Spring Day 2: Spavital, quarterbacks tackle new season

Jake Spavital

On Kyle Allen’s mindset with no body behind him in spring ball…

“The leader ship role has increased tremendously. He is taking a lot more pride and a lot more leadership he is speaking up when he is out there. That is a good sign, especially when you don’t have much behind him right now and waiting for Kyler to come in in the fall. But right now he is taking it by the horns and running with it.”

On Allen’s confidence coming into his second spring, following the Liberty Bowl…

“When you have five games of experience underneath your belt it is definitely going to help out a lot. He is doing great, he is light years from his first spring practice about a year ago. Its always year two, this is the best time for the quarterback because you have all of the operation things out of the way and he can sit back and play some football now.”

On Allen’s improvement from his first start to the Liberty Bowl…

“Not really surprised to see his improvement. The approach that Kyle has taken since day one, even when Kenny won the battle at the beginning of the year, he came in every single day and kept putting the work in. He was wanting to get better every single day and naturally when you see a kid take that approach to the game and the way he workd you are naturally going to see him increase and get better every day.”

On the likeliness of him continuing to improve at this pace…

“The sky is the limit for that kid right now.”

On Conner McQueen’s progress..

“Speedy McQueen is doing well right now. He’s out there and he knows it better just as well as anybody out there. He is out there, he is operating and making checks, he is getting better each day too. I am very pleased with the progress of Conner as well.”

On what he wants to see from Allen at the end of spring practice…

“I want to see him just go out there and start making decisions where I don’t always have to lead him in the right direction. I want to see him take the lead if he sees something and go out there and attack it. I think he is getting there, he is starting to trust his instincts and go with them a little bit more. That is normally year two, he has already seen all the looks, he knows what is good versus certain looks that the defense is going to give so he has to go out there and if he sees something just go out there and attack it.”

On Allen's work ethic and the development of his practice habits…

“It has to develop. The way we operate with this system we throw them right into the fire on day one. Their heads are going to be spinning and the speed of the game is a little bit different than high school. When he just settles down and adjusts to it he is naturally going to keep getting better and right now from a year difference you can tell the game has slowed down a lot for him.”

“Coach Christensen brings a lot to the table in that aspect, a lot of experience. You are going to see he knows how to run the spread offense and he knows little tweaks to the run game that you are going to see. He is going to run against bad boxes and if they are going to outnumber us, especially since you get that a lot in the SEC, coach Christensen brings a lot of different schemes that is going to help be able to attack those boxes when they try to outnumber us.”

“You never know, I hope so. Right now we are sprinkling a little of that in but right now I wouldn’t count on that. With the number of quarterbacks I cant afford to lose one right now. You can see that he has done that in the past and at his past institutions that he has been at. It will be good to see what we can do with the quarterback run game.”

On Kyle’s physical ability to handle the run game…

“He can but he’s not a burner now. The way we can handle the schemes and the way we can do things we can play into Kyle’s strengths.”

On the interaction between him and new DC John Chavis…

“No film but a lot of discussions. I pick his brain, I think you can learn something every single day so I ask him a lot of questions on how he attacks offenses, especially from spread offenses and just how he uses certain techniques and man. How he presses certain guys and plays soft leverage on other guys. I can learn a lot form a lot of people and I definitely have some pretty good discussions with Chief.”

On having two new faces, Moorehead and Christensen, on the coaching staff…

“It’s great. They are out there too, learning as well because they are new as well. It has been great, they bring a lot of great energy. They are running around, Coach Moorehead is very active and very involved. I still think he can go out there and play right now, he wishes he probably still could play. It is good, those kids look up to him especially with his experience with the Indianapolis Colts, he brings a lot to the table. Coach Christensen has been doing it for a long time, has a lot of experience and has had success everywhere he has been and it brings a lot to the table right now.”

On which wide receivers are going to get more reps with Josh Reynolds out…

“That’s a good questions. We are reppin’ a lot of people right now. We got Jeremy Tubuyo stepping up, Quiv stepping up a lot, you even get to rep Damion Ratley, Christen Kirk and Ricky Seals. We run a lot of reps out there so these kids are going to get a lot of reps naturally.”

On Myles Garrett terrorizing the offense in practice…

“Who is Myles Garrett?” (Laughter.)

On Ricky Seals-Jones being a leader in the weight room and its translation in practice…

“Ricky looks like a different man right now. He is already 6-5, 235 pounds, he is already bigger than everyone out there. The approach he has taken to the game right now is pretty impressive and you can see the leadership role in him take off. We had a young team last year, we returned a lot and you can see they are already experienced now and they are not rookies anymore, it is time for them to take the leadership role.”

