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0:03
okay signing date uh sure has changed
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they've moved it up which is good and uh
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the month of December has changed a lot
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as well uh you know across the country
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uh whether you still have games
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remaining or not uh but got all of our
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papers in uh early this morning signed
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21 guys uh 14 will be early
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enroles seven will enroll uh for the
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fall and you know report in the summer
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uh nine on offense 12 on
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defense uh you know four from Indiana
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and Ohio two from Illinois and Tennessee
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one from St Louis so 13 roughly from a
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you know 4H hour radius so
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um you know I like these
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guys uh good players uh good people good
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character good students and uh you know
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this game's all about recruiting and
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development and then retention uh you
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know keeping the guys that uh eventually
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produce so uh excited about
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them
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questions coach you talked excuse me
1:14
development um you got eight guys five
1:16
on defense three on offense that play in
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the trenches if you count the tight ends
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that's half your class big body guys how
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important it is I know there are few
1:24
years away but to get those guys get
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them in develop them instead and not
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have to be so portal dependent on
1:29
getting position guys at those positions
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yeah well you know it all starts up
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front and and the defensive linemen are
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always the hardest to find and get so
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you know we got two inside guys and two
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ends and uh pleased with that uh and
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offensively three offensive lineman all
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report in mid year and uh and then the
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two tight ends uh you know uh the one
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instate tight end will be an early and
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rly and Blake Theory will be a fallen
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rly so uh you know feel good about that
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feel good about all these
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guys is Kurt I recognize some of this
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stuff probably is still at least sort of
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theoretical but what was the process I
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imagine when you're talking to this
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class it's a little different with
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Revenue sharing kind of on the horizon
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where did that enter into the
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conversation was that something the high
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school guys seemed at least somewhat
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kind of I guess educated about on their
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own was it something you had to talk
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through with them just how did that
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change maybe any element of the
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conversation as you went through this
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class yeah well nil's been a thing for a
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while and uh the Rev share component was
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in its infancy when a lot of these guys
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were being recruited so uh you know it
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all come comes down to a number and
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where that number you know where that
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comes from really uh is of no
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consequence you know what I mean uh but
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you know uh the Rev share thing uh will
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kick in July 1 as long as the uh court
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cases approved April what 4th I believe
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uh you know and we're all counting on on
3:00
it across college football Athletics in
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general uh and you know that that'll
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change quite a bit uh how things are
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done uh once that kicks in on July
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1st the and an extension of that um you
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know obviously with the transfer portal
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opening on uh next week as well are you
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operating with under the framework of
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keeping 85 scholarships you know with
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the roster limit you know has there been
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sort of discussions with the big 10
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about how going to approach that you
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know because the limit will change well
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you know there's a roster limit um
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that'll go into effect right now if
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everything stays the same uh when that
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does you know does will that go into
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effect in August camp or the week of the
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first game uh there's some things that
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be worked out there um in theory if a
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team wanted to offer 100 let's say the
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number is 105 if a team wanted to offer
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105 scholarships they could
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but as soon as you go over
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85 uh it takes 2.5 million off the cap
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right off the bat so uh you know I saw a
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poll around the conference uh you know
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who's planed on staying at 85 who who's
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plan on going over and it appears right
4:22
now that most people are going to stay
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at 85 scholarships because the other
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thing that's going to change is once you
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go to 85 scholarships with revshare
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you'll be able to give uh partial
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scholarships too like a quarter
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scholarship or a half or a third kind of
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like uh you know my D2
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days um but it all has to equal 85
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otherwise you go over
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what 85 would equal uh 2.5 million comes
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off your rev share cap are you planning
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on sticking with it about
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yeah Kurt U excuse me and when you're
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evaluating players how much does the
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fact that they are a multi- um sport
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athlete how much does that factor in and
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then when you look at academic
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scholarships do you also look at things
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like tardiness and attent you know how
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well they attend class that type of
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thing yeah well we don't give academic
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scholarships uh but I do look at the
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transcript you know I like to see a
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transcript on every guy and see what the
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grade point average is a core grade
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point average and I do look at the
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absences I think that's a reflection of
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his habits and accountability right
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doing what he's supposed to do uh
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multiport athletes that's all good but
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at the end of the day you know this is
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football and football's different than
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basketball and baseball and track uh in
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terms of the skill set required uh it
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can be helpful in an
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evaluation uh but it it's more about uh
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you know what the guy does on tape or at
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our camp or another Camp things like
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that Z right set coach we know that
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you're process oriented guys so what
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does your recruiting process look like
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for the high school guys well they're
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all signed up now so now we're we've
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been spending a lot of time right now on
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Portal guys evaluating portal
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guys uh which opens up uh Monday the 9th
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and you know we're going to be preparing
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for a football game also so you know we
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want to kind of be as far along in that
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evaluation as possible cuz even though
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the portal doesn't open until Monday if
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a guy's graduated or if a Coach has been
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fired uh right then they're they're
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technically in the portal now uh
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underclassman can't officially uh be in
