As the team prepares for its first scrimmage on Saturday, Mario Cristobal met with reporters to discuss his team’s progress:
On the format for the spring game:
“It'll probably be normal, like we always do: play live football the first half and then in the second half [thud]. I don't see any changes.
I think what everybody wants is to eliminate exposure from a video standpoint. I think we have a formula that's worked for a long, long time. We wanna stick to it. We wanna get better. Get as many reps as we can, keep our guys healthy, but never shine away from physicality.”
On Carson Beck’s progress:
“Well, probably a little bit ahead of schedule. I know everybody would like to see him really wing it out there. But everything is ahead of schedule and we're very excited about his progress. I’m excited being around him because of his level of football IQ, the way he understands the game, just a natural presence about him.
In this sport, you’ve gotta take as many mental reps as you possibly can. It comes in the form of meetings, on the chalkboard and walkthroughs, during the course of practice, being behind the quarterbacks, getting every signal, communicating, verbalizing, making sure he is going through his audibles. Any check, any adjustment, protections, meeting with the offensive line coach, meeting with the coordinator at length daily.
Every possible minute we could grab with him to continue the progression of this while the rest of his body progresses is invaluable. So that's what we're doing.”
On the progression of the defense:
“I'd say today was a really big overall for the defense. It felt like so much of it came together today. I feel like whenever you install something new, you see flashes and then you have head-scratching moments, and then you see more progress and you see it in the form of guys communicating.
We communicated really, really well and we moved fast. Today looked like a day where we played to our ability. The guys weren't stuck, weren't paralyzed with confusion. They were able to just go and cut it loose. That's what it looked like today, and so I'm looking forward to seeing some more of that on Saturday.”
On the offensive line recruiting strategy:
“There's a chance we could have four, five guys drafted next year. We've really built these trenches from the inside out. Historically, we've had a really good track record for playing high school offensive linemen. I know we have James Brockmeyer this year, and we had big Carpenter the year before, but that's been at the center where we needed some maturity. We've gone heavy on making sure we develop our young guys.
And this is a year where we need a lot of offensive linemen. We may lose 5, 6, 7 guys, so we need to sign 5, 6, 7 guys. That's being conservative. And we need guys that can come in and play. We legitimately need guys like we've coached in the past that have been able to come and like [Francis Mauigoa], Anez [Cooper] over a couple of games was a starter.
Other guys are coming along really well, but we need some really, really high level, highly motivated, high work ethic guys to come in and play. So we're not anywhere close to being done on the old line. We need some more real ones."
On the team’s ability to evaluate:
"I think our evaluation process is in a good spot and we see it in spring football. It’s along the lines of last year's OJ Frederique where there wasn't much attention for him, not many accolades thrown his way, but you could tell practice number one that he was gonna make an impact.
We see more of those types of prospects that we've signed that we feel are gonna help us this year. So we feel good about the momentum and we feel good about the identification."
On the team’s recruiting approach:
"I feel like our staff is really gelling and that they really understand the model for how we recruit, and that it's gonna be relentless. It is a full-time commitment. It's not one person, it's not one name. We do it as a team. And I think that has led to a lot ofour success in recruiting. Like anything else, we feel we still have a long way to go."
On Xavier Lucas:
"He's a really good player. And he's an even better human being. He's being pushed and he's being challenged. Those DBs, I could go right down the line and talk about each one of them, but since you mentioned him specifically: besides the specs– a 10.4 100M guy– he has experience, was an excellent player in high school and so far he’s done a really, really good job. He still has a ways to go and we still have to push him, but so far there's been really good progress. Looking forward to seeing what he can do on Saturday."
On the format for the spring game:
“It'll probably be normal, like we always do: play live football the first half and then in the second half [thud]. I don't see any changes.
I think what everybody wants is to eliminate exposure from a video standpoint. I think we have a formula that's worked for a long, long time. We wanna stick to it. We wanna get better. Get as many reps as we can, keep our guys healthy, but never shine away from physicality.”
On Carson Beck’s progress:
“Well, probably a little bit ahead of schedule. I know everybody would like to see him really wing it out there. But everything is ahead of schedule and we're very excited about his progress. I’m excited being around him because of his level of football IQ, the way he understands the game, just a natural presence about him.
In this sport, you’ve gotta take as many mental reps as you possibly can. It comes in the form of meetings, on the chalkboard and walkthroughs, during the course of practice, being behind the quarterbacks, getting every signal, communicating, verbalizing, making sure he is going through his audibles. Any check, any adjustment, protections, meeting with the offensive line coach, meeting with the coordinator at length daily.
Every possible minute we could grab with him to continue the progression of this while the rest of his body progresses is invaluable. So that's what we're doing.”
On the progression of the defense:
“I'd say today was a really big overall for the defense. It felt like so much of it came together today. I feel like whenever you install something new, you see flashes and then you have head-scratching moments, and then you see more progress and you see it in the form of guys communicating.
We communicated really, really well and we moved fast. Today looked like a day where we played to our ability. The guys weren't stuck, weren't paralyzed with confusion. They were able to just go and cut it loose. That's what it looked like today, and so I'm looking forward to seeing some more of that on Saturday.”
On the offensive line recruiting strategy:
“There's a chance we could have four, five guys drafted next year. We've really built these trenches from the inside out. Historically, we've had a really good track record for playing high school offensive linemen. I know we have James Brockmeyer this year, and we had big Carpenter the year before, but that's been at the center where we needed some maturity. We've gone heavy on making sure we develop our young guys.
And this is a year where we need a lot of offensive linemen. We may lose 5, 6, 7 guys, so we need to sign 5, 6, 7 guys. That's being conservative. And we need guys that can come in and play. We legitimately need guys like we've coached in the past that have been able to come and like [Francis Mauigoa], Anez [Cooper] over a couple of games was a starter.
Other guys are coming along really well, but we need some really, really high level, highly motivated, high work ethic guys to come in and play. So we're not anywhere close to being done on the old line. We need some more real ones."
On the team’s ability to evaluate:
"I think our evaluation process is in a good spot and we see it in spring football. It’s along the lines of last year's OJ Frederique where there wasn't much attention for him, not many accolades thrown his way, but you could tell practice number one that he was gonna make an impact.
We see more of those types of prospects that we've signed that we feel are gonna help us this year. So we feel good about the momentum and we feel good about the identification."
On the team’s recruiting approach:
"I feel like our staff is really gelling and that they really understand the model for how we recruit, and that it's gonna be relentless. It is a full-time commitment. It's not one person, it's not one name. We do it as a team. And I think that has led to a lot ofour success in recruiting. Like anything else, we feel we still have a long way to go."
On Xavier Lucas:
"He's a really good player. And he's an even better human being. He's being pushed and he's being challenged. Those DBs, I could go right down the line and talk about each one of them, but since you mentioned him specifically: besides the specs– a 10.4 100M guy– he has experience, was an excellent player in high school and so far he’s done a really, really good job. He still has a ways to go and we still have to push him, but so far there's been really good progress. Looking forward to seeing what he can do on Saturday."
