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UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 25, 2019

John Hevesy

Gainesville, Florida

JOHN HEVESY: I'm looking forward to the season. New season, I mean obviously coming in the second year, looking forward to the excitement of the team, the excitement of the fans, the excitement of the whole university. Obviously we start the season off early with Miami, which is obviously a big game to start with, different than starting with, I hate saying a lesser opponent, but just someone different than, per se, the warm-up game. So for us to me I'm excited about it. I'm excited about I'll have four new starters. So it's, for me as many years you do it, you're walking in and to me last year was a lot of obviously returning starters, but just different and I mean learning, everybody's learning everything new. So this year it's going to be a little different. Obviously they know the system now it's just kids that haven't started, have a lot of starts under their belt. So it's going to be a great opportunity for me, it's been a challenge since obviously, whatever it was, January, whatever after last year, to knowing that you're going to be replacing four starters, so start getting them ready back in January up until we get ready for August 24th.

Q. Is there one position that keeps you awake at night?
JOHN HEVESY: The five of them. Left tackle, right tackle, straight across. No, there's not, because I think to me obviously walking out of spring practice I felt good with the first five. I think they still, Noah Banks wasn't there in the spring, but he's back so it will be good to have him back because he has some experience, Chris has some experience, Richard has some experience from last year with the -- I think the greatest thing they did was changing that rule to play in four games. So it got them a chance even to play in, whether it was four or five snaps in the bowl game, to just get in a bowl game to experience that type of stuff, experience a little bit of the Florida State game. So I think you have the opportunity, that's a big help than it was a kid never seeing -- me walking out there with Chris, Richard and going, they've never stepped on the field, they have never seen the field, that what's going to happen that first time. So the good thing is they have been on the field with a, not a lot of experience, but at least the shock of running out on that field from the sidelines for the first time, which over the years some of the great stories, a kid about six years ago, he knew he was a backup, red shirt freshman, he was a backup. He, all spring, all camp, knew he was a backup. Third play in the LSU game, kid goes down with an ACL, I turn around and say, go. And he says, me? And I said, yeah, you. And he goes, right now? I said, yeah, you got to play. So for those kids it's easier now. I have five true freshmen that are here, that were here in the spring, four of them were here in the spring, that's going to be that for them when they got to go in the game for that first time. But to me being in this stadium, scrimmaging in this stadium, that spring game, you try to give that little bit of experience of running out there by yourself with the crowd, whatever it is, 20, 30, 40,000 people in the stands, so they got a had little bit of that.

Q. Does Nick have to be the leader?
JOHN HEVESY: Has to be. The center has for me always has been and always will be for me. He's my quarterback, he's going to, again, he's the center of the whole thing so has to, he's going to direct both sides. He's got to keep both sides on the same page. I think that Nick's a very bright kid and he picked it up extremely well last year which put him in that position of picking up the offense, picking up the terminology, accepting what I challenged him to do and he did it. I think that's helping these kids obviously through the spring and he's done a great job in the off-season, not just with that part of it, but just with -- he's been around here five years. Didn't have a lot of playing time early on, but he's jumped into it and he really embraced it and you see him -- even we walked out of meetings the other day and the time limits that we have, we walked out of meetings after 45 minutes, and then we had to go up to a staff meeting, I came back down, I think it was probably 45 minutes later, they're all walking out of the meeting room. My first question was, what are you guys doing? Nick was like, oh, a couple of the younger guys wanted to go through the installation, get ready for camp, so we just stayed in there. And he probably kind of gave them their terms. When I teach you, here's what I say. Well they're going to give it a little different way, maybe teenager to teenager, to explain it to them. So the verbiage will help those kids. But watching that leadership role of really him, Brett and Stone are the three that to me have really done a great job of helping those young kids. Because there's a lot of them. There's eight of them that are running around that don't have a lot of playing experience.

Q. How big a relief is that for you as a coach?
JOHN HEVESY: It relieves you because you have that, but there's still four that he's got to make sure he's got them. But it is. I think our success has always been based on the center over all the years. Not that it has to be a great player, you go back to 2006, I wouldn't stay Steve Rissler was a great -- never played a down in the NFL, but was a great communicator, great leader and everyone listened to him and he set everyone straight. So you go back and you win a championship and you say, who was the center? Steve Rissler. They all remember Maurkice Pouncey after, but Steve Rissler was the center the National Championship year which he did a great job communicating and getting them all on the same page and were functioning as one instead of five. That's a huge deal for me and it keeps everyone -- again, because that side's not going to hear that side, he has as to communicate between left and right.

