Larry Dean

Media Day Quotables

Monday, January 25, 2021

Members of the Western Illinois football team sat down with local media Monday (Jan. 25)

MACOMB, Ill. - The Western Illinois football team met with area media Monday (Jan. 25), where head coach Jared Elliott, Connor Sampson, Eryk Preston, and DeShon Gavin discussed progress towards the upcoming season.

Is the team excited to be back?

(Jared Elliott)
"I thought the fall was really hard on us as a staff and on our team. I feel more energy and excitement right now than I did in the fall. There is something different about it right now."

How tough has it been adapting on the fly and integrating new faces into the program?

(Jared Elliott)
"There is nothing traditional with what we are doing right now. Typically, you have your whole summer, then a lengthy camp of almost a month with no distractions and all that matters is football from morning to night.

We added 16-17 new guys mid-year. Those guys weren't able to participate in fall ball. The retention level of our guys that were here is awesome. I am very pleased; where it has been difficult for us is trying to teach, instill, and get these guys ready to play in a small, compacted period of time. It's not easy.

I know for a lot of these guys it will be week two, week three, week four when you fully see that light bulb go off in terms of what we are doing
schematically. It's not only that, but these guys are trying to build relationships with their teammates. Get a lay of the land. You got school going on and camp going on, and they are learning a new system. There is a lot going on, so I am sensitive to that and we understand that.

We've got to be patient with a lot these new guys and it's going to be a process. There have been some new guys who have been major highlights in picking things up in a rapid timeframe. We have had to challenge these guys to do a lot on their own at night that we would typically be involved in. That is going to be a challenge. Not only do we need to get this team physically ready to play, coming off a short winter break, but can we get this team and especially our newcomers, mentally ready to help this football team week one."

What is the potential of this team?

Jared Elliott
"There is a different feeling to this team. There is some really good leadership. What these kids have had to handle, their maturity, the things they have gone through not only since last spring, but throughout summer to fall to where we are now, I have been really pleased with our leadership. Some guys have challenged themselves to step up into more of a leadership role. I think we are deeper in spots than we have been in the last couple years. Every year, and it's true, but it's a brand new football team and we got a lot of new faces in this program.

I am having fun coaching this team because I enjoy being around these players. They are hungry, driven, motivated. They are guys you don't have to harp on. All of those things have an encouraging component."

Did the longer offseason give you the opportunity to think about what changes you wanted to make offensively and defensively?

Jared Elliott
"That was something that was a benefit, especially coming off the year we had. We were able to really step back and look at recruiting, personnel, and our roster, and really look at scheme. The biggest thing for us was how people manage the COVID protocols. I think the biggest thing we are about to go into is player management and keeping the team healthy. We were able to look at some of the teams that really did it the right way and have a lot of discussions on how they did it."

Describe practicing in January?

Connor Sampson
"It's very different. You're used to playing in the fall, and when they told us we weren't going to play, we were honestly looking forward to the next opportunity. We used the fall as like a spring ball, took the full fall to get better as a team and physically in the weight room."

DeShon Gavin
"As a player, it's definitely something you have to adjust to but growing up playing football you know everything is year-round. Whether you're in season or out or doing some type of training, you're always on your feet, so being accustomed to doing everything year-round, it hasn't been nothing new to me. I'm always doing something. I'm always staying active because when you're trying to be one of the best, you have to continue to train like one of the best all the time. It has been weird going into the season in the spring, with the cold up here in Illinois, in the Midwest. It switches from extremely hot to extremely cold. Wearing the mask in practice and making sure we follow the COVID protocol has also been an adjustment, but as players, this is what we train for."

Practicing on the day the NFC and AFC Championships were going on, does this all seem unusual?

Eryk Preston
"It'll definitely get to you. Coming from practice, you don't have a game on Saturday, but you'll look on your TV and see other games. It was tough, but you have to stay patient and put your head down and work. It's a tough world and a tough situation going on right now."

What was last spring and summer like as it relates to training?

Connor Sampson
"Last spring, it was kind of crazy. We were supposed to come back after break and didn't, and that's when everything started to hit, so we were home for a good amount of time.

I was talking to some of the receivers and was like 'Hey guys, we've got to get back into the swing of things,' so we got back here late May, early June. Basically, me, Tony [Tate], and John [Brunner] just started working out on our own in a random field that we found, just so we could get that connection back. "

On paper, that's a really good receiving corp. How excited are you to get that group going?

Connor Sampson
"It's extremely exciting. Watching them in practice has been impressive. We've got John, Dennis [Houston], and Tony. We've added Dallas Daniels. We've added [D'Angelo] Biggs. We've just got so many weapons this year to be able to spread the ball out. It's going to be fun watching them perform.

You're receiving a chance to play this season. What does that mean as a player and for this team?

Eryk Preston
"I'm just really trying to stay accountable, and use all that I've learned from Khalen [Saunders] and Pete [Swenson] these past three and four years. I'm really trying to show what I've learned, be accountable to my team and show and teach these younger guys who are coming along on the defensive-line as well.

Because of these unique circumstances, is it forcing you to take more ownership in your preparation?

Eryk Preston
"Definitely. More ownership. More maturity. A lot of that, because we're working in a very short time and it takes a lot of maturity to bring others on. We have a couple of new transfers, and it's a lot of catching on.

DeShon Gavin
"Our preparation has been through the roof. I can setup stuff with my teammates, the running back corp, where we're watching film on Zoom. Doing a lot of our meetings and stuff over Zoom gives us the ability to prepare when others are not. We can't gather in large groups inside buildings, but we can on the computer.

With everything that's been happening, we've had time to prepare. We have been prepared for a while now, and now, we're just ready to go out there and get after it."

Taking things day-by-day …

DeShon Gavin
"Anything can switch at any moment, and we're not taking this for granted. A lot of us have felt the repercussions for taking things for granted. A lot of seniors in the past thought 'maybe we'll get one more year to go out there to play with my teammates' and then COVID struck; so a lot of the younger guys are hearing this and feeling this. We realize we owe it to everyone who didn't get a chance to play this season, to not take every day for granted and to intensify everything we're doing, whether that be watching film or asking questions. Even on the practice field, jogging off the field, jogging on the field, just doing all the little things.

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