Nevada Football: Jeff Choate 2024 Signing Day Press Conference

Nikki and Nikki PE Sports hi Nikki and then Andrew fromn from awesome nice to meet you guys these are the famili like you ready go let us know when you hit record and when the stream's going and we get okay thanks everyone got coach to's Signing Day press conference for our renovation 2024 signing class today we'll start with no being stand from coach then we'll open it up to questions awesome thanks everybody for being here today um you don't get to this place without a lot of help and I think it's a it's important for me to thank some of our partners in the community and some of the people on on this campus that made this happen for us we brought in uh 31 signes 23 enrolled at midye and so to have that that level of work that had to be done by our compliance people our academic advisers um our academic support staff and admissions I can't say enough about the appreciation that we have in football for uh the support that Stephanie and president sandavol have shown on the academic side helping us to get this class put together in a really short period of time uh our folks uh Nikita Amy and Drew graph and academics Joe Flores and Megan Shram uh we made their life a little miserable in uh in the last couple of weeks but it's uh it's all worth it now we're excited to have these people here we've had a ton of support from out from all around the community our partner our trade Partners from all over the community I mean you got to think about the amount of work that goes into putting together this kind of class and this kind of a condensed window and I'm really proud of our staff uh and that was really spearheaded by Jace Parker and his staff on the on the recruiting side our our coaches that came from all over the country and you can kind of see how we were able to tap into different places that maybe weren't traditional 19 different states are represented in this class which I think is pretty cool and uh it's very diverse group of kids I think it's going to add a ton of value to this University where these kids come from Philadelphia PA Baltimore Maryland Alaska Hawaii you name it we're bringing young men from all over the country with a great deal of experience to this campus and this University and this community and and I think it's going to have an immediate impact on our performance on the football field uh and speaking of performance got to make sure I give a shout out to Coach Alfred and his boys from last night that that was a huge win in Logan uh I know how hard it is to win there and I also want to make sure we encourage everybody to get out on Friday night we got another big one here with San Diego State coming to town and hopefully we can pack Lawler and support the men uh coolest things about this class I think when you talk about how do you build a program it starts up front 17 of the 31 signes are either interior offensive and defensive linemen or Edge players at tight end or D end and so fully a little bit more than half of the guys that we brought in were brought in to help us kind of build up our front and I know and I believe that's where it starts and that investment I think is going to pay off in the short run and in the long run um you look at the other positions that we kind of added in we took five defensive backs we added length and speed and explosiveness in the back end we took three running backs we're going to run the ball but we also are going to be able to to utilize our threat as a running team to create explosive plays in the pass game so three running backs with a variety Experience One Junior College one high school and and a veteran college player and P Pat Garo uh I think add a lot of depth and explosiveness to our offense immediately um and I think that's kind of the Hallmark of what we did and so I want to shift gears and I want to talk individually about kind of the guys that we should be celebrating the most today which are the six SES uh that actually put their pin to paper today starting off with Nehemiah Burleson uh young man who's got an interesting skill set I think his best days as a football player ahead of him obviously the Burleson name is uh is is no stranger to this place uh dad Nate and Mama um at Toya tremendous athletes but little big brother Nate is here as well and so we're excited about what what coach Smith can do with this kid I mean he's 6 foot three plus 220 lbs he's got some exp explosive first step and I think he's really just a nice piece of clay that we can kind of mold into a really good player down the down the stretch for us then there were three High School interior defensive linemen uh David Payne Jr from North fory High School really competitive program in the 6A uh classification in the state of Texas this guy was uh 62 and a half long long arms and 290 Pounds out of high school and very lean up top so he's got a powerful lower half I think he's a guy because of his mass and size can give us reps right away which is something that we're going to need on the interior of our defensive line uh another young man from the state of Texas uh Jason Douglas Jr guy that was on Toto's two-time state championship team in fact in 2022 he was the state MVP MVP on the defensive side of the ball in that St in that championship game tremendous football player from a big- Time football program I think a little bit of lack of size in terms of the big-time uh schools recruiting him but he's going to be a guy that in the Mountain West Conference can have an impact and and do it quickly and then uh Zaden Wallace from uh from Campbell High School in honol is I I don't know where you're going to find guys like this I mean I feel I'm like pinching myself that this guy fell in our lap I think uh I was telling Chris earlier that uh um coach sadot ended up getting stranded on the desert island out there for about six days because there was some problems with Alaska Airlines flights and at least he got us one guy off the rock so that was good um so we're