Jaguars wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell joining us as the Jaguars host to Cleveland Browns. Keenan, good to see you and are you past? The whole Cleveland Browns thing is one of your early teams as a player, but it's been a little while ago, obviously in the early nineties. What's your best memory of playing in Cleveland? My best memory of playing in Cleveland, and it's probably the last game in Cleveland. Uh, we played the Cincinnati Bengals. It
was the memorable, memorable moment. I caught the last touchdown in Old Memorial Stadium and it was a bitter sweet too because we were leaving, you know, and uh, you know, but we got a chance to go around and uh just shake hands with all the fans, you know, as a team we went we stayed out and just jogged around the inner part of the outer part of the stadium and just was shaking hands and and fans were
happy and mad. They were throwing chairs out, but the die hard fans were appreciative of us taking our time to just say goodbye. And you know, and I always have love for Cleveland because the fans they're are are wonderful, their blue collar fans that love good football, and uh, you know I kind of grew up That's what what made me and uh in this league has been a blue collar worker. Kenny Riccardia with US Jaguars wide receivers coach. Let's get into the group that you're working with now
for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Well, this week you got a couple of guys out Charting Connly not available. Leavisca Chennault could be back. He's been battling suit through injury throughout the year. Here, Kelan Coles had a great season so far. I mean that's a lot of moving parts. I know there's other moving parts around the entire football team, but now it's come to the wide receiver room too. Yeah. You know, we we take it. We take the challenge head on. You know, we always stay next man up.
You know, in our room, we feel like we're challenged enough to step up and uh fill into shoes for guys. You know, get get a chance to get your opportunity. As I always tell him, Uh, once you get your opportunity, you gotta step in there and knock on the that the opportunity is knocking on the door. You gotta step in the door and take advantage of it. And uh, you know that's what I preach. I got guys believe in that way. When they step up, coach, I got you,
there's not gonna be a drop off. And that's that's what we believe. I mean, And you know what, it's a challenge for us. These guys are playing good football. How to go out there and execute, understand what we're doing and we gotta make plays to help help us win. Well, let's because you don't we mentioned him, he's been in and out of the lineup with injuries. How much do you have to kind of keep his head on strength?
They can get to a young guy. I know we had to battle some of that in college as well. How much do you have to kind of get inside above the shoulders with him to make sure he's still good A lot? I mean not just just saying that, you know what it happens in this league, but you when when you come back, you gotta understand that when you're in there, you gotta produce like you you were. You're you're not hurt. I mean, you're you're not injured.
I mean the thing, the thing it. Think about it, at this level, once you step out on the field, all the injury stuff is out the door. If we feel like you're you're healthy, you gotta play to little viscus your notes potential. And I think, uh, he understands that, and I you know, I'm happy that he's you know,
he'll be back. I hope, you know, we're just hoping that, uh we can get a little bit of uh, a little bit of something from him, you know, and uh, if he does, I hope he comes back with the same intensity and mental mindset that, uh, that he had before he went out. Que and Cole's catching a bunch of balls this year and obviously had a punt return touchdown in Green Bay as well. You've seen him develop over the last couple of years here, Well, what's different
about this time around? I think we've asked you this before this season, but he just continues to perform this year. You know what he's He's a guy that takes advantage of every opportunity. Uh. He has. He enjoys playing football, and you see him on special teams. You see him on the field goal block, you see him on side kicking. Yeah, I mean he enjoys playing football, and that's what I love about him. I mean, every day he comes to work, you know, he runs all day. Um, you know, I
just keep telling me. I said, every time you step I don't know, feel you're being evaluated, whether you're at receiver, at anything. They want to see how hard you're playing. And my thing to him is to play hard because you're your athletic ability and talent to show up if you're playing hard. How bad does this team needed a win? We needed bad? I mean, uh, you know, being in that locker room, you understand, you know, when you get
a losing streak. I've been in that locker room and just one win to get that bad taste out of your mouth, you know. And uh, this week would be a great time. I mean, you know, they got a lot of confidence going. Uh, they're running the ball really well, they're playing really good defense, um, you know, and on special teams that are making play. So it's not gonna be an easy task. I mean, last week wasn't an
easy task. None of the weeks are eay taxes in the National Football League, So you gotta step up and bring your a game every week. And I think this week we got to bring it um so I'm looking forward to a good football game. Guys coming out with a lot of intensity as we did last weekend. Let's see what the chips fall. Appreciate the visitors always getting talk to you soon, all right, thanks to sing Thank you j P.