“We are excited to get back in camp. I think our guys are doing a really nice job and continue to progress. They’re starting to get in to camp very heavily with the bangs and the bruises, and find out how much you football. After a couple of days the shine wears off, and you can’t see the end of the rainbow quite yet for the season so you find out how much you really like going in to practice each and every day. The guys are doing a good job, and we are continuing to get better. I’m very excited. Our freshmen class, if you were fishing you wouldn’t throw them out of the livewell, I can promise you that. You like to keep with who you got. We are happy with those guys. There are some really talented guys. Guys are working hard, and they fit right in. They fit in not only body size athletically, but mentally they are learning how to go. Practice is a lot harder than what they have experienced, but guys are doing a really good job of adjusting. Older guys are doing a good job making progressions across the board offense, defense and special teams. We are still so early, we have a lot of things to go. We are still in the installation parts. We just started our heavy, heavy third down the other day, a couple days of that. We are in to red zone now. Now we will get in to the two-minute situations and all those different things. All those situational things in a game that not only takes the physical toll with what’s going on, but the mental toll of how to execute, what to do, what to expect and how certain play calls or defenses change based off all those scenarios, and our guys are learning and adapting and getting better. Right where we are in camp, about where I thought. Tons of work to do, but very pleased with the guys we have, have the ability to do it, and the guys are working very hard.”
On Chase Lane as a player and a person …
Football is a huge priority, but he understands there are other things in life that go with it. He’s a very intelligent guy, he has a bright future ahead of him on the field and off the field. He’s really emerging as a leader with consistency and how he’s doing things, his intelligence in how he perceives everything that’s going on around him. He does a really good job of setting the example for guys. I think he’s having a really good camp. This is by far his best camp, in my opinion. He’s learning all the little details, you can see him growing as a player and a great young man.
The main thing is experience, you can’t put a price tag on that. The other thing is their length and size. People able to play with that length and size the way that the world is, with the big receivers, and if you have to match them on a tight end, people put tight ends out there on the outside or inside, you can get caught on a guy like that and they have the physicality and size to contend and play. Both are very gifted. Both are very intelligent, competitive, athletic, and both are very team-oriented guys. They are better people than they are players, and they are very, very good players. They are both really high-quality people, they do a great job on the team and work really hard. We are blessed to have them, and to have two guys with that kind of length and size.
He has a chip on his shoulder, a lot of guys do. But the one thing about Leon you always know is that he loves ball. No matter what tangent he goes on, I always tease him, at the end of the day it’s not about word of mouth it’s what his actions are. His workouts in the offseason, his workouts during the season. Him on the field, his energy level, his competitiveness. He loves ball, it means a lot to him, it’s very important to him. I’ve said it, it’s very important, but it can’t be the most important. There are other things in the world. I was reminded of that yesterday when I was in Tallahassee, God is still number one. That’s the way Coach [Bobby] Bowden always lived. Something he said all the time, football is a priority, faith, family and football. It’s a priority and that’s a thing Leon has done a good job of. He loves ball, he keeps a chip on his shoulder, he wants to be a great teammate and do the things he has to do.
On defensive ends coach Terry Price …
I’ve known Terry a long time and I’ve coached against him a long time. He was at Ole Miss, he was at Auburn. Every time we ever played against his teams his guys played very well. He recruited well. I’ve always had great respect for him. Guys that you coach against, you always think, would that be a guy you’d be interested in putting on your staff. He has always been that guy. Secondly, he’s a tremendous human being. He’s a great recruiter and he’s a very knowledgeable coach. He has coached guys that have been first picks in the draft. He has coached multiple guys that weren’t even highly-recruited guys that end up getting drafted and do big things. He’s done it here and at other school, everywhere he has been. And he has done it himself as a player. He was a great player here himself, he played pro ball, he’s been part of great defenses. He also knows A&M. You can see his love for A&M. And he’s the best barbecue guy I know.
On Bobby Bowden's memorial (held Saturday) …
It does (make you nostalgic) and, you know, first to the coach and the things he meant, well I always say what he meant to us. I go back to the '80s. I mean the mid-'80s and early-'80s and then getting to see the family. I mean, God's got this. Seeing Tommy and Terry and Jeff, Ginger and Jack Hines the son-in-law. I mean all the kids. Just a lot of tremendous memories, and I remember why I started coaching. Sometimes you get so distraught when you leave something. You always say, you've got to go back to your roots, go back to your foundation. Well that family was my roots. So I started where I was. People always accuse me of being a Bowden all the time. They took me everywhere. I did everything with them and was around them all the time, and to be exposed to Bobby and that family at an unbelievably early age, when you're very impressionable about what you're trying to do, and you want to become something...to have that family put in front of you--to be able to go to meetings, let him coach you as a player, coach with them, coach with Bobby, coach with the kids, go to bowl games. I mean, hang around the family, go to practice and stay at the house. Lets you be at the Bowden Academy. Listen, I mean, it did. It reminded me all those times. The craziest times. I said, I'm not too sure as much as I love everything I do, those original days when you didn't have two nickels to rub together, you're trying to figure how you're paying your rent, you're an OC making $14,000 a year, and you're gonna...but you're happy. Just as happy coaching as I am now. It reminds you why you got in this business. And he reminds you that football is a huge priority, but it's not the priority. God was number one with him, his family and then ball, and he had his things in perspective. And that's why I think the longevity and the effect he had on so many people's lives when you sit and listen, you always wonder what they're gonna say about you. I'm gonna tell you what, that was remarkable. That could have kept going on and on and on, everybody had it and how he affected him. And there weren't tons of ball stories. I mean, the fact that, you (sometimes) forget why you're coaching, the effect you have on people, good, bad, indifferent, all the things that go on and the responsibility you have. And then we get out of whack too sometimes, you know what I mean? About what you're in the business for, how you're doing, you want to win so bad, you're doing this, you're doing that. But like I said, that guy is...I don't mean this in any disrespect to anybody else...I don't think anybody ever did anymore for a school then Coach Bowden did for Florida State. I mean, they hadn't won one game in two years when he got there. Remember, he left a 9-3 team, went to a bowl game, had a great team, had a great run at West Virginia. He left and came there and Florida State became Florida State. The effect he had on people and what he did and how he did it, but more the class he did it with. Just the right way of recruiting, didn't cheat, didn't do the things you had to do. And I don't know if anybody's ever done more for a place. And the other thing, I say it all the time, those wins they took away from him, he needs to get them back. That's ridiculous. It is absolutely ridiculous in that part. But it was, it was a tremendous (event), you know, you laughed, you cried. But you had memories. It was a great time, especially seeing the family, Jeff and Terry, we were telling stories and some of them I'd forgot. I'm glad I did forget, but they didn't forget them. But no, it was just great to see them all and be with them...a tremendous deal. A tremendous man, like I said.
