'Effort and work camp': UWF hosts annual summer football camp

The University of West Florida’s annual football camp went from a Friday Night Lights camp to a Saturday Sunrise camp thanks to some record-breaking rainfall that hit the Pensacola area on Friday.

But first-year UWF head coach Kaleb Nobles wasn’t concerned with the possible turnout. After camp staff notified all the players attending that the event would be postponed until Saturday morning, there were only a handful of emails that said a player wouldn’t be able to attend.

With a majority of campers either being local or staying in the Pensacola area after traveling to the camp, coaches opted to have the camp in the morning so that families could still possibly drive home in the afternoon.

There were more worries about how the practice field next to Pen Air Field would hold up from all the rain.

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“We opened it up so that anybody can come to camp (Sunday). But I expected it to still be a good turnout,” Nobles said. “I thought the turnout matched exactly what I thought was going to happen.”

The Argos’ camp was two-fold. Primarily, it gives players to showcase their talents and skills to UWF coaches. But Nobles also uses the camp to see what players might be able to fill some missing pieces on future rosters.

Nobles mentioned that the Argos do have a few open roster spots “that some guys are trying to earn for this fall.” But this camp allowed recruiters and the coaching staff to see some rising high-school seniors that are high on UWF’s recruiting list.

“Right now, we don’t have anybody that was here today that was committed to us. We had a couple guys that are older guys – some (junior college) guys or transfer guys – that we’re looking for with this roster,” Nobles said. “And then there were a lot of really good underclassmen that came through, so we get a chance to see them so they get on our radar. It was really good job from our players and coaches helping out today.”

What Nobles is looking for

Since the camp isn’t a “testing camp” or an “altering camp,” Nobles described UWF’s camp as more of an “effort and work camp.” Throughout the morning, players spent roughly the first half of the program working on independent drills and position-focused drills, followed by some one-on-one drills which were also position-driven.

With all the focus on working to get better, Nobles said he is looking for players who are “jumping up there first in line, trying to get as many reps.”

“Our numbers were really good today to get everybody reps,” Nobles said. “We knew it was going to be humid, so we had to make sure we altered the schedule to make sure guys are not getting too cooked.”

The camp brings in a lot of area football players from the Panhandle. And with several schools within a 10-minute drive from UWF, Nobles called the area a “great recruiting base” that sometimes feels like an “untapped” market for.

“There’s a lot of kids, and the really good recruiters on our staff are able to find the guys. There’s a lot of nooks and crannies in the Pensacola area where you’ve got to be able to find those guys,” Nobles said. “So we get a chance to see the local area kids come and work out, get some good reps. Obviously there’s guys from all over the state of Florida because we’ve kind of made a name for ourself the past six years playing football.”

A learning experience

For Nobles, plus several UWF players that help the Argos’ coaching staff with the camp, they try to use the camp as a learning experience. Nobles doesn’t like to make changes to what a high school coach’s methods.

There might be something he sees that he wants to change, “but it’s a fine line.”

“When they come to camp, I want to see what they do. I’m not trying to teach them what we’re doing – I want to see what they’re doing and how well they’re doing,” Nobles said. “If you can do what you’re doing pretty well and you’ve already learned a system, you can probably learn our system pretty easily too.”

Nobles – UWF’s first quarterback going into the 2016 season – now at the helm of the Argos after previously being the quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator, has only missed two UWF camps – 2021 and 2022 – while he was the director of offensive player development at Clemson University.

And now he gets to see if there’s different things he wants to add into drills.

“Honestly there’s some things that I see from high schoolers in camp where I say, ‘Oh, I kind of like that. I might put that in some sort of footwork we do or some independent drill,’” Nobles said.

For the UWF players that assist with the camp – some of who want to be coaches after they graduate – this allows them to see the other side of college football, compared to watching Nobles and the rest of the staff on the sideline during a game.

“You still want to be yourself, but you’ve got to be in recruiter mode as well. Those (college) guys, they’ve got to see it. If you want to coach college sports, you’ve got to see what this level looks like,” Nobles said. “It’s great for our guys just to get out here, and for us coaches to be around them. … Our guys really enjoy this camp, and being part of the smokehouse (40-yard dash) and picking the winners. They bring the energy to camp.”

‘The honeymoon’s over’

Now that the Argos’ coaching staff is getting toward the middle of July, Nobles said the first six months of his tenure as the skipper of UWF were “kind of a honeymoon phase,” since the team isn’t playing any games from December to June.

Nobles used the camp as a “benchmark,” noting that “there’s no dead time now” before the season begins. He added that the coaching staff took some time off in June.

“We’re not playing games in December through June and July. It’s kind of been a honeymoon phase. The first thing I told the staff today was, ‘Well, the honeymoon’s over.’ It’s time to get working,” Nobles said. “As soon as we get done with camp, we sit down the next couple days and look through the list and say, ‘This kid was good, that kid was good, this kid was pretty good.’ And we really need to hone in on them as we go through this next recruiting class.”

Now all eyes are on the Argos’ first game is Sept. 1 against Kentucky Wesleyan and the upcoming preseason in mere weeks.

“We’ve got a great roster that I’ve been very blessed to have coached some of the guys that were here before, so I kind of already knew them, while adding some new pieces that I really think are going to help us,” Nobles said. “We have a lot of really good returning players. I’m not even worried about the player they are. They’re just good men.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: UWF football hosts summer camp in Pensacola