Great seeing everybody. What a great turnout. I expect to see it like this every Monday. Every Monday at noon. So I hope you all had a great summer. It was great seeing some of you at SEC Media Days, and since then it has been great to get started.
We have been on the grass for two days, officially, with our team. I like the way practice has started. The guys are in very good shape. They worked very hard this off‑season. Credit to our strength and conditioning team with Mark Hill and Corey Edmond and our staff, the players look really good. The coaches have worked quite a bit, and as I mentioned before, a little bit more freedom and autonomy for us to work with our players through the summer and that is evident. But that is going to be the same way with everybody. I think teams are going to be further along than they used to be with the ability to work with them some more in the summer. So off to a good start. I feel pretty good about this football team. I feel with depth and key areas. Injury bug hit us a bit in the spring, I will get into that a little bit for you so we don’t have to ask all of the questions, but overall, good depth, good team, good attitude, and really excited to continue to push forward. I think last year I mentioned to you that its open to you guys this afternoon. I think you are going to come to practice if you want. So you can go out there and get your own eyes on the team. So I look forward to seeing you out there at practice and having a great year.
With the injuries, Josaih Hayes will be out for an extended period of time. Tavion Gadson who filled in as a young d-lineman last year for Josaih in the spring, he will be out for an extended period of time. These are either going to be the full year or close to it. Same with Quavo Marshall at corner and Darrion Henry-Young at defensive line as well. Outside of that, we are in pretty decent shape. We have a few ‑‑ just one guy out there that you will probably go out and look for at practice. He won’t be out there, just a soft tissue injury, other than that we are in pretty good shape.
Yet to be ‑‑ we will see as we move forward. There are certain some guys that been around a long time. When you look at JJ Weaver, D’Eryk Jackson, Marques Cox, even though he’s a transfer, he has been around for awhile. I feel really good about it. That has always developed as the year goes on and through training camp. Even yesterday was good. The first day we go out there it was beautiful weather and overcast it was almost cool. And then yesterday the sun broke out and there was some heat and humidity and as we go through practice, guys get tired and irritable, your true colors kind of shine when you get tired and hot and irritable so that’s gonna be a long camp. So that is when we will need great leadership coming in.
Yes. I like our team. I like ‑‑ I do. They’ve really helped our team. I think we took a transfer at just about every position accept tight‑end so I just want to supplement our roster in that area. I don’t have those numbers. I had them right before we went to the media day, but I want to say maybe overall we are at, maybe, 35 or 36 and that’s a good mixture right there. I still feel like the majority of our team is guys that we recruit out of high school and try to want to continue to follow that model. Recruit and develop young men and then supplement them with the portal when we need to.
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