I interviewed him last week, we talked recruiting, his team's playoff run (with the goal of getting their retiring coach a CIF title, which they did, before falling short of a state bowl game), and looking forward to coming to Cal. I'm going to work this into an actual piece later, but I thought the whole deal was worth sharing.
Going Through the playoffs
“Coming into the playoffs, we had a couple of guys injured during the regular season, some key wideouts, some key skill position players that were injured, and came back maybe a game or two before the playoffs. So we had some practice time with the full team healthy, everyone started getting healthy at the right time, right before the playoff run, and then the offensive line just started clicking right at the end of league, and everyone started to see that we could make something special out of this season.
I think everyone just started clicking at the right time, and once we got into the playoffs, we were completely healthy and we were playing our best ball of the season. I think that first game against Newberry Park (won 49-24), we had a very solid game, we won by a good amount, I think it gave us confidence that we could definitely make a run.
Then, Buena Park, obviously another super-tough athletic team that we had to play. That was a tough battle as well, coming out on top. We didn’t have our best game on offense all-around, but still got the job done and just showed that we don’t always have to play a perfect game to win this thing. (Won that game 38-21)
The next game was Rancho Verde, an opponent we didn’t really know too much about, but we had a late come-from-behind win it that game, it was super unreal and exciting, probably the best moment of the season was that come-from-behind win in the fourth quarter when we were down by two touchdowns and the offense led us back. The offense probably had their best game of the season in that game, and I think everyone realized we can win this thing, and there was only three more games, the season was getting long, and we knew we were just gonna bear down and get this thing done. (Won that game 32-28 on a 7 yd run with 54 seconds remaining)
The La Mirada was the CIF(Southern Section) championship game, which was kind of the team’s main goal, to get (retiring) coach (Dave) White a CIF championship. We had a very solid game in that one as well, a lot of people were predicting it to be close, but we won by a good amount in that game.” (a 44-24 victory, where they averaged 10+ yards per carry)
Beat them by 20
Yeah, beat them by a good amount in that game, won by 20, I think everyone played super unreal. The offensive line kinda dominated that game, and we kinda stole it from them, which was a great experience.
On averaging 10+ yards per carry in that game
“I think in the first half we had 20 yards per carry, something crazy, we were just popping off huge runs. I think that was the biggest thing for our playoff run. So, early in the season we were relying on the pass so much, couldn’t get the run game going since we had such young guys. We had four first year starters this year on the offensive line, I was the only returner, so we were kinda working our butt off to coach those guys up and get them clicking, and I think after that whole ten games, all that experience, then we really started coming into our own as an offensive line and knowing our identity and what we could do. We really started contributing to the team and to the run game, we got the run game going.
And then obviously this last game against San Clemente, I was super confident. I was more confident going into this game than I was in Rancho Verde and La Mirada, what our offensive line could do against their defense, and some of the matchups we had I was really excited about. I think we came out a little flat. You can’t really do that in a state championship game and expect to win, when you come out flat at any point. We really turned it around in the second half and we got going. Even though we were still in the lead, we were just a little flat, and once the fourth quarter came around, we got it going, and we were firing on all cylinders, but we got down at points and we kept trying to come back and come back. At the end, I think we were down by two touchdowns with five minutes to go, or four minutes to go, something like that. Anyway, we popped a screen off for 80 yards, so that got us back, and then San Clemente drove it all the way down, and we actually had a 100 yard returned pick six. We got up by four, but our defense couldn’t stop them, it wasn’t in the cards for us that night, but it was a great game. It was kind of everything you could hope to give Coach White in his last year. It’s hard to see him go, but I know all he wanted was that CIF championship, and the state would have been the gravy on top. It sucks that we couldn’t give it to him, it just wasn’t in the cards for us.”
(39-35 loss, Pick six game them a 35-32 lead, proving once and for all to run the dang ball in the red-zone, but USC commit Jack Sears led San Clemente back for a late TD to give them the final margin)
“It was the greatest season I’ve ever had, no doubt. It was everything I could’ve hoped for. If you had told me it would’ve gone like that, I would have told you you were crazy, because just how magical and unreal it was.”
On his quarterback Griffin O'Connor and how his relationship built up during the year
Last year, he started as a sophomore. We’ve been super good friends throughout my whole life, but I think coming into this year we knew that we had something special, especially with the things we were doing in seven on seven and things like that. We had something really special, and we just started hanging out, we go to church together a bunch, and our friendship started forming. We became best friends over the summer, and I think that totally helped this season, because when you have two guys in pivotal roles like that, at center and quarterback, you need some heavy leadership and communication. I think we carried both those skills pretty well, we feed off each other, when it comes to leadership and getting the team going. He’s also got an amazing sense of calmness about him that I really appreciate and I feed into during the game. We keep the team poised, I bring the intensity as well, so I think we work well together, and we bring the leadership roles that a championship caliber team needs.
