Idk if I missed it posted anywhere else, but Sampson did a Q&A with BK as his first assignment with the Athletic.
Some interesting stuff in there. There's the usual "this is year two of the new me," blah blah blah, but there's some actual good content in terms of the team and program.
The new redshirt rule is going to be used strategically to help with the November blues. Any freshmen that are on the scout team and prove that they aren't useless will be used to supplement bodies, especially on special teams, during the last four regular season games of the year. That should help keep other guys fresh, and limit the "Body Blow" fallback a little bit.
The new practice facility is basically the first step in an unannounced master plan. Once it's done, BK hopes the admin will see the need to move study tables, training tables, etc. into an adjoining building. He thinks the best way to keep the athletes as part of the regular student body is to use their football time more efficiently, and the best way to do that is to have a one-stop shop for everything. It seems counterproductive to the University's mandate that athletes remain regular students, but BK makes a good point that the less time players spend traveling place-to-place to fulfill athletic duties while getting treatment, eating, and studying, the more time they have with the regular student body overall.
Wimbush and Long are working on developing a tight-knit relationship on a personal level, because Brandon responds better when he's comfortable and has greater trust in the person leading him. That's kind of a "duh" moment, but the interesting tidbit to me is that it REALLY sounds like Long has 100% of the playcalling duties, and BK is retaining standard HC veto power, rather than trying to step in or overly influence things. Rather than talking about his own relationship with Wimbush, he's stressing how intelligent Long is as a playcaller, and how he and Brandon are building a good relationship. No mention of BK trying to foster that himself, which read to me like BK knows Long is the head honcho on offense.
