Gus Malzahn Spring Game Press Conference

UCF head coach Gus Malzahn recaps spring practice, which culminated April 10 with the Spring Game inside the Bounce House.

Opening statement:

"First of all, I just told the guys when we called them up, I'm really proud of our team. An outstanding spring. We've challenged them. We've put it on them physically and mentally. We practiced four days a week for four straight weeks. We got after it. Today it was great. The guys were flying around. Got a chance to get everybody to play. I think they played hard. I think they played for each other. We didn't have any serious injuries. That's something you always stress about as far as a spring game. It was great to be in front of our crowd. I really appreciate our fans that came out. I appreciate our band. They were outstanding. It was just a really good atmosphere and a really good overall day for us."

On the Twitter handle jerseys:

"We've been saying we think the future of college football is here. If you really look at it, we've got 322,000 living alumni and the average age is 36. They're on social media. We've got 72,000 students on social media. This is the new age. Personal branding. We're going to embrace it within the NCAA rules. That's who we are and who we're going to be."

On Dillon Gabriel's performance:

"Dillon has had an outstanding spring. His accuracy really stands out to me. He's got great command of the offense. He is really special when things break down, his decision making, his accuracy. He really had an outstanding spring."

On the other quarterbacks:

"I thought they did a good job. I think all of them got in there and did some good things. Moved the ball. We let our three guys go live other than Dillon. Or all four. That's something we did all spring. We wanted to evaluate the guys. We know what we have with Dillon. It was really good to see those other guys be able to play football. It was good for our defense to see those guys live too."

On Dillon Gabriel catching a pass from Ryan O'Keefe:

"That was a deal between him and O'Keefe. We had a base play and they had a read on it. They were really good together, on the same page. That was a wild play."

On the running backs:

"Early on, I could tell the running backs were a little nervous. We weren't patient, running into the backs of guys. As the game went on, all the guys kind of slowed down. I think Johnny Richardson had a really good day, receiving and running. He had some explosive runs. R.J. (Harvey) did a good job. Bentavious (Thompson) did a good job. (Damarius) Good had the touchdown. We got good information about all those guys."

On how much of the offense he's installed:

"It's probably somewhere around 60 percent. Probably. Both offensively and defensively. That was by design. We talked about it earlier. We didn't get a chance to get through walk-throughs with our guys. We just went right to the practice field and installed on the practice field. Our whole deal was let's get a great foundation. So they don't develop bad habits during the summer. But we have great information from a coaching standpoint of what we have and what we need to improve on. Probably about 60 percent."

On how the players functioned within the offense:

"I thought today was really good. It was the first time we got in front of a crowd and band and all that. We let everybody play. We divied ones against twos. I thought the guys responded pretty good. It's always good from a coaching standpoint. In this kind of environment, you find our more than a normal scrimmage because some guys raise their level when you get in front of a crowd and a game-type atmosphere and some get kind of nervous. That was good information for us as a staff."

On whether Twitter handles may go against concept of a team:

"We're gonna be a team. There's no gray area with that at all. It's just the new age of college football. What's the future going to look like? It's going to be different. We're going to be that team in that group that is looking ahead. Being prepared for it. Make no mistake. We are a team and we're an extremely close team."

On who came up with the Twitter jerseys:

"It was an idea within our staff. We've got a very creative staff that we're all on board. We believe the future of college football is here. That's just the first step. Just trying to look ahead."

On R.J. Harvey:

"He did a good job. He's still learning to play running back. He was a quarterback. Every practice you can see him get a little more comfortable. He was a little nervous or whatever early. Little hesitant. It kind of clicked in that second quarter. He loosened up and started playing. I thought he did a good job."

On Kalia Davis playing on offense for one play:

"We're going to run the wildcat. Just looking at what we have and all that. He played running back in high school. There's a good chance you could see him next year running some wildcat. I'll just tell you that."

