Read that below
Opening Statement
Just again, it’s exciting to be at this point, practice 20. You know, you start to figure out who can make it through certain drills, who can’t, and we found that out a little bit today, I thought we had probably a better yesterday than we did today, but it’s all about how we respond going forward. School’s starting, the schedule changes a little bit and our guys are just gonna have to handle that in a professional manner.
What drills are you talking about?
Just, you go through certain moments in practice where, if you rank (practices) 1-20, you would love for them to keep ascending, but I’ve never been in a camp where it does, so we gotta understand when they don’t, when we take a step back at certain levels, how do we respond the next period, or the next day if that’s the case. So I felt it was one of those, and you’ve heard coach talk about it at the end, or what he did or didn’t, just on point with the fact that I thought we came out better Monday than we did today, so we just got to, again ‘what are we going to do about that tomorrow?’
Having digested the film from Saturday, what are your takeaways?
I thought, again it was typical scrimmage, where it was up and down a little bit. I thought we, offensively did not start out with the fire that we needed. I thought we actually started out better in the Monday practice yesterday, than we did on Saturday morning. So we’ve gotta figure out how to get that motor going, but what I’m able to say from a positive standpoint, they were able to find that rhythm. They didn’t just stay in that funk offensively, but at the end of the day in my opinion, we’re still going to have to clean up some of the, forget yards, forget all that stuff, we just have to clean up the unforced errors between now and the start of the year and throughout the year. You’re always gonna want to get cleaner and cleaner with how you’re doing things, and there’s still offensively in my opinion too many unforced errors.
What did you think of the performance of the QBs?
I thought again, there were some good things that we did, and some mistakes we have to learn from, so it was right somewhere in the middle. Now, like I said, certain plays were extreme in one way, and you got to really learn from, you got to understand how damaging that can be. But on the flip side, we responded with some big plays and some big moments and some big finishes to drives, so we’re coming along at that position, and I’m excited to see them continue to compete.
Did you foresee Garbers keeping up as well as he has?
In fairness to him, he came across as such a, he definitely showed a lot of things on film, and he definitely came across as such a great, you know one of my first home visits was (him), such a great mature person. So you felt like he’s someone that can handle situations where they’re put in that spot early. You did feel like that, but you also know that it’s still a freshman so how he was gonna perform was still, could still take some time, but I think he has, in some areas, exceeded what I thought he might do, especially the fact that he wasn’t here in the spring. Again, he’d be the first to tell you, and I’m telling you it’s still a long way to go, lot of things to do, lot of things to work on.
Is his game awareness something that makes you think he’s ahead in certain areas?
Yeah, he handles moments like that and situations like that, and he can be told something once, some guys it takes longer and longer, he can be told something once and he figures it out. So that is ahead of where some very good players I’ve had at the quarterback position, maybe haven’t been to that level. It’s been good to see. Again, he has plenty of stuff to work on and plenty of stuff to do, so I don’t want to anoint him as he’s got it all figured out and he knows that, but there are certain levels to where that’s pleasant to see that as a true freshman, especially a true freshman that wasn’t here in spring.
What do you remember about your first interactions with McIlwain as you tried to get him here?
Yeah I just remember, and I told him this, one of the things that excited me the most was just the person he was and how he carried himself. You could tell he was just respected by his teammates. You could just see it. I went through, I told him this too, I went through Youtube videos of interviews he did and things like that because I kinda wanted to see how he handled himself and how he talked, what his eye contact was, and that’s what I loved more than anything. We can all see the film, but it mirrored up with the person that he is, and he’s doing that at a young age. When he got to South Carolina in spring, he was still 17, playing in the spring game and doing that stuff. So to do that and carry himself the way he does at such a young age, that was some of the things I remember the most. That just held true when I got to meet him in person, and meet his family in person, and spend time with him during the recruiting process, so it was exciting. It’s a huge get for us in that way, not because of the talent he is on the field, but the person he is off too.
At what point in the process did you start YouTubing him?
