Stanford head coach Troy Taylor talks the opening of spring practice

first of all first uh first official Spring ball practice is officially in the books what are your uh your takeaways from day number one yeah good to be back out um our guys have been training really hard in the weight room and running and working on their skills throwing the ball working on all their individual skills and they came out with great energy um and you know obviously it was a was a shorter practice with just helmets but they did a great job just in general how does it feel have a year under your belt as head coach here and just what's it like kind of starting your second wave of Spring ball here versus much more comfortable in terms of you know understanding the university how things work and just knowing where you're going uh knowing people and uh feeling more comfortable and then you know last year at this time kind of learning still learning everybody's names and players included um and really getting a good feel for our guys it's uh it's much more enjoyable and more much more productive uh it's obviously been uh you know just one been practice but you know early on what is maybe uh the biggest differen between between this year's team so far and and last year team well hard to tell you know we're just in helmets but uh you know our guys trained really hard they're in great shape um and they're bigger and have gained a ton of of muscle mass and speed and acceleration all those things so we'll see how it converts onto the football field in terms of execution and and playing well the guys were a little nervous got a lot of young guys they were getting their kind of first reps going against each other um but I think they they did a pretty good job yeah I got quite a few early en R leaves this time around could you share a bit about that group how they're yeah getting them here early you know six is the most Stanford ever had um all really good players and uh getting them acclimated to the university taking classes and then they're really talented too so these 15 practices they'll grow a ton just from kind of being a Freshman is trying to learn the system to gain us some confidence and and showing us uh what they can do because we're we're going to expect them you know all to compete for playing time coach you always talk about how every position is an open competition so what do you look for in these first early spring practices to see guys kind of start to separate if at all at this yeah well it's you know you don't uh rush to judgment on on the first day um you know it's just a collection of their work through practice one two and three and um hopefully you see that they progress that they're getting better um that they're not making the same mistakes twice and uh hopefully you see guys emerge hopefully it's a lot of guys that emerge and then that uh kind of takes you into to Summer and then fall camp for that offensive line unit just how huge is it to have Levi back yeah it's big um Levi is you know being our Center last year a really good leader with the most experience that we had on the offensive line to have them come back is is huge and uh Conor mcclaflin who played a lot for us back as well up front on that on the line and uh some other pieces that we're we're excited about how would you describe the status of the quarterback competition and what do Elijah's entrance do to that as well yeah so um you know competition's open at at every position everyone knows that not just quarterback but kicker o line dline everything um uh first day you know watch the tape and see what happens but uh I thought Elijah did a good job today um I I thought all the quarterbacks were pretty much in control now after I get a chance to watch it um I'll have a a more in-depth feel for it but really excited about competition is what you want at every position um and so um that one's no different we want to have as many uh outstanding quarterbacks as we possibly can and let them compete and they'll bring out the best in each other yeah so um regarding the quarterback battle is everybody getting an even number of reps right now today they all got an even amount of reps yeah just kind of thoughts in the running back room how that's looking uh with Casey and EJ gone yeah that seems like a wide open group just kind of what he see from that group so far got some some young guys that uh that are that are talented and and hungry and getting a great you know some of the guys that didn't get as much reps last year um that were young are getting an opportunity to really be immersed in it and show what they can do so um obviously we're excited about our young players and we're going to be young this year but uh it'll be fun to to watch him grow and improve um for the quarterbacks I mean what's it like to have you know guys like tiger and that look at their disposal I mean I know that's got to be you know quarterback's best friend absolutely I think anytime you you've got a little bit experience at a certain position certainly for quarterbacks wide receiver is a big one but uh I think the guys just knowing the offense better this year is better for everyone they're a little bit more confident um in what they're doing obviously the players that just got here are still learned it but uh I think in general there's there's a higher level of confidence anything kind of in general saying out about the defensive side what you're focused on this spring yeah um you know we we want to do a great job on third down stopping the Run uh those things will will never change obviously eliminating big plays but it's a first you know first day um I thought they did a good job for guys that you know learning a some of them just got here and learning a new system um and we pretty challenging offensively I thought the defense did a great job in the alignment and execution one guy who was out towards last year Jimmy wrick just kind of what's his status and where's he at right now yeah he's uh he's healthy and and doing a great job um he's a guy that we uh you know missed last year with a kind of hamper with an injury but uh he's back and he looks good and we're excited to have him out there we got 10 for one more just to kind of going look ahead the rest of this week just kind of what are the kind of key things you want to see from your group at the end of you know Saturday or whatever in the week so we'll go helmets again on on Wednesday and then we'll start to go pads and um you're looking for improvement consistency and you're also there's the competition element where you're seeing who's emerging again you don't want to rush to judgment too early it's a you know over a 15 practice deal um how it starts off and How It Ends sometimes can change but we do know we need depth that's something we're we're working on every single year I think our death would be better this year um and hopefully it improves we're going to be a number of guys to step forward great thank you coach thank