Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
All right, all right, allright, welcome back to bring the juice.
Fire me up. We got friendsto state quarterback Mikey Keen on the
pod. It's about time, Mikey. Welcome to bring the juice. Brother,
Thank you. I'm glad to behere. Man, dude, long
time coming. Gon to know yourparents pretty well. Pumped to have you
on the pod. Great people.So the love it, love everything about
(00:22):
it. I'm fired up. Youknow, Mikey out of the Gate.
Let's just talk your journey. Itstarted off you grew up in Arizona and
end up landing originally at UCF CentralFlorida. Tell me why you chose UCF
out of the Gate in your highschool years? What was the decision then?
Yeah, so I had a uniquehigh school recruiting experience. Overall,
(00:47):
it was pretty slow to start,and then I got the pickup. Really
started when COVID hit. Okay,so COVID hits, that's going into my
senior year and so everything gets shutdown. But at that time, it
was after my junior year, Ihad one offer from Northern Arizona University and
it was just kind of talking toa bunch of different schools, a lot
(01:08):
of Mountain West schools were talking tome. Uh, and then COVID hit.
No one really knew what was goingto happen or shake up with that.
But before that happened, in aboutFebruary, UCF actually signed an Arizona
quarterback, Beau Na's Park Navarro stillgreat friends with him. He was at
Desert Vista, so he was anArizona guy. Uh. So they're out
doing their official visit with him.They're doing an in home visit and so
(01:30):
they were like, all, we'regonna check out Arizona quarterbacks. And they
stopped by Chandler High School and checkedme out. So I got to got
to meet the OC, I gotto meet the quarterback coach, and then
they came back and watched me throwabout two weeks later, I think.
So at that point it was likeI had a great relationship with these guys.
(01:51):
I'm talking with them day in andday out. I'm not getting the
offer yet, but offers slowly startto roll in. And then when COVID
hit, I mean it just ittook off, and it took off for
everyone because no one really knew whatwas gonna happen. No one really understood
when we were gonna be able togo to camps and see these guys in
person. So it was like everyonejust started committing because they had no idea
(02:12):
what was going to happen. There'srumors of they're gonna give these guys back
their scholarships. There's not gonna beenough scholarships for you guys, crazy experience,
crazy stuff. So throughout the wholeprocess, UCF ended up offering me.
They're about my tenth offer, Ithink, so they were a little
late to it. But at thesame time I had met these guys that
I had a great relationship with them, and it was it was a crazy
(02:34):
story because at the time it waslike March March happened. I'm I'm in
Port of Vararta with my family onvacation spring break. So everyone's like the
grocery stores or I mean, everything'sgone, and we're like, what is
going on? Wait, when COVIDhit, you were in Mexico, yes,
so what We're freaking out. We'relike, what the heck is going
(02:57):
on? I was in Mexico andso thinking my mom's taking toilet paper from
the hotel, Like we really loadedup on stuff there because we have no
idea what's going back in the States. So anyways, it kind of the
ball keeps rolling. Then once youget a big offer, the offers just
rolling. That's kind of how itrolls in regardless, and even more in
this instance. So it's about shoot, I get back and may rolls around,
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I think. And people still don'tknow what's going to go on,
like camps have been canceled and stufflike that. But I'm talking to a
lot of people. I was talkingto a good amount of people. It's
funny. I was talking to GrahamHarrold, who is the OC at Purdue
now. He was at USC atthe time. So I'm talking to them
and I'm like, that's a that'sa dream school opportunity. So I don't
(03:44):
really know what's gonna happen. I'mstarting to kind of play itself out.
And then coach Hypel and Coach Golishand those guys at UCF everyone was committing.
So they had a guy that wantedto commit and play their quarterback commit
for that class. So they hitme up and they're like, hey,
you're our number one guy, Likewe want you here. They're like can
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you commit right now? They're like, can you commit right now so we
can tell this guy sorry, sorry, we have a commit already and I'm
like, no, I can't commitright now, and so they're I mean,
my flown. My phone is blowingup from these guys. They're hitting
me up face times everything, likeI'm at I'm at my friend's house,
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they're calling me, call me back, all this stuff, and I mean,
it was pretty stressful. But atthe same time, I was like,
shoot, I don't know what elseis gonna come from this. And
I'm a I'm a big like onceyou're committed, like you're committed guy,
Like I'm all in on this loyalty. Loyalty is huge for me, and
it was. It was a uniquesituation, of course, because all that
happened, and I had planned oncommitting before my senior year, but not
that early because everything was still kindof rolling for me. So I told
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him no and they were like,well, all right, So we got
some stuff to figure out, andI get a call out a week later,
so you see us off the table, like all right, I'm not
going one there. I guess I'lljust wasn't meant to be. They're like,
hey, we rejected his his scholar, his commitment and they're like,
you're still a number one guy.So then they continued to continuously recruited me,
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and I was talking to Iowa Stateat the time. And funny thing
is that rock Porty Pro Party wasthe QB. Then he's an Arizona guy,
Arizona guy. So my freshman year, I was put up for the
whole year, but we played RockParty in the state championship. I mean,
the best player in the state.No offers until after his senior season.
It was crazy, Rock Purty nooffers, no offers until after his
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senior season, best player in thestate by far. Everyone's like, this
guy needs to have some offers,and no one understood it. And he's
I mean, he's an under sizedguy, but he's bigger than me.
I was like, I don't reallyunderstand this. So anyways, Iowa State
was recruiting me as well. Theywere speaking to me, so I was
kind of holding off. I thoughtthat it would be cool to go in,
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learn from learn under Brock for ayear. He was having a hell
of a career there, and thenstep in into the guy at Iowa State.
So I was kind of holding offon them. And honestly, it
was about a month out for mysenior season. Our senior season got pushed
back a month. So they callme and it's kind of like a call
where it's like, all right,you guys offered me or not. We've
been speaking for about a year now, and they said they're gonna wait a
(06:15):
month to evaluate senior film. Nextday I committed to UCF. Wow.
It was kind of like a honestly, and I was like, you know
what everyone every time that someone askedme, where are you gonna go?
I'm like, right now, it'sUCF. And I was, shoot,
I'm living in Orlando. Like theprogram was bumping at this point. The
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program was bumping at this point.I mean they had just come off their
their couple of seasons with Mackenzie Milton, who is a has been a great
mentor for me. I didn't knowhim at the time, but awesome guy.
Unfortunate how his his career ended upbecause that injury. Just he was
he was a dog, I mean, Heisman, a guy in the Heisman
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conversation every single time he stepped onthe field. So I'll love for that
guy, but no, it wasit was a crazy situation how that played
out and then ended up committing there. And the funny thing is I get
about a month into my senior seasonand Iowa State rolls around again, so
they offer me and I ultimately justended up sticking with you CF because they're
(07:20):
to me exactly loyal, no doubt. Before we get into that too much,
going to give a quick shout outat our friends at American Pistachio Growers.
If you want to perform like thepros, eat your pistachios. Eat
those nuts, kids. Mikey,you pistachio guy at all. I'm a
big pistachio, huge pistachio guy.Do you think and I'm not a scientist
or anything like that, but doyou think eating pistachios helps you be a
(07:43):
good football player? By chance,I'd have to say, yeah, Yeah,
definitely did help me become a greatfootball player. APG check out Mikey
right now. Might have to givehim some nuts. I don't know.
The dogs keep winning games. Ithink it's a good thing. Going shout
out to APG. So that experience. Okay, So now you committed there,
You're at UCF, playing at UCF, like you just said, the
Mackenzie Miller like you, there's anera at this point, and I think
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Fresno State and we'll get into youryour journey here, but it's one of
those things where like I see somewhatsimilarities between UCF and Fresno State to a
certain degree of just like grit biggerschools, you don't want to play either
of them necessarily. They kind ofgot their own swagger that I've never been
(08:28):
there, but the Bounce House seemslike it gets rowdy obviously, valid Children's
Stadium gets rowdy, and I think, you know, maybe without even knowing
it, it's like, God,place do you in those type of situations
for a reason. But you're atUCF, what's your experience like there?
For sure, you're definitely spot onwith the attitude and mentality of those of
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the programs such as UCF and FresnoState, because UCF this is their first
year in a Power five conference,but before that, it was always the
G five. The G five.You're hearing that constantly, but it's like
every time you get an opportunity toplay these teams, the exactly. So
it's like it's a similar vibe towhere UCF kind of never embraced the role
(09:16):
but which kind of treated as thelittle brother to the Florida's, the Florida
State Miami. Those programs such assimilar vibes to where it's like you have
cal you have Stanford, you haveUCLA USC in California as well for Fresno
State. So that's that's where alot of similarity comes in with that aspect.
