USF Football Radio Show - 9.27.21

great to have you with us for another edition of the usf football radio show we are back from utah and getting ready to go out again as the bulls will be in dallas this weekend to play smu coach jeff scott joins us as always joey johnston in for sam barrington for today's show coach quite a night uh in utah uh certainly a tale of two halves once again that second half uh kind of similar to the game against florida some things that you really see developing and some things to really make you feel good but a rough start uh prior to that and it was it was kind of a tough hole to climb out of for the bulls yeah absolutely i think it was very similar to our game with florida i just uh you know came out and got out executed there in the first half and and dug ourselves in a hole you know it's one of those games uh there's frustrating come back and and watching it on sunday whenever you get back because you know we definitely had some some good opportunities early and then uh you know just had some limited possessions there uh in the second half but you know again uh with the the schedule these guys have played and the diversity that they faced you know i think it was probably midnight when we took the field our bodies time there to go out there at halftime after halftime and you know to see the way our guys continue to compete you know that's just a really good sign to me of where we are headed into conference play and and something we definitely will continue to build off of coach those of us who were raised in southern football maybe weren't aware how loud byu is what an atmosphere they have you guys went out there and actually had no fault start penalties and you had a true freshman quarterback that played under control just speak about the composure you guys showed yeah that was another bright spot bright spot in that game you know it showed up on video we kind of talked about it last week a little bit just watching the other teams that played in there the camera was shaking and the number of false starts that uh some of the other teams utah and arizona state had had in there so we made a really big deal about it throughout the week and we pumped up the speaker and the noise and had to change our cadence with how the quarterback was asking for the ball and you know i give a lot of credit to uh obviously to timmy being a true freshman for first road start an extremely loud environment and then also to that offensive line and tight ends to be able to communicate and uh you know i'll forever remember you know i'm hoping timmy will have a nice long successful career here at south florida but i'll forever remember that last play right down there fourth and one in their student section you know after 18 plays and to be able to go down there and execute and get us into the end zone uh that definitely uh was a bright spot and i don't think we'll play anywhere this year that'll be that loud and you know i give them a lot of credit and when they started their students were in the seats two hours and 15 minutes before the game it sounded like a concert for two straight hours while we were in the locker room and it was definitely as loud as advertised one of the loudest environments that i've ever coached in and i've been in a bunch of them in that first half the offense did move the ball especially in the second quarter a couple of really good drives but you had to settle for three and that seemed like a key moment uh in that first half as byu built their lead when you get down with a short field like that i would imagine the the depth of the plays probably gets a little smaller different things you can do what's the what's the issue when those drives kind of stall out a little bit yeah well it's it's typically uh one or two guys kind of uh you know making the wrong decision there there was a couple times that uh you know timmy again being in his first start we're asking him to do a lot of things within this offense as far as making reads and there was one play where od was coming across that you know he made the wrong read if he hands the ball off to od we think od may score there on a little sweep there to the field so again it's just things learning in those situations we also had a couple times where a wide receiver didn't get the signal on a key play and you know in those type of games against that type of team the margin for error is very very small and so you know those are the things coming back and watching it on tape that you know we just have to to find a way to eliminate that we've got a lot of different guys play and i think now after four games we're going to be able to kind of settle in uh with our guys moving forward with kind of the first and second group but i mean ultimately uh you know it's painful offensively and defensively to go back and watch the first half and the opportunities that were there that ultimately could have been the difference of the game so late in the game when you close to 35 27 you chose to do the onside kick with five minutes ago that weren't able to get the ball back what went into the decision to make the onside kick and i know it relates to timeouts and a second part of that question how can you do a better job of conserving those timeouts for the end of the game with your current players yeah absolutely well two things number one on the timeouts uh we didn't have any false starts uh but we had to use our timeouts up on offense and and i knew that was gonna be the case i told our our team throughout the week that special teams had to get lined up because we're not gonna use timeouts on special teams we're gonna try not to use timeouts on defense but with a freshman quarterback out there and you know we're kind of playing a cat and mouse game watching the personnel their defense is putting in so we're signaling the ball signal the call a little bit late and then you can kind of tell looking at your freshman quarterback when it's not registering and so we had to use some timeouts there but ultimately you have to make a decision where we were defensively i didn't you know i believed our best chance to win the game uh was to get an onside kick i felt like we had momentum because we had that ball you know whatever it was for about nine minutes and their defense was tired and uh if we had a chance to uh go win the game would be to get the ball back and keep their defense back out there and then also we did not execute it but we had been working on that on-side kick and kind of the formation that we had for a long time and we felt like we had an advantage and ultimately uh i didn't want to kick off to them with no timeouts with the offense they had they really executed very well all night we weren't tackling well and so i said hey we're going to be aggressive and try to go get the ball and win the game and unfortunately we didn't execute the onside kick maybe