'Iron sharpens iron': UWF football's fall camp well underway in second year of Kaleb Nobles era

Accountability was a word thrown around a lot by UWF football head coach Kaleb Nobles and a couple players during the first few days of fall camp for the Argos.

That started with instituting a leadership council in Nobles’ second year at the helm. It’s a group of players Nobles and the rest of the coaching staff are leaning on to help “make some decisions” as far as where the program goes.

There were small changes during the offseason, Nobles noted, including an emphasis on investing in relationships with players, and an increase in that word – accountability – to push players on and off the field.

“That’ll hopefully show up on the field (during games),” Nobles said.

Accountability, for some, started during the summer. Of the 119 players currently working through fall camp with UWF, Nobles estimated about 75 of them were local in Pensacola for a good portion of the summer, if not all of it, making the transition from summer to fall camp a little bit smoother.

While there aren’t any official practices during the summer, the workouts that certain groups do together help set the standard that UWF football boasts early into fall camp, said Ben Freeman, a graduate student offensive lineman in his second year with the program.

“The fact that fact that a lot of people were here over the summer shows that they already know where the standard is. We don’t have to teach or show them the first couple days of camp,” Freeman said. “Holding that high standard builds trust, which in turn, makes groups a well-oiled machine.”

Entering his second season as head coach, Nobles joked that he has “a couple more gray hairs” entering the fall after different things he learned during his inaugural campaign, but he’s taking the approach of learning from different things that happened in year one.

Most things are internal – such as depth and decision-making – but he’s relying on the extensive notes that he took during his first season. Either way, Nobles noted the coaches and players alike are excited for fall camp leading into not only the Fan Day Scrimmage on Aug. 22, but the Argos’ first regular season game against McKendree on Sept. 5.

“Everybody, coaching staff included, has been chomping at the bit to practice. My wife has been chomping at the bit to get me out of the house,” Nobles said with a laugh. “We’ve got a lot of really good men on this team who have bought in with a couple days of meetings. Obviously it gets tougher as you go, but I’m excited about our program.”

Consistency in coaches

With the exception of UWF losing Ron Dickerson, the team’s offensive coordinator last season, as well as a few other assistant coaches and graduate assistants, the Argos’ coaching staff remains largely intact from 2023.

However, even some of the new names – like Alvance Robinson, the Argos’ new offensive coordinator – aren’t unfamiliar to Pen Air Field. That allows coaches to already have an established structure from the first year of the Nobles era to continue to grow.

Will Breland, a senior linebacker who missed a majority of the 2023 season due to an injury , said, for example, the “blueprint” that defensive coordinator Kavell Conner – who coached alongside Nobles while the pair was at Clemson – has for that side of the football is already settled and continues to expand.

“Obviously, you can pull up the GSC stats and we were near the top in every category on the defensive side of the ball,” Breland said. “Having all these older guys back – and some who are also returning from injuries – everyone’s excited to get out there. We know how to do it. We just have to do it again.”

Consistency is something that assistant head coach and offensive line coach Steve Saulnier knows, given he’s been with UWF since the beginning when it was established in 2015 and started playing games in 2016.

He’s seen the highest and lowest points from the Argos, and brings a consistent energy to the team, Freeman noted.

“Saulnier’s one of the greatest people I know. … There’s that saying, ‘Is the glass half-full or half-empty?’ And Saulnier always says, ‘I’m just happy to have a glass,’” Freeman said. “Having a guy that comes to practice every day with that mentality, knowing he’s just happy to be here, it’s hard to have a bad day with that mentality. … We all have that mindset that, at the end of the day, we’re all playing a game that we love at a high level, and it’s not much better than that.”

‘Embracing every moment’

At the end of the day, there’s just excitement for players to be back practicing at Pen Air Field after the end of the spring semester into the summer. The spring season ended with the Argos’ exhibition on March 21, where it was essentially an open-to-the-public practice where the team went through different offensive series, plus other specialty drills and situations.

Some of the players who missed some, or most, of the 2023 season might’ve missed the spring season, as well. For them, it’s been even longer since they were able to throw on a helmet and some pads and play football.

For Breland, who mentioned that his injury suffered during the Argos’ game at McKendree University in Week 2 was a broken tibia , he’s just happy to be back playing football “running all the plays and talking it up with everybody.”

Breland said he had surgery and “rehabbed hard,” but now he’s completely healthy – with a rod and three screws in his leg.

“I got some equipment in me now,” Breland said with a little smirk. “For me, it’s just embracing every moment. I’m a big friends guy, I love having a lot of friends. It’s good to be out there talking and having fun.”

“Everyone is flying around and the energy is high. We’re executing at a high level on both sides of the ball, which makes for a really fun time,” Freeman said. “If there’s competition on both sides of the ball, that’s usually a good thing. We’re all having fun while doing it – and good results come from that.”

Both Breland and Freeman said the communication between the different groups of players was good during the first couple days of fall camp. Freeman noted the communication from quarterbacks to other skill positions on offense was solid, while the offensive line – in its own group – “knew their job and assignment.”

Even from afar, Freeman said the defense’s communication was strong when UWF’s offenses presented different motions. He could tell the defense was “talking loudly and pointing stuff out,” just like an “elite” defense would.

“They’re counting the days until the scrimmage. But they know that the work they do every day before then is what matters the most,” Nobles said. “Being ready to practice, playing at a high level every rep – because we’re going to watch the tape from the scrimmage and practices.”

“It really stinks during fall camp because you feel like you’re not that good. We go against two top 100 players in Will Breland and Byron Puryear, and it makes you feel a little inadequate against guys who are so good at their position. We recognize that, when we take a step back, we’re doing good things and we’re building slowly,” Freeman said of playing against such a top defense. “When we step on the field, we know we have one of the best offenses and best defenses in the country. When we strap it up for real on Saturdays – and that one Thursday – we know we may see competition that’s not as good as what we see in practice. We’re going to be ready to go. Iron sharpens iron, we’ll be ready to go.”

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: 'Iron sharpens iron': UWF football's fall camp well underway in second year of Kaleb Nobles era