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Unique, unique situation for me gettingor to UCF. So the first
time that I stepped on campus,I was a student. No visits,
none of that. COVID shut allthat down, so no visits. I'm
going from Chandler, Arizona to Orlando, Florida. I think it was four
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thousand some miles, seventeen years old. I early graduated, and this was
the first time ever leaving home,like ever leaving home ever going blind,
exactly going blind. So the firstnight I get there, I mean,
I'm I'm throwing up in the hotel. I'm just so I'm sick to my
(10:20):
stomach because I'm like, what amI doing? And then slowly meeting some
guys and stuff like that. Butit was rough and the worst homesickness of
my life that I've faced so far. It really grew me as a person
and the friends that I made inthat time. I mean, I got
a buddy who he'll be the bestman of my wedding. He was my
best friend at UCF. We justplayed at Utah State. He's at Utah
(10:43):
State now. But the struggles thatwe had and how we grew and like
leaned on each other in those moments, like the vulnerability that we shared,
it was pretty awesome. So that'slike how our friendship is so genuine.
But anyways, I'm homesick. I'mreally not having a great time there.
Things aren't the same exactly as howI thought that it would be. Like,
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for instance, they showed me thisZoom video they did. It's called
like official Zoom visits, Okay,so our official business were on Zoom.
So I mean, there's show manyof this stuff, and I'm like,
this is gonna be I'm gonna havea great time. They're like, we
got a lazy river being built rightnow. I'm like, dude, I'm
like, when can I get aflight? Like I need to get their
asap I get there. No lazyriver, none of this stuff like in
(11:30):
the facility that they're showing. I'mtalking to dudes, I'm like, what,
like the big thing for me waslike the Lazy River. I don't
know why I wanted the Lazy River. And I got six year guys there
that are coming back on their COVIDyears and they're like, yeah, bro,
they talk. They told me myrecruiting visit too, and I'm like,
well, okay, all right,So anyways that stuff's like, I'm
like, all right, well,at least the football is great here.
(11:52):
I've got a great system in JoshHipel. I mean, they throw the
rock around and it's a system thatmakes sense to me, and it's gonna
put me in great position. I'mbehind Dylan Gabriel who's coming into his junior
year. He's had a great twoyears in college so far, and he's
looking to go to the NFL.So it's like learning to this guy and
then be the guy that was theplan. Two weeks in, uh,
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we're on like a random this isspring ball. No, no, no,
so this is this is January.Oh, this is yeah, this
is still winter ball. We're inshorts right now. Two weeks in,
we're in some random Wednesday morning meetingbecause we can't have a team meeting like
officially yet or something like that becauseof COVID protocol. Still campus is shut
down. Nobody is on campus,So seventy two thousand students and there's like
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one hundred and forty four football playersexactly, So I'm meeting nobody. I'm
meeting the football guys. Yeah,and we get it a someone starts like
typing in our zoom chat. They'relike, Hypel's gone. We're like what.
So everyone's like, Hype's leaving.Hypel's leaving. I'm like, what
is going on? This is mysecond at UCF. I'm still doing like
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all these intro videos and things likethat. I'm trying to compliance exactly,
compliance everything like that. All ofa sudden, one of our compliances lad
is like emergency team meeting. Goto the team meeting room right now.
Yeah. Anyways, that was atwhat nine am. Hypel tells us he's
leaving. Everyone's just what is goingon? These recruits are what are what
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is happening? We just committed tothis guy, respecting him to be here
for I didn't expect him to bethe whole time because UCF at the time
was kind of a stepping stone toanother bigger program. But I wasn't expecting
two weeks. So he's gone wehave lunch at eleven, he's in his
press conference at Tennessee. We're like, well, yeah, from then on,
everyone leaves. We have no staffand we get in at the time
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Danny White, who was our ADwas at Tennessee too, That's who brought
Hypel there. So we don't havean ad let alone a head coach.
So they gotta find it. Thepresident has to find an ad to hire
a head coach, to hire ahead coach, to bring staff in.
So we finally we get Terry mahadgerAd. He brings in Gus malls On.
Gus Malson brings in his staff.We're two weeks out from my first
(14:16):
spring ball. We have zero installof a completely new offense. So two
weeks out from our first spring ballwe have zero install, two weeks to
install and get ready for springball.Spring rolls around. It's a great experience
not being recruited by the staff andcoach Malson, and that I think,
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as a young guy was the bestthing for me because it made me so
locked into the details to where ifI was messing up or anything like that.
I mean, I was getting takenout and I don't want to be
taken out. So it's like,I'm up studying. I'm enjoying the grind
and embracing it. And once itstarts paying off for me and I start
getting more reps and working up withthe threes and then working with the twos,
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it was something that I enjoyed seeingmyself be able to progress. So
going into that summer, the planfor me was to be the backup.
I earned the spot in fall camps, so going into that season, I
was the backup to Dylan Gabriel.Plan was the red shirt. Didn't really
know what was gonna happen. Iknew wherever I was and wherever I wanted
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to be, I was gonna haveto compete in life, in football,
and whatever it is, I'm gonnahave to compete for it. So I
was like, I'm not just gonnatransfer. I'm not gonna do anything like
that. I want to compete forthis. So that ended up paying off
for me. And then flash forwardto week three, UH of my freshman
year. We're playing out Louisville andit's a it's a tough game. I
mean, Dylan's bawling out though uhhe had a he had like three passing
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touchdowns. He caught a touchdown andhe ran a touchdown. It was ridiculous.
He had a he had it,it was open, he was hooping,
yes, and we threw it.We threw a pick six. We
got a pick with like forty secondsleft. All right, we're on there
forty five, I think, soall we needed to field goal. It's
a tie game right now, andthey sent a crazy pressure that we hadn't
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seen. Titball pick six. Sonow we're down. All right. Now
we're in like last plays, likethe latter roles all that stuff. So
we have this one play it's calledsupports center, and it's basically just we're
laddering it and then ladder up backto Dylan throw it across all this stuff.
So it doesn't work out and Dylanends up breaking his collarbone on this
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play. And I mean it's liketalk about growing up. I mean,
on a flight home, my mentalitieslike just switched, like a flip.
Just has to switch right there.Because I got dudes that are coming back
for their sixth year. I justturned eighteen years old two months ago,
and their twenty five year olds likecrazy looking to me for leadership. So
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we had a bye week. Thatnext week, which was great because I
got two weeks of prep, weended up going to Navy. We played
at the Naval me which is anincredible experience. I mean, those guys
are fired up the entire the entiregame. I'm talking, yeah, the
entire student section. It's behind yourbench, right, No, no,
no, not behind our bench.So they're over on their side. But
after every touchdown, their entire studentsection runs on the field and is doing
(17:15):
push ups. It was. Itwas pretty crazy and it was a cool
experience. It sucks. It wasa nail bier, but they upset us
and it was a loss from myfirst career start, but I played pretty
well. Navy was good that year. I feel like to were maybe Navy
is always presenting problems. All theacademy teams are going to present problems just
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because of the systems that they run. Navies arguably the best game of the
year, exactly exactly. So they'rejust disciplined. They they all everything that
you think of those academies, they'regoing to do it. They're going to
be disciplined, they're gonna be physical, they're gonna flat to the ball.
So pretty much that's how that shookout and then progressed into my Through my
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freshman year, we had a lotof ups and downs. I mean,
we were banged up everywhere after thatLouisvo game. We had lost our center,
we had lost our starting running back. So it wasn't like I was
out there with just some like guys, like we were all banged up.
We were all going through this firstyear's staff, all these different things.
