Speaker 1: Next Saturday, August Thirday, at the opening Day at the
Speaker 1: Rent Football Hoskey As all the host of the Blue
Speaker 1: Devils of Central Connecticut will be there for all the action.
Speaker 1: Game Day on our flagship begins at eleven am from
Speaker 1: the Cloder Farms Doghouse just outside the stadium. Network pregame
Speaker 1: twelve thirty kickoff shortly after two. Be on the Yukon
Speaker 1: Sports Network the Varsity Network App. If you're outside the
Speaker 1: area and you want to hear what's going on, get
Speaker 1: the Varsity Network app. Put it on your phone. It's
Speaker 1: really easy to find. It's great you can you can
Speaker 1: hear us from anywhere in the country. So that's that's big,
Speaker 1: the varsited network dot Com. So back with Jim Mora
Speaker 1: and we're kind of going through the roster a little
Speaker 1: bit here. We talked about some of the specialty guys,
Speaker 1: the skill guys, Shamar Porter, Skyler Bell, Joe Finano comes
Speaker 1: back as a QB. You got a deep quarterback depth chart.
Speaker 1: I've seen a bunch of them now. I watched the
Speaker 1: scrimmage on Saturday and here today practice And how do
Speaker 1: you rate quarterbacks when you got that many? Do you
Speaker 1: have something in mind, say, well, Ferinano through twenty touchdowns
Speaker 1: only four interceptions, he's got to be top of the
Speaker 1: list right now. How do you go about making that decision.
Speaker 2: Where you're looking for certain qualities, you know, great decision makers,
Speaker 2: guys are going to protect the football. Guys that have
Speaker 2: leadership qualities obviously, accuracy and timing in the passing game,
Speaker 2: and understanding of the offense. Experience. And one of the
Speaker 2: reasons that you know Joe has had some success for
Speaker 2: US is that, you know, he's played the most snaps
Speaker 2: of any of those guys. He's he's a seasoned guy.
Speaker 2: He's how many of you ever thought you'd be hearing
Speaker 2: about a seventh year player, you know, nobody. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean he's in his seventh year. He's only twenty. I
Speaker 2: think he's only twenty four though, but he's in his
Speaker 2: seventh year.
Speaker 1: So yeah, so college at seventeen, I believe. So.
Speaker 2: I mean, someone told me he's twenty four. He's engaged, said,
Speaker 2: I mean, he's a mature kid, all right, But you know,
Speaker 2: we we do. Is to your point though, the quarterback room,
Speaker 2: there's there's depth there. You know. Nick Evers started six
Speaker 2: games for US last year and he's still here. Tucker McDonald,
Speaker 2: just from up the road, has had a tremendous offseason.
Speaker 2: He got hurt a little bit last year, but he's
Speaker 2: been pushing both of those guys. And then we have
Speaker 2: a freshman named Quisan Ferrar who's like dynamic. Like you
Speaker 2: typically don't make quarterbacks live in a scrimmage. You put
Speaker 2: a red jersey on him and no one's allowed to
Speaker 2: hit him. And Saturday at the Rent, I just made
Speaker 2: him take off his red jersey and said you're live,
Speaker 2: and had him live and practice yesterday. And I don't
Speaker 2: think anyone's touched him yet. I mean, he's this dynamic runner.
Speaker 2: He's got great poise about him. He's got a really
Speaker 2: nice arm. All he needs is some experience. So it's
Speaker 2: a nice room to have. I feel like, if you know,
Speaker 2: in the three years have been here, we haven't made
Speaker 2: it through a year with the same starting quarterback because
Speaker 2: of injury. Now let's you know, hopefully that changes, but
Speaker 2: if it doesn't, at least we know we've got some
Speaker 2: guys that can go in there and play with confidence.
Speaker 1: Cassan Farra, the freshman you mentioned. His throwing skills are
Speaker 1: kind of cool. I think he can throw the ball
Speaker 1: from a lot of different angles, you can fit the
Speaker 1: ball in. He throws well on the move. That's a
Speaker 1: great skill in today's game, is it not?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because the game there's so much movement in the
Speaker 2: game now and probably sixty percent of your pass plays,
Speaker 2: you know, are taking place outside the pocket now, you know,
Speaker 2: either by design or the play breaks down and the
Speaker 2: guy has to scramble and make a play. And he's
Speaker 2: got you know, these different arm slots that he can
Speaker 2: throw from Joe, Well, they all can, but Cason, he's
Speaker 2: got a knack for being able to throw it low
Speaker 2: with a lot of a loss in accuracy, especially for
Speaker 2: a kid his age. I mean, he's a really good
Speaker 2: looking player, and he's a he's a great kid. He's smart,
Speaker 2: he's got composure, sees the field. Well, I probably just
Speaker 2: shut up because now some other team will come and
Speaker 2: try and poach him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want to put him up on a pedestal.
