Offensive Lineman Pierce Quick

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, all right, all right, welcome back to Brittle
just we are back home in the home studio. We
have some special guests coming to town today.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
They're here in studio.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
One of those are familiar face, my guy Mac back
to Welcome back to Fresno.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Anthis the juice who have with us today.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
It's also good the season.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Dude.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
I am so friggin hired up to.

Speaker 5 (00:24):
Be here right now on this podcast. Happy to be
back in Fresno. Loved this place. Didn't know anything about
it before I came here last time, was here for
less than twenty four hours. Then we had the whole
debacle last time. All that we can talk about later.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
We'll get into it.

Speaker 5 (00:37):
We're here for my one of my best friends, Pierce Quick,
played with me at Alabama. I recruited Pierce. I was
maybe one of the sole reasons. We'll get to hear
him talk about it, hopefully. He mentions that, yeah, he
came to the University of Alabama. I got to see
him go from truck to Dodge Challenger and a short
amount of time.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
I don't know if I can say of it.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
That's all you need, That's all you need.

Speaker 6 (00:57):
Legend Piers welcome to bring the jew No, thank you,
thank you for having me on for rank. Thanks for
bringing us out here Fresno. It's freaking awesome, man, I
mean it's it's it's gonna be a great weekend coming forward.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
So I wish I got to recruit one of vis.
I feel like I could have sold him over you.

Speaker 5 (01:10):
You couldn't have sold him over me. Man, it was meticulous.
Pierce is a one of a kind guy. You know
you just look at him, Just look at him, you know, yeah,
one of.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
The kind guy.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
What a kind guy, Piers. Let's start from the beginning, right, So, uh, I.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Do my research on guys, and I know you you
were very highly recruited coming out of high school.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
A five star, Matt. How many stars were you?

Speaker 2 (01:32):
None?

Speaker 4 (01:33):
Me too?

Speaker 3 (01:33):
You know what good good? Joca would say.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
Good.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
So being a five star obviously that considers uh, that's
a shoeing for being a highly recruited guy, having offers
small over the place.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
How did you end up at Alabama?

Speaker 6 (01:48):
So, man, like I grew up a diehard Alabama fan,
you know. I was from a little town outside of
Birmingham called Trustful. My parents were Alabama fans. Grandparents are
Alabama fans. I just kind of grew up always cheering
for Alabama.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
And so my.

Speaker 6 (02:00):
Freshman year I got pulled up to varsity, had to
play with them a little bit. From some injuries and
all that stuff. I was like two hundred and six pounds.
Definitely shouldn't have been out there. I mean, I can't
remember a guy from Hoover. He went to Florida. Uh Moon,
last name Moon.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
I was about to say, that's Jack I think it was.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
His last name was Moon.

Speaker 6 (02:19):
But my freshman year, I'll never forget being out there
and like a first drive, we're going through there and
I'm pulling around doing a pass block. He comes down
and he hit me so hard he literally fell on
top of me. And that's the only reason he didn't
make the sack because he just like hit me on
top of me. And he was like, welcome to varsity
football or something like that. And so that was a
good little welcome there for that. But Uh, after my
freshman year, I put on a lot of weight and stuff,

(02:41):
and just because I played as a freshman, I got
an offer from Jacksonville State and so in state.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
School there, I was really fired up about it.

Speaker 6 (02:47):
And then uh UAB kind of offered me after that,
played my whole sophomore season and then went to some camps,
did pretty well, and actually Auburn was my first first
like Power five offer there. Yeah, and so you know,
coming from a family of diehard Alabama fans, I'll never forget.
We're sitting in Auburn, Alabama. We're riding around and my
parents are you know, like they're taking it in and
we're taking it. I tell everybody truthfully, that was the

(03:08):
best visit I ever went on.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah. It was a Sunday.

Speaker 6 (03:11):
There was nobody there except for it was me, my parents,
herb hand offensive line coach at the time, Gus miles On,
And we're riding on a golf cart around campus like
and this is my first like true visit too.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
So like we're riding on this golf cart around campus.

Speaker 6 (03:24):
Coach Lindsay's driving it, like I mean, it's just the
coolest thing ever.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
And we're doing this tour.

Speaker 6 (03:28):
We walk into the locker room and this is a
common thing, but being a sixteen year old kid at
the time, like most surreal moment ever. Like I walk
into that locker room and there's like a seventy two
jersey Auburn uniform sitting there. Wow, and so like I
put on the Auburn uniform and I remember, like there's
a voice in the back of my head and it's like,
what the hell am I doing?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Like really putt an Auburn uniform on right now?

Speaker 6 (03:46):
But took the pictures, did all that stuff, and then
we got to go to Coach Malson's office and he
ended up offering me a scholarship. And Coach Malson a
great dude. I mean, he was super nice guy in there.
And I remember walking out of his office and my
parents looked at me and they were like, you know, son,
you could go to Auburn.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Like you you could get to Auburn or whatever. And
so wow.

Speaker 6 (04:03):
After that though, the next weekend, I had Tuscaloosa lined
up and I remember Coach Key was recruiting me at
the time. He was the offensive line coach and he
was actually a trustful native as well, and so we
had a cool little connection there and uh afterwards he
we had me and Coach Key had had a good
relationship too, like from the past, like I didn't have
an offer from Alabama, but he had been talking to
me a while from camps, and I remember he's like,
when was the first time Auburn talked to you. He's like,

(04:24):
you know, I've known you forever, Like, don't don't divide
into that offer and all that stuff. And so the
next weekend I went to Alabama and coach saving it
Up offered me in his office. And still remember there
was February twenty fifth. Wow, I still remember it to
this day. Baltimore sophomore year soft second half of my
sophomore year. So I just finished my sophomore season, and uh,
I remember walking around and the first thing they did
was they walked me in and they took my height

(04:45):
and my weight. They wanted to see if I was
over six foot four, and I don't think they cared
about weight as much. Like truthfully, as sophomore, I was
like to sixty two, sixty five, you still have time.
I hit the six to four mark. And so my
defensive coordinator in high school his name was Rudy Griffin,
and uh, great dude. He played at Alabama too, and
he truthfully helped me a ton throughout the recruiting process
and he used to always give me a little tidbits.
So I had what I called my lucky boots, and

(05:07):
it was my tallest boots.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
That I would wear everywhere.