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But a lot of things that happenedto me in that year I feel like
have made me into the player thatI am because I talked to Dylan a
lot of the times, and Dylanwas a great mentor for me. He
had a lot of mentorship from MackenzieMilton previously, and there were things that
he took away from that to wherehe could help me as well. So
he understood what type of relationship Iwanted from him. I wanted him there
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all the time, honestly talking tome, helping me out, and he
would never try and step on mytoes, which I appreciated from him,
but I usually would want him there. But then progressing through that freshman year,
it was a lot of ups anddowns for me because I'm just coming
into every week I'm like, howcan we win this game? I don't
care about I'm eighteen. I'm tryingto win football games. Yeah, and
(19:00):
I mean that that built my mentalityfor how I've always been. But at
this time it was like, I'mnot trying to do anything. I'm doing
my job. I'm trying to domy job and just win the football game,
Like how can I put us ina position to win. You talk
about that flip with that switch,and I love that because I think everyone
in their career sports are not sports. You do have that switch you have
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to flip and realize like I needto. It's not even get you other
because you don't have it together,but it's like, hey man, I
need to either. Some people sayrise to the occasion. Others say fall
back on their training, right,And I think you know, in a
situation now where you've matured and you'rein the journey, you are now like
you're falling back on your training,but surehen you're I don't think people realize
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unless you've been there your first kindof cycle of college football. It's just
it's just it's faster. It's justfaster, the plays are more complex.
Everybody's good and I don't care ifyou're a fifth string dude. You're good
enough to play exactly good at football. Yeah, and you start learning like,
okay, these guys all run fourfours and all bench this and run
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this first, and they look thepart. Why is this guy first drink?
It's because he's craftier, he's smarter, he understands the game. He's
got a competitive advantage. So whenyou had to flip that switch, it's
not like you were a lollygagging necessarily. No, And I don't know would
you say it was an added pressurenecessarily? But what would you say was
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the biggest thing you had to lockin on at that point? Being eighteen
years old understanding, hey I gotto drop the boat right now. Yeah,
I mean the biggest thing for mewas I understood what I wasn't good
at and so I had to relyon my strengths. Like I was eighteen
years old, I had only seenthree games of college football in all honesty,
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Yeah, I had an off seasonof training, but I've seen I
haven't played before, but coverages,all the different things that are going up
front. I was like, hey, I need to know what we are
doing. So if I don't knowwhat they're doing. At least I know
what we're doing good enough to beable to get myself in a good position
to where I understand what we're goingto how I'm going to be successful in
this position. And it was abig thing to where my preparation aspect,
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it was night and day, becauseat that time, it's not like you're
getting I'm the backup quarterback. They'repreparing the starter to be able to go
in and play and succeed. They'renot looking to prepare the backup quarterback.
So I'm taking what I can fromthese meetings and asking my questions. But
at the same time, I gotto find my own process. I got
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to find out what days I'm watchingthis type of film. I got to
figure out how I'm going to watchnormal downs, I'm going to watch third
downs, I'm going to break downred zone, how I'm going to break
down different situations. When am Igoing to watch two minute drives? All
these different things that I had toask and get answers for and say,
hey, all right, I likehow he does that, or no,
I'm gonna do it this way.This makes more sense to me. So
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it was like, you approach itit's playing quarterback is very much like being
a student. And I prided myselfgrowing up being a student athlete and I
had great study habits. So preparingfor a game for me is always like
a test, and especially now,like flash forward to Fresno State, Like
we have the answers, we havegreat answers, and so it's like if
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you study that test, we're goingto be put in great situations. Yeah,
it's not always going to be playout perfectly, but jump back to
jump back to then how my mentalitywas. I was very just focused in
on understanding what we were trying todo and accomplish, and how I could
be the most efficient is possible withoutmaking a mistake, a critical mistake such
as a turnover or just big errorsand things like that. What about from
(22:48):
a leadership perspective, because you mentionedthere is and again the culture shock when
you're eighteen, it's like you're eighteen, peach fuzz on your face, Dan,
and you're there is grown I spent. I remember there was guys who
had kids and that were married myfreshman year and like there you look at
them, You're like, that's agreat man. That guy's twenty four years
(23:10):
old as your man, like theylook at you as a quarterback of hey,
you need to go be the leader. Is there anything? And I
know a quarterback and this is justmy opinion for sure, a quarterback should
be a leader on the bout team, whether it's you've earned your right to,
you know, be like a captaintype role, right, even if
you don't have this seat on yourchest like you're a leader. I don't
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care if you like it or not. You better figure it out. If
you can't lead your team, you'renot a good quarterback. That is one
of the traits. No matter howgood your arm is. This is part
of the deal. Being eighteen,did you have anything that you kind of
leaned on leadership wise? And Iknow high school experiences, you know,
they do grind you for those situationsthey're like hey I need to step right
(23:53):
now. Yeah, but having tolead older guys in that locker room and
gain that trust from those coaches.What about from a leadership perspective, like,
what were the traits you felt inthat moment? Yeah? I mean
I feel like leadership is all aboutauthenticity and how you approach it. I
(24:14):
was not naive whatsoever to my approachas a leader, And I'm not naive
to this day about it because Ilook at myself and I'm like, all
right, what's going to make somethingabout a person interesting to me to where
I considered that guy a leader orwhat aspect of his game or his approach
to life is going to make mewant to follow that. So at the
(24:37):
time I had him to drop,I mean, I'm in college, like,
yes, I've been there, butone was a bit. One big
thing for me was the weight room, so developing that trust with them,
like, hey, this guy's gonnawork his off for you, all that
stuff leading up until where I wasplaying. Where it really switched when I
was playing is I had to showthose that I gave so understanding protections,
(25:02):
learning all these different things that theywere like, how does he know this
stuff? Now it meant that theyknew that I was putting in the time
and I gave. And ultimately,the thing about being a leader, and
think about being a quarterback that's supertough is your job is to win games.
So I'm not looking to be friendswith everyone. I'm not looking to
be liked by everyone, but Ido want to be respected by everyone.
(25:22):
Career and my accountability and the authenticitylike I come back to comes through them
seeing me be able to win themgames. So at that point, it
was a deal where it's like toget I need to get some wins for
these guys. I need them tosee my process and them to understand,
hey, this is going to winus a game. Let's follow behind this
(25:44):
as we can get more wins.Continued, because that's ultimately the goal.
That everyone has their own stuff goingon, but my goal is to win
as many games as possible. Inever want to lose. So that's where
it comes into where it's like maybeI wasn't as vocal or anything like that,
but I knew what I was talkingabout because I put in the work
and I put in the time tobe able to understand what I was talking
about. So that's where I earnedit and still carry it to this day
(26:08):
to where it's like, these guysknow that I give it about what I'm
doing, like I care, thisis this is what I love to do.
I love this game and I lovethe process of it too. So
if they just understood that I lovethe process and that everything all my undivided
attention was going towards this team,that's where I feel like I got that
validation to become a leader that greatgreatly Like it's that's the type going to
(26:36):
follow someone into battle. And Ithink what you said is right in the
sense of just because you're you're you'renot trying to be the guy who has
the most friends on the football team, right, That's not what a leader
is. That might help you,you know, it might help people be
attracted to following you, for sure, But ultimately, a leader is somebody
that does the things nobody else wantsto do and sets the and it's the
(27:00):
guy who makes getting working after practicecool. And it's a guy who calls
you out when you've been your stuff, no doubt. And guess what,
you can't call someone out. Yougot to lead by example. And I
also liked how you mentioned the strengthconditioning team in the weight room. People
don't understand Andy Ward's my dude inmy phone, he's coach Andy in parentheses
(27:22):
bring the Jewish Ward. Yeah,And I love that dude. But he
taught me. It taught me alot of things. But just getting into
college football itself, you don't realizehow much time you really spend with the
strength conditioning staff and if they giveyou your little nod of approval of Hey,
this dude's a grinder. He's reallyputting in to his body the best
(27:45):
version of himself he could possibly be, whether that's in the weight room,
physically pushing himself, lifting extra word, even just recovery things of that nature.
It holds a certain type of weightto where when those guys could back
you, it does mean something tothe coaching staff and the team as a
whole, right, and not manypeople quite understand that. They think of
(28:06):
just the OC and the head coach. You don't see your head coach in
your OC nearly as much as yousee your strength visitioning coach. Not even
close. I mean I don't forI'm talking acumulative for the year, Like
I completely what you're saying. Yeah, it's not day, but you're you
know, you need to be atype of guy at the end of the
day where it's like I will followyou into battle. And I think if
(28:29):
you're an athlete, a former athlete, a fan, whatever that is,
like I'd follow you in a battlelike bro. Like that The type of
gets me fired up because it doesmean something when you have that type of
passion like you aren't just checking boxes. Shout out to Josh Waitz. Josh
Wood's been a one back of ArizonaCardinals. He said, like I was
(28:51):
checking boxes for a period of mytime. Like I knew I was supposed
to do this because I'm supposed tobe a leader as ave been a linebacker.
I need to I need to showit live it be it, make
that who I am. And itdoes make a difference. It really does.