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Kyle Allen

On the difference in his comfort level this year…

“It’s a huge difference. You know, coming in last year obviously I learned the system quick, but as you can see in the first scrimmage it’s a totally different atmosphere coming into that — but I can see the guys are rallying around me a lot. We got a lot of chemistry with the O-line and receivers and stuff and it’s going well.”

On the Liberty Bowl and late-season games helping his confidence…

“I think it helped a lot with confidence and with guys following me. They believed in me a lot more; I showed out a little bit early in the season and then I showed them what I could do and I think that they are following me a lot more and they are seeing me more as a leader than they did before.”

On last August and being told he wasn’t the starter…

“That day was probably the toughest day since I have been here, obviously. I worked my butt off for seven months for the job, you know I came in, thought I had it. Kenny obviously deserved it, he came out and showed out that first game. That day I broke down pretty hard and didn’t know what I was going to do, but I had a lot of talks with people close to me and they said, 'Stick with it, you’re a great player, you’re a great person, you’re going to get what you want,' and I just stuck with it and it ended up working out.”

On how the coaches told him…

“They just brought me in their office. Just like anything, you know, it’s business. They told me straight up, they said, 'Kenny is going to start the first game; you’re going to have a chance to win it back, so don’t bow out right now. You’ve got to stay in this.'”

On the competition this year…

“I have a lot of competition now with Connor McQueen too, don’t get that wrong. He’s out here doing good, but it’s good to know that there’s not something over my shoulder all the time — but it doesn’t mean I’m not out here working and competing. I’m competing the same way I did last spring as I am right now and it’s not going to change my mindset. We’re getting better every day out here. I’m making guys make sure they compete at receiver spots and line spots too.”

“Probably the biggest thing is to get our chemistry with the receivers down. Last year you saw we didn’t have a lot of chemistry; we had a lot of guys kind of off because they were used to how Johnny played and weren’t used to how me and Kenny played. So, they’re getting used to how we play now and we’re really trying to work hard on where they need to be on the field and stuff like that. So, that’s going to be the biggest thing.”

On how he kept his focus while Kenny Hill was starting…

“You never know what’s going to happen. He could suffer, God forbidding, a bad injury or something like that where I would have to step in, or what happened in the season when I had to step in and play so I stepped in. So, you just never know. Man, it was hard. I had a lot of help from my family and a lot of help from my close friends just telling me to stick with it and I didn’t want to stick in it at points, but I had to and it worked out.”

On the conversation about him getting a chance…

“What I remember is that day I texted him (Spavital), the first day of that bi-week and I texted him to ask him if I could come talk to him in his office. Then I came up and talked to him and I said, 'Look, I think I deserve a shot at this, I want a chance, I want it to reopen,' and he had already set his mind to reopen it before I had gotten in there. So, it was a mutual decision and I was ready to get after it."

On how gratifying it was to earn the starting spot..

“For about ten seconds it was real and I was excited about it. I knew after that I still had to prove myself and I had to work hard, and work harder than I even did before.

On whether he ever considered transferring…

"You know, thoughts like that always cross your mind when you are not playing well, but through my family and the people around me, they told me not to think about that and think about where you’re at right now — and if it ever comes to that, we will talk about that situation. But nothing serious like that."

On already having been in the position Kyler Murray and Connor McQueen will be in…

“It probably helps a little bit, but as of now my focus is on spring and fall camp is a long ways away. I’m here with the guys right now, when Kyler gets in we’re going to get him up to date and he’s going to get the best shot he can. He’s an amazing player; he’s never lost a game in his life. So, he’s going to come in and compete, no doubt about that. He’ll be ready, I’ll be ready, it’ll be fun.”

On all the talk about Kyler…

“He deserves it, the kid’s never lost a game in his life. He’s a Texas legend. I know everyone here is from Texas and I’m from Arizona, so I don’t get that love yet, but he’s a legend around here. So, he’s going to step in, he’s going to put the work in just like I did, but it’s going to be a fun competition.”

On how valuable it was to get experience on the field…

“No doubt it was huge, game experience there’s nothing like it. You can’t recreate what happens in a game in practice. So many different looks from different teams, from different defenses. I mean, none of the last five teams ran the same defenses week to week. We were switching up our whole game plan every week, so it made me very versatile. We had a bunch of different looks and it helped me out a lot.

“Really, I didn’t really care where I ended up location-wise. A lot of people like to stay in Texas — which, Texas has great football, that’s why I came here. But being from the west coast, I was just looking around the whole country. Really, for me it was the people around here, the coaching around here, how they were as people, not as coaches, and the people in the city. Wasn’t much football stuff. I just knew Spav was going to get me where I needed to be and I knew I was going to feel comfortable here."

