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00:00 Good morning, really excited to be finished with day seven of spring ball.
00:04 After watching it take the guys are really working hard. Before I start like
00:08 this give some kudos to the three departments that we have here that may
00:12 not get a lot of attention. I think our sprint coach, Coach Reno and his crew
00:17 has done an unbelievable job of getting our guys bigger, faster, and stronger. I think our
00:22 recruiting staff, Trent, Pete, and John, they did an unbelievable job also. And the
00:27 last point is our medical staff. Coach Love does an unbelievable job of keeping our guys
00:32 healthy. This spring ball has been about three things really. It's about teaching,
00:36 learning, and development. And those guys have done an unbelievable job of doing that.
00:41 With that being said, I'll pause for questions.
00:46 Ron had some really high praise for the cornerbacks and said he feels like this
00:49 can be a really, just a really dynamic group. I think he said one of the best he's been
00:53 around in a long time. What stands out to you about this group of corners?
00:58 I think when you look at this group, they all experience the games that are played with
01:03 Corey and Taz coming over and Tay, but in the spirit in certain ways. They try to
01:09 get acclimated to the system. All those guys are good dudes. They love ball. They
01:14 play with a competitive edge and now just creating that brotherhood. I think it's
01:18 my job as a coach to teach those guys exactly what to do. And the critical
01:22 thing about spring ball is you get a chance to see how those guys learn.
01:26 Everybody learns differently. Some are visual learners, some are auditory learners, some are
01:31 aesthetic learners. But for us to get a chance this spring, that's why it's so
01:35 critical we got those guys here. And now it's me as a coach to figure out how those guys
01:40 learn and develop those guys and hopefully can master their craft.
01:44 Coach, a lot of times when you, the way it is now with bringing guys in and you've got newcomers and all that,
01:50 a lot of times you forget about the returning guys, but your returning guys
01:54 may be the biggest recruit you had because he came back. How important, I guess,
01:58 taking us through that process of when you found out that Quincy was coming back and
02:02 what he's done since then? Great question. I think when you start talking about
02:06 Quincy Riley, before you start talking about the football player, you start talking about
02:11 the man. I think his mom, Miss Kelly, and his family did an unbelievable job of
02:15 raising Quincy. Quincy graduated this past fall with his degree, but he wanted
02:20 to come back to his master's from the University of Louisville. I think that speaks volumes for a young man.
02:25 He really embodies what a student-athlete should be. When you talk about the
02:29 football side of it, I think Quincy took a global approach. When you get a chance
02:33 to step back and he watched the fan from last year, there were things he felt like
02:37 he wanted to get better at. And after the season, he had some pros and some cons.
02:42 He met with me and Coach English and Coach Braum and discussed those issues and
02:46 got a chance to have a direct plan that we gave him to come back. I think when you
02:51 look at Quincy now, he's a totally different person. Sometimes I don't really know who
02:55 he is right now. And that's the way it should be. He's professional. He bought his
02:59 business. He weighed, last year, 182 pounds. I think our dietician, nutritionist,
03:04 Miss Hannah, done an unbelievable job of Quincy. He's 195 pounds now. Just the
03:09 leadership that he's shown throughout this spring ball is really tremendous.
03:14 Again, good player, but better person.
03:16 - Steve, how has Quincy, in the time you've had spring ball, about two and a half
03:20 weeks or so, how has he kind of been different as a player versus what you saw
03:24 last season?
03:25 - Well, first of all, I think it goes to this. Let's have a transparent
03:30 conversation. Let's do that first. Let's look at the film. Let's see what can we
03:37 get better at. And I think he has done that. And I think the first thing he
03:42 wanted to do was change his body. And I think he has done that also. The next
03:46 thing he wanted to do was just improve the football IQ to really go from a high
03:50 level of learning. He only made a couple of plays this spring that a freshman or
03:54 sophomore probably wouldn't have made. But his IQ of football right now is
03:59 through the roof. He's studying tape. He's watching film. He texts me all hours of
04:03 the night just watching film on his iPad, things I can get better at. The next
04:08 thing it is, is you can't be as self-confident. As my job as a coach is
04:14 making uncomfortable. I got to point out every issue, even to the minute degree of
04:19 this way it can be better. And I think he is taking that approach this spring is I
04:24 want to be the best. Most importantly, how can I create that brotherhood with this
04:28 group to bring everybody along? There's a thing we have in our room is this. Your
04:33 attitude is contagious. Are you going to bring guys with you? And I think that's
04:37 one of the things he's really stood out to me is his attitude is contagious. Guys
04:42 are following him, not only just in our DB room, but amongst the whole team also.
