September 23, 2025 • 6 mins
Coach Mora & Mike Crispino talk UConn Huskies Football and the win over Ball State
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Back of the Yukon Football Coaches Show here on Learfield,
Mike Cristino, Jim Mora. A little bit later on, we'll
talk to Ben Morowski about offensive line play. Malachi McLain,
who was back in the lineup and did a nice
job against Ball State on the weekend. Well, let's talk
about that first, Coach, you have guys that you know,
get banged up as football, it's a collision sport. They're
(00:20):
missing can't play. Malachi McClain came back with a real burst,
didn't he. I mean number seven there, I think he
was in on nine tackles. I mean that had to
be rewarding in a sense for you as the coach
to see that happening.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, I was really happy for Malachi coming back and
then playing as well as he did. Mike, you know,
you and a guy misses. Really he missed three games
because he got hurt the first drive of that first game,
so he missed three games. And to me, it just
it says a lot about Malachi and how important this
is to him and the work that he's put in
to really understand this defense. You know, over the last
(00:58):
year and a half that he's been here. I love
him when he's on the field. I think he's a playmaker.
I think he's tough as hell. I think he's very
well respected. And you know, we've got a lot of
guys that have been nicked up and kind of miss
snaps in a game. We've had to have guys fill in,
but overall our health has been been pretty good, you know.
So yeah, but Malachai, you know, Malachai is a is
(01:21):
a tough son of a gun, you know, and you'll
you'll feel that and talking to him, I mean, this
stuff's really important to him.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, And also it says to me, I don't know
if you agree with us and now, but the responsibility
that players field at their teammates, right, you get banged up,
you're bruised, you're hurting, you're in pain. You know, obviously
the medical staff is going to tell you if you're
okay to play. But I feel listening to some of
these guys like that they feel a tremendous responsibility to
their teammates to be on the field and help each week.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
With what Yukon football has become.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, you know, we talk about that word brotherhood and
being responsible to your teammates, and that's That's part of
it right there, you know, is playing for the guy
next to you, not just playing for yourself, and that
responsibility when you are dinged up a little bit to
do all you can to get yourself in a position
where the doctors say, yeah, you're ready to play, get
back out on the field. You know, not everybody takes
(02:14):
it as seriously as those that you know, you really
depend on. Those guys. It's just they're going to do
everything they can to try to get back on the field.
They're looking for reasons to get back on the field,
ways to get back on the field, rather than reasons
to postpone their you know, ability to get back on
the field. But those guys that really really love football,
like Malachi really loves football, they're going to find a
(02:35):
way back to the field, and their teammates respect that
and they respond to it.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, no question about it.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Mel Brown was out obviously shoulder surgery. Collar bone broke,
broke the other one of a couple of years ago.
He broke the other side, so he's going to be
out for a while, which puts a lot of pressure
on the running backs. And Cam Edwards I thought really
stepped up in a big way. I mean not only
with his production numbers yards.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
But big plays. He seems to come up with runs
when you really need him.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
He sure does. He's a tough, humbre man. He's a
tough dude, you know. He it's really important to him
as well, you know, and he demonstrates how much he
cares every friggin day because he gets beat up and
he just keeps going. And I think that as a team,
(03:27):
we feed off of his toughness and his resilience and
his will and he's fun to have on your team.
And you know, he shoulders the responsibility of you know,
be in a little bit light now in that room,
although Victor and Oliver and MJ. I think are all
guys that are you know, really qualified to go in
and play well. But you know, you lose a guy
(03:48):
like Mel Brown and it's at o cliche. You know,
someone's got to step in. Well, you know, Cam stepped up.
Other guys have stepped in and stepped up, and we're
going to continue to run the ball. Well.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah, A couple of things on the offensive side that
were interesting to me in the game against Ball State,
Joe Finano rolling out quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
We didn't see a lot of that in the opening
three weeks.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
But he was rolling both ways and you know, look
like gonna maybe run, maybe throw that. Is that something
a little bit different that your Gordon Samus is maybe
incorporating into the offense.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Not No, I mean it's always been part of our package.
