On what he does to entertain himself on a long flight
You'd like to catch up with some sleep that you didn't get during the week. But sometimes that's hard on flights. Usually load up the iPad with some movies. Delta, obviously we fly at Delta, they have some movies on board that could spark some interest. But sleep is the number one thing. Usually, I catch a nap for about 30 to 45 minutes and then after that, if I'm not watching film, I'll try to find a movie to catch up on.
On his go-to movie
I'm a big action, you can imagine. I like a lot of explosions, a lot of fight scenes, a lot of people crashing into each other or cars crashing into each other. So that kind of stimulates me. So anything that's the latest action thriller, I'm probably gonna watch that.
On Jaishawn Barham's impact
I mean, he's been a huge impact. The biggest thing with him, and I think he's starting to really kind of find his way in our defense. I thought early on, that was his biggest struggle was trying to see how he fit with some of the moving parts of what we do on defense. And I think over the last two or three games, he's kind of gotten into a groove, especially in past coverage where he's got a higher level of comfort on where he fits in.
On getting a guy comfortable in a defense during an era where there is a lot of player movement
Yes, it takes a lot of the off the field hours with watching film, going over some of the installation that we put in. And Coach Wink does a great job of installing defenses to make sure everyone understands it and everyone understands their role. The biggest thing with Jaishawn, it's been the communication part. You know, whatever he was asked to do at his previous spot, you can tell communicating with the other players and the coaches probably wasn't as big as a factor. And that was one of his biggest struggles is if he didn't know something to express it or if there was any confusion to make sure we were all on the same page. And I think he's gotten better at that as far as asking the right question. And then his comfort level with his teammates. I know in talking to him individually, there was a sense of, you know, Coach, I'm the outsider. These guys have played with each other. We have so many guys that were on the team, you know, the last two years and were on the team for the, you know, the national championship run. He just wanted to make sure he could fit in with those guys and didn't want to come in and, you know, kind of, you know, feel like the new guy that wasn't a part. So he wanted to ingratiate himself to his teammates. And I think that's come. That's just, you know, a natural thing for a young man. He's so humble. You know, he's one of those guys that, you know, if he's in a room with you and there's 10 people, you'll hear eight of them, but you wouldn't hear him. You know what I mean? So he's just one of those type of guys. But I think his comfort level with his teammates has probably been the biggest.
On what one part of his game that he does best
I think as far as a blitzer, he's one of the, you know, better blitzers that we have. We have so many guys that are dynamic as far as getting after the quarterback and getting in the backfield that, you know, we can kind of take our pick on who we want to be the primary guy with some of the stunts and the blitzes. But as far as linebackers go, he's got a unique skill to get after the passer, get in the backfield because he's so powerful.mHe can power rush and he's got enough wiggle where he can make a guy miss and get in the backfield.
On where he's seen Ernest Hausmann grow
Yes, you can see, you know, Coach Minter and, you know, the linebacker coaches that he had last year, you can see their, you know, confidence in him grow. I watched every game last year just to get a better feel for what type of player he was. And by the end of the year, he was kind of ingrained as the third starter. They felt comfortable putting him in along with Mike Barrett and Junior Colson, which says a lot about him. So he's come in the leadership role in that room because we lost so many guys, but he's developed. I think he put too much on himself early on a year. Sometimes when you wear that leadership hat, you know, you can put too much on your plate. And I think that's where he was early on a year, but he's another one that's settled in, you know, different coordinator, different position coach, kind of had to see where he fit in. And he's done a great job just like Jaishawn as far as kind of getting into his groove and finding his niche. I think the big thing with college football, especially now, like you said, with so many new faces every year, not having a preseason and just practicing against each other. I think the first two or three games, teams are still trying to figure it out. And, you know, our first two or three games were, you know, really, really, we had really good opponents. So you could see some of the warts that you had that you might not know that you had going through preseason camp. But I think over the last couple of games, Ernest has done a good job. He kind of understands his role and he's been in position to make a lot of tackles.
On his interception
I think the best thing that Ernest did with us having the iPads on the sideline, it makes a huge difference for us defensively. He saw the depth that he was at and kind of settled a little too soon. And Will Rogers is a great quarterback. That was his first interception of the year. He's great with his ball placement and realized just getting a little bit more depth based off of the receiver's release and where he was going, he would have had an interception. And obviously he corrected that on the second time. If you noticed the second time, he was moving a little further back as the ball was being released. So his depth helped him. He still was a fingertip interception. Great catch. But he was in better position to intercept it just by getting depth and realizing where the receiver was trying to get to.
