[Music] Tim thank you so much for the intro I appreciate the young coach comment I just uh just turned 40 in June and uh long discussion about who the young coaches are in our in our conference so I appreciate that appreciate the leadership we got to spend time last night as a as a group of coaches and and it's it was energizing Tim's energy his passion his plan um it's our job to go win football games and and he made that clear to to lift the brand of the conference and hopefully we can handle that you know year two so much more confident walking in here cuz I I know what team we have I know the guys in our building and then I know where we're headed uh I think a year ago we were so focused on laying a foundation but going into year one you really don't know so much more confident right now because you know you know where where you've got a chance to excel you know where your holes are you know how to cover them up and you can move forward I'm so proud to be here represent the University of South Florida uh so proud to represent the city of Tampa and so proud to represent this conference you know for us as a university the commitment is real right now and the commitment is real from the top down with with Will Weatherford and Mike Griffin and our board and what they're doing pouring into our athletic department certainly pouring into football down to to RI president and and Michael Kelly Jay strowman our our Administration has worked so hard to give us every imaginable opportunity to go be successful from this aou status which I think moving forward has put us in the upper eana universities in the entire country academically to the investment we've made in facilities brand new IND going up we're building the nicest football complex in the entire country as we break ground I can confidently say that it's going to be the Taj Mahal of facilities nationally we've exceeded every standard in terms of what's been put in front of us from an academic side we've worked relentlessly hard on the nil side to build a structure where players get what they deserve to recruit and retain players the right way and and keep our guys in Tampa we've invested so much in nutrition we've invested so much in the way we travel everything has exceeded expectations which was promised a year and a half ago when I took the job and has been delivered by our Administration we will continue to be aggressive we'll continue to be aggressive and how we schedule we'll continue to be aggressive in how we recruit we'll continue to be aggressive in how we retain our players more importantly than anything else our players right amongst all of this so proud to to bring two guys with us today that represent the University of South Florida represent our football program in an incredible way Byron Brown our quarterback um who who came on the scene a year ago and had a really really good year I think he'll be the first to tell you he's got a long way to go and we go as he go offensively but I think thing I'm most proud of of bym is our defensive players would tell you we go as he goes as a football team set the tone for toughness for attitude for effort within our program lives in our building so proud of his leadership and his growth uh both physically mentally as a leader um I think the future is right with him leading the charge and then on defense Ben Knox who Ben missed last year with an injury and and I I don't know that we all knew what Ben meant to our program until he got hurt last August but Ben had won a starting job at corner Ben had always been a Qui leader in my first seven eight months there um would only speak when when he needed to say something and you knew he was the pulse of the defense but when he got hurt you really saw it it was like the wind had gotten taken out of our team the way guys look at Ben as a leader the way Ben leads by example and just his positivity his passion for the University of South Florida our football program it's been fascinating to watch him come back and he's stronger than he's ever been he's as excited as he's ever been I'm so excited to watch him lead this fall because he's LED within our program for the 20 months that I've been here and he represents the Bulls and everything we stand stand for as a program the buyin from our players you know we we we do we return a lot of our roster I think the reason why we return a lot of our roster is because the guys have bought in they've bought into doing things the right way they've bought into being a player driven program they've B bought into being a process driven program and they have learned to lead each other we're not where we need to be we certainly have a lot of room to go but we have slowly made strides to have a process-driven player-led program I think all of that starts with accountability the guys have bought into being accountable to each other they've bought into doing things the right way they've bought into living to a standard that's different than the normal person we expect Elite effort we expect Elite results we expect the elite process we demand it and slowly but surely the guys in our locker room have demanded that for themselves you know year one for us we laid a foundation we established process we established standards and then we've gone back and and worked really really hard to figure out are the standards right are they not is our process right is it not we've worked extremely hard as a program we've worked extremely hard as a staff academically we broke every record this spring guys have bought into doing things the right way in the classroom for us we return all three cordinators you know what does that mean well one we get to go into year two with the same systems and build on them I think I'm so excited to see us continue to fine-tune detail a year