You know, you have a movement package every week. You know,
sometimes the situation dictates that you call it a little
bit more. I don't know that there was necessarily a
reason for it other and then maybe we were trying
to work the field, get the ball to Skyl or
get the ball to Ramello. That was a way to
do it. Sometimes it's coming off of play action, you know,
(04:43):
which we're maybe trying to misdirection with the defense and
get their eyes messed up. But I mean it's something
that we, you know, we work on, we do consistently.
I think anytime you complete a couple of those, you know,
people go okay and they like to move the ball
and you know, throwing incomplete and they don't necessarily notice
it you were rolling out. So I mean I would
say it's it's not anything new for us. It's it's
(05:05):
just another piece in the package.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, I would think as a defensive player, that'd be
annoying because you've got to worry about you know, the
QB is going to pull it down and get yardage,
is going to throw.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Who do I cover? How do I cover them? How
long do I cover them?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
That to me seems like that'd be a positive as
an offensive guy, but a negative is a defensive guy.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It makes it hard on the defense. You know, you
stretch them with wise and you stretch them vertically, and
you know you've got a quarterback attack on the line
of scrimmage with the run throw option, and you've typically
you know, kind of spread their defense out a little bit.
Now the quarterback has to make good decisions whether the
run or throw it. Uh, your blockers have to do
a good job in terms of, you know, being able
to get him out on the edge. Uh, it's not
(05:48):
always going to work. People are gonna bring pressure and
things to try to combat that. But if you have
a smart quarterback, which we do, you know you can
do some of those things and and give them a
little time potentially to see things down the field. You know,
with our quarterbacks, we want them to if they decide
to run, we want them to run. But I don't
(06:08):
want them taking a bunch of hits, So get what
you can get in and get down and I think
Joe's done a nice job of that as well.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, Husky's two and two and they go to Buffalo
to play on Saturday. We'll be back to talk about
them and a little bit more about the Huskies and
ball State how they got their second win of the season.
This is the Yukon Football Coaches Show on Lear Fields.
Back of the Yukon Football Coaches Show here on Learfield,
Mike Cristino, Jim Mora. A little bit later on, we'll
talk to Ben Morowski about offensive line play. Malachi McLain,
who was back in the lineup and did a nice
job against Ball State on the weekend. Well, let's talk
about that first, Coach, you have guys that you know,
get banged up as football, it's a collision sport. They're
(00:20):
missing can't play. Malachi McClain came back with a real burst,
didn't he. I mean number seven there, I think he
was in on nine tackles. I mean that had to
be rewarding in a sense for you as the coach
to see that happening.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, I was really happy for Malachi coming back and
then playing as well as he did. Mike, you know,
you and a guy misses. Really he missed three games
because he got hurt the first drive of that first game,
so he missed three games. And to me, it just
it says a lot about Malachi and how important this
is to him and the work that he's put in
to really understand this defense. You know, over the last
(00:58):
year and a half that he's been here. I love
him when he's on the field. I think he's a playmaker.
I think he's tough as hell. I think he's very
well respected. And you know, we've got a lot of
guys that have been nicked up and kind of miss
snaps in a game. We've had to have guys fill in,
but overall our health has been been pretty good, you know.
So yeah, but Malachai, you know, Malachai is a is
(01:21):
a tough son of a gun, you know, and you'll
you'll feel that and talking to him, I mean, this
stuff's really important to him.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, And also it says to me, I don't know
if you agree with us and now, but the responsibility
that players field at their teammates, right, you get banged up,
you're bruised, you're hurting, you're in pain. You know, obviously
the medical staff is going to tell you if you're
okay to play. But I feel listening to some of
these guys like that they feel a tremendous responsibility to
their teammates to be on the field and help each week.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
With what Yukon football has become.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yeah, you know, we talk about that word brotherhood and
being responsible to your teammates, and that's That's part of
it right there, you know, is playing for the guy
next to you, not just playing for yourself, and that
responsibility when you are dinged up a little bit to
do all you can to get yourself in a position
where the doctors say, yeah, you're ready to play, get
back out on the field. You know, not everybody takes
(02:14):
it as seriously as those that you know, you really
depend on. Those guys. It's just they're going to do
everything they can to try to get back on the field.
