Q&A Recap: Jimmy Rogers meets with the media

Head coach Jimmy Rogers met with the media on Wednesday. The following is a question “Q:” and answer “Jimmy Rogers:” transcript of his availability.

Q: The other day, coach Bobbit had talked about when he was working with developing the best version of themselves as young men as well as football players, being vulnerable is important. How does that fit into your holistic approach of in that same vein of a you’re charged with not only getting them to be the best person they can be, but how that funnels into being the best football player they can be?

Jimmy Rogers: What he was talking about was for our players to be who we want them to be, they have to feel comfortable in their own skin. They got to put their guard down and they got to let us know when they need help. That’s part of growing as a person. If you always have a mask up on like “I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m fine” and you nobody knows what’s going on in your life, at times you don’t know what they’re living through and you can’t break through with football information because they have other things going on. So, for us it is about the connection of this team and having a pulse together as a team, working one direction, but we can’t do that if we don’t know who each other are and what is going on in our life and we’re not willing to share that mission or that message with one another. So, there’s a lot of things that we talk about and stress the importance of, but the most connected teams are the best teams. Players got to feel comfortable in their own skin.

Q: At Big 12 Media Days you talked about Kyle Konrardy already being maybe one of the most talented players you have the most given the position. But with special teams what looks like and asking about planning to do it holistically, but when you have that level of returners and Aiden Flora, Cam Pettaway and I know you Jackson, you got other guys who can do that. How do you feel about that unit and can you give a kind of a snapshot of what they look like so far?

Jimmy Rogers: Really good. We got multiple people back there working right now. Flora has the most reps and he’ll carry the load at running back, too. But we Cam, we got Cody Jackson, there’s numerous players back there. J.J. Polite has reallyed flash, too. Punt returning is a niche, right? It’s an uncomfortable position, and so, we’re going to play Flora at that position. 

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Iowa State Cyclones running back Aiden Flora (21) celebrates after he returns a punt for a touchdown against the TCU Horned Frogs during the second half at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

In years past, I had a safety doing it because he was our most talented player. We’re going to say special teams is a third of the game. We’ve got to play the some of the best players on those units, especially in the return game. Who’s catching the ball, and on punt team. That’s a trusted position. You lose a punt, you get a punt blocked, I should say, you can lose a game in a heartbeat. I think the percentage is like 75% opportunity that the other team is going to beat you, or chances that the team’s going to beat you. So, those plays are pivotal. You only get so many of them, so you got to make them count.

Q: I don’t think we’ve asked you about Jamie’s retirement announcement. What was your reaction to the news?

Jimmy Rogers: Obviously, Jamie has been awesome to me. He put me in this position and got me in the door, and now I’ve got to do the rest. This team and this staff have to put in the work to make it happen.

Does it suck? It does, because I’ve really enjoyed my relationship with him and being able to connect with him. I think he’s done an unbelievable job here. You look at his career of more than 20 years and the work he’s done to transform this place and put it on the map—he deserves a tremendous amount of credit.

One of the biggest jobs of a leader in that position is to hire great people, and my job now is to prove him right. I think President Cook has a great pulse on this university and an unbelievable understanding of what he’s looking for in leadership to take this place to the next level. I’ll have the opportunity to meet with him again tomorrow, and I still think the future is bright.

I’m happy for Jamie and his wife. He deserves this. I knew when I took this because of his age, he wasn’t going to be here forever, and he told me that. I just thought I’d get a couple more years out of him. But he got me in the door, and that’s all I can ask for. I’m forever in [his] debt. Now I’ve got to do the rest, the staff has to do the rest, and this team has to do the rest to make sure this is the best decision he’s ever made.

Q: Did Jamie give you any indication that his retirement was coming?

Jimmy Rogers: At some point, yeah. I think he wanted to see CyTown finished. With so much change in college football You’re playing by one set of rules, then another, and then another. People get punished under one set of rules and then don’t under another. It can be frustrating as a coach.

But you have to focus on the things that matter and finish what you started. For me, I love solving problems. That’s what my life is right now. There’s always a problem in my day. I don’t care how good my days are; there’s always something that could be better. The stress and anxiety of this position can drive me nuts sometimes, but I love it.

