UCF is officially one-third of the way through spring ball, wrapping up practice No. 5 on Thursday. Afterward, defensive coordinator Travis Williams updated the progress being made on his side of the ball.
Recap:
T-Will said Tuesday's defensive effort of getting to the ball "wasn't up to our standard" so they were looking to improve on that today and it was better.
In the upcoming scrimmage, which after the fact we learned would be next Tuesday and not this Saturday, T-Will wants to see solid tackling and effort to the ball. "Getting to the ball with bad intentions."
How is the defensive line looking?
T-Will said they "looked better" while complimenting the work of the two coaches there - Kenny Ingram (DE) and Kenny Martin (DT). He said the DL is "going upward" and he's seeing "positive things."
On Quadric Bullard, I knew he was unavailable this spring due to injury so I asked what he's doing and whether getting bigger in the weight room is an offseason focus.
"He's a strong, powerful 163 pounds right now. Man, I absolutely love Quadric. The way he goes about his business on and off the field. He loves football. He goes to tutoring. Everything he does, he does with a purpose. He's the type of guy that you want on the team. He's working really hard to gain weight and get strong. He's getting mental reps and coaching the guys since he's not out there. Looking forward to having him back."
Auburn DT transfer Lee Hunter is playing nose right now.
"He's a powerful human being. He's exactly what we thought he would be. He can move, which is good."
I asked whether Austin Peay transfer Koby Perry is competing for one of the safety spot. He is.
"He looks good. He's always around the ball. He's very active. Right now, we're teaching him about balancing body control. He's the type of guy when we put the pads on and start tackling, I'm sure he'll jump off the film. He's just a guy that loves ball. Now he has to control all that with his movement and body control. I'm happy we have him."
There was a question about William Wells, who is also at safety.
"He's actually progressing really well. As a freshman, there's so much defense (to learn) and he's trying to line up. Now it's slowing down for him. He's doing some good things out there for us."
Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste spoke the other day about becoming the leader of the group. T-Will is seeing it.
"He is the leader. He's taking the bull by the horns. He'll break the defense down. There's multiple guys. Josh Celiscar is the same type of guy that likes to lead and break the defense down. Jeremiah is the same way. Just looking for him to take it to the next level. He has the skill set. He's what you're looking for skill set wise at linebacker. It's important to him. He's another one. Everything that he does, he goes 100 miles an hour whether it's academics, he's awesome at academics, or on the field trying to teach the young linebackers. In meetings he's doing the extra things. He's a super human being. I could go on and on. I really like him."
LB Terrence Lewis is taking "mental reps" this spring.
"He's itching to get out there. He's a football player. He wants to get out there and hit people. You can tell he likes football. I can hear him on the sideline asking our GA a lot of questions. He's asking questions in meetings. He wants to learn. He wants to be good. Right now he's taking mental reps. He can still get better at defense without taking the reps. We're looking forward to having him once he's unavailable."
I then asked whether Lewis is getting better in his fishing game, a reference to T-Will's tweet earlier this week.
"He caught his first fish. I was so proud of him. His first cast he had a bite. He didn't know what he was doing. He was reeling it in and started backpedaling, like running away from the water. I said you gotta go towards it and pull it in. He loved it. He wants to go back out there and go fishing. I was so proud of him catching that fish, I really was."
T-Will grew up fishing.
"I love it. Coming up, my dad used to always take me fishing. We used to fish to eat. I do it as a sport now. Now, when I'm throwing the bass back in the water my family looks at me like I'm crazy because we used to catch and eat them. We were catching crappie, brim and things like that. I absolutely love it. Most coaches will go play golf. I go fishing. I love fishing. Anybody got a boat, I'm looking for a boat."
Kentucky transfer K.D. McDaniel played LB at his last stop, but UCF likes him more in that buck role.
"At Kentucky, he stood up a lot. He was their jack. He was used to blitzing off the edge and dropping. We have him taking on blocks and things like that. That's a little different for him. We also have stuff he did at Kentucky that he's going to be good at. He's getting better playing the run as well. A little bit of both. He's gonna have to go both ways as far as being a jack to being a five-technique, sometimes a four. Depends on what we're calling. He's doing a great job. He comes to practice with the right attitude and he's trying to get better every day."
