Speaker 1: Hi, We're live at the Duncan Music Lounge here at
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio and Hartford, the home of Art Network flagship
Speaker 1: Fox Sports. Right do in ninety seven nine Hard for
Speaker 1: Mike Chrispino along with Jim Mora. So we recapped last
Speaker 1: year in that first segment. Now we're looking ahead. How
Speaker 1: do you view the next year after you've had success?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be harder to get people up
Speaker 1: to that level again or do you just start at
Speaker 1: square one and try to build something again.
Speaker 2: Well, you started square one and try to build something
Speaker 2: again knowing that you have some momentum that you've got
Speaker 2: to capture. I think one of the things that helped
Speaker 2: us winning last year is that we were able to
Speaker 2: bring in maybe more talent than we had been in
Speaker 2: the past because we were more attractive to more talented players,
Speaker 2: and so that helped us. But in terms of our focus,
Speaker 2: you know, it's right back to square one, and it's
Speaker 2: you know, every day trying to be the very best
Speaker 2: that we can be, working to our standard every day
Speaker 2: and focus on what matters and not making excuses and
Speaker 2: holding each other accountable and all those things. You know. See,
Speaker 2: what's interesting now is with the transfer portal is that
Speaker 2: you have to kind of rebuild, you know, your culture
Speaker 2: every single year because there's so many new players coming
Speaker 2: in that they're not indoctrinated into how you do things
Speaker 2: and how you talk to each other and how you
Speaker 2: think and what your standards are and your expectations, and
Speaker 2: so that takes a lot of energy. So it's kind
Speaker 2: of a new proposition every year.
Speaker 1: And for you that might be helpful in some ways,
Speaker 1: might it because they're not going to be hearing the
Speaker 1: same message from your year after year.
Speaker 3: You're going to be a new group of.
Speaker 1: Guys coming in try and understand what you're trying to teach.
Speaker 2: Well, I kind of like the same message, you know,
Speaker 2: if it's working. So yeah, after a while they get
Speaker 2: sick of it, but you know, hopefully they listen and
Speaker 2: hopefully the message resonates and hopefully you're saying the right thing.
Speaker 2: You know. I tend to focus on, you know, the
Speaker 2: things that matter. Keep the main thing, the main thing.
Speaker 2: So my message I have a thing I write at
Speaker 2: the top of my notebook. Everybody, you know, keep the
Speaker 2: message tight, you know, give them things that are that
Speaker 2: they that they're thinking about, that matter. You know, the
Speaker 2: more you say, the less they listen at times. So
Speaker 2: so let's just keep the message tight, you know, or
Speaker 2: I say, actually say, don't let the message get too big.
Speaker 2: So for me, I'd rather, you know, have guys that
Speaker 2: hear it over and over and over. You know, if
Speaker 2: you have kids that are seventeen eighteen years old, like,
Speaker 2: you know, they don't necessarily hear you the first time, right,
Speaker 2: So it's the same thing with these guys. You know,
Speaker 2: they might look like they're you know, they put their
Speaker 2: uniforms on and we assume that they're more mature and older,
Speaker 2: but they're still you know, like we had a kid,
Speaker 2: o Cyrus Gilbert who's probably gonna start at corner in
Speaker 2: our first game in a week and a half, who
Speaker 2: just turned eighteen two days ago. You know, he just
Speaker 2: turned eighteen. So these are still you know, young men,
Speaker 2: so they need to hear it over and over and
Speaker 2: over and over again.
Speaker 1: Yea, Cyrus is a twenty year old corner. I watched
Speaker 1: him today. He's got some talent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a good player.
Speaker 1: And you've also brought back some of your former players
Speaker 1: to help on the staff, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 1: I was with Deronta Jones on the on the sideline talking.
Speaker 3: To him a little bit. He's in the recruiting area
Speaker 3: a little bit. He was.
Speaker 1: I felt like I was getting recruited. He was. He
Speaker 1: was so enthusiastic. He's telling a good story to me
Speaker 1: about like why he came here and why he stayed
Speaker 1: here and how it worked out for him. And I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: if I'm a kid sitting in some you know, in
Speaker 1: my mother's living room, and I hear this kid, I'm
Speaker 1: a lot more apt to think hard about yu Kon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dronte and Caleb Anthony Jeelani was with us right now.
Speaker 2: He's not Jackson Mitchell's with us. It's something that I've
Speaker 2: always tried to do, is bring guys back into the
Speaker 2: program that had a lot of investment in the program.
Speaker 2: You know, you get a guy like like Ronte and
Speaker 2: he's working in recruiting, but he's also out on the
Speaker 2: field helping coach. Same with Caleb, who was a corner here.
Speaker 2: I don't remember Caleb Anthony three years ago when he
Speaker 2: hurt his knee. And I'm really proud of Caleb because
Speaker 2: through all this, he just graduated yesterday and it was
Speaker 2: really cool to see that. And he wants to be
Speaker 2: a coach, and so we're giving him those opportunities to
Speaker 2: be coaches. I guess the one of the other fun
Speaker 2: things is that they all live with Kathy and I
Speaker 2: at our house right across the street. We got we
Speaker 2: got a full house right now. But it's all I
Speaker 2: think it's important to bring those guys back and help
Speaker 2: them get started and what they want to do. And
Speaker 2: they've been great to have around the program.