You become hypersensitive to everything—thinking about what you forgot to do, what you could have done better, or why something didn’t go the way you wanted. When you lay down at night, your mind is racing. I don’t sleep much anyway, so I’m kind of used to that. I’m just in charge of so many things now, and I’m blessed to have this opportunity. I’m definitely not going to complain about what comes with the position.

Q: With so many starting jobs still up for grabs heading into the second week of fall camp, are any of those competitions starting to come into focus?

Jimmy Rogers: Jaylen is taking the bulk of the reps with the ones. He’s done a really good job. Jaylen is so cerebral. He can take in so much information and process and spit out NFL play calls in a quick time and then adjust things on the move. That could be the separating factor between him and everybody’s that he’s seeing the picture and he has the ability to see the picture prior and adjust everybody rather than just know the play call and understand the play. There’s so much pre-snap process that happens at that position. There’s a calmness  and a leadership presence that he gives us. Those other guys have grown substantially. I’m so proud of Moberly.
He’s done an unbelievable job. And really has unbelievable talent. Between him and Flores, it’s kind of been a battle every day as far as guys that stand out because Zane has done a a great job, too. I’m really happy with the three guys that we got and  they’ve been so selfless in this whole approach that it’s been about the team. So I’m really happy with just the leadership and just the energy that those guys have been giving. But yeah, Moberly has surely flashed and I’m proud of his development thus far and he’s going to take another jump. He’s just a guy that’s just hungry and he works his butt off. Hudson Kurland as a true freshman has looked really good and he is really, really athletic and the ball comes out of his hands nicely. For him, this is a lot of information for a true freshman to process. But for the most part, I think he’s done a really good job and he’s willing to take coaching, which is half the battle.

At running back between Flora and Cam, they’ve done an unbelievable job. I’m proud of that group too because I think we’ve we’ve started to limit Cam and Flora a lot because they’re in the return game as far as practice. So, as far as not necessarily they’re hurt or anything like that. But, they take so much reps on special teams because they will be a vital role of that and, I want to make sure that their legs stay underneath of them and that we don’t risk soft tissue.

But that group in behind has grown. You know, you think of [Tulane transfer] Arnold Barnes who’s come in and he’s learning the playbook and he’s taking strides every day. He’s giving us sparks inside of games. He’s a bigger back that will put his pads down and isn’t afraid to run through you.

Really happy with Caleb Francois. Big kid that can run. He’s more like a long glider, but he carries 210 lbs. He’s really dynamic. He’s a freshman that is, you can see in freshman right away, true confidence. He has that. He’s made some plays already that I don’t typically see out of freshman on day one. I mean from the intellectual standpoint, not necessarily just like does he know the play and make a good run. I’m talking about like when chaos breaks down, how does he react in that moment and what is his first thought and it’s usually stand around and the unknown of what I should do in this segment. He just plays and that’s what we’re looking for.

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Wyatt Archer. Archie’s done a great job. The kid will do anything for this team. He’s stood out multiple times.
he’s doing a lot for us.

Easton Miller is kind of everywhere right now and is really a cerebral player that can make a ton of plays any way. He can block, he can run. He’s a bigger back. I would say you you don’t really know what we’re going to do when Easton’s in the game for sure.

Ryver’s coming back slowly but surely. He’s started to take some some reps in there and I’m happy for his return. 

Gabe Wilson. He’s a dynamic player and he’s made some great plays. He made some great plays just yesterday that  in a two-minute situation at the end of what we were doing in the half yesterday and he’s just he’s a really smaller player, but he’s stout. He’s got great contact balance. He’s got great vision. For him, it’s just the dynamics of everything that goes into the game and in the system and so there’s there’s a lot. There’s a lot to the protection part of things. It’s a lot for those guys.

Up front, Jake Taylor stand stood out significantly. Caden Maas has done an unbelievable job.

[Austin] Barrett, I can’t say enough about the O-Line and how much has been put on their plate and how I feel like that group  has worked extremely hard. We could rotate at many positions. Between Colin Amick and Maasai King is is kind of a battle going on as well as Gabe Greenlee.

We got some good freshmen in the in this class. One is a true development player in Brady Harr that’s never played offensive line in his life. He’s a 6-8 kid that gained 40 lbs in six weeks here. He’s going to be a monster of a human and he cares. If you care and you play hard, good things happen.

Kingston Fotualii is going to be a dude. He’s good and he’s a true freshman and he’s pushing right now to be in the two-deep. I would I would say that. He’s twitchy. He’s a really cerebral kid. He can process information extremely fast, really focused. happy that he made the decision to come here. Great kid, great family.  

