2024 SAC Football Preseason Interviews | UVA Wise

all right so here we are welcome in to the sack pre-season media day and in with us today is the head coach from from UVA y coach Gary bass coach thank you for taking some time today thanks for having me so football's right around the corner we were just talking you're you're new to the league in terms of a head coach but you're not new to the league you played at Kataba so what's it like to to kind of come back to the South Atlantic conference I mean it's one of those things I've been going for me got done at Gaba got a chance to go coach High School football for four years uh went to Missouri Southern for two seasons and I was at uh Quincy University for 12 all in all five as an offensive coordinator and last seven as a head coach so I've been gone for 14 years uh it's nice to get back closer to home God knows originally my my mom and dad only being from Asheville only about two and a half hours away it's nice for them to that they're loving being around the grandkids I got a 5-year-old son and a 10-year-old daughter they've enjoyed it but I it's feels like home already again I love it here and it's nice to be back with a lot of familiar faces and a lot of regards um I know the entire coaching staff from Mars Hill for the most part recruited me out of high school uh so it's kind of funny I still keep in touch with those and then uh coach Hester in their last year in the sack before they move away was my college head football coach so a lot of guys here that I know and grew up with and was the people that made me who I am today so I'm very thankful for that well there's a lot of cool sto stories and cool ties in the league but one of them has to be your first home game is against your Alma ma right like how cool is that uh yeah my biggest thing I've said this people people keep asking me that I mean don't get me wrong it's it's it's going to be very interesting and very neat for a lot of things um I'm sure there's gonna be questions that coach Haynes and other people there go how how does this work or this work for a game day I'm like I don't have a clue we're gonna figure out together uh but I mean my biggest thing I've already said this to our coaches uh family and our players here is it can't be about that it's got to be about going out there and executing football plays and being disciplined and and work hard to to have an opport opportunity to beat an opponent so I think the biggest thing for me for that week is going to be making sure that with our young men that it's it's no different than normal status quo we got to go out there and operate and uh do the things that we need to do to give ourselves an opportunity to Come Away with a victory and um then I can worry about that after the game so you come from Quincy in Illinois and put up some pretty big offensive numbers do you consider yourself more of a of an offensive coach or is it uh both sides of the ball I'm definitely more offensive minded I mean um played offensive line in college um was a offens coordinator to high school for three years got the opportunity to go be an offensive line coach my first college job at Missouri Southern State University learned under Bart Tatum who was a phenomenal o line coach with same Houston Northwest Missouri State and other years um went to quiny University originally as the off offensive coordinator strength and conditioning coordinator and offensive line coach and uh in the last seven years the head coach so uh for me uh yeah I mean personally I would consider myself an offensive guy but I mean I also understand that we gotta be able to stop people on defense and got to make sure that we're equally as defensive minded but we we were able to have some success offensively that was for sure so let's stay on the offensive side of the ball then new coach I'm sure there's no nobody really knows what to expect from from UVA wise are are there some things that that you've seen in in you know the short time that you've been there as the head coach they give you some some excitement on the offensive side of the ball well I think the biggest thing in this kind of goes holistically for both sides but even on offense as well is we needed to come in here and establish a culture getting our guys to understand what the foundations of our football program was going to be about um we got to treat it no different than building the house I mean you got to lay the foundation before you do anything else uh so this spring I thought our guys did a great job of U believing in our culture one thing you'll hear me say over and over again is don't like saying the words Buy in um I know a lot of coaches use Buy in but I don't I look at it like this if you can be bought into something you can be bought out of something uh I want our guys to believe in what we do and how we do it and I think offensively this spring we were able to come out and get a lot of our base uh offensive schemes in and be able to come out and had a really good Spring ball was very happy with the work ethic toughness mentality and the learning of our guys they were very eager to learn and and definitely came out and did a great job not only in in the weight room and the stuff we did did winter conditioning wise but also the stuff we did with Spring ball and being able to learn and grow from that side of things I mean this that's something you hear coaches say a lot especially new coaches you want to establish a culture right how how difficult is it to actually do that I mean it's one of those things that that a lot of people talk about but how hard is it to actually do well I think the biggest thing I I tell our guys all the time that change is a process it's not an event um we have to be process driven not result oriented and when I say that I think people kind of look at you sometimes and you're like well you're crazy you don't you don't care about the results I do but I'm a firm believer that a plus b plus C equals D you don't get to D without doing the first three-part right so we've got to make sure that our process is in place that our kids understand the definitions within our football program the standards uh of what needs to take place and I think that's probably the most difficult piece I think a lot of people sometimes um see Nick sain they see Davos Sweeny they see those Premier Division One coaches they try to copy a lot of the things that they did because they had a lot of success and I'm not an I'm not Davos Sweeny I'm Gary bass and I've got to go out there and be myself tell our coaches and players all the time be who you are and do it on purpose uh and I mean that we've got to go out there and be what we're going to be about as a football program uh and what that looks like from a win loss record standpoint this fall we'll see but I can assure you our kids are going to come out they're going to execute they're going to play hard and they're going to do it for each other shifting I guess to that defensive side of the ball um saw a little bit of your spring game highlights did you do you think the defense was more ahead of the offense in that game or you know how did that go and and what does the defense look like for you well I think offensively we weree we were ahead of our defense but most of that had to do with system um you look at defensive they were an odd front team last year on defense so defensive line we had a couple injuries and some things that were pre-existing before we got here as a coaching staff uh so we didn't have a lot of the depth that we wanted to have at defensive line to be able to do a lot of the things that we able to do and want to do defensively uh so we kind of had to change some things around to be able to get through 15 practice and spring somewhat um but at the same point in time I thought those kids one of the biggest things I talk to our defense about all the time is getting to the football um you talk you hear people talk about all the