Speaker 1: Yukon's head football coach. Here in the Duncan Music Louds
Speaker 1: great place to have a show like this and coaches
Speaker 1: with us to kick off the season. Let's get into
Speaker 1: some of the specifics of who's out there now. You
Speaker 1: lost a lot of guys on defense. Had a real
Speaker 1: good year defensively and offensively. Random ball really well. Last
Speaker 1: year we were talking about in the break there passing attack.
Speaker 1: How important is it last year Yukon's passing attack under
Speaker 1: two hundred yards a game. How much does it matter?
Speaker 1: And how much do you feel like you got to
Speaker 1: improve that area if you want to be a better
Speaker 1: football team.
Speaker 2: Well, we want to improve it, and it is an
Speaker 2: area of emphasis. We've got some guys that can catch
Speaker 2: a short one and turn it into a long one.
Speaker 2: They run after catchability. It's pretty special. So, you know,
Speaker 2: we were talking about passing yard It is important, but
Speaker 2: you know, when does it come and why does it
Speaker 2: come is important. And if you can get a guy
Speaker 2: that can catch a five yard slant and take it
Speaker 2: eighty yards, it looks like this huge long bomb or something.
Speaker 2: Really it wasn't. It was just a guy that has
Speaker 2: ability to getting the ball and making something happen for us,
Speaker 2: it's really all about balance. You know. We want to
Speaker 2: be a balanced football team. And that doesn't mean we're
Speaker 2: fifty to fifty running pass or fifty to fifty run
Speaker 2: pass yards. It means that if we're in a game
Speaker 2: where it demands that we run the football to win
Speaker 2: the game, that we have the ability to run the
Speaker 2: football and win the game. Or if we're in a
Speaker 2: game where we have to throw the ball over the
Speaker 2: yard to win it, that we have the ability to
Speaker 2: do that. And I feel like we're we are getting
Speaker 2: closer to where we need in that respect. You know,
Speaker 2: I feel like we have a really good passing attack
Speaker 2: right now, but we do like to wear people out
Speaker 2: by running the football. And we've got six really good
Speaker 2: running backs as well. So you know, we're just going
Speaker 2: to search for balance. And at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: the most important thing is you win the game. However
Speaker 2: you win the game, you win the game. And so
Speaker 2: one thing we are looking for is more explosive plays
Speaker 2: on offense. Though, whether it's you know, a quick pass
Speaker 2: that mel Brown catches in the flat and turns into
Speaker 2: a long one, or if it's a deep one down
Speaker 2: the field to shemar or if it's cam breaking one.
Speaker 2: You know, it's those explosive plays that we're looking for in.
Speaker 1: The rushing attack almost two hundred yards a game.
Speaker 2: One thing I was say, pretty balanced.
Speaker 1: I know it was great, But one thing I was
Speaker 1: thinking about, you were not trailing in a lot of
Speaker 1: games last year, so you didn't have to throw to
Speaker 1: get back into games. I think that might be part
Speaker 1: of the reason the passing yardage wasn't better.
Speaker 2: You know, this is what's interesting is Joe Fiano was
Speaker 2: I think that eleventh most efficient quarterback in the country
Speaker 2: and passing efficiency and I don't know how they calculate
Speaker 2: that stat but maybe it was eleventh, maybe it was
Speaker 2: twelve thirteen, I don't know. He was in the top twenty.
Speaker 2: I know that, so to me, that's a good sign.
Speaker 2: And you're right, you know, the situation in the game
Speaker 2: dictates how you play the game. Like I said, if
Speaker 2: we have to throw it to win a game, I
Speaker 2: feel like we can do that. If we have to
Speaker 2: run it to win a game, I feel like we
Speaker 2: can do that. But I feel that, but we've got
Speaker 2: to go out and prove it.
Speaker 1: Skylar Bill, he wears number one. If you were to
Speaker 1: describe him to our audience who hadn't seen him close up,
Speaker 1: what would you say?
Speaker 2: Twitchy? You know, he's twitched up guy. I mean he's
Speaker 2: got quickness, explosiveness, He's put on some weight. I mean
Speaker 2: he's yoked up, his legs are bigger, he looks more,
Speaker 2: he looks faster, he looks more sturdy. I think right
Speaker 2: now he had a little of an injury for the
Speaker 2: last couple of weeks, but he's back full speed now,
Speaker 2: so he'll be fresh legged when we get to our
Speaker 2: first game. The other thing I would describe him as
Speaker 2: is committed. This is a guy that was offered almost
Speaker 2: a half a million dollars by Michigan to transfer and
Speaker 2: decided to come back to Yukon for not that much.
Speaker 2: And you know that says something about him as a person,
Speaker 2: his commitment to this team, and so you know, you
Speaker 2: love those characteristics of a guy like that. He's just
Speaker 2: he's a really good person who's a really good player.
