Sorry for the lack of content this week. Between basketball and football intersecting and having to help out my 92-year old mom who is living by herself for two weeks while her caretaker (my older sister) is spending two weeks in Europe, I've had no time. The good news is my sister gets back Sunday.
Jalen McCleskey has been practicing full go this week, so his injury against Temple does not appear to be bothering him. Amare Jones is practicing in a no-contact jersey but is moving around well. I believe he hurt his shoulder against Temple.
I talked to Fritz, Darius Bradwell, Lawrence Graham and Will Harper yesterday. Here are the quotes:
FRITZ
You have a core of seniors who have been with the program for four years and arrived with you. A lot of them came from winning high school programs (P.J. Hall won three state championships at Hoover High in Alabama, Will Harper won a state championship as a freshman, Lawerence Graham was a two-time state runnerup and Darius Bradwell was a runner-up at Tallahassee Godby). Is that significant when you are recruiting?
"Well, if things are even, you'll look at that between one guy and another guy. Certainly guys coming from a good program and a disciplined program understand what you're looking for in college. They probably have a little easier transition."
Lawrence Graham, P.J. Hall, Will Harper, Larry Bryant, Darnell Mooney and Darius Bradwell are playing their final home games Saturday. What have they mean in terms of the turnaround?
"Oh, they've been excellent. They believed in our program, they came in and it's always fun to watch guys. I'd love to have as many four-year guys as you can because you also get to see their development as a person, the maturity. Every senior is going to graduate and some of them are going to be leaving with multiple degrees, so that's great."
How have you seen P.J. Hall grow?
"We're trying to talk him into coaching. I think he would be an awesome coach. I'm not going to force anybody to do it. He's got to decide that's what he wants to do, but he would be great if that's what he wanted to do."
How has Darius Bradwell developed since arriving as a quarterback?
"He's at another position and shoot, he was MVP of a bowl game. These guys are part of this group that helped us get this program changed. It's not where we want it, but we're headed in the right direction."
Will Harper, like Bradwell, practiced in your first spring after graduating from high school early. How has he developed?
"He's done a great job. He's done an excellent job. He also does a super job in the kicking game."
How about Lawrence Graham?
"He's done a super job. I love seeing the maturity level with him. He also helps us a lot with the kicking game and is a tough, hard-nosed competitive guy."
Teams that have slowed down UCFs running game have beaten them. The rest have been clobbered. Obviously they throw for more than 300 yards a game, but how important is containing a running game that gets more than 200 yards a game?
"If you make anybody one-dimensional, you've got a heck of a shot. If they can run it at will, it just opens up the passing game and you've got to devote a bunch of dudes up in the box and now it makes it a little tough on you with the pass. Yeah, you're right. The teams that have had some success against them defensively have done a good job against the run."
Do you feel like you'll have to play your best game to win? Only Oklahoma, Clemson, Ohio State and Utah have better yardage differentials than UCF.
"We're going to have to play real good, no doubt about it. These guys are seven points from being undefeated this year, they didn't lose any in 2017 and if they hadn't lost their quarterback before the bowl game last year, they probably would have been undefeated last year, too. This is a top-15 team. We're going to have to play well offensively."
BRADWELL
This is your last home game. Does it seem like it's gone pretty fast for you?
"This year went by pretty fast due to injury and all that stuff, so I couldn't really play the whole season. When I look back at it, it's like, damn, I only have two more games left and then the bowl game. Yeah, it went by pretty fast."
You started looking healthy in the second half against Temple. Do you feel pretty good with the leg now?
"I feel a whole lot better with it. It took some time, but after that first half I had to tell myself I need to start playing like my old self and you saw what happened."
What was the exact injury? I saw you trying to run it off on the sideline when it happened against Army. Did you have any idea it would take this long to get healthy at the time?
"It was something with my foot. I didn't know, it was one of those things where I had no control. I'm a control freak. I think any football player is a control freak, and I didn't have any control. That was really the first injury I've ever had. Mentally I had to prepare myself and work hard to get back where I'm at."
How different is this program now than when you got here as a freshman?
"I would say it changed tremendously. The culture I believe is a true football team. My first year you couldn't really say it was a team. Now I can say it is a team. Everybody has the same goals or aspirations. People know how to prepare to win. We know how to win now. Now we have to figure out how to finish like we want to. It's all to do with confidence and execution and knowing what we have to do."
You came from a winning high school program. How long did it take to feel like the same things were going on here?
"I mean, it starts with us. If you don't have the players in your locker room that have the winning mentality, that dog in them, it's not going to happen. You only are as strong as your weakest link, and the weakest link has to have that dog mentality when he's on the field like he's the best and knows how to handle his job and his role on the team."