ago we laid a foundation a year ago we tried to play fast on all three sides of the ball the detail the intricacies of us being able to take the next step on all three sides is absolutely huge I'm grateful to have all three coordinators back we return the nucleus of our team and I'm excited about that uh you know a huge credit I think this off season goes to our Sports Performance team with Coach goo and our strength staff our Sports Nutrition staff our Sports Medicine staff we look like a different football team right now these last eight months have been huge for us how our players have eaten how they've recovered how they have trained is on another level from a year ago a year ago tried to get to the season and be as healthy as we can right now we're hitting new new highs where nutritionally rehab prehab training has been at an elite level I've been really excited about that really excited about our leadership and we brought two guys here we talked long and hard about man there's there's about 14 dudes that you would have felt comfortable bringing and that says a lot about where we're going we're physically more mature we're mentally ready to take the next step as a program you know big question that's come up over the last two days is handling expectations I don't know what the expectations are I know for us the only thing that matters is that our process is attacked every single day the only thing that matters for us is that we continue to grow to trust each other within our walls to love each other and continue to pour into each other the expectation portion of it'll come when the end result happens hopefully in January again going back to being process driven I think the biggest thing for us now as we go into August is how will we handle adversity I told our Leadership Council last Thursday we sat and talked for a long time we haven't faced real adversity since the season ended we haven't in terms of as a team as a pro program things haven't had to get hard we haven't had to overcome them I think everybody in the country would tell you the same how we handle that will Define who we are we have to continue to raise the standard in Tampa we got to continue to raise the standard within our program I know this I'm more energized than I've ever been I feel like our program is more energized than it's ever been the commitment is real there's so much excitement around South Florida football so much excitement with the season ticket sale so much excitement with the returning players all of that next Tuesday we get to shut the doors get into the the hotel and go to work for for a month and I can't wait to just go to work with our players like I said that I use the word energized a lot I feel like over the last two days I've never been so energized to coach I've never been so energized to walk into a building and pour into our players I'm so grateful to our staff who have worked extremely hard your ones are hard a bunch of us that have gone through them worked extremely hard in their families that have sacrificed so much for us to be able to do what we're doing I'm excited to to start fall camp on Tuesday so I'll open it up to questions all right and if you have a question from the media just raise your hand we're going to start with a special question from the Arlington Boys and Girls Club um good morning my name is Ray John Wheeler what is your most memorable moment as a head coach thanks Ray johon um my most memorable moment as a head coach I only got 20 months of experience at this thing um I would tell you probably um probably the the day that of our press conference when I took the job and I hadn't seen my my family in about a day and they flew in and I got to see see my kiddos and my wife and um kind of an emotional moment but kind of knew everything was about to change in a lot of ways meeting I was going to see him for for about 6 months but um but that was probably my most memorable moment that's the moment that sticks out to me I appreciate the question all right question over to the far right coach Trey Smith college underdogs you just mentioned in your opening statement about being aggressive with scheduling and I know you're not setting the schedule but I asked this question earlier to another coach about you're playing teams like Bama Miami you played Bama last year as well do you think it's important to continue having those matchups even though last year the playoff committee didn't seem to put much of a value on strength of schedule when setting who that team from this group would be yeah Bama and Miami got to play South Florida so I think it's absolutely imperative for us to to play the best teams we possibly can I think playing Miami at home is an absolutely huge deal for us did it for a long time and and the Big East days and and they've got to come play in Tampa I think going to Alabama is absolutely huge for us they came to our place we had every opportunity to go be successful in that game couldn't finish it now we get to go redeem ourselves I think that's what college football is man like to me you don't want to go play in Tuscaloosa you don't want to host Miami at home like I think it's awesome um I think that's what college football is our guys are will be more than ready to go play those games and that's what we're recruiting to is opportunities to go play BigTime college football and national tv as you should represent this conference then go give yourself a chance I I don't know what's happened in the past I do know that go do what you're supposed to do you're going to have a chance to go play in the playoff in this conference it's been done and it should be uh so I don't know I'm certainly excited for those games other questions for coach all right thank you coach awesome go Bulls thank you [Music]