Shane Lee appeared to be in a sling at practice yesterday, what is his status?
"Little bit protective. He got banged up in the game the other night, was able to finish. We expect him to be fully available."
Travis Dye suggested maybe the practice habits are slipping, how do you feel about that?
"We grade our practices and the way we prepare just like a game and I think there's two sides of it. The first side is we have very, very high expectations. Our guys for the most part have practiced well. We haven't practiced elite yet. And practice is a lot like games, right? You're not going to have a perfect game. You're not going to have a game where every single thing goes right, and practice being the same. We've practiced like we've played. We've had some certainly positive than negative, but this is not an overnight fix. And it never is. If we're here 10 years, you gotta wake up every day ready to fight and ready to strain mentally and physically.
"If you're just a little bit off, whether it's game day or practice day, you're going to sacrifice a little bit of what you could be and potentially not get there. Have our practices been largely positive? Yes, they have. Our play on the field's been largely positive. Can we practice a lot better, just like on Saturdays? Yes, we can practice a lot better but we can play a lot better. So we've been very direct to our guys about it. We let them know what we're doing well and certainly point out to them what we're not doing well. But I do think we're improving but we're definitely not a perfect practice team right now and obviously we're not a perfect Saturday team right now. I don't know that you ever get there. But we're good at both. We want to be better."
Inane question about the importance red-zone play calling?
"At times [it's more important]. I think it's more execution first and then planning and preparation and then probably play calling. And I think all areas of the field are that. If you have 70 plays in a game, there's probably 10 or 15 really important play calls where it's important to be right. The rest of them, they're all educated guesses whether you're on the offensive or the defensive side at the end of the day. And it's more where it comes down to can your guys execute the call? We've all had a lot of good play calls that were good ideas that looked perfect on the chalkboard and then the guys weren't ready or didn't execute it. So that's just the nature of it. To me, the biggest thing down there is execution, right? Because for everybody, the windows are tighter. From the defensive perspective, the offense doesn't have as far to go. You got what may be a really solid play, you go stop somebody for a three-yard gain in the open field, most people are going to consider that a pretty positive play for the defense. Well, you get a three-yard gain on the two-yard line, not a very positive play. And then the flip side is for an offense, the execution has got to be better because windows are tighter, field space is less. So everything happens faster. So execution still reigns king. What you do down there is important, but being able to do it well in my opinion is way more important."
Travis also said that winning like this is pretty rare, what it's been like trying to instill winning habits with guys who haven't experienced that a lot?
"It's a daily fight. I mean, it is. I use the fight because that's just the only way you get better. You've got to strain, you've got to get out of your comfort zone. It's a process to understand that, right? There's some of it you can learn before and we try to pack as much as that in as we possibly can. There's some it it's not going to take hold until you actually get in some of these situations as a team and individually. We have a team of guys from all kinds of different backgrounds and different experiences, so I agree with the comments. I think we're learning. We're starting to see you're going to get everybody's best every single week and every week's going to be a challenge and what you did in the previous weeks doesn't count and people aren't going to lay down just because you won some games and it's not all of a sudden, you're not going to play so well and all of a sudden it becomes easy. Some people have said that to characterize really great teams or really great players sometimes it almost looks easy. It can look easy, but that's two different things. It's never easy. I've never had one win that was easy.
"You've got to strain and you've got to, you've got to be ready to fight every single week. We do have guys I think on differing sides of that -- whether it's guys that have been through seasons that went in other directions, whether it's guys that are new to college football, right? We've got a little bit of everything. We've said it a lot, right? It's the appreciation of winning because you do need to appreciate it. That's the goal when you step on the field Saturdays, go play well as an offensive team [so] you put yourself in a position to win games, but not getting too fixated on that, I think continuing to improve knowing next week, no matter who it is, is going to be another challenge."
What message does it send to the roster when you reward a player in the red zone with creative play-calling for the blocking and dirty work he's done all season?