extremely excited about Zaden uh another offensive lineman you can see the theme here as we went down the stretch in this recruiting cycle young man by the name of Henry sers uh from Callis Bell Montana played at Glacier High School very familiar with that part of the world as his coach Armstrong or offensive line coach this is a guy that was a longtime commit to NDSU who's got a tremendous history of uh of developing big-time offensive lineman he's a 66 guy who's going to be close to 300 pounds when he walks in the door he's going to be a developmental offensive lineman but he's got a tackle body and that's hard to find and so we're really excited about what he can do for us in the future and then Dominic ball a running back from Palatine High School in the Chicago area a young man that uh that coach Lynch was recruiting all the way along he was actually committed to to tane forever and then there was a coaching change at tan coach Lynch happened to say hey what what can we do here can we get a trip out of you he and his family came out really fell in love with Reno um I encourage you to watch his highlight it's pretty entertaining and uh so it should be should be an exciting group there super excited about that crew and uh like as I said I mean more than anything just really proud of the work that we did as a staff to get this thing slammed together in the time that we did and I felt like we met needs in just about every single category we signed a position at least one guy at every position including on the Special Teams and I think that was uh that's going to be an immediate impact on our program we have 109 kids in the program right now 23 midye when we get to Spring ball we're going to be able to accelerate this really quickly and that was the goal uh build this thing up front add value depth and speed and uh and then let's let's launch and so that's what we're trying to get done here so with that being said I'd love to to take any questions you might have just with the transfer rep portal on immediate eligibility being a relatively new thing in college football how did that help you get this roster in a better position than if that had not been an option yeah it's a slower burn you know I went through a very similar situation at Montana State eight years ago where this was not possible so it was building it more with what was the common way to do it then was bounce Downs guys that would lose lost an elig A year of Eligibility if they wanted to play at the same level so they'd be coming down from a power five to the FCS so they could pay play immediately and more high school players and so you see that kind of being the trend right now when you're especially at a G5 school where you've got access and knowledge of a lot of guys at the power five level I think that's an advantage for me and our staff in that we kind of had our tentacles out a lot o over the entire country uh and uh that really allowed us to to tap into guys from West Virginia or or you know uh Boston College those types of places that would normally not be on the map for us but those kids are available in the portal and we have relationships with them and that helped to accelerate them getting here buy an end to what we were trying to do and and believe it in the launch and I there's no doubt we're going to be a way more competitive outfit just based on the talent that we brought in here it seemed like you guys are pretty successful in terms of official visits turning into commitments why do you think that was why do you think when people came onto this campus they wanted to be a part of this yeah I think you got to know who you are and I think that we did a really good job of selling the people and the place I'd say the most powerful thing that we have on on this campus is our internal campus like this is a beautiful campus I was struck by that when I got here very very impressed with that quite honestly we don't have all the bells and whistles on the athletic side in the football facility that a lot of places do so we leaned on hey let's talk about campus let's talk about the community of Reno and let's talk about the coaches that are here and I think from a football standpoint it was pretty simple these guys were looking for opportunity they were looking for development they were looking for relationships and they were trying to find their fit and those things I think kept coming home that there's an opportunity here because of where we're at in the program right now you guys can come in have an opportunity to compete right away I think the development that's what I have a history of doing as a coach and we've got really exceptional coaches for The Mountain West here and and I've said this and I'll challenge anybody out I'll stack these guys resume against anybody in this league and the fact that they were able to they we got them here with some of the challenges that we have fiscally I think speaks about their belief in our vision for this place and then the the relationship part it's got to be authentic and I think more than ever now kids really struggle with coaches that are trying to sell them a product there's got to be honest direct open conversation not a lot of fluff this is who we are this is how we're going to do it get behind me let's roll and I think that resonated with all the kids that came on campus as well as their families and I think the fit piece was there too because they're looking for the same thing that we are a restart that hit that launch um I talk a lot about with these guys that you know if you're your time on playing football in college is a football field and that's out in front of you or I'm sorry is your life that's your life that football field is your life your time playing college football is a three- yard run that's all you have and some of these guys they got one yard left and they want to make sure it's a really good opportunity and I think that you know they can feel the juice and the energy and the momentum that we have here and I think so can the rest