Bush Hamdan, Brad White Open 2024 Kentucky Football Spring Practice

all right questions for Coach Ammon you learn two days this you know it's an eager group it is uh really really excited just about the culture here overall I think it's a uh it's a group that practices hard that wants to learn wants to get better and that's been a huge plus Bush you talk about being impressed with receivers you heard introductory press conference Mark Point having a good what's been just when you get out the field what's been your impressions thatp yeah just the depth you know the depth in competition I think uh in order to be the best obviously in this league I mean you got to create that depth and uh certainly we know of the one or two guys uh who who have had a lot of success here but there's been three or four other guys that are really playing at a high level uh we're excited about the competition in that room talk expect it to be the tempo we do yeah we we've been uh again it's a mixture of tempo um and uh I think the players have done an extremely nice job of getting a good feel of that obviously there's going to be uh some wrinkles and things we got to continue to work on but we do uh again believe the ability to play Fast play Slow mix it up is is going to be valuable what do you like about Brock on film and I think it always just starts uh with with you know the personality piece uh he's he's a full-time quarterback he loves it um you know from a leadership standpoint I think his teammates understand the preparation he puts in uh and that's first and foremost it always starts there it's a guy that really wants to be great uh certainly we think you know in two days make all the throws good decision- making and so we're just going to have to keep building uh and a lot of it is just the nuances of the new offense new players uh and how fast we can bring them along Mark mention because what they did in Georgia was so complex that should translate pretty well to this kind ofy have you seen that from so far yeah I certainly agree with that uh you know he's he's been coached extremely well it's a very similar system uh a lot of times it's just the change in verbiage if you will of what they called it what we call it um and so we're we're fortunate that he he's got a lot of good work in yeah it's certainly certainly an adjustment a little bit you know just cuz 15 16 years of not having it and now having it um so I think it's a good balance it certainly will help us uh from a communication with a quarterback but it also cannot uh hinder Us in in everybody making sure their eyes are to the signals especially the quarterback and knowing what he's got to get done leadership on offense was point last year something I think Liam both they need improve after the season what have you seen just early on from that group and are they checking those those boxes whether off off the field workouts or in practice yeah I I certainly think there's a number of guys that can step up into that role uh again I like the urgency I like the way we're practicing I think the true leadership will come from from the guys who can be consistent over long periods of time and so um again you're through practice to generally everybody's happy as we all know but but the leadership's going to come from those guys that can uh deal with the ups and the Downs through practice S 8 9 10 into the summer and and obviously lead this team you learn the Kentucky fans love to ask about but throw to the tight ends more in general how do you kind of view that position off yeah I think uh you know all about throwing the ball to those tight ends obviously I think uh first job I had was as a tight end Coach and again I think that's the that's the one position where if you can find a guy that's extremely good in the Run game uh and create a bunch of Opp opportunities for him in the past game so we're looking at opportunities there I think this tight end group is is probably as deep as any other unit on the offensive side of the ball and so uh we're excited to continue to find ways to to get them the ball wor been the early impressions of the comeb back room and you have the number of guys like you want to have three or four that can play right now or is it just kind of a field thing I think you know ideally you're at least feeling comfortable with playing three guys you know and uh my early impressions are I think uh there there's some good veteran leadership in that room and there's really some high-end talent in those younger guys now how fast we can get them caught up uh a little bit of that is is on us as a staff not putting too much on their plate and allowing them to just go play Fast uh but we certainly think we've got good talent in that room Mark mentioned NY is a guy at right tackle the other day how much do you all just plan to try some of your guards moving out there move some guys around the spring I think there's going to be a lot of changing parts and flexibility and I think there's a lot of give or take there right you want them to uh develop the camaraderie of the same five guys playing but uh there's certainly six or seven um guys at that position that we feel strongly about and so I think now is the time you know to move guys in different spots sometimes guys might surprise you you might think hey I don't know if he can be a tackle and he looks better there sometimes tackles may look better inside and so uh Wolf's doing a great job of of mixing those guys around uh playing younger guys older guys but but still keeping that cohesion of of getting the offense going right Brad how do you want to see JJ build off kind of the big finish he had last season now he progressing as a leader so far yeah that's a that's a that's the goal right is putting it all together where it's not just a game or two uh it's an entire season um and that's a process um obviously just a couple of practices in but you know he's he's doing sort of what we need him to do but I want to continue to push him past his limits like that's what he needs this year is to not be comfortable like he needs to be uncomfortable he needs to continue to push um you know he's done a nice job in the weight room uh adding some more girth you know and so and he just needs to relax and be him he doesn't need to be anybody else he doesn't need to try to be anybody else he just needs to be him and when he did that at the back end of the season you saw you saw some production and that's what we're looking for you don't aren all Americans available in the transfer portal very often but Jam he talked a lot about the relationship you guys had the recruiting process what do you like about him and how does he fit yeah excited obviously to add him to the room um you know brings a guy with a ton of experience uh you know a really strong football mentality in terms of and when I say that I mean out on the practice field um it's tough It's rugged uh you know he's ruggedly built he's going to be strong uh you know he's got short area quickness and explosion um I think him and djck are going to work great uh excited about uh dav's progress uh this off season um you know and so excited about you know that group and and watching those guys through spring start just communicating melding together I think uh it's been pretty seamless in that regard um so excited another guy for you all what have you seen from him this offse what you want to