"Yeah, I think it's just very simply if an offensive player other than the QB is not blocking then they're not going to be on the field. It's just, we say that from day one when we install it, it's a core belief of ours and we just feel like that it almost sorts itself out. Now have we at times designed things for guys that have really gone above and beyond and done really well? We have a lot of times, dangled the carrot, right? We'll call this play, but you better be, or it's only happening if the blocking on the perimeter is elite, or whatever it is. Mario is one of the guys that have done a good job, we've got a lot of guys who have done a good job. Another guy I think who has had a lot of opportunities created off how well he's played without the ball is Tahj Washington. He's done a little bit of everything for our offense and for our special teams. He's just made himself so valuable there that he's in, and we've had some things that have come his way and some things that have just kind of found him because he's simply on the field and he plays good enough without the ball that you like it when he's on the field. It's a great lesson, really for anybody on a football team -- offense, defense, special teams. The more valuable you make yourself, the more opportunities you're going to get. The more opportunities you get, those chances to make big plays are going to come and you're going to have the opportunity to be the one to make them."
You said Brenden Rice is poised for a breakout, you just mentioned Tahj Washington, and Kyron Hudson is playing well. Where does your confidence stand in the WR room and how do you balance that?
"There's a lot of confidence. Rice has done a lot of good things. It's been good to get Kyle Ford back healthy. Bynum's done good things. CJ Williams behind the scenes is doing some really good things. That's a good group, it is. That's a good group of players. I think we've got our guys right now that kind of week to week are starters that at a few positions have separated themselves that right now -- and they've got to continue to do it -- that right now are going to get the lion's share, but we've got a group that's going to come in and play behind them that's doing a lot of really good things. And we may have shuffles in the lineup. We may have a guy that was a backup become a starter. You can have guys get injured. We didn't have Bynum last week, and all of a sudden some guys have to shift around and step up and our guys did that. It's been good to see. It's important, and we'll have more things that will come up and I think it proves that we can continue to operate even if we have a guy down here or there."
"Little bit protective. He got banged up in the game the other night, was able to finish. We expect him to be fully available."
Travis Dye suggested maybe the practice habits are slipping, how do you feel about that?
"We grade our practices and the way we prepare just like a game and I think there's two sides of it. The first side is we have very, very high expectations. Our guys for the most part have practiced well. We haven't practiced elite yet. And practice is a lot like games, right? You're not going to have a perfect game. You're not going to have a game where every single thing goes right, and practice being the same. We've practiced like we've played. We've had some certainly positive than negative, but this is not an overnight fix. And it never is. If we're here 10 years, you gotta wake up every day ready to fight and ready to strain mentally and physically.
"If you're just a little bit off, whether it's game day or practice day, you're going to sacrifice a little bit of what you could be and potentially not get there. Have our practices been largely positive? Yes, they have. Our play on the field's been largely positive. Can we practice a lot better, just like on Saturdays? Yes, we can practice a lot better but we can play a lot better. So we've been very direct to our guys about it. We let them know what we're doing well and certainly point out to them what we're not doing well. But I do think we're improving but we're definitely not a perfect practice team right now and obviously we're not a perfect Saturday team right now. I don't know that you ever get there. But we're good at both. We want to be better."
Inane question about the importance red-zone play calling?
"At times [it's more important]. I think it's more execution first and then planning and preparation and then probably play calling. And I think all areas of the field are that. If you have 70 plays in a game, there's probably 10 or 15 really important play calls where it's important to be right. The rest of them, they're all educated guesses whether you're on the offensive or the defensive side at the end of the day. And it's more where it comes down to can your guys execute the call? We've all had a lot of good play calls that were good ideas that looked perfect on the chalkboard and then the guys weren't ready or didn't execute it. So that's just the nature of it. To me, the biggest thing down there is execution, right? Because for everybody, the windows are tighter. From the defensive perspective, the offense doesn't have as far to go. You got what may be a really solid play, you go stop somebody for a three-yard gain in the open field, most people are going to consider that a pretty positive play for the defense. Well, you get a three-yard gain on the two-yard line, not a very positive play. And then the flip side is for an offense, the execution has got to be better because windows are tighter, field space is less. So everything happens faster. So execution still reigns king. What you do down there is important, but being able to do it well in my opinion is way more important."