the position group of the night the offensive line no sacks and you know part of that obviously is timmy's mobility but still no sacks and you opened up the running game i mean you ran the ball effectively against a very good run defense yeah you know and that's kind of what i'm doing right now is taking our first four games right of our non-conference play and really evaluating everything we're doing in each position group and where we need to improve as we get ready for conference play and probably one of the biggest things coming out of these first four games has just been the consistency of that group up front uh offensive line i mean those guys take a lot of pride in their work oh those those were some big guys over there at byu that defensive line was a physical group they had some good speed and quickness they had made a bunch of plays uh in the first three games for some very quality opponents and uh and i felt you know you talk about a 19 play drive right there in the fourth quarter on the road whatever it was 4 000 foot elevation and all that type of stuff you know that that group had had to grit it out all the way through there and uh you know i'm really really proud of that group and hopefully we can get some of the other position groups to to continue to improve and step up and and be able to reach our full potential uh as an offense dustin hall stepped right in on the right side you made that change he was there really the balance of the game yeah dustin is probably one of our most physical offensive linemen you know he's a been a guy that we really liked last year he was really improving and then again i think he might have missed all spring spring practice with an injury and missed a little bit time late early in fall camp but uh we saw him uh come in and do some nice things against uh fan mew and and i wanted to give him an opportunity to go out there with the first group and i really thought his strength and ability to get some knock back on some double teams uh really helped us one player we hadn't seen much of but had a great game demarcus gregory your wide receiver transfer from ole miss what do you see from him moving forward and how pleased were you with how he did yeah he's a guy that uh you know we have a lot of high expectations for he had a really good fall camp and just kind of got off to a little bit of a slow start and sometimes as a wideout you may run a good route and and the ball's not there on time or it's not a good throw and then sometimes the throws there and the whiteout maybe doesn't get us depth so it was kind of a little bit of that for the first couple games and obviously we were trying to get weaver in there and really uh you know uh you know kind of get the timing down with weaver but demarcus had a great week of practice and uh you know we trusted him in some of those key situations i mean there was a couple times where weaver was supposed to be the guy in there and because they were keying on weaver so much i made the decision in the huddle after a time out to uh you know put demarcus in there and give him an opportunity to go make the play and he did that so i think you know that's going to be really good for us as we move forward because we can't just throw it to weaver every time you know we've got to be able to develop some of the other guys as well to make that defense really have to to cover the entire field and another blocked kick in this game and this was a big one it kept it at a two-score game and it was actually the the play that led to that 19-play 94-yard drive blake green yeah it was great you know we've been really close i know we blocked one last year and again daniel de prada does an excellent job with our special teams and and uh you know those guys take a lot of pride uh in in the field goal block and you know i've told the guys we're gonna win a game because of it and it's only a matter of time that we're going to block one and it's going to bounce the right way and we're going to pick it up and take it back for a touchdown and uh to have a block punt in last week's game two weeks ago and then to have the block kick this week i mean those are signs that uh you know we have some good things coming and and uh you know hey every every uh every time we go out there special teams there's points on the line and uh those could have been critical if we would have got the onside kick and went down there and scored and got the two-point conversion then all of a sudden we're in overtime and that block kick was was the difference of the game so i was definitely uh pleased with that and it allowed us you know even though we struggled uh definitely in the first half defensively but to be able to come out in the second half only give up seven points and really give up no points the last 20 minutes of the game uh you know versus a very good offense that's definitely you know a silver lining and uh you know a difficult day two guys uh one guy that didn't play at all darian felix and tj robinson your cornerback got hurt in the second half um what's their prognosis moving forward now for smu yeah yeah darian was out all week and and then we don't quite know his availability for this week yet he's still got some tests and some things he's got to go through and and same thing with tj he's kind of going through our our protocol and and i was not able to practice today and we'll see uh how he progresses throughout the week and know a lot more about him on thursday bulls and smu that'll be an afternoon game in dallas then the open week after that stay with us we'll preview that game give you more information on the bulls when we return on the usf football radio show welcome back we're on the road in dallas this weekend at smu smu is four and oh gonna be a tough one for the bulls but a great opportunity in conference play and we'll talk about that as the hour continues now we are through the non-conference schedule four games behind the bulls and you've talked a lot coach about using this as a time of evaluation to kind of see what you have what the best moves are going forward give us the summary if you would of this non-conference schedule now what's pleased joe what's displeased you the surprises and where you think this team is after four games we definitely knew looking at the schedule uh you know before the season that it was going to be difficult and i just told the players uh you know this morning obviously we're not happy with our record but we also need to keep some perspective i believe we're the only team that's played three teams that are currently racked in the top 25 so we played the most difficult four game schedule of any team in the country coming off a season where we won one game so i mean that's as much adversity as you possibly can have but you know as a coach what i look at big picture wise is going through that difficult stretch that we have are we coming