Head Coach Jedd Fisch Game Week Press Conference: Weber State

e e e e all right all right um well game week is almost upon us so that's a exciting time and uh we're I guess 48 hours away from go time um and our guys as I mentioned to you on Monday we're in a good spot we're healthy uh continuing to get healthier as the days have gone on 48 hours away to get a little healthier and uh fresh but um I expect everyone to play I expect uh a full house out there uh with our fans and with our team and I know it's a little different that they're no students yet but hopefully um all the students that live in town will come to the game uh we're excited really about the first time we get to go at it as a team and the first time we get to go you know break the Huddle as this 2024 football team so that's kind of where we're at Great mindset great mentality one more day of practice today walk through tomorrow and uh head over to the team hotel and see what it looks like coming from Arizona you're more used to night games probably than most just your thoughts on a night game as opposed to a noon game yeah um the noon games are are great for a lot of reasons and the night games have a special aura about them which makes them special uh you know you you work your really hard in the NFL to play on Monday Night Football uh they pick the best teams so your goal is and I tell our guys this if we go at night if we play at night that's a privilege and uh you've been chosen to play at night you've been chosen to play at a time where there's not many other conflicts of games to watch so that's our that's our mindset uh the other part of it is what do you do during the day how do you keep the team busy how do you keep the team at uh not too excited too early and uh we'll we'll have some walkthroughs we'll have some meetings we'll wake them up later let them have a good night of uh Sleeping in and then sounds like after this game the next three weeks or so will be 12:30 kicks so all of it will work out good still 11 on 11 I be honest with you we don't know a lot about Weaver State what what can you tell us about Weaver State uh well um a couple things you know stand out to me from what I've seen uh first of all they ended the season on a three-game win streak so they're they're coming into the offseason or they they went into the off season with momentum uh their quarterback is a young kid who was a freshman last year uh Muno who I was watching yesterday and today and you know some of the plays he makes some of the out uh off platform throws uh he's got some scramble ability um he's got not afraid to throw the Deep ball so that that's fun to watch they got a running back that's back they got a receiver um that that'll make a big difference you know they running back winded up uh changing numbers from last year this year but uh he's number one this year I think and he's going to be a good player for him we're going to have to tackle him going have to tackle their wide outs uh defensively they play extremely hard uh they remind me a lot of the teams um that we've played in that in that division right we've played North Dakota State we've played Northern Arizona um they played those teams as well they're going to play physical football they're going to get after you they're going to play for 60 minutes as hard as they possibly can and um we got to handle their pass rush we got to handle their Runners and um we got to handle our own self three secondary spots that were looked like loose ends on the sheet that we got on Monday are those still in progress or have you told those guys who's going to start yeah um I I really feel we've got four for three right now so we've probably got three positions that uh if we have a two corners and a star and four guys competing for those three spots and we'll see how that looks on game day but uh I would expect all four of them to play um you know I think that's kind of what what it should look like and we've they're they're good football players right they're they're really good players price and EJ and fadus and Shaw and McCutchen really you know if you look at those five guys and I expect them all to rotate in and play J how much do you worry is probably the wrong word but how much are you concerned about when you have this many new players together coaches just little things like communicating the proper way getting the plays called in the right way signals how much of that is kind of a factor for that first game yeah it's all of it a factor without a doubt right we've we've had a mock game we've done the ne we've practiced leaving the tunnel we've practiced how long it takes for the garage doors to open up and how long the walk is from the locker room to the gate we've you know practiced what music we're going to play after a game we've tried to emulate and simulate different opportunities during the course of the game if the headsets go down what would we do if uh um the coach the quarterback Communicator we accidentally don't have a we made a substitute and there's no one that has the Green Dot on defense right there's there's just some things that you have to you know practice that if you were together three four years maybe you wouldn't have to spend as much time on but um you know communication is is huge um it's huge for the players it's huge for the coaches and it's not just player to player or coach to player or coach to coach it's all of it and we've got to make sure we do it really good job of uh on Saturday handling whatever blips on the radar that are going to come because they will come having the sideline tablets how much does that kind of change yeah the biggest thing that I'm that I'm most focused on is balancing running a team meeting on the sideline versus coaching a game uh it's different when you have video like you know it's one thing when you have pictures but video is you can get wrapped up in it you could stare at it and you could watch it and you could lose track of the things that are going on in the game um especially when you're trying to call the offensive plays and also manage the game as the head coach so um I've got to uh find a way a good battle Rhythm there and um to be able to make whatever adjustments or Corrections we need to make in the let's call it the course of the game uh through the tablets but also not lose track of the live action coach going back to coach SAR um coming out of the tunnel for the team and the fans and the pregame production has always been a big deal and you know going back to Sark they tend to put their own little flavor on it little touch have you've done any of that with this team yeah um we spent some time on it it m it means a lot to me um the dog walk start with that we've changed that we've added to the dog walk where we would love to have a experience when we're leaving the buses so we're going to walk by the Don James statue we're going to get ourselves dropped off in front of uh the Alaska Airlines Arena we're going to make sure that when