And guys, they it's I say, it's like juice man, Like
one dude makes a big play,sparks your team, right, That's what
(29:14):
makes football so beautiful, especially especiallycollege football. Like NFL, it's kind
of off and on. There's moreebbs and flows college football. You guys,
someone breaks one, someone house callsone, someone blocks a kick,
someone gets a pick, someone getsa big sack, like all of a
sudden, it's everyone fired up andin this And if you're a player on
(29:37):
the field, you feel it.If you're a player on the sideline,
you feel it. If you're afan at home, it's like there's this
little electric feel where anything can happenany given day to where how do you
not love it? Yeah, beforewe continue, quick shout out to our
friends at FFB Bank. Whether yourbusiness needs a load or your dream needs
(29:59):
a saving plan, FFB offers theguidance and flexibility you need to flourish,
checking in savings, SBA loans,long term investment options. Everything you'll ever
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is their passion for knowing you beyondyour financial statements, listening to your needs,
and fostering mutual growth by linking theirsuccess to yours. Mikey, if
(30:22):
I'm not mistaken you, you've hungout with those FFB guys before. Also,
right, great guys, great guys. Did it? Was that a
UCF thing? Also? Was thatjust kind of like do this dude knows
football type thing? Yeah? Ifeel like his approach and attention to detail
is a little bit different from theapproach at UCF. I mean, obviously
(30:45):
they've those guys have been through alot of football. I mean, Gus
mells On holl of Fort coach,He's been through incredible moments. I mean
there would be sometimes in fall campwhere coaches are telling their stories like we're
looking at I'm watching or even justlike cut ups and things like that I'm
watching a film of Cam Newton runa play that I'm about to go run.
Yeah, Holy Cam Newton was myguy. I mean, that's why
(31:06):
I wear number one. That wasI got fat heads in my room.
All this different. Now I'm beingcoached by the guy who was coaching him,
right, So I feel like it'sa little bit different in the preference
of what coach Tedford wants to do. He hits a lot more the special
situations that can then that can occur. A couple of them were hit at
UCF, not as many. Butat the same time, I'm it's been
(31:29):
pretty crazy because this year, likewe have all of our backed up situations
that we have. We've had We'vehad a double overtime game, We've had
a two minute drive to win thegame. We've had a possible situation where
we got to run our Our specialplays are one play lateral deals and stuff
like that. So and you getin those situations and you're not like what
they You're like, all right,well this do this, yeah and see
(31:51):
if it works. If it doesn'twork, well, lease, we know
what we're doing exactly. But everyone'son the same page. So I feel
like, yeah, I mean,we did this mock game. Yeah,
and I'm asking, I'm asking,I'm asking coach Wade. I'm like,
hey, how many plays we gottoday? He's like, uh, one
hundred and sixty? What are you? One hundred and sixty plays? And
we're doing every single situation that youcan't even think of, and you can't
(32:12):
even think of I'm like, whatwhat is going on out there? Yeah?
And obviously in Fridays it's it's alittle bit more simplified, but I
appreciate it because I'm going into prepfor Wyoming and I'm like, all right,
we're doing this, We're doing this, this is what's going to happen.
And it's like everyone understands what's goingto happen with these situations that it's
not like you're to bed, no, no, it happens. So it's
it's pretty unique to see how itwas the first time that it rolled out.
(32:36):
Everyone's just like, all right,we got this. I'm like,
what is that? What are wedoing? It takes some adjusting it very
much, does he I think it'salmost I think like back to like a
Mike Leach, the type thing whereyou know people would love to like sit
in the classroom for a day andsee the different scenarios that could happen in
the football game. Yeah, beforewe finish up, quick shock to our
(32:58):
friends at course Life, drink silverbullets course light. It's like gatorade for
adults. It's delicious. On anice Friday afternoon. You finish your war
week, slam a course light.You're gonna go watch Mikey play for the
dogs. Go drink a course lightthere. Shout out to course Light.
We appreciate you and bring the juice. You know my last question, I
(33:20):
didn't really have it written down untilyou talked about the experience. But I
went through a coaching staff change middleof my career, right and I don't
think and I kind of helped youngerkids in the recruiting process. Not from
a LACAW great I am perspective,but this is what I would did this,
This was my this is what myexperience was. Do what you want
(33:44):
with it. And people say thedebate of should you commit to a school
for the school or for the coach? And you always got to take in
this siner like what if I tourboth my acls tomorrow, would I still
want to attend school there? I. I mean, I grew up here,
so I always wanted to play atFresno. That's kind of what I
(34:05):
wanted to do. If I wasn'tgoing to play at Fresno, if they
didn't give me an opportunity, Iwas going to go somewhere else. But
my point is I had got inby a coaching got brought in by a
coaching staff, went one and eleven, and our coach got fired. Our
head coach got fired mid season,actually right after we went to Utah State,
(34:29):
Oh my gosh, and our everyonehad to step up, and everyone
was kind of young in their roles. It was like a first year OC,
first year of DC, and allof a sudden, you're an interim
and they did, and we were. We weren't getting blown out. We
were losing last places at the game. You were up thirty one nothing one
game and lost until overtime. Ohmy gosh, block field goals for game
(34:53):
winners from like ten yards out,Like we just could have together first and
goal two minutes left on the twoyard line, had four plays, couldn't
get it in, just like consistentDaggers. Daggers. Yeah, and that
team became really close because we sufferedso much pain. For sure. It's
(35:14):
not like they didn't practice hard.But you know, the U a coaching
staff both leaving is hard and acoaching staff coming in is also hard because
you're not there, dude, allthat stuff that you know, they know
you from, they recruited you,they saw value in you. You already
(35:34):
kind of have a built up upperhand perspective of a coaching staff. It's
all that's all out the window.Now you've got one hundred dudes in a
locker room with brand new strangers.And guess what, it's time to compete
if you were the five star oryou were a scrub walk on who's earned
his way to this role, likethey don't want to see you compete at
that point, no doubt. AndTedford, I don't know if I could
(35:57):
say this or not, but whateverI want, But like Dford, when
he went through his spring and hecut, he got rid of quite a
bit of guys, Like I wantto say, you know, fifteen to
thirty guys, scholarship walk on didn'tmatter, Like if you weren't an asset,
you were a liability. And hetried, we just went one and
eleven. He had every right todo that, you know, but I
(36:21):
want to know your perspective a littlebit on that coaching change, and you
know what went through your head whenyour guy left as well as when the
new guys were in the room,right, Yeah, And that goes to
there's a whole philosophy that I builtjust being through the experience of it in
(36:46):
college football is you gotta be adude to be able to get on the
field. But at the same time, you see these crazy stories of oh,
this guy was a walk on,worked his way up and things of
this sort. And you look atthose guys and they weren't the most athletic,
they weren't the tallest, but theydid their job. And that's what
(37:06):
as a quarterback. And I'll getto my I'll get to the point of
like we're at UCF, but Ithought that I had to speak about this.
But I tell receivers all the time, and that's this is why I'm
like always buddies with like the walkon receivers, and at Fresno, it's
been the starting guys because they focuson the details and they're on there pretty
much. They enjoy the process.But if I don't know if you're going
(37:27):
to catch the ball when I throwit to you. If I don't know
if you're going to run full speed, and if I don't know if you're
going to be in the right spotor not, how the hell am I
going to have you on the fieldright? And so that's just not even
how. I didn't say anything abouthow fast you ran. I just want
your full speed. I didn't sayanything about how high you can jump,
how tall you are, any ofthis stuff. What school you came from?
(37:50):
Five star, one star? Becausethese coaches are going to put out
who is going to do their joband make them look good for teaching them.
It's a business, that's this theirjob, this is their livelihood.
They wait, they're not gonna haveit. They have families. So really,
when a when a new coaching staffcame in, I had to understand
that, all right. I gotto hone it on the little details.
I got to do my job andthey're gonna understand, and I hope that
(38:13):
they understand, which they did.I'm a freshman. I'm gonna make mistakes.
But if I handle all the processesbefore pre snap and take coaching,
and I'm coachable and I give greatattention to detail, it's gonna ultimately pay
off for me, whether or notI'm on the field or not. It's
gonna pay off for me in life. Yes, that's how. That's how
(38:36):
it's gonna work out and shake outregardless. So I say, the biggest
thing with that and getting a newcoaching staff is making yourself. You gotta
look at it this way. Youcannot give them a reason to not play.
