I am going to delay my defense position-by-position post-spring analysis until tomorrow. I forgot I never transcribed the interviews after the spring game.
JON SUMRALL
"Appreciate y'all being here to cover our game. The model of spring games has changed so much that people aren't even having them. As long as I'm the head coach, we're probably going tio have some form of the spring game. The challenge now with the roster sizes, we have all these crazy rules about what our roster size limits could be and as we prepare for that, you're probably not going to see a conventional 1 team versus another. Our model is offense versus defense, and some guys were very uniquely rep counted. Some guys probably took 6, 7, 8 reps today and some guys probably took 20 or 30. I would read nothing into who went out to start the game at quarterback. They were brought in the room with the offensive coaching staff and told to pick a number between 1 and 10. The number was already picked. It was 3. Donovan Leary picked 4 and Kadin Semonza picked 5. I actually credit Kadin for after one guy picked 4, actually picking the next number up to give himself the best odds of starting, but the number was 3 and that's why Donovan started today. A really scientific process of who started.
"All in all the defense started the day better, faster. It's been very back and forth. The first couple of weeks of the spring I would tell you defense was ahead. Then I would tell you the last four or five practices leading up to today the offense was ahead, and off of what it looked like today, the defense looked better. What's easy about defensive football is you can gake a couple of guys out of the equation and not drop off as much. When you take a couple of guys out of the equation on offense, it can look really bad if you're not careful, and that's why we have to develop the depth in our team. But I like the direction we're headed. A lot of work left to do. We're in the middle of the transfer portal, which makes a ton of sense to be in the middle of spring and the transfer portal all at one time. It's a great design that we have. We'll meet with our guys next week, figure out who's going to stay. Hopefully as many of them will stay as we can get, and then we have some additions that will be coming here over the next month roughly that we'll be working on to try to redo our roster to some degree. We'll be looking for a frontline player at a couple of spots and a couple of spots it's just continuing to build the roster in the right manner."
On his evaluation of the two QBs at the end of spring drills:
"It's been neck and neck throughout the spring. There were times when Donovan looked better, times when Kadin looked better. Today we didn't play good enough to win to be honest with you. We've got some work to do there. Kadin operated really the last four or five practices at a high level. We're a long way from being where we need to be. I like both guys. They are both great teammates. They both throw it well enough. They both work incredibly hard, but we are not where we need to be yet there. Who's the starter? I have no idea. We're really no different than we were a year ago at this time. I left the spring game last year not knowing who our starter was, and I still don't. Nobody has separated themselves enough for me to feel like that's the guy to this point."
On if he is committed to bringing in another QB:
"We are very likely bringing in another quarterback. It's not a shot at the other guys. I'd like to have four scholarship quarterbacks. That's sort of the number in college football that you carry. With Tasby sort of right now being a receiver that can still go at home to play some quarterback as needed, but Tasby's flashed enough at receiver that we're like his best way to contribute to this year's team is probably out there. We'll kind of have maybe a package for him at quarterback. We've got to get a quarterback just to make the room right and also to add competition and see who are starter's going to be."
On sales pitch to prospective QB:
"Every job is open. No job has got anybody that's cemented. Now certain guys that have started game have more likely an opportunity to be a starter. The pitch is a year ago at this time, Darian Mensah wasn't the starter. Hell, he was the third man. There's a lot of football left. Guys will get a little time off in May and then they'll come back in late May, early June and we'll have a couple months of summer stuff and we'll come back in August and have training camp, so there's really three-and-a-half, four months before we play a game once the guys get back here, so there's a lot of time left and nobody has cemented that they're the starter yet. I'm not saying they're not. If there was a guy that elevated and separated enough that I felt like he was the starter, I'd name him. I'm not trying to play the cards close to my vest just because I don't like holding everybody hostage. I don't. I haven't seen enough to make that declaration yet. Last year when I knew, I made the call and we rolled with it and we didn't look back. When we know, we'll know, but I just don't know yet, so there's a real opportunity. The pitch is do you want to win and be a big-time college quarterback in a place that has won and we intend on continuing to win."
On challenges of developing guys that aren't proven at a lot of key positions and re-establishing a brotherhood:
"We have to develop the guys that are here. We have to acquire new players and help them get into the fold and help them create the culture where we care about each other and become a family and don't let the standards fall, and that is the biggest challenge we have in college football. We lost our starting quarterback, our starting running back and our starting tight end (to the transfer portal) and we lost all three receivers to graduation. Center, right guard, right tackle--graduation. And then you have to figure out what young guys are going to elevate, what new guys can you add, how do you get everybody to come together. It's challenging. It is."
