Rich Rodriguez previews South Carolina vs. Jacksonville State

yeah it's a it's different now for us I mean after our reality show five we rally show is over and now it's a a normal Saturday um not normal when you're playing an SEC team on the road but at the same time it's a great opportunity you know there's uh obviously some big challenges in front of us on for Saturday but playing a early kickoff noon kickoff for us for me I'm excited about that get up and play and I think our guys would be excited too I mean if you pulled most of our players they'd like gez yeah I love playing SEC team or playing against the best to measure themselves and that's what they get a chance to do this weekend their record is not great but are they Talent yeah mean it's it's the most talented team we' we've played since I've been here and I don't think it's even close on both sides of the boled so I mean they've lost I mean they're up 143 on the defending national champions in Georgia everybody knows how good they are they lost a close one to Florida they lost a couple other close ones so they're I mean they're better than a record uh but I mean our guys know the challenge I mean our you know the one thing about our team a handful of seniors we got a bunch of Juniors they're they're a pretty mature group and but they also I think understand watch the film okay this dude can run this guy can throw how big they are up front the biggest thing for us is we got to control we control and we can play better than what we have been but we got to you know we got to continue to play hard and uh not worried about the scoreboard don't look up there until the end of the fourth quarter see what happens Jabari Mack how's he doing yeah he yeah Jamari had surgery this morning uh surgery went well from what we understand he'll be out for the remainder of the season and he was playing great so um we'll have a couple other Corners I have to step up and be ready to go and um am I right in thinking Derek got nicked up in the last game yeah he'll be fine Derek be fine you play some really good quarterback obviously some household guys spencery this week is there any similarities between him and some of other guys big with Spencers he seem like he's been there forever I mean he's he's a talented guy but he's also been in their system for for several years now and I think he's playing really good football he's he's a competitive guy and he'd be fun to watch if you weren't playing him but I think he's you know I I I I think he's a NFL guy and you know we've got to do the biggest thing for us defensively probably is to try to get them into some predictable situations third and long I every every every team you play that if you can get them in third long and then you can do some some of your stuff defensively and and uh you know our our defenses were not very big but we're pretty athletic and so when we get our get get them into some third and long stuff our athleticism can can help out a little bit there so but that's that you know easier said than uh but but Spencer is U I've kind of followed God his career I mean come from Arizona which I knew where where high school he went to kind of followed him his whole career and he's had a great career really has yeah Ronnie came out of it good which is good because Ronnie's probably you know he's not probably he's one of our fastest guys and you know he was itching to get back here and uh he gives us you know another dimension when he's when he's playing run we play a lot of running backs but Ronnie's probably our fastest with Ron and Malik and PJ like is it almost like this is the offense you'd kind of envisioned throughout the offseason finally having everybody kind of yeah PJ was one you know we we knew there was a big that was a loss there but KC was probably you know our I don't want to say our biggest I mean sizewise our biggest threat and a guy not only that he's one of the best stock block blocking wide receivers that that we've had you know I've had in a long time I me he really takes a lot of pride in being a great perimeter blocker which we ask those guys that do quite a bit so having PJ back is good um you know Ronnie back and you know getting Malik healthy again you know I think he's he should be good to go and anoir we'll kind of roll them in there all those guys we'll play a lot more skilled guys and we didn't we didn't rotate and was probably we probably should have tried to rotate more guys in earlier in the year but we're going to do it now but is that I'm just I'm just wondering is that was there some level of those first couple weeks going man if we can just get all these guys out there yeah part of it you know you we were uh and I was the concern I had was we go those five straight games in midweek and you have time to get anybody healthy and we you know a normal schedule you would have probably got some guys back but you know we shortened some practices down uh you know we didn't get you was a couple weeks we didn't get guys banged up as much but I think everybody's gone through that I know South Carolina's gone through that they're probably healthier this week than they've been in the last couple weeks with some of their injuries but you know that's going to be part of the game and uh you know we're you our true by we isn't until next week and so uh it'll come at a good time for us because I'm I'm sure we'll we'll be able to use a couple extra days uh after this game what's your connection yeah I know Frank first because we uh compete against each other when he's at Virginia Tech and I was