July 31, 2024 • 11 mins
Jeffs anks the special teams coordinator talks about some of the incoming freshman and the new challeges that him and his team may face on the upcoming year in the SEC.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, As we mentioned, the Olympics continue going on
(00:07):
in Paris and the US basketball team is playing South Sudan.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Now, remember this is.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
A rematch of that game that was a one on
one to one hundred game in the exhibition round.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
The United States barely survived. Well.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Right now, late in the first quarter, the US is
up twelve, twenty six to fourteen. For those you are
wondering about Jason Tatum, and he didn't play in the
first game he played, he started, Uh, he's over two
from the floor right now, Kevin Durant is let's see,
it's his starting lineup, Lebron James four or five from
the floor for eight points in the in the first
(00:53):
quarter on that and I and it looks like Devin
Booker started instead of Kevin Durant on that.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
But we'll keep you updated on that.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Right now, it's twenty six to fourteen in Kevin Durant,
by the way, has played.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
He has six points. He's six of seven from the floor.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
No three point pointers attempted, but he has six points
early and again it's late first quarter of the United
States with a twenty six to fourteen lead on South Sudan.
A South Sudan team coached by lifetime long worn roy
al Ivy, who played at Texas on the Rick Barnes
in the early two thousands and of course had a
long NBA career. I was a teammate of Kevin Durants
(01:33):
in Oklahoma City and then an assistant coach, and he's
an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets, but he is
the head coach of South Sudan.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And the US is up twenty six to fourteen. That
is late in the first quarter.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Texas or the US women's soccer team did well and
I believe has it has gone final and has won
its soccer match this afternoon two to one Australia, so
they're three and oh they went unbeaten in the group
(02:05):
stage and now they're going to face Japan in the quarterfinals.
Japan beat Nigeria three to one, Germany over Zambia three
to one, Spain over Brazil to nil, France over New Zealand.
That's in the first half. It's one nothing. The Germany
Zambia game is late, very late. It's three to one Germany,
very late in that contest. And then that other one
(02:25):
that's pretty interesting is the Canada Columbia matchup. This is
the one where Canada has won two matches on the field,
but they're at zero points because they got docked six.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Points for cheating with.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Filming by way of a drone practices of New Zealand
and their head coach sent home and suspended by FIFA
for a year. Canada can still qualify for the quarterfinals
with a win over Columbia. Right now, they are scoreless
in the twenty fourth minute of that one. So we'll
keep you updated on all things Olympic going on throughout
(03:01):
the course of the afternoon. All right, as we mentioned,
long Worn football team gets on the field to practice
for the first time, and in fact they begin practice,
I mean, if they're being exactly precise, six minutes from
right now will be the first Long Worn practice. They
will be practicing at two thirty this afternoon. And for
(03:24):
those of you who going, my gosh, why would they
practice in the heat of the day, Remember when the
season opener is.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It's in the heat of the day at two thirty.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So one month from the day they open the season
against Colorado State at home, and that will be in
the heat of the day at two thirty in the
afternoon and the team has to be ready for that.
The long worn special teams need to be ready. Jeff Banks,
(03:53):
who is the coach of the special teams and also
the tight ends coach, was asked a variety of questions
and media availability yesterday, and he was asked about this
incoming freshman punter, Michael Kern. He's coming in from Saint
Thomas aquinas herald at high school football program in the
Miami area.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
It's in Fort Lauderdale, I think to be exact.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
But he was asked about him, and so they anytime
you have a true freshman, there's gonna be ups and
downs and hiccups and things like that.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
But Banks was asked, what is he looking for.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Whether it's a freshman, a sophomore or junior, or a
senior or a transfer, whatever it might be, what is
he looking for in a punter.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Well, we're a directional based system, so you know, I'd
like the guy to hit the ball and punt the
ball directionally. Well, I think that's something right away that
we look for from a technique standpoint. If he can
be two steps and get the ball off quicker, I'd
like that. That's probably where we start is just form
wise getting him, you know, to become packed and to
(04:54):
be able to strike the ball the same every time.