How big is this game Saturday?
"This is a big game. We know how important this is. I don't think we've been undefeated at home in a long time and definitely not since I've been here (Tulane was 10-8 at Yulman Stadium through Bradwell's first three seasons). To be the senior class to do that, that's one of our goals, to be undefeated at home. And like I said last week, in order to be one of the great teams you have to beat one of the great teams, so that's our goal. We haven't really played as well as we needed to against winning opponents, so this is a good chance. And also we always want to improve from last year. I would hate to go 7-6. I don't want to do that anymore. I want to see that every year we progressed."
GRAHAM
You played for two state championships in high school. How different is the culture here now than when you arrived?
"I would say it is very different. When we first got here, we were a mediocre program. Nobody really had faith that we were going to go into a game and win or even dominate or compete, but now we compete every game and our goal is to win every game. We don't have a goal just expecting to survive."
How long did it take to get to that point?
"I would say maybe the end of my sophomore year, my junior year for sure. Our expectations were high. Our expectations were we're going to go in and dominate. We are becoming a better team than what we were. We are a way better team than what we were. The system is in place. Everybody knows what they've got to do, and now we've just got to execute."
In some ways this season has been disappointing because you expected more, How important is beating UCF?
"We've just got to keep the confidence there. The games we lost, besides Memphis, have been real close like an eyelash, and we just needed something to bring us over that hump, and I think it is going to start here, being a complete team, doing what we need to do, no mistakes, we have no room for error, so we have to go out and dominate from the jump and keep dominating and keep up with their tempo and just play football."
You also have a chance to finish undefeated at home. How nice would that be?
"Shoot, it would be a great accomplishment. It would be a blessing to be honest. We want it and we're going to take it. We're going to do what we have to do. We've been preparing. I feel like the game plan is great. I love it, and our guys are executing to the best of their ability. We're practicing the tempo, everything."
What's the hardest part of dealing with UCF's fast pace?
"The hardest part is just getting lined up. Once you're lined up, play football. You are going to be tired, but just like we're tired, they're tired. It's a mind thing. Who's going to quit first?"
Has your career gone as you expected?
"I'd like to think whenever I got here that I had the highest expectations for myself--record-breaker, we're going to win a couple conference championships, but everything doesn't always happen as you expect. You've got to roll with the punches. I would say I'm satisfied with my career. There would be some things I would change, but that's a personal thing, but for the most part I'm happy."
Jalen McCleskey has been practicing full go this week, so his injury against Temple does not appear to be bothering him. Amare Jones is practicing in a no-contact jersey but is moving around well. I believe he hurt his shoulder against Temple.
I talked to Fritz, Darius Bradwell, Lawrence Graham and Will Harper yesterday. Here are the quotes:
FRITZ
You have a core of seniors who have been with the program for four years and arrived with you. A lot of them came from winning high school programs (P.J. Hall won three state championships at Hoover High in Alabama, Will Harper won a state championship as a freshman, Lawerence Graham was a two-time state runnerup and Darius Bradwell was a runner-up at Tallahassee Godby). Is that significant when you are recruiting?
"Well, if things are even, you'll look at that between one guy and another guy. Certainly guys coming from a good program and a disciplined program understand what you're looking for in college. They probably have a little easier transition."
Lawrence Graham, P.J. Hall, Will Harper, Larry Bryant, Darnell Mooney and Darius Bradwell are playing their final home games Saturday. What have they mean in terms of the turnaround?
"Oh, they've been excellent. They believed in our program, they came in and it's always fun to watch guys. I'd love to have as many four-year guys as you can because you also get to see their development as a person, the maturity. Every senior is going to graduate and some of them are going to be leaving with multiple degrees, so that's great."
How have you seen P.J. Hall grow?
"We're trying to talk him into coaching. I think he would be an awesome coach. I'm not going to force anybody to do it. He's got to decide that's what he wants to do, but he would be great if that's what he wanted to do."
How has Darius Bradwell developed since arriving as a quarterback?
"He's at another position and shoot, he was MVP of a bowl game. These guys are part of this group that helped us get this program changed. It's not where we want it, but we're headed in the right direction."
Will Harper, like Bradwell, practiced in your first spring after graduating from high school early. How has he developed?
"He's done a great job. He's done an excellent job. He also does a super job in the kicking game."
How about Lawrence Graham?
"He's done a super job. I love seeing the maturity level with him. He also helps us a lot with the kicking game and is a tough, hard-nosed competitive guy."
Teams that have slowed down UCFs running game have beaten them. The rest have been clobbered. Obviously they throw for more than 300 yards a game, but how important is containing a running game that gets more than 200 yards a game?