On his trip here a couple years ago with Christian Kirk…

“I think that trip was for a spring game and I think that really opened up my eyes, but I think more it opened up Christian’s eyes to what it was like — because I think that was his first trip he ever took for anything. I think that was huge for him, and obviously as you can see him running around out here, that was a huge get for us. He’s going to be one of the best guys on the field this year. He works like it and he plays like it, too. You can see him out there right now catching extra balls, getting extra work in. Not many guys do that out here, so he’s setting the tone."

On his chemistry with Josh Reynolds…

“Yeah, no doubt, I think that’s big. I think me and Spav talked about that coming into spring. Not to knock it, but him being hurt, it frees up other time for other guys. Like Damian (Ratley) coming in and Jeremy (Tabuyo) and people like that. So, when Josh is tired and we need other guys to step up it will be better, because we have that chemistry now."

On whether he is more comfortable throwing to the right side...

“I don’t think I ever thought into left or right, I think it was just matchup-type deal. I was comfortable with Josh all through spring and in the fall I think you saw I threw to him a lot more and I’m getting with Speedy a lot. Me and Speedy, especially this spring, even though he got hurt yesterday, we’ve been working. He knows he needs to work, he knows it’s his time, so we’ve been working."

On the contrast in starts between Louisiana-Monroe and Auburn…

“It was big. The first start, I feel like they really brought down the playbook for me, which they need to do and I came in nervous, I’m not going to lie. Even though it’s Louisiana-Monroe, you’re playing in front of 105,000 people. You step on the field, you look around and there’s people everywhere. I come from a high school where I am lucky if a thousand people come to my game. So, I think going into that game and then going into Auburn after that — I always love playing on the road more just to shut people up, honestly — I felt comfortable, I felt focused and I felt like a leader on the team and people rallied around me after that first series and it was a lot better."

On before the game against Auburn…

“Well about a week before, my quarterback coach back from home who I am really close with — he’s like a brother to me — he called me and he was just distraught because he saw how we’d played the last week. He was at the game, actually, and he saw how we played and he saw how the people were on the sidelines and how we were just dazed like we didn’t even want to be there. He called me and was like, 'Look, you have to talk to the team or you guys aren’t going to do anything. You guys are going to be bad and play awful.'

"So, he said that and then Julien came up to me before the game and was like, 'You have to talk to them.' So, I got in there and talked to them and I think they liked that. They hadn’t seen that much around here lately and they liked that and they rallied around it."

On the difference in the quarterback he is since his first start…

“Oh, way better. Leaps and bounds better. I’m a lot more mature now, I’m a lot more confident and I think it was more of a confidence and maturity thing than anything. I mean, I always have those X’s and O’s down and stuff like that, but when you get on the field you get big eyes and stuff like that. So, I’m a lot more comfortable and more down to earth with the game and stuff and so it’s a lot easier for me.”
 

On his relationship with Johnny…

“Not much, I talked to him on my visit a little bit, he’s texted me a couple of times. I’m not that close with him at all I’ve just talked with him a couple of times.”

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Conner McQueen

On how his offseason has been…

"It has been different. The coaches are asking me to do a lot more. It’s something I’ve been waiting for since I’ve been here. Probably the biggest adjustment is the amount of throws I have per practice, I think its something like 50-60 extra throws every single day that I haven’t been used to in the past."

On Kyle Allen’s progression…

"The two biggest things that stand out to me are his leadership and his confidence. After the season ended he really took this team over as his own and guys are starting to look to him as a leader. Even though he’s only 18, he has really stepped up and become one of the main leaders."

On Allen’s leadership beginning at Auburn…

"That is exactly when it began. We were huddled up before the game and Kyle jumped in the middle. I just saw the look in his eyes and the intensity he brought, you could tell it was on."

On his role…

"I think it will be the role I’ve always had. I’ll help Kyler (Murray) learn the offense and be Spav’s second eye on the side since he is watching all the different things with the receivers and the O-line, as well as helping the guys out with their technique and stuff. I’ll still have my holding role on special teams."

On whether he feels more pressure to push Allen…

"I wouldn’t say it’s more pressure; I always push the guys as much as I can. It really isn’t that much different — with Kenny (Hill) it is, since he’s gone and it is just Kyle in front of me. Kyle does a great job of pushing himself and coming to me with small things."

On what Allen is like in the team rooms and in preparation…

"He is always up here before practice watching film. Every day Coach Spav will talk about things when we watch film and Kyle will have already watched it once or twice. He is always up here doing the right things, being the first one in the weight room and doing extras. I really think his preparation, not just this year but starting last spring, has put him in a great position to succeed."

On how critical that is for a quarterback…

"It is big. Now you see big-time quarterbacks coming in the spring because the more reps you can get with an offense, the more comfortable and confident you’ll be."

On his nickname, 'Speedy'…

"You know, Coach Spav threw that one on me today. He said that was something Coach Kingsbury put on me but I don’t remember why. I think Noil owns it a little better."