out better or did we get worse right that's really what you're looking for as a coach we got a ton of stuff to clean up and a ton of stuff to improve on but i feel like we're coming out of a very difficult schedule uh better than when we started so you know for that i'm encouraged but you know looking at the biggest thing i would say the most consistent side of the ball that we've had or phase has been special teams you know i'm really pleased with our special teams uh you know we're perfect so far on the year on field goal and extra point uh so that that's key as we get in conference play that's going to be the difference in winning and losing games so i want to keep that up and then also i thought we've been punting the ball well we've been protecting the punter against some very challenging looks and athletic teams with really good speed on pump block and so far we've done a good job i think we're top 15 in the country and punt returns so i've been pleased with that kickoff coverage i thought has done a nice job kickoff returns an area that we still haven't quite had that the success that i think we're capable of that we need to continue to work and then obviously we talked about uh a field goal block being able to get some so i'm really pleased where we are the consistency uh with our special teams uh offensively i felt like we've gotten better and better obviously we've been trying to work through the quarterback situation and you know really pleased that uh timmy is has really stepped out there and kind of earned that spot moving forward and uh the the play of jaren mangum at running back really kind of solidifying himself as our starter running back and the guys behind him that have a very important roles the consistency of our offensive line i think we're you know uh one of the in the top top quarter of the country maybe and lee sacks given up and and least tackles for law so i think we've done a good job there but i think that we can improve our i think our potential throwing the ball um is a lot higher than where we are and i think now that we kind of have our quarterback situation figured out i think we're going to see that continue to improve and then you know defensively it's it's kind of been feast or famine there's been some times you know we actually outrushed byu that doesn't happen a whole lot but you know it's it's just uh the missed tackles so we had 17 missed tackles by eight different players they had two fourth and goals last week fourth and goal at the one and we had three chances on those two plays to tackle the guy for a loss and we missed all three tackles so we as coaches have to go back and look at what we're doing in practice and and uh we've got to improve fundamentally tackling and then just the one play touchdowns the big throws over the top and you know part of that comes when you're not tackling well and you're not stopping the run and you commit more guys to to the run uh then they run right by you and you have no safety help so we got to do a better job of kind of figuring out uh what the best schemes are defensively for the personnel that we currently have and then we've got to improve in what we're doing but but overall as a team you know i really have seen some progress and i mean we could have played other teams and we could potentially be three and one and we would be the same team the only thing different would be maybe the mindset and the attitude kind of going into the rest of the season so as a coach you know we really gotta have that mindset that we're starting a new season in conference play we're zero and zero we're going this week to try to be one and oh uh as we start uh conference play against smu so when you look at the american athletic conference most people figured cincinnati would be the team to beat that looks pretty accurate they're number seven in the country to play at notre dame this weekend smu is 4-0 and they're coming off a huge win over tcu the battle for the iron skillet uh they played very well where how do you see tcu shaken up in this whole thing big picture yeah uh smu has got a number five uh total offense in the country uh so top five in the country they're averaging uh you know close to six 550 yards a game i think they're uh throwing it for about 320 a game and uh running it for about 225 so it's going to be a big challenge uh you know coach dykes has done a great job you look at this i think this is his fifth year and i kept up with the program a good bit when uh chad morris was there and they were kind of in a similar situation that we're in now about five or six years ago and coach dykes has done a good job i think they've signed maybe 85 transfers in the last four years so really just kind of turning over the roster and continuing to develop the guys that they have and i mean they're doing an excellent job and i think this would be the most talented offense that we played to this point after watching my video uh their quarterbacks leading the country and touchdown passes and it'll be a big-time challenge uh for us and uh you know the biggest thing i'm telling our guys is hey it's all about us it's about our execution we face some really good teams and we've had opportunities uh if we would have played better in the first half against florida better on the road against byu or right there in those games and so at the end of the day it's a great challenge it's a great opportunity but it's going to come down to how we play how we tackle how we execute on offense and and get those touchdowns rather than field goals how difficult is the situation in the defense of secondary you got some good news when the point was able to go uh in last weekend's game but then you lose tj and we saw some youngsters like herring and green get a little bit of time back there this is a a challenging opponent for a secondary that's probably not exactly where you want it to be personnel wise yeah it's definitely a challenge and uh you know you hate it because we we brought in uh christian williams to help us with depth of corner we brought in will jones who was going to be the starter at one of the safety positions and really we were talking before the season that we thought our depth in the secondary was going to be one of our strengths and all of a sudden you get two or three injuries and you're right back to kind of where you started and so it is difficult and you know the hard thing is when you're thin then it affects how you practice because those guys are getting a lot of reps and uh there's just right now there's a huge drop off you know i think uh behind herring i think we have uh josh green who came in as a walk-on and so that's literally just kind of where we are and uh so you know it's our job as coaches to to go out and and put the guys in the best situation that we can i know those guys have a lot of pride they've been really close and uh you know byu that