Coaches Corner for August 11th: Tyler Lloyd, Ogden Football

With us on coaches corner KWBG going to talk some Ogden football today, Tyler Lloyd joining us as the Bulldogs obviously with the first official day of practice and we always like to find out about summer and weights and you know seven on seven and everything else you had a chance to do. So Tyler, tell me about the summer. How do you feel like the kids that kind of progressed? Yeah, I think we've done a phenomenal job in that area and that's been a total emphasis of our athletics department and those are meetings that we've had as head coaches starting in the spring and we were able to get premier athletic training into Ogden High School so I was really excited about that. That's kind of been a three year labor of love for me and then to get everybody else on the same page and on board with that was phenomenal and I appreciate the support that we get from our other head coaches and our administration to implement something like that because you know we've got situations at schools you know where a lot of schools are taking things away but here we are we're continuing to add here at Ogden and we're trying to add things that are beneficial. And to get yourself over the hump athletically you've got to be able to do it first in the weight room so and that's exactly how we started practice yesterday we did a premier workout before we went out and guys are ready to roll and get after it. Tyler it always is kind of one of those hurry up because we got a scrimmage coming up on the 22nd we got a game that'll be here you know before we know it as well. I guess on the 21st scrimmage and then a game of course at the end of the month you can't throw everything at him right away though Tyler so take me through this this isn't your first year as a head coach I know you've done this before but take me through what do you want to get done the first week to let's say seven or eight practices in. I think the biggest thing for us is the coaching consistency that we've had so all of my assistant coaches from last year returned and that's the first time I've had that here at Ogden at Sheldon I was. Fortunate I kind of retain the same guys over a long period of time there and and so that was you know I that was kind of commonplace but now this year our kids can kind of hit the ground running they don't have. This new new playbook that they have to study they don't have these new concepts that they're trying to learn do we refine some things absolutely and we try to fit the kids. Obviously as best as we can and for me personally this season going in I used to always look at things in a three day install and like OK here's day one and then on day two we're going to do this and we're not going to touch anything from day one and then day three we're going to do this and I'm not going to touch anything from day one to day two. This year it's been no we're going to run this until it looks good and then we'll add a little bit to it and you know that's. Obviously personally self-reflect to and I think that's really benefited our kids really well and we've got some you've got some shoes to fill in some different faces out there but that consistency really helps and we don't want them out there thinking we want them out there playing and then that's what the kids want as well and so you try to simplify things as best you can and you know it's it's a really easy sport when you break down football that's why you know everybody is an expert in it but. It's really those fine details that kind of come out and there's a lot of moving parts our kids balance a lot of different things they have other commitment activities you have things going on their home life and I've always said that if I ever wrote a coaching book and I told the truth I don't think anybody would believe it so nobody would buy it but those are the things that we balance as coaches and our kids have really stepped up to the plate there so a lot of exciting things in that area and you just try to take this first week and. You know set that foundation but like you said it started back in June and actually started earlier than that it actually starts at the end of the season when you start. You know emphasizing the weights and getting those things in there and we've got guys that have seen tremendous growth. Tyler you had an unfortunate but now all of a sudden a fortunate situation that happened last year obviously had a quarterback that had been there and had done that and had gone down with an injury. You had to bring in a freshman with Carson Lloyd coming in and kind of being thrust into that spot. I say it was unfortunate then but now it's fortunate because coach he's been under fire a little bit right he's had a chance to be on there on a Friday night and understand what it's like a little bit now. He steps in this year as a sophomore. How has he progressed. You know you just I think the biggest thing for our program is competition so we still have other kids that are competing at that position as well and you know you continue to evaluate the film and look at those things and you know I think you're right. I think it was unfortunate with the injury that happened to CJ and that was a really tough thing. I think one of the best things and I think what speaks volumes about our program. He was attached to those younger quarterback hips throughout that entire process and gave them coaching points that I never could because I didn't play the position. CJ could lay it out and say no I've seen this before this is like this this goes there and you could see that growth in that room and we continue to develop those kids and grow those guys and I think it's a it's a pretty exciting thing. Obviously we're doing a bunch of preseason stuff right now and I had a similar question as well but when I looked at a roster we have 14 guys that have played varsity football returning and I think that gets overlooked sometimes because of graduation. Well graduation is inevitable something we've tried to do here is continue to build build the program. We really spend a lot of time with our JV program making sure they're prepared just like a varsity program and they have had you know winning seasons every year that I've been here. And so you hope that that transition helps up but at the same time these kids have gotten a crack to play some varsity football. Some of them had to be real back and then yeah vice versa we've had some kids show really good things on JV. You give them a crack on Friday and they kind of take it and run with it. So we just hope that these kids obviously understand that there is there's a development piece that goes into this and as long as we continue to try to improve we can look ourselves in the mirror and be happy at the end of the day. Tell you what everybody loves to chuck the pigskin around and it's fun to watch it in the air but man if you can't run the football if you don't have an offensive line that can block it no matter how good your quarterback is. So get me into that a little bit Tyler tell me about the offensive line and tell me who's going to be toting that for two to three yards at a carry just because it's that type of game where we can only get two or three yards at carry. You know nobody wants to run the ball more than