Speaker 6 (05:09):
And I'd wear jeans because when you weighed in, it
couldn't make you take your jeans off. So you'd stand
there and I'd be a little bit heavier, and stuff
going on.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
All this.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
We have the exact same philosophy here in the Delana household. Man,
you go on visits, now they were to Alabama, but we.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Went to visits.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
You wear your kickers and you wear your boots. And
I used to throw on a buckle like I throw
a hoodie. It'd be eighty five or girls aside. I'm like,
I got a hoodie on with four T shirts underneath.
Because they're gonna weigh you in. I'm taking I might
take my boots off, maybe I can't, and and and
coaches will walk by you and they'll give.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
You one of these, one of these.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
I'm flexing the entire time on this trip.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
You walk by, You're like the kid's made of pure muscle.
I'm like, I'm just like the whole freaking time, Like Lexie,
it's all one hundred and forty seven pounds of me.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
At the time, I was just flexing.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
But yes, kickers, you want to get recruited and you're
you might be on the cusp with like a height
height scale that you want if you're a five to
eleven guy, why would you not?

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Why would you not?

Speaker 5 (06:08):
Not only that, but y'all didn't mention I did the
You introduced us or introduced me to the try what's
it called the try tip?

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Here?

Speaker 4 (06:14):
Try tip sandwich, I tip sandwich.

Speaker 5 (06:16):
I do the try socks is what I started calling it,
or just made that up off the top of my head.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
I did three socks.

Speaker 5 (06:22):
I would do three layers of socks in case they
did make me take my shoes off, I'd be that
much taller on visits.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Anyways, Pierce, so Saban offers you.

Speaker 6 (06:32):
So we go into his office and it's uh, me,
my mom, my dad, my little brother, and then Coach Griffin,
who I was talking about, he was there with me
and I can remember sitting in there, and like, Coach
Saban has this kind of so you walk in the
first and he has this button and the door closes
behind you. He's a button in his office, so like
he clicks a button and the door just closes behind
you as you walk in and his office like it's

(06:52):
changed now with the code coach and all that, and.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
So his office was very like old school.

Speaker 6 (06:57):
Yeah what I mean, Like it was like leather couch
and there's really cool and he's got you sit down
and all of the rings are in front of you
from all the years that he had coached, and uh, truthfully,
they're like I can remember sitting down and starts off
and he's like talking about, you know, just like the
process at Alabama and he tells you from the beginning,
you know, like it's hard work and all that stuff,
and he's never lying about that. And uh, once he
tells me like Pierce, we're gonna offer you a scholarship,

(07:18):
Like I remember like blacking out.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah you know, I'm sitting This is the childhood dream
that exactly like literally coming true.

Speaker 6 (07:26):
You know, Like I can like think of being a
kid and like watching the Bama game on TV and
it's like I'm gonna have the opportunity to go play here.
And I mean I wanted to commit right then, like
there was no question, like I knew I wanted to
go to Bama, but my parents and coaches had made
some good points like you only go through the recruiting
process one time. True, you might as well enjoy it
and like that was my second visit ever.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yeah, and so when you're highly recruited, it's not like
we're scrapping to get a spot on a roster like you, so.

Speaker 6 (07:54):
You're a five star as it's alfomo not at this time. Yeah,
when you're that young, like if you have an offer,
you're a four star. You know, there's not as much
like evaluation and stuff in there. I feel like at
that time especially, and so like you have an offer,
your four star and that's kind of how it was.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
And then uh, but so I'm driving back home from.

Speaker 6 (08:09):
Tuscaluso like still in this like just oh my gosh,
like shock, yeah, just complete shock. My phone just starts ringing.
Oregon offers me, Texas State offers me, somebody else. Like
this is literally on the car ride back from Tuscal
Lucia to Birmingham. Like coaches I've never even talked to before.
Like my coaches call him and he's like, because recruiting
rules and all that stuff, they can't call you. They
got to call your head coach. Then you call through there.

(08:30):
And so my coach would be like, hey, call this guy,
call him scholarship. Never talked to him before, and then
like that week at school, I go back, old miss
offers me, another school offers me. I mean, it was
just like out of nowhere, this like wave of just craziness,
and it was just like I feel like, once you
get that Bama scholarship and anybody can say this, it's
other schools just follow. They don't really have to know it,

(08:50):
don't even care about you. Yeah, it's like Obama offered them,
and we're going to offer him now so that we
can say we did right. And like most of those
offers are you know, people talk about fake offers and
real offers and all that stuff, and the reason that
that is is these schools will offer these kids when
they're young, and let's say a kid doesn't pan out.
They'll be like, hey man, that wasn't a committable offer.
But then the kid ends up being good as a senior,
and it's like, hey, we were the first school to

(09:11):
offer you even though he couldn't have committed as a
sophomore or whatever. They know you're not going to commit
as a sophomore, and so some of those offers were
probably that. But I just remember it being nuts, and
then I went to LSU the next weekend, went to
Tennessee and just started kind of going on a little tour,
and then I remember going to Georgia. I was doing
like a Nike opening camp out there. I went to
Georgia and loved the staff there. Coach Smartt was awesome
and everything was great. There was nothing wrong with it.

(09:32):
But I can remember stand there and thinking in my
head and like the recruiting person we're walking around with,
she's like, yeah, we have this, and I was like, yeah,
Bama has that too, but it's better, you know, like
thinking that in my head, like literally like like she's
like pointing stuff out, and I'm like, yeah, Bama has
that too, but it's better, so give it. April twentieth,
April twenty second, sometime around that range. I can't remember
the exact date, but I went to a day for

(09:52):
Alabama spring game and kind of knew before and ended
up committing there and never really wavered from there. I
visited a couple of schools as I got just because
I wanted to, you know, make sure when you're a
senior kind of going, and so I think my junior
year I went to like Mississippi State and Clemson. They
had gotten some Missisippi State, they gotten a new coach
that I really liked, wanted to kind of go meet him,
went up there, but at the end of the day,
I was always going to Obama. And then kind of

(10:13):
how me and Mac met here when I'm.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
In high school.

Speaker 6 (10:16):
Once I committed to Alabama, like on the weekends, all
these other recruits are going to other schools, and so
coach Key, who was recruiting me, he obviously didn't want
me to go anywhere else. It was open door to
Alabama any weekend. I wanted to go to Tuscaloosa, open door,
you know, Like that was what I loved about it
so much. I'd walk in the facility, I felt like
I was already there. All the coaches were friendly, they
knew me, like all the players kind of knew me.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
At that point. Mac was just unbelievable.

Speaker 6 (10:37):
I remember probably my junior year I met Mac and uh,
it was after one of the games or in the
locker room or something, and Mac had walked up to
me just being a guy from Birmingham and like trying
to be a friendly guy, introduced himself to me and
me and Mack kind of clicked from there, and there
was a lot of time to come up, stay at
Max's house and kind of hang out, and like that was.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
A great thing.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
You know.

Speaker 6 (10:53):
He was just kind of how we had met. He
was always recruiting me and all my official visit. Mac
was my host for that and so that was it
was a lot of fun. But that's kind of how
I ended up there and then early enrolled and went
from there.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
And I want to bring up this point, so it
was it was awesome that Peers did this.