Travis also said that winning like this is pretty rare, what it's been like trying to instill winning habits with guys who haven't experienced that a lot?
"It's a daily fight. I mean, it is. I use the fight because that's just the only way you get better. You've got to strain, you've got to get out of your comfort zone. It's a process to understand that, right? There's some of it you can learn before and we try to pack as much as that in as we possibly can. There's some it it's not going to take hold until you actually get in some of these situations as a team and individually. We have a team of guys from all kinds of different backgrounds and different experiences, so I agree with the comments. I think we're learning. We're starting to see you're going to get everybody's best every single week and every week's going to be a challenge and what you did in the previous weeks doesn't count and people aren't going to lay down just because you won some games and it's not all of a sudden, you're not going to play so well and all of a sudden it becomes easy. Some people have said that to characterize really great teams or really great players sometimes it almost looks easy. It can look easy, but that's two different things. It's never easy. I've never had one win that was easy.
"You've got to strain and you've got to, you've got to be ready to fight every single week. We do have guys I think on differing sides of that -- whether it's guys that have been through seasons that went in other directions, whether it's guys that are new to college football, right? We've got a little bit of everything. We've said it a lot, right? It's the appreciation of winning because you do need to appreciate it. That's the goal when you step on the field Saturdays, go play well as an offensive team [so] you put yourself in a position to win games, but not getting too fixated on that, I think continuing to improve knowing next week, no matter who it is, is going to be another challenge."
What message does it send to the roster when you reward a player in the red zone with creative play-calling for the blocking and dirty work he's done all season?
"Yeah, I think it's just very simply if an offensive player other than the QB is not blocking then they're not going to be on the field. It's just, we say that from day one when we install it, it's a core belief of ours and we just feel like that it almost sorts itself out. Now have we at times designed things for guys that have really gone above and beyond and done really well? We have a lot of times, dangled the carrot, right? We'll call this play, but you better be, or it's only happening if the blocking on the perimeter is elite, or whatever it is. Mario is one of the guys that have done a good job, we've got a lot of guys who have done a good job. Another guy I think who has had a lot of opportunities created off how well he's played without the ball is Tahj Washington. He's done a little bit of everything for our offense and for our special teams. He's just made himself so valuable there that he's in, and we've had some things that have come his way and some things that have just kind of found him because he's simply on the field and he plays good enough without the ball that you like it when he's on the field. It's a great lesson, really for anybody on a football team -- offense, defense, special teams. The more valuable you make yourself, the more opportunities you're going to get. The more opportunities you get, those chances to make big plays are going to come and you're going to have the opportunity to be the one to make them."
You said Brenden Rice is poised for a breakout, you just mentioned Tahj Washington, and Kyron Hudson is playing well. Where does your confidence stand in the WR room and how do you balance that?
"There's a lot of confidence. Rice has done a lot of good things. It's been good to get Kyle Ford back healthy. Bynum's done good things. CJ Williams behind the scenes is doing some really good things. That's a good group, it is. That's a good group of players. I think we've got our guys right now that kind of week to week are starters that at a few positions have separated themselves that right now -- and they've got to continue to do it -- that right now are going to get the lion's share, but we've got a group that's going to come in and play behind them that's doing a lot of really good things. And we may have shuffles in the lineup. We may have a guy that was a backup become a starter. You can have guys get injured. We didn't have Bynum last week, and all of a sudden some guys have to shift around and step up and our guys did that. It's been good to see. It's important, and we'll have more things that will come up and I think it proves that we can continue to operate even if we have a guy down here or there."