me. You're talking to a high school offensive lineman that played in the wishbone and you're talking to a college offensive lineman that you know my senior year we led the nation in rushing at the NAI level. And so you got to be able to do that stuff. However and I think this is something that I picked up as well when I was in college. I played left tackle my senior year due to injury on six to two sixty on a good day. And when I was at Morningside at the beginning my freshman year the starting right tackle was six five three twenty and the starting left tackle was six foot but three ten and had played at Millard South. So that didn't translate to rushing just the size of the size alone doesn't translate to rushing. So one of the things we did my senior years we made sure that we had things formation correctly. We kind of simplified our zone blocking schemes a little bit. So I kind of lean on that experience. We also didn't have a huge tailback at that time. We had a tiny little tailback in my class but he could he could run and get it done. So I want to run the ball. Yeah I want to run the ball. However if you look at our receiving core and you look at the stuff we do with our spring seventy seven that I'm able to work with our younger kids in the development there. Unfortunately yeah we're going to put the ball in the air and that's just the reality of it. You don't put round pegs in square holes and you hopefully can create a situation where you get the best matchup. You get guys out in space. You make one guy miss and it's a really big place. So we put a lot on their plate on our receivers plate. We put a lot on our quarterback's plate to try to ease what's going on up front because I'm always going to take care of the old line. That's just how I am. That's just how it is. But I think that gets overlooked a little bit with like oh you got this rushing statistic or you got to have that. Well what about your screen game. Your screen game is an extension of your run game. And what about those big shot plays that keep safety back. Now that's one left guy in the box you've got to worry about in the run fit. So it's all about how you kind of piece it together and go through it because honestly nobody nobody's lining up in eye formation and just turning around and handing off 24 blast anymore. Like that the game has changed even West Lions evolved and OK if it's good enough for them. I think it's good for everybody else to kind of jump on board and do that too. And kids in skill basketball if I shot a three in varsity basketball I would have been sitting right on the bench next to my head coach. Now look at how basketball is played at three point shot stuff. Curry and all the stuff that they do. It just changes the thing a little bit. It makes the game a little more entertaining. That's frustrating if you're if you turn it over it's frustrating if you're not completing it at over 50% a clip. But again you got to do what's in the best interest of the kids and I would be doing our kids a disservice if we're not using the receivers that that we've been blessed with and that we spent time with developing over the course of the years that I've been here. Well I'll tell you what it is quite the the core and it feels like they're going to be all together and we're knocking on wood for everybody to be healthy as well in that receiving core. But Tyler that's got to be also exciting you know just to have opportunities that you can't just go out there and I can't say hey I'm going to look at number two and I'm just going to guard him. I'm going to make sure I've got you know some help over the top from the safeties or hey I'm going to go find I mean you can't do that with this Ogden team I feel like that's going to be potentially a big strength. We hope so and you know and you got to it's kind of a balance of things to we've got to protect our defense as well. So one of the things that helps in the passing game is you push tempo a little bit but we can't do the college up tempo. I don't have a I don't have 90 guys on my roster. The other thing too is our kids are playing both ways. So we just try to keep those things so we've got to do it in increments and we've got to be able to do things pull the right strings do that stuff and you alluded to it a little bit. For whatever reason we've been hampered by the injury bug that really has really kind of impacted the last two seasons and and hopefully with the strength training and the stuff that we've done and hopefully a little grace from God then we'll be able to kind of fight through some of that. But if not our kids know that you know we can prepare we can adjust we can do some different things that might not be you know what we want our identity to be but we can make the adjustments and again try to put our kids in the best situation that they can be put in to be successful. Schedule is obviously going to be another difficult one I look at the district games. They were some fantastic ones you had last season. I look at the schedule this year. I do like the fact though that where my home games are and where my road games are coach real quick just look at the schedule for me a little bit. What do you think about 2026 of Bulldog football schedule. Yeah. So what when you roll into 2025 you have a whole new schedule and you look at it and then you sit back and you reflect. We didn't lose a single game to a non district champion. True that bar at bar is high and that bar continues to be high when you go in and you look at it this year and those teams are garnering attention just like we were last year we were ranked for three weeks last year. So obviously yeah the bar is high. We know that because we knew the schedule wasn't going to change going into the second year of the cycle. And so yeah you look at those things and I think you should embrace it. I really think it's something that we should look at and be like all right this is this is a great opportunity because what's the point of you know what's the point of playing a lesser schedule and then getting bouncing the first round like that's not that's not what you want to be. You want to be playing your best football week eight rolling into rolling into the playoffs and once you hit that playoffs anything's on the table anything can happen anything has happened. And you've got blue blood programs that continually do it year in and year out but that is not the norm. And so you look at that too and you continue to kind of grow from that and you know right now all of our effort is on next Friday scrimmage and we want to play better in the scrimmage. That team is also ranked in the top 10 preseason. So we're putting ourselves up against some of the best competition and you want to do that and you want to have those opportunities and and that should be embraced. So it's exciting. It's challenging. I'll tell you that I'm up every morning looking at stuff and trying to make sure that we're prepared for what we need to do. But if we take it week by week and let the season fall where it may. That's what you have to do. Coach, as always, thank you so much for some time. Best of luck as you get ready for next Friday and we'll talk again here real soon. Yeah, absolutely. Appreciate it. You bet. Tyler Lloyd again joining us. Ogden Football here on Coaches Corner.