quarterback made beautiful throws you know you can go watch other games earlier during the day and the quarterback doesn't make the throw and these guys they put it right on the money so they executed they made the play and we got to be in in better position not to give up those big scores because i think we've shown that if we make them drive the length of the field that we have an opportunity to get a stop just like the the block field goal and just like we had two fourth and goals of the one that we talked about that we have a chance to tackle them in the backfield and so that's really what i want to see uh and we've got to figure out some things schematically too uh that we've got to really protect uh those corners a little bit with us being as thin as we are so jared mangum who's going to be our guest leader in this show has seven rushing touchdowns he's fifth in the country been a real bright spot moving forward uh talk about his progression through this season and what you expect from him the rest of the way yeah he has been a bright spot and i think you know just like we were talking about over the first four games being able to see timmy mclean kind of separate himself and seeing jaren separate himself and you know you love it as a coach when it happens during games you know it's one thing in practice coaches we like to kind of move guys around and think guys are going to be here there but at the end of the day it's about production on game day and and jaren has earned that i mean i think we he might have started off as our fourth back uh going into the first uh game just from uh you know being here new guy coming in and kind of having weighed his opportunity but uh really pleased i think again you go back to that that game last week and us being able to have some of those long drives and finish it there on fourth and one you know i think he gives us that that bigger back that can you know you're not always going to block them all right ultimately the defense is going to have one extra guy and sometimes down there you got to be able to run the guy over and i think jaren is is the guy that you know we haven't had probably the last year and a half we've had some more speed guys but to really be able to to knock guys back and get those dirty yards that are that are key on third down i think you look at our our third and fourth down success uh this past game a big part of it came with either jaron or timmy's legs you know and so those are two young guys that i think that uh we'll be able to really count on here moving forward we thought we were going to see rashaan yates in the offensive backfield for a minute there yeah we were close uh we definitely have a play that uh he's in there but uh you know the way we drove the ball down there i didn't want to try to trick anybody i said you know what we're running the ball well we're going to finish this off the traditional way and we're going to go right at them and so stay tuned another time for that and he'll be ready we've been practicing some stuff but i just felt uh that's why i wanted to call that time out we worked it all the way down uh we're going to finish this thing the right way and not not try to trick anybody you know what one other interesting aspect to this game for especially for a long time usf fans jim levitz the defensive coordinator of smu what kind of relationship do you have with coach and and you know we're talking about the 25th anniversary of this program what kind of respect do you have for what he did here back in the day yeah i've always had a lot of respect for coach levitt even before i got here to south florida and probably one of my interests in this job was watching him you know years ago whenever he was building this program and i can remember uh being a a young graduate assistant in 2008 and uh you know my dad had taught me that you you write notes to the head coaches at places you'd like to go and i actually wrote coach levin a note back in early of 2008 when i was a ga at clemson and he wrote me back he was one of the few head coaches that wrote me back and that really meant a lot to me and i mean and i've watched his career uh he's a great defensive mind and really you know since he left here he's done a really good job at several different places and he's doing he's doing a good job with this this group at smu i thought we were going to have an opportunity to to play him uh last year at fau and that game got cancelled but you know i've talked to our players a lot about coach levitt because during fall camp we we really took a lot of time to talk about the history of the program and you know he was a big part of of uh really building that here and so i definitely look forward to getting a chance maybe to visit with him a little bit before the game and it'll be fun to have the opportunity to go against he and his defense two weeks in a row on the road and then you have the open week i know the following week is the last thing on your mind now but seems like this is a fairly well timed open week because this has been a lot of football in a short amount of time yeah it has and kind of my message to our guys right now is hey uh you know exhaust the tank do everything this week let's put everything into this game and and i want to see a sprint kind of through this this uh first half of the of the of the season here and uh it has it's been challenging each and every week and you know the i'll give the guys credit they show up each week and go to work we haven't maybe last year we had to do it deal with some attitude and behavioral issues uh culture issues we've had none of those i mean these guys have really done a good job of showing up each day and going to work and against a very difficult schedule so i expect nothing uh other than that this week seeing our guys go out have a great week of practice and then let's go try to go out and play our very best on saturday i know you don't believe in moral victories but last week was a step forward it was progress how do you balance that with obviously you want to get wins but you saw some good things overall i think you just be honest with the guys i mean they're you know 19 20 21 you can't trick these guys and so yes let's go ahead and address the obvious right we wanted to win the game we didn't right but let's also you know not throw out the baby with the bathwater right well we played three very challenging teams and we could have played three other teams and could have been maybe three and one coming out of this and we would have still been the same team the only thing that may be different is is the psyche and so that's really what i'm challenging the guys is they don't don't allow uh any negative things that have happened the first three games to to cause you know you to slow down or doubt or lose confidence really if anything we should gain confidence because we have played the most