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the
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portal uh until Monday and then it could
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take 24 to 48 hours to be process it
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could be Wednesday but all you have to
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do is go on Twitter and see who
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announced that they're going to go into
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the portal and that doesn't prohibit you
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from pulling up their PFF tape and and
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evaluating them so there's a lot of that
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going on right now and then uh we're
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going to practice today we're going to
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practice tomorrow we're going to
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practice Friday right uh players lifted
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yesterday had Monday off and uh today
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will be like a Monday routine and
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tomorrow be like a Tuesday and Friday be
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like a a Wednesday you know to stay
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Sharp with our fundamentals and our
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timing and that kind of thing and then
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we'll find out who we play Sunday you
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know at
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12:15 Jack yeah Kurt how do you kind of
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balance your time right now between the
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portal evaluation and you know all this
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the high school recruiting stuff and and
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maybe some Advanced scouting of teams
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you might you might be playing coming up
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yeah you know it's a juggling act the
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things that I just mentioned uh you know
7:55
the portal evaluation is taking up a
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good bit of time right now and uh the
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practices will uh today's practice uh in
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terms of the preparation for today's
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practice uh hour hour and a half you
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know um if you count the scripting maybe
8:12
two hours so uh and and then you know
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we're having conversations uh also
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um you know I've had a couple
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conversations with returners about next
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year but not not too many because I want
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I want our team to focus right now on
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and uh we're in
8:31
season and the main thing's got to be
8:33
the main thing right and you guys all
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know that today's got to be a great day
8:37
and a great meeting and all that stuff
8:39
that that we preach
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so Jack um how big of a role does just
8:45
your success with Player Development
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play and kind of your recruiting pitch
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to guys because you know you have a lot
8:50
of players on your team have talked
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about you know being overlooked when
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they committed to JMU from other power
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fives and then you know a lot of them
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are starters and all big 10 players now
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how do you use those examp examples kind
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of in your recruiting well yeah you can
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look at them positionally in terms of
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what guys have done through the years
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but I think it's a reflection of Team
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success really uh you know uh recruiting
9:13
development uh and and guys want to be a
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part of a winning program and obviously
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uh winning here uh open doors uh in the
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recruiting process and uh we'll continue
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to open doors as long as we're you know
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continue to be successful which we plan
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on being obviously
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viously so uh you know the high school
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part of it really
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is uh the guys have been committed a
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while right and uh so the last few days
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we've been in the office it's been more
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portal
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evaluation Daniel other than that yeah
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um kind of expanding more on the off
9:50
field um I kind of feel like you
9:53
mentioned a lot this year just how
9:54
mature how unsatisfied of a roster you
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have how when you're trying to to vest
10:00
the people over the player how do you
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kind of approach that
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process well I think it you know it's
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all about people the coaches you hire
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the players you recruit right and um
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there's a lot of good players out there
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and I mean you're looking for people
10:15
that are passionate about what they do
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goal oriented know how to set goals and
10:19
go about achieving them now they're
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still young guys and they're going to
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need developed and guide guided correct
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and then you know it's process but as
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you get closer to the season uh the key
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of the drill then becomes getting
10:33
everybody think alike and keep their eye
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on the on the prize focused on the
10:39
bullseye uh you know the intangibles as
10:43
you get into the season uh but you know
10:46
the winter conditioning program leads up
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to that Spring football summer
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conditioning and fall Camp right and uh
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so I like the class I think all I think
10:56
these guys all have a chance and we're
10:59
excited about him
11:01
mat coach the one position you didn't
11:03
get a guy at quarterback um kind of two
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with two two questions first do you plan
11:08
on trying to get one out of the portal
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and then secondly you mentioned how you
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got a lot of older guys that you had
11:12
because of the roster situation what
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positions will you be focused on in the
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portal um on Monday well you know we
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have two young quarterbacks in the
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program that we like uh Tyler Cher and
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Mendoza so uh we didn't feel a real need
11:27
to sign a young quar back this year we
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will definitely recruit a quarterback
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out of the portal and in terms of our
11:33
other needs I'll let you guys put pen to
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paper and figure out who's coming back
11:37
and who we're losing and figure that out
11:39
on your
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own an extension to that but you said
11:45
you've had some conversations with
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players um is that mostly just kind of
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the guys maybe that have NFL
11:50
possibilities because you need to know
11:52
to try to determine what you need out of
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the portal like is there an urgency to
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figure out that part of it just because
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the you know the urgency to recruit the
12:00
portal guys come next week well no if
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you recruit let's say we have 70 let's
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say we have 55 returning scholarship
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players and I had the staff rate them 1
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to 55
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right I didn't start my conversations at
12:16
55 right so I've had a couple not
12:21
many I guess I know the portal and the
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December signing window have kind of
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changed just the calendar this time of
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year but a lot of times you know coaches
12:30
kind of power programs down before a
12:32
bowl game do you draw on some of your
12:33
FCS experience in terms of kind of
12:36
keeping your team online straight into a
12:39
playoff sort of environment rather than
12:42
if you were playing for example a bowl
12:43
game around New Year's and you had kind
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of a whole month to to figure out what
12:47
to do with your team and how to power
12:48
them down back you're looking at about a
12:49
three-week turnaround right so uh you
12:53
know this week players are going to get
12:55
two days of weights and we'll get three
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practices in one will be more of a walk
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through and then uh next week will look
13:02
more like a uh normal game week uh in
13:06
terms of what we do on the field it'll
13:08
be closer to a game
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week yeah you kind of address that a
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little bit but in terms of preparations
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uh next week for for the uh whoever
13:17
you're going to be playing um how will
13:19
that work in terms of you know the
13:20
period of time in terms of
13:22
preparation um we're going to make next
13:24
week will be very similar to a game week
13:26
it might not be exact but you know we'll
13:29
start preparation in Earnest we still
13:31
got to B balance the portal uh the
13:33
evaluation and we'll probably have
13:35
official visits coming in uh during
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December as well but uh you know
13:41
preparation on the opponent depending on
13:43
who that is uh you know some of these
13:47
teams we know already some of them we
13:49
don't and uh so you know next week won't
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be
13:55
uh quite like a game week but it'll be
13:58
similar
14:00
Matt last
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one um coach with the portal I I know
14:08
it's a moving number because you you got
14:09
to wait but do you have an idea of how
14:11
many how big this portal class could be
14:13
when it's all said and done yeah I
14:20
do right thanks Co thanks
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