On the depth at linebacker
It's always a thing that you want to improve on. I think you're only as good, especially when you're trying to play at a high level, you're only as good as your depth. If you ask most coaches, if you want your guys to play physical and play fast and kind of play with reckless abandon, you know there's going to be plays that they're going to have to come off the field. And you don't want your level of play to dip because of the guys that you're putting in. I think that's the challenge for most high-level programs. So we're always trying to improve our depth. Jimmy Rolder, we saw almost in the Ernest Hausman role from last year as a guy we trusted to be that kind of third starter that you could plug and play and feel like there wasn't going to be any drop off. He's been battling some injuries over the last couple of weeks. We're hoping and praying to get him back as soon as possible. But we've been very, very happy with him. You know, Jaydon Hood was able to get in the game this past week, his first extensive plays that he's been able to put together. And we were happy that he played double-digit plays and was productive. You know, some things that he can always improve on, but for his first time, you know, playing for a bunch of plays, I thought he did a good job. And hopefully we can expand on that. And hopefully he can carve a bigger role in the defense. And then Cole Sullivan is another young guy we've been very, very excited about. We've been anticipating trying to get in the game, just haven't found the right time to get him in, but he's a kid we're very excited about. I think he has a bright future. Same with Jason Hewlett, same thing. He's still figuring out how to play linebacker a little bit coming from playing in the secondary in high school, but tremendous upside, you know, really good athlete, you know, guy that kind of matches what linebackers are nowadays. They can play in space and, you know, feel comfortable on slot receivers and tight ends. And then there's old reliable CB, Christian Boivin, who is a steady hand, especially on special teams, but a guy we know we can go to if we needed to throw him in in a critical situation.
On how to get game experience for the younger players
I think the main thing just so guys don't get, you know, you can get cold if you're sitting on the sideline, even on a warm day, because just if you're standing around and you're not active, you know, you're going to get a little tight and you're not going to be as productive as you can be. So we always tell guys the easiest way to get involved is on special teams, but you have to earn that. You know, Cole was a guy that was getting ready to be on four core special teams and was very, very productive in those four core before he got nicked up a little bit. But I think his growth there is one of the ways that we started to build trust with him. And the easiest way is, you know, there's certain packages that you can put in where, you know, whether it's a third down package or some type of situational package where you can get them in, that guarantees them a chance to get on the field and we're working through that also.
On what he wants to see from his players during the bye week and what needs to improve
I think the number one thing that you've seen, we've been decent against the run. You know, our standard is high. We want to be better. Now it's what comes off of stopping the run. Play action passes, screens, you know, which have been a big deal last two weeks. And then the underneath coverage to help our defensive backs out. That's always a big point of emphasis for us as linebackers. If we're going to play zone coverage, which we're doing a little bit more than we've done in the past, linebackers have to do their part in the pass coverage. I think our secondary does a good job of keeping guys in front of them. But when you're getting high level offenses that we've played, they've got good quarterbacks, good coaches. They're going to try to attack you in the seams and some of the underneath spots in the curls and in the middle of the field. So we have to do a good job at linebackers when we're in those positions. One, to defend those areas, and two, to make the tackles when they do throw it short to get those guys on the ground.
On the biggest characteristic of a missed tackle
It's eye violations. We're a team that prides itself, when I say team, defensively, on effort and angles. I don't think it's ever an effort issue with our guys as far as some of the missed tackles and explosive plays that we've given up. A lot of it's angles. A perfect example is we talk about underneath coverage. If I'm a flat player and the ball's thrown outside, I'm the forced player. I need to make sure I force the ball back inside because I have 10 other guys that have a possibility to make the tackle. But if I take a bad angle and let the ball outside, now there's a chance for a bigger play because we've lost leverage and just knowing where your help is. And when it comes to one-on-one, it's one, to make the tackle, taking the proper angle with your eyes. If you look at a runner from his shoulder pads up, you're probably going to miss them because the eyes will lie to you. You have to think numbers to waste because that's usually going to stay in the same place to go make tackles.
On what the bye week looks like for him in recruiting
Oh, well, we don't waste any time. We're going to practice on Wednesday, get on the road Wednesday. Always going to try to comb our footprint area and what we call our footprint area is within a four and a half to five-hour radius, you know, east, west, probably not north and south from here where we have prospects that can drive. We're going to do that. And then I'm going to head down south, head down to Georgia. Was going to go down to Florida, have some bad weather, you know, during hurricane season. So going to go down to Georgia and see a couple players who are pretty high on our list and they're high on us. So hopefully we'll come back with a couple of good ones.
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