at West Virginia and then we were on various you know trips together Nike trips and stuff like that so I've known Shane and then um we had when we had a place in Georgia they did too so we actually Shane and I played golf together and just think the world of him as a person as a coach you know uh who he is what his family is all about I think he's just phenomenal so he's he's uh you know they've had a couple tough games this year like I said but that's he's done a lot of great things there and and he'll be a a successful head coach for a long time it's in his DNA you know but it's also who he is I mean he didn't he didn't get the South Carolina job because his last name was Beamer he got the South Carolina job because he earned it and he earned a lot of it he earned it the way he recruited and the way he coached there you know 10 or 12 years ago he did a great job for for Coach sper there so he's earned all his success when it comes to working on stuff like signals and disguising those is that something that coaches mainly do before the season gets started do you do you adjust those at yeah you do you you got to have multiple signal guys I think and you got to be able to uh have various ways okay if they know your terminology you got to change things up a little bit you can get in huddles you can get in Sugar huddles I mean we don't huddle too much because I always said you know who wants to watch a bunch of fat guys hold hands in a huddle right so had to have to just call the play and run it you know but our our our Tempo goes fast enough that we you know there have been a couple times where guys said I think they know what this means or they know what this signal is and you got to have an answer to that obviously in game it's sort of fair game to try to try to figure that stuff out how I don't know how much energy do different teams kind of put into trying to figure out that stuff in the middle of yeah I don't I guess if they're if they're uh if they got away to get TV cop I mean everybody can get TV copies and watch it and try to decipher some things um but I I don't know how to to what death because you you know you never know for sure it's like I don't know you're talking about the Michigan thing like what was a TCU game or something if they know if you know that they know what you know you can use that against them you know what I mean like oh every time you say this or every time you signal this they're going to yell P when really okay they know that so we're going to make that same call and do a run you know I mean you could kind of trick it up a little bit that way uh too the biggest thing for us because of our Tempo you know we put everything in faster you know we you know our some of the words that we're using now are different than the words we used last year and then some of the signals we go in now are signaling are signaled so fast that they don't have time to to decipher and all that but I do think it's silly that we don't use the helmet communication I guess they're going to use it in bowl games this year some people have used experimentally and and uh in the past but I mean that's a simple thing I think they should put it in all every player's helmet not just a quarterback or a linebacker you know have the technology it's just a little thing put it in there and coaches can communicate uh you all the way all the way uh through and you don't have to worry about cutting it off at 10 seconds or nothing like that so you know it seems like that's there's an easy solution to that that we all you're spend enough money on all this other stuff it doesn't seem like that would be a reason why their hel what's that all the guys their helmet yeah there I mean there's uh there's answers to that Sol that problem I guess I guess my is that even you kind of alluded to it but just with how fast youall go would it would that even be a concern if if an opponent I don't know like y'all run plays so fast seems like it'd be hard for an opponent to figure out what the watch the signal and then change what they're going to do right you know some people will change Personnel all they're running they're running the ball so they're going to put in a heavier Personnel Group or something like that if you're if you're a Tempo team you know you can't really do that so uh we're still I mean until they I don't know why they can change but I mean we're always going to be a Tempo team that's part of our DNA who we are and I'd like to go I think I don't know we might be first in the country right now and plays somebody said we were First Tennessee was second but I I want to be first by a wide margin you know I don't I don't want to to be even close but that being said you also as a head coach got a bandage the clock if I tell our guys if we're ahead by two scores in the fourth quarter now of a sudden we're going to milk it we're going to start you know eating that clock up but up until that point uh we're not always going to go as fast as we can but the plan is to go as fast as we can we try to do that Saturday yeah that's who we are we're going we're going to try to do it and everybody knows it now it's not where not hiding it I mean they look at the stats I look at the film and so we're going to the key is though it's not just you still got to be able to execute you know what I mean so you can you don't want to trick yourself you don't want to put yourself where you're you're going fast and so fast that you're cutting down on your ability to execute my my goal would be able to go as fast as we can execute as well as we can and