On what he wants the culture to be defined as:
"Our core values are attitude, toughness, discipline, love. We define those to our team very clearly. The only disability in life is a bad attitude. Tough teams win. We've got to be disciplined, which means the ability to defer short-term comfort for long-term growth. The little decisions you make add up and become the decisions that we want our guys to love each other. The way I talk about love in our program, it's the action, not a feeling. Love's not going on campus and seeing a pretty girl. That's called lust. We want our guys to actually like care about each other and look after each other and invest in each other's lives. Coach Greg McMahon, who was back this week, said man, when you do this the right way, you walk together forever. I don't care if you play one snap for me or a thousand. Once you do it with us, we walk together forever. It's how quickly can we get this unit to grow together and walk together. It is work. It's not easy. It takes a very focused, conscientious effort, and it's a hell of a lot easier when you recruit really good people. When you recruit people that are made up of the right stuff, it's a lot easier. When you don't, it's harder."
On DL showing out again:
"Yeah, golly. That group's got a chance. We'll see. That group right now is probably eight, nine, ten-ish guys deep. We probably need to add one more player in that room if everybody stays right now, I like playing multiple D-lineman. The hardest thing to do in football is rush the passer, like in a two-minute situation, just rush, rush, rush, rush, rush, so I want to get enough bodies there that can play at a high level. We've got a lot. We could probably use one more, but we're not going to just go take another guy to take a guy. If it's going to a guy that can add top-end value to the room."
On if Friloux leaving was unexpected:
"Yeah, everybody's got different reasons for looking and leaving. If you had asked me about a guy like that leaving four years ago, I would have said it was unexpected, but nothing surprises me anymore. It's like, all right, good. Want to go, I hate it, don't like it, wanted him to stay, wasn't trying to get him to leave, but I get surprised by nothing anymore. There's no such thing as an unexpected departure. The model we're in, everybody can leave. I know everybody things we've got some big checkbook around here, but our guys are not getting paid like a lot of people are getting paid, so that's the fight."
JON SUMRALL
"Appreciate y'all being here to cover our game. The model of spring games has changed so much that people aren't even having them. As long as I'm the head coach, we're probably going tio have some form of the spring game. The challenge now with the roster sizes, we have all these crazy rules about what our roster size limits could be and as we prepare for that, you're probably not going to see a conventional 1 team versus another. Our model is offense versus defense, and some guys were very uniquely rep counted. Some guys probably took 6, 7, 8 reps today and some guys probably took 20 or 30. I would read nothing into who went out to start the game at quarterback. They were brought in the room with the offensive coaching staff and told to pick a number between 1 and 10. The number was already picked. It was 3. Donovan Leary picked 4 and Kadin Semonza picked 5. I actually credit Kadin for after one guy picked 4, actually picking the next number up to give himself the best odds of starting, but the number was 3 and that's why Donovan started today. A really scientific process of who started.
"All in all the defense started the day better, faster. It's been very back and forth. The first couple of weeks of the spring I would tell you defense was ahead. Then I would tell you the last four or five practices leading up to today the offense was ahead, and off of what it looked like today, the defense looked better. What's easy about defensive football is you can gake a couple of guys out of the equation and not drop off as much. When you take a couple of guys out of the equation on offense, it can look really bad if you're not careful, and that's why we have to develop the depth in our team. But I like the direction we're headed. A lot of work left to do. We're in the middle of the transfer portal, which makes a ton of sense to be in the middle of spring and the transfer portal all at one time. It's a great design that we have. We'll meet with our guys next week, figure out who's going to stay. Hopefully as many of them will stay as we can get, and then we have some additions that will be coming here over the next month roughly that we'll be working on to try to redo our roster to some degree. We'll be looking for a frontline player at a couple of spots and a couple of spots it's just continuing to build the roster in the right manner."