Speaker 5 (11:06):
So like Pierce and I started to develop friendship, little
brother but also like a best friend, right and everyone,
like he said, everyone at the facility knew him leading
up to it, Like it was like as a junior
in high school, was a senior in high school.

Speaker 4 (11:18):
Whatever, that he was already on the team.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
And then the best thing is, I remember we talked
about this Peerce and I were talking about it and
he's like, yeah, I'm heavy on Alabama and all this stuff.
It's like, dude, you got a good opportunity here, and
we talked it out and I don't want to take
credit for it, but Pierce took the lead and was
the first Were you the first guy who signed?

Speaker 6 (11:35):
Yeah, so I was like the actual first commit of
my class was Trey Sanders. Funny enough for Evan Neil
one of them, both of them decommitted, so they committed
is like true freshman in high school at IMG both
them decommitted. And then I was the first commit after
that and kind of the longest one throughout there, and
so coach Key and Mack like as I was going
through it, and I remember taking these visits and stuff,

(11:55):
and I mean it's a doggy dog world once you
get in there, like especially when you start to get older,
it's like, hey, you've been committed here for a year
and a half, Like, and I understand where it's come
f you know, commitment means something too, It should it
should mean something, should mean something. You know, they're talking like, hey,
like we don't really like you visiting these other schools,
and for me, it's like, okay, like I understand that,
you know what I mean, And truthfully was a reality check.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Like what the hell am I doing?

Speaker 6 (12:15):
I'm yeah, you know what I mean, Like, why the
hell am I even trying to do this? I think
it was just a part of me was like it
was the trend. I just waited a little bit more.
And like when I was younger in high school, the
Twitter and stuff wasn't as big like Instagram and all that.
My senior year of high school is probably when that
started to kind of change, Like Twitter started to come
a lot more big. Like you said, that was the trend,
going on all these visits and.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Doing this taking it photo shoots and it's a flex it.

Speaker 6 (12:37):
Is, and and so like I kind of like, I
think it hit a point on me where I was like, damn,
Like maybe I should have done that more. But then
it was like, dude, I'm going to the best school
in the country, Like what the hell am I thinking?
Like I don't need a visit anywhere else. And so
that's kind of what Mac was talking about him and
coach Key, he kind of talked about it. Mac was
a big part into it, and it was like, Hey,
we want you to kind of take over this recruiting class.
We want you to reach out to guys, We want
you to be active on Twitter, Like you can't be
that if you're visiting other schools, which is true, you.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (13:00):
I mean, like if you're another kid and like Let's
say I'm a younger guy and you kind of look
up to a senior guy who's playing. You see, he's
committed to Alabama, but he's visiting all these other schools.
It's like, why is he doing that? What's Bama doing
to him? Like that would be kind of my first thoughts.
I agree, totally understood it and didn't visit where after that,
and was actively trying to recruit guys like I remember
they'd send me a guy's number that they wanted.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
I text him. Was right on it, and I was like, hey, man,
like we're building something. What you need like roll Tide.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
He helped me, like it was crazy.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
It was awesome to see because I was into Twitter
and all that stuff, remember, you know, like I was
into that kind of stuff. And I helped him leverage it,
and he really took on his recruiting class and was
like the guy like there was like Pierce, and.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
Then he helped build this whole class.

Speaker 5 (13:39):
Obviously guys were gonna go there all whether they do
Pierce or not, you know, yeah, but Pierce really helped
out and took a stance as being one of the
earliest guys who was full and committed ready to go
to the University of Alabama who helped like build that
and that was one of the I mean, we don't
I haven't talked to you about that in a long time,
but that was a really fun like part of it
is like he was really building that class, like helping
build it a lot, and fans were like loving him.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
And he's an offensive lineman you'd think a skill guy
or like a running back quarterback.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
It's something the more shiny. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, dude.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
That's like for me too.

Speaker 6 (14:08):
Like my thought of it was like I was recruiting
offensive linement. I wasn't just trying to recruit other positions.
Like consider myself a pretty selfless dude. Like I was
calling guys that I was gonna be competing against at
the end of the day, but I didn't care. Like
my thought of it was like, first off, like that's
a soft mentality, you know what I mean, If you're
worried about other guys coming in, it's like, hey, I'm
gonna do my I don't want to worry about anybody else.
I want to build the best class possible that maybe

(14:29):
people are gonna remember, you know what I mean. Like
my goal was always literally for us to be not
only the number one class, but to be one of
the best classes ever. And that was something I used
to kind of say, and I don't know if we
were the best ever, but it was a pretty damn
good class that ended up coming in there.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
How did you okay enrolling early? How difficult of the
decision was that? And then that quick switch where it's
like you got buddies now going to prom and doing
this other and guess what, You're at Alabama Spring Bowl.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
So I have like two different sides to it.

Speaker 6 (14:57):
I actually the first guy I ever saw do it
was a thin Nico Collins at clay Chawful and he
graduated earlier. No, it wasn't Nico, who's the receiver went
to Alabama from clay T J Simmons. J Simmons, he
graduated early. And that was the first guy from Birmingham
and that was my rival high school kind of but
that was the first guy from Birmingham I can remember
doing it, and I was like, Okay, that's kind of cool.
And I was like a freshman in high school and

(15:18):
I was like, dad, this is something I want to do.
So literally, the first to offer that I got from
Jacksville State. I went to my school counselor as a
sophomore or as a freshman at this time, and I
was like, Hey, I want to graduate early. Yeah, and
nobody at my school had ever done it before anything,
but I think because I went so young and was like, Hey,
these are my goals, this is what I want to do. Like,
my high school did nothing but help once they heard
that that's what I wanted to do. And then the

(15:39):
hardest part of it is you have to get approval
from the college, at least from my high school. It
was like you had to get like from my high school.
It had to be like a letter of approval from
like Alabama saying we want you to graduate early so
that they can like approve it and all that stuff.
And so my counselor was really cool though, and kind
of let me go ahead and start taking those classes
young online because at end of the day, if it
doesn't get approved, doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
You couldish high school season as a senior in high
school and then went to Tuscaloosa and started practicing college football.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, they're still in the same season technically.

Speaker 6 (16:10):
Seventeen years old, and so now a bunch of kids
are doing. They actually made it now where these kids
can play seventeen year old can come in early in
role and he can like actually practice and play.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
You could go win a state championship and yet go
get win the Natty in the same year.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
That's the part, you know what I'm saying. What's crazy
is like although he didn't get to play, he's a
critical part.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
At anybody who's anybody who's played.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
It's like, that's great, that's that's just crazy as a
what do you're It's it's cool to talk about after
the fact, but when you're in it, it's just that's insane.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
No, it was nuts.

