Tom Herman (photo Angelina LaBelle) took to the podium during the bye week on Tuesday afternoon, feeling a bit rejuvenated following FAU’s 41-10 victory over Wagner.
The Owls bought in during week 5 which was something that Herman noticed, however he isn’t ready to be content yet as the Owls now head into conference play.
Herman also noted the progress of Kasen Weisman during the second half, bouncing back from some first half struggles to lead his squad to a resounding 24-0 second half shut-out. Cam Fancher may be back for conference play as well, as Herman noted he underwent an MRI giving a progress report, along with a few other injury updates.
Unfortunately, Herman also revealed that 40-50 Owls were directly impacted by Hurricane Helene and that he expects many players to use the bye week as an opportunity to head home and help out if needed.
That is what stood out, below is everything Tom Herman had to say during his bye week availability.
Herman opening statement
“Just wanted to start off by sending our thoughts and prayers. I know that feels hollow, but to all the Floridians, Georgians, really, all the Americans affected by the recent hurricane, I know it’s impacted our state, obviously, but quite a few members of our team, not just Floridians, but a lot of Georgians on our team, impacted and so we’re doing the best. The bye week couldn’t come at a better time for a lot of our guys, an opportunity to go home, as you just heard Jaden Wheeler say his family got hit pretty hard, and he’s going to spend a couple days back home helping out as much as he can. So this is it puts into perspective what the game that we play on on Saturday, hopefully for everybody that what these 18 to 22 year old kids do every Saturday is really, really fun to watch, but it’s not life and death, it’s not flooding, it’s not hurricanes, it’s not natural disasters, that’s real life stuff. And it’ll be nice for our guys to feel like they have a chance to go home and help so again, just want to express our thoughts and prayers to everyone affected. Just know we’re thinking about you and doing the best we can to help from down here,” Herman said.
Herman update on what the message is to his team regarding the bye, and Hurricane Helene
“The message hasn’t been one yet. There will be one Thursday, when we kind of break after practice, but every bye week, I mean, it’s spring break, Fourth of July bye weekends, those are probably head coaches, you know, biggest nerve wracking times, because you do want your guys to relax and get away, but you want to make sure they’re staying around positive influences, and you want to Make sure they are getting a rest, we I talked to him before they leave on Thursday. I’ll tell you know, like, don’t be going to the county fair with your girlfriend and, you know, or the mall walking, you know, with your mom. Like we need to stay off our feet. Rest, relax, enjoy the time away from the game, but let’s make sure we come back fresh. So as it relates to hurricane, I think we had someone, somewhere about 40 to 50 guys that were directly impacted. Of them. How many are going home to help? I don’t know. I would imagine quite a few, because they’re going to have from Thursday afternoon until Sunday afternoon off. So, you know, hopefully that gives him a little time to get home and help, if needed,” Herman said.
Herman injury update on Fancher
“Just a strain he practiced today, he did not throw and he’s got a lot of tape and stuff on it right now, I think the plan is, if he continues to progress the way he has in the last couple days, would be to throw a little bit tomorrow, see how that feels. If that goes well, then kind of throw him back in Thursday,” Herman said.
Further injury update
“Wendol Philord went through practice, was actually diagnosed, not a concussion, so he didn’t have to go into the five day protocol or anything like that. Jayden Williams did not practice, but he is on schedule to return the week of North Texas. Chris Tooley, hamstring is similar, On Track did not practice today, but on track for next week. Daughtry Richardson, right now, it’s, it’s not necessarily the pain. It’s the cast that is around his hand right now that’s limiting his ability to kind of grab and control people. So get a new cast on that thing, I think, at the end of the week. So we should have a few others, Zeke Moore who went through what they call it controlled contact today. So I think if that went well and had no residuals with that stinger, then he should be cleared here pretty soon too. Elijah Brown has, has had a fever, really, since last week, played in that game, pretty sick. So we’re getting that looked at. Yeah, I think other than that, we should be pretty good,” Herman said.
Herman on if there has been any further redshirts following Jayshon Platt
“No, thankfully we have not tried to tell Jayshon on this I don’t think red shirts are going to exist much longer. We, in fact, had to vote as head coaches on a proposal to get rid of red shirts, and obviously all of us coaches are in favor of that. So I think here, even in Jayshon’s career, you’re going to see guys just five years go play and not have to worry about it. So I wish he wasn’t put in that position. I wish redshirting didn’t exist, and you could just play as many snaps as you went to for five years. But it’s coming. And to answer your question, nobody’s even expressed any thought about it (redshirting),” Herman said.
