 You know, sad for the passing of Mike Leach. I didn't know Mike, but he had a huge impact on the game of football, certainly college football. So sad to hear about that down in Starkville. I thought he was a very big innovator in college football in a time where not a lot of people are really authentic anymore. Mike certainly was authentic. And whether you agree with or not, you appreciate that. I know you guys that have covered football a long time, probably missed that a little bit, but sorry to hear about Mike. Yeah, coach, where are you all that with moving, getting Desmond ready and any updates on Marcus's status? Yeah, so he's got Marcus scheduled to have surgery next week, so we'll put him on our today. Desmond decided to get going this week. The challenge of playing a divisional came down in New Orleans. We're excited about it, been preparing, and excited to get out here and practice today. And we'll continue to go through the process, make sure we do everything we can to be ready to roll Sunday. What are the challenges with him and Logan, who he's paid in 11 games, but you all would have to get him and Brady, I would gather maybe Frank's also? Yeah, it's part of the job. D-Led, whatever you're dealing with, injuries, things come up during the season. You certainly see it around the league. Guys all saw Baker Mayfield go in there last week and go in there and win a game. It's what happens. It's our job. It's our job as coaches to get guys ready, guys that are healthy, and active roster. And so we're excited about the challenge and look forward to going down to New Orleans. Could you say what kind of surgery Marcus is having? Is it for meniscus or is he all are filling out? The details, again, not the medical expert, but it's a procedure similar to that. I don't want to give you any false information. So I just know it's scheduled, and we'll put him on our today. Obviously, when you have a backup quarterback, he's only getting a certain amount of attention and work, not just on the field, but behind the scenes. Sure. What does it look like now, the difference with you and Desmond's interaction behind the scenes now, as opposed to what we've done? Yeah, we've been, in all of us, behind the scenes, we've done it a lot of different ways and different roles, and you kind of cater to where the players are at. And then with Matt last year, we had a different process, a different than I had with Ryan in Tennessee. Matt was obviously a veteran of some of the things that Dave and I did with him and Charles. That was a different process. We had a different process with Marcus going around. And Des, we've been doing a lot of different things because that's important to make sure you build a relationship because they're always a play away, and you got to make sure that you guys have a common vision as a play caller in the quarterback. So Des has been great, and we were talking about on Monday. Jeff, I really, in the last month, seen a lot of accelerated growth. There's a lot of things we're going to ask quarterback to do. We feel comfortable where he's at. We're excited to see what it looks like on Sunday. Like the guy with Logan, I've been with Logan before, certainly have, that's a huge job, especially for a young quarterback. And Logan's a guy I have a lot of confidence in, and we were fortunate to be able to get him in here. And God knows me really well to kind of fill in some of the blanks for him, and that's important. That role, especially with a young quarterback, is vitally important. I know, I'm sure you've been asked this before, but when you were scouting Desman, watching him fill in all that stuff, what really jumped out at you about him? There's a lot of things. There's things that you see on film as you go through it. The evaluation process, certainly, what he did last year, you know, a game that stuck out to me was that Notre Dame game. You know, when he was at Cincinnati, you know a lot about Desman, from people I trust in this profession. Loved his mentality. You could see it on film, and then certainly when you got to know the person, as you go through the long process of it, not just the speed-dating, you know, 15-minute interview they have at some of these league things, as you really try to dig in and get to know the person. The mindset, how he saw the game, his mentality, his story. And then we were fortunate enough to get him, and we'll see what it looks like, you know, Sunday, and more importantly, as the rest of the season goes along. Go ahead, just go back to Marcus for a second. Oh, Monday you said a chronic league thing. Is there something that you all knew about? Mike, look, play this game, I got you, pretty common league. A lot of guys have things, and things come up. It's a rough sport, Mike. So, things come up. Those are things that happen in pro football. A guy has an issue, go see a doctor, that's what happens. So, you know, telling you what I have. If you want to see a doctor, he's got a procedure schedule going on IR, and it's the way it goes. We've had a lot of guys, right, CP, going on IR. Elijah Wilkinson goes on IR. Got those, you know, spots now to return. Pretty common around the league, and our focus now is the guys that are healthy are going to be active. We got to get ready to go play a division game. So, sure. When you signed him, you knew since it's a chronic thing, if there's something that you... I think any football player, Michael, and maybe even you, if you put an NMR machine, you live life. You know what I mean? Yeah, no, I know, probably everybody in here. So, physical is a part of it, he's a football player. You get physicals, and a lot of guys are everybody you sign. You know, it's just the way it goes. Could he have been an official on the sideline as a mentor? You know, Jeff, I understand the question. It doesn't matter, it was a hypothetical. The circumstances are, it'll be Logan out there, and I got a lot of faith in Logan. If he has to go on their play, he'll be able to operate. So, happy Logan's here. So, it's not like Felipe would have a bigger role or move in there, but like, Felipe's still the tight end? There are a lot of things that Felipe does a lot of stuff for us. Some of it, if we have to, you know, there's other guys we have as emergency quarterbacks. Felipe's a unique position player with the ability to go back there if we need it in tune. He's done it in the preseason and