(O'Connor is a 2018 kid, makes some solid throws on film, I think he'll be a solid starter at the G5 level. Currently only has an Indiana State offer, but I bet he'll see more next year)
On being top film watchers on Hudl, along with his O'Connor
“I can’t remember the specific number, we looked at it a couple weeks ago, but we were some crazy number, me and him, ahead of the next guy. I think that’s something we take pride in. We watched a lot of film together as well. We both have that mindset of trying to better each other and trying to better ourselves and the team. I think that’s something we take a lot of pride in, whether that’s watching film or getting extra work together on the film, we always take advantage of that.”
On contact with the Cal Coaches during and since the end of the season
“Me and Coach Jones would talk basically before every game, every Thursday night. We text all the time about, you know, the kind of guys we’re trying to recruit and whatever film I put out, how it’s going to look at the next level, so we were talking a ton. I talked a couple times with Coach Dykes as well throughout the season, and they were wishing me luck on the games, stuff like that, but I’m sure it will ramp up as we come into signing season.”
On talking to a few of the commits, Roddick being the first name to come up
“I’m super stoked about Casey. When me and Coach Jones talked about who we were recruiting, that was the number one guy I wanted to get. We met each other through the camp season, the Rivals and Nike camps. He was just destroying kids, but he’s also a good kid to talk to and hang out with, and a super down-to-earth type of guy that I love to be good friends with, and have him on the offensive line, because of how nasty and physical he is. I love that about him. He was the number one guy I pinpointed and was like ‘hey, we really have to work to get this guy.’ He’s a great player, so I’m so happy he jumped on board. I know we’re working on a couple other guys, and we’ll hopefully get one or two more to jump on board, because this offensive line is getting a lot better with Coach Jones.”
On who he’s looking at to join up with him
“Nick Ford, that’s who we’re really trying to get. He just came up for the visit, and his dad’s an alum.”
Talking to the Buena Park commits (Johnson and Hawkins) who his team beat in the second round
“Yeah, we talked after the game and we were also up at Stanford together for a visit together. We’ve got a group chat going and things like that, so we’re getting close, and I’m super excited to get up there with those guys. They’re all great guys, I’m excited to see what what we can do.”
Going Through the playoffs
“Coming into the playoffs, we had a couple of guys injured during the regular season, some key wideouts, some key skill position players that were injured, and came back maybe a game or two before the playoffs. So we had some practice time with the full team healthy, everyone started getting healthy at the right time, right before the playoff run, and then the offensive line just started clicking right at the end of league, and everyone started to see that we could make something special out of this season.
I think everyone just started clicking at the right time, and once we got into the playoffs, we were completely healthy and we were playing our best ball of the season. I think that first game against Newberry Park (won 49-24), we had a very solid game, we won by a good amount, I think it gave us confidence that we could definitely make a run.
Then, Buena Park, obviously another super-tough athletic team that we had to play. That was a tough battle as well, coming out on top. We didn’t have our best game on offense all-around, but still got the job done and just showed that we don’t always have to play a perfect game to win this thing. (Won that game 38-21)
The next game was Rancho Verde, an opponent we didn’t really know too much about, but we had a late come-from-behind win it that game, it was super unreal and exciting, probably the best moment of the season was that come-from-behind win in the fourth quarter when we were down by two touchdowns and the offense led us back. The offense probably had their best game of the season in that game, and I think everyone realized we can win this thing, and there was only three more games, the season was getting long, and we knew we were just gonna bear down and get this thing done. (Won that game 32-28 on a 7 yd run with 54 seconds remaining)
The La Mirada was the CIF(Southern Section) championship game, which was kind of the team’s main goal, to get (retiring) coach (Dave) White a CIF championship. We had a very solid game in that one as well, a lot of people were predicting it to be close, but we won by a good amount in that game.” (a 44-24 victory, where they averaged 10+ yards per carry)
Beat them by 20
Yeah, beat them by a good amount in that game, won by 20, I think everyone played super unreal. The offensive line kinda dominated that game, and we kinda stole it from them, which was a great experience.
On averaging 10+ yards per carry in that game
“I think in the first half we had 20 yards per carry, something crazy, we were just popping off huge runs. I think that was the biggest thing for our playoff run. So, early in the season we were relying on the pass so much, couldn’t get the run game going since we had such young guys. We had four first year starters this year on the offensive line, I was the only returner, so we were kinda working our butt off to coach those guys up and get them clicking, and I think after that whole ten games, all that experience, then we really started coming into our own as an offensive line and knowing our identity and what we could do. We really started contributing to the team and to the run game, we got the run game going.
