Everything UCF Coach Scott Frost said at the North Carolina A&T Week Press Conference
Coming off UCF’s 17-10 season-opening win over Jacksonville State, head coach Scott Frost met with the media Monday to reflect on the performance and outlined areas for improvement, and said the QB situation for Saturday’s game against North Carolina A&T remains TBD.
Here’s everything he had to say:
Opening statement
“Excited to get back to work with the guys. The schedule sets up. I think good for a young team is able to get our work in in camp and have a game and then have a little extra time to improve before game two and then a bye week.
“We need to keep improving as a team and we’re going to have some extra time to do that. So I like how it plays out for us and we gave the guys some time off and ready to get back to work tonight.”
On Cam Fancher’s injury status, and what the plan is moving forward at QB with Fancher and Tayven Jackson
“Yeah, not 100% sure yet. It’s kind of TBD. Cam didn’t have a concussion. Had an issue with his back and kind of pain down his leg. Last I heard, he’s still feeling a little tender, so I’ll get a better idea tonight when I see him and from the trainer, where he’s at.
“So everything with that position is kind of to be determined right now.”
On playing two quarterbacks
“Yeah, you know, it’s kind of what I was saying all through camp. I feel good about multiple people and I think multiple people deserve a chance to play. You just can’t play more than one at that spot.
“So we’re going to make the decisions best for the team. If that means playing two, at times we might. But we’ve got a lot to talk about this week to figure out what we’re going to do this week.”
“And then we’ve got a bye week, so that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the way it’s going to be after that. But we’ll keep doing what we think is best for the team.”
On what impressed him about Tayven Jackson vs. Jax State
“You know, Tayven’s mentality, to be honest, after he got the news that Cam was starting, I saw an uptick in him. And if it takes something to make him angry to get him to play the way he played, then I’m going to keep him angry all the time. Even if I have to give him Indian burns or something.
“Whatever I need to do to make sure that we get that level of intensity from him. What I was impressed with was his ability to handle that and prepare himself for the game. You know, he went in and didn’t have an issue with the plays we were running and handling everything.
“And he stepped into a tough situation and played well under some pressure. So it was impressive performance from him.”
On the QB plan prior to Fancher’s injury
“We were just going with Cam. If the game presented an opportunity to get somebody else some snaps, we were going to. But it’s hard to predict how something like that’s going to go.
“So that wasn’t in the cards until everything that happened Thursday night happened.”
On how they are utilizing the extra time since Thursday
“Well, the coaches have spent a lot of time, you know, really dissecting the game Thursday. You know, identifying what we think we need to work hard on this week and going forward and what we need to improve on. And also, this is the first game we at least have one game of our opponent, so we can game plan a little bit.
“Players were off, lifted this morning. We have a walk-through tonight to install.
“Overall, you know, I thought at times we showed flashes of what we can be, but it wasn’t consistent enough. Just the details and fundamentals need to keep improving, and we’re going to spend a lot of time on that in the next couple of weeks.”
More thoughts on having extra time
“You know, we work the guys hard in camp. So any extra time we get to recover and be full strength will pay off in the long run. We’ve given the players time off.
“That means we come back, and our real work days are Tuesday and Wednesday. We need to make sure Tuesday and Wednesday we get a lot better. And guys need to spend everything they got in those two practices to make sure we’re not just getting ready for the game, but we’re improving. We’ll do the same on the bye week.”
On whether the guard rotation will continue (Gaard Memmelaar and Keegan Smith started and played 50+ snaps, while Jabari Brooks and Cam Kinnie saw about 20 snaps)
“Yeah, I think so, and we’ll go with the guys that are playing the best. But, you know, all four of those guys are good enough to be on the field and had really good camps.
“That’s not like quarterback. I think you can rotate guys in and keep guys fresh. We got a couple tackles that I think are deserving a little bit of time too that we’ll try to get in sooner or later. But the more we can keep those guys up front rested and fresh, I think the better we’ll be.”
On his evaluation of the blocking from his offensive line, and how the running backs did picking up blitzes
“Yeah, we missed one corner blitz obviously on the play where Cam (Fancher) went down. I thought we got on people pretty well Thursday night. We didn’t finish blocks as well as I wanted, and that’s something that we’ll work on.
“We got to get tough yards as running backs even when the hole’s not there. We did that at times. I thought Myles (Montgomery) did a good job of that, but everyone needs to. Made some bad decisions at quarterback at times, just putting the ball in the wrong place or making the wrong decision.
“That needs to get cleaned up, and then just overall our perimeter blocking needs to be better and then overall our just detail on routes of being exactly where we’re supposed to be when we’re supposed to be there. So luckily those are all things you can fix.”
On what he learned from the first game
“Yeah, my answer’s not going to be much different than after the game, and part of that’s because now that you can watch the game and we had a couple two-hour breaks, it felt like in the middle of the game I had a pretty good idea of what happened Thursday night better than usual.
“But one of my big questions going in is would the team fight and how would they handle adversity, and I think there are a lot of things we need to get better at, but those two things really impressed me. The guys didn’t panic even when we got behind and they kept fighting, so the fight was good and we handled some negative things happening pretty well Thursday.”
On the performance of TE Dylan Wade
“Dylan was probably the most consistent at the position. Again, I like several guys we have at that position. The play he made was a big play for us, obviously one of the big plays, but he did several good things.
“Overall, receivers and tight ends, we need to block a little bit better, both on the perimeter, on bubbles, and runs on the perimeter. Dylan’s certainly part of that. He had some good ones, but also some ones that we missed, so I want guys to take a little pride in that.