so finding the balance between that is what we're constantly trying to do as our guys grow up in the system and I know that's a hard thing nowadays with transfer portals and all this stuff as guys grow up in our system you one you'll be able to play faster and execute better not just on offense but on defense you know the guys on defense you know they'll you know longer than their system they'll anticipate what check coach Alli wants to go to or what defense we want to go to if they're in this look and so as they grow up in the system you know they'll be able to anticipate defensively what calls going to be made and on offense what calls going to be made and that's that's the part that the first couple years in it you know uh especially now with our roster and way we're doing our roster you know that that's the hardest as they grow up in their system which is a new term now in college football how many guys can grow up in the system that's what you want they've had a lot of different offensive line combinations uh does that make it tough to sort of to scout that group for y'all or n hell they're going to be five of them you know so and all five of them going to be SEC recruiting you know what I mean and the five backups will be SEC recruited guys and the five backups behind those backups will be SEC recruited guys so I mean every offensive lineman on their roster would probably been guys we offered you know I mean so you know and I think it's the same way you all you couldn't if you looked at they Ro they're line up now and they're line up two weeks ago and six weeks ago to me they all look the same uh so they they they're going to have they're going to have same way on defense line they're going to have some guys I think the hardest thing is not so much for us look at them is that do they change their have they changed their offense at all based on who's in there uh whether it's on the o line or to skill positions and and you you know most teams don't they're going to run what they run irregardless of only thing that will possibly change is if he had a different quarterback you know and had a different skill set you might change what you do offensively but uh Spencer's been there the whole year so uh what they do is what they do any in a game like this any big pitcher coaching changes you make or do you just kind of do every you know do the same thing you've done that's gotten you here yeah I think you know for us I mean it's I I was mentioning it earlier to the folks who are doing the game on TV is that you know we've played uh well at times and but we haven't had one game we've played well in all three phases for all four quarters and you know the opponent has something to do with that but we can play we can play better now the thing our guys have done is that we've never panicked whether behind at halftime or the end of game situation our guys always played hard and didn't didn't worry about what just happened and that that's been a nice part you know we've we've won some games at the end because I think we just kept playing hard and the harder you play the luckier you get you know and so our guys have have played hard all the way and believed all the way and then you know we won some games at the end so that's you know part of our success this year has been because our guys didn't worry about the last play they kept playing them next play and that's that's been a big help to us uh you know Jrock got um honored by the conference this week I don't know if you know this but I think if I'm correct y'all have nine nine times y'all got that and I think the next closest team in the conference is at four or five so y'all are significantly at yeah that's a lot more than games they predicted us to win too I mean we were uh we weren't even in the top half when the projections right we made the top half possible that's what I would tell everybody we were I think we were pick next to last well uh we're not going to be that you know so I don't know what the projection is but you know and we don't really talk Jrock can tell you we talk I think maybe in the beginning of August we talked about okay you know it's our first year in the conference you know our goal would be to to compete for the conference Championship even if we're not allowed to to be B eligible even though you'd have to get you know some situations to happen to go to a bowl and that's it and we didn't talk about it once the game started we didn't talk about those goals we just talked about who we're playing next and what we got to do to win and so that it's the neat to get to seven wins and and have a chance to be one of the top teams in the conference and have a chance to go to a bowl game and hopefully that'll be out there but our Focus now is playing an SEC team on the road in SEC stadium and and then a couple conference games to end up with but it's been I've really enjoyed coaching the guys and and um the culture I guess that's I know you guys have heard me say that that we thought we established last year has carried through this year and whether it's Jrock or Chris Hardy or whoever else it's you know jrro Harris all the guys we've had that were here big played a big part in last year's season have helped carry that into this year as well and any new guys we've had you know we didn't like we adapted to them they had to if they had to adapt they had to adapt to us and to the culture we have and we expect here and that's unwavering that's not going to change us long as I'm the head coach here and we you know how we practice how we do things the culture