we take that walk and we're going to walk through that little you know wall that little hallway or sidewalk of Champions and the sidewalk of the big donors and then pass the The Monuments and the statues and then get to the Husky and and make a left and uh we want to see a big crowd there we wanted we want to make our own tradition of our dog walk we want the band there and the Palm Squad and the cheerleaders and all that will all be there uh when it comes to leaving the Huddle leaving the uh field um leaving the tunnel I guess onto the field yeah we're looking we created a new video we have a brand new uh runout video that we we created we have a um songs that we've chosen so all of those things are stuff that we're trying to make our own would you say you guys have been pretty lucky with your health so far seems like there's very few guys that are injured and on that note is Arman Parker going to be able to play this year def no Arman Parker will not be able to play this year um his injury was a season Ender uh the rest of the guys you know I want to give credit really to Pat to Aaron uh for allowing us to invest uh in our training room uh I want to give credit to Tom Reed our head athletic trainer who we brought from the Arizona Cardinals spent 23 years in the NFL he became our head athletic trainer um the middle of July and um hit the ground running want to give credit to the partnership that he has with Dr Haron and our medical team credit to to and his strength staff and their partnership with the training room um the investment that Pat and Aaron have allowed us to make a nutrition has made an enormous difference in the health of our team our team's gained 650 pounds since we arrived and a lot of that comes uh with an investment that our uh Administration has allowed us to make um we've we've really tried to improve our modalities we've invested in cryotherapy we've um made improvements and enhancements in our training room uh We've obviously rebuilt an entire weight room that has brought in a lot of extra equipment for uh preventative medicine we preventive injuries all of those things have allowed us to stay healthy now there's no guarantee te in football that you could stay healthy all season long but our Our Hope and our program is to put the guys in the best possible position to not get hurt you mentioned 650 collectively right who's who's the biggest who are a couple guys that I know cam fat put some weight on talked about that in your day is there a couple guys that stood out that really just have made some real progress since you showed up here yeah well Swan uh has gained I think Brennan mentioned it I think it was like 32 LBS or 36 PBS uh from our arrival here Pocky fow has put on 21 lbs uh Bryce Butler has put on 17 lbs uh some of our receivers you know have gained 10 12 pounds like alri has gained like 14 pounds um you know there's some guys that have just um found a way at Price socks up to 200 you know gained 11 pounds since he's arrived uh there's just some guys that have just gotten bigger naturally and um because of how they're eating and how they're lifting and what we're requ iring them to do which I believe will help us in the long run building body armor uh deand Dean walked in here he's up 17 pounds Dand is um so deand walked in here I think it was at 175 he's at 192 today so you know you get those type of body those type of changes in your body and maintain your strength gives you a great opportunity to be successful opening Series you prescript the opening Series the first couple series or go by got I do I do um prescript it for the most part um it's not by gut I'd like to see what they do so there's certain formations and plays that will get into to see what their adjustments are and see how they align and then from that point be able to um go whatever go down whatever path is necessary to move the ball but uh yeah I kind of I have a list of openers I don't necessarily say we're on a exact script as much as I would say we have plays that we'd like to call within the first quarter do you know the first play you're going to call on Saturday I do no brenon and St no everyone will be down okay why is that um well Steve will call the game from the field he likes to do that uh he's always called the game from the field at New England the last well I should say the last four years as he was the play caller in New England he called it from the field um I call it from the field and then uh BC coaches the offensive line during the course of the game and I believe your offensive line coach has to be on the field there's too many adjustments you have to make you have to talk to the Five Guys uh consistently and between every series and then um I'll have Jimmy upstairs on offense as a sounding board for for me and to kind of give me the information that I need uh we've been together a very long time so he knows what I'm looking for Mike Switzer uh and I have been together since 2015 he'll be upstairs as well and then defensively I think Steve has uh Aaron Van Horn up there with him uh for him and then um probably a couple of other uh of the younger coaches but uh I think all position coaches outside of Coach Dory will be on the field is it important for you to get Deon some snaps in a game like this like you think about that heading into a game of this magnitude that if we can get out of here and get things done we can get Deon in there does that even cross your mind no it really doesn't I mean we play 2021 we played Northern Arizona we lost 2119 in 2022 we beat North Dakota State 3127 we threw a touchdown pass with four minutes left um I don't look at these games as anything other than a really tough opponent that wants to come in here that wants to win the game and uh I don't ever think about getting our not number ones in the game another guy who had a good fall but then got injured right at the end uh lero Bryant what's his status going forward uh I think he's out this game and he'll be back up for starting um next week I think I think he should be cleared to participate for Eastern Michigan with Arman Parker it's kind of a tricky one because this is his second season ending injury plus he's got a twin that's been a been playing without him is that have you had to kind of talk to him a little bit to keep him encouraged yeah uh that's a great question uh we we certainly have a lot of resources here to be able to make sure that guys stay on the positive side and don't get discouraged but um you know he he's had a great attitude his brother um Jayvon also was going through rehab for this whole summer so I think they uh they might have leaned on each other there but uh I I would hats off to Arman and really our training staff and strength staff that they've been able to keep him positive and I wasn't here last year so I didn't live through the injury he lived through but but um it's unfortunate the injury but I would say his attitude has been really good all right thanks we see you after the game