04:47 Yeah, that pretty highly rated freshman last year had to sit out and Aaron
04:50 Williams, both Jeff and Ron have spoken highly of him this spring. What's been
04:55 your impression of how he's come out and really his true first spring? I think
04:59 when you know me being a football coach, I have knee injury myself in college. And
05:04 if you guys or ladies have had injuries, that's probably one of the most darkest
05:09 moments you can ever have because the other team is practicing playing. You
05:14 kind of sit back in the corner doing five a.m. rehab by yourself and you just
05:19 with the trainers. And I just talked to Coach Love during the fall last year. He
05:23 was just saying Aaron had a great attitude. So many fall when he was
05:28 rehabbing, you never saw him with a frown on his face or a sad face. He had
05:32 that blossom smile that you knew this guy was gonna be a good player. And now
05:37 he's healthy. The first thing that sticks out to me is competitive nature.
05:40 He's a competitor. He plays with an edge. He played with a chip on his
05:43 shoulder. That's what you saw in high school tape, and he's getting back to
05:47 that. Been very pleased with him again. He got a long way to go, but do eight
05:53 through seven practice eight tomorrow. Very character. Aaron Williams, Coach
05:57 English said last time we get to talk to him that the back room right now is
06:01 one of the strongest he's seen since he's been coaching. What kind of stands
06:04 out to you about the room as a whole and how they've kind of attacking things
06:08 day by day? Well, the first thing you want to be a good human is you got to
06:11 punch the clock. When those guys come back here, they punched the clock and
06:15 they were ready to work. And the first thing you gotta do is put the work in.
06:18 They have definitely done that. They studied film. They watching other teams,
06:22 they're watching other players. They always hitting you up, you know, through
06:26 text message of different things they see with technology on the Internet or
06:30 YouTube, trying to find ways to get better. The biggest thing now just
06:34 creating that brotherhood togetherness, and I think that what those guys are
06:37 doing even not with the staff. But when you see one, you see three or four
06:42 always around each other. I just walked back to this interview. Four or five
06:46 guys in the meeting room on their off time today just watching film, and I
06:51 think they continue to do that. I think the sky's the limit for this group.
06:55 Going back to Aaron, is that someone you can see filling that role for Jarvis
06:58 or who's kind of some guys that stand up to you as far as kind of being that
07:01 potentially replacing Jarvis? I think Jarvis is a big role to fill, and I
07:07 think Aaron, the rest of those guys in that room, both on the starting
07:10 standard. I think the biggest thing that Jarvis brought in was that toughness.
07:13 Like he was a tough guy, loved to compete, loved to get after, and he had
07:17 a great work ethic. I mean, he turned some of his tape on from the game. It's
07:20 good, but his practice tape even better. And I think that's one of those
07:25 guys took from Jarvis. Just having a great attitude about practice and
07:29 always have an opportunity to get better. We've got some guys in that
07:32 room that I think are all for the challenge. We may not be able to do it
07:36 individually, but I think we can do it collectively.
07:38 When you look at a guy like Corey, what has he brought to the table and to
07:45 this room? He's got experience, and that's what you've got with some of
07:49 those newcomers, but he kind of stood out last week when we saw him in
07:53 practice. I think when you look at Corey, you look at a guy that's big,
07:57 long, fast, has played a lot of football, has a great understanding
08:02 of football. His high school coach won the best in the country. He played in
08:06 a good competitive environment. So he came to this stage here. It was just
08:10 another stepping stone from Corey. He's articulate. He understands football. He
08:15 has a high level IQ. And the most important thing about Corey, he's a
08:18 football lover. He loves to play football, and that's one requirement
08:24 to be a good football player. You've got to love football, and he definitely
08:27 does that.
08:27 Earlier in spring, Ron mentioned that in terms of the secondary as a whole,
08:32 it's arguably probably the best back-end unit he's ever seen. How does
08:37 this secondary, from what you've seen so far with the collection of talent
08:40 we've seen in spring, how do you think this unit kind of racks up amongst the
08:44 various secondaries you've seen over your career?
08:46 I think the first thing is they're athletic. They've got a unique appetite
08:52 of wanting to get better. They're all really transparent with each other, and
08:56 they all compete against each other. They're always trying to win. If you
09:01 watch tape and you see some of the plays we've made at practice, Taz made a
09:06 play the other day at practice, and on the film, the first guy jumping off the
09:10 sideline was Quincy Riley. T-Mac made an unbelievable play yesterday on pick.
09:15 That tape batted up, and he got off a deflection, and the first guy that came
09:20 off the sideline was MJ Griffin, and MJ ain't even practicing. So I think the
09:25 biggest thing is we want to develop that brotherhood, that love for each
09:28 other. I know sometimes as men, we don't say love too often, but you've got to
09:34 have that love in the group. They've got to have love for the players, and the
09:37 players have to have love for the coaches, because you're never going to
09:41 push those guys to the point that you won't push them if there's no love
09:44 there. And I think that's the first thing that I think we want to establish
09:47 with this group. No, we're going to compete. We're going to love each other.
09:50 We're going to be transparent with each other, because again, there's a
09:53 standard expectation that Coach Bromley said that we want to meet, and I think
09:58 that's the first thing we want to try to do.