Speaker 2: No, he's not even a play I mean he's gonna
Speaker 2: he's not. He's a fourth string. He's fourth we're talking
Speaker 2: about it. But it's kind of cool when you can
Speaker 2: sit here and talk about your fourth string quarterback right,
Speaker 2: I mean that maybe that shows a little growth.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I said this to somebody in the
Speaker 1: building here. I think Ben darnellis said, you know, he
Speaker 1: reminded me of Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's just the wo whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm exact. I hear you say.
Speaker 2: There's a style there. No, there's some similarities in his style.
Speaker 2: There's similarities in the style of Jade Daniels too, you know,
Speaker 2: and in stature and so he's not quite as tall
Speaker 2: as Jaden yet, but he's still growing. But he's a
Speaker 2: young guy. But I would say, right now we're spending
Speaker 2: too much time talking about a guy who's going to
Speaker 2: be holding the cokeboard most of the time.
Speaker 1: We got rid of that guy.
Speaker 2: He's now in the in the future, assuming that we're
Speaker 2: doesn't get out about him, which we're screwing that up
Speaker 2: right now, maybe he'll be our quarterback.
Speaker 1: You can play all right, but none, none of the
Speaker 1: things we say about quarterbacks matter if the offensive line
Speaker 1: doesn't protect him. True, and they did a good job
Speaker 1: last year. So now you got two guys that could
Speaker 1: end up playing the NFL Chase Valsen. Two guys that
Speaker 1: were around last year and did a lot of good things.
Speaker 1: They're not there. Tell me about the offensive line. I
Speaker 1: watched closely today because I know those big guys, if
Speaker 1: they protect the QB, that could be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, for three years now we've been
Speaker 2: one of the best protection teams in the country statistically,
Speaker 2: and those statistics can be flawed, you know. One of
Speaker 2: the things that we've done is run the ball well,
Speaker 2: like you said, and so that helps you in terms
Speaker 2: of the statistics of your sack ratio. But we've got
Speaker 2: good players there, you know, and they've been in our
Speaker 2: system for a while. You look at Ben Morowski, who's
Speaker 2: our starting left tackle, who started last year as a
Speaker 2: starting guard and then he got hurt. So he's a
Speaker 2: guy we have a lot a lot of high hopes for.
Speaker 2: And the right tackle, Carston, has been around for a
Speaker 2: long time, a couple of big guys. We brought in
Speaker 2: a right guard from Notre Dame ty Chan. Our left
Speaker 2: guard is Kyle Jurgens who played a lot last year.
Speaker 2: Our center West hoe A is a returner. So those
Speaker 2: five are solid assuming they stay healthy, which you know
Speaker 2: has not been something we've been able to make happen
Speaker 2: in the three years we've been here. You know, it's
Speaker 2: a tough, physical sport, but they've been in our system
Speaker 2: for the most part other than Tie. But he's a
Speaker 2: smart guy. He's a really good player. They're very well
Speaker 2: coached by Christian Pace and coach Samus was our offensive
Speaker 2: line coach in the past. They understand what we're trying
Speaker 2: to do. And then it helps to have a quarterback
Speaker 2: that can make good decisions and get rid of the
Speaker 2: ball on time or throw it away and not take
Speaker 2: a sack or take a negative play. And I think
Speaker 2: that's one of the things about Joe is his composure
Speaker 2: and his poison in the pocket, his ability to keep
Speaker 2: his eyes down the field when a play breaks down,
Speaker 2: not trying to force the ball in there, but you know,
Speaker 2: get rid of it, either dirt it or throw it
Speaker 2: out of bounds and live for the next down. So
Speaker 2: all those things out and then you've got to have
Speaker 2: good backs and tight ends that can protect too, because
Speaker 2: you know, people don't think running backs. You know, about
Speaker 2: fifty percent of their job is past protection, you know,
Speaker 2: and it's not easy to sort things out. And we've
Speaker 2: got guys that are willing to stick their nose in
Speaker 2: there and protect their quarterback.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Bill Belichick once famously said to Tom Brady, and
Speaker 1: then nothing happens on offense until you get rid of
Speaker 1: the ball, right, So get rid of it, and he
Speaker 1: did a pretty well