see yeah another guy that's done a really good job in the weight room um you know added pounds uh you can see physically uh he looks more ready uh to be an every down uh type of player and uh that's what he needs to be cuz the last two years he didn't have enough uh girth but to be a uh a situational type player uh and then the same thing mentally like we we talk about that position takes a little bit uh for you to truly understand and uh it's been a good first couple of days of practice made a couple of uh you know mistakes at the back end of practice today that in the past would have got him really frustrated um I think he's grown and matured in that he can take the coaching point and he can move to the next play and so to me like those are little things that people don't necessarily see you know it's not physically you know um making some kind of special play it's actually making a wrong play and being old enough and mature enough to be able to take that mistake and then play the next play and not let it hang over him like it has in the past so what's the message to those young Corners coming off the ball game kind of got forced into it there at the end because the injuries that last Drive obviously didn't go the way you wanted now they're kind of competing to that spot yeah I think the message not just to them but to everybody listen when when it's your time to step up you you don't know when that's going to be right and you know it was a big moment and they've they made some plays um but they also you know they struggled in some moments look at Max harston the the one moment that he got was the biggest moment of the season the year before sort of against Vandy at Fourth and 10 you know they complete the big deep ball well he could have you know got down on himself but he used that as motivation through the off season you know first game against Ball State the first two drives like he's all over the place with his eyes making mental mistakes settles himself down and then look at Max look at the season that he has last year um it's the same thing for anybody when it's when it's your moment it's the time that you put in ahead of time you can't try to get ready immediately you have to prepare that that moment is coming and um obviously when it's a competition for a spot like they know they can see that coming um but it's really those ones that hey maybe they have a returning starter or a guy that's played multiple years in front of them ah I'm not going to get in the game I'm just going to sort of go through the motions well we can say as fast as that somebody's going to get hurt and you're in the game you got to be ready when your experience do this team seem to be specifically the front seven are you maybe ahead of schedule after two practices in the spring that maybe were in the past or you feel like kind of in the same area yeah you know that's interesting I think we we we talk about this quite a bit um when we get to Spring and we've we've had teams even last year where you return a fair amount of starters and so we talked about last year oh we're ahead of schedule but if you try to progress too fast those backups that we were talking just talking about that are trying to gain confidence they can fall way behind and then you can just steal their confidence so it's trying to mix hey being a with some older guys so they don't get bored but also hey gaining confidence in what we do with those guys that don't have that built-in reps and again we're a team that's both really old and really young like we've got a lot of young guys um that we have to build and be ready to be backups and be ready to enter the starting lineup at a moment's notice uh so we're just we're we're back to what we do uh I probably progressed too much much last year tried to do too much in Spring um we're going to we're going to hound and we're going to just pound fundamentals we're going to pound what we do um and then you know we'll work certain tweaks and and certain things and experiment some stuff with those that older group but early on even if it's boring we we've told the old guys Hey listen if you were good be great if you are great be excellent every technique every foot you know all your footwork all your eyes be perfect you know don't get bored you know with stuff that you've been doing for multiple years and then young guys hey try to develop that you know we're just trying to move from bad to average to maybe above average you know with those guys they spring I'm G to guess you haven't been surprised to watch Drew Phillips kind of shoot up draft boards over the last few weeks what he do the combine this obvious how does he translate yeah you know I did I try to to turn that stuff off um and I try to tell our guys our guys going through that process to not listen to that because you can say the this guy's shooting up the draft board and then all of a sudden on draft day there's a let down right well it didn't come to fruition or you know you'd rather be pleasantly surprised right than let down so just hey whoever gets you where wherever they get you be excited you're just trying to get your foot in the in the door um I think we've got a a whole group of seniors and those declared Juniors that uh are going to have a really big day and exciting day tomorrow um and it's always fun for us as a coach to see that sort of come to fruition on BR day a lot of new additions from coaches to players what are you just overall generally excited about as a as a whole going into this spram yeah you know it just building this year's team I I I think that's a big piece obviously uh from a coaching standpoint defensively we've had a whole bunch of continuity right we haven't uh other than sort of at the the graduate assistant position we haven't had any turnover uh which allows guys that have been in the system they understand uh what to expect what those expectations are how their position coach is going to coach them how their coordinator is going to coach them uh but the interaction the cross interaction between offense and defense that's fun you sort of feel that out it's been uh a fun competitive two days uh so that the mix is nice you put in the new players you get to see you know what they can do and see how they compete um you like the old guys to kind of pull the the new ones along to show them what hey what our standard is how we practice our style um but I think it's been a a really good two days both sides of the football you know uh good plays by both sides bad plays by both sides um competitive on special teams and so uh yeah but it's only two practices in we got 13 left two your impressions of Bush's offense and what kind of different challenges maybe does it present you guys from going against a very similar scheme the last three years yeah I mean I listen I I'm not going to get into uh to anything schematically there but uh it is uh it's a challenging offense uh uh for a defense you know it puts you through uh a lot of iterations it stresses your rules uh which is great uh it's great for our old guys because then they don't get bored uh it gets real hard for your young guys because they're trying to to work through every iteration and every check of your defense but um no it's going to make us better as a defense uh and you know I think it's got to you know High upside we'll put it that way

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