On the defense:

"I thought the defense did good. They were flying around. Travis was pretty basic today. They weren't a lot of exotic things. Just let them play football. That was by design."

On which specific players improved from the beginning to end of spring:

"Get me at the next press conference and I'll tell you."

On the offensive line:

"The thing that stands out about our offensive line is we've got some depth. Coach Hand, he mixed and matched guys. He moved guys. Constantly throughout the scrimmage. I think that will be a strength for us next year."

On a 'knock' against Dillon being his lack of mobility:

"I don't know who said he's not athletic. They need to come watch a practice for 10 minutes. He's athletic. He creates. He extends plays. We actually threw it to him. Did you see that? We think he's very athletic."

More on Johnny Richardson:

"I think he just needs more experience. I think that's what stands out to me. Coach Harris has done an outstanding job with him, developing him."

On what's next:

"It's pretty unique. We're on spring break this week. Our guys are gonna head out of here. We'll let our coaches get moved and all that. We'll hit the ground running when we come back. Obviously transition into recruiting. Let them get with Coach Dawson, our strength coach, and let them get developed. We need to hit the weight room hard and get stronger and faster. We'll do that and get ready for the summer:

On the running clock in the second half:

"We saw what we wanted to see. That was by design, a running half. That way we can kind of control it. We wanted to let everybody play. It was pretty hot out there, so I think the fans appreciated it too."

On building trust within the team:

"It's a process. We're light years ahead. I really appreciate our team. The way they allowed us to coach them hard. The way they responded. That's what I told them. I'm proud to be their coach. Our staff is proud to be coaching this team. We've got some outstanding young men that are really fun to coach. We got a chance to be good next year and that's real exciting."

On whether he expects to lose players in the transfer portal:

"That's a hard question to answer. Like I've said before, they didn't have a coach for a month and nobody went in the portal. I've never heard of that. That says a lot about how close they are. We'll see. I think we're a real close team. I think there will probably be very little of that."

On embracing NIL in college football:

"I don't know if anybody knows the answer to that. We're going to be within the NCAA rules in everything we do, but we're gonna be prepared. Like I said, you look at 322,000 living alumni and the average age is 36. 72,000 (students). And they're all on Twitter. Some of those big schools, their average age of alumni is 65 and they're on Facebook. We've got a big advantage. My mom is on Facebook. Checked it last night as a matter of fact."

On whether recruits are asking about NIL:

"I think every recruit is probably asking every staff in America what's going to happen. We're going to be that program that's prepared."

On what's next:

"We're going to take a couple days off. Our staff. We've got guys that need to move here. As a matter of fact, I may get out of here for a day or two, then hit the ground running and come back. There's a lot of excitement, our staff might take off, but we're not going to take off in recruiting. We'll be back and ready to go in a short period of time."

On whether he accomplished what he wanted to:

"It's been fast, but it's been a fun fast. The big thing that stands out to me is how good of kids we have. That really is. That's not coach-speak. We've got outstanding kids. We've strained and challenged them. They've responded. It's fun. I'm blessed to be the head coach here. You can feel it. You can feel it when you walk down the hall, walk outside. Something special is happening here. I'm blessed to be here as the head coach."

On his pick to win the Masters:

"I couldn't even tell you who's winning. Dustin Johnson, is he close?"

(Dustin Johnson missed the cut)

"There you go. That's who I would have picked and was hoping to watch tomorrow."

On the one-time transfer rule:

"I think it's going to happen. I think everybody knows that. That's just reality."

On whether he's been vaccinated:

"No. Nope."

Is he going to get vaccinated?

"I don't know. I don't know yet."

On opening up recruiting June 1:

"We're hoping it happens. I think every head coach in America hopes it happens. There's nothing like being able to get in front of somebody face to face instead of on Zoom. We'll be prepared for that. We're moving forward like it's going to happen. You've probably seen official visit dates and all that. We'll just getting prepared. We're hopeful."