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00:00 What's it been like, and today, obviously you got competitive.
00:04 You guys wanna see the competitiveness, but you wanna make sure you're not raining it.
00:08 What's it been like for you the first week of camp?
00:11 >> Well, we got a bunch of good players, I think.
00:14 We got a bunch of guys that can win.
00:16 Now, at the end of the day, the toughest is not just running and
00:21 hitting somebody, but it's when things go bad or you get cheap shotted.
00:26 And you have no poise to continue to execute.
00:31 I thought when that happened, we lost our focus a little bit.
00:36 And we didn't play as well, I thought, the next period.
00:39 And then I thought as the practice went on, we really started to hump along a bit.
00:44 So.
00:46 >> You told us in the spring, we talked about the install,
00:50 we talked about the new scheme.
00:51 How do you feel like they've adjusted?
00:53 You got a lot of new guys out there this summer and now.
00:57 How do you feel like they've taken to this?
00:59 >> Well, football's different now because you get a lot of walkthrough
01:04 opportunities in the summer even, and in the fall.
01:07 So we have not installed really any one or two defenses that are new.
01:12 So the players have been doing stuff since the spring.
01:14 So the new guys are coming, they're coming.
01:16 It's really the details.
01:17 I mean, it's the little, little tiny things.
01:20 And you wanna get to the point where you're teaching offense, not defense.
01:23 So hopefully, I told the players last night, I can start teaching offense.
01:29 >> I know you move around a lot, it's part of the job.
01:32 So when you come back to a place you've been before, does it feel different or
01:36 is it just very familiar?
01:38 Is this the place James wants to be?
01:39 >> It's never happened.
01:40 This is my first time.
01:42 So I went there before, and the reason is the players.
01:47 I really like the players.
01:49 They played hard for me.
01:51 These guys are doing the same thing.
01:52 So, but I like it.
01:56 You gotta be careful, there's a lot of good evening players.
01:58 >> [LAUGH] >> And
02:01 I think we have a chance to win big.
02:02 That's the deal.
02:03 I'm so excited.
02:04 It's interesting, this is how I actually marched.
02:07 I've been doing this 30 years.
02:11 Sometimes when you get my age, people try to put you out of the past.
02:14 I get to work at the University of Louisville with really good players and
02:18 a chance to win a championship.
02:19 Now, how blessed am I?
02:22 >> Josh is a guy that missed spring because of injury.
02:24 How have you seen him enter fall camp and his performance?
02:26 >> He's big, and he's got some natural lead in his pitch, so to speak.
02:32 He's a big man.
02:34 Now, I'm trying to get him to strike with more leverage and
02:37 intensity and all that stuff.
02:38 But Josh is one of the guys who I think has been a smart player.
02:45 But now I'm on him about really being a detailed player and
02:48 really learning all the nuances in more than one position,
02:51 in and out.
02:52 But I like the kid, gotta get him to play harder.
02:54 But he's a big, athletic guy.
02:58 I like the kid.
03:00 >> Seems like the common theme with a lot of these guys talking about the new
03:02 scheme is they just feel a little bit more comfortable being able to go out there and
03:05 play their own brand of football.
03:07 Are you seeing that kind of comfortability around them there in that scheme?
03:10 >> They don't even have a plan.
03:12 How could they have a plan?
03:13 >> [LAUGH] >> They haven't played long enough to
03:14 have a plan.
03:15 >> [LAUGH] >> These guys sometimes they say they
03:19 don't even know what they're saying.
03:20 >> [LAUGH] >> When you look at this,
03:24 Coach promised us, obviously you guys last year were aggressive,
03:27 maybe more aggressive than you were the year before.
03:30 He wants to be aggressive.
03:32 When you do that, how much rotation do you look for in the secondary and
03:36 in the line?
03:37 Do you wanna use a lot of guys?
03:38 >> Well, I learned this from the SEC.
03:42 The champions have players, and they will play if they play players.
03:45 And so that allows you to play the best players on special teams,
03:49 that allows you to be fresh in the fourth quarter, and
03:51 it allows other guys to continue to try to get better.