did it last year. In the context of evaluating collegiate quarterbacks, do you pay much attention to what system they're in, whether it's, and do you believe that that makes them maybe more ready to get ready for the pro game, or does that matter? That's another good subjective debate, Josh. You know, a lot of guys, I think the most unfair thing when you get on tape, and there have been way more accomplished coaches have said this than me, older coaches have spoken the truth. You know, when you're watching tape, like you have a pretty good idea of what they're being asked, but unless you're sitting in the meeting room, like I could give you a play, I've run it, you know, five different systems and it looks similar, and we've taught it five different ways, a little nuances of it. So you don't try, the arrogance sometimes makes me roll my eyes when guys, you know, evaluators are people like, well, are you supposed to do this or that? Well, you're not sitting in the meeting. You don't know, maybe they're trying to stay away from this corner this week, and I think there's a lot of arrogance, people that evaluate coaches and personnel, people that don't know, and that's why you gotta do your own thorough research, and then you say, hey, what can translate really how does he learn, how does he see it? Cause sometimes it's not fair, they may not have asked him. They may never ask the guy to throw hot, you may never ask the guy to check anything at the line of scrimmage. And so you've seen guys come from different offices, and I think you get pigeonholed sometimes, and it's unfair to the players. Rules are a little bit different in college, and you can't fault somebody for running a different system, and maybe wildly successful or whatever. So that's, I think that's why part of the problem, why it's so hard to predict the success rate of the quarterbacks, plus what kind of situation are you putting them into? Is it stable? Is it unstable? Every day you walk in the building, you know, like a Bravo TV show, that can affect them. You go in there, there's musical chairs at line, nobody to throw to, five different play callers. I mean, there's a lot of things that go in there, and history is littered with that. When guys are ready, you hope it's stable, you have a chance to have success, there's a long term vision there. I think that usually plays out well for some quarterbacks. I'm sure there's an outlier or two, but if you really look at the history of the league and guys that became really good quarterbacks, usually we're able to play in some stable situations. You stressed, Monday, that your decision to quarterback was based on performance. Correct. Not hell. Nevertheless, given just last week what we saw around the league at the quarterback position, was there any discussion, since Marquis was able to play, was there any discussion on protecting your flexibility and your options at the position and having to wait longer to have this procedure? Again, not going on these practices, we're moving on. We're putting them on our, I appreciate the question, but my focus is now on the guys that are healthy on the active roster and getting these guys ready to play. It doesn't mean like all our players had a conversational compass this morning and checking on them. I care about all those guys, but the reality is from a professional standpoint on Sunday, my focus is getting the guys that we'll have up ready to roll. And it doesn't mean we don't check in, care. We have a great medical team. We've got a great organization. So it's like Kyle, TQ, a lot of guys, we check on them, but focus now, we get in here in the meetings this morning, the installs and going out to practice. Since you mentioned this, how is Kyle doing? And also you said before the buy that you'd know more about TQ after the buy. Yeah, I mean, both those guys, I told you, Kyle, we wouldn't see him, don't anticipate seeing TQ. What do you want to see from this? And I don't mean don't do retouch down, don't throw it in the sky. Yeah, I mean, that's, I mean, when you're looking at it, what do you want to see? Yeah, well, obviously we're, this is a good test for him. Like you're going on the road against a divisional opponent, veteran defense. Defense is really fundamentally sound. They've been together for a while, most of the core, they know who they are. You want to see him operate, see how he handles the pressure, stress, situational football, honest scrimmage, in between series. There's a lot of things. Obviously, you need to go down and get the win, but as you're evaluating him short-term and then really seeing long-term is how he's handling a lot of that stuff. But operationally, we'll be paramount, especially starting that game. Coach, you didn't cut. Okay. What are the challenges specifically with New Orleans for a first-time kind of quarterback? Well, anybody, any quarterback, you've seen them avalanche veteran quarterbacks. If you play into their hands, they can make it hell for you. They're built to assault the pocket. They got a long, they're powerful. I got a lot of respect for them. That's what's a fun challenge in there. So, and they got really veteran players from third-level on down. I think tomorrow Davis is as good as any inside linebacker in this league. They got a lot of length and power. So if you get off track and you get into some obvious situations, they can make it hell for you. Yeah, Coach, what is his, you know, another, the Notre Dame game, you mentioned that, the Houston games, UCF games were big games for him. Sure. What did Coach Fickle say, you know, about his traits as a leader and as a quarterback? Cause I know they're intangibles at that position are more important than some of the other ones. Yeah. Again, I've been, any private conversation that has them is in private. I know a lot of guys like the name drop, not to call anybody out the left, but in all seriousness, no, I'll keep those conversations in private. But, you know, some guys that they get these, whether it's agents or, you know, they all have their PR guys now, I think it's 16 or whatever they have now. I don't even know how that works anymore. So, you know, who knows what's getting pumped, you know, who's the friendly media source or whatever, and you get these ridiculous narratives on guys. But the one thing I'll say about Dez, Dez is authentic. I appreciate the bottom. It's got a realness to them and