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I don’t know that. I believe that in this league, it’s such a big league, a physical league, that you’re probably not going to … a lot of teams don’t have a feature back. They’ll do it kind of by committee. Obviously if you have one who is that much better than somebody else, you’re going to give him 8-10 carries more per game than the next guy. But kind of where we’re at is we feel like we’ve got three guys that — four when Dominique gets back — that we feel like we can have success with. Obviously you have a depth chart for a reason. With Rocket being No. 1 on that. We just try to keep them fresh. But if Rocket’s fresh he’s going to get the majority of the carries.

Yeah, any time you have the situation like we have, where we’re playing several, you have to find in recruiting the positive about that. And certainly ours is that if you’re good enough to help us win and get drafted and things of that nature, that the wear and tear on your body wouldn’t be quite as significant as if you’re carrying the ball 25 times a game. So yeah, to answer that …

Dominique, we had a talk about that this morning in our staff meeting with Dave (Polansky), I feel like he’ll be able to do some things. Maybe not the first week, as far as team-oriented type things. But he’s progressing well. He’s ahead of schedule. So I don’t know if we’ll have him for the Cincinnati game or not, but I feel like we’re gonna have him the majority of the season.

TC will be in camp. He’ll be in camp, but that doesn’t mean, Trey, that he’s going to be active in camp. But we felt like it was important that he come into camp, be a part of the team, be a part of the meetings, be a part of practice. Not that he’s going to be able to practice, yet. But we felt like that was important.

Renfro hasn’t been cleared yet to practice, so he’ll be in the training room getting healthy and those things. Now, he can throw, just can’t do anything team oriented right now. I think he will be able to do that by first, second game. I think he’ll be able… and maybe some during this fall camp. But with that said, he’s not going to get here. He’s not going to be able to practice until school starts unless we have some type of injury. Then we can pull him off the waiver list, or however you want to look at it.

I really don’t have any concern… Well, yeah I do. We’ve got to find a pass-rusher out of that group. Pass rushers don’t have to be edge guys. They can rush the passer from inside, as well. Trust me, I’ve had to block a lot of them in this league.

We went out, we were fortunate enough to get Landon Jackson. Dorian Gerald coming back would have somewhat of an answer there, as well. I think the guys we have as well in Zach and Stew and some of those guys on the edge. Eric Thomas had a better one. Jordan Domineck is a guy that we specifically went out to help us at that position, but to rush the quarterback. He wasn’t here. So, that one. Jackson wasn’t healthy. He is now. Dorian Gerald wasn’t healthy. He is now.

So, we’ll see if some of those guys can help us rush the passer. I feel like we can. On the inside, I’ve been really pleased with Terry Hampton. I think he's got good explosion. He’s not very tall. He’s got built-in leverage. And certainly Taylor Lewis had a good summer, too. But losing Taurean for a while definitely hurt us. Isaiah Nichols took over the leadership role in that room.

I think Deke Adams has done a really good job of going out and recruiting. So, we’ll see what we have. That’s probably the most - even more so than wide receiver in my opinion - that’s probably the group where you go, ‘Okay, we need some things to happen.’ We think that we have the people for it to happen, but probably that’s the biggest question mark possibly on the team. But I’m very confident about that group. I think we’ve done a nice job of developing the ones we have and throwing a few more out of the portal in there.

Ty’Kieast is going to start off at tackle, I think. Cody (Kennedy) and I had a long conversation about him. Dalton is a guy that, we want him to stay healthy every game. But I don’t know that he can play every single rep of every game. I don’t know. He’s got some issues, some physical issues injury-wise. So, we’re going to solidify that right tackle spot first.

We’re also going to move him in at right guard. I just think the guy’s a really good player, and I think he needs to help us. So, we’re going to keep him on the right side right now — right tackle, right guard — see if he can win one of those spots. If he doesn’t, he’s going to play a lot of ball for us either way.

We talked about left tackle, as well, but I think the best thing for him for playing time is to keep him on that right side and let him learn two positions.

Eric’s got a lot of value for us because he certainly can play end when we’re in our three-down line. In a four-down configuration, he certainly can play inside as well. So he’s got a lot of value there, just because he’s worked so hard and he’s strong and he can run. I do think they’ll be some definite experimentation with him inside and outside.

We’ve got Quincey (McAdoo) as well, but I know you didn’t mention him because he was here in the spring. Isaiah (Sategna) has very good ball skills, can separate. He’s exactly what we thought he would be. (Sam) Mbake is a big, long, physical guy that can run. We like him as well. We think we hit on all three of those guys there.

Matt (Landers) is a guy I knew from Georgia when I was there. He certainly looks different than he did when he was a freshman at Georgia. He’s big, physical. He can run, now. I mean, he can fly. I think what he’s done is he’s made us better. He’s made Warren Thompson better. He’s made Ketron Jackson better, and that’s because of the heat his presence puts on them. So I think on the outside we’re going to be in pretty good shape. I really do. But I think he’s going to help us, and I think he’ll help us a lot.