Speaker 1: And you got another, you get another more on the
Speaker 1: coaching staff. Yeah, I saw that on the list here.
Speaker 3: Trey.
Speaker 1: I haven't met him yet, but he must have been
Speaker 1: an important guy on the staff. Yeah, he's a Gopher. No,
Speaker 1: he's a little man on the total fold.
Speaker 2: No, you know, it's my youngest son, Trey, and he
Speaker 2: thinks he wants to be a football coach. And we'll
Speaker 2: see how he feels about that in a few weeks.
Speaker 2: You know, he's been grinding a way. He's in there
Speaker 2: about six am. He gets home about eleven thirty every night.
Speaker 2: I don't really see him much. I don't really talk
Speaker 2: to him much, but he's working hard, and you know,
Speaker 2: we'll see if he becomes the third generation of More
Speaker 2: as the a football came.
Speaker 3: And your dad is ninety. He's still going strong.
Speaker 2: With He's a he's a beast. And if you saw
Speaker 2: the video, like, yeah, he's come on, yeah, he works hard,
Speaker 2: he's he puts me to shame.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's special, that guy. Uh, this practice today I watched.
Speaker 1: I was curious because I saw you taking a lot
Speaker 1: of notes and obviously you're overseeing everything now. And at
Speaker 1: the end of practice, I asked you about your notes.
Speaker 3: What is all that stuff?
Speaker 1: And you were pointing out a couple of scribbles, and
Speaker 1: tell me what you're doing when you're doing that. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're watching everything, but you're you're certainly notating things.
Speaker 3: Is it individual? Is it team stuff? What do you do?
Speaker 3: It's everything.
Speaker 2: It's uh, plays that I want to make sure that
Speaker 2: I that I show the players on film and a
Speaker 2: team environment. It's situations that come up. Uh, it's things
Speaker 2: that I think we need to improve on. It's points
Speaker 2: of emphasis that the you know, just kind of pop
Speaker 2: into your head.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: You know, it's stream games. I'm always scribbling things down
Speaker 2: as well. It's just you know, something pops into your
Speaker 2: mind or in your head and you don't want to
Speaker 2: forget it, and you write it down, and then you
Speaker 2: address it with the team later, with the staff, later
Speaker 2: you make an adjustment to a practice plan. I just
Speaker 2: don't want to forget anything. I want to make sure
Speaker 2: that we're very detailed and covering all our bases. So
Speaker 2: I just I have a tendency to write things down.
Speaker 2: It helps me remember things, you know. I'm like you.
Speaker 2: You know, we're getting up there a little bit, so
Speaker 2: we are, we are. I make a list. I've started
Speaker 2: to actually put my notes on my phone, but I'm
Speaker 2: not going to take a phone out to practice, that's
Speaker 2: for sure, So I have to write it down.
Speaker 1: Now, you've coached a lot of great coaches over the years,
Speaker 1: I mean Bill Wallash and people like that.
Speaker 3: Did any of those guys do that kind of thing? Yeah?
Speaker 2: They all do. Yeah, coaches take now, all head coaches
Speaker 2: take notes. I mean, yeah, you have to. It's your responsibility.
Speaker 2: You have to pay attention. You have to be ready
Speaker 2: to make adjustments, you have to remember things, you have
Speaker 2: to be able to point things out. I mean, I'm
Speaker 2: dealing with one hundred and eighteen players and things come up,
Speaker 2: and yeah, so I just I just write it down.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I remember it all right?
Speaker 1: You got ten, twelve days, whatever it is until the
Speaker 1: first game this week starting today, were you thinking a
Speaker 1: little bit about your opponent? Are you still thinking about
Speaker 1: what this team's going to be both?
Speaker 2: Today was kind of a transitional day, as you saw.
Speaker 2: So some of our work was against you know, we
Speaker 2: call it against ourselves, a generic practice Yukon versus Yukon,
Speaker 2: but a large portion was dedicated to our first opponent,
Speaker 2: and so we transitioned into where we're always just going
Speaker 2: against each into giving each other a look that we're
Speaker 2: going to see on a Saturday against an opponent that
Speaker 2: we play. So a little bit new for some of
Speaker 2: the younger guys, the freshmen that are on what we
Speaker 2: call the scout team, they're the guys that are stimulating
Speaker 2: the look of the opponent we're going to play. Most
Speaker 2: of the high school guys, you know, they never did that.
Speaker 2: They were the best players on their team, and now
Speaker 2: they're not, and so they have to learn how to
Speaker 2: do that. So there's just a lot of teaching that
Speaker 2: goes up, really procedural teaching that goes along as well
Speaker 2: as x's and o's, and we talked about earlier the
Speaker 2: cultural teaching as well. So you know, You're just always
Speaker 2: trying to educate these young men on how they and
Speaker 2: how we can be successful together.
Speaker 1: And unlike the pros, no exhibition games for the college guys.
Speaker 1: So they have a scrimmage at Wrenstler on Saturday, and
Speaker 1: we'll talk more about how getting this team ready for
Speaker 1: a week from Saturday builds up day to day as
Speaker 1: we go forward.
Speaker 3: Jimura with us
Speaker 1: The Yukon Football Coach and the Yukon Football Coaching Show
Speaker 1: here from the DML in Hartford,