difficult schedule in the country up to this point and we've been able to finish strong there in the second half of that game and ultimately our season's not going to be defined by the first four games it's probably going to be defined by these next eight games right and so under letting the guys understand that and know hey it's a long season and we we need to to uh you know attack each and every week like it's a new week and uh and then we'll get to the end of the year and then we'll be able to look back and see what we did coach thanks we'll see you in dallas great thank you head coach of the bulls jeff scott bulls and smu this weekend afternoon game on saturday stay with us much more to come we're back after this time out on the usf football radio show the usf football radio show we have an open week coming up so no show next week we're back in two weeks for the bulls versus tulsa at home in raymond james stadium before that it's usf and smu in dallas looking forward to that one and bulls running back coach cam akins joins us coach cam thank you for being with us oh happy to be with you guys our first visit together you're just kind of getting started here and you have brought together a pretty impressive stable of running backs we talked with uh coach scott about the quartet you had to go down to a trio last week with uh with darion out but this is a group that seems to work well together everybody seems to understand their roles yeah you're exactly right and uh you know obviously the four you're talking about have done a great job for us with uh you know mangum and bati and kelly and then like you said felix obviously was short with him and not only those two guys you know the other two guys we have josiah young i know everybody got got to see him the the fam you game and then even mikey hamilton he's a big strong dude 195 pounds and quick twitch obviously uh got him in the spring halfway through and he had to learn what to do but man he's an impressive guy too and so really love all my guys uh and they really have kind of shown up to play been very pleased with uh just kind of their work ethic and uh what they bring to the table so jared mangum has seven rushing touchdowns he's fifth in the country had a very good game at byu and as coach scott mentioned earlier in the show he started out as maybe your fourth running back going into the opener he's worked himself into this position uh what have you seen from him as he's worked into this prime time spot yeah and really what i try to tell those guys is is like you said you know you kind of said he kind of started out with my fourth i kind of don't look at it that way i really look at it as kind of like a 1a1a 1a1b1c1d almost like it's just so very close because they all had very very competitive fall camps and very competitive and they all have very good strengths but man he's just really what we've expected obviously didn't play last year some of the time and so um you know when he got here for us in the summer uh just getting his feet under him his conditioning and maybe came in a tad bit heavier than we wanted but did a great job of getting his legs under him and man he runs behind his pads he's a dirty runner but he's actually got a lot quicker feet than people would think for a big guy that's 225 pounds and so i'm very pleased with just kind of how he's progressed with how physical he's being and just really his vision too in between and outside the tackles late in the game at byu and the altitude and guys have been out there for two hours two and a half hours and number of plays and working hard and in comes kelly joyner with fresh legs and i can only imagine what the byu defenders were thinking about a guy that fast first of all second of all a guy that's been waiting all night to start running he was just electric in the opportunities that he had he's a guy that probably had more touches per game in the past than he's had this year but every time you call on him he's ready yeah and kelly man he's one of the leaders that i look at on our team had a great spring and really had an awesome summer uh missed a little bit of time in camp but we got him back and uh he's just like you said just waited for his opportunity and that's what i kind of tell those guys you know at any moment you might be called on and he came in he played fast i mean he got a a good run where i told him i owed him one because uh you know as us coaches we always try to get everybody accounted for and you know one of his runs we did not have a guy accounted for but he made a miss and those are always the one that makes me happy when he can kind of make me look good make me look like a good coach but you're exactly right came in there playing fast hit it very decisive and uh you know he's one of the fastest guys on our team we do all the catapult stuff and kind of track how fast and explosiveness and stuff and he's a guy that really since he's came back to us what you said it always looks like he has fresh legs because he can hit it he gets in space he can make things happen you are the running back coach you're also the run game coordinator so you're in this noisy den uh you do a pretty good job in the running game you have no fault starts no penalties of any uh measure just talk about the execution of your running game and especially in a place like that yeah i got to give a lot of credit to really just coach weiss and coach mogridge obviously the online coach man that we all kind of collectively work together and coach mogadge he really has those those five offensive linemen uh targeted the right way i mean you know it obviously starts up front with brad cecil and he gets us where we need to be and obviously that center like you mentioned no false starts and uh kind of that center qb exchange from the shotgun just getting targeted getting everybody where they need to be communication and then like you said they got if those guys cover them up we kind of do the rest so really really proud of just uh kind of how those alignment are playing and like i said you know coach weiss does a really good job of putting a big emphasis on the run game um you know we walk it we talk it we're you know every thursday monday tuesday wednesday thursday we're getting extra reps at it and so uh it's nice to be able to see that translate to game day because when you got a veteran center like that um he kind of keeps everybody in the right direction so very proud of those guys for keeping us on the same page cam aiken is with us bulls running back coach tell us a little bit about your journey to usf you're a clemson guy you go well uh back with coach scott how did it come about that you came to usf yeah so i kind of chuckled when uh i was asked to come to the radio show because i was actually going to go into radio early on in my college days i was going to go into some sports media you made a really good career