(Sategna)'s really smart, so he learns fast. That's the one thing that NCAA has allowed us to do is have meetings, so that's helped us. In the past, there wasn't as much meeting time. Now, we're able to meet, so he's picking it up fast. He picks up the offense fast. The number one thing that keeps young kids off the field is they don't know the offense. They don't know the defense. So therefore, they're thinking and you're not seeing their full athletic ability. Again, he has great ball skills, and he can separate on a route. And I think those are things you saw in high school. And he's fast. Those things you saw in high school, but I knew he was a smart guy. I knew he was a smart kid, but he really picked up the offense fast.

There's a list of guys that weren't here in the spring and you're going, 'Can they help us?' (Patrick) Kutas on the O-Line would be one of those guys. He's really talented. But yes, those are few guys that you're going to find out within the first couple of weeks whether they're going to be a part of of helping us on a Saturday as far as on the field is concerned.

The way we practice. The expectations of practice, I want us to be sharp as a coaching staff. I want to be sharp players. I don't want to have a lot of missed assignments. I want to bring in who we are and practice how we are and practice fast and physical and transition well and take care of the football. Of course, on defense, try to get the football out and things of that nature. But I just want to be organized. We've been bragging all the time, 'We got all these coordinators back.' And I want to see that. If we're going to beat people, we’ve got to be ahead of them in practice as well.

We are bigger. I mean, we're a big football team now. We look like an SEC football team, in my opinion, now. Speed-wise, I think there's two parts of that. One is you recruit speed, and the other is you develop speed. I think we've done a really good job, Coach Walker and his staff, of developing our guys to get bigger and stronger, but also we spent a lot of time on speed development training as well. So I think we're a bigger and a faster team. And then I think recruiting and the guys we brought in we're starting to recruit bigger and stronger and faster guys when they walk in the door and then you can develop them even further at that point. So yeah, I like the way our team looks and I like our team speed.

Beaux Limmer. I mean, he's a freakish type guy. He's strong in the squat and the bench and all these things. I mean, he's kind of a freak of nature type guy. He stood out. That's the one that I would say right now that I can recall that I thought really was unbelievable. There's a lot of them, but he's one I want to talk about.

Bates is a guy that can kick. Obviously he had a full-ride offer to — I don’t know how many — at least one other SEC football team. It’ll be between him and Cam Little. I think they’re both kicking it 6-7 (yards) deep right now on average. Vito was valuable now. That’s a valuable deal when Scott and I are sitting there and we’re ahead and, I don’t know, I think it was the Mississippi State game and we’re sitting there talking about what we want to do. Scott said, ‘Let’s just kick it out.’ I said, ‘Well, he damn sure better kick it out if we’re going to do that. We’ll get booed out of the stadium in here.’ He booted that thing out of there. Lot of value there when you don’t necessarily have to defend a kickoff return from somebody else’s team. We feel like we have them. Obviously, I think Scott would like for Bates to be that guy so Cam can really concentrate on field goals, but whomever wins that spot is going to be the one who kicks it the furthest and the highest and with the most consistency.

Well, it’s not me vs. Jimbo (Fisher), or me vs. Nick Saban. It’s our team vs. their team. That’s how I’ve always kind of looked at it. I like the guys, the head coaches in the SEC. I want to mind my own business. I ain’t worried about somebody else’s business. I’m worried about mine and our team and what we do. I think you can cause some friction and some problems when you worry about somebody else’s team. If I wanted to worry about their team I’d go interview for the job. That ain’t got nothing to do with me. That’s kind of how I feel about it.

But I think I rant … I don’t know, I just answer your questions and I am who I am. Some people like it and some people don’t. I don’t know how to answer the question honestly.

Big. Well he has got to step up. Right now he will be one on the depth chart. He's got to step up and be that guy. Obviously we went out and got Tay Lewis and Terry Hampton. Marcus Miller has got to come on. It's his year. His knee is healthy now. Cam has got to step up. He worked his butt off down there on the scout team last year. Got knocked around and knocked around a few. But it's his year. He has got the physical tools. He has got the size and he has got the strength. I think he will be a fine player for us, but we need him to. He will be starting for us in the four-down. He wouldn't be that starter right now in the three-down look.

That was topic of discussion between us all too. I think Bryce Stephens is a guy we all believe in. He could be a nice punt returner. Jadon Haselwood has done a nice job back there as well. (Myles) Slusher. Kickoff return I like Day Day (LaDarrius Bishop) back there. Slusher is another guy I think would be good. They threw Rocket's name out to me and I threw it out. He's not doing that. AJ Green is another guy I think with a year under his belt. We've just got to have a guy hit it. Those are a few guys I think will be in that battle. Sategna is obviously one of those guys in punt and kickoff return we can look out as well.