Herman on what Jayshon Platt needs to work on
“Well, the hard part when you have the type of early career that Jayshon had you become, and I’m sure he feels this way, like a tweener, right? I think, he played 50 some odd snaps as a freshman? Rundown on kickoff probably on kickoff return. But you’re preparing with the varsity, so to speak, but you’re probably a two or three second string, third string guy. A lot of what you’re doing is watching, right? And so he didn’t really develop, you know, in terms of, like he would just getting rep after rep after rep on the scout team. And so year two, we came in, obviously, the cupboard was a bit bare. Here’s this, you know, true sophomore that can run and jump and all that, but little bit behind in his development, and he knew that, that’s the thing that I think, as a head coach makes it stomachable, is that, you know, he knows he’s still got to develop. And it’s really good to see a young man his age, say I got a lot of work to do. You know now I think he and all of us would admit that we wish he would have gotten that work in last year, and so he would have been up to snuff this year. But he just felt like with two years of really playing minimal snaps and kind of really almost just watching, both falls during practice, he didn’t get a whole lot, and so he’s one of the best scout team receivers, and certainly in our conference right now. And he’s making our DBS better, and he’s getting better, which is the important part,” Herman said.
Herman on his team’s level of buy in in between UConn and Wagner
“I did sense it (a buy in). I don’t want to over dramatize it either, but there was a shift. We were embarrassed in Connecticut. You know that at least one if not two sides of our team could kind of hold their head a little bit high in the first first few weeks, but we got taken behind the woodshed in all facets, head coach included. And so I think, unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of guys on our team who keep touching the damn stove, and it’s like my two year old has to get burned one time, and they stop touching the stove. And so, you want to celebrate the progress, right? We look at the last game that we want against FIU, we really only played two good quarters, right? The second and third. I think we started three or four, three and outs on offense. We gave up two touchdowns on defense, in the fourth quarter. Well, you could say, okay, progress we started fast. We played a hell of a first quarter and a great second half. But now we’re three out of four, right? We were two out of four. Now we’re three out of four.”
“The moral of the story is the guys got punched in the mouth against UConn, not not by Clemson, right? Which is the only kind of time I ever felt really physically overmatched since we’ve been here,and I think they knew that too. Like, hey, when you go to Clemson, those guys are gonna make plays. I don’t care how hard you play. But I didn’t think a team comparable to us would embarrass us like that. And I don’t, I don’t think they did either. I think they thought their way was just enough that they could get by doing it, and maybe they thought that FIU was the standard. But there’s no offense to our brothers down the road. It is not. We aren’t either right now, but we’re striving to be. And I think, unfortunately, they touched the stove again in Connecticut, got burned and said, Oh yeah, I remember what this feels like. This feels awful. This really burns like I better go back and do all of the things that I’ve done before to make me not touch the stove. So if that means a new level of buy in, I don’t know, but I do know that there’s a renewed belief that doing your own crap doesn’t work. We had been, I mean, we’re, like, 100% in my time here of doing your own crap and losing. So I think the way we lost mattered in Connecticut, you know, just we got a butts kicked, and I think the guys realized I don’t whatever this man says to make me not feel like that again, I’m going to do you know, because that was embarrassing, Herman said.
Herman on what he saw out of Weisman & a potential 2QB system
“Kasen is certainly a good athlete. I don’t know if he’s Michael Johnson type athlete to merit a package like that. I couldn’t have scripted it better for him to come in. We’ve been harping on ball security. He fumbles the ball. You know, we’ve been harping on decision making. He throws a pass to God knows who in a two minute drill. And so to start your college career with an inauspicious start But he settled down, and just like the team did, I think it was a great script for the teams, because we wanted to start doing things our own way there in the second quarter, we wanted to panic when we got hit in the mouth with a little bit adversity and halftime, everybody kind of took a deep breath, and I thought Kasen himself played remarkably well in the second half, you could feel that like I wasn’t worried. But it was kind of fun as a dad to kind of just watch kind of some of this unfold, because you could feel the tension you could and at halftime. And so, it was good for the offense to come out. We didn’t punt again the rest of the day. Ended with points on all the other drives and turned the ball over. And then our defense, you know, whatever they did, I thought he played probably exactly the way I thought he would, which is really, really nervous and trying to do too much early and then, much like the rest of the team realized, okay, that’s not working real well. Let me try my coach’s way and see if that works, and he played great in the second half,” Herman said.
Final thoughts
Awful news to hear about all of the Owl families affected by hurricane Helene and hopefully the recovery process goes as smoothly as possible for everyone involved.
On the gridiron, Herman sensing a high level of buy-in is important prior to conference play as if the Owls were going to turn it around it had to happen sooner than later, and they have to keep building on what they’ve done successfully in their two wins.
Cam Fancher seems to have dodged a major thumb injury following a tough slide against Wagner. Both Fancher and Weisman had ups-and-downs during their time against Wagner, which has left Herman with a decision on what to do.
It doesn’t sound like a 2 quarterback system will be in play, but Herman noted that Weisman impressed him during the second half and if he keeps doing the right things it could keep potentially pushing the needle in his favor at QB.
The Owls will take on North Texas next Saturday at 7 pm from FAU stadium, it will be the Owls first nationally televised game of the year, airing on ESPN 2.