Speaker 6 (16:43):
And like that's why, Like at the time I did it,
you know what I mean, I'm seventeen years old and
I get told I can go ahead and start practicing
with the team and come out there and do that.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
And so it's like, yeah, let let's let's let's go
do that.

Speaker 6 (16:53):
Me and Paul did it too, who was my roommate
in college, one of my best friends to be yea.
And so when he was gonna do it also, I
was like, Okay, you're doing it. I'm doing it, Like
you know, we were best friends, so we both decided
to do it and it was really good because I
got these extra practices, but my offensive line coach ended
up leaving like a month afterwards, so it was kind

(17:13):
of like restarting anyways, And you know, looking back, like
I wish I would have done those All American games.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Really, yeah, I really do.

Speaker 6 (17:19):
Like, yeah, they're all for like the pictures, and there's injuries,
risking and stuff, but like now being done with football,
right and you know, you're not worried about the injuries
and all that stuff. But like thinking back, like it
would have been cool to get to go, Like they
sent me a jersey, they did all this cool stuff.
But like I do wish I would have traveled out
there and played in the game. Like I think it
was something and that was something I looked up to
wanting to do when I was younger. Yeah, it's and
I think, yeah, I just got so called up in

(17:41):
the moment of wanting to go to Alabama as soon
as possible, I did it.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
And it's not that I regret it. I just wish
that I maybe would have done that game.

Speaker 6 (17:47):
Yeah, and then but missing the prom and stuff that
didn't really bother me as much. And I think it's
because I knew so young that I wanted to do that,
So I treated my junior as promise as my senior year, right,
and my junior year I was like, all right, this
is you knew already it's gonna be my last prom
so like that wasn't really a big deal. And I
can tell you this, early en rolling is a huge difference.
I think even Matt could say season guys, when you

(18:08):
early en roll, you feel like you're in a different
class than the other guys. Yeah, it's like you get
there in January, you go through a whole off season
and the true offseason, like summer's an off season two
but like it's not enough Sea, it's not the same
eight winner in spring fourth quarter, Like they're not worried
about injuries as much in the winter, you know what
I mean, you got time to recover like shen Spence
and all. You got time you can get better, Whereas

(18:28):
in the summer, like you got to pipe it down
a little bit sometimes a little bit more worried about
the season. So you get to come in and your
first experience as a college football player is fourth quarter. Yeah,
and I mean it's hell. I mean you're sitting there
and like it's it's it's terrible. I mean there's no
other conditioning programs, but I mean I can just like
and the worst thing is and I remember Coach Saban
saying this, and so ours was at three thirty in

(18:51):
the morning, no afternoon.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
Okay, so that's when it started.

Speaker 6 (18:54):
And a bunch of other coaches that have worked for
Coach Saban before they tried to follow act and do
you know fourth quarter kind of the same, but they
do it at six a m. Coach Saban said the
reason he did it at three thirty is so you'd
sit in class all day and have to think about it. Wow,
And it's like because like you know, a lot of
it's mental ninety nine person of its mental like your body.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
Most of the time, you've been put in the right
shape to do it, like you can do it.

Speaker 6 (19:15):
It's just mentally. And so like his it was just
you know, that's part of like his mental game there.
I'll never forget that three to three thirty. So you
have to sit in class and think about what you're
gonna do a fourth quarter all day.

Speaker 4 (19:27):
But think about that, dude, what's crazy? I still think
about it.

Speaker 5 (19:30):
Pierce like made the good point, like he was basically
like I would have associated him with when I was
whatever year I was, was I a class up, Yeah,
I would have associated him with the class up. And
I think most of the guys in that class would
have associated him almost in that class as well, because
there's a lot of bonding in that January time, Like
in the we're the hardest part of the year training
for the National championship, and then he comes in and
he's going through fourth quarter with us.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
Yeah, hardest part of the year. Like it's wow to think, like,
I don't know, it's fun.

Speaker 5 (19:55):
This whole conversation is fun because I'm like, Okay, these
are things I didn't even think about, you know, but
like now I'm like, I completely forget this about your career.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
The practicing thing after the senior season is crazy.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
It's wild.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
That's that's different.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Has anybody done it yet?

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, somebody did last year.

Speaker 6 (20:12):
I'm pretty sure we have to look it up or something,
but I'm pretty sure somebody last season did it.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
I was just kidding out of it.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
I remember, I remember it blowing up on Twitter, and
I think I think the I think.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
The Tennessee quarterback. I'm blanking on his name about long
last name.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah, I think he was gonna do it at some
point and maybe didn't or he dressed Oh you know what, dude,
one of my brother's best friends did it.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
He played at Fresno State and their bowl game was
later in the year and he and he trans put
hit the portal after the end of the season, transferred
to Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
The Gophers they had a bunch of quarterback injuries.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Was told like, you're you might have to start played
a whole with Presno State and and then he hit
the portal again and ended up at Montana.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
But like, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
People don't realize. I think it's not like baseball where
you could get traded. And listen, tell me where I'm
hitting in the lineup. If I gotta play left field,
I know my responsibilities for left field. If I'm hitting
a baseball, okay, does it? It doesn't matter what team
the guy's on, right, you're on an offense in a
Division one level football team, Like, do you understand the

(21:29):
attention to detail and things?

Speaker 3 (21:32):
You have to be on the same page on whether.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
It's signals, alignment, audibles, checks like.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
It takes months to get that down.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Like there's stuff you're talking about stuff in January, Like
you you start practicing in in T shirts and shorts
plays in January, and then it could be November and
you're running the You are running the exact same thing.
You probably got a thousand reps of that in that period.
You probably run it six times a day, three hundred days,

(22:04):
like you're you're in it to win it, and just
to be like go ahead, highest level there is go ahead,
go ahead, buddy, let that raw talent hit. I think
that also shows not to get off topic here, but
like the testament to like a couple of years seasons
back when Baker Mayfield went and got picked up by
the Rams on like a Tuesday and started Thursday Night

(22:26):
football one.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
Same thing with Kenny and Drake went, yeah, who was
that the uh?

Speaker 3 (22:30):
I'm thinking from a quarterback perspective.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
Okay, well sorry, it's still it's still crazy from the
perspective of running back.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
But he went and won, and then he was like, yeah.

Speaker 6 (22:42):
That's why I make such a big deal of the
port because like when I went there, like yeah, I
was helping the team, I was practicing, but somebody was
holding a card in front of my face and it
showed me who to block right right right.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Anybody can do that, like it's not that hard.

Speaker 6 (22:53):
And but thinking about like I can remember like I
had to go in at a point out there because like, uh,
it's two minute drill or something and somebody was down
and Coach Key was like, Pierce, you gout there and
you go do it.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
And he knew I didn't know any of the plays
or anything. Like.