I don’t remember exactly when, but it’s kinda like anything. You’re recruiting someone, you know what you see on film, you know a coach is gonna say something, but you want to kinda find out deeper than that, and it’s the same thing with high school. You might go talk to people on campus, whether it be a counselor, whoever it might be, kinda find out more, maybe not ‘yes people’ if that makes sense. You find out some real information, but I think sometimes watching someone and how they handle themselves with certain questions in an interview, you can get a good feel for their demeanor, their eye contact, their maturity and all that stuff. You can check all those boxes, when I did that.
How would you assess the OL play, after watching the film from Saturday
The whole scrimmage was sporadic, so they graded out good at times, not as good at others, and that’s every position, not just offensive line. So it was sporadic, but a lot of those guys are thrown into that fire a little earlier at certain positions than they might in terms of getting reps that they’re getting, and they’re competing like crazy, so I just respect the heck out of them, and how hard they’re grinding, how hard they’re working, and it’s still new to a lot of them because they’re younger, freshmen, just on campus. So they graded out well in a lot of areas that really matter to me, in just their effort and their want to and work ethic that way.
What have you seen from Mike Saffell so far
He competes his tail off. He gets after it, and he loves the game. Some people, they might say they do, but no, he plays like he loves the game. We can all say that, but it shows up on film, who loves the game. It shows up when he’s out here in practice, it shows up just in the way he carries himself, so he’s just a great addition and just another one of those guys, you don’t just love what he does on a football field, you love the energy and the attitude that he brings just when he’s in the hallways, locker room.
On when they’ll start gameplanning UNC, considering that Fall Camp is done now
Yeah we’ll dive into it a little bit in terms of that, but we still have a lot of things up through today that we have to really work out within what we do and that’s ultimately most important. I don’t care what team you’re a part of, you’ve got to make sure you’re not moving ahead of things when you still have things to get straight with what you’re doing. So yeah, there is a little bit of that, but that’s more coach Wilcox’s call and answer to that question on exactly when and how much, but say you haven’t peeked at them, of course we have.
Opening Statement
Just again, it’s exciting to be at this point, practice 20. You know, you start to figure out who can make it through certain drills, who can’t, and we found that out a little bit today, I thought we had probably a better yesterday than we did today, but it’s all about how we respond going forward. School’s starting, the schedule changes a little bit and our guys are just gonna have to handle that in a professional manner.
What drills are you talking about?
Just, you go through certain moments in practice where, if you rank (practices) 1-20, you would love for them to keep ascending, but I’ve never been in a camp where it does, so we gotta understand when they don’t, when we take a step back at certain levels, how do we respond the next period, or the next day if that’s the case. So I felt it was one of those, and you’ve heard coach talk about it at the end, or what he did or didn’t, just on point with the fact that I thought we came out better Monday than we did today, so we just got to, again ‘what are we going to do about that tomorrow?’
Having digested the film from Saturday, what are your takeaways?
I thought, again it was typical scrimmage, where it was up and down a little bit. I thought we, offensively did not start out with the fire that we needed. I thought we actually started out better in the Monday practice yesterday, than we did on Saturday morning. So we’ve gotta figure out how to get that motor going, but what I’m able to say from a positive standpoint, they were able to find that rhythm. They didn’t just stay in that funk offensively, but at the end of the day in my opinion, we’re still going to have to clean up some of the, forget yards, forget all that stuff, we just have to clean up the unforced errors between now and the start of the year and throughout the year. You’re always gonna want to get cleaner and cleaner with how you’re doing things, and there’s still offensively in my opinion too many unforced errors.
What did you think of the performance of the QBs?
I thought again, there were some good things that we did, and some mistakes we have to learn from, so it was right somewhere in the middle. Now, like I said, certain plays were extreme in one way, and you got to really learn from, you got to understand how damaging that can be. But on the flip side, we responded with some big plays and some big moments and some big finishes to drives, so we’re coming along at that position, and I’m excited to see them continue to compete.
Did you foresee Garbers keeping up as well as he has?