But you know, Michael Dixon is not here, Cam Dicker's
not here, Ryan Sandborg nott here. So these are all
younger guys, and so you know, the hit rate's going
to be a little bit different, and so we just
have to we have to again, just like the returners,
we got to kind of call the game once we
figure out what they're good at. Each guy, we got
(05:15):
to figure out how to call the game correctly to
their strengths. You know, some guys are great going right
to right or down the middle or left to left.
Some guys are and so once we figure out what
they can do after we installed for the first two weeks,
then we can kind of kind of figure out how
the game plans will go when we start.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Getting in the game prep.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Did you notice he mentioned those three former long worn punters,
but he said Michael Dixon isn't here anymore, and he
said Ryan Sanborn isn't here anymore. He said Cameron Dicker
isn't here anymore. So at the end of that question,
I promptably popped in and said, you know who is
here for you. Your placekicker, Burt Auburn, and that put
(05:53):
a smile on Coach Banks's face.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Love Bird Auburn phenomenal. I mean, the guy just keeps
breaking records.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
He's a great for our specialist room. He's a great worker,
he's a great leader. He's going to help those young
punters he already has. He's humble, he has great ball strike.
He coaches himself. I mean, I'll coach him and correct him,
and that's fine, but he'll look back at me and
(06:20):
he'll already be harder on himself than I am.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
The guy is.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
The guy is just super, super consistent. He is awesome
to have to coach and will be in behind him.
We feel like we have two big time power five
kickers and we're really excited about that position.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
In special teams also kickoff return, punt return, that's important
as well, but also when it comes to getting after
and putting pressure on kickers opposing teams kickers and punters.
And he was asked, does he have any guys right
now that he can identify who can certainly do that job,
(06:59):
who can block punts and block field goals.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
That'll be interesting to see because I think somebod These
freshmen are twitchy, they have burst an acceleration, but the
knack of like seeing the ball off a foot and
putting your hand out and actually blocking it or seeing
it out of the air, that's different. And so what
to just kind of see that part in drilling it
the best we can and being as live as we can.
And then like I said, you know, the first four
games are gonna be huge for us to figure out.
(07:24):
Like like you said, if we have a guy that
has a knack for it, I think Silas Bolden has
a chance in that part of the game. But again,
you you know, because he's built like Keeling and he
has that twitch like Keeling that redirect, but you just
don't know how that affects him being a returner too,
and that's always a that's always a.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Give and take.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
So I don't think he did, But just looking at
him in the summer drills, I'm like, yeah, that's kind
of guy we've seen in the past. That makes for
a good a good punp blocker. But again, if he's
our punt returner, it's hard to put do both. Obviously,
if we'll figure that out, maybe use him on the
field goal block I think some of the corners that
have gotten reps in the past that were behind our starters,
(08:03):
I think they've got a chance. But hey, look, we
had a lot of long freshmen in the secondary. I'm
excited to kind of see which ones are like that,
but haven't really evaluated that enough.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
He was talking about Silas Bolden, the transfer from Oregon
State who was a prolific punt returner for the Beavers,
and he's got great speed. Could he be a punt
or field goal block specialist or returner, he said, time
will tell on that. Time will also tell on the
offensive side of the football in terms of the old
line and just how good they can be. And they're
quite often mentioned as being the best overall position unit
(08:36):
with this football team.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
That doesn't mean that the.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Long Worns co offensive coordinator, the offensive line coach Kyle
Flood doesn't feel there can't be improvement.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
He certainly does feel they can be better.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
There are always specific things for the players, you know,
we try to have an individual, individualized program for each
of those guys to get better, and that's why we
do the evaluations at the end of the year. But ultimately,
you know, whatever position you're playing, it's it's the mastery
of the skill set to play the position is the
(09:09):
mastery of the fundamentals at your position. So are there
are there little nuanced differences between somebody maybe who plays
left tackle and somebody plays center.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Sure there are.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
But and does each player have something that we want
them to get a little bit better at?