You could not agree more. Soyou got to be looking at it
from their point of view, andthey're looking at all, right, I
can't play them because of this,this, this, If you shorten that
(38:59):
list, it's ultimately pay off toto where they're gonna be like, Okay,
I gotta play this guy. Itdoesn't it doesn't matter. He's going
to do his job and he's goingto be able to fight with this team
and put us in a great positionto win. So that's where ultimately comes
down to me in my thought processon how that goes with the new coaching
staff, because everyone's gonna run thesame things. Yeah, it's it's just
different names, different names, differentterminology. It may be a little bit
(39:21):
different nuances here and there, butit's all the same in all honesty.
So in it's just how much youcare you get in that playbook and then
ultimately you just work. You oweit. And I love how you said
give give, don't give them areason not to play exactly. And I
think you know one thing you kindof learn and this is this is like
(39:42):
a good nugget for the young athleteslistening, Like I've always understood being a
walk on dude who had to figureout how to make the bus, how
to get on that. There's onehundred and ten ding's on the team,
there's eleven on the field. Figureout a way to get on there as
much as you can. Doesn't matterhow you do it, but as much
of an ap set you could beto the team, the more like you
are to get on that field.If you only know X and you're a
(40:07):
wide receiver and you're not the oneor even like the two, you're probably
not gonna get a couple of specialteams. Show how you could block kicks,
Show how you could hold, Showthat you know X, Y,
h Z, running back, tightend, left tackle. All of a
(40:28):
sudden, you're an asset to thisteam, right, And that's this is
at the college footall level, you'rea high school football player, bro play
offense, defense, special teams,kick, do everything you possibly can back
to win. And I think thatalso comes with that competitive edge where you're
just like some people have it,some people don't. I can't. I
(40:51):
can't we if we played, ifwe played cards against each other. I
have to win. I want towin. I'm not going to Oh,
who cares, I'm trying to win. I just put a punning green in
my backyard. My wife started puttingwith me while I trigger meats right,
and we do this, we playlike horse, and she's like, you
(41:14):
never let me win. I said, I will never. Let's let you
win. You get better, andyou win, you win, but I'm
not going to let I will neverlet somebody win. And that is both
in a game and a competition andin life. And if you don't have
that hunger, you're not gonna getvery far. But if you do have
that hunger and that dog in youand that you, I will kill you
(41:37):
and I will not tap out beforeyou tap out, you're going to have
a chance of success. And atthe end of the day, all you
could ask for, like you saidit, you said, I just want
a fair opportunity. Let my letme go against him. Look at the
(41:58):
numbers, look at the great lookat all the intangibles, because there is
intangibles to this points. You know, there is great, there is heart,
there is juice, there is alikability of your teammates and people getting
behind you. Like it does matter, but obviously you have to produce.
But let those difference little makers things. Let the Hey, I'm in the
(42:20):
weight room a little bit longer thanthe other guy. Maybe you do it
for one day, it doesn't matter. Yeah, two weeks doesn't matter.
But over the course of like aspring ball, summer ball, a year,
people just gonna understand me. That'sfunny. That's funny that you say
that is because my mentality. Imean I had, like I keep bringing
up Mackenzie Milton, but it wastruly like a big mentor for me through
(42:40):
this time. Right. He waslike, be around that facility as much
as you can, so don't gojust sit at your dorm. I was.
It didn't even it didn't even matter. I mean, I'm best friends
with everyone in this facility at thispoint. By the end of summer,
dudes are walking in there coming.We finished workouts in the morning, when
we finished workouts in the morning,you're done for the rest of the day
(43:01):
totally, like you don't have class. Like if you're done the rest of
the day, dudes are coming back, they're grabbing snacks until this chill in
the weight room. You're not evendoing anything or just my presence. I'm
around, I'm around the building.I'm playing cards with the equipment guys.
I'm playing and I'm playing Madden inthe in the video office with these guys.
I mean, I'm just building relationshipswith everyone in that in that building,
(43:23):
and the staff respected me for it. I mean I'm seeing coaches all
the time, they're seeing me.Uh so, just showing those guys,
I'm like, loude, this isthis is my life, right, this
is I'm gonna be here. Thisis getting all my undivided attention. Of
course, I set myself and haverelaxation time and then freedom and things like
that. But at the same time, I was like, no, I'm
(43:44):
gonna I'm here, like you're gonnasee me. And it was a deal
where it started building up to whereguys were talking to me about it,
like what do you do during theday, Like, I'm here, bro,
Yeah, you can come hang outwith me if you want to,
I'm gonna yeah exactly. I'm like, I'm I'll get in a little lift
later. I was like, thenI'll just chill here. I agree.
(44:05):
You're gonna watch film. Watch itthere, go home watching watch it right
there, right like before I wrapit up. Anything you want to say
to Bring the Juice Nation, alot of dog fans watching a lot of
people from across the country. Bigmoment. Yeah, No, I mean
I appreciate, Frank, I appreciateyou having me out. Bring the Juice
is doing incredible things. And wewere talking about this before the pods started.
(44:28):
I mean, this isn't something thatit's it's it's authentic. You give
about this, and and and thevalley cares about it too. Uh.
I know that you have the supportof the valley, and I appreciate the
valley as well for welcoming welcoming mewith open arms, and and and so
this the support has been nothing butunconditional. I appreciate everything that everyone has
(44:49):
done for me up to this point. And I'm excited. I got another
two years here, so I'm firedup to be in Fresno. There's no
other place that I'd rather be inthe country. Bring the Juice is doing
great things. You're gonna see everythingthat's coming along with with with Frank,
a lot of cool shulming, alot of dudes are gonna be on this
podcast. A lot of dudes havebeen on this podcast. So it's a
(45:09):
great time to be in the podcastworld. And Frank is so appreciate Bring
the Juice for having me on.And go Dogs, Go Dogs, Mikey
Keen everybody, fire me up,get your juice merch. Subscribe unsubscribed,
resubscribe, Follow Mikey on the Gram, go watch him win football games,
and we'll see you next week.
All right, all right, allright, welcome back to bring the juice.
Fire me up. We got friendsto state quarterback Mikey Keen on the
pod. It's about time, Mikey. Welcome to bring the juice. Brother,
Thank you. I'm glad to behere. Man, dude, long
time coming. Gon to know yourparents pretty well. Pumped to have you
on the pod. Great people.So the love it, love everything about
(00:22):
it. I'm fired up. Youknow, Mikey out of the Gate.
Let's just talk your journey. Itstarted off you grew up in Arizona and
end up landing originally at UCF CentralFlorida. Tell me why you chose UCF
out of the Gate in your highschool years? What was the decision then?
Yeah, so I had a uniquehigh school recruiting experience. Overall,
(00:47):
it was pretty slow to start,and then I got the pickup. Really
started when COVID hit. Okay,so COVID hits, that's going into my
senior year and so everything gets shutdown. But at that time, it
was after my junior year, Ihad one offer from Northern Arizona University and
it was just kind of talking toa bunch of different schools, a lot
(01:08):
of Mountain West schools were talking tome. Uh, and then COVID hit.
No one really knew what was goingto happen or shake up with that.
But before that happened, in aboutFebruary, UCF actually signed an Arizona
quarterback, Beau Na's Park Navarro stillgreat friends with him. He was at
Desert Vista, so he was anArizona guy. Uh. So they're out
doing their official visit with him.They're doing an in home visit and so
(01:30):
they were like, all, we'regonna check out Arizona quarterbacks. And they
stopped by Chandler High School and checkedme out. So I got to got
to meet the OC, I gotto meet the quarterback coach, and then
they came back and watched me throwabout two weeks later, I think.
So at that point it was likeI had a great relationship with these guys.
(01:51):
I'm talking with them day in andday out. I'm not getting the
offer yet, but offers slowly startto roll in. And then when COVID
hit, I mean it just ittook off, and it took off for
everyone because no one really knew whatwas gonna happen. No one really understood
when we were gonna be able togo to camps and see these guys in
person. So it was like everyonejust started committing because they had no idea
(02:12):
what was going to happen. There'srumors of they're gonna give these guys back
their scholarships. There's not gonna beenough scholarships for you guys, crazy experience,
crazy stuff. So throughout the wholeprocess, UCF ended up offering me.
