UAB FOOTBALL FALL CAMP REPORT: WIDE RECEIVERS

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - August 1, 2024

Throughout UAB football fall camp we will check in with position coaches to check in on their respective positions. On Wednesday, following the second day of camp, we spoke with UAB wide receivers coach Austin Appleby.

It’s early, I understand that, but can you assess where the receivers are as a group right now?

“Improving every day. We're learning more about this group every day. We have a bunch of guys that, we're probably as deep of a room as anywhere in the country. From 1 to 10, all of them can play and there's very little drop off, which I think is very, very rare. Usually once you get past your ones and a few twos, it falls off. That's not the case here. Every single guy is different in their own way, so the room's very diversified. We have got big, fast guys. We've got little quick guys. We've got everywhere in between, guys that can play the ball in the air, guys that are great after the catch. Again, they all can do so many different things and they've bought into being able to be the Swiss Army knife type of players.

It has allowed us to be able to really get creative with how we use it (and) where we move them. Again, the versatility to be able to create an advantage for them and allow them to do what they do best. How it works out, in terms of guys separating, we'll find out as camp continues. But as we look at it, I don't flinch if one group's in, another guy's in, like, we're good. And I think that competition amongst each other of like ‘No, I want this route, I want to go prove it.’ The competition amongst the room is so healthy, because they really care for each other and they bought into being unselfish. If you're gonna play a bunch of dudes, they have to be unselfish because the ball's gonna be distributed. But they bought into, hey, I might have a few less catches but the catches I get are gonna be impactful and then make them count. So it's really, really exciting. The room is a lot of fun. They love each other truly. They work their tails off. It's a great group to be with day in and day out. And I think the ceiling for our room to be as good as we can get is really, really high.”

Did a solid spring as a group help with the confidence in fall camp?

“Confidence is so big, and the fact of the matter is we lost half of our receiver production, by the way of graduation or otherwise, through transfers or whatever it may be. These catches gotta go somewhere, right. The production has to go somewhere. To be able to take a bunch of guys that are frankly unproven, there's very few guys on this roster that have done it in the game and done it consistently over a period of time. So, to be able to go through a spring and find out about these guys and have certain guys emerge, you learn something about them and what they can do. More than anything, they gain confidence that they can be as good as they want to be and as good as we think they can be.

Then you take that and you roll it into the summer program where it's player driven and now they take ownership of it. Essentially you're going through the install in spring, you do it again in the summer and then you roll into the fall and it’s the third time we’re rolling through it. We should be working towards mastering it before you get into the season. Now it’s how do they go perfect it, that's kind of the phase of where we're at right now. As they continue to improve and as they continue to make it theirs, we'll continue to see massive growth. But, this is a huge part of the year for sure.”

What are your thoughts on the way that freshman Xavier Daisy is playing early in camp?

“He was a great signee out of Greater Atlanta Christian. Obviously, physically you can see right away. He doesn't look like a true freshman. He looks like a 20-year-old man, coming in as a 18-year-old kid. His approach to everything, and the thing that blew us away through the recruiting process was him and his family, just how rock solid they are from top to bottom. They're an elite family and he loves football. He loves to train. He loves to get better. Like he's relentless in the first two months that he's been here. It's like he's been here for a couple of years. He's setting the pace. He sets the tempo. You almost have to kick him out of the building sometimes, ‘Like dude, go home.’ And that's a great problem to have for a guy that's still kind of learning the ropes.

For a guy that physically is probably a little further along, if we can catch him up with his skill development and mentally, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if he had a chance to make an impact, you know, as soon as he's ready to go, which I don't think he's going to take very long.”

How do you get recent (transfer portal) signee Yusuf Terry ready quickly?

“All hands on deck, it's certainly an accelerated process. When we recruited him and we talked to him, obviously there was a relationship with Jacob Zeno, being a Baylor together. Number one we’re bringing a guy that we know has pro (habits). He's gonna be willing to do what it takes to get himself ready to play in two months, which is about as late as you can do it. The second he was signed, the second he was on campus, we had a curriculum to get him caught up to speed and it was accelerated. He has to understand, ‘Like, look man, you've got six months essentially to put yourself in position to go have a great season and if you want to play football beyond college, you don't have a second to waste. So, a little less time playing NCAA video game a little more time in that playbook. We were meeting daily, having to get his things done in terms of his playbook learning. With all those things that he's got to be able to do, he's shown early that he's committed to it, he's committed to catching up.

We're bringing him along slowly. We're not going to put him in a position to fail early. But, at some point, it’s gonna be time to go. I think all those things collectively, he's the right type of kid that understands what time it is, so to speak. We expect big things out of him. He isn't here to not make an impact. With his skills, having an older player in the room, the way he’s done it at a high level, that obviously has some game-ability ability. We add that to the room, it's one more weapon that can allow us to go from good to great, which is what we're trying to do.”