TUESDAY DABO PC (w/ TRANSCRIPT) AND PLAYER INTERVIEWS

CUTrevor 2019-10-08 09:05:22


Dabo broke out the "ROY Bus" for the first time since last season! Lol Said they had to pull the tarp off it last week and kick the tires because they're back on the ROY Bus. Obviously, referring to the fact that Alabama inexplicably jumped the Tigers in the polls last week, even though the Tigers' schedule so far has been harder and Bama allowed 31 points at home against a bad Ole Miss team before jumping to No.1. For those who were in a coma last season, ROY stands for "Rest of Y'all." Dabo said they used the acronym when he was a kid, and now it applies to all those who are not Alabama.













DABO:

Great break for us. It really was a good break. I think everybody needs a break every now and then. I’m sure you all missed us this weekend, but it was a lot of fun just taking Saturday and Sunday and enjoying some family time and doing some stuff, but also really watching football. I doubt many accountants take a weekend off and then sit around and watch accounting or work on some more accounting. Most of the time you take a break, you take a break from what you do. Or dentists, you get a weekend off, you probably sit around and work on somebody’s teeth, but it’s crazy, as football coaches, it’s a weird job. You get the weekend off, and what do you do? You watch football.
 
But it was fun, it was fun to just kind of be a fan and watch some other games and see some other teams, especially some of the teams you maybe don’t get to see quite as much. Stayed up too late watching some of the games, but a fun weekend and just excited to get back at it. Again, when you take a break from something you love too, it’s good, but I just think it re-energizes you and helps you have an appreciation for what you get to do. Sometimes when you’re in the middle of it, you just get tied up into the doing of it, sometimes you don't think about that as much.
 
Excited to get back. Guys are excited to get back at it this week. Really good energy at practice last night. Florida State, they’re the most talented team we have played. All you have got to do is check the recruiting rankings, if those things mean anything. I think they have out-recruited us five out of the last seven years or more if you went back further than that. We might have beaten them two times in the last 10 years. We don’t beat those guys in recruiting a whole lot, so they have got a bunch of good players.
 
Easily the most talented team we have played to this point going into game six. On paper, roster, they’re the most talented group, so we have got a big challenge there and they’re getting better. Should probably be 5-0. I’m sure they’re really disappointed and kicking themselves for what happened against Boise, a game they were up 30-something to 13 or so with about two minutes to go in the third quarter and really just kind of blew it, and that's a frustrating thing as a coach. Same thing against Virginia. Had a chance to really win that game on the road at Virginia. They are truly two or three plays from being 5-0.
 
They’re really talented, but the biggest thing is they’re getting better. They’ve started to create an identity and they’re playing better together. Really fast, physical. I think they’re running the ball a lot better as far as what they’re trying to do in the run game. Different from last year. Cam Akers, everything goes through him. He’s a workhorse, he’s physical, he’s a very committed runner. We were probably a little soft in the last few games as far as the run. We’ve played a couple good backs, so we have got to match that physicality and that mindset because this back is a committed dude and you better have your big boy pads on. He may get some zeros, he may get some ones, he may get some twos, but he just keeps coming and they just keep giving him the ball. That sets up everything else for what they do, because they’re very RPO-oriented, a lot of quick game, a lot of shots, big splits, tempo, double moves, and they have got guys outside that can go get it. 
 
They’re getting better upfront, an area that they obviously struggled in last year, and I think that they’re much improved. Obviously they’ve had to play two different quarterbacks. Both those guys can win for them. Both of them are experienced and poised players. Both are going to run the offense. I don’t think you see a whole lot different. One has been around longer, probably a little bit more efficient as far as maybe scrambling. They’ll run a little option, but they don’t run him a lot, but he’s efficient in his scrambling. He has produced nine touchdowns, and (Alex) Hornibrook has produced five or so, so they’re both efficient throwing the ball and making some plays. 
 
It all starts with stopping the run against those guys and trying to win your matchups because you have got to be able to win some matchups against these guys. This is skill-on-skill outside, it’s handling tempo, it’s lining up properly, it’s the right depths, the right leverage, eyes on the right things, and it’s doing it over and over and over and over, because if you don't, here comes a big play. Very, very capable group offensively.
 
Defensively, it’s the biggest group we’ve seen. They’re huge across the front. And they’ve been in and out of some Even and Okie fronts. They’ve changed it up a little bit over the five games as far as what they’ve done defensively. No. 11 is a very special player. I think he’s very, very talented and has an ability to pressure the quarterback. No. 21 is a very good player. No. 91, I mean, they’re all 300-something pounds. I don't know what it says on here, but they’re probably over whatever it says [on the depth chart]. They’re just all big, big guys that are hard to move.
 