Speaker 6 (23:06):
They didn't even try to teach me to playbook. They
were literally just like handing me scout cards like and
that was my job. And so I'm fired up. I
go running out there and like play to this. I
mean Lebrian Ray, he welcomed me to college football. You know,
I have a high school welcome to high school football,
and then I have a college welcome to college football.
And it was Lebrian Ray was past setting and like
a mill accurate the guard next to me, and he's
like all right, he's literally telling me what to do.

(23:27):
He's like, you know, set left, like pluck Lebrian right
there and we're doing this two minute drill. I set
hands straight in the chest. I think I elevated off
the ground because like also this time was two seventy.
When I graduate high school, I was two hundred seventy pounds.
I put on thirty pounds my early and roly semester.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
Yeah, so that was we'll get you right.

Speaker 4 (23:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Yeah, even just eating and all that stuff there.

Speaker 6 (23:44):
And so I tell everyone my freshman year, my diet,
I used to have to walk in and so that
was right when they had built like the new dining
hall and all that stuff. Yeah, I would have to
eat a whole steak and then I'd eat dinner. Yeah,
steak was like the warm up there. So I'd get
my calories and all that stuff because I was a
lighter guy. And so I can tell you this, being
a light offensive lineman and going into college is a

(24:04):
dream come true. I mean they just feed you everything.
You're just eating everything for free. I mean you can't
can't beat it.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
Bro, My buddy Natani Mouti played at Fresno.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
He was.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Two hundred pounds his junior year first game junior year
as an old lineman, three hundred pounds first game his
senior You put one hundred pounds on in a year.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
Crazy, bro, straight up island boy.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Though, Like doesn't wear shoes, portes miscellaneous like playing on
the lines right now, hooping.

Speaker 4 (24:38):
But he it.

Speaker 3 (24:39):
It's crazy how you say that, dude.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
It's hard.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
I mean, I don't know. Did you have trouble like
putting weight on or having to maintain I.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Was You're just a dog.

Speaker 4 (24:46):
I was a dog building.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
It's hard to put weight on, man, it's hard. Like
my family, we have fast metabolisms. We're all constantly moving,
and we were playing in high school. We were playing
like we were all three sports forced boy athletes to
where yes, you're trying to put on weight for football
because that was always the primary. But it's like I'm
a ball out and you know, whatever I'm playing, whatever
season is, I'm gonna pall out it.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
So I'm still trying to put weight on for football
even though I mean baseball.

Speaker 3 (25:12):
Season for instance, And it's much easier said than done.
So your time at Bama begins.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
You're you get there and we go through that first
spring ball or whatever.

Speaker 6 (25:21):
And my first year when I early enrolled, like I
was talking about, like you're just miles ahead because you
get those extra practices of spring ball when you're early
enrolled there, and it does change practices that you get ahead,
and there were some injuries and so I got to
run with the twos that first time, and so for
the eight A game, I got to start, you know,
for the second string team or whatever, and so that

(25:42):
was really cool, man, it was cool experience. And then
I remember finishing up and getting through my first semester
of college. And one thing at Alabama is we tell
everybody you really only have two breaks, and it's right
after a day.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
You get normally.

Speaker 6 (25:55):
About fifteen ten to fifteen days of school left where
you don't have football. It's like the one time where
you get to be a normal student, Like there's no workouts,
there's no meal requirements, there's nothing. You can just kind
of be free for a little bit and finish up school.
And then after you win the national championship. Those were
about the only two breaks you've ever gotten. So it
was cool, like, you know, grinding that whole spring and
really seeing my body change, like putting on all that

(26:16):
weight and going back home and that was awesome, and
then go home for a little bit, come back for
summer workouts, and I mean, dude, it was it was great.
I got to learn from some of the best offensive
linemen you can imagine, Like, you know, I got to
play with Jedrick Wills, Alex Leatherwood, Evan Neil was my
age but still, you know, he's a great offensive lineman too,
And just got to play with some really cool guys

(26:37):
there that really that was really good players. And then
Deontay Brown too, and just some in Landon Dickerson also,
and Landon came in a year later. But you know,
that was like one of the coolest things. It's the
guys that I got to play with and looking at
them now and how successful they are and but yeah,
so we go through summer workouts and I was kind
of a second string guy the whole year, is a
true freshman, and go into my freshman year and I

(26:58):
got to play in the first four games right there.
And so after I played in the first four games,
they had just made that new rule where you red
shirt more than red shirt, and so played in four
games red shirted, and I just kind of hung, you know,
after you figure out your red shirting. I was lucky
enough where they still traveled meet every game, so I
got to travel like I still got to enjoy it like,
which was Kyle Flood my offensive line coach that year.

(27:20):
I really appreciated that, like even being red shirted, he
let me still enjoy traveling with the team because like
when you're a freshman at school like Alabama, like a
bunch of guys don't get travel scholarship or not. You know,
only a certain amount of guys wait that cut. And
so that was a lot of fun getting to do that.
And then uh, after my freshman year, you know, freshman
year ends, then COVID happens, and you know, we got

(27:42):
to enjoy it a little bit, and like, truthfully, it's
kind of a bad taste in our mouth. Like we
went to the Citrus Bowl freshman year, and I tell
everyone this story, and so as a young kid, like
we go to the Citrus Bowl.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
We go to Orlando, Like, I had a good time.
It was my first ever.

Speaker 6 (27:55):
Bowl experience, Like really cool, but you could kind of
tell the vibe around there wasn't good.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Enough, was it was?

Speaker 4 (28:02):
Yeah, Like that was kind of like, yeah, that was
my last that my last year.

Speaker 6 (28:06):
Literally pissed at the fact that we're not in the playoffs.
We had just lost to Auburn before that, which cut
us out with the SEC championship and so everybody's pretty
upset about it. Like, you know, obviously we went out,
we handled business, and it was it was a fun trip.
Like I'm not gonna say it in lie, it was
a fun trip. But uh, after that when we come back.
So after that, we come back and get back into town,

(28:31):
start have our little break, and then we come back.
We start going through fourth quarter. During that fourth quarter
change is when coach Cochran had left. We bring in
a new strength coach, and that new strength coach comes in.
I think it was like his first official day on
the job is like when all this COVID stuff kind
of starts, and so it starts getting a little bit weird.
And then I remember sitting in the dorms and we
get a notification that the NBA shut down.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
But it's crazy started in Utah. I was living in Utah, Utah.
There was like Rudy Gambs, yes, and he did like
the Yeah.

Speaker 4 (29:00):
They were like they're not.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
Gonna play tonight. It's like, all right, go everything else.
The world's gonna go on.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
But yeah, we're like, no.

Speaker 6 (29:06):
Way, this is real, you know what I mean, Like
we're looking around each other like there's no way that
this is actually happening that we're uh, you know, like
that this COVID thing's a big deal.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Like truthfully, we're kind of blowing it off.

