Coach, all through the spring and throughout the summer,
the teammates have said how much Davison's kind of turned heads
and kind of become a leader playing not as a true freshman.
From your eyes ad perspective,
how have you seen him grow since he's been here?
Yeah, I mean, he's been here since January.
So if he hasn't grown, we've got issues.
Every kid since January we would hope would grow.
He's in a great competition with 11 other corners in camp
and got to fight every day.
But, yeah, he's grown.
He's grown since January.
He's out there competing.
It's good to see him do that, just like everybody else.
Chris, we don't get a chance to talk to you very often.
But how excited are you to be calling the shots
on this defense this fall?
Just as excited as I was last year.
I just look to do my part and contribute any way I can.
So I'm fired up.
I think we've got a great bunch.
We've got 52 guys in camp, and they're all competing.
They're all hungry.
We want to be violent, we want to be aggressive,
we want to make plays.
So I don't get any more excited for my role.
I just do the role that is asked of me.
And my role is to call the shots and call the defense,
and I'm going to do it to the best of my ability.
It looks like you're going to have a lot of depth
on that defensive line.
I want to ask you just about the moves you all have made
on the portal to bring guys in,
as well as recruiting defensive linemen.
It's really turned that unit around
in the last two-and-a-half, three years.
Yeah, heck yeah, I mean big time.
I mean, obviously in the SEC it all starts up front.
So if you can't win up front, you'd be in trouble.
The other thing is you've got to play a lot of guys.
We play hard, we move around.
So you need to build depth,
and we feel really good about it.
Again, you know, we've got a bunch of guys in camp.
We've got 16 D-line men in camp, and they're all competing.
So they've all got to show themselves out,
and we hope that we can play 10 or 11 of them in a game.
So that's what we're looking for right now,
is who's going to step up
and be guys that we can count on in the crunch time.
Lane kind of challenged the linebackers back in the spring.
Just kind of what have you seen from them?
I know it's only two practices.
But now that you have all of the freshmen
and some of the guys back from injury,
where does that group kind of stand in your eyes?
Yeah, I mean, like anyone else, I mean, I'm not ready to call
who the best group on our defense is
and then who's not or anything.
I mean, I challenge those guys every day.
I mean, we want greatness, that's it.
There's no mediocrity at any point in this program.
That's not what we're about.
So we challenge each group every single day.
Those guys get challenged, they get coached hard.
We recruit guys that can take coaching.
If we feel like you can't take coaching,
you're not going to fit here.
So I like what I see.
They're running around -- again, they're competing.
Everybody is in the mix.
So again, we'll play the best guys that we can.
If it's multiple guys -- if we got to rotate, we'll rotate.
If guys stand out, then they get the majority of the stuff.
But the bottom line is we want to build depth in this defense,
and we want to play a lot of guys.
So we want a lot of roles for a lot of guys.
Having coached AJ Finley for a couple years,
what's that next step you're looking for him to take
as a player and just as a leader on the defense?
I love AJ. AJ's awesome.
He's going to be a great pro one day.
His next step is just to take the bull by the horns
and take the reins and lead this thing.
Go make plays, go be aggressive, go see things out there,
communication -- it's all those things.
We've taken AJ to a higher level of understanding.
And he's the leader back there, and he does a hell of a job.
So I'm expecting a big year from him.
Just coming off the AJ question, I mean, you guys have
some horses back there in the back end of that defense.
Just talk about that secondary if you will.
Yeah, they won't play if they won't hit you.
That's number one.
So we want to be violent.
We want to come out of the secondary,
we want to knock the crap out of people.
So that's the number one thing that we're looking for.
Again, same thing -- experience, depth, portal, freshmen --
it's a whole collective group.
We'll play a lot of guys if we can,
or we'll play guys that earn it and do what we ask.
But we ask a lot of those guys, and they come and they play.
I'm excited about them just like I am every position group.
Coach, you mentioned a minute ago
about recruiting guys that can take coaching.
How do you know that?
And in this day of NIL and easy transferring,
isn't it all a crapshoot, a gamble?
Well, shoot, I would hope not,
or we're not as good at our jobs as we'd like to be.
You've got to take time, you know.
You've got to take time and get to know guys
and not just take them
because of what they're ranked or what you think about them.
You've got to get to know them.
You've got to coach them.
Any guy I recruit, I like coaching.
I like to see how he's going to respond to what I'm telling him.
He doesn't have to be X's and O's.
I mean, I guess the proper term is "teaching."
I like teaching while I'm recruiting,
seeing how they respond --
seeing how they respond to their peers,
their coaches in their high school.