choice i appreciate that but you know i was actually a manager at clemson university and there's a guy named dabo sweeney who got the head coaching job he was an interim at the time and he opened practice and uh i saw practice and like i said ended up becoming a manager and lo behold the guy i worked for was a guy named jeff scott he was the receiver's coach and kind of got that relationship and then really my senior year you know i've done a bunch of internships with media but i've been involved with the football program kind of seeing coach sweeney and some of the things and always had loved loved football kind of growing up and played in high school wasn't uh probably as talented enough to play in college but you know i just really felt a calling that that's what i needed to do i didn't know how i was going to do it and ended up a guy named chad morris came in that year coach swinney made a change and ran this new spread offense that uh you know was a spread offense but they put a lot of emphasis on running the ball and that was kind of for me what i like to do and i ended up staying around and was able to get a volunteer assistant job and really the rest kind of history was just kind of right place right time able to learn studied under coach for three years went to the university of alabama birmingham as a graduate assistant 2014 and i was fortunate enough to go back to clemson in 2015 as a graduate assistant and then from then on out been able to just kind of move my way up and make relationships learn and again just very very blessed to be around a lot of good people and good coaches the last 10 to 11 years so so again back to jiren mangum some people may wonder how does a kid from detroit who played at colorado end up at usf comes come to find out you know every we're all connected in some way or another but he did some camping at clemson back in the day he remembered you remember jeff scott just talk about the how circumstances conspired to get jared mangum to this campus yeah that was uh that was pretty neat you know when coach called me in january and we kind of started discussing potentially joining the staff and then i accepted obviously uh he told me we were recruiting this kid named jared mang and i said oh yeah i know jerry magum knowing really well and uh that was just one of those deals where at clemson we did do some we started in the southeast but we kind of did some national recruiting he was one of those guys that came through the camp circuit and i was obviously working with the running backs of that time really my job was to [Music] really filter through everyone and then get the names to coach elliott who was running backs coach clemson to let him see who he needed to see and jared was one of those guys man ultra talented guy big back like you guys see today great vision good speed state champion in high school and so he was one of those guys we targeted and ended up coming to the camp circuit and he had a lot of interest coming out of high school um but uh definitely just kind of built a relationship with him and his dad his dad's a great guy jesse uh got to know both of them back at clemson and then ended up just didn't kind of work out and he went to colorado had a good relationship there but when i got you know when coach approached me about taking this job and that name was a very familiar one and then coach duprada obviously i was at colorado our special teams coordinator had a good relationship with jiren and he was really involved in recruiting process so i got to give coach to prada some props and kind of getting us in and just being a voice that was familiar with jiren and then the rest was kind of coach scott as well just that comfort level and selling what south florida has to offer so very very pleased to get him has the perception of transfers changed over the years i mean it wasn't that long ago somebody transferred it's an unusual situation there must be something going on now you see great kids like mangum just looking for a place to play looking for a different situation it feels like a much different situation and set of circumstances now when a player decides to transfer yeah you're exactly right i mean you know what we talk about is identifying the right people to bring in the program that's first and foremost there are a lot of good players especially in this state and then in this in this region of the country but we try to find good players and good people and so to answer your question i think there was maybe a stigma uh you know five ten years ago that if a guy's transferring just like you said it was hard to transfer right maybe it was hard now i think that um you know guys are more like willing to transfer because of this thing called the portal um guys will jump into it uh you know and every situation is different it's our job to really research why are they jumping in the portal the timing um you know to really try to reach out to as many people as we know to find out you know what kind of worker is this kid does he love football was there is there red flags right and the good news for us is not only do we have coach de parata who kind of knew jaren at colorado we knew a lot of people on their staff uh multiple people on our staff new people on their staff i know people from my recruiting department i knew a guy who i'd worked with at university alabama in birmingham that was in colorado uh coach scott had known multiple people and so it helps out to be able to kind of obviously number one call those people and then number two start building the relationship with the player himself and you want to you know and that's what it comes down to relationships you want to talk to them over the phone skype them all those kind of different things facetime all those different kind of things and normally you can get a feel for what kind of person it is and with jiren man he's a great kid obviously very very intelligent very smart uh really lucky to be able to coach him and all my guys are that's kind of one thing i tell them is uh sometimes when you take a new job you don't really get to choose who comes in your room and i've been pleasantly surprised with just the guys that i have they're all very solid individuals they do well in the community they do well in the classroom and really makes it easy from my standpoint to be able to teach them because they want to learn and that's always big for a coach just guys that are willing and that are coachable when you have a quarterback as mobile as timmy mclean and he holds the ball out for running back to get it can always pull it back how much does that option strengthen your running game to have a quarterback as mobile as he is oh tremendously uh you know we always talk about trying to to block everybody like i said but if you can read a guy and you can have a guy that uh is as electric as timmy um and it plays fast like timmy does it