time about scheme this this and this and missing tackles well I look at like this if we can get 11 hats to the football if someone misses a tackle we've got more people there ready to Rally behind it we got to look like bees get into a swarm uh so for us I think the biggest thing I noticed from our defense in the spring was they did a phenomenal job of believing in what Coach Ken and our defensive coordinator does uh but also going out there and being able to attack back the football and get as many halfs of the ball as we could so Camp is a couple weeks away right it's right around the corner what what two weeks yeah how how is successful what would be a successful camp in your mind I think that number one that thing that coaches I think lose trans translation with or transition with is you got a lot of guys that I mean they haven't played a true football um anything since Spring ball I mean so even if you've had guys on campus which we've had the luxury for the first time in school history to to have have some guys here working out on their own and doing things within the rules of NCAA um making sure that we ease our guys into things um because I think sometimes coaches go out there and they try to do 60 plays in a row um and do too much too early and you see a lot of injuries so I think the first thing is continuing to to Jael the new players we've got coming in with freshman and transfers but also getting the culture and steal with those guys uh second piece of that going to be making sure that we uh can develop our guys and be able to push them through what needs to be schematically on all three phases of the game and then third we got to stay healthy um I mean for us those three phases if we can get those things done we'll have a successful camp and uh I think our guys are itching it the bit to be able to get back to work because I think they miss each other sure do uh so give me some names some some people that might have popped off the page or or off the off the screen for you once you saw them in person and got some time maybe in the spring or or some of the the work over the summer well I definitely think you look at quarterback first uh tell people all the time you got you got to have a guy that you trust there if you want to win football games um you don't have a successful football program without a successful quarterback and I'm not sitting here saying you got to go light up the the the stat line but he's got to go out there and be smart and be your Field General uh Jake corkran has done a phenomenal job this spring he was lights out um biggest thing I wanted to see him do was take care of the football because it's one thing he didn't do well in the fall and he did a phenomenal job of that he operated our offense he's he's one of the biggest leaders on this football team and our guys gravitate towards him so he's done a phenomenal job uh running back position Ian scamell um who's from Grundy around this area came in we red shirted last year uh solidified himself as our starting running back for the fall uh then you look at tight end and I'm very lucky being the tight end Coach we've got Dorian Goddard uh UVA transfer he's been here for a few years gonna be a senior who's 6 fo4 he's 235 pounds he's athletic he's physical uh Pon mclanahan who's from Abington we've transitioned him some a little bit and some of the things that he's going to do uh he's done awesome Seth fish back um a receiver DJ pal at receiver um that offensive line I think is is gravitated and done some very good things under coach lad you could definitely tell with Coach Compton and his pedigree from the past that playing in the NFL and doing all the things he did that he did a great job with those guys and we're just trying to make sure we continue the progress with him so I mean very happy with Riley Bodin I mean he's he's going to be senior for I think this is year seven or whatever it is for Riley with he actually took a year off and at one point in time I was a coach on staff here um played last year as well William rudil some other guys Zack plunk there's a bunch of group guys in that group we really think a lot of defensively I feel great about our linebacking core U we got six guys that I think can just flat out play uh and the seir spru who's young rapael May who's young Ken Hines who's good young player uh and then you've got other guys behind them from dor Dori and Jones Montgomery who's going to be a phenomenal player for us Jimmy Simmons and the list goes on so I feel really good about we're at at linebacker right now and we got some guys with some experience uh defensive back we've got Matt strong and Jaylen Jones are probably our two guys coming back with the most experience that that are veteran guys um but we'll have some youth in that room as well and then defensive line we've got some guys getting back off injury from the spring and then we were able to go out and get some transfers that we felt really good about in that room as well uh so all in all feel feel really good about where we're at right now um it is going to be different for me I'm used to uh the school I was at was a private D2 school where we had 150 160 170 football players and we're coming into camp with a 100 so we've got to do a great job as a coaching staff of making sure that we manage reps and and keep those guys healthy for an entire season so obviously you're going into your first year how how would you define a successful first year or when you you know get into the November or December time of the year and look back you know what what do you think you'll see from that that UVA wise Squad I I think when you when you just talk about football um I I think the biggest thing what I talk to our players about is getting kids at play for each other um I go back and I and I look at some things from from prior years um and at times it looked like I was watching a team that was playing for themselves individually when I watched us play in the spring I saw a group of young men that were playing for each other uh in this community in this University in the alumni and you could tell see that they believed in what we were trying to do from that standpoint so I think continuing to drive our culture and the belief in our football program and what we're trying to turn it into um is huge I want to develop freshmen I want to develop the young men within our football program uh yeah we'll have transfers from time to time but we've got to make sure we do a good job of developing talent and developing character and integrity and things to those young men so for me I think the belief in the culture has got to be one has to you can't talk about foundation and then not drive at home during football season I think outside of that from a football standpoint we got to be simple and we got to be great teachers as as a coaching staff yes we had 15 practice is in the spring but this is still very new to a lot of these guys with what we're doing in all three phases of the game and we've got to be great at relationship building we've got to be great teachers and we got to keep things simple uh and I think if we do those things I think offensively defensively special teams wise will we'll be successful what does that mean I've had a lot of people ask coach how many games you gonna win next year I don't know the answer that question um I'd be a liar if I sit here and told you um but I think for us to continue to build a program we got to continue to drive the culture the standards the expectations of what we're trying to accomplish and I believe if we do that and we continue to go out and play hard and and do what needs to be done and execute and have discipline then we'll have an opportunity to be successful when we play people this fall well there you go coach Gary bass first year head coach UVA wi kicking it off here oh in a couple weeks so appreciate you taking some time best of luck this year thank you so much for having me all right