I’m still working on transcribing Rich Rodriguez’s entire press conference from yesterday introducing the class, but here is the first part of what he discussed with the media.
On Signing Day: “Every coach will tell you they’re excited today. I’m sure they’re excited to get this part of it wrapped up and move on to the next class and class after that. I think we have some really good football players. I think you can tell maybe in the next couple years how accurate we were with our assessment, but I do think we met most of our needs and most of our wants. We got good guys and a strong academic class and really good football players.
“I think maybe we have a spot or two that maybe we can add somebody on down the line. It’s a good group.”
On adding Williams, Addae and Yates as recruiters: “They were added on so late in the process that I think they just helped secure a couple new guys and keep a couple guys that we had in the fold to stay with us. Part of my thought process in hiring the new guys was hiring guys who were going to be really strong recruiters. We had a really good staff and those guys were really good recruiters and coaches, but with that said when I hired the guys on defense they were going to be strong recruiters in the areas we wanted to target. And with coach Yates and coach Addae and coach Donté Williams I think we’ve got that.”
On adding a defensive line coach: “I’ve go to add another coach to defense soon. I’ll do that probably very soon in the next few days and we start spring practice next Friday.”
On adding more defense in this class: “Well we needed to get a little more athletic defensively and deeper. Certainly our depth took a hit this year with the injuries and that was a major part of it, but we also graduated several safeties and lost a few linebackers to graduation or the NFL. We’ve gotta get guys who can hopefully come in and compete. We’re looking for taller and rangier safeties. We’re still looking for guys up front - pass rusher guys and all that. And linebackers that can maybe be a pass-rush guy as a defensive end but also be able to play in space.
“So everybody is looking for them and we’re no different. But we did get, if you look at linebackers, we got some taller 6-3, 6-4 probably going to be 235-pound guys who are pretty athletic in space.”
On the current recruiting model: “I think the whole model needs to get blown up. That’s my opinion. Having these dog and pony shows on Signing Day and kids under so much stress and pressure to have it done by this time. We tell the ones ‘if you’re not sure then don’t sign today ... you don’t have to sign today.’ Wait a month or two. When you have a hard true and fast day like this it forces things to go crazy in the last two weeks and that’s frustrating to everybody. I think it’s frustrating to the players and their families and I think it’s frustrating to the schools. Until we change it it will be that way.”
On the early enrollees: “Well I think being in spring practice is a little bit of an advantage because you get to know them. But I think the advantage more than anything else is just getting acclimated to college from a strength and conditioning standpoint and an academic standpoint. The guys who greyshirted that we brought on I think are a year older so I think they add something to this class certainly. And then the guys who graduated high school early I think they’re probably a little bit homesick and a little bit overwhelmed at first but by mid-semester they’re settled in and starting on their degrees.
“Those kids are ready to go. I think more high schools oughta be willing to do that if the kids are ready to go and miss the second semester of their senior year. People say ‘what about missing the prom?’ ... Really? If that’s the primary thing you’re worried about missing the prom, shoot you ain’t the dude we want anyway. You can go back for prom, you’d be lucky to find a date anyway. The prom.”
On Khalil Tate: “Well one of the benefits with Khalil is that we got the benefit of seeing him in person a couple times throw. And I think that part of it and not just throwing but his demeanor and the technique. He’s a willing runner and when you’re a willing runner like that you get labeled as an athlete who can’t really throw it. He’s got a great opportunity this spring to learn and get a lot of reps. I think his future is there. I’d like to have at least four or five, and we will have that counting walk-ons, but we’re going to have pretty good competition at quarterback and I think Khalil can play here at that position.”
On the O-line class: “We’re adding some size and athleticism up front on the O-line. I’m really excited about it and I’m sure coach Michalczik is the same way with the way we look up front. Keenan (Walker) had an injury so I think greyshirting him worked out great. He’s got tremendous upside. We’ve got some other big kids on the team now and we added a couple in this class, so O-line wise not just for this coming year but for the next few years we’ll be able to get a little deeper. We were a little thin there the past year or two, but I think we can get 10-deep with quality guys in the next couple years.”
On Michael Eletise: “He’s a big physical, strong guy. I think he could play guard and maybe play center. He could play tackle. He can play all the positions, so for us we don’t look at a guy as a true guard or a true tackle. He’s a really good football player. Tremendously strong guy with good feet, and a great young man from a great family. I think he’s got the type of personality and work ethic and temperament that he’ll be a true leader in this class. ... We wanted to get back into Hawaii and particularly in getting some Polynesian players which have been very important to our program over the years going way back to the coach Tomey days.”
On how much bigger the defensive line needs to be: “Bigger? A lot. There were a few injuries, but we’re too small defensively across the board. We got bigger at linebacker and we got bigger at safety, but we have to get bigger on the D-line. I still have some concerns with the D-line. Do we have enough depth? Do we have enough size? But we’ll continue to address that and it will be a focal point for us in recruiting in the next year or two just getting some big dudes on defense.”