of the Mountain West Conference given the numbers you cited it seems like the offensive and defensive lines were huge priorities I guess why was that maybe the primary focus in this group of recruits you guys were trying to put together it's always going to be our Focus um that's the I I just believe that you know like if if you are if you can get old and stay old on the offensive and defensive lines you're going to be a really really good football team um I think the offensive line for a long time here at the University of Nevada when Nevada was really really good they set the culture in the locker room and so you've got to invest in that position you've got to value that position and you know we've got to stop the run too and so that's how you got you got to build it from the offensive and defensive lines and then you build back from there the better our offensive line is the better our protection is the more the receivers get an opportunity to touch the ball the cleaner the pocket is for the quarterback everything ripples off of that and so um that's that's who we're always going to be we've got to be a line of scrimmage outfit and I think that'll help us and then um you know recruiting players from 19 different states but you do have one from Reno Nevada Tyler Miller uh how important is it to make sure that you're still representing uh Reno in general yeah well thank you for the question I think that was probably the hardest thing that happened to us in this recruiting cycle was there really wasn't a lot left in Northern Nevada we had engaged with a couple of kids uh when the coaching change occurred there was some time there was some some opportunities for kids to go other places and they chose to do that and I really appreciate Tyler kind of sticking with us um obviously he was announced in the in in the December signing period but that's going to be a focus for us I mean one of the things that we're going to do is we're going to get a team Camp back together here here at the University of Nevada and we're going to be able to evaluate these Northern Nevada players um in a Hands-On atmosphere instead of going all over the place to satellite camps let's get them here and I know that was something that we did when I was at Montana State and it made a huge difference in our being able to get a really true evaluation of these kids and get a coach them one-on-one and build those relationships with the High School coaches which are going to allow us to own Northern Nevada and that's what we got to do and I'd go as far as to say this is that even as you kind of push east and west and North that the geographic borders of the state of Na Nevada can't be just that's not our footprint our footprint needs to be Southern Idaho we need to go plant a flag in boisee our footprint obviously needs to be in Las Vegas we need to be in Salt Lake and obviously Northern California Sacramento and Bay are has always been a great place I was when I was a boisey state I always felt like Nevada had the biggest advantage in the big in the in the Mountain West or at the time the whack and that was because they could just reach over the border and grab those great players from Northern California and so we've got to find a way to get that Advantage back but it starts in our own back backyard coach with guys like Jason Douglas that come from like Elite high school programs as you mentioned before you know back-to-back state titles at dotto um does that help you at all when you have a guy who is so used to winning and what it takes to do it coming in yeah winners win uh I know that was always one of the things that we looked for um like for example if everything was equal you're you're evaluating a kid and you're kind of you're kind of just grasping at straws to separate they're about the same size they're about the same you know wait all the measurables match up all the intangibles match up well does it come from a winner or not because that matters you know that culture of winning is Eng grading in them and he's going to come in here and he's not going to know anything but winning and there's going to be guys in the locker room that have struggled with that obviously over the last couple years and so to have that mindset of no man we're not backing down from anybody this is just how we operate I think that's important and uh I do think that that's one of the boxes that I like to check in recruiting does he come from a winning program or not when when it comes to sales pitch with transfer guys versus straight up high school guys um is there much of a difference or what are some of the similarities and differences in terms of message with those two different types of guys yeah I think it is different and I think there's some things that we've got to do as coaches in college football to try to modify not not blend the two recruiting periods if that makes sense I think that um the overarching me message of hey you you know we're providing you an opportunity that opportunity for the for the transfer they looking for the immediate opportunity the high school kids looking for an opportunity to come into a program and compete and develop over time perhaps right because we're not recruiting those four and five star guys here like we did at Texas that want to play right now they recognize hey probably better for me to go to a place utilize my red shirt gain some weight get acclimated to college life Etc so the opportunity is the same right one's get one has to be right now one maybe is a little bit more down the road right the development is different what does your strength and conditioning program look like what does your new nurition program look like that's important to the veteran guy but probably more important to the high school guy the academic piece because they're only going to be here for a year or maybe they're looking to get a grad certificate that's a very small piece of it for the transfer right that's a much bigger piece for the high school kids so it's all the same stuff it's