WMU Football Media Availability | Kenny Womack, Addison West & Walt Bell | 8.6.24

look any uh first day in full pad second week of Camp um you know how have you felt things are going uh I think things things are going uh extremely well for the first two weeks um I think we're building something special uh offensively defensively and a special team so I think things are really coming together um in the first two weeks of practice uh new offensive coordinator for you with Coach Bell um what about his offense uh do you think will lead to the success for the offense this year um was was going lead us to the success is our Run game and our pass game I think in the pass game we're very explosive in our Run game you know we got veteran line so like we have a plethora of running backs that's going to be able to get it done this year and then you know being able to ball fake that and throw it over uh defenses heads is going to be a big thing this year too in Our receiver room we got a lot of explosive players including myself and you know it's going to look completely different than last year it's going to be a lot of more explosive one uh one thing you'll have going into this year is you know you'll know who the starting quarterback is with with h or um Hayden wolf and what uh what about his game and what about your game worked so well that led to so many receptions and yards last season I think we both played a lot of games over our career um I was at the FCS level he was at FBS at OD and I was at saart but for the most part we played a lot of games um he's a Poise quarterback you know he has tons of experience whether he played or not so he learn he knows the game he's been through a whole bunch of different offensive coordinators and I had about three so far in my career but like I it it it connects because we played a lot of games games I'm very poised I'm very detailed in what I do and so is he so I mean it it it just trickles down from him to our receiver group too as well so like it's just going to going to be a lot more receptions all throughout the you know the receiver room but you know that's how me and him connect very well uh too so with the today being the first day in full pads and then you get the scrimmage on Saturday how do you keep the excitement tempered because you know The Season's only a couple weeks away yeah no it's very exciting on being able to you know get some get some hitting on for the most part and um you know we just find out where we're at offensively and defensively how physical we are and in a special teams game so I mean is it's really exciting being able to put full pads on getting after it for everybody handful of new faces in the receiver room as well be they transfers or or freshman um you know what have the new guys added uh to to what is a good core of wide receivers on this team they added a lot of speed um experience for the most part um I know Jordan Parker came from another FBS uh bugs as well K's back so I mean we got a a lot of good depth in the receiver room whether there there's going to be no drop off so Hayden has a lot more targets to work with um downfield throws we have a lot of more downfield throws as you probably saw in practice you know we're we're we're we're pretty connected from receiver group to the quarterbacks and everything but you know there a lot more explosiveness coming out of the receiver room all right thanks Kenny yep thank you Addison the offensive line is kind of the only group that really didn't lose much um from the off season uh what is the depth on that that unit like and and how excited are you to to get things going here in a couple weeks uh I'm really excited I mean we got a lot of guys returning all five guys who all play last year uh we turned some really key guys for our backups who will get great minutes in but we got grape death with our freshman coming in and guys who were red shirted last year that are big up for us you know you've been a guy that's started the last couple of Seasons um but you see a guy like John hoer who worked himself in quite a bit last year what is that experience for him uh GNA do for this season for him I mean Johnny Johnny improves every single day I mean he's the guy who comes in great energy every day and he just pushes he pushes our older guys sometimes we're sore we're tired but John always comes out yelling and screaming and he's he's excited to play the game he loves the game and he helps the Freshman all the time he was a real leader of the game he's going to be he's definitely going to be a coach when he gets older he's a great guy I mean I love playing playing with Johnny second year under coach Mendelson how has he helped your game improve over these past two years I mean he's a great coach I mean everything he does he's not a he's not a big Yeller he's a really great enforcer I mean he tells us what to do how to do it but also he treats us like adults we we know we're older he treats us like we're older we played a lot of ball and he just helps us on our fine details of trying to get better returning Jaylen Buckley freshman All-America now a do Walker Award watch list candidate um sweet but you added some other talented running backs there behind you you know obviously with kesan King and then and then oldie returning as well uh how excited are you going to be to block for that group it was awesome I mean any any running back that they put out there we'll do our best I mean try to get a thousand yards for maybe multiple backs this year so that's our goal yeah and then uh you know first year under coach Bell um you know what have you seen the the offense doing and de veloping and and and what do you like for it I love Coach B everything everything he preaches about he's literally like one of us I mean he loves the run the football and everything comes off run the ball so passing play action stuff like that so it all starts with us up front those we have dominate the line of scrimmage to set up everything else right thanks Addison thank you all right talking offense with offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Walt Bell uh coach second week of Camp first a at full pads you know what have you liked out there so far uh it's been competitive uh we have a great group of kids they learn well um everything that we're asking them to do they're trying to do to the best of their ability um there's much uh more consistency um than in the spring which is what you'd expect with a group of kids that had a whole spring and a summer um so we're excited about where we are right now but we still have a long way to go added a lot of new pieces even from Spring ball um what have those guys brought to the offense in terms of energy and hard work yeah I mean Jay Nixon will be a huge help in the running back room um you know we you know qu Mr Murphy uh offensive lineman from Notre Dame again another big interior body that's probably fible enough to play tackle at times you know and so we're excited about those two guys and think that they will definitely contribute force in the fall when you took this job and you saw that offensive line and who was returning how excited were you to see it's such a veteran group and and you know they're ready to go yeah I mean if you're good up front you have a chance to be good you know cuz if you can run the ball you can stop the run block kicks and cover kicks you have a chance to be a good football team and uh knowing that we have a veteran group that's played a bunch of snaps you know we've got five or six old linemen that have played a lot of football um that's huge for us and so we're really excited about that group you know we got to stay healthy um but we have to do the things required uh to be a good run football team when it counts in addition to the offensive line what are some of the strengths that you've seen develop uh through camp for this offense yeah I think we have a really good group of tight ends um we've got three or four guys you know really honestly five that are kind of competing right now for reps um we've got you know good multi-purpose Tools in that group guys and kind of play detach and flex guys that are more in line guys that are off the ball so we've got a good mixed group there um we're veteran we're smart um we've got a lot of game experience at receiver as well and then we've got a pretty de running back room so um excited about the skill pieces you know to the perimeter of the o line and again but we still got a lot of work work to do and and prepare as hard as we can to get ready for a season uh Hayden wolf I think you're his seventh or eighth offensive coordinator in in his career um his ability to adapt to that what does that speak in terms of maturity and and preparation into the kind of guy for him he's he's been around so much football he's been exposed to so much offense you know there comes a realization in your career where football is football four vertical is four vertical inside zone is inside Zone the majority of the concepts in football everybody else does you know and so I think for him it just gives him a big knowledge base to compare and contrast and and pull from um but he's an unbelievable preparer he works really really hard he's so diligent um and so excited about where he is mentally and where he'll go from here him and and Kenny wack had a huge uh bit of chemistry last year have you seen that from then in the in the spring and now uh heading into yeah absolutely you know and again we we've got a veteran group of receiver you know you've got Kenny you know you've got Sami you know Malik dadon is doing a great job right now you know bugs Mortimer you know we've got a pretty good Jordan Parker Kavon Mack you know the those six guys are a really good nucleus for us right now and so we're excited about that group uh but you know Kenny's played so much Ball s bui's played so much ball and so we've got a good mix of veterans and guys that have played but are excited to play more football all right thanks coach all right thank you brother appreciate it