Q. How much of a difference does it have when you have a quarterback who understands how to be a physical runner?
JOHN HEVESY: I don't know if it's physical I think it's his confidence with him. Trusting that -- and something that he hadn't had to do, that all of a sudden he realizes he's a better player, it's building confidence and it's getting him more of the things he wants. He wants to be an all around player not just a one-dimensional player. And, A, it's going to help us win games. We're not asking him to run 25 times a game, but to me those maybe four or five or six times a game that, hey, we're going to ask you on third and one. Hey, the bowl game. Get the right check and you run yourself for a 40 yard play. Pull one of the runs and you have a 50 yard play. For any kid it's exciting for him to realize, I'm making big plays, not just with my arm, with my body -- and he's as talented a kid as I've ever been around ever in college football -- that he's utilizing everything he has.

Q. Does that change anything for your linemen when you got a guy like that?
JOHN HEVESY: Any time when you watch whether it was Jordan last year and Lamical and Pierde, when you have guys in the run game, guys putting in that hard work and taking the contact and they're getting those yards after contact it's for me putting to them and them understanding they're working hard, we got to work harder and not just from helping in the start, but then as they're going forward, listen, get over there and push that pile for three more yards because they're working, don't stand around and watch.

Q. What's the biggest factor in making this year's offensive line successful?
JOHN HEVESY: Playing as one. Nick's got to start it with the communication. But them understanding and having confidence in themselves. Because between Stone and I think Stone's the one that's been here, Stone and Brett -- Brett played two years ago -- but Stone has played sparingly over his time here. The biggest thing with all these guys is just confidence in themselves. Have confidence in yourself and then learn to communicate as a group. Once you got the confidence in yourself -- again I have the confidence in you, we're putting you out there, we have the confidence you're going to play, just make sure you have it in your self. And guess what, you're going to have a bad play, something stupid is going to happen. Have quick amnesia and get back to the next play. Don't worry about it. You can't dwell on the past. That's going to be, with the young guys, that's always the thing, they're worrying about what they did. You screwed it up. You had a great play. Don't get too high, don't get too low, just keep playing next play. Keep working.

Q. (No microphone.)
JOHN HEVESY: In the spring I kind of keep them the same side just so they're going the same way so they're learning so I give them a chance to learn it. So they learn the scheme. As we go and I've always done is you have your first five and really after that is get eight ready, which to me it's going to be a cross-training of that backup tackle's going to be possibly left or right, the guard's left to right. And then obviously the center position is the center position, but then it's also from that point on is, looking at this year, the guys that have, how it steps up, because there's young guys, the true freshmen that are involved, start getting involved too deep, it might be the six and seventh guy are right guard, right tackle, left guard, left tackle. So if it's Richard is the backup left tackle, but if something happens he goes in at left guard or left tackle. So just to me -- I'll look at that more as we get through camp, as we see through camp how they're going to rotate who is -- I don't know, if they become a starter, they become a starter too. The depth chart is the depth chart at the start, we got to go out there one, two, three, but they know the first thing is to go win the job. Win the job now and get ready for August 24th.

Q. Are all the jobs open except center?
JOHN HEVESY: I tell Nick every day, listen, there's guys behind you, you got to keep doing your job and what you're supposed to do. To me does he have -- like I tell -- every -- walk into meetings it's, like listen, guys are ones twos and threes. Nick you started a year. Brett you started two years ago. So have you a head start. Doesn't mean sit back and, oh, I got my job. I tell the young guys, I don't care that he's a fifth-year senior and he started last year. Your job is to take his job. No different than last year with Nick sitting there going, well I never really played. Okay, so, okay, so then why don't you leave. I said, if you don't think you can play, then you don't need to be here if you're not going to compete. So everything to me is competition. So we got to get better with the guys behind him, whether it's Tanner or Kingsley pushing him, okay, or whoever it's going to be, if there's someone else, if there's five better, then someone is going to take his job, then take it. But it's only going to make us better as a team and it's going to make you better as an individual and make us better as a group.