They're looking for reasons to get back on the field,
ways to get back on the field, rather than reasons
to postpone their you know, ability to get back on
the field. But those guys that really really love football,
like Malachi really loves football, they're going to find a
(02:35):
way back to the field, and their teammates respect that
and they respond to it.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah, no question about it.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Mel Brown was out obviously shoulder surgery. Collar bone broke,
broke the other one of a couple of years ago.
He broke the other side, so he's going to be
out for a while, which puts a lot of pressure
on the running backs. And Cam Edwards I thought really
stepped up in a big way. I mean not only
with his production numbers yards.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
But big plays. He seems to come up with runs
when you really need him.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
He sure does. He's a tough, humbre man. He's a
tough dude, you know. He it's really important to him
as well, you know, and he demonstrates how much he
cares every friggin day because he gets beat up and
he just keeps going. And I think that as a team,
(03:27):
we feed off of his toughness and his resilience and
his will and he's fun to have on your team.
And you know, he shoulders the responsibility of you know,
be in a little bit light now in that room,
although Victor and Oliver and MJ. I think are all
guys that are you know, really qualified to go in
and play well. But you know, you lose a guy
(03:48):
like Mel Brown and it's at o cliche. You know,
someone's got to step in. Well, you know, Cam stepped up.
Other guys have stepped in and stepped up, and we're
going to continue to run the ball. Well.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Yeah, A couple of things on the offensive side that
were interesting to me in the game against Ball State,
Joe Finano rolling out quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
We didn't see a lot of that in the opening
three weeks.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
But he was rolling both ways and you know, look
like gonna maybe run, maybe throw that. Is that something
a little bit different that your Gordon Samus is maybe
incorporating into the offense.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Not No, I mean it's always been part of our package.
You know, you have a movement package every week. You know,
sometimes the situation dictates that you call it a little
bit more. I don't know that there was necessarily a
reason for it other and then maybe we were trying
to work the field, get the ball to Skyl or
get the ball to Ramello. That was a way to
do it. Sometimes it's coming off of play action, you know,
(04:43):
which we're maybe trying to misdirection with the defense and
get their eyes messed up. But I mean it's something
that we, you know, we work on, we do consistently.
I think anytime you complete a couple of those, you know,
people go okay and they like to move the ball
and you know, throwing incomplete and they don't necessarily notice
it you were rolling out. So I mean I would
say it's it's not anything new for us. It's it's
(05:05):
just another piece in the package.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Yeah, I would think as a defensive player, that'd be
annoying because you've got to worry about you know, the
QB is going to pull it down and get yardage,
is going to throw.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Who do I cover? How do I cover them? How
long do I cover them?
Speaker 1 (05:19):
That to me seems like that'd be a positive as
an offensive guy, but a negative is a defensive guy.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It makes it hard on the defense. You know, you
stretch them with wise and you stretch them vertically, and
you know you've got a quarterback attack on the line
of scrimmage with the run throw option, and you've typically
you know, kind of spread their defense out a little bit.
Now the quarterback has to make good decisions whether the
run or throw it. Uh, your blockers have to do
a good job in terms of, you know, being able
to get him out on the edge. Uh, it's not
(05:48):
always going to work. People are gonna bring pressure and
things to try to combat that. But if you have
a smart quarterback, which we do, you know you can
do some of those things and and give them a
little time potentially to see things down the field. You know,
with our quarterbacks, we want them to if they decide
to run, we want them to run. But I don't
(06:08):
want them taking a bunch of hits, So get what
you can get in and get down and I think
Joe's done a nice job of that as well.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, Husky's two and two and they go to Buffalo
to play on Saturday. We'll be back to talk about
them and a little bit more about the Huskies and
ball State how they got their second win of the season.
This is the Yukon Football Coaches Show on Lear Fields.
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