UCF Linebacker Jahleel Culbreath on Knights' Defensive Struggles and Road Test at Kansas

How are you? Good, how are you? Yeah, just kinda what's the mindset of the team right now? You come off the highest of highs, being number two BYU and everything that went on with that game. And then you come back and have a let down of a performance against Baylor. Just kinda what's the mindset and how do you kinda flip the script going into a road game at Kansas on Saturday? The mindset hasn't changed since we beat BYU to now. The mindset has been the same. We've got to keep our head down, keep grinding, keep working. After BYU, we knew that Baylor was going to come in with their head high. Coach emphasized that BYU didn't mean nothing after that Sunday, after we beat them. So the mindset hasn't changed. We're still working as hard as we did before we beat BYU, after. So nothing has changed there. The locker room is the same. We're still working hard. We're still all together as a team. But just after a loss like that, though, did you feel like the players maybe a little extra motivation going into this week because of how maybe disappointed that loss was? Yeah, the loss was disappointing. The motivation factor, I feel like all of us have the same motivation no matter what happens. I feel like this team does a great job of not needing anybody to influence their motivation. So I feel like. You know, after a win, after a loss, our motivation is the same. Obviously, we're a little upset about what happened in the outcome of the game, but we're going to be just as motivated as we are this weekend where before BYU, before Baylor. Julio, just reflecting back on the loss, what made you surprised in the most about what was going on this time? Uh... Nothing, really. I feel like they scored way more points than they should have. The coach emphasized that. They shouldn't have put up that many points as they should have. But the defense is way better than how we played. Coach Pierce did a great job. Yeah. He's got to execute better. It's hard. We don't have too much to say about that. What's the film review look like after a game like this? You guys are looking back at this tape. What do you talk about? Uh, I'm... Obviously, no matter what the outcome of a game is, the film review is always going to be the ebbs and flows of what happened during the game. No game is going to be perfect. That's perfect. Obviously, there's coaching. There was coaching last week. There was coaching this week. They just made more plays than us. It's not like we just completely laid down, but we've got to get better. Were there any points of emphasis Doing our 11/11, so I feel like some of the times where they made a play, the back end was doing very well and the rush didn't hold up as well. So I feel like everybody doing the 11/11 is the main thing there. We would have nine out of 11 guys doing what they're supposed to do. And that ultimately, the ball found the deficiency in the defense. So we can't let that happen. We've got to get that right. I don't want to sit in front of anyone. The linebackers played very well. Obviously, it wasn't good enough to get us a dove, but the individual or group performance doesn't change the outcome of the game. So we played well. We didn't get the win, so that doesn't really matter. Let's kind of touch on Kansas' emotions and things like that. When you work in the spring and fall camp, what's kind of your – What's your mindset as far as IDing who you need to track and who you need to track and all the things that are happening on the football set? Yeah. Yeah, Coach Prince does a great job of explaining the motions and stuff. We have rules. We have very good rules that are set in our defense. We'll be able to handle any motions that we get. We have some adjustments, like always, we have adjustments every week. But the linebackers know what to do, the back end knows what to do. We'll get the front checked, and we'll be fine. The two most important statistics of a game is turnovers. We lost turnover margin and explosive plays. We lost that as well. So I feel like everybody's a bit, just like I said, Everybody's a D1 team, everybody's a D1 player that we play, so they're going to make plays. They're going to put a drive together. They have the number one ranked quarterback coming out of high school. He's going to make a play. Okay. Most of those explosive plays, we were in great position, they just made the play And Coach Grinch emphasized they're going to make plays. It's about how we bounce back. That's what football is. It's how we deal with adversity. I don't think we've dealt with adversity very well, and we're going to get that fixed starting yesterday. Jaleel, how do you think your on the BYU win affected the preparation for Baylor? It didn't affect us at all. We put that game to rest on that Sunday, just like I said. We didn't talk about it at all during that week. We talked about straight Baylor. We didn't keep our head high for the BYU. We still actually came out there with a chip on our shoulder. Coach Frost also emphasized that It's still getting doubted, and this outcome of the game will result in how people think of us for the rest of the season, so we're looking to change that. And how do you guys feel about Kansas? What do you see from them? Doing our job. They're a good football team. They're not the best college football team of all time, but they have a pretty good running back, the quarterback's coming back. They're physical on the O-line. They run a lot of gap scheme. They run a lot of things that are a challenge on run fits. This team hasn't had much success winning on the road the last few years. Just what's it gonna take? What's gotta be different for you guys to pull a victory on the road on Saturday? I don't know about the other position groups, but one thing that our coach emphasizes is that we gotta pay a fee to win on the road. Fundamentals, execution, and effort, and toughness. So I feel like if we emphasize those things going on the road, we'll come out with a big one. You mentioned that coach talked about, you know, still being doubted. Do you guys feel that as a team that even to this point, you guys are almost three-quarters of the way through the season, that people still don't give you enough respect, I guess? Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, we're not doing as good as we expected. So I feel like, you know, a lot of the things that are going on around Cal State right now is – It's kind of crazy with everybody getting upset. So I feel like after BYU was up here, and then after last week it was down here. So that doesn't really affect us a lot, of not being respected. It's more of the fact that we wanna go out there and earn it. So the respect isn't the big problem, it's going out there and earning it. All right, thanks for listening. All right, thank you. Thank you.