that we have is going to be way it is right now is it hard to have culture careing a year when you have nil in the transfer portal oh yeah I can see it all the time I I in my opinion I watch the team man they're you know guys it seems like they got if they put it all together they're going to be pretty good well maybe they don't have the right culture you know um that's but or they have bad luck you know that's some something to do with it too but uh I feel good about where our culture is and I you when Jrock tell you we we coach them hard I don't there's never a time and I'll tell you this I don't mind saying it public there's I told our coaches there's never a time when one of our players loafs or is soft that we don't call them out I'm talking about on Tuesday practice Wednesday practice or Saturday game or game day whatever it is if if we see it and we should see it that's our job as coaches they're loafing on the play whatever you call out no matter who it is and I that's just one part of our culture but that that is unwavering you know if if and I said our job as coaches to make sure we see it every time if a guy loafs or is soft he's called out and I want our players to have the same kind of Pride there's not they see a younger guy or somebody not playing as hard as you should that ain't what we are that's not having a hard Edge that's not earning success those are that if that's if culture is the word that defines that that's that's who we are and that'll that'll always be the case you know our guys here we're going to play SC team um it's going to always be a bigger challenge when you play guys that's going to be bigger stronger faster than you um it's a it's a challenge every week just playing college football because everybody you know have have great players but it's a great challenge for us we going to a SE we playing at SEC stadium so it's going to be fun as a guy from C County grew up around Jacksonville State came here and as an FCS program how does it feel to be able to be a part of that progression and that transition into where the program is now um for me just growing up coming up here every weekend um it has been fun because I seen was at the LW and we was just you know just playing football coming up here we was taking it series but not as serious as we are are now but um it's been fun seeing a growth is uh what what does it mean to be honored by the conferences the defensive player of the week um it's just standards of Jacksonville State we just play hard um and whatever the Awards come with it we just you know we just look at it put it behind us and we got to play the next game you get a little more Juiced no I wish say I would get more juice because like the standard like when we come out and play like it's every week we got to play hard no matter what who it is so if it's ACC ACC anybody we got to come out and play hard because every team going to come out and play hard no matter what so yeah could you I don't know when you decided you wanted to come here could you have imagined playing on these these kind of stages you know I know yall you know you you played at Florida State stuff but like you know these big FPS games on national TV now going to South Carolina like I don't know did you ever imagine anything like this oh yes um I really don't be looking at the teams as like yeah they HC they bigger faster stronger but I mean at of the day we all the same age 18 19y old 20y old kids so like you just got to wake up and play football for me it's just all about playing football until waking up and having fun and going to play the game of football so it really I I don't look at it as like yeah they biggest Team all the time but like I mean of course yeah but n you don't it's it's exciting that's it when you look at film obviously they've had a lot of different guys rotated on offensive line does that change the way you watch the film knowing there's different guys in or no I really don't change it because the same way they was sliding protection in in week one they going to slide the protection the same way the same way the back go the opposite way it's going to be the same no matter who the guy is they can't change their offense for who really on the field they can but the Personnel is still the same because they recruited the same 65 340 lb tackle that's the second screen all the guys goingon to be the same size and it just can they get the job done when you have guys at this SI anything you sort of think about I need to do differently going against guys like this oh No Just follow Coach Alex scheme cuz whatever he scheme up whatever he got for us to do is going to work I mean like but of course I look at some guys like yeah he big he bigger than me but every guy bigger than me so it's just like yeah every move I work is going to be for a guy that's bigger than me that's going to be you know five or six inches or seven maybe sometimes taller than me so it just yeah it come with Coach Al GNA SK up the right way for we'll be just fine do that to your advantage sometimes or every game yeah every game is my advantage cuz they got to come get me I ain't got to go to them so the thing about body is either I can run past him or try to go through him and see can they come down and try to block me but yeah you think you surprise guys sometimes U when you say surprised what you mean like like you think guys look at you and they kind of like a I don't to worry about him week in and week out yeah every week probably um but I mean just I got to play hard no matter what like by size but I mean this