"If you make anybody one-dimensional, you've got a heck of a shot. If they can run it at will, it just opens up the passing game and you've got to devote a bunch of dudes up in the box and now it makes it a little tough on you with the pass. Yeah, you're right. The teams that have had some success against them defensively have done a good job against the run."
Do you feel like you'll have to play your best game to win? Only Oklahoma, Clemson, Ohio State and Utah have better yardage differentials than UCF.
"We're going to have to play real good, no doubt about it. These guys are seven points from being undefeated this year, they didn't lose any in 2017 and if they hadn't lost their quarterback before the bowl game last year, they probably would have been undefeated last year, too. This is a top-15 team. We're going to have to play well offensively."
BRADWELL
This is your last home game. Does it seem like it's gone pretty fast for you?
"This year went by pretty fast due to injury and all that stuff, so I couldn't really play the whole season. When I look back at it, it's like, damn, I only have two more games left and then the bowl game. Yeah, it went by pretty fast."
You started looking healthy in the second half against Temple. Do you feel pretty good with the leg now?
"I feel a whole lot better with it. It took some time, but after that first half I had to tell myself I need to start playing like my old self and you saw what happened."
What was the exact injury? I saw you trying to run it off on the sideline when it happened against Army. Did you have any idea it would take this long to get healthy at the time?
"It was something with my foot. I didn't know, it was one of those things where I had no control. I'm a control freak. I think any football player is a control freak, and I didn't have any control. That was really the first injury I've ever had. Mentally I had to prepare myself and work hard to get back where I'm at."
How different is this program now than when you got here as a freshman?
"I would say it changed tremendously. The culture I believe is a true football team. My first year you couldn't really say it was a team. Now I can say it is a team. Everybody has the same goals or aspirations. People know how to prepare to win. We know how to win now. Now we have to figure out how to finish like we want to. It's all to do with confidence and execution and knowing what we have to do."
You came from a winning high school program. How long did it take to feel like the same things were going on here?
"I mean, it starts with us. If you don't have the players in your locker room that have the winning mentality, that dog in them, it's not going to happen. You only are as strong as your weakest link, and the weakest link has to have that dog mentality when he's on the field like he's the best and knows how to handle his job and his role on the team."
How big is this game Saturday?
"This is a big game. We know how important this is. I don't think we've been undefeated at home in a long time and definitely not since I've been here (Tulane was 10-8 at Yulman Stadium through Bradwell's first three seasons). To be the senior class to do that, that's one of our goals, to be undefeated at home. And like I said last week, in order to be one of the great teams you have to beat one of the great teams, so that's our goal. We haven't really played as well as we needed to against winning opponents, so this is a good chance. And also we always want to improve from last year. I would hate to go 7-6. I don't want to do that anymore. I want to see that every year we progressed."
GRAHAM
You played for two state championships in high school. How different is the culture here now than when you arrived?
"I would say it is very different. When we first got here, we were a mediocre program. Nobody really had faith that we were going to go into a game and win or even dominate or compete, but now we compete every game and our goal is to win every game. We don't have a goal just expecting to survive."
How long did it take to get to that point?
"I would say maybe the end of my sophomore year, my junior year for sure. Our expectations were high. Our expectations were we're going to go in and dominate. We are becoming a better team than what we were. We are a way better team than what we were. The system is in place. Everybody knows what they've got to do, and now we've just got to execute."
In some ways this season has been disappointing because you expected more, How important is beating UCF?
"We've just got to keep the confidence there. The games we lost, besides Memphis, have been real close like an eyelash, and we just needed something to bring us over that hump, and I think it is going to start here, being a complete team, doing what we need to do, no mistakes, we have no room for error, so we have to go out and dominate from the jump and keep dominating and keep up with their tempo and just play football."
You also have a chance to finish undefeated at home. How nice would that be?
"Shoot, it would be a great accomplishment. It would be a blessing to be honest. We want it and we're going to take it. We're going to do what we have to do. We've been preparing. I feel like the game plan is great. I love it, and our guys are executing to the best of their ability. We're practicing the tempo, everything."
What's the hardest part of dealing with UCF's fast pace?
"The hardest part is just getting lined up. Once you're lined up, play football. You are going to be tired, but just like we're tired, they're tired. It's a mind thing. Who's going to quit first?"
Has your career gone as you expected?
"I'd like to think whenever I got here that I had the highest expectations for myself--record-breaker, we're going to win a couple conference championships, but everything doesn't always happen as you expect. You've got to roll with the punches. I would say I'm satisfied with my career. There would be some things I would change, but that's a personal thing, but for the most part I'm happy."