Q. You touched on something that Nick had never played before. What did you see in him that made you, because he's not undersized you always had really big centers that are like 310, 320 and here's a guy that's barely 290 and had never played. What you did see?
JOHN HEVESY: Last year coming in between January and spring practice was just not knowing anything about any of them whether it was besides who had played I watched on film, but who he had are in the weight room, who they are as leaders. You go through the weight room in January, February, you go through the off season program, with Nick in terms of how long who is pushing who is leading who is working. So you kind of get a glimpse of who they are. You see some of the talent part of it, but you see okay, these are they guys that push themselves and work. So at least I have that in my mind going into spring practice. Then it comes to, again, who is changing the offense, changing technique of what was taught to them. Who is buying into it, who is learning it. Then certain things happen like Heggie wasn't there for the spring, so it gives an opportunity for one more guy to come up. TJ got injured early on in spring practice, so guess what, go. Nick, you're going. To me as you went through spring practice was they all had reps. When you evaluated who graded out in the spring, okay, here is one, two three. Then fall camp it's still open again. Then through fall camp I kind of rotated them all with even Nick when he was there you all get a shot with the ones, because I don't know who can play, who is the best one of the three. So we're going to keep giving competitions. And as camp went on a guy gets dinged up. You don't lose your job, but someone else gets further ahead. TJ got banged up here and there and then Nick kept going. And then Nick, he held his job when he came back. I think the biggest thing he did was starting to, starting the conversation off was, he did an unbelievable job of leading and speaking and communicating with that group that here's a new offense, here's new terminology. He's communicating that to the other guys. So everyone's on the same page. I think that's the biggest thing that started us obviously early on is we're communicating, we still got to get better, but we're communicating we're all on the same page. So like I tell them, if all five of us screw up, we're right. If all five of us go the wrong way, someone else is going the wrong way, we're all right. And that's usually what's going to work. But if one guy is going the other way, for us offensive line, four guys could have the greatest blocks in the world, if one screws up, we're all goats. We have to be communicating and work on the same page.

Q. Have you ever been up against it like this in a season with an offensive line? And if so what was the key to developing?
JOHN HEVESY: 2015, 2016 the year that -- I forget what year it was. The year we played in the Orange Bowl. I think it was 2015 I had lost three starters who went to the NFL and then it was three and not four of them, but it was three of them that won, ended up losing a job, but it was really four new starters. But it was early on, we just keep it a little bit simpler for them. The guys behind them got to accelerate. The young guys, to me, it's not like it's the four new starters it's just overall the number of young kids that are here. There's eight kids that are true freshmen, red shirt freshmen. So like the ones that are seven or eight, I'm not worried about. It's obviously something stupid happens with injuries or things like that, that now you're going to guys that don't even have the experience of being here. Don't have all that, any bit of experience, even in practice of going through a season of practice -- especially as the season goes on that for high school kids coming in here it's a long season. This year's going to be, what, three bye weeks and still it's a 15-week season. That's their bodies get battered, you start getting to October, that that's where it to me it concerns me more in the end. But to me right in the beginning we're as long as we stay healthy through camp we should be fine and just keep developing the young guys.

Q. Is the challenge more mental or physical?
JOHN HEVESY: Both. Mentally the good thing is four of them were here in the spring so the meant tall part's kind of there. The mental part of the offense of knowing the offense now the mental strain that's going to be on them still the fundamentals and competing every down which I think going out of spring was high school kids have, didn't have to compete every play in practice, they were always better than the kids in front of them in high school practice. That competing every play, not just, I'm better than this kid naturally. No. I think they learn that. So it's going to be the mental part of being physical for practice and games and then just to me the physical part of surviving the length of the season.

Q. How much can you game plan around a young team?
JOHN HEVESY: Just minimizing things. You can game plan certain things but it just to me is don't have as many plays different schemes that we'll put in. We have minimized that over the years. We have started bringing that all down to where it's not a lot of schemes and then game plan wise in the past it's like, hey, let's put in these two different things, I got to he realize by Tuesday afternoon that it's too much. That we don't need it. Call this one that they understand. So that will be the biggest thing for us is just minimizing as you get in the season some of the things that you might want to go overboard with that you got to cut down and not run and say, live another day, but run the thing that we know. If we know it, we'll be successful at it. The end of the season you look, we ran this play three times and it was awful, we should have just called that play three more times. That's just for us evaluating, me being smart with knowing what my guys can do and can't do.