Benji [Makelala] he’s raw at football, but boy is he talented and his future is bright.

Wide receiver wise it’s kind of a good rotation there between Evan Boyd, Carter Pabst and Cody Jackson. Cody Jackson stands out he’s probably one of our best workers on the entire team. He knows what he’s doing he makes full speed cuts, great hands.

That group is grow growing in depth because what they lack maybe in certain areas they make up in consistency inside their play and they run their routes at the right time which has made it easier for the quarterbacks to get the ball out on rhythm and on time which I think is the hardest thing to do in college football. A lot of times you watch things defensively and you see so many broken plays and you’re like is that a new play and it’s you see it later and you just realize that the wide receiver ran the the wrong route but they’re uber talented but they don’t know where to they’re where they’re going.

The wide receivers have been great.

Tight ends wise: Greenlaw, Benetti, Galer, AJ Petersen – although he’s kind of in that fullback swing role right now. Edney has done good as a true freshman really good. Drake DeBaun has done good as a true freshman.

I don’t know if I’m giving you what you want you can take what it is and spin out a two deep if you want.

[Tyler] Fortenberry’s been great yeah he’s been rotating with the ones the whole time. Really a good player and he’s really smart and he’s a older veteran player that has a lot of reps under his belt.

D-Line. I’ll start in the middle between Bryson Lamb, [Zaimir] Hawk, those guys have, have been great. Max Baloun has been in this system the longest. This guy is the wily vet. He’s in year seven. He gives us great snaps.  

Jareb Ramos and Jace Gilbert has been rotationally moving. He’s up to 280-something right now and he’s moved inside for us and has bought into that role and has done an unbelievable job as far as committing to that craft.

Ka’Mori Moore is a guy that shows flashes. he he sprained his foot, so he had him in a boot right now. He’ll be back in a couple days.

D-End wise, that’s probably a really good rotation there. Jace is a guy that can swing at D-End and D-Tackle. He’s got a unique talent with his size and frame, but between Bobby, which is Isaac Terrell, and  [Malaki], Crawford, Hawkins, that group is really good.

Tyler Burnstein has been flashing. Jack Janikowski, he’s like a workhorse in there. Chet Andrews has been great. Chet and Jack’s game are very similar. They’ll play winning football because when they get in there, they’re physical and they can dent the edge and they play with great pursuit and they know what they’re doing. I feel really solid about that group and their development.  

At the linebacker position, [Sullivan] is kind of a taken the bulk of the one reps. but Tristan’s right on his heels. Tristan’s bought in. [Sullivan] been in this system and he’s grown and he’s kind of scratching the surface on what he’s going to be. He’s a really calm kid. I think he was here the other day, right? You guys had that opportunity to meet with him. Unbelievable kid. He comes from a great family, really smart, but it helps that he was part of this last year.

Tristan is getting his feet wet still, and he’s taking steps, and there’s flashes in there. He’s chomping at the bit, for sure.

At the Will linebacker spot, Landon Kalsbeck, true freshman. He plays with his hair on fire, and he’s done a really, really good job. Carson has taken the bulk of the reps at at the one spot, and he’s done a really good job.

[Montreze Smith Jr.] needs to learn a little bit more, but he’s got the talent to do it. It’s just getting him the reps that he needs to grow, and he’ll grow I’m very confident in that.

Beau Goodwin, yeah. Bo is flashes. Him and Carson have kind of been rotating at that position. 

Willie [Breland III] and Malcolm [Jones] have rotated at the other position, when we sub-package, it’s going to look a little different though.

At the corner position, as I said, that’s a really good group for us. They’re kind of everywhere on the field for us.

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Between David Coffey, Beni and Seth Johnson, that group is is really good. Jaheim [Singletary] has done a really good job. Between Beni and Jaheim, those guys are like neck and neck fighting for a position.

They both flash one day, and the other one may have mess up some things, but if we can get that group moving with consistency and continue to grasp just their position but the overall position of the defense and how it flows together. They’ll put themselves on the field whether it’s game one or game three or four or five. They’re just they’re too good not to have on the field. 