They're about my tenth offer, Ithink, so they were a little
late to it. But at thesame time I had met these guys that
I had a great relationship with them, and it was it was a crazy
(02:34):
story because at the time it waslike March March happened. I'm I'm in
Port of Vararta with my family onvacation spring break. So everyone's like the
grocery stores or I mean, everything'sgone, and we're like, what is
going on? Wait, when COVIDhit, you were in Mexico, yes,
so what We're freaking out. We'relike, what the heck is going
(02:57):
on? I was in Mexico andso thinking my mom's taking toilet paper from
the hotel, Like we really loadedup on stuff there because we have no
idea what's going back in the States. So anyways, it kind of the
ball keeps rolling. Then once youget a big offer, the offers just
rolling. That's kind of how itrolls in regardless, and even more in
this instance. So it's about shoot, I get back and may rolls around,
(03:23):
I think. And people still don'tknow what's going to go on,
like camps have been canceled and stufflike that. But I'm talking to a
lot of people. I was talkingto a good amount of people. It's
funny. I was talking to GrahamHarrold, who is the OC at Purdue
now. He was at USC atthe time. So I'm talking to them
and I'm like, that's a that'sa dream school opportunity. So I don't
(03:44):
really know what's gonna happen. I'mstarting to kind of play itself out.
And then coach Hypel and Coach Golishand those guys at UCF everyone was committing.
So they had a guy that wantedto commit and play their quarterback commit
for that class. So they hitme up and they're like, hey,
you're our number one guy, Likewe want you here. They're like can
(04:05):
you commit right now? They're like, can you commit right now so we
can tell this guy sorry, sorry, we have a commit already and I'm
like, no, I can't commitright now, and so they're I mean,
my flown. My phone is blowingup from these guys. They're hitting
me up face times everything, likeI'm at I'm at my friend's house,
(04:26):
they're calling me, call me back, all this stuff, and I mean,
it was pretty stressful. But atthe same time, I was like,
shoot, I don't know what elseis gonna come from this. And
I'm a I'm a big like onceyou're committed, like you're committed guy,
Like I'm all in on this loyalty. Loyalty is huge for me, and
it was. It was a uniquesituation, of course, because all that
happened, and I had planned oncommitting before my senior year, but not
that early because everything was still kindof rolling for me. So I told
(04:51):
him no and they were like,well, all right, So we got
some stuff to figure out, andI get a call out a week later,
so you see us off the table, like all right, I'm not
going one there. I guess I'lljust wasn't meant to be. They're like,
hey, we rejected his his scholar, his commitment and they're like,
you're still a number one guy.So then they continued to continuously recruited me,
(05:12):
and I was talking to Iowa Stateat the time. And funny thing
is that rock Porty Pro Party wasthe QB. Then he's an Arizona guy,
Arizona guy. So my freshman year, I was put up for the
whole year, but we played RockParty in the state championship. I mean,
the best player in the state.No offers until after his senior season.
It was crazy, Rock Purty nooffers, no offers until after his
(05:33):
senior season, best player in thestate by far. Everyone's like, this
guy needs to have some offers,and no one understood it. And he's
I mean, he's an under sizedguy, but he's bigger than me.
I was like, I don't reallyunderstand this. So anyways, Iowa State
was recruiting me as well. Theywere speaking to me, so I was
kind of holding off. I thoughtthat it would be cool to go in,
(05:53):
learn from learn under Brock for ayear. He was having a hell
of a career there, and thenstep in into the guy at Iowa State.
So I was kind of holding offon them. And honestly, it
was about a month out for mysenior season. Our senior season got pushed
back a month. So they callme and it's kind of like a call
where it's like, all right,you guys offered me or not. We've
been speaking for about a year now, and they said they're gonna wait a
(06:15):
month to evaluate senior film. Nextday I committed to UCF. Wow.
It was kind of like a honestly, and I was like, you know
what everyone every time that someone askedme, where are you gonna go?
I'm like, right now, it'sUCF. And I was, shoot,
I'm living in Orlando. Like theprogram was bumping at this point. The
(06:36):
program was bumping at this point.I mean they had just come off their
their couple of seasons with Mackenzie Milton, who is a has been a great
mentor for me. I didn't knowhim at the time, but awesome guy.
Unfortunate how his his career ended upbecause that injury. Just he was
he was a dog, I mean, Heisman, a guy in the Heisman
(06:58):
conversation every single time he stepped onthe field. So I'll love for that
guy, but no, it wasit was a crazy situation how that played
out and then ended up committing there. And the funny thing is I get
about a month into my senior seasonand Iowa State rolls around again, so
they offer me and I ultimately justended up sticking with you CF because they're
(07:20):
to me exactly loyal, no doubt. Before we get into that too much,
going to give a quick shout outat our friends at American Pistachio Growers.
If you want to perform like thepros, eat your pistachios. Eat
those nuts, kids. Mikey,you pistachio guy at all. I'm a
big pistachio, huge pistachio guy.Do you think and I'm not a scientist
or anything like that, but doyou think eating pistachios helps you be a
(07:43):
good football player? By chance,I'd have to say, yeah, Yeah,
definitely did help me become a greatfootball player. APG check out Mikey
right now. Might have to givehim some nuts. I don't know.
The dogs keep winning games. Ithink it's a good thing. Going shout
out to APG. So that experience. Okay, So now you committed there,
You're at UCF, playing at UCF, like you just said, the
Mackenzie Miller like you, there's anera at this point, and I think
(08:07):
Fresno State and we'll get into youryour journey here, but it's one of
those things where like I see somewhatsimilarities between UCF and Fresno State to a
certain degree of just like grit biggerschools, you don't want to play either
of them necessarily. They kind ofgot their own swagger that I've never been
(08:28):
there, but the Bounce House seemslike it gets rowdy obviously, valid Children's
Stadium gets rowdy, and I think, you know, maybe without even knowing
it, it's like, God,place do you in those type of situations
for a reason. But you're atUCF, what's your experience like there?
For sure, you're definitely spot onwith the attitude and mentality of those of
(08:54):
the programs such as UCF and FresnoState, because UCF this is their first
year in a Power five conference,but before that, it was always the
G five. The G five.You're hearing that constantly, but it's like
every time you get an opportunity toplay these teams, the exactly. So
it's like it's a similar vibe towhere UCF kind of never embraced the role
(09:16):
but which kind of treated as thelittle brother to the Florida's, the Florida
State Miami. Those programs such assimilar vibes to where it's like you have
cal you have Stanford, you haveUCLA USC in California as well for Fresno
State. So that's that's where alot of similarity comes in with that aspect.
(09:37):
Unique, unique situation for me gettingor to UCF. So the first
time that I stepped on campus,I was a student. No visits,
none of that. COVID shut allthat down, so no visits. I'm
going from Chandler, Arizona to Orlando, Florida. I think it was four
(09:58):
thousand some miles, seventeen years old. I early graduated, and this was
the first time ever leaving home,like ever leaving home ever going blind,
exactly going blind. So the firstnight I get there, I mean,
I'm I'm throwing up in the hotel. I'm just so I'm sick to my
(10:20):
stomach because I'm like, what amI doing? And then slowly meeting some
guys and stuff like that. Butit was rough and the worst homesickness of
my life that I've faced so far. It really grew me as a person
and the friends that I made inthat time. I mean, I got
a buddy who he'll be the bestman of my wedding. He was my
best friend at UCF. We justplayed at Utah State. He's at Utah
(10:43):
State now. But the struggles thatwe had and how we grew and like
leaned on each other in those moments, like the vulnerability that we shared,
it was pretty awesome. So that'slike how our friendship is so genuine.
But anyways, I'm homesick. I'mreally not having a great time there.
Things aren't the same exactly as howI thought that it would be. Like,
(11:05):
for instance, they showed me thisZoom video they did. It's called
like official Zoom visits, Okay,so our official business were on Zoom.
So I mean, there's show manyof this stuff, and I'm like,
this is gonna be I'm gonna havea great time. They're like, we
got a lazy river being built rightnow. I'm like, dude, I'm
like, when can I get aflight? Like I need to get their
asap I get there. No lazyriver, none of this stuff like in
(11:30):
the facility that they're showing. I'mtalking to dudes, I'm like, what,
like the big thing for me waslike the Lazy River. I don't
know why I wanted the Lazy River. And I got six year guys there
that are coming back on their COVIDyears and they're like, yeah, bro,
they talk. They told me myrecruiting visit too, and I'm like,
well, okay, all right,So anyways that stuff's like, I'm
like, all right, well,at least the football is great here.
