke,
16:23 and he's sort of the straw that stirs the drink.
16:25 And I think Torrey will tell you that.
16:27 I think Drew did say that last week.
16:29 It's easy for them to execute when the snap's on the money
16:32 and people are doing what, making it easy on them.
16:36 And again, I think we're looking at a guy
16:38 who's got the whole world in front of him
16:40 and he's done a great job so far.
16:41 There's still more out there for him.
16:44 And just continue to keep pushing and trying to,
16:47 as far as recruiting goes, you try to find guys
16:49 that have traits like that.
16:50 And with Luke Elkin, we had a guy here before
16:54 who plays for the New York Giants and Casey Kreider
16:56 who had a very similar profile.
16:57 Both parents were educators.
17:00 Dad was a coach.
17:02 Good temperament about him.
17:03 People rave about him.
17:05 I think Luke has all those same things.
17:07 His dad's a teacher and a principal.
17:08 Mom, great lady, awesome family.
17:13 I think we hit the jackpot when we got Luke.
17:15 And then behind him is Liam Reardon,
17:19 who rarely gets talked about, but dad played here.
17:22 Dad understood Iowa football.
17:24 Dad walked on here as a center
17:27 and then eventually made himself a long snapper.
17:30 I think you see Reardon every day
17:31 kind of push forward in that regard too.
17:33 And that position, you're always looking for a guy
17:36 that sort of steadies the room
17:37 and makes everyone else's job easier.
17:40 I think both of those guys have those abilities.
17:43 - Scott Doctrin.
17:45 - No, LeVar looking at Drew Stevens last year,
17:49 he looked like he was about 12.
17:50 Now he looks like he's about 18 or 19.
17:52 But on the field physically,
17:54 you could see the physical development,
17:58 25, 30 pounds it appears,
17:59 but also flexibility and strength.
18:02 How instrumental is Ray Braithwaite then
18:05 in helping him reach to take the next step as a kicker?
18:10 - Yeah, absolutely.
18:11 I think Ray and our strength staff,
18:12 they do a phenomenal job, all positions.
18:14 And kicker and punter, snapper is not anything unique.
18:17 I mean, they spent a lot of time with those guys,
18:19 helping them, as you mentioned, mobility, flexibility,
18:22 things that those are still areas Drew can improve upon
18:24 and will improve upon.
18:26 But I think, you know, Ray's been instrumental.
18:30 I also think Carmen has been instrumental
18:32 in helping us, you know, reach physical
18:35 and not only physical maturation, but also mentally.
18:39 And dealing with some of the challenges
18:41 that young people, young players deal with today.
18:45 When I was growing up, we didn't have social media.
18:46 People didn't have the easy access to you.
18:48 You could say things good or bad to you.
18:51 Now kids have that in their face at all times.
18:54 Aside from a coach and a parent, you know,
18:56 in their face at all times.
18:57 Now they hear things from all different angles.
18:59 And there's a little learning curve with that
19:02 and how to actually play the position
19:05 or how to be a college student athlete these days.
19:07 I think that's been very helpful for us as well.
19:11 - All right, our last question will be from Adam Jacoby.
19:14 - Last one, are you sure?
19:16 - Yes, sir.
19:17 - Adam, make it good.
19:19 - I'll make it good and quick.
19:21 Drew mentioned that he had worked with you
19:24 on being convicted on his lines and kicking
19:28 and what a big deal that was for the game winner.
19:32 Sort of, I guess, sort of take us through
19:34 that teaching process, you know,
19:36 from your perspective to the kickers
19:39 to get that conviction and confidence for kicks like that.
19:43 - I'm glad you brought that word up.
19:45 That's been a word of last few weeks.
19:47 The difference between conviction and confidence.
19:50 And in confidence, confidence is a feeling.
19:52 You feel good, I feel confident, I feel good, coach,
19:54 I'm ready to go.
19:56 Okay, convicted is there's no other option.
19:58 And like you heard Drew say, blackout, cash out.
20:01 Okay, those are my words.
20:02 That's Drew talking.
20:04 I've never said that before to him,
20:06 but what we try to do every day in practice
20:09 and our mental skills are things that we try to build
20:12 and develop is you don't want a feeling
20:15 or an external for something to derail you.
20:18 You want to be able to be in a position
20:19 where you're not thinking,
20:21 you're just going out and executing.
20:23 And Drew talked about that.
20:24 And I listened to his comments and he said,
20:28 "I just blacked out."
20:29 And that's what good players do at these positions.
20:32 They kick or snap or punt, they black out
20:34 and they go out and they execute.
20:35 And then they look up and it's over and it's done.
20:38 And wow, I did a good job or I didn't do a good job.
20:41 You know, if you let those little things creep in your mind
20:43 or little things that can derail you,
20:47 then typically bad things happen.
20:49 And that's what we're fighting every single day,
20:52 trying to be convicted rather than confident
20:55 and knowing that regardless of circumstance,
20:57 we go out, we execute and we get the job done.
20:59 And all three positions, snapper, holder, kicker,
21:04 I think executed that last week
21:06 and we got to continue to do that moving forward.
21:09 - All right, perfect.
21:10 Thank you for your time today, LeVar.
21:11 - Thank you guys, appreciate it.
21:13 - Thanks coach.
21:13 - All right, see you, have a good day.