On Signing Day: “Every coach will tell you they’re excited today. I’m sure they’re excited to get this part of it wrapped up and move on to the next class and class after that. I think we have some really good football players. I think you can tell maybe in the next couple years how accurate we were with our assessment, but I do think we met most of our needs and most of our wants. We got good guys and a strong academic class and really good football players.
“I think maybe we have a spot or two that maybe we can add somebody on down the line. It’s a good group.”
On adding Williams, Addae and Yates as recruiters: “They were added on so late in the process that I think they just helped secure a couple new guys and keep a couple guys that we had in the fold to stay with us. Part of my thought process in hiring the new guys was hiring guys who were going to be really strong recruiters. We had a really good staff and those guys were really good recruiters and coaches, but with that said when I hired the guys on defense they were going to be strong recruiters in the areas we wanted to target. And with coach Yates and coach Addae and coach Donté Williams I think we’ve got that.”
On adding a defensive line coach: “I’ve go to add another coach to defense soon. I’ll do that probably very soon in the next few days and we start spring practice next Friday.”
On adding more defense in this class: “Well we needed to get a little more athletic defensively and deeper. Certainly our depth took a hit this year with the injuries and that was a major part of it, but we also graduated several safeties and lost a few linebackers to graduation or the NFL. We’ve gotta get guys who can hopefully come in and compete. We’re looking for taller and rangier safeties. We’re still looking for guys up front - pass rusher guys and all that. And linebackers that can maybe be a pass-rush guy as a defensive end but also be able to play in space.
“So everybody is looking for them and we’re no different. But we did get, if you look at linebackers, we got some taller 6-3, 6-4 probably going to be 235-pound guys who are pretty athletic in space.”
On the current recruiting model: “I think the whole model needs to get blown up. That’s my opinion. Having these dog and pony shows on Signing Day and kids under so much stress and pressure to have it done by this time. We tell the ones ‘if you’re not sure then don’t sign today ... you don’t have to sign today.’ Wait a month or two. When you have a hard true and fast day like this it forces things to go crazy in the last two weeks and that’s frustrating to everybody. I think it’s frustrating to the players and their families and I think it’s frustrating to the schools. Until we change it it will be that way.”
On the early enrollees: “Well I think being in spring practice is a little bit of an advantage because you get to know them. But I think the advantage more than anything else is just getting acclimated to college from a strength and conditioning standpoint and an academic standpoint. The guys who greyshirted that we brought on I think are a year older so I think they add something to this class certainly. And then the guys who graduated high school early I think they’re probably a little bit homesick and a little bit overwhelmed at first but by mid-semester they’re settled in and starting on their degrees.
“Those kids are ready to go. I think more high schools oughta be willing to do that if the kids are ready to go and miss the second semester of their senior year. People say ‘what about missing the prom?’ ... Really? If that’s the primary thing you’re worried about missing the prom, shoot you ain’t the dude we want anyway. You can go back for prom, you’d be lucky to find a date anyway. The prom.”
On Khalil Tate: “Well one of the benefits with Khalil is that we got the benefit of seeing him in person a couple times throw. And I think that part of it and not just throwing but his demeanor and the technique. He’s a willing runner and when you’re a willing runner like that you get labeled as an athlete who can’t really throw it. He’s got a great opportunity this spring to learn and get a lot of reps. I think his future is there. I’d like to have at least four or five, and we will have that counting walk-ons, but we’re going to have pretty good competition at quarterback and I think Khalil can play here at that position.”
On the O-line class: “We’re adding some size and athleticism up front on the O-line. I’m really excited about it and I’m sure coach Michalczik is the same way with the way we look up front. Keenan (Walker) had an injury so I think greyshirting him worked out great. He’s got tremendous upside. We’ve got some other big kids on the team now and we added a couple in this class, so O-line wise not just for this coming year but for the next few years we’ll be able to get a little deeper. We were a little thin there the past year or two, but I think we can get 10-deep with quality guys in the next couple years.”
On Michael Eletise: “He’s a big physical, strong guy. I think he could play guard and maybe play center. He could play tackle. He can play all the positions, so for us we don’t look at a guy as a true guard or a true tackle. He’s a really good football player. Tremendously strong guy with good feet, and a great young man from a great family. I think he’s got the type of personality and work ethic and temperament that he’ll be a true leader in this class. ... We wanted to get back into Hawaii and particularly in getting some Polynesian players which have been very important to our program over the years going way back to the coach Tomey days.”
On how much bigger the defensive line needs to be: “Bigger? A lot. There were a few injuries, but we’re too small defensively across the board. We got bigger at linebacker and we got bigger at safety, but we have to get bigger on the D-line. I still have some concerns with the D-line. Do we have enough depth? Do we have enough size? But we’ll continue to address that and it will be a focal point for us in recruiting in the next year or two just getting some big dudes on defense.”