been since I was in high school I mean I I played nose guard in high school so like I've been a smaller guy always even no matter why I was playing it so yeah do you are you do you feel like you're playing better the last couple weeks or is it maybe just alli's scheme has kind of been like just worked out where maybe you're going to be a little more productive than you than you were earlier um both um his scheme always been great for me I just ain't this the last two three weeks I have been playing way I've been playing harder mentally and I've been locked in very more than I have the first couple weeks of the Season yeah what's it like playing for Coach um what is like playing for him like cult try say it's a standard like no no matter like who it is what it is it's standing like it's coach Ally you know when coach Ally he all about his business I mean like I come up here like at night time it's like 11 10:00 at night they still in here so when he come when you come in at practice and they get mad you know why they get mad because like while we at home laying down in the bed like they up here like studying film while we at home five or six hours then they be up here at 6 o'clock in the morning so it's just like a standard like they they be up here 24/7 so what's Al like if yall make a mistake um I mean you g to make a mistake so like he he accepted but like if we don't wi over and talked about it so many times like why are you making the same mistake you can't make the same mistake but like if you make a mistake you make a mistake fix it on let it'll be a problem like keep that drifing on like you know I've seen what Richard's like you know he's obviously very animated is would you say Al similar is he more quiet no he more of a quiet coach R TR don't speak his mind no matter what but uh coach Ali like I mean he speak his mind but like he is more of like call you to the side like you know just talk to you but before you get to the sideline with Coach allly you already know you messed up so you know you f to you know get it before you get to the sideline so that's just what it is you move around uh yes sir um all about the scheme with coach Ali and and his and his style feel like is what best for the team so yeah sometimes you see we like everybody move around up front it just it make it easier for us to play everybody you know athletic like coach Tri here we ain't the biggest guys so if we move around it make it easier for us y l up one time last week there was nobody t m come get us basically that's what it is like either you come get us or we just GNA run past you that's what it is that's the scheme I've never seen that yeah yes Co coach Allen like he he literally got the best like he a guru like for real real talk um you'all had different points this year where you've had some younger offensive linemen kind of mix in and help out have you seen those guys improve as as the years's gone on like from maybe where they were before the season started oh definitely um you got BS all those guys when you play against in Fall C you see the improvement from just last year but um even at the guard position I think it's cam Griffin all them guys they they really good especially like coach tricky you got cam I mean you got like Trin Brown like got a GU in those guys like they gonna be good and with Coach trick coaching them up they're gonna be straight on were there some times back before the season where y'all kind of felt like oh you know like you could cuz y'all y'all were more experienced where you felt like could kind of beat them on certain stuff and at some point they started to kind of catch up to yall a little bit uh I mean even at fall C we really don't be going against our offense really like that during um during the season but like I mean it's going to be always be a challenge because they they good they just like you know they go they they gonna be good all the time so yeah it's sometime we win it was 5050 in Fall count so yeah the tempo that they go does that help you on Saturdays and games um definitely it helped um cuz you know like most teams line up gets high in in practice and can got time to breathe a split second but when you going against coach your offense you don't have time to breathe but really like what us not going against them in practice right now um coach Ali he keeps the tempo High down there and walk and Scouts it really is not even it's not a scout here like and then our Scout like I was telling some people last we like our scout team really could be somewhere starting right now like just going against them they they line up and go fast and for them to be learning a whole another team offense in the week they look really good like for real anyone stand out in particular on that Scout team just for how they've been all of them real talk like all of them they play fast they don't pout about being down there they just line up and come play football you know I get to go back home to South Carolina U from sparber South Carolina uh my brother played at South Carolina so uh so honestly I grew up at Williams bre Stadium you know uh always there from about 2005 to like 2008 you know so it's going to be a cool experience for me were there moments when especially when you were younger and and your you know your brother was playing safe to say there were moments when you probably just imagine oh what it would be like to play on that field yeah yeah definitely U I always envision myself being a game cop uh but I end up being a Jacksonville State game cop so um yeah so it's you know like especially