Speaker 6 (29:16):
And then I remember we're all sitting in the We
were doing some renovations on the facility at the time,
so we moved our like players lounge, and we didn't
really have a locker room.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
It was literally in the indoor facility.

Speaker 6 (29:26):
We just put our stuff and so our like hangout
area was kind of in this old player's lounge area
that they turned into the training room and everything.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, everybody's in here this day and.

Speaker 6 (29:36):
We coach saving what he used to always do is like, uh,
we'd have spring break that the day before spring break
started that friday, he'd host a meeting in our first
practice and it was so I think it was so
nobody could leave early, you know what I mean, Like
it'd be like normally everybody else like they finished class
at twelve o'clock on Friday, boom you go on spring break, right,

(29:56):
we finished class at three o'clock. We had meetings and
so our ring break got delayed a little bit and
it was to knock out that first day and just helmets.
We'd wear just helmets, and it was so right when
we got back from spring break, we could go into
full pads.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Well back to lash a little bit.

Speaker 6 (30:09):
We're sitting in there and everybody's in the training room
and they're all talking about like COVID, like that's the talk,
and it's like, hey, like what's gonna happen? And somebody's like,
I don't think we're having practice today, Like I don't
think we're having practice today.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Next thing, you know, we get a text it's team meeting.

Speaker 6 (30:21):
We go and sit in the team meeting room and
Coach Saban's like, yeah, we're gonna have to cancel right now.
We're sending everybody home. Truthfully, at that time, we're like,
oh hecky, like right every week break, you know what
I mean. We're like, you stand a spring break, let's go.
I remember I went to the beach and go down
to the beach. Halfway through that trip, Ubers stopped picking
up restaurants.

Speaker 4 (30:41):
Was that the Beast trip?

Speaker 6 (30:42):
Yeah, that we went on this beach trip when you
had just came off another spring break or something.

Speaker 4 (30:46):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (30:47):
I was on one spring break before and then went
on the second spring break with Pearce and Giles a.

Speaker 6 (30:51):
Couple of our other teammates, but like all the bors
just aren't open, and like we're you know, when you're
on spring break, you're kind of in this false reality.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
You're not watching the news. You have no idea what's
going on. I mean, you're just you're just having.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
A good time, and so find some cold booze.

Speaker 6 (31:03):
Yeah, exactly, that's about it. And so the next thing,
you know, the ubers are shut down. We're like, this
is a big deal.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
This is weird.

Speaker 6 (31:09):
And then we get a message after spring break and
it's like, hey, we're gonna start doing these zoom meetings
and we're not coming back right now, like right now.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
It's TBT.

Speaker 6 (31:19):
I think like June sixth was the date or something
like tentatively, So that time was like, what in the
world is going on? I'm back home. I will say
this my uh Paul I was telling you about earlier.
His dad got us like a nice little weight rack
and all this stuff, and like we were working out
every day. We had a turf facility to run on,
and so we were still working out, we were getting
you know, we were still we're still getting after it,

(31:41):
like we're running and.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
Stuff but it's not the same.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
It's not the same man, Like I don't care what
anybody says.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
It's not the same as you.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
And you can't push yourself the way that you're pushed
in that weight room and when it's shitting's happening with
the boys.

Speaker 6 (31:51):
And like that was the lifting was easy for me,
you know what I mean, Like being an offensive lineman,
like I could push myself lifting. It's hard to push
yourself into one hundred when you're by yourself.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Fast forward. We come back and like, dude, this it's crazy.

Speaker 6 (32:04):
I remember the day we get back, somebody sends a
text and they're like, hey, player led practice at the
band field. So at Alabama, Like we had this band
field and it was all turf field and it's where
a band practiced.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
There's a field where a band practice with the band.

Speaker 6 (32:18):
Full perfund, you know, full field, like and it's nice.

Speaker 5 (32:22):
We had guys training there too, Like there was a
wide receiver coach who trained a bunch of guys who
would train him out there. I think he got in
trouble for it, but like it's a sick field.

Speaker 6 (32:30):
It's nice, Like it's very nice for like a band
field out there. And so somebody I don't remember who
it was, but they called together and like it wasn't
any bad thoughts or anything.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Like you know, at the toy day, we're college kids.

Speaker 6 (32:38):
We don't really understand what's going on with the player
ran practice exactly like work on this. We weren't told
we couldn't. Well, next thing, you know, this player led
practice turns into like seventy people out there, news shows up.
We don't think anything of it, like and like Fox
or whoever it is, somebody's out there like video and
us practicing during COVID restriction.

Speaker 4 (32:57):
I remember seeing Slad on some of those.

Speaker 6 (32:58):
And then I remember like the the next day we
had our COVID testing because this was the day before
technical report date. But you know how it is, everybody
gets back the day before because like nobody's gonna show
up at six am.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
No, no, no, there's a meeting at four point thirty.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
And then you started the next day. Yeah, everybody got
back the day before.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
We did that.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
Well, the next day was the COVID test. Oh my gosh,
like everybody positive.

Speaker 6 (33:19):
I mean, it's just like an absolute like madhouse, like
everybody's testing positive. Nobody knows what's going on and so
change the dynamic of everything. I mean, we have like
eight workout groups. Oh dude, eight maybe more like maybe
eight it's an understatement. It was like every hour and
a half there was a workout group of like fifteen
people in there, and we got to wear these masks.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
You ever tried to run a one ten in the
humidity with a mask on?

Speaker 6 (33:42):
I mean, you got a map when you're done, like,
it's you tell yours because I mean it's it's the worse.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
So, Jake, can you hear me my helmet?

Speaker 1 (33:51):
So I was in I was I was in Park City,
Utah training Olympics and when you train with skeleton, you
are headfirst on your belly going downhill. Well it was chill,
and then COVID hit and everyone's like, hey, we need
to get tested for COVID. Every single day, every single

(34:12):
day you had to come in and take a COVID test.
And it started off where you're like really swabbing, and
by the end of it, I'm like swab an air
and I'm not not sliding today because oh you tested
has a different code you feel if I feel like
all right, I get it. Long story short, So I
had to wear a mask. There's nobody. I'm by myself

(34:33):
going eighty miles an hour down a mountain. Nobody's around me, right,
And like you need to wear a mask underneath your helmet.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
We don't want you guys to infect each other.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
I'm like, bro, and I'm and when you trained for
this type of stuff, like you're racing countries, so like
it's not like I'm training with a few Americans, but
I'm raater seen against like Italy, Japan, Israel, Ireland, like
you name it. So some of these guys are international.
They don't want to get like chipped off because this
and what. So I got my mask on, bro, and

(35:03):
I'm going to slide. And in this sport, you run
one run, run, run on run for like thirty forty
yards and then you jump on your sled and you
go downhill. Imagine being on a roller coaster going eighty
head first with no brakes and you just gotta not
breathe heavy, right, Bro. My mask was like a little
under my nose and I'm breathing heavy my mask.