On his evaluation of the two QBs at the end of spring drills:
"It's been neck and neck throughout the spring. There were times when Donovan looked better, times when Kadin looked better. Today we didn't play good enough to win to be honest with you. We've got some work to do there. Kadin operated really the last four or five practices at a high level. We're a long way from being where we need to be. I like both guys. They are both great teammates. They both throw it well enough. They both work incredibly hard, but we are not where we need to be yet there. Who's the starter? I have no idea. We're really no different than we were a year ago at this time. I left the spring game last year not knowing who our starter was, and I still don't. Nobody has separated themselves enough for me to feel like that's the guy to this point."
On if he is committed to bringing in another QB:
"We are very likely bringing in another quarterback. It's not a shot at the other guys. I'd like to have four scholarship quarterbacks. That's sort of the number in college football that you carry. With Tasby sort of right now being a receiver that can still go at home to play some quarterback as needed, but Tasby's flashed enough at receiver that we're like his best way to contribute to this year's team is probably out there. We'll kind of have maybe a package for him at quarterback. We've got to get a quarterback just to make the room right and also to add competition and see who are starter's going to be."
On sales pitch to prospective QB:
"Every job is open. No job has got anybody that's cemented. Now certain guys that have started game have more likely an opportunity to be a starter. The pitch is a year ago at this time, Darian Mensah wasn't the starter. Hell, he was the third man. There's a lot of football left. Guys will get a little time off in May and then they'll come back in late May, early June and we'll have a couple months of summer stuff and we'll come back in August and have training camp, so there's really three-and-a-half, four months before we play a game once the guys get back here, so there's a lot of time left and nobody has cemented that they're the starter yet. I'm not saying they're not. If there was a guy that elevated and separated enough that I felt like he was the starter, I'd name him. I'm not trying to play the cards close to my vest just because I don't like holding everybody hostage. I don't. I haven't seen enough to make that declaration yet. Last year when I knew, I made the call and we rolled with it and we didn't look back. When we know, we'll know, but I just don't know yet, so there's a real opportunity. The pitch is do you want to win and be a big-time college quarterback in a place that has won and we intend on continuing to win."
On challenges of developing guys that aren't proven at a lot of key positions and re-establishing a brotherhood:
"We have to develop the guys that are here. We have to acquire new players and help them get into the fold and help them create the culture where we care about each other and become a family and don't let the standards fall, and that is the biggest challenge we have in college football. We lost our starting quarterback, our starting running back and our starting tight end (to the transfer portal) and we lost all three receivers to graduation. Center, right guard, right tackle--graduation. And then you have to figure out what young guys are going to elevate, what new guys can you add, how do you get everybody to come together. It's challenging. It is."
On what he wants the culture to be defined as:
"Our core values are attitude, toughness, discipline, love. We define those to our team very clearly. The only disability in life is a bad attitude. Tough teams win. We've got to be disciplined, which means the ability to defer short-term comfort for long-term growth. The little decisions you make add up and become the decisions that we want our guys to love each other. The way I talk about love in our program, it's the action, not a feeling. Love's not going on campus and seeing a pretty girl. That's called lust. We want our guys to actually like care about each other and look after each other and invest in each other's lives. Coach Greg McMahon, who was back this week, said man, when you do this the right way, you walk together forever. I don't care if you play one snap for me or a thousand. Once you do it with us, we walk together forever. It's how quickly can we get this unit to grow together and walk together. It is work. It's not easy. It takes a very focused, conscientious effort, and it's a hell of a lot easier when you recruit really good people. When you recruit people that are made up of the right stuff, it's a lot easier. When you don't, it's harder."
On DL showing out again:
"Yeah, golly. That group's got a chance. We'll see. That group right now is probably eight, nine, ten-ish guys deep. We probably need to add one more player in that room if everybody stays right now, I like playing multiple D-lineman. The hardest thing to do in football is rush the passer, like in a two-minute situation, just rush, rush, rush, rush, rush, so I want to get enough bodies there that can play at a high level. We've got a lot. We could probably use one more, but we're not going to just go take another guy to take a guy. If it's going to a guy that can add top-end value to the room."
On if Friloux leaving was unexpected:
"Yeah, everybody's got different reasons for looking and leaving. If you had asked me about a guy like that leaving four years ago, I would have said it was unexpected, but nothing surprises me anymore. It's like, all right, good. Want to go, I hate it, don't like it, wanted him to stay, wasn't trying to get him to leave, but I get surprised by nothing anymore. There's no such thing as an unexpected departure. The model we're in, everybody can leave. I know everybody things we've got some big checkbook around here, but our guys are not getting paid like a lot of people are getting paid, so that's the fight."