“Overall, Dylan’s an explosive athlete. He’s fast and can run, and when you get the ball in his hands, he’s got a chance to make a big play, so we’ll continue to try to put him in those spots.”
On the improvement he wants to see going into the second game
“I think the two biggest jumps is just, No. 1, playing more mistake-free. It seemed like every time we got something rolling, there was a bad mistake, whether it was an offside on defense on a big play or a false start on the one or a holding penalty on a close-to-touchdown play. We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.
“So we got to clean those things up. That’s just a little more focus and discipline. And then just overall, it’s cliche, but running, blocking, tackling, and playing more full speed all the time.”
On the punter battle, and Anthony Venneri earning the starting job
“Yeah, both guys, I think, had really good camps. I think they’re both improving. So obviously, we’ll kind of continue to look at that week to week.
“But I feel good about both guys being able to do it. And I don’t think we punted great Thursday, but it didn’t hurt us either. So it was a solid performance.
“And I think that’s kind of like a couple other positions will probably continue to be a competition as the season goes on.”
On the frustration of having 13-play and 17-play drives and coming away with zero points
“Yeah, and that was frustrating. You know, the one thing that did was help us with time of possession, and the defense played well early particularly, and part of that was they weren’t on the field all the time. So there was some positive to take out of that.
“But we’ve got to be more consistent and not make mistakes when we do have to go on long drives, and we’ve got to be more explosive too. And part of that’s on the coaching staff, making sure that we get some plays called that could pop. And then when they do pop, we’ve got to hit them.
“And then your 13-play drives become a lot shorter. So we talked about that. If you’re going to go on long drives, you’ve got to execute really well for a long period of time and multiple plays. Explosives can make that a lot easier.”
On the defensive line’s performance
“I think we played well, but we could play a lot better. Those guys were very disruptive and played hard. We have to play smart too. A couple of offsides plays, making sure we’re lined up right and doing the right things. Even in pass rush, we’ve got to stay in our lanes and not give an athletic quarterback like that a chance to step up and take off.
“So I was real happy with the start from those guys, but that’s a talented group, and we’re expecting a lot out of them.”
On DT Horace Lockett
“Yeah, when Horace is fresh, he’s a problem. He’s a lot to deal with. So hopefully we’ll keep getting him more and more run and get him a chance to get in there and make plays, but he definitely showed up Thursday.”
On LB Lewis Carter being unavailable in the first half of NC A&T due to a second-half targeting call
“Yeah, it’ll be a rotation. I feel good about a lot of those guys. We’re going to appeal that hit, and I know that wasn’t intentional. In my opinion, it was just close. I feel bad for him, though, but it’d be a mix of Cole Kozlowski and Jayden McDonald, and then feel good about TJ Bullard and Troy Ford too.”
On WR Waden Charles
“Yeah, I expect to see more and more from Waden, and he just has a level of maturity about him. He’s tough. He’s intentional with learning and doing things right, and he didn’t make a lot of plays Thursday, but the one play he made on third down was one of the bigger plays in the game, and he went in and executed and ran a good route and made the catch, and that was an important play for us.
“So he’ll continue to get opportunities.”
On how confident he is in their depth
“Yeah, I feel good about our depth. I still do. Hopefully we get opportunities to play multiple people, and depth wasn’t an issue Thursday.
“It was just overall precision and execution, and that goes for the starters and the guys behind them. But, again, all the things we need to get better at are things that are easily you’re able to improve if you’re working on things. So from top of the roster to bottom, we’ve got to continue to get better.”
On getting the first game behind him
“You know, we were in a spot where it could have ended a lot worse and we’d had to learn in a loss, and I said, you know, being able to make those corrections after a win feels a lot better. But I think the guys were happy we won, but they know we have to get better and that we can and we need to play better. I think everything will gel better.
“We’ve got a lot of new guys trying to learn to play together, coaching staff learning to coach together, head coach calling plays that hasn’t called them in a few years. So, you know, everything needs to be a little bit smoother next time we play.”
On North Carolina A&T
“They had a tough game against Tennessee State. I thought they played well and hard. Could have gone either way, but I’m impressed with how those guys play.
“You can tell they’re well coached and how hard they play. Gave up a couple big plays that probably made the difference. At the same time, they had the other team on defense in third and 15-plus a lot of times because of their ability to create negative plays.
“Haven’t watched them on offense yet. I will as the week goes on. But I got respect for them after what I saw from them last week.”
On the health of his team
“We’ve got some issues kind of waiting to hear from the trainer of who will be available and who won’t. Didn’t have any major injuries, but some things that could put a couple guys questionable for next week.”
On quarterbacks like Tayven Jackson who need to have a fire lit under them, or maybe players who are better under the lights than they are in practice
“Yeah, we say all the time you don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level you’re training. You can talk to almost every coach in the country and they’re not going to trust somebody who doesn’t practice well but tells you they’re going to go out and play different than they practice. We’ve got to go based off what we see.
“Tayven did well, but I know there’s another level there in him. I just want to see that all the time.”
On seeing more from the running game
“Yeah. Myles is our clear-cut leader on the entire team, and he’s a really good player. We just can’t run him into the ground.
“The game stayed close, and we kept him out there a lot. But I trust Jaden Nixon, I trust Stacy Gage, I trust AG (Agyeman Addae), so some other guys that I want to see get some chances. We’ll still continue to use Myles, but he needs a break once in a while.”
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