Speaker 3 (35:22):
I can't see I'm fogged up.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
Bro.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
And there's fifteen.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Curves at the Park City Track for the tmusa training facility.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
Bro, it's like hole, it's like turn six. I can't
see anything. I legit held on and just prayed, like,
couldn't see you going eighty slamming into walls.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
And everything's gravity based, so like if you slam into
one wall, it shoots you up a different wall.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
These walls are like fifteen feet high. And I'm just
I finished the race.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
I finished my run. I'm like it was I'm not kidding.
It's like seven car accidents in the matter of thirty seconds.
Ambulance is waiting out the top four.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
They're like, a, uh are you good? Bro? This is
my racing helmet, my practice mouthpiece.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
I like bit my mouthpiece in half a right, I
could show you. I'll send some for us this clip, Jake,
I'll send you some pictures. I had these bruises on
my arm, Bro, that looked like somebody spread paint in
black on and my my neck up so bad. I
missed the next day and wrapped a blank like a
heating blanket around my head and you can ask pretty.

(36:33):
I was like feeding myself cup of noodles and like
a ninety degree angle.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
I was like I can't even bend it. I can't
even look at my foes right now, Bro.

Speaker 4 (36:41):
Durre right here under Vanderbilt.

Speaker 5 (36:44):
We had to wear on the on the helmet shores,
we had to wear a we didn't wear a shield.
We had a like a sheet cloth across the bars,
and then we had a gator mask that went over
the mouth. That was unbelievable. I was like breathing in sweat,
like tasting the sweat. As a little beard like dynamic there,
but I was tasting the sweat. Yeah, you can hardly breathe.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
It's like coming out. I'm like, I can't breathe.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Though I used to go like this.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
I'd come off a sprint. Imagine you're off a huge
general rush and I'd be like, and everyone's like mask, mask, mask,
and You're like they were outside like it was within.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Twenty feet in me, No, it was. It was ridiculous, dude,
Like it was a hand.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
Pierce settle them.

Speaker 5 (37:21):
So obviously Alabama when when all of code was going on,
obviously it was a hard time for the whole entire country.
But I remember saying to people, if there's one team
that's gonna have like a grip on it, it's gonna
be the University of Alabama.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
They're gonna figure this out, and and we did. They
all had like yeah, like you all had the Apple
Watch that tracked everything.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
So yeah, so how how did Alabama football handle the
covid UH season?

Speaker 6 (37:44):
So when we go back home, that's a good point, Mac,
I didn't even think about that. Uh, we have that
meeting with Coach Saban, and Coach Saban's like before everybody leaves, though,
you got to go to the weight room and meet
with like strent coaches or whatever.

Speaker 2 (37:55):
We go into the weight room.

Speaker 6 (37:56):
I think they bought every Apple Watch in the state
of Alabama that day. They gave every person on the
team Apple watches and the Apple Watch. Every day we
had to send to doctor Ray or Coach Blue our
heart rate with like, uh, all the stats like sleep stats.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
I don't know what you're doing there.

Speaker 6 (38:12):
Yeah, so they wanted to know, like exactly if you
were working out and stuff like that. At the end
of the day you could tell when you came back.
But that was their way of tracking. It is a
brand new Apple Watch that told you everything, sleep, running,
all that stuff. And I remember, I think I still
have pictures on my phone of just like snapping a
picture of my watch to send to them.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (38:29):
Yeah, I mean, like it's nuts. They were tracking everything,
you know what I'm saying. Like it's like it's not
like they just trust them. They were tracking them.

Speaker 6 (38:36):
Oh, because there was dudes who USh no doubt, no doubt,
Like I mean, you know that anywhere you goes no
matter what level you play at, like, there's gonna be
dude tough. And I will say this, I was lucky
to have somebody out there with me. It's a lot
harder when you have somebody to hold you accountable, like
having Paul. You know, at the end of the day,
when you're by yourself, it's a little bit easier to
wake up and be like, am I'm not gonna go
there today? But when you got and Will Reichord was
with us too, and so when you got kind of
two other guys that are counting on you to be

(38:57):
there that day too, it does make it a little
bit better and to seeing your friends and stuff. So
that was that helped us out of time for for
me at least, continuing to be consistent with it and
all that and so uh, but going through COVID, like
I want to backtrack a little bit because I was
just thinking of something that kind of talks about like
the mentality and stuff, and it'll kind of connect later
with COVID that year. So after the uh Citrus Bowl,

(39:20):
I'm like this, uh young kid and like my first season,
Like I think I was talking about it. I was
getting to it earlier. Uh big Bowl game. It's cool,
It's really cool, like New Year's Day. I think it
was like cool deal. Well, I remember being so excited
to get my ring and like I'm like, oh, yeah,
like you know you need to get a ring after
a bowl game, right, So I'm so excited about it.
March comes around when everybody, you know, when you that

(39:41):
typically would come in no ring comes in, and I
start kind of asking around. I ask older guys and
I'm like, hey, like when are when are we gonna
get our rings? And like, oh, we only get championship
rings here, so like we didn't even get a bowl
game ring. Saban only wanted rings that were from championships.

Speaker 7 (39:55):
So Bama only gives out rings if you win a ship, championships, SEC, Natty,
semi finals like anything like that, but like, uh, semi
finals get a ring, Yeah, you get, you get three
of them for a year.

Speaker 6 (40:06):
Now you get a semi or it might be. But yeah,
if you win the Natty, you get three rings at
least when we were there.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
But if you don't make any championship and you just
playing a bowl game, no mean we.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
Gotta watch, got a couple of watches.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
Hey, what time is it?

Speaker 1 (40:22):
Damn It was nuts though, But that's like, that's just
that's that is a different standards.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
The mentality if it was.

Speaker 6 (40:26):
Like, hey, our standards not to win the Citrus Bowl, right,
you know, like our standard is championships, and like at
the end of the day, I think, like, you know,
like it's very hard to win every single year. You're
not gonna win the championship every single year. I don't
think any nobody's ever done it. Like it's it's back
to backs is tough.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Now, Like Yukon women's basketball had like the best run I.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Think exactly, and like it's absolutely nuts.

Speaker 6 (40:45):
But like I think Saban's thing of it was like
we're gonna be at the table, you know what I mean,
Like even if we don't win it, we had a
shot or it wasn't a good year, and that was
the mentality of the fans took them to, like, you know,
Alabama's a tough place. You're seeing it this year, Like
Alabama's not having a terrible season by any means, but
if you talk to an Alabama fan, you would just, yeah,
you would think it's the worst team Alabama's ever had.

(41:06):
And so that's just kind of the standard that was
built there throughout it. But fast forward, we're going through
COVID and people are still getting COVID, Like nobody really
knows what's going on.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Every week.