we'll see how it translates. Obviously we've only seen it in the preseason, but we're excited to see what it looks like Sunday. How do you see your confidence that Desmond is running for Sunday? Well, again, until you actually go out there and do it, there is an unknown. There's a risk we talked about Monday. But everything that's led up to this point, everything we could control, other than obviously it hadn't been out there, the preparation, how he's come along. It's a long, long season. I feel like every season it takes on four lives. You know, here we are in the fourth quarter of ours. So you can say day after day of those habits, that's what you want to see. Again, there are a lot of guys that have a spark early in the year and then all of a sudden, you know, they're not playing and they kind of wander off. That hasn't been the case. If anything, he's gotten better. So obviously we'll see what it looks like Sunday, but that's what gives me confidence until we go play and do it. There's just words right now. How makes this help Drake and what you guys are trying to do with him? In what regards? Just in terms of not only Targets, because I know he's been the Premier a lot, but just in terms of maybe some of the more deep shots you guys have taken. I'm not going to get into the scheme and game plans, but with all of our players, I mean, we hope to, again, be a more balanced offensive. That's kind of the intent. You know, you don't want to be two one dimensional, one way or the other. You got strengths. You know, you play the strength of your team. It may change year to year. You know, that's part of the art of coaching, but you'd like the perfect world to be pretty balanced so you don't become obvious. How do you think is it for you to have a quarterback room that's so young with both guys when I'm starting a regular shooting game or even throwing it at a pass in the middle of the game? What challenges is this a presented challenge? There's always a challenge, you know? It's part of the job. It makes it fun. I mean, it's probably the only quarterback room. I think there's two guys from the state of Kentucky in there. You can look that fun packed up. But there's always some kind of challenge, you know? You're dealing with something. Later you're dealing with a 14 year veteran or, you know, like a rookie. Try to adapt. That's the thing is we're not so rigid that it's one size fits all. We have certain philosophies we believe in, but there are certain things I'll ask Desmond to do that we didn't ask Marcus or we didn't ask Matt to do last year. Or vice versa. Certain things we relied on Matt to do that we're not necessarily gonna ask Desmond to do. You were talking about early in this press conference, you said that in the last month you've seen accelerated growth from Desmond. Where do you see that most notably? Well, mentally. And, you know, the things that, you know, I went on record talking about impressive. Again, there was a practice reps it's all the stuff leading up to this. All the training leading up to this. We obviously gotta go out there and do it for real on Sunday. So, and then no matter if it's great or bad, we're not gonna overreact. You know, it's a good test for us. We did the game we, you know, we need to win. And so like I said, I'm excited. Excited to get here, you know, the bye week. It seems like it's been forever since we played. I'm excited to get back out there at practice. I'm considering how different they look. Yeah, I mean, it's everybody. Mike, it's a good question. There's a natural evolution that happens, you know, some of it as you grow and evolve and some of it out of necessity. Injuries, you know, personnel that's at your disposal. Maybe the game plan, who you're playing. Those are all those things that are fun to try to figure out. Hey, what they're trying to attack or what they did. Most teams change. I mean, they have a fundamental way that the way they go about their business upfront. Like I said, I think they're really well coached, especially on the defensive line. And Dennis does a good job. You know, that's when you got veteran players and history now, this will be our fourth game playing them. Since I've been in Atlanta, I've played them in 19. When I was in Tennessee, they've been pretty good on defense since he's been there. Do you think he can be better? It does mean not having Marcus in the locker room and he has to cleanly win it over and not have the guys who have benched. It's a great subjective argument. So, you know, if it looks great on Sunday, I'm sure we can run with that narrative. If it doesn't, say Mr. Mato, you know, we'll see. I mean, they, on the rivalry, you know, the shots go back and forth and, you know, they'll take shots at Charles. Do y'all note that they just got a shot on 28-3 and stuff like that. And, you know, they just got busted for a player. Did the injury thing, is that fine? You don't have to watch out for that? I don't concern myself with stuff that's out of my control. D-Led, what, you know, a pettiness of social media, not really concerned. Life's a lot better. I know we, you know, it's kind of spaced you guys are forced to work in. I will say this, when you take it with a grain of salt, life's a lot better. People that live on their, live through their avatar, probably live a pretty miserable life. Probably afraid to go out of their house too. So try not to do that. You'll be a lot happier. I understand. I actually do feel for you guys because that's part of the platforms you guys have to use. Yeah, that doesn't concern me. D-Led, not one step, not that I fault you for the question, but all control, hanging control, we got plenty of things we gotta worry about. It's a really good football team, regardless of what other record is. It's the National Football League, tough environment. We're excited to go down there and play. Have you observed any change in his demeanor or what not considering he's kind of gone from a guy who's kind of sitting in the background to some extent to this kind of thrust into a leadership role? No, not necessarily, I mean, but if all of a sudden he tried to act like somebody he wasn't, I think that was a problem. I think he was phony, he's not. So he said, we'll see how it goes. You know, I'm sure he'll be excited and hopefully you guys talk to him. It'll give you how he feels, but we got confidence in him and we wouldn't put him out there.