The second week of fall camp began on Monday with a full-pad practice. Offensive coordinator Scott Frost spoke to a group of reporters after practice and spoke highly of Jeff Lockie’s continued strong play and Vernon Adams’ ability to pick up parts of the offense rather quickly. Although Frost acknowledged that the offense still has plenty of work to do before the season starts, he said that is completely normal at this stage of camp, especially with how many young players are now in the fold.
On the subject of quarterbacks, what do you learn over the span of two or three days that you can take forward?
I think we’ve gotten better at the quarterback position since spring. Everybody that was here looks considerably better than they did in the spring. Jeff is doing a great job with managing the team, making some plays and now we add a new factor (Vernon Adams) into the equation. I feel good about where we are as the quarterbacks stand.
The mental part seemed like something he could tackle pretty early because he had somewhat of an assemblage of your system. Physically, he hasn’t been able to work out with guys for a long time. Does that seem like a point of rust for him?
No, I’ve been really impressed with (Adams) the first three days. He doesn’t show signs of being rusty or being out of shape. He’s picked things up really quickly. Combined with all our other guys that are playing well, I feel good about the (position).
What’s the difference for you in having a guy that comes in later and hasn’t had the spring? Do you have to do other things to get him up to speed?
I just have to teach (Adams) different than I would teach some other people. Last year, I was the luckiest coach in America because I had some guys had been around here so long that we didn’t have to install anything or have long meetings about things. We were just fine-tuning everything. Now, expect for Taylor (Alie) and Jeff (Lockie), everybody’s young and learning, so we’re really starting back at square one a lot of the time. But every guy in my room is smart and picking things up quickly.
Besides the playbook, what is the number one thing you have to work on with Vernon?
There’s just so many little details to learn when you come in new. You learn those things over time. We’ll keep trying to force feed him and jam as many things into his head as it can hold. But sometimes there’s no substitute for experience and he hasn’t seen some of the things we were talking about. It’s going to be a learning curve, but I’ve been impressed with how quick he’s picked things up.
Do you have any big takeaways from the first week that you were pleased with or displeased and want to see more improvement on in the second week?
I’ve been pretty impressed with practice. Cautiously optimistic right now. I think we could still be more physical, still play a little faster. Obviously the details gotta keep improving, but that’s the case at the start of every camp, particularly when you’re playing young kids. We’re getting better every day and we just need to keep on that trajectory.
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