Speaker 6 (41:16):
I remember, guys are down and like at this point
it was like if you even thought you had COVID,
you were out for a week. I mean, you didn't
have to test positive. Like if you thought if you
said the word COVID, they were sending you home.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
I mean.

Speaker 6 (41:26):
And so people were just out left and right, And
like I felt bad for our trainers because, like our
trainers tried really hard to enforce the mass stuff. Like
I will say that, like it was it was very
they were trying to enforce it. But at the end
of the day, like I guess some about earlier, we're
outside running sprints and you're getting waterboarded by it. I mean,
at some points they turned into bandanas for us because
we had like the athletic ones, which were better, but

(41:48):
they still just weren't weren't cutting it well. Later on
in the year, we finished summer workouts, and like I remember,
there were talks, but everybody definitely thought there was gonna
be a season during the summer, you know, like the
vibes weren't like bad that point.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
It was like that wasn't even in the equation. Honestly,
it was like, there's gonna be a season.

Speaker 6 (42:04):
I remember, we get closer to fall camp time, and
like we have this week break before fall camp, and
of course I got COVID during the week break, so
I didn't get a break during that time, and uh,
sitting there and unbercovering from COVID, and like, when you
have COVID, you're sitting on the couch scrolling through Twitter
all day. That's it, you know, that's about all you
can do to play in the game. And that's when
like all these conferences started shutting down. Yeah, and we're

(42:26):
about to go into fall camp. Dude, I get it,
you know what I mean, And like i'd be lying.
I think others would be too. If you're just sitting
there like what am I doing?

Speaker 4 (42:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (42:34):
Am I really about to go do fall camp after
we're not playing this year? You know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (42:38):
Like all these other conferences and stuff are shutting down.
And also fall camp was a week longer, two weeks
longer that year because they ended up scooting the season back,
right if you remember, And so basically instead of making
fall camp.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
Shorter seven week fall camp literally and they heard.

Speaker 6 (42:51):
You spaced it out, you know what I mean, They
spaced it out. But that's still meetings from seven am
to ten pm and so like.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Which that's what fall camp is.

Speaker 6 (42:59):
And it's like they're days where we would just do
meetings and no practice so that we could utilize the
entire time. And like, yes, it was better on your body,
no doubt, you know what I mean, like having that
day off, but it's a long day.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
And all that's running through the back of your mind
is we're not even gonna play a damn season.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (43:14):
But like I will say this, we had great leaders,
Like this is when you know Mac Jones had played
that season before, but this is really when I think
like he took like a different leap into it. Like
I can remember Mac like Mac was always one of
those guys that was like block out the outside noise.
You know, Mac had a lot of hate and stuff,
and like I feel like a lot of people hated
on Mac for no reason a lot of times, and
so Mac had to kind of learn to block that

(43:34):
outside noise out. And I feel like COVID, to him,
that was just outside noise, right, And so I can
remember like him just kind of being a big reater
of it, like we don't care if we play or not.
We're gonna be ready. Yeah, I mean, this team's gonna
be ready. Devonte Smith not the.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
Vocalist guy, but he was pretty vocal about that.

Speaker 6 (43:50):
Like we had great leaders on that team, and I
think Slaye will agree with it too, Like that was
probably the closest team I've ever been a part of, WOW,
And I think COVID was a huge deal to that.
I mean we partied together, we hung out together, we
did everything together because like at the end of the day,
we couldn't do anything with anybody else WOW, because you know,
it was one big circle.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
We kind of had with in there and like play
I ran, yeah, play I ran, and like everybody was friends.

Speaker 6 (44:13):
Like that was the coolest part about that team, Like
when you're a part of a college football team, if
you're counting everybody Alabama, probably one hundred thirty people on
our team, Like it's hard to be friends with everybody,
but that team, it felt like everybody truly did everything together.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
And so we get into the season though, and everything's
still weird.

Speaker 6 (44:30):
You know, there's Tuscaloosa shut down, restaurants are shut down,
and like things aren't right. And I remember we play
at Missouri game one. There's like ten fans in the stadium.
Now I think at Missouri that's pretty normal, but this
was what they said.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
This was sack covid.

Speaker 6 (44:44):
So we ended up playing there though, and it was
just like it was fun. Don't get me wrong, it's football,
Like there's nobody there. Yeah, you know, you come from
like Alabama, where normally every game we played in the
stadium was full, Like I mean it was packed out
and it was and this is still but it was
a national championship for every team that we played, you know,
like if they beat Bama, it was a successful year.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
So that was weird.

Speaker 6 (45:06):
And then I remember going back home and playing at
Brian Denny and like there's crowd noise being pumped where
thirty percent capacity. I think it was like it was
something may fifty percent of something crazy.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
How heal is that.

Speaker 5 (45:18):
Fifty percent would be it's one hundred and seven thousand
that I believe it hold grand Yeah, thirty it'd be
like around thirty five thirty six people.

Speaker 4 (45:26):
I don't know the math. I'm not a math guy,
but but you know, it looks bad.

Speaker 6 (45:29):
Like in a stadium that big, You're like looking around
and it's just it's weird. And you can tell a
difference between fake crowd noise and real crowd noise. Of course,
like there's a huge difference between hearing it come out
of a you know, speaker to being real. And so
all that stuff was weird, and I still remember the
thoughts like nobody really knew what's going on, COVID's still
going on, all these things are happening, and like there

(45:49):
were really important players on our team at that time
that hadn't had COVID yet. And basically what it meant
if you hadn't had COVID, that means you were getting
tested every week. I think it was like twice a week.
And there were guys that like if we lost them.
They were very, very important to the team and they'd
never had COVID, and so it was always a nerve
wracking like, hey, is our star player gonna be gone?

Speaker 2 (46:10):
You know this week? Like is he is he not
gonna be able to play?

Speaker 6 (46:12):
Because, yeah, because he has COVID And then coach Saban
gets COVID.

Speaker 2 (46:16):
You know, we're going I don't remember who we were
about to I think it was Georgia.

Speaker 6 (46:18):
We're about to play and this was the false one,
but like the day before the game, yeah, he tests
positive for COVID and then after that they said it
was a so like we're getting ready for this game,
is coach Sarkisan is gonna be our head coach? And
Coach Sarkisan's awesome, obviously doing a great job at Texas,
but like that's a weird change, coase Saban's been the
head coach at Alabama for the longest time, and now

(46:39):
two days before the game we figure out that Coach
Sarcusan's gonna be leading this out against Georgia. Like that's
freaking nuts, and then comes out as false positives.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Appreciate you were gonna get ridy this weekend. Be sure
to fall these fellows on the Gram. Subscribe unsubscribed. We
subscribe Army of the Great Activague.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
See you next week.