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (09:23):
And sometimes that is changing your body, you know, Sometimes
it's it's it's something like that, or sometimes it might
be something specific from a from a from a blocking standpoint,
run or pass or screens. But when we go into
the offseason, it's never like, hey, we got to we
got to make sure we do this. I don't think
you can.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
You can be that narrow minded when you're doing it.
We want I want these guys to be.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Better at all of it.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Well, and one other thing, one other thing that coach
Flood was asked about was about how the running backs
have had it. Yesterday we heard him talking about how
the offensive line has helped out in protecting quinn ewers
by helping out pocket protection. But it was also asked
about how CJ. Baxer and Jayde Blue have helped in
(10:06):
that area.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
I think for running backs experience there's no substitute for
experience when it comes to pass protection. And I'll say
something that I apologize that I know I've said this
before to you guys. Working with a running back coach
who played in the NFL is the best thing that
happens to somebody who coaches the offensive line because there's
(10:28):
such an emphasis in that league on pass protection and
making sure that the quarterback stays clean that it becomes
an emphasis in that room for coach choice. And he
does a phenomenal job.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
So there are certain times of the off season where
we can do walkthroughs and things like that where we
try to take advantage of that. And I think the
way our practice schedule is laid out by Sark, we
get a lot of opportunities to block blitzes in practice.
So I think the experience of those backs of going
through it every day in training camp is going to
be the best teacher they can.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
They've done a good job.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Digging in on what you can in the offseason, but
it's much different when it's full speed with a real defense,
and you can only get that and train again.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
We'll hear more from the longborn coaches, including defensive coordinator
Pee Kwakowski, coming up in the three o'clock hour, but
up next Inconceivable on Wednesday afternoon here on sports Radio
AM thirteen under the Zone in the iHeartRadio app
All right, As we mentioned, the Olympics continue going on
(00:07):
in Paris and the US basketball team is playing South Sudan.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Now, remember this is.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
A rematch of that game that was a one on
one to one hundred game in the exhibition round.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
The United States barely survived. Well.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Right now, late in the first quarter, the US is
up twelve, twenty six to fourteen. For those you are
wondering about Jason Tatum, and he didn't play in the
first game he played, he started, Uh, he's over two
from the floor right now, Kevin Durant is let's see,
it's his starting lineup, Lebron James four or five from
the floor for eight points in the in the first
(00:53):
quarter on that and I and it looks like Devin
Booker started instead of Kevin Durant on that.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
But we'll keep you updated on that.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Right now, it's twenty six to fourteen in Kevin Durant,
by the way, has played.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
He has six points. He's six of seven from the floor.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
No three point pointers attempted, but he has six points
early and again it's late first quarter of the United
States with a twenty six to fourteen lead on South Sudan.
A South Sudan team coached by lifetime long worn roy
al Ivy, who played at Texas on the Rick Barnes
in the early two thousands and of course had a
long NBA career. I was a teammate of Kevin Durants
(01:33):
in Oklahoma City and then an assistant coach, and he's
an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets, but he is
the head coach of South Sudan.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And the US is up twenty six to fourteen. That
is late in the first quarter.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Texas or the US women's soccer team did well and
I believe has it has gone final and has won
its soccer match this afternoon two to one Australia, so
they're three and oh they went unbeaten in the group
(02:05):
stage and now they're going to face Japan in the quarterfinals.
Japan beat Nigeria three to one, Germany over Zambia three
to one, Spain over Brazil to nil, France over New Zealand.