Speaker 1: Jim Moore is with us on Mike Chrispino. That's the
Speaker 1: one thing you've done more than one thing, but you've
Speaker 1: done well, and Dan Hurley's done it as well. Jim
Speaker 1: Penders in baseball been able to convince athletes in this
Speaker 1: world we live in today that maybe there's something else
Speaker 1: besides dollar signs that is important to a player's development,
Speaker 1: or a man's development, or an athlete's development. How do
Speaker 1: you go about doing that? How do you I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously you've got to be genuine, you've got to mean it,
Speaker 1: But you've got to be convincing too.
Speaker 2: Well, it's getting harder. It's getting harder and harder. More
Speaker 2: and more players are moving for the sole reason of
Speaker 2: can they make more money somewhere else. I think it's
Speaker 2: it's not a moment where you convince them. It's a
Speaker 2: series of moments over the course of their time with you,
Speaker 2: where they understand that you sincerely care about them and
Speaker 2: you love them, and that you are there for them
Speaker 2: and their future, however that may be, and that you're
Speaker 2: willing to support them in the good times and the
Speaker 2: tough times, and that they see that you're committed to them,
Speaker 2: and that you put them in an environment where there's
Speaker 2: you know, good food, and they have great athletic trainers
Speaker 2: and a great medical staff. They're going to take care
Speaker 2: of them, and they trust the strength and conditioning coach
Speaker 2: and they trust their position coach has their best interest
Speaker 2: in mine is going to do a great job of
Speaker 2: helping them develop into a really good football player. It's
Speaker 2: having a great facility they can come to and feel
Speaker 2: comfortable in. It's having good Wi Fi. You know, so
Speaker 2: they want to lay around and you know so it's
Speaker 2: all those moments that lead to them coming to the
Speaker 2: decision that, yeah, you know what, I'm going to leave
Speaker 2: some money on the table because this is the best
Speaker 2: place for me and this is where I can get
Speaker 2: what I need to be successful. And so at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, it's not easy, but you have
Speaker 2: something you can rely on that reinforces the things that
Speaker 2: you're telling in them in that moment, like we care
Speaker 2: about you. And it's not just words. They feel it.
Speaker 2: They've felt it for all the entire time they've been there.
Speaker 2: They've felt it when you started recruiting and you said
Speaker 2: this is how it's going to be when you get there,
Speaker 2: and that's why they came. And then it's that way
Speaker 2: while they're there, and then they want to stay. Not
Speaker 2: all of them want to stay motivated by money, and
Speaker 2: what you find is some of these guys that are
Speaker 2: motivated by money they go to other places, they go shoot.
Speaker 2: I wish i'd have stayed. You know, this money's not
Speaker 2: worth it. You know, they don't care about me here.
Speaker 2: I hear that a lot. I hear that from a
Speaker 2: lot of guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked to Shamar Porter. Where's number five. He's
Speaker 1: a wide receiver who is a young guy, a sophomore,
Speaker 1: And we stood next to him after you do your
Speaker 1: little press thing after practice and he came over. His
Speaker 1: size was kind of impressive, and I liked what he said.
Speaker 1: He talked about the things he can do better, that
Speaker 1: he started to do better in this camp that was
Speaker 1: important to him, and I felt like, Okay, here's a
Speaker 1: guy that understands what he's got to do better, and
Speaker 1: he's working at it, and he's actually seeing it come
Speaker 1: to fruition that goes a long way and getting the
Speaker 1: guy motivated.
Speaker 2: I think one of the things I've said consistently, consistently
Speaker 2: since I've been here is that our team is not
Speaker 2: a team full of entitled kids. Our team is full
Speaker 2: of guys that want to work for it, and they
Speaker 2: value hard work. They don't feel like they deserve anything.
Speaker 2: They want to work for it. And Schamar is a
Speaker 2: great example, as in my opinion, almost every player on
Speaker 2: our team is. They don't take things for granted. They're
Speaker 2: not entitled, they don't act in title well that I'm
Speaker 2: supposed to get that or I deserve that. They just
Speaker 2: work for it. And you can't even imagine how fun
Speaker 2: it is to coach a team of young men like
Speaker 2: that that are hungry, that hang on every word you say, yeah,
Speaker 2: they're going to ask why. But in this climate today,
Speaker 2: and you know with that generation, telling them why you're
Speaker 2: asking them to do something is important. But our guys
Speaker 2: don't ask why are you making me do this? Tell
Speaker 2: me why we're doing this? You know, Okay, I get it.
Speaker 2: Oh that can make me better, you know. I always
Speaker 2: think it's a coach is responsible to tell them why
Speaker 2: before they even ask. But we've got a bunch of
Speaker 2: guys they just they just dig in and they work
Speaker 2: and that is refreshing to be around.
Speaker 1: It goes a long way to building a great football team.
Speaker 1: Jim Morrow will us will be back quick treat. When
Speaker 1: you've gone football, you shall live at the Duncan Music Lounge.