(11:52):
I've got a great system in JoshHipel. I mean, they throw the
rock around and it's a system thatmakes sense to me, and it's gonna
put me in great position. I'mbehind Dylan Gabriel who's coming into his junior
year. He's had a great twoyears in college so far, and he's
looking to go to the NFL.So it's like learning to this guy and
then be the guy that was theplan. Two weeks in, uh,
(12:15):
we're on like a random this isspring ball. No, no, no,
so this is this is January.Oh, this is yeah, this
is still winter ball. We're inshorts right now. Two weeks in,
we're in some random Wednesday morning meetingbecause we can't have a team meeting like
officially yet or something like that becauseof COVID protocol. Still campus is shut
down. Nobody is on campus,So seventy two thousand students and there's like
(12:39):
one hundred and forty four football playersexactly, So I'm meeting nobody. I'm
meeting the football guys. Yeah,and we get it a someone starts like
typing in our zoom chat. They'relike, Hypel's gone. We're like what.
So everyone's like, Hype's leaving.Hypel's leaving. I'm like, what
is going on? This is mysecond at UCF. I'm still doing like
(13:01):
all these intro videos and things likethat. I'm trying to compliance exactly,
compliance everything like that. All ofa sudden, one of our compliances lad
is like emergency team meeting. Goto the team meeting room right now.
Yeah. Anyways, that was atwhat nine am. Hypel tells us he's
leaving. Everyone's just what is goingon? These recruits are what are what
(13:26):
is happening? We just committed tothis guy, respecting him to be here
for I didn't expect him to bethe whole time because UCF at the time
was kind of a stepping stone toanother bigger program. But I wasn't expecting
two weeks. So he's gone wehave lunch at eleven, he's in his
press conference at Tennessee. We're like, well, yeah, from then on,
everyone leaves. We have no staffand we get in at the time
(13:52):
Danny White, who was our ADwas at Tennessee too, That's who brought
Hypel there. So we don't havean ad let alone a head coach.
So they gotta find it. Thepresident has to find an ad to hire
a head coach, to hire ahead coach, to bring staff in.
So we finally we get Terry mahadgerAd. He brings in Gus malls On.
Gus Malson brings in his staff.We're two weeks out from my first
(14:16):
spring ball. We have zero installof a completely new offense. So two
weeks out from our first spring ballwe have zero install, two weeks to
install and get ready for springball.Spring rolls around. It's a great experience
not being recruited by the staff andcoach Malson, and that I think,
(14:37):
as a young guy was the bestthing for me because it made me so
locked into the details to where ifI was messing up or anything like that.
I mean, I was getting takenout and I don't want to be
taken out. So it's like,I'm up studying. I'm enjoying the grind
and embracing it. And once itstarts paying off for me and I start
getting more reps and working up withthe threes and then working with the twos,
(14:58):
it was something that I enjoyed seeingmyself be able to progress. So
going into that summer, the planfor me was to be the backup.
I earned the spot in fall camps, so going into that season, I
was the backup to Dylan Gabriel.Plan was the red shirt. Didn't really
know what was gonna happen. Iknew wherever I was and wherever I wanted
(15:18):
to be, I was gonna haveto compete in life, in football,
and whatever it is, I'm gonnahave to compete for it. So I
was like, I'm not just gonnatransfer. I'm not gonna do anything like
that. I want to compete forthis. So that ended up paying off
for me. And then flash forwardto week three, UH of my freshman
year. We're playing out Louisville andit's a it's a tough game. I
mean, Dylan's bawling out though uhhe had a he had like three passing
(15:43):
touchdowns. He caught a touchdown andhe ran a touchdown. It was ridiculous.
He had a he had it,it was open, he was hooping,
yes, and we threw it.We threw a pick six. We
got a pick with like forty secondsleft. All right, we're on there
forty five, I think, soall we needed to field goal. It's
a tie game right now, andthey sent a crazy pressure that we hadn't
(16:03):
seen. Titball pick six. Sonow we're down. All right. Now
we're in like last plays, likethe latter roles all that stuff. So
we have this one play it's calledsupports center, and it's basically just we're
laddering it and then ladder up backto Dylan throw it across all this stuff.
So it doesn't work out and Dylanends up breaking his collarbone on this
(16:26):
play. And I mean it's liketalk about growing up. I mean,
on a flight home, my mentalitieslike just switched, like a flip.
Just has to switch right there.Because I got dudes that are coming back
for their sixth year. I justturned eighteen years old two months ago,
and their twenty five year olds likecrazy looking to me for leadership. So
(16:52):
we had a bye week. Thatnext week, which was great because I
got two weeks of prep, weended up going to Navy. We played
at the Naval me which is anincredible experience. I mean, those guys
are fired up the entire the entiregame. I'm talking, yeah, the
entire student section. It's behind yourbench, right, No, no,
no, not behind our bench.So they're over on their side. But
after every touchdown, their entire studentsection runs on the field and is doing
(17:15):
push ups. It was. Itwas pretty crazy and it was a cool
experience. It sucks. It wasa nail bier, but they upset us
and it was a loss from myfirst career start, but I played pretty
well. Navy was good that year. I feel like to were maybe Navy
is always presenting problems. All theacademy teams are going to present problems just
(17:36):
because of the systems that they run. Navies arguably the best game of the
year, exactly exactly. So they'rejust disciplined. They they all everything that
you think of those academies, they'regoing to do it. They're going to
be disciplined, they're gonna be physical, they're gonna flat to the ball.
So pretty much that's how that shookout and then progressed into my Through my
(17:56):
freshman year, we had a lotof ups and downs. I mean,
we were banged up everywhere after thatLouisvo game. We had lost our center,
we had lost our starting running back. So it wasn't like I was
out there with just some like guys, like we were all banged up.
We were all going through this firstyear's staff, all these different things.
(18:17):
But a lot of things that happenedto me in that year I feel like
have made me into the player thatI am because I talked to Dylan a
lot of the times, and Dylanwas a great mentor for me. He
had a lot of mentorship from MackenzieMilton previously, and there were things that
he took away from that to wherehe could help me as well. So
he understood what type of relationship Iwanted from him. I wanted him there
(18:37):
all the time, honestly talking tome, helping me out, and he
would never try and step on mytoes, which I appreciated from him,
but I usually would want him there. But then progressing through that freshman year,
it was a lot of ups anddowns for me because I'm just coming
into every week I'm like, howcan we win this game? I don't
care about I'm eighteen. I'm tryingto win football games. Yeah, and
(19:00):
I mean that that built my mentalityfor how I've always been. But at
this time it was like, I'mnot trying to do anything. I'm doing
my job. I'm trying to domy job and just win the football game,
Like how can I put us ina position to win. You talk
about that flip with that switch,and I love that because I think everyone
in their career sports are not sports. You do have that switch you have
(19:22):
to flip and realize like I needto. It's not even get you other
because you don't have it together,but it's like, hey man, I
need to either. Some people sayrise to the occasion. Others say fall
back on their training, right,And I think you know, in a
situation now where you've matured and you'rein the journey, you are now like
you're falling back on your training,but surehen you're I don't think people realize
(19:44):
unless you've been there your first kindof cycle of college football. It's just
it's just it's faster. It's justfaster, the plays are more complex.
Everybody's good and I don't care ifyou're a fifth string dude. You're good
enough to play exactly good at football. Yeah, and you start learning like,
okay, these guys all run fourfours and all bench this and run
(20:08):
this first, and they look thepart. Why is this guy first drink?
It's because he's craftier, he's smarter, he understands the game. He's
got a competitive advantage. So whenyou had to flip that switch, it's
not like you were a lollygagging necessarily. No, And I don't know would
you say it was an added pressurenecessarily? But what would you say was
(20:29):
the biggest thing you had to lockin on at that point? Being eighteen
years old understanding, hey I gotto drop the boat right now. Yeah,
I mean the biggest thing for mewas I understood what I wasn't good
at and so I had to relyon my strengths. Like I was eighteen
years old, I had only seenthree games of college football in all honesty,
(20:52):
Yeah, I had an off seasonof training, but I've seen I
haven't played before, but coverages,all the different things that are going up
front. I was like, hey, I need to know what we are
doing. So if I don't knowwhat they're doing. At least I know
what we're doing good enough to beable to get myself in a good position
to where I understand what we're goingto how I'm going to be successful in
this position. And it was abig thing to where my preparation aspect,
(21:18):
it was night and day, becauseat that time, it's not like you're
getting I'm the backup quarterback. They'repreparing the starter to be able to go
in and play and succeed. They'renot looking to prepare the backup quarterback.