03:54 And now in November and December,
03:57 you still have guys who can perform without being fatigued.
04:02 We wanna be aggressive, but to be honest with you,
04:08 last year I'd been a really aggressive guy early in my career.
04:13 And then last year, I just thought we would be a better man team than we were,
04:17 and we were not as good as I wanted to be.
04:20 And after the Iowa game, I said I'm not calling any more manheads,
04:23 like four or five games to go.
04:26 I pride myself at this stage in my career, I'm gonna do whatever they do best,
04:30 that's what we do.
04:31 So, and you can be aggressive with a four man rush, to be honest with you.
04:35 You don't have to fight with six to be aggressive,
04:36 you have to be aggressive in how you do things.
04:39 But so we're gonna do what's best for our personnel, that's what we're gonna do.
04:44 >> President, going off of that, without getting too much of it, of course,
04:46 how do you feel like what you guys do in that scheme really plays to the strengths
04:50 of the guys you have right now?
04:51 >> Well, we've got some guys that can cover, we've got some guys that can run.
04:56 So, and the guys have all the energy to learn.
04:59 It's not like all this stuff is easy, I mean, we got a lot of defense in here now,
05:03 it's a lot of stuff.
05:04 And there are details to all of it.
05:06 So, the difference in kind of what we do is,
05:12 Coach Brown was the NFL guy for seven or eight years.
05:15 So, we do a lot of NFL studies.
05:18 He believes in having answers.
05:21 So we're gonna run a lot of defense.
05:22 It's my job to narrow it down just to get closer.
05:26 But we do a lot of defense.
05:28 >> Kind of going off that, a lot of the defensive guys have mentioned,
05:31 they were a little surprised at how involved Jeff was in defense and
05:34 giving his thoughts and drills.
05:36 Do you see that as a coordinator and do you enjoy that from your head coach?
05:38 >> You know what, if I was younger, I would not like it.
05:41 Cuz I would say, yeah, you don't know how to coach defense and
05:46 I would say all that kind of stuff.
05:48 And you know your pride gets in the way, you don't wanna tell them what to do,
05:51 unless you got all the answers.
05:53 And then you beat it up a little bit, you figure out you don't have all the answers.
05:55 But the most important thing about Coach Brown is he's good at what he does.
06:01 Really good enough.
06:02 And so when he tells me how they think and how they wanna do things,
06:08 I'm like, thank you, God.
06:09 Because we try to have answers for what offenses like to do.
06:17 >> What Ben was talking, Ben made a lot of plays last year.
06:20 >> [LAUGH] >> He was talking about it's not totally
06:22 too much different than what he was doing last year.
06:24 What do you see kind of his role, what do you want from him?
06:28 >> He's gonna play multiple spots for us.
06:30 We're gonna play with time personnel,
06:33 we got at least 60 of these on the field sometimes, even maybe 70.
06:37 He can move inside and play with Dime, which is really a Mike Lombacher.
06:41 He can play outside.
06:43 Ben is probably about 206 or 70 today, but he plays bigger than that.
06:48 He plays bigger than that, he can run better than anything, and he's a long dude.
06:53 He's got some toughness.
06:54 And he loves football, so we're gonna move him around a little bit and let him play.
06:59 >> And what have you seen from the guys up front so far,
07:01 as far as what they've been doing?
07:03 >> Well, I saw yesterday, he made a couple of plays around something,
07:08 I can't wait to see that, cuz that's how I'm gonna take it.
07:10 I mean, he really, I'm like, okay, that's real, he only made a couple of plays.
07:14 I like the young guys, I like AJ, and those young guys are good players.
07:20 I like all those front guys that Morgan had, cuz Higgins gonna get them right.
07:24 He's gonna get them, it's the way it's gonna be.
07:27 So I don't really, to be honest, I don't get concerned about the front,
07:32 because I know that guy's one of the best in the business.
07:35 He is, and he consistently churns out guys.
07:39 So I'm not concerned, and I like the guys, I like them all.
07:43 I hate to name names, actually, I just named him because of yesterday.
07:46 We got good players up front.
07:48 >> All right, thanks.