They’ve done a nice job. They’re creating a lot of turnovers, they’re +5 in the turnover margin. Probably the biggest thing that’s hurt them from being 5-0 is they’ve had a lot of penalties. They’ve had a bunch of penalties and a bunch of sacks that have hurt them. They’ve also overcame a lot of that because they are +5 in the turnover margin. They’ve had some short fields in some of these games to work with. That’s a big factor in this game because we are -1. That’s an area we’ve got to improve in, taking care of the football. We did not create a turnover against North Carolina, the first time in a long time that we hadn’t gotten a turnover. We’ve been very advantageous that way, so we have to get back to getting our hands on the ball, creating some turnovers and taking care of it offensively. That’s going to be a huge stat in this game. If we win the turnover margin, we win the game, simple as that and vice versa, because again, they are as talented as anybody that we’ve played or will play from that standpoint. 
 
It’s a good group, it’s going to be a huge challenge for us. We’re excited about it. Clemson vs. Florida State, it’s a special game, it has been for a long time. This is my 17th Clemson-Florida State game, so I've been a part of a bunch of them and it never gets old. This is one of those games that at least for the last 10 years has settled the division. The team that has won this game has won the division and represented the Atlantic, and we have got a long way to go. We have got 39 more days before the division is going to be settled and every day is important. This will be a huge game for both teams. Both teams want the same thing. The winner of this game is in control of their division destiny, and that’s what we want to do because at the end of the year of, there are only two teams that get to go to Charlotte. So it’s really playoff football. That’s what college football is. Every week it's playoff football, and it’s division playoff football this week for us, and the same thing for them. But it’s exciting to be where we want to be and have our goals all still there. 
 
Being at home this week is huge. The Valley is going to be rocking. We need our fans to show up and continue to give us that incredible environment that we have had. I think it can be a big factor in this game. 
 
Last thing I just would mention is, I know we’ve talked about P.A.W. Journey, but just a few things, this is what we call P.A.W. Journey Week. It’s where we highlight that part of our program, just annual recognition to the way we develop, connect and empower our student-athletes. Collectively P.A.W. Journey provides over 85 initiatives per year. We have 25 P.A.W. Journey ambassadors. There's a process, and these are guys from our team that become ambassadors, there's a process they have to go through, and they have to be voted on by the other ambassadors, and have letters of recommendation and so forth, so it’s a really cool thing. Those guys create opportunities for the entire team. The objectives are career development, community service, life skills, and then our former player engagement. From the career development standpoint, we have had 100 percent career placement for our 36 senior scholar-athletes from last year’s team, the 2018-19 class.
 
We had 37 guys this past summer participate in micro-internships in two countries and eight states, so just a really awesome opportunity and it’s about a 10- or 12-day window. Now what that does is it allows them to get as much professional development as they can get but also works with their schedules and allows them to get that real world experience. We had 14 student-athletes that went up to New York for our Business Week over Spring Break, and they were with American Express, Def Jam, NFL, Madison Square Garden, Endeavor and several other companies. And then our community service, we had a group go over to Thailand this past May, serving over 900 hours at Mercy Center School for underprivileged children. This year, we’ve already served over 1,300 hours as a team. So it’s just a wonderful program within our program.
 
Life skills, those are public speaking, financial literacy, social media, branding, networking. It’s all those things. And then our former player engagement. Travis Blanks came in, felt like that was an area where I think we could do a better job in and he has hit the ground running. I just wanted our players to be connected. I’ve been here long enough now, I’ve got a lot of former players and I just want those guys to always feel like they’re connected to our program. So whether it’s a newsletter, they have somebody to reach out to talk to, ‘Hey I’m coming back into town,’ or whatever it may be, and Travis has done an awesome job coming on board.
 
We just want to take the time to thank P.A.W. Journey, Jeff Davis, Savannah [Bailey], Rashard [Hall] and Travis and Reggie [Pleasant]. They do an amazing job of serving our players. They really just wake up every day thinking about how we can empower our players, create those tools for life we talk about all the time in our program and create opportunities for them and take advantage of this moment in life that they have. It’s a very short moment. So when they leave here, if they get a chance to go play football, it’s great. But we really want them to make the transition now, not after football ends. We want them to have already made that transition away from football before football ever ends for them so they’re prepared and ready to go. That’s a little bit about P.A.W. Journey, and again, we’ll be featuring that a lot this week through our different social media outlets and so forth, and can’t say enough about the people who were involved with everything that is involved with that group.


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CUTrevor 2019-10-08 13:25:38



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CUTrevor 2019-10-08 13:36:11


Splendid interview with PAW Journey Ambassador Darien Rencher below. Definitely worth a listen! After battling injuries, he walked on and earned a scholarship. He is probably the biggest spiritual leader on the team, and guys like him are invaluable to a team's success both on and off the field. The TL Hanna grad from Anderson is still tight with former Hanna teammate Ben Boulware, and he tells a funny story about visiting Ben's gym.





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