Arizona Football Press Conference - Duane Akina

two coach over here we asked two coaches about whether it's beneficial that New Mexico is playing a game before you guys and one of them said definitely yes because you get to see them the other one which is coach babber said no because you make your most improvement from week one to week two which side of that coin do you follow so who said yes coach viny I think okay so yeah I would prefer to have it for a couple reasons this is a new staff you know that's come from all over the country so now when you got a new staff to deal with you got to go find the histories of where's the coordinator been you got to go find where is the dline you got to look into the staff to see what philosophies they have been you got to get a feel for the Personnel what can match it um so you know I think it's good that we kind of see where they're at when it's brand new staff so I like the fact that there is a game do you sit the TV on Saturday and watch the game or you just wait for the the actual coaches film to yeah um I think I haven't looked at our Saturday schedule I don't know if it will allow us to put our feet up you know I think we um but if we do we always we always every university has a TV copy you know if the game is on TV the video crew will copy it and then we'll wait for the game that will come in on Sunday to break it downo what's the story of Lance Kennelly did you recruit him to Stanford no I was not personally involved in the recruitment but you know we did evaluate him at Stanford yeah and then uh what has he brought to to your guys' defensive line well I think experience you know him being part of U you know five years and moving on uh so there's some maturity there he's lined up and um you know against some good football teams so he's been there some of the language is very similar um from when we were at Stanford so there's a comfort zone there and so because of that it's a quicker fix rather than bringing in an incoming freshman and when you're talking about a d line or the front I think that's where having maturity you know for a true freshman to play in the front it's it's not an easy task because the physical phical side is a big get you know so many times a skill player has a better chance than playing early because the physical nature isn't as big can he learn Concepts can he learn if he can run fast and jump high so he's been a good uh he's been a nice addition to us Troy Jason kind of going on that defensive line uh talk right there you guys clearly brought in a lot of guys after Spring football to sh up some ends how do you think they've added to the group and just the death wise said you guys were from Spring to this point now at the well we had to bring in quite a few CU we lost quite a few pieces and you know just as you look at it that is just a tough that is just a tough um place to find numbers because there's just not a lot of people walking around planet Earth that are 300 pounds that can run you know so um I think we did a great job of evaluating there not only the physical profile but the fit or cultural profile on how we practice so um and we have changed a little bit with our some of our techniques up front so I think we've done a good job I'm excited to watch these guys play I think our front has really um has been a pleasant surprise for meason is this defense where you wanted it to be at this point in Camp like are you happy with where they are in their progress yes I am you know I I I'm happier when I see stooks Bobo Dalton gunar you know all out there with with the guys up front um but um I'm like everybody else I'm excited to watch them play Michael um the the head coach of the team up north said the other day that he felt like he had 22 viable defensive players how what number would you put on on your defense how many guys do you trust and feel comfortable oh gosh I haven't put a pencil to that so I I I'll just say this I think we got enough to line up and and win in terms of the guy like Maris gr kber we've seen him kind of progress throughout training camp what do he brought to the secondary to kind of maybe solidify some areas of need in that unit well I think you know when you because we lost a good football player seven so he's come right in and has brought length and speed once again he's come from programs Texas A&M Louisville which is um our outstanding programs and even if he didn't play every snap he lined up against really good players uh his defensive back coach at A&M G for me at Stanford so I had a good idea of who he was and TJ had a good idea whether he would fit you know I think that's a big part of the evaluation process everybody wants to just see how fast how much of and this but the trick in my humbl opinion it's been like that from when I was first here at Arizona Texas and Stanford um it is still the trick and recruiting in my humble op opinion is is the evaluation process of the fit you know and it's not about just how fast you run and all those things so TJ was able to let me know that he'd be a great fit for me and he would fit our room um and he would be able to fit in with the standard of our room as a secondary and he was red um how's it been transitioning with the the tablets and the the player or coach to player communication yeah I think we'll be fine I I think it's a little of a unique piece on the defensive side of the ball opposed to the offensive side of the ball because you know the quarterback can dialogue to everybody right the defensive side of the ball who do you give that one helmet to is it Manu where he has to turn around and talk to the secondary is it Gunner that's talking down because you know the pieces are still out there I think that's going to be one of those we're learning as we go on how to manage that piece of the puzzle with the helmet communication um the tablets I think that's an interesting deal that for a lot of years people have been able to have to see it on the sidelines so that's a little bit of a cheat drill for some and I always thought the trick in coaching was to be able to solve the puzzle on Saturday anybody can solve it on Sunday but to be able to make the game day adjustments is really a big part of the profession I think the tablets do help in that area that you can see it because you know some guys couldn't can't hit rewind again you try to cut your eyes up to the Box um so you know I think we're all learning through that process following up on that real quick have you settled on whether it's going to be Manu or Malon AO at this point no I think what we're doing right now is you can have a number of helmets that are available so it may be by series um so we have not made a final decision on that but we've got a handful of candidates you know that you can have helmets with because now if somebody gets hurt you know you got take off somebody runs off the field you know do you stop you can't get the helmet on there's a lot of gymnastics with all this so I'm learning it myself to figure it out as we go unrelated um so you've been in the this college football world for a long time the sport has changed a lot we're now seeing pretty much every top program has like a front office has a general manager position you guys have guys to Crowley how essential and important is that figure in you know doing the type of thing that you're talking about like finding the right fits yeah it's critical because of the transfer portal world it's critical to see what's out there it's critical um recruiting is always uh you know kind of the the lifeline to your program so it's just great having people that can evaluate tape so coaches don't have to look at every single one like we used to you have a a staff that can say yeah this guy is this guy is not this guy coaches need to see so they can weed some of that out um so it's a critical piece of the puzzle no doubt and then having Communications somebody can oversee the communication side and I would say that our people are outstanding Gea and Fletch and um you know that whole room does a great job last question so Danny Gonzalez has repeatedly said that Jacob Manu is the best linebacker in the Big 12 why do you think that is and who does who do you compare him to just the players that you yeah so I think Jacob's so I've never you know going areas there because I haven't seen all the linebackers in the Big 12 or I couldn't say that about stooks or Bobo and all of that I do think he's an outstanding player though he is a model for us in terms of toughness and the gift he has the linebacker position when you get in all that traffic you know you got a starting point but that is just an instinctive position you know that they just know that's why for us if you notice when we were here Lance Briggs returned to a linebacker uh Marcus Bell who was what I think close to a 2,000 yard rusher you know in his high school career we moved to linebacker uh scooter Sprout I think at the time held the Arizona rushing record we moved to linebacker because they just see the game on the other side the guy might be going there but the air is back back here they just have a natural feel of finding where the ball goes it's very instinctive mano's that way he can just find the ball the other thing you like about Mono is he's just got a toughness about him he's got a real toughness about him and that's kind of the trademark of who we are the Brett Boer in those days I mean downhill Sean Harris I mean we were downhill physical football team and you know I sharing this with the defense we we ID the desert swarm a lot because that's when we came but I got to credit Larry Smith and his staff because when we got here this was a defense of traditionally a defensive football team with the Ricky Hunley and the Byron Evans and the Chuck Cecil and all so when we got here in ' 87 it was a tradition that we had to continue to uphold and um we felt like that was a big deal for us as a staff and we felt like we had done that all right that's our time all right thank you guys yeah make it sound good okay my my grandkids read this stuff