At safety it’s been, Drew Surges is a great football player. Drew, Brody Miller, Micah Harper – those guys are kind of swinging. Damarius had a hammy and he’ll be back here in a week or so. That was early. That was kind of like right away. It’s nothing to be concerned about. He’s a guy that’s kind of been in the system and and knows it. Duhron Goodman, when Duhron Goodman’s playing his best football – when he’s locked in and he’s focused, he’s one of the most dynamic players on the back end because he can play, react and tackle in space and he’s not afraid of contact.

Q: Anything new since we talked last week as far as injuries and any other guys who have been out maybe that you’re kind of working back in?

Jimmy Rogers: Ka’Mori [Moore] will be back in a couple days. Dom Overby has been limited. The other day we kept him out just he’s a long strider. Dn’t want to risk pulling anything. He didn’t pull it, but just want to make sure he’s ready to go before he ends up something happens to him. Carter Pabst, same thing. so when those guys are out, honestly, it allows us to see the other players, too, a little easier than trying to always put those guys in.

When you do that and you’re rotating just older players, you don’t you don’t see players like Malcolm Watkins enough and J.J. Polite enough. Jeff Roberts those type of players, if they’re young, they’re green and they need reps. I’m not saying I wish injury upon anything, but you got to get players ready and how you do that is by taking your time with them and giving them the reps that they need to have success because it’s got to be the best players playing.

Dom Overby and Carter are going to be a part of this offense and have a role and we just got to make sure that they stay healthy and can continue to have a role. Injuries are going to happen. We play hard. We play really hard on both sides of the ball. Like the defense and offense have have been matching each other with physicality. We just got to limit it as much as possible. We’ve had it the last several days have been extremely physical. This one today was more situational and time management and trying to take some wear and tear off their shoulders and get them to play fast and I think today was a really good day. We worked a lot of situational football and it I think today in those segments it shows how far along we are schematically and knowledge of understanding the play because everything was under time and pressure today.

Q: Bobbit mentioned how you guys have a goal of holding opponents to 14 points. while I’m sure you’d love shutouts, how did you guys arrive at that number as a benchmark?

Jimmy Rogers: It used to be lower. and it will go lower once we hit it. I said this story before. When I was a player when I was a player, I was a part of a defense that said that we would give up 17 points. I had a hard time believing that as a player. I came from a high school that shut everybody out. I know it’s high school football and you get to college and they say be more realistic. I just don’t live like that. It’s the same thing with me picking ourselves. I just believe in doing things and speaking it into existence. You guys would never know that unless I had to speak on things. So, it may come across arrogant. I think if you hammer things and you believe in it and your players hear and they believe in it, you can bring it to fruition if their work ethic and the pattern of how you get your players and how you develop them as on par.

When I became defensive coordinator, we changed that point total to 14. Then we hit 17. Because when we were had it at 17, we were like 22. Then we changed it to 10. Then we hit like 12. We kept it at 10, then we went to 11, then we went to like 9.97 or something. Then I think in our best year of defense, we went like 9.62. So, it happened. You have to get your players to believe in it. They have to execute. You got to put in the work with them to allow it to happen. If you can hold people to two scores, you have a great shot of winning in college football when you look at the top scoring defenses in the country. Will that happen? We got to go execute to make it happen, right? It goes back to the same things. If you’re going to believe in something, they got to feel that. They got to hear it every single day. And the goal is to be the best defense in the country.

Q: You guys have limited opportunities to have players be at full physicality because of the little restrictions of scrimmages and padded practices. How do you go about evaluating that group when they can’t maybe be as physical as they would be on on a Saturday in most instances for you guys in practice?

Jimmy Rogers: Scrimmage means tackling live to the ground. It doesn’t mean that you can’t knock somebody off the ball. I know you guys aren’t at practice, but it’s pretty physical even when we’re not in pads. There’s a balance more than anything in trying to keep you guys healthy because some of the bumps and bruises in the sprains thus far haven’t even been in any type of segment that you would say somebody would get hurt in.
They’ve been in, somebody tweaking their ankle or stepping back on somebody’s foot in a walk-through. So far our bumps and bruises haven’t been significant as far as the whole team.

We’re going to play a certain way. We have to practice that way. We try to do our the best to stay off the ground as much as possible, which in this defensive style and this offensive style at times that becomes hard.
but they’ve gotten a they’ve gotten used to that and they’ve done a great job with staying off of each other late and pushing each other. The extra push in the late things is what kind of leads to and the torquing is what leads to injury.