And then obviously this last game against San Clemente, I was super confident. I was more confident going into this game than I was in Rancho Verde and La Mirada, what our offensive line could do against their defense, and some of the matchups we had I was really excited about. I think we came out a little flat. You can’t really do that in a state championship game and expect to win, when you come out flat at any point. We really turned it around in the second half and we got going. Even though we were still in the lead, we were just a little flat, and once the fourth quarter came around, we got it going, and we were firing on all cylinders, but we got down at points and we kept trying to come back and come back. At the end, I think we were down by two touchdowns with five minutes to go, or four minutes to go, something like that. Anyway, we popped a screen off for 80 yards, so that got us back, and then San Clemente drove it all the way down, and we actually had a 100 yard returned pick six. We got up by four, but our defense couldn’t stop them, it wasn’t in the cards for us that night, but it was a great game. It was kind of everything you could hope to give Coach White in his last year. It’s hard to see him go, but I know all he wanted was that CIF championship, and the state would have been the gravy on top. It sucks that we couldn’t give it to him, it just wasn’t in the cards for us.”
(39-35 loss, Pick six game them a 35-32 lead, proving once and for all to run the dang ball in the red-zone, but USC commit Jack Sears led San Clemente back for a late TD to give them the final margin)
“It was the greatest season I’ve ever had, no doubt. It was everything I could’ve hoped for. If you had told me it would’ve gone like that, I would have told you you were crazy, because just how magical and unreal it was.”
On his quarterback Griffin O'Connor and how his relationship built up during the year
Last year, he started as a sophomore. We’ve been super good friends throughout my whole life, but I think coming into this year we knew that we had something special, especially with the things we were doing in seven on seven and things like that. We had something really special, and we just started hanging out, we go to church together a bunch, and our friendship started forming. We became best friends over the summer, and I think that totally helped this season, because when you have two guys in pivotal roles like that, at center and quarterback, you need some heavy leadership and communication. I think we carried both those skills pretty well, we feed off each other, when it comes to leadership and getting the team going. He’s also got an amazing sense of calmness about him that I really appreciate and I feed into during the game. We keep the team poised, I bring the intensity as well, so I think we work well together, and we bring the leadership roles that a championship caliber team needs.
(O'Connor is a 2018 kid, makes some solid throws on film, I think he'll be a solid starter at the G5 level. Currently only has an Indiana State offer, but I bet he'll see more next year)
On being top film watchers on Hudl, along with his O'Connor
“I can’t remember the specific number, we looked at it a couple weeks ago, but we were some crazy number, me and him, ahead of the next guy. I think that’s something we take pride in. We watched a lot of film together as well. We both have that mindset of trying to better each other and trying to better ourselves and the team. I think that’s something we take a lot of pride in, whether that’s watching film or getting extra work together on the film, we always take advantage of that.”
On contact with the Cal Coaches during and since the end of the season
“Me and Coach Jones would talk basically before every game, every Thursday night. We text all the time about, you know, the kind of guys we’re trying to recruit and whatever film I put out, how it’s going to look at the next level, so we were talking a ton. I talked a couple times with Coach Dykes as well throughout the season, and they were wishing me luck on the games, stuff like that, but I’m sure it will ramp up as we come into signing season.”
On talking to a few of the commits, Roddick being the first name to come up
“I’m super stoked about Casey. When me and Coach Jones talked about who we were recruiting, that was the number one guy I wanted to get. We met each other through the camp season, the Rivals and Nike camps. He was just destroying kids, but he’s also a good kid to talk to and hang out with, and a super down-to-earth type of guy that I love to be good friends with, and have him on the offensive line, because of how nasty and physical he is. I love that about him. He was the number one guy I pinpointed and was like ‘hey, we really have to work to get this guy.’ He’s a great player, so I’m so happy he jumped on board. I know we’re working on a couple other guys, and we’ll hopefully get one or two more to jump on board, because this offensive line is getting a lot better with Coach Jones.”
On who he’s looking at to join up with him
“Nick Ford, that’s who we’re really trying to get. He just came up for the visit, and his dad’s an alum.”
Talking to the Buena Park commits (Johnson and Hawkins) who his team beat in the second round
“Yeah, we talked after the game and we were also up at Stanford together for a visit together. We’ve got a group chat going and things like that, so we’re getting close, and I’m super excited to get up there with those guys. They’re all great guys, I’m excited to see what what we can do.”