Q. The number of years that you and Billy and Todd and Dan have worked together, Dan says it's a big advantage. You instinctively kind of know what the other guy is thinking. What's that like all those years of experience with coaching together? He says five of you could call a game?
JOHN HEVESY: Yeah, because I guess I don't know what it's not like. In 25 years of being, 19 we have been together. In some form or some way. That's I guess I don't know what, I mean I do and you don't because there's new guys that come in the room offensively. We didn't lose anybody offensively this year so really to me like Larry was the one guy coming in new to the system. Brian had played for us, Brian had been an assistant. Billy a couple years at Mississippi State when he wasn't there, but had been together prior to that 14 or 15 years now. Coach, Greg has been with us now 10, going on 11 I think it is. So it's -- and so it's kind of one of those things, that it's weird that it's -- Larry, probably the hardest for those guys is that we'll say, hey, remember 2006 we did this. Oh, yeah. And four guys in the room will be, okay, and write it down and go on. And Larry is looking around going, well, I have no idea what they're talking about. So you always have to remember to go back and tell him, listen, okay, get it on film and show him. But I think it is and the great thing about having -- defensively, David Turner has worked with us years on and off at Mississippi State. So you know him. But I think the biggest thing is for us offensively we can go, hey, Todd, what do you think of this. This is what we're going to try to do. Todd will say, hey they're doing this, why are they doing this. So you can always bounce things off both sides of the ball. But then on offense, it is, I mean they say guys, it's not. It's something you see, I see, Billy sees, Brian sees that, hey, coach let's run this. South Carolina we ran the same play six times in a row. And at that time you say, five guys called the same play. We ran the one play with a bunch formation to the right and we ran it. And five guys on the headset, do it again. Got I think 12 yards. Five guys on the headset, do it again. So that was, at that point five guys called the same exact play the same exact time. And you get used to the offense, you know what our kids can do and so anybody can and it's just, again, what you're seeing and the good thing is there's no egos in terms of, we're not doing that. You know it might come up the next play, but here's something we got to look at, hey, for the next series, this series, we're in the middle of a series, you saw something, hey, hit it again, they can't adjust. Whether it's me, Billy, Brian, whether it's Greg, Larry, anybody. Everyone's got enough experience to know offense to say, hey, just do that again or, hey, let's run this, hey, take a shot. Hey, let's run the reverse now. So there's all -- everyone sees something different and on the game day we're looking at different things. So there's different things that maybe I'll say, let's do it. Brian is looking at maybe more at the perimeter, Larry is looking at the tight edge. Billy's looking at the perimeter, hey, take that shot, we can beat the corner, they substituted a corner or the safety is out, take a shot now. We can win one-on-one with Van or Tyrie or one of those deals. So it's, it's good to know each other, so you're not caught up in each other and there's the brotherly love, there's arguments, but that's the best part of the deal.

Q. Talk about being one. Just a quick comment on the cohesion of those five guys, they play more like a unit, like a basketball team or whatever. Some people say maybe there's an advantage somewhat to rebuilding at the starting from scratch, everybody on the same page. You had a challenge this year, everybody wants to know what you think about the offensive line. How do you take that challenge?
JOHN HEVESY: I do, because it hence me go back to even going through when you start those meetings back in January, February with the kids there's things that and then when you bring in four freshmen that are now high school kids that are walking in two deep like anything you start assuming. Over the years when you have guys that come back, the good thing is last year was the same things, I got to teach everybody everything new. As you start going on years and years you start going, okay, those freshmen I'm not going to worry about them because I have returning starters. So I start saying things -- like you asked about our staff, you say something, those five, six, seven guys that have been in the room for two, three years, they already know what I'm talk about. And there's two kids in the back, the freshmen going, I have no idea what he's talking about. So for me it's everything has to be -- and again, for me, I have to teach to 15 different kids. And teaching and being a great teacher is there's 15 kids in my room and 15 kids learn differently. So however way I got to teach them I got to teach one thing 15 different ways so they all get it. I have to do it that way. So even for us I've been very repetitive through the off season of keep hitting the same things over and other again. But saying it maybe a different way so someone else gets it. And then the biggest things is for kids to speak up when they don't understand it. If I'm talking Chinese to you, listen, you better ask. Because if you don't, you can't speak the language, that's my biggest thing to start with is we're all in this room going to speak the same language. Not, if you call the front odd Okie three down it's the same thing so we're all speaking the same language and nobody's confused.

Q. How much does having Miami as the opener heighten a sense of urgency four guys especially given it's front seven, that's where it's full strength wise?
JOHN HEVESY: The biggest thing with playing Miami in the opener, you're not usually -- I say over the years you play that first team that you're superior to physically. So you can get away with maybe screwing something up. So I think just the attention to detail with the kids is getting on them early -- and again not to put them in a panic session early on, we're still playing, whatever it is, August 24th we're playing a game, so we'll worry about the about the emotions come August 22nd or 23rd. But between now and that time we got to get our jobs done and we got to be confident in what we're doing. With young guys the biggest thing for them is be confident. Not playing. Stone, be confident. Brett go back from playing a year to being injured, coming back, confidence in what you're doing. Chris, being confident in what you're doing. So it doesn't matter if it's Miami, if it's the Steelers, if it's whoever it might be, Jacksonville University, listen, be confident in what you're doing and we'll be successful. We got to figure out what they do good and be able to combat that, but first things first. Let's take care of our business and we'll worry about August 23rd, 24th, when we play them. We'll worry about them when we got to play them.

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