That's in the first half. It's one nothing. The Germany
Zambia game is late, very late. It's three to one Germany,
very late in that contest. And then that other one
(02:25):
that's pretty interesting is the Canada Columbia matchup. This is
the one where Canada has won two matches on the field,
but they're at zero points because they got docked six.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Points for cheating with.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Filming by way of a drone practices of New Zealand
and their head coach sent home and suspended by FIFA
for a year. Canada can still qualify for the quarterfinals
with a win over Columbia. Right now, they are scoreless
in the twenty fourth minute of that one. So we'll
keep you updated on all things Olympic going on throughout
(03:01):
the course of the afternoon. All right, as we mentioned,
long Worn football team gets on the field to practice
for the first time, and in fact they begin practice,
I mean, if they're being exactly precise, six minutes from
right now will be the first Long Worn practice. They
will be practicing at two thirty this afternoon. And for
(03:24):
those of you who going, my gosh, why would they
practice in the heat of the day, Remember when the
season opener is.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
It's in the heat of the day at two thirty.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
So one month from the day they open the season
against Colorado State at home, and that will be in
the heat of the day at two thirty in the
afternoon and the team has to be ready for that.
The long worn special teams need to be ready. Jeff Banks,
(03:53):
who is the coach of the special teams and also
the tight ends coach, was asked a variety of questions
and media availability yesterday, and he was asked about this
incoming freshman punter, Michael Kern. He's coming in from Saint
Thomas aquinas herald at high school football program in the
Miami area.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
It's in Fort Lauderdale, I think to be exact.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
But he was asked about him, and so they anytime
you have a true freshman, there's gonna be ups and
downs and hiccups and things like that.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
But Banks was asked, what is he looking for.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Whether it's a freshman, a sophomore or junior, or a
senior or a transfer, whatever it might be, what is
he looking for in a punter.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Well, we're a directional based system, so you know, I'd
like the guy to hit the ball and punt the
ball directionally. Well, I think that's something right away that
we look for from a technique standpoint. If he can
be two steps and get the ball off quicker, I'd
like that. That's probably where we start is just form
wise getting him, you know, to become packed and to
(04:54):
be able to strike the ball the same every time.
But you know, Michael Dixon is not here, Cam Dicker's
not here, Ryan Sandborg nott here. So these are all
younger guys, and so you know, the hit rate's going
to be a little bit different, and so we just
have to we have to again, just like the returners,
we got to kind of call the game once we
figure out what they're good at. Each guy, we got
(05:15):
to figure out how to call the game correctly to
their strengths. You know, some guys are great going right
to right or down the middle or left to left.
Some guys are and so once we figure out what
they can do after we installed for the first two weeks,
then we can kind of kind of figure out how
the game plans will go when we start.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
Getting in the game prep.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Did you notice he mentioned those three former long worn punters,
but he said Michael Dixon isn't here anymore, and he
said Ryan Sanborn isn't here anymore. He said Cameron Dicker
isn't here anymore. So at the end of that question,
I promptably popped in and said, you know who is
here for you. Your placekicker, Burt Auburn, and that put
(05:53):
a smile on Coach Banks's face.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Love Bird Auburn phenomenal. I mean, the guy just keeps
breaking records.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
He's a great for our specialist room. He's a great worker,
he's a great leader. He's going to help those young
punters he already has. He's humble, he has great ball strike.
He coaches himself. I mean, I'll coach him and correct him,
and that's fine, but he'll look back at me and
(06:20):
he'll already be harder on himself than I am.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
The guy is.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
The guy is just super, super consistent. He is awesome
to have to coach and will be in behind him.
We feel like we have two big time power five
kickers and we're really excited about that position.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
In special teams also kickoff return, punt return, that's important
as well, but also when it comes to getting after
and putting pressure on kickers opposing teams kickers and punters.
And he was asked, does he have any guys right
now that he can identify who can certainly do that job,
(06:59):
who can block punts and block field goals.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
That'll be interesting to see because I think somebod These
freshmen are twitchy, they have burst an acceleration, but the
knack of like seeing the ball off a foot and
putting your hand out and actually blocking it or seeing
it out of the air, that's different. And so what
to just kind of see that part in drilling it
the best we can and being as live as we can.