I think Malik is night and day better quarterback that what he was last year. I think it benefitted him. I think it benefitted him big-time. I think it says a lot about Malik and it also says a lot about KJ. When Malik went into the transfer portal over the bowl whatever KJ was the biggest one trying to get him back. And then you go back to KJ and Feleipe's relationship it was unbelievable. They're close now.

But Feleipe helped KJ. It takes two people to understand where you are at on the depth chart and understand there is still competition. But understand what it's like today. Today I'm two and you are one. So let me learn from you if that makes sense.

That’s Arkansas, though. I mean that’s just what it is. Which is fine.

Everybody has their own way of getting motivated. I think he uses that stuff a little bit. You’ll have to ask him, but I would assume he uses some of that in some of his motivation and his preparation.

We don’t always need somebody to talk bad about us to motivate us. A lot of times when that happens, there is some type of ‘well I’ll show you’ type of thing. I think KJ’s got a little bit of that in him, along with he wants to be good no matter what people say.

I guess I’d look on it the other way if they talked about how great he was all the time, I don’t think he’d be less of a player. We kind of thrive on that kind of stuff. That’s kind of who we are, and we like it that way.

I’m really excited. I was walking in here a while ago and I was thinking ‘This is year 3 and I’m still here. Thank you.’ I think this is 37 maybe, or something like that, for me. This summer I went down to the lake and went down to Florida for a few days. Other than that, I was either here or down in Hot Springs. Had a great time. The summer program went well. Hot Springs is close enough where I can go down there for a couple of days and come back and see the players and things of that nature. I really enjoyed it. I love it down there. I love Fayetteville too, but I really enjoy Hot Springs. Jamie and I had a really good summer, just like the kids did I hope. I think you do have to let the players exhale a little bit before camp starts, and I think they’ll be ready to go as well.

I learned a lot, and I learn a lot. I’ve made so many mistakes. I don’t mean to, and it’s not that I haven’t thought about it and things of that nature. I think people are going to make mistakes, it’s just if they are going to learn from them. Yeah, I made a lot of mistakes and I have to get better at a lot of things.

I will say this, I try in practice to do everything we can in practice to where if it's in the game, we’re taking our players from ‘I hope this works’ to ‘Hey we practiced it enough, I know it’s going to work.’ So everything you do in practice, you think about Saturday and you go okay, when we’re in this situation are the kids going to hope that we can do it or are they going to know that we can do it, because we’ve got a great plan, we’ve executed it and we’ve done it at practice.

I remember when I was an offensive line coach and I’m not prepared for something. Shame on me by the way. I’m going into the game and man if they move a lot, I hope they don’t move a lot today. I hope they don’t twist game us a tremendous amount.

Where then you take your game and your coaching into ‘You know what? If they do, we’ve got this, this and this, and we can crush ‘em with it. If they do this, we’re ready for it. We’ve practiced it.’ Those are probably the biggest things in coaching that I’m continuing to try to do. Like I thought we were really good in two-minute last year, and it was because, in my opinion, we did it so much. Even some of the guys on staff thought it was too much. But I wanted not only them to be prepared for that situation, I wanted to be prepared for that situation. Because at that point and time, it’s that last minute, minute and a half that’s going to decide the outcome of the ball game. So, I’m trying to get better at that.

So everything on our piece of paper and on our board and stuff in our tape, I know. And if we can do that at practice, we’ve done a pretty good job as a coaching staff. There’s a lot of things. Everything keeps hitting, NIL and portal and all. There’s something new all the time. And you make mistakes, and hopefully you learn from them.

Yeah, Kirby (Smart). We took a lot of things from what Georgia does. And I’m sure Kirby took a lot from what Coach Saban did. I’m not saying that, but I’m pretty sure. So we took the template, per se, of that, and then we modified what we wanted to modify. But certainly we took from when we left Georgia the template I guess of what we felt was successful, and it was at Georgia and Alabama. It was at South Carolina. I don’t know what Shane’s doing over there, but I’m assuming he’s got some of Kirby’s stuff in his scheduling.

He’s got a strong leg. Right now, we’re trying to get him to punt it to a spot a little bit more consistently. But he can kick it 20 miles high. He’s got a strong leg. Right now, the biggest concern we have on him is outkicking our coverage. So, we’ve got to figure that out. We either have to get faster on our coverage team or cut him back a little bit.

(His brother, Mason, who plays for Cincinnati is) really good, by the way.

I think (their family) has got a hell of a long travel (for the Sept. 3 game). Isn’t that like a two day deal or something? I don’t know what that is. But I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never met ‘em. (We did) Zoom and things of that nature. It’ll be great to see ‘em, and we’ll see what Max does on that day. But I know his brother is good now and confident. We feel the same way about Max too, he just hasn’t been here as long as his brother has been at Cincinnati.

He hurt his shoulder. But he’ll be out there, so you guys will see. He’ll be out there in the green, but he’ll be going. He’s fine, but we’re going to play a little caution with him for a couple of weeks.

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