Dillon Gabriel performed above all expectations as a true freshman. Now it's about mastering the position. UCF quarterbacks coach Joey Halzle provides insight into Gabriel's offseason development and his expectations for this season, plus talks about the rise of backup Quadry Jones and gives an update on the rehabilitation of McKenzie Milton.
What are you seeing in the development of Dillon Gabriel this season, going from year one to year two?
"An excitement to dig into the details of what he's doing. Not just to know, okay, I know the players. I know the coverage. Now it's what's the detail. What's the why in what I'm doing. It's not reluctant. It's not someone forcing him to do something. He's excited. He wants to take everything to the next level of understanding and that's what is taking his game on the field to the next level of play. He's earlier with the ball than he used to be. He's not late and trying to rip it in there. He's seeing and knows. He's anticipating and he's driving footballs all over the field. It's really exciting to watch. Everything we're doing in the classroom is carrying over to the football field right now."
How did you handle those months during the spring and early summer with Dillon? I know he went back home to Hawaii. Were those still productive months in terms of teaching over video chat? What was that time period like as you worked through what would have been a spring practice?
"Obviously nothing trumps playing on the field. We can talk as much as we want and draw it up as much as we want, but the field is where everything comes together. The difficulty was him being six hours behind back in Hawaii. So we'd start our meetings at 2 and 8 a.m. his time. The benefit of it, and because we couldn't go on the field and weren't pushing to get an install in, it was a lot of the why and why defenses structure themselves a certain way. Why people defend us a certain way and other offenses a different way. When you have months and months of just Zoom meetings, you can only talk about install and certain plays so many times. So now it's let's dig in and find some other stuff here. Why are people doing this? Why? We spent a lot of time on the why of football. Why people certain things and structure things certain ways. For losing the on-field time, I think it was very beneficial mentally to our entire quarterback room."
Sam Jackson says he's seeing an expanded confidence from Dillon. Do you think that's because he's understanding the nuances of the game more?
"I think that's the main cause. It's hard to be confident. You can show confidence, but if you don't know what you're getting. If you don't know where you're supposed to go with the football. If you can't see the defense and how they're moving and rotating. Okay, this is dead, I'm over here. I'm dropping it down. I'm getting outside. It's really hard to have that real confidence that you can feel. I'm in control. I know what's going on. I got this. Let's go. That confidence comes from understanding your offense better, your protections and what you're getting on the other side of the football. That's obviously a leading cause for why the whole team is feeling a different guy."
What have you seen from Quadry Jones and his development?
"Quadry has had an absolutely amazing camp. He's as quick minded as everybody we've got as far as getting into checks. I've got to get my pro over here, I've got to flip it over here. Everyone's down, I'm checking, I'm going over the top. Understanding his protections and defenses. His arm talent is elite. He can throw balls from all different arm angles, different body positions and snap the ball all over the field. Quad has been very, very good all fall camp. Now that we're going into game prep, we have complete confidence that if Quad steps on the field we can run everything in our playbook and keep it rolling."
Last year was a learning experience every time Dillon went out on the field. Would you say he has a full plate in terms of the offense and not holding anything back? Everything you want to run you can now run with Dillon?
"Short answer, yes. He can handle it. You can put it on him. Then it's our job to be okay, what makes the most sense. Just because you can put everything on him doesn't mean you necessarily should. We want him to be free and not thinking a bunch out there and just letting it rip, especially the way we play. We want to attack. We don't want to be sitting back trying to figure everything out. We're going to attack and take it to the other side of the ball. As far as him understanding and him getting us in the right spot and his eyes in the right place, there's nothing I or our staff questions about what he can handle."
With Darriel Mack opting out, how much did that accelerate the development of Quadry and other players in the quarterback room?
"It goes from a luxury to a necessity. You'd always like to have three you could roll out there and be okay. Now we go from a guy who started a bunch of ballgames, started a bunch of games, won a championship, tons of experience. You haven't shown him anything he hasn't seen to someone who hasn't been on the field as much. That's a point I was making with Quad. He has embraced that and he's taken his game, not just staying here, but going up to the next level. We're very confident with him. Parker is coming along. It's just hard for a freshman, so we're bringing him along. He's had great development since he's been on campus here."
What have you seen from Parker Navarro now that you've seen him camp?
"Athletically, he's got everything you want. He can run the ball. He's a big, strong kid. He's one of the stronger kids pound for pound in the weight room right now just in general. Can spray it all over the field. Very smart. For right now, for him, without getting the full summer that even a normal freshman would, it's learning. It's spoon feeding and force feeding him over and over on tape, on paper and as much as we can get on the field. It's pushing the mental side because physically he's got naturally what you want."
What challenge does Georgia Tech present on defense? And as a fellow quarterback coach, can you comment what you might have seen from their freshman quarterback, Jeff Sims?
"Starting with their defense, you see guys that are sound and know what to do. They're in the right place and they play hard. You can tell that's a culture on their team. Their defense reflects their coach. That's what he stresses. They're going to play hard. They're going to be in the right spot and they're going to tackle well. That's what they do. We have to push our tempo. We have to do shifts and motions to try to get some free runs. It's a very good defense. It's going to be a great challenge.
"As far as Jeff Sims, I haven't watched a ton of their offense. What it looked like on tape is a young man that didn't really get overwhelmed by the moment. First game on the road, he looked in command. He looked like he was confident out there on the field. The moment wasn't too big for him. I thought he had a very good opening game for a freshman quarterback."
McKenzie Milton, what you have seen from him? Everybody has spoken about his development in getting stronger.
"He's absolutely changed his body. He's put together more than he ever has been. His leg strength is actually through the roof right now. He's still running around all over the field. He still goes out there and does our warm-ups and does some individual with us and can snap the ball all over the field. His drive and his push, both on the field and in the meeting room when he knew he wasn't even playing and he was still pushing it, and he still wants to know everything. What's our check? How are we blocking this? It's really unbelievable to see a guy that's had this much adversity, how he's pushed back and how he's actually accelerating his game even further than it was. It's going to be exciting to see what he does in the future."
It was a different preseason and for a while you didn't know who or when you were going to play, but now it's game week. What are you seeing from players over this past week now that they know what they've been working so hard for will finally come to fruition this Saturday?
"It's been great. There's that different energy. There's always an energy that shifts when you go from fall camp to practice. Now it's okay, we're playing. It's not if. It's not maybe. It's not if this happen. We are playing on Saturday afternoon. It's that re-upped energy, here we go. It's the new breath. It's the new life. There's a buzz around this facility right now. We're ready to go play. It's been too long. We're ready to go play."
