I think this can I, can I bend that a
little?
Sorry, guys, sorry, fumble.
That'd be a that'd be a turn.
I broke the phone right out of the gate.
I broke the phone.
Good to see everybody appreciate you being here.
Just got done with the second practice.
Had a pretty, pretty good run with the rookies back
a couple days ago.
Fired up to be back up here at Saint Joe's.
So with that, I'll just open it up and let
you roll.
You want to fight the ball loose a little bit
again, Keep talking about that.
Well, it was emphasized last night in the meeting because
I didn't feel like we got any yesterday.
I don't know if you guys were here yesterday.
There weren't as many reps yesterday, but I did think
that the defense kind of took it off a notch.
Good observation.
When you can't fit, you need to do things like
that.
Yeah, well, I mean, we're always talking.
We charge the number of punch outs or or attempts
to punch out because we just feel like if it's
ingrained that it'll show up on game day.
Now last year we didn't get as many as turnovers,
fumbles as we're used to.
So it's it's been a big emphasis.
And and now I tell you what, the other thing
that happens, I always say this is it makes your
offense better too, because if they know our guys out
there are going to be doing this, then they're going
to tend to be high and tight running.
Joshua Williams opposite Trek Mcduffie.
Is that a product that Jaylen still being out or
is is it kind of his job to lose or
is in an open competition?
No, it's pretty open.
So you've got you really got fighting for that.
You really got, you got Josh, you got Jalen, you
got NJ, NJ.
He he would have had a interception today to the
point somebody he was, he was set to make it,
but he's been coming on.
You know, he was injured last year.
But I think it's wide open and I think all
three of those guys know that.
I'm sorry.
You know, the one that thing that sticks out about
Jayden is he's tall and long and yeah, he's playing
a bunch of different positions.
It's kind of he's going through what Jamari Connor went
through last year where, you know, you're trying to learn
everything in the volume of the defense and yet he's
not just learning one spot.
You know, there's, I mean, Jay Reid, you know, we're
not going to have for a little bit here.
And so it's a blessing and a curse, right?
Jay Reid doesn't get the reps, but somebody else get
those reps.
And right now it's Jayden.
It's benefiting from it with the absence of LJ from
last year.
Now.
Absence, yeah, it's this Trent kind of stuff.
He just, he just killed me.
No, he's Trent stepping into that leadership role.
Yeah.
We'll see how that goes.
I mean, we obviously you guys know that almost every
game we had LJ travel with the quote, UN quote,
top receiver.
Whether we do that or not with Trent, we'll see.
There'll just be a game by game plan.
We'll see who the other corner is, who the nickel
is.
There's still a lot of unknowns right now.
We got some work to do back there.
We certainly miss LJ.
I miss him every day.
How much of replacing will be the scheme versus, you
know, someone in particular taking those?
Yeah, some of the scheme might change because, you know,
we'll see if we have somebody's going to step up
and serve that particular role.
If we don't, we go in another direction, find another
way to do it.
I mean, there were, you guys know, in the years
we've been here, we didn't always every game travel a
corner.
Sometimes we did.
We did it a little bit when Trevarius Ward was
here.
We did with him, but it'll be game by game
thing.
Can you talk a little bit about how he looks
now compared to before he before he got hurt last
year?
Because you're really raving about how he looked before.
That's a good point.
You got a good memory.
I thought he made a lot of plays last year
during this camp.
I forget exactly when he got hurt.
I know we were indoors, but it was a little
ways right.
We had some and the reason I remember that is
because, you know, we as coaches, we use a, you
know, a library of tape.
You know, when I'm sitting there talking about technique and
I know just last night there was one on there
of NJ last year making a really good play.
He's getting there.
I mean, he's a little rusty just because all the
time he had off.
It's been a full year.
I mean, if you'd ask him, he looks to me
like he's moving around pretty good.
Like, I don't see limitations, but he'd be a better
guy to ask for a couple more guys seen with
the linebackers.
Obviously, we're about to talk to Nick, but without Willie
Gay, you know, how's that kind of working out?
Yeah, we're trying to figure that all out.
We're going to miss Willie's burst and speed and his
energy.
Loved having Willie around.
You can't help but not like being around Willie Gay,
Right.
But Drew, we got.
Drew's been here and has played that spot.
Jack Cochran, who's been doing a terrific job.
Right.
Leo is going to probably have different roles and he
had last year, you know, in in conjunction with Nick.
We'll get some young guys out there.
So hopefully, you know, if we can find 5-6, however
many linebackers and get some good ones.
Let's wrap up.
We'll start with Nate.
Steve, it hasn't come on, I guess, in a few
days.
Just how he hurt you to see Felix.
Yeah.
And what do you want to maybe him to show,
I guess throughout the course?
Yeah, I think you're dead on Nate that we need
him to show in pads.
I mean, it's a different ball game, especially for D
lineman when you're in this kind of practice.
But yeah, we're going to be looking for some physicality,
some growth in his past rush ability.
I mean, Gia two, right, made a great play in
the Super Bowl, which I think was great for his
confidence.
And I think we just, you know, if he keeps
making plays like that, he's going to get more and
more confident.
I think it'll be good for this game just to
being injured.
No, he's still out there.
Unless you rely on him to use his voice a
little bit too.
Yeah, I mentioned that.
I I told him, you know, we can use this
as a positive and just have him dig deeper into
the playbook.
Like what?
Not just learn his position, learn the others.
He does that anyway.
I mean, you guys know Jamie's pretty shocked, dude, but
he's going to have to stay in tune him and
Jalen, you know, if you notice they they can't be
involved in anything.
But I noticed that today when we're doing a walkthrough,
they're back there and physically in their mind and moving
around into it, that that's really important.
That's what worries you the most about about this year's
team is brought so far the Baltimore Ravens.
That's all I'm thinking about right now.
I'll be quite honest with you, really.
I mean, listen, we know they're going to be all
fired up.
And that's a good football team.
So that's that's what I'm thinking about right now.
Football writers recognize you at the left Time Achievement award
for this year is what that mean to you?
Yeah.
Thanks, Matt.
I'm glad you brought that up because first of all,
that was humbled, right?
Shocked, humbled and concerned.
When you get award that says lifetime achievement on it,
that means you're getting old, right?
But I do want to say this because Sid and
Brad and Ted at time filled me in on the
whole thing.
And I know that there's some people in here that
are involved in that.
So I want to say thank you to those that
because I know that doesn't happen unless there's some kind
of support.
Here's the other thing I know about that kind of
award.
It's a, it's a team sport.
And when you get an individual award, that means you
were around really good people on good teams, good coaches,
good players.
So that's not lost on me.
But thanks, Matt, because I did want to thank the
people that that helped out with that.
Great.
Thanks.