just how to prioritize it based on where they're at in their career when it comes to the transfer portal and you obviously hit it pretty hard this time around and it reminds me of what Texas state did and how they flipped the script real quick in just year one under Kenny um do you think that kind of jettison and uh getting to bowl eligibility in year number one is a realistic goal I wouldn't be here if I didn't what level of importance do you put on the first class in terms of setting the tone and giving kids kind of hope for the future I think it's I think it's really important from the standpoint of the buyin of the players right so like there's a group of you know I explained this to our guys there's going to be naturally there's going to going to be camps in the locker room right there's going to be hey this guy's a choke guy and these guys were here with the previous regime right and what's got to happen is you've got to select the the kids correctly so that they are willing to cross those build those bridges and that's what we're in the process of doing right now is becoming one team and I think that's a if there's one thing that resonated with me when I spoke with each one of these kids back in December was that un being unified is an important priority for me to to bring forward with this team because that's going be an and so I think those the the the guys that are coming into the program being willing to adapt to our culture and the guys that that were in the program under the previous regime being willing to accept these new guys is going to kind of be a big predictor of our success the quarterback position was something that this team didn't get a whole lot of out out of last year what level of importance do you have in terms of bringing in uh chubba and what can he bring to the table especially with the name given the Super Bowl and his brother this week yeah I think you know guy that a lot of people are overlooking is the first one we signed Anthony griggsby threw for 3500 yards and was a big-time winner at College of San Mato and so I think that there's in my opinion there's two guys in the program that have played football here at Nevada who are going to have every opportunity to compete and win that job and then there's two guys that are coming in that are going to have the same opportunity right and I'm gonna be CED with you their last name will not have any bearing on my decision as to who the starter is it's going to be about their production and it's going to be about how they assimilate into our culture and how hard they work and I know chubo wouldn't want it any other way and neither would be Lou or AJ or Griggs or any of those other guys and so uh I think that's one of the things why why why kids are going to come play for me it's not going to be about politics and I'm gonna add value to their life outside of football but the best guys are going to play and and it's not going to be based on who your dad is or what your last name is it's what you do and that's what I believe about life in general and certainly what I believe about leading a football program well the philosophy of getting kids from a bunch of different areas just how special is it to have that opportunity where you're not just focused on one re one region and you kind of get what you get if you only tap into that one area well I think it's really cool for the guys in our program when I when I looked at that map and I was like holy cow we've got three kids from Philadelphia Pennsylvania two from Chicago a kid from Baltimore these kids from the Southeast Alaska Hawaii like one of the coolest stories that we haven't even talked about is this jaay Henry character right this guy was from from Fairbanks Alaska went to Dartmouth he's getting an engineering degree from Dartmouth but he's a 64 270lb tight end we signed book in 64 270 lb tight ends we may as well be playing with nine offensive linemen out there sometimes right and so like that's I think there's some cool stories but there's some cool perspective how awesome is it that these guys can sit down at a meal and talk to a kid who's got an engineering degree from Dartmouth and then you've got another kid over here who's just a freshman in high school or coming out of high school from from you know Honolulu and to have those guys sit down and share their perspective perspective on the world right which is coming to college is about stretching and growing and getting out of your comfort zone and so I'm really proud of some of these kids for being willing to do that uh but I'm excited for them and for our University I mean the the perspectives that kids from Philadelphia or Chicago are going to have that are different than kids from Vegas Areno I think that really adds value to our University as a whole do you envision that kind of being a template for the future or there was that kind of specific to all these coaches coming from different areas and you're going to have more I guess set geographical regions you'll be targeting I I think that it depends right so like oftentimes there's traction that's created right there's a domino effect you get a kid from a certain region and then pretty soon they've got family they've got friends their families have connections and you start to kind of develop maybe a little bit of a mini Pipeline and that might come from Chicago it might come from Philly and I hope it kind of does um but I don't know that there's a guarantee of that I think we've got to kind of stick to what has worked historically here I think because I think every place has got a blueprint if you just pay attention that's what works here um and I think if you stray too far from it sometimes things start to break down but things are very different now too right I mean um the portal is has kind of opened up this Pandora's box of you know take them from wherever you know give us your huddled masses and let's just kind of throw it all in here it's a big social experiment I it's like it's like the it's like a cocktail man we're