makes the defense have to account for him and so for the run game that's when it kind of becomes our job to see well what are they taking away what are their tendencies is this going to help us on the interior run game is this going to be a game where timmy maybe gets to pull some and get outside but uh no doubt he as everybody kind of the world saw um saturday night he's a threat with his legs and that makes kind of my job a lot more easier just as designing runs and things like that when you have a guy who's who's willing and uh that electric with the ball in his hands good question coach thanks much appreciate it appreciate it thank you very much for having me bulls running back coach cam akin stay with us we'll have jaren mangum with us coming up on the usf football radio show bulls and smu saturday in dallas welcome back to the show there's a lot of ways you can celebrate your birthday of course the one we aspire to is to celebrate it on the usf football radio show jaren mangum happy birthday thank you all thank you i appreciate you seven touchdowns in four games it seems like this usf thing is working out okay it's uh it's not easy to transfer is it we think about playing time and where do you fit in on the field but it's moving across the country it's academics it's where am i going to live what are my teammates going to be like this is a big process was it was it difficult for you um actually it was pretty difficult um just going through different transitions and everything like that and uh losing the head coach that's always a hard thing to do so when coach mill tucker left um it was on very short notice so i just went through the season then also losing my grandmother that was also a big another mental block and mental challenge that i had to go through also i i just thought that it would just be a best fit for me if i just got a fresh start and just found you know to get my feet underneath myself again and i felt like usf was a perfect place for me to be able to do that what gave you the comfort level jaron to come here because some people might think he's from detroit played in colorado usf might might not be the place people would pick but what what made you comfortable about coming here um so what made me comfortable coming here was uh coach scott um as soon as i entered the portal literally like two days later he had reached out coach prada reached out the first day so um i always had a relationship with coach de prada and uh he just always kept that going and then as time went on me and coach scott we built up our relationship that we already had whenever he was at clemson so they just kind of welcomed me with open arms and i just felt like this was just a spot for me to be you joined a running back room where there was opportunity i mean there's talented guys all around you but it seems like it was kind of a case where if you came in and did what you can do you had a chance to succeed was that appealing to you yes it actually was um obviously i wanted to play um and get on the field and do different things like that and um i feel like overall our running back room i feel like we're very deep um like i said plenty of times i feel like whenever you put a different back on the field i feel like each of them bring a different asset to the table and i just feel like um as a rb unit as a whole i feel like we've been doing a good job so the game at brigham young you you score two more touchdowns a big part of the game plan all night and this is a very very noisy intimidating atmosphere but you look like you were having a great time out there you talk about how how much you enjoy being in a game like that um i love when the lights is on i love big stages i love performing on big stages also i feel like big stages bring out the best in people and um i feel like that also drives a lot of competition i feel like that's whenever the best competition is whenever your atmosphere is like that and places like that i feel like those big moments that shows like the character and it um shows like different leaderships and different things like that you join a program that's on its way up you know the last couple years wins have been a little bit hard to come by and i think the fan base and even the casual viewers can look at this team now and see some things starting to come together and some progress being made what does it feel like being part of that process of getting this program to where it wants to be i'm just coming to work every day that's really kind of the mindset two percent better every day um i know that in our room uh we hold everyone accountable um we're very hard on one another so at the end of the day we're just trying to get better as a whole unit and it's gonna come around so when people saw you were coming here i think the fans got really excited jiren man gummy 62 220 somewhere in that range a big back and that's how people refer to you a big back i know you know you can do more you're not just a big back a guy in the goal line can you can you be put in a box as a big back and is that something you you try to you know tell people that hey i'm a big guy but i can do other things but just run over the goal line um yeah so like i said we have tons of different backs so uh it's just been kind of like a roll on process byu i was able to get my feet under me a little bit able to showcase some things catching the ball out of the backfield and different things like that but um other than that i mean i'm just trying to still showcase all of my different assets that i bring to the table or whether it's outside zone inside zone i just want to be able to showcase what i can do as a running back and just show that i'm at every dollar coach talked a lot about these first four games the non-conference schedule about being a time when he was kind of figuring out lineups and depth charts and part of that was the quarterback position you've been on the field with some different guys and especially after saturday night now it seems like timmy is pretty well established how much does that affect you as a running back when you don't have consistency at the quarterback spot now it appears that you probably will um when the ball is in timmy hands like always say uh special things happen so i'm proud of timmy um i'm happy with where he's headed he's got better every game um he's getting more consistent he's getting a rhythm for himself he's getting the flow of the game so overall i just feel like special things are going to happen with him in the backfield how much has getting in the end zone as often as you have so far seven touchdowns in four games how much is that giving you confidence i know it's given the fans confidence in you but how much does it help you get into a new situation to have this early success um so i was always confident in myself i really didn't kind of lose confidence in myself so i really kind of