And then like I said, you know, the first four
games are gonna be huge for us to figure out.
(07:24):
Like like you said, if we have a guy that
has a knack for it, I think Silas Bolden has
a chance in that part of the game. But again,
you you know, because he's built like Keeling and he
has that twitch like Keeling that redirect, but you just
don't know how that affects him being a returner too,
and that's always a that's always a.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Give and take.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
So I don't think he did, But just looking at
him in the summer drills, I'm like, yeah, that's kind
of guy we've seen in the past. That makes for
a good a good punp blocker. But again, if he's
our punt returner, it's hard to put do both. Obviously,
if we'll figure that out, maybe use him on the
field goal block I think some of the corners that
have gotten reps in the past that were behind our starters,
(08:03):
I think they've got a chance. But hey, look, we
had a lot of long freshmen in the secondary. I'm
excited to kind of see which ones are like that,
but haven't really evaluated that enough.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
He was talking about Silas Bolden, the transfer from Oregon
State who was a prolific punt returner for the Beavers,
and he's got great speed. Could he be a punt
or field goal block specialist or returner, he said, time
will tell on that. Time will also tell on the
offensive side of the football in terms of the old
line and just how good they can be. And they're
quite often mentioned as being the best overall position unit
(08:36):
with this football team.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
That doesn't mean that the.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Long Worns co offensive coordinator, the offensive line coach Kyle
Flood doesn't feel there can't be improvement.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
He certainly does feel they can be better.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
There are always specific things for the players, you know,
we try to have an individual, individualized program for each
of those guys to get better, and that's why we
do the evaluations at the end of the year. But ultimately,
you know, whatever position you're playing, it's it's the mastery
of the skill set to play the position is the
(09:09):
mastery of the fundamentals at your position. So are there
are there little nuanced differences between somebody maybe who plays
left tackle and somebody plays center.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
Sure there are.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
But and does each player have something that we want
them to get a little bit better at?
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Sure?
Speaker 5 (09:23):
And sometimes that is changing your body, you know, Sometimes
it's it's it's something like that, or sometimes it might
be something specific from a from a from a blocking standpoint,
run or pass or screens. But when we go into
the offseason, it's never like, hey, we got to we
got to make sure we do this. I don't think
you can.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
You can be that narrow minded when you're doing it.
We want I want these guys to be.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Better at all of it.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Well, and one other thing, one other thing that coach
Flood was asked about was about how the running backs
have had it. Yesterday we heard him talking about how
the offensive line has helped out in protecting quinn ewers
by helping out pocket protection. But it was also asked
about how CJ. Baxer and Jayde Blue have helped in
(10:06):
that area.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
I think for running backs experience there's no substitute for
experience when it comes to pass protection. And I'll say
something that I apologize that I know I've said this
before to you guys. Working with a running back coach
who played in the NFL is the best thing that
happens to somebody who coaches the offensive line because there's
(10:28):
such an emphasis in that league on pass protection and
making sure that the quarterback stays clean that it becomes
an emphasis in that room for coach choice. And he
does a phenomenal job.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
So there are certain times of the off season where
we can do walkthroughs and things like that where we
try to take advantage of that. And I think the
way our practice schedule is laid out by Sark, we
get a lot of opportunities to block blitzes in practice.
So I think the experience of those backs of going
through it every day in training camp is going to
be the best teacher they can.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
They've done a good job.
Speaker 4 (11:00):
Digging in on what you can in the offseason, but
it's much different when it's full speed with a real defense,
and you can only get that and train again.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
We'll hear more from the longborn coaches, including defensive coordinator
Pee Kwakowski, coming up in the three o'clock hour, but
up next Inconceivable on Wednesday afternoon here on sports Radio
AM thirteen under the Zone in the iHeartRadio app
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