like looking at the pictures of me when I was younger like leading up to this season uh seeing my brother like shoulders above me like huge and I'm like five six I always want to be like so um see seeing those pictures and stuff really reminded me like yeah I'm I'm living the dream like I'm I get to play at Williams Bry so it's it's a cool experience have uh have you already heard from like family and and stuff this week yeah yeah I'm over here trying to get extra tickets I'm I don't know y'all I don't know if I can get them extra tickets but um hopefully like a lot of people are coming out uh from high school and like family uh media family some distant relatives coming out uh it's going to be a cool experience for them too any family reach out and say hey we hope you play well but we're rooting for South Carolina um I don't think so I don't think so I think everybody is in my corner on this one when you look at the kind of the lines the whole really off season how would you kind of um kind of assess how you guys have have played throughout the you play some really good defense so how how would you kind of assess your um I feel like our offensive line has been playing really really well um that was like one of the main things that people were worried about how our offensive line was going to adjust um obviously we have uh one of the greatest coaches uh coach tricket so he had us prepared mentally like yeah this going to be a different uh a different set of people from what we played last year um but I think everybody's held their own you've had several younger guys mix in at different points just what's it been like being able to to to you know have guys come in and and and not just be the starting five necess all the time right um you know with the younger guys I wasn't really too worried about him uh like Kade he he he came in against uh Middle Tennessee he's been around for a long time Bosley was already prepared last year but they red shirted him um so so guys were ready gu guys are ready to be plugged in wherever they needed uh and Coach jet does a good job with in practice just having guys in different spots anybody that we haven't really seen this year that you think uh would fans would be surprised with with how well they um yeah uh Davon Harley cam Griffin and uh Katie Arnold uh all three of those guys are going to be really really good uh Within These NE well especially next year uh I think they're going to be really well um just South Carolina specifically like what what do you if y'all are going to be successful this week what do youall have to do uh I mean we got to give Zion time uh we got to got to be able to run the ball uh and they're a really good defense uh the their record shows two and six but they're not a two and six team to me uh Tonka him andway he's a he's a dog uh uh Debo Williams he's a dog for sure uh great linebacker uh great DBS all over the field a lot of very athletic all around the best defense that we're going to play this season uh you know you mentioned a couple guys anything they do specifically that makes you say they're the best defense yeah uh Debo's just always he's all over the field uh you he just pops out on film all the time um Tonka he moves really well uh a lot of those guys just all of them move really well so we got to be prepared this week do you feel like um I feel like Zion looks I don't know if it's more comfortable or confident the last couple weeks have you I don't know do you feel that way do you feel like he looks different lately uh I mean I think I think so too I can agree with that uh Zion I think he's a confidence quarterback so like when he has a great week of practice he's going to end up playing really really well and that's where where it starts at in practice see been I know last year um he had some health stuff that kind of kept him from going full go practice uh has he I don't know do you think maybe that's part of it is maybe he's been able to be a little more involved than possibly uh I think I think he's really just uh taking the prce extremely seriously I think not to say that he wasn't before but he's still you know he's he's super locked in uh and that that goes with all our quarterbacks all our quarterbacks are always locked in whether it's Logan whether it's fry whether it's Smo you know everybody is locked in and ready to go when did you when did y'all find out Ron was going to be able to play I found out two days before FIU he was joking with me and he was like yeah bro I'mma play I'm like all right bro all right right and then I saw that he was traveling so I was like okay so there might be some truth in this and uh yeah he end up playing so that was that was crazy to see Ryan back out there so quickly how I mean because it I know richro said when it happened there was it was maybe six weeks but it might be the season yeah how great was it just to be able to see him get back out there oh no it was it was super cool to see Ron get back out there and um I I knew it was going to be a touchdown as soon as Ron got up out guy got into the game um yeah it was cool to see him out there is that something that like you know I know y'all want everybody to do well but that kind of y'all especially wanted Ron to have a great game just the injury and everything definitely uh I didn't think I I was telling Ron the week after COA I was like man I can't believe I'm not going to get to be able to block for you no more and he end up coming back so yeah no we I wanted to see Ron succeed for sure everybody I want to see all our running backs to see