BOCA RATON, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic University football team returned to the practice field on Monday morning to begin the team's second week of the Spring Practice period. Once again, the Owls welcomed visitors and prospects to the field for the two-hour session.
TAGGART'S TAKE
Hagerty Family Head Football Coach Willie Taggart On Last Saturday's Junior Day:
"I thought it was a great day for the Owls. We had over 300 prospects here and their parents and family members came with them, and they got opportunities to see our campus, see our facilities and watch practice. It's the first time since I've been here that we've been able to do that because of COVID-19. It's really important to us, [them] coming here, getting student athletes on campus to see our beautiful campus and our facilities and being around our coaches. It was a great turnout to be our first one. We're really excited about it."
On the first week of practice:
"The first week was great. It's like most weeks. You're coming out to Spring Ball and everyone's excited to get going. Practice was really fast. The tempo in practice was really good. Competition was really good. The second week, we learn a lot about the football team. The excitement's not there as much and you start to see the guys that really love football and love coming out every single day to get better and some of the guys that need to continue to develop and have that mentality the second week."
On cornerback and linebacker competitions:
"There's a lot of young guys there that want to play. They're some good football players but they have to understand they have to come out every single day and compete for the job and we're not going to give it to anyone. For us, we've got to continue to develop at those positions for those reasons. Part of the development is when you have a competition the way that it is, it's iron sharping iron, making each other better. It's going to be that way throughout spring and throughout training camp and knowing that once we decide who's going to be the guys, we'll have the right ones."
On who improved over the offseason:
"From a leadership standpoint, I've been really impressed with Teja Young and Evan [Anderson]. Those guys have been very impressive. During the Christmas break, [Teja] was here working out. He's been that way the entire offseason. He's speaking up more. The things that he's saying to the team is awesome. Sometimes, he says things that I'm getting ready to say. It's good to see him develop from the time I got here to where he is now, and Evan. Those are two guys that were really crushed after our last game last year, two guys that really spoke up in the locker room. And it's good to see that not only those guys spoke up then, they are consistently speaking on the message they had after that game and holding guys accountable so that we don't feel that way anymore. Seeing guys like that has been really good. From a football standpoint, playing a lot of young guys over the last two years and seeing their development and seeing their growth and seeing how much they've improved over those couple of years. Offensively, the same thing I was talking about with Teja, you're seeing that in N'Kosi [Perry]. He's always up here with someone else, not just by himself. He's got someone in there to work with him and that's great to see, and you're seeing some of the results on the field from that, especially with some of our young receivers like Jahmal Edrine, Javion Posey's doing some really good things, Tony Johnson. [Je'Quan] Burton's coming back from injury, but he's making some plays for us now. It's good to see a lot of young guys out there making plays. The one guy that really impressed was Deshawn Richardson. Every day, his name's been called out as a guy that's stepped up and having a good spring. He's been Mr. Consistent."
PRACTICE VIEW
Gallery: (3-21-2022) Spring Practice #5
WHAT'S NEXT
FAU will open the 2022 season on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, in Athens, Ohio.
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