always pictured me doing doing this but uh it's just refreshing to see it all pay off the hard work and different things like that and not only does it help me out it also gives confidence to the o-line because when they see oh yeah we're driving them we're running the ball doing the uh things like that it's helping their confidence also because they're seeing that we're moving the ball they're seeing the progress that we're making and it's just like a spark plug and this it just gives a boost to the entire offense so i'm pretty happy with how things are going offensive line has really made some strides what's your relationship with them like are those guys that you sought out when you first came here knowing that they were going to be important to your success yes i look very deep into that i've seen a lot of those guys are very experienced and as you can see they're just getting better each game everyone's getting better each game so i'm just very excited to just see it all come together so you you come from a powerful high school program detroit cast tech and you come from a football family your father played at bowling green was all mac player uh you have an older brother that played college football you have a younger brother who's going to play college football just speak about being in that atmosphere how much that has helped you to have not only a father but two brothers who are just immersed in this game yeah so to have two brothers that's obviously you could tell the competition is out the roof as they say the younger one is always the best one so i'm very excited to see what he does in his college career but uh without them two i feel like i wouldn't be in the situation i am today because they helped me become who i am and also like i said my father he he still helps me to this day like we landed back from byu at 9am as soon as we landed i talked with my pops and like he just gave me tips and pointers what i did what he liked what he didn't like different things i could improve on but i can't uh what i did well in the game what i didn't do well so to have that in my ear it just helps me like get better and get a greater knowledge of the game so i'm very grateful to have them in my life why number zero um just to be different um i wore number one really all my life so that's really my uh sentimental number um but yeah it was just a different fresh start i guess you could say so i just chose xero so another thing that people have become made aware of is your cooking ability and when guys go off to college you know guys especially got to learn how to cook yeah you can't can't eat out all the time but you're not just you know putting a hamburger in a frying pan you know how to actually cook and i know your grandmother was instrumental in that how important is that to you how much do you enjoy doing it so like i said i enjoy cooking um whenever i had lost her cooking helped me get through a lot of those different things i'll make the recipes and um it would just make me happy to just know that i can make it and it kind of tastes like how hers was but it was nowhere near as good as hers but i mean i tried my best so um yeah cooking is just a big part of my life also just because it's just something to do something to relax i could just sit back and just do it on my own time my free time jaren thanks congratulations on your season thanks for taking time for us today on your birthday yet thank you have a good day seven touchdowns and four games jaren mangum joining us stay with us bulls at smu coming up joey and i are back to wrap it up after this on the usf football radio show just got back from utah ready to go out to texas the bulls and smu saturday afternoon joey johnston in for sam barrington this week and joey this is going to be a challenge we watched a little bit of that smu tcu game on television from out in provo last weekend they have given up some points as smu but boy they scored a lot of points their offense looks absolutely fearsome it does tanner mordecai leads the country in touchdown passes uh he looks like one of the best quarterbacks in not only this conference but in any conference so it's going to be a a big challenge for usf's defense and usf secondary deal with tanner mordecai and all the offensive weapons they have it'll be interesting for us and it will be interesting for bulls fans the game against jim levitt the defensive coordinator of smu probably doesn't matter too much to the players obviously it's a different time frame but this is the the moment we thought we would have in boca raton last year when coach was on the fau staff that game ultimately was not played but here it is coming up this weekend and it is going to be an interesting feeling it's the first time it's happened yeah it'll it and and it's enhanced even more by this season we're in the 25th anniversary where we're sort of always looking back and getting nostalgic feelings about how this program started and the way this program started was very unusual and there aren't many people that could have done it like jim levitt did to have a whole season of just practices and to start this thing from scratch and get it to grow as fast and as it did so what jim levitt did here is history to some people it's ancient history but it is definitely history and it's something worth recognizing so i know he's focused on smu he's focused on winning the game but i think it's proper to pay some homage to what came before us here and and what he did for this program non-conference season is over bulls are one and three i think a whole lot of people could have looked at that schedule and predicted one in three at this point but as they head into conference play granted with a very tough first task in the conference it feels like it's on the upswing we're seeing some things that that give you a good feeling about future games yeah i think what jeff scott said earlier really resonates with me is is how you how you feel coming out of it you can be one and three against this schedule and be shell shocked your confidence gone but this this is not the case here this is a team with confidence and belief in what's going to happen so they're coming out of this in a great way with a lot of it a great experience and yeah they would have liked to want a game or two in here but you have to be realistic about it and know that you grew through this experience and i think it gives you a ton of belief and confidence heading into the conference season all right joey thank you we have the open week coming up no show next week we're back here in two weeks and look forward to visiting with you from dallas for the bulls and smu rather this weekend that's it for our show today on the usf football radio show you

Channel: USF Athletics

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Length: 49min 45sec (2985 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021