just throwing all this stuff in there shaking it up and seeing if it works right uh but I'd like to say that I have a little bit better plan as to how I'm going to make it work than that this probably will be easier to answer after spring camp but is there still like positions on the roster where you feel like there are still big needs that that need to be filled before you guys hit the field yeah I think just from a number strip standpoint we probably need a couple more wide receivers just in terms of you know when you build a roster with an 85 you're going to have your real and ideal numbers in terms of where the scholarships fit and right now we're just a little bit below where our ideal numbers would be at that position and so I would anticipate that being a position of need not just be not because we have guys that we don't feel good about I actually feel like it's one of the more talented positions on our roster right now uh but just so that we have our numbers right and then there's going to be others too Chris yeah what's kind of been the reaction of the current players uh on the roster as you try and build this thing up and get them competition how involved I guess were they in recruiting as you brought guys on to campus I don't know Erin we should probably have these guys ask them at some point I mean I think they're going to give me one answer right um I can tell you what I think I I don't want to speak for our our young men and our players but I I think that they feel like this guy's got a plan he knows what he's doing and let's give him a chance that would be my gut um we've had no issues um these kids have been really really good so far and and let me say this I think by and large we had good kids here that wasn't the problem it wasn't like we had a bunch of guys that were going around causing problems in the community and those types of things in fact they were leading the Mountain West Conference in community service hours year after year and so um that's that's not I'm that's been awesome that I haven't had to deal with that but now we got to see how you know how competitive are these guys when it gets hard how are they going to respond and we're trying to build some resilience right now and uh that's that's a big part of the task that we have in front of us besides just building them physically and teaching them new schemes I did want to ask you about planting a flag in Las Vegas you had a tweet out there and Coach Odum and you had a little back and forth do you do you know him very well I guess never met him okay never met him what was your take from that whole uh you know I I kind of like the guy just even though I've never met him you know he and I probably have some things in common uh I suspect personality wise and so you know like I respect guys that do this for a living I want to make that clear like what we do is hard demanding and uh and we we expose ourselves and our families to a lot of different things that most normal people are like I don't think I want to have anything to do with that um and so you know I I have a ton of respect for anybody that does what we're doing in this profession um and but I like to have some fun too and and you know I think the message is yeah hey the the the fan base here especially the football fan base probably not sticking their chest out and wearing their blue down in Vegas right now right um but we got to give them a reason to get excited and I think that you know part of that is confidence you got to have a belief that you can do it before you can do it and I know I can do it I'm just looking forward for the opportunity you know and it may not go our way every Saturday that's the way this game goes but uh but we're not going to we're not going to back down from anybody is there like if I asked you one thing that most excites you about this class what would that be yeah I think the diversity like I think just the there's a you know I I I hope that the people out there can get to know these kids because just like their stories are so unique from where they come from different places I mean uh first generation kids whose parents are from West Africa that you know 13 people living in an apartment on the upper west side of Philly like these kind of cool stories that you don't really get to know about and so and for me one of the things I do like about recruiting that maybe a lot of people wouldn't think it's just the opportunity to engage with a lot of interesting people and from different places and so I I love this diversity that we have that's kind of going to make us very unique I think you kind of emphasized that a locker room is a very key point to building a team how would you describe the culture that you want in your locker room in like one word I have three three words unified competitive tough that's what we're trying to create a really tight team that hates to lose and when things get difficult they're going to respond the right way Andre you guys any more question uh the label of renovation obviously it's a little bit of a word play there but what was the inspiration there and kind of what does that mean to you well we bought a new house house and we're renovating it and my wife wants to have a little mini show called Reno and Reno and then I was like well what about this and uh so anyway we I'm sure it's not the first time it's been used but I thought it applied to the particular situation that we were in you know it's not not this idea of the rebuild right like i' I've made it clear I think that I don't want to talk about a rebuild I want to talk about this launch and that's just another way to kind of say the same thing like you know hey we're tying it to us here in Reno making it specific to us and uh and you know we just got some new appliances right and and we we got a few groceries to put in those appliances so that's good that's a good start on the renovation but that was kind of the idea behind it thank you Chris good all right coach everyone thank you very much awesome go pack