In fairness to him, he came across as such a, he definitely showed a lot of things on film, and he definitely came across as such a great, you know one of my first home visits was (him), such a great mature person. So you felt like he’s someone that can handle situations where they’re put in that spot early. You did feel like that, but you also know that it’s still a freshman so how he was gonna perform was still, could still take some time, but I think he has, in some areas, exceeded what I thought he might do, especially the fact that he wasn’t here in the spring. Again, he’d be the first to tell you, and I’m telling you it’s still a long way to go, lot of things to do, lot of things to work on.
Is his game awareness something that makes you think he’s ahead in certain areas?
Yeah, he handles moments like that and situations like that, and he can be told something once, some guys it takes longer and longer, he can be told something once and he figures it out. So that is ahead of where some very good players I’ve had at the quarterback position, maybe haven’t been to that level. It’s been good to see. Again, he has plenty of stuff to work on and plenty of stuff to do, so I don’t want to anoint him as he’s got it all figured out and he knows that, but there are certain levels to where that’s pleasant to see that as a true freshman, especially a true freshman that wasn’t here in spring.
What do you remember about your first interactions with McIlwain as you tried to get him here?
Yeah I just remember, and I told him this, one of the things that excited me the most was just the person he was and how he carried himself. You could tell he was just respected by his teammates. You could just see it. I went through, I told him this too, I went through Youtube videos of interviews he did and things like that because I kinda wanted to see how he handled himself and how he talked, what his eye contact was, and that’s what I loved more than anything. We can all see the film, but it mirrored up with the person that he is, and he’s doing that at a young age. When he got to South Carolina in spring, he was still 17, playing in the spring game and doing that stuff. So to do that and carry himself the way he does at such a young age, that was some of the things I remember the most. That just held true when I got to meet him in person, and meet his family in person, and spend time with him during the recruiting process, so it was exciting. It’s a huge get for us in that way, not because of the talent he is on the field, but the person he is off too.
At what point in the process did you start YouTubing him?
I don’t remember exactly when, but it’s kinda like anything. You’re recruiting someone, you know what you see on film, you know a coach is gonna say something, but you want to kinda find out deeper than that, and it’s the same thing with high school. You might go talk to people on campus, whether it be a counselor, whoever it might be, kinda find out more, maybe not ‘yes people’ if that makes sense. You find out some real information, but I think sometimes watching someone and how they handle themselves with certain questions in an interview, you can get a good feel for their demeanor, their eye contact, their maturity and all that stuff. You can check all those boxes, when I did that.
How would you assess the OL play, after watching the film from Saturday
The whole scrimmage was sporadic, so they graded out good at times, not as good at others, and that’s every position, not just offensive line. So it was sporadic, but a lot of those guys are thrown into that fire a little earlier at certain positions than they might in terms of getting reps that they’re getting, and they’re competing like crazy, so I just respect the heck out of them, and how hard they’re grinding, how hard they’re working, and it’s still new to a lot of them because they’re younger, freshmen, just on campus. So they graded out well in a lot of areas that really matter to me, in just their effort and their want to and work ethic that way.
What have you seen from Mike Saffell so far
He competes his tail off. He gets after it, and he loves the game. Some people, they might say they do, but no, he plays like he loves the game. We can all say that, but it shows up on film, who loves the game. It shows up when he’s out here in practice, it shows up just in the way he carries himself, so he’s just a great addition and just another one of those guys, you don’t just love what he does on a football field, you love the energy and the attitude that he brings just when he’s in the hallways, locker room.
On when they’ll start gameplanning UNC, considering that Fall Camp is done now
Yeah we’ll dive into it a little bit in terms of that, but we still have a lot of things up through today that we have to really work out within what we do and that’s ultimately most important. I don’t care what team you’re a part of, you’ve got to make sure you’re not moving ahead of things when you still have things to get straight with what you’re doing. So yeah, there is a little bit of that, but that’s more coach Wilcox’s call and answer to that question on exactly when and how much, but say you haven’t peeked at them, of course we have.