Talking to everybody, talking to every single person
that they've touched if they're a transfer.
Talking to their parents,
getting a feel to see how their parents raised them.
It's the full gamut of stuff.
The beauty and what I love about Lane --
and he really taught me this or even honed it in even more --
is like, if this kid's a great player
but he's not going to be coachable
and he can't learn what we want him to learn
or he doesn't fit into our program,
we're not going to take him, right?
I mean, I think people would be astonished at the kids
that we've turned down here
because they don't fit in our program, right?
So I think that's what we do the best.
And that's why when guys get in here, they can mesh together.
And they can fit together because they're all like-minded.
So we work really hard at doing that.
Chris, some of the guys -- some of the players have said
that they sense that this is going to be
a more aggressive defense than maybe it was a year ago.
I was just kind of curious your philosophy
about blitzing/attacking,
as opposed to a more conservative approach --
how that's developed for you over your stops at Michigan
and here and other places.
Yeah, you know, I think like anything,
experience is everything for somebody.
So it's just every coach that I've touched,
everybody that I've been a part of all the way back
to my college defensive coordinator,
has a little influence on how you like to do things
and call things and set things up.
But when it comes to like blitzing,
I mean, it's irrelevant.
If we win the first game by dropping 11,
we're going to drop 11.
If we're ahead, we're not going to just take senseless shots
and do things just to do them.
We're going to prepare.
We're going to look at the opponent,
and we're going to see what's best.
We've just got to build a defense
that's able to be adaptable to do what we need to do.
So we're not going to be one-dimensional,
but we're also not going to just do stuff
because it's a mentality.
Like, no, we're going to be aggressive.
We're going to hit people.
But that doesn't mean breeding pressure, right?
That means understanding angles and doing the right thing.
I mean, there might be times we bring a bunch of pressure.
There might be times we don't bring any pressure, right?
I think that's what a great defense is.
They can do a variety of different things.
It seemed like last year so much of the conversation
and motivation was about playing with a chip
on your shoulder after having a bad year.
When you guys are coming off
a little better every year defensively,
is it hard to still play with that?
Does the motivation change,
or how do you kind of keep that mentality
going on a defense
that's experienced a little more success?
Yeah, I mean, there is no success unless you're the best.
So, I mean, we weren't the best.
So, yeah, we play with a chip on our shoulder, right?
And then even when you're the best, you've got to keep going.
That's the beauty about the game of football, man.
It humbles you every single day.
So every play, every rep, it humbles you.
You can be great for ten plays in a row
and then give up a big play, give up the touchdown, right?
Game in/game out, year in/year out.
So you can't get caught up into, oh, we improved.
Like yeah, okay, we improved but, okay,
what can we do to be better now?
What can we improve the improvement on, right?
So I think it's easy for these guys
to play with a chip on their shoulder.
Again, it goes back to who we're recruiting,
the type of player we're bringing in here.
But I think, yeah, we do got a chip on our shoulder.
That's how you have to live in this sport, right?
You've got to have a chip on your shoulder,
or someone will humble you immediately.
This kind of goes back to the recruiting
and the teaching thing that you brought up.
But just talking to a couple guys yesterday,
they said that one of the reasons
that they really like you
is that you don't sugarcoat things
and that you say what's on your mind
and that they really appreciate that.
I guess, where does that kind of come from?
And why do you find that
to be the effective way of doing things?
Yeah, I mean, clarity is power, man.
I just think like you give these guys clarity,
and you show them the good and the bad.
Just like when you're being raised --
I mean, your parents are going to be honest with you.
They're not going to hide things from you.
I just think you're as clear as possible with these guys,
and they learn to trust you and they understand.
I mean, our job as coaches is to look at the ceiling
of a football player and break them clear
through what they even think they can reach.
And not even just a football player -- as a man.
So I think we've established a program here
that constantly is talking about life and football
and constantly telling them what's real out there.
Because when we get these guys,
I mean, they're young men, right?
They're not grown men.
They haven't seen it all.
So you've got to show your experiences
and tell them exactly what's going on --
whether it's in the world or in football --
and give them as much clarity as possible.
If they do that at the moment,
in that one conversation if they don't like you,
they might go home and get upset.
But eventually, they see it.
Eventually they understand, "Well, no, Coach ain't --
he ain't messing with me, he ain't lying to me.
There's a plan.
There's a reason for everything we're doing."
So I think I preach that constantly to everyone around --
be clear, be concise,
give them a plan, give them a personal plan,
give them a defensive plan, give them a position plan...
Be all in on making them understand what the mission is.
Any more questions?
Are we good? Thanks, Coach.
All right, guys.