So I'm taking what I can fromthese meetings and asking my questions. But
at the same time, I gotto find my own process. I got
(21:40):
to find out what days I'm watchingthis type of film. I got to
figure out how I'm going to watchnormal downs, I'm going to watch third
downs, I'm going to break downred zone, how I'm going to break
down different situations. When am Igoing to watch two minute drives? All
these different things that I had toask and get answers for and say,
hey, all right, I likehow he does that, or no,
I'm gonna do it this way.This makes more sense to me. So
(22:02):
it was like, you approach itit's playing quarterback is very much like being
a student. And I prided myselfgrowing up being a student athlete and I
had great study habits. So preparingfor a game for me is always like
a test, and especially now,like flash forward to Fresno State, Like
we have the answers, we havegreat answers, and so it's like if
(22:22):
you study that test, we're goingto be put in great situations. Yeah,
it's not always going to be playout perfectly, but jump back to
jump back to then how my mentalitywas. I was very just focused in
on understanding what we were trying todo and accomplish, and how I could
be the most efficient is possible withoutmaking a mistake, a critical mistake such
as a turnover or just big errorsand things like that. What about from
(22:48):
a leadership perspective, because you mentionedthere is and again the culture shock when
you're eighteen, it's like you're eighteen, peach fuzz on your face, Dan,
and you're there is grown I spent. I remember there was guys who
had kids and that were married myfreshman year and like there you look at
them, You're like, that's agreat man. That guy's twenty four years
(23:10):
old as your man, like theylook at you as a quarterback of hey,
you need to go be the leader. Is there anything? And I
know a quarterback and this is justmy opinion for sure, a quarterback should
be a leader on the bout team, whether it's you've earned your right to,
you know, be like a captaintype role, right, even if
you don't have this seat on yourchest like you're a leader. I don't
(23:32):
care if you like it or not. You better figure it out. If
you can't lead your team, you'renot a good quarterback. That is one
of the traits. No matter howgood your arm is. This is part
of the deal. Being eighteen,did you have anything that you kind of
leaned on leadership wise? And Iknow high school experiences, you know,
they do grind you for those situationsthey're like hey I need to step right
(23:53):
now. Yeah, but having tolead older guys in that locker room and
gain that trust from those coaches.What about from a leadership perspective, like,
what were the traits you felt inthat moment? Yeah? I mean
I feel like leadership is all aboutauthenticity and how you approach it. I
(24:14):
was not naive whatsoever to my approachas a leader, And I'm not naive
to this day about it because Ilook at myself and I'm like, all
right, what's going to make somethingabout a person interesting to me to where
I considered that guy a leader orwhat aspect of his game or his approach
to life is going to make mewant to follow that. So at the
(24:37):
time I had him to drop,I mean, I'm in college, like,
yes, I've been there, butone was a bit. One big
thing for me was the weight room, so developing that trust with them,
like, hey, this guy's gonnawork his off for you, all that
stuff leading up until where I wasplaying. Where it really switched when I
was playing is I had to showthose that I gave so understanding protections,
(25:02):
learning all these different things that theywere like, how does he know this
stuff? Now it meant that theyknew that I was putting in the time
and I gave. And ultimately,the thing about being a leader, and
think about being a quarterback that's supertough is your job is to win games.
So I'm not looking to be friendswith everyone. I'm not looking to
be liked by everyone, but Ido want to be respected by everyone.
(25:22):
Career and my accountability and the authenticitylike I come back to comes through them
seeing me be able to win themgames. So at that point, it
was a deal where it's like toget I need to get some wins for
these guys. I need them tosee my process and them to understand,
hey, this is going to winus a game. Let's follow behind this
(25:44):
as we can get more wins.Continued, because that's ultimately the goal.
That everyone has their own stuff goingon, but my goal is to win
as many games as possible. Inever want to lose. So that's where
it comes into where it's like maybeI wasn't as vocal or anything like that,
but I knew what I was talkingabout because I put in the work
and I put in the time tobe able to understand what I was talking
about. So that's where I earnedit and still carry it to this day
(26:08):
to where it's like, these guysknow that I give it about what I'm
doing, like I care, thisis this is what I love to do.
I love this game and I lovethe process of it too. So
if they just understood that I lovethe process and that everything all my undivided
attention was going towards this team,that's where I feel like I got that
validation to become a leader that greatgreatly Like it's that's the type going to
(26:36):
follow someone into battle. And Ithink what you said is right in the
sense of just because you're you're you'renot trying to be the guy who has
the most friends on the football team, right, That's not what a leader
is. That might help you,you know, it might help people be
attracted to following you, for sure, But ultimately, a leader is somebody
that does the things nobody else wantsto do and sets the and it's the
(27:00):
guy who makes getting working after practicecool. And it's a guy who calls
you out when you've been your stuff, no doubt. And guess what,
you can't call someone out. Yougot to lead by example. And I
also liked how you mentioned the strengthconditioning team in the weight room. People
don't understand Andy Ward's my dude inmy phone, he's coach Andy in parentheses
(27:22):
bring the Jewish Ward. Yeah,And I love that dude. But he
taught me. It taught me alot of things. But just getting into
college football itself, you don't realizehow much time you really spend with the
strength conditioning staff and if they giveyou your little nod of approval of Hey,
this dude's a grinder. He's reallyputting in to his body the best
(27:45):
version of himself he could possibly be, whether that's in the weight room,
physically pushing himself, lifting extra word, even just recovery things of that nature.
It holds a certain type of weightto where when those guys could back
you, it does mean something tothe coaching staff and the team as a
whole, right, and not manypeople quite understand that. They think of
(28:06):
just the OC and the head coach. You don't see your head coach in
your OC nearly as much as yousee your strength visitioning coach. Not even
close. I mean I don't forI'm talking acumulative for the year, Like
I completely what you're saying. Yeah, it's not day, but you're you
know, you need to be atype of guy at the end of the
day where it's like I will followyou into battle. And I think if
(28:29):
you're an athlete, a former athlete, a fan, whatever that is,
like I'd follow you in a battlelike bro. Like that The type of
gets me fired up because it doesmean something when you have that type of
passion like you aren't just checking boxes. Shout out to Josh Waitz. Josh
Wood's been a one back of ArizonaCardinals. He said, like I was
(28:51):
checking boxes for a period of mytime. Like I knew I was supposed
to do this because I'm supposed tobe a leader as ave been a linebacker.
I need to I need to showit live it be it, make
that who I am. And itdoes make a difference. It really does.
And guys, they it's I say, it's like juice man, Like
one dude makes a big play,sparks your team, right, That's what
(29:14):
makes football so beautiful, especially especiallycollege football. Like NFL, it's kind
of off and on. There's moreebbs and flows college football. You guys,
someone breaks one, someone house callsone, someone blocks a kick,
someone gets a pick, someone getsa big sack, like all of a
sudden, it's everyone fired up andin this And if you're a player on
(29:37):
the field, you feel it.If you're a player on the sideline,
you feel it. If you're afan at home, it's like there's this
little electric feel where anything can happenany given day to where how do you
not love it? Yeah, beforewe continue, quick shout out to our
friends at FFB Bank. Whether yourbusiness needs a load or your dream needs
(29:59):
a saving plan, FFB offers theguidance and flexibility you need to flourish,
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and fostering mutual growth by linking theirsuccess to yours. Mikey, if
(30:22):
I'm not mistaken you, you've hungout with those FFB guys before. Also,
right, great guys, great guys. Did it? Was that a
UCF thing? Also? Was thatjust kind of like do this dude knows
football type thing? Yeah? Ifeel like his approach and attention to detail
is a little bit different from theapproach at UCF. I mean, obviously
(30:45):
they've those guys have been through alot of football. I mean, Gus
mells On holl of Fort coach,He's been through incredible moments. I mean
there would be sometimes in fall campwhere coaches are telling their stories like we're
looking at I'm watching or even justlike cut ups and things like that I'm
watching a film of Cam Newton runa play that I'm about to go run.
Yeah, Holy Cam Newton was myguy. I mean, that's why
(31:06):
I wear number one. That wasI got fat heads in my room.
All this different. Now I'm beingcoached by the guy who was coaching him,
right, So I feel like it'sa little bit different in the preference
of what coach Tedford wants to do. He hits a lot more the special
situations that can then that can occur. A couple of them were hit at
UCF, not as many. Butat the same time, I'm it's been
(31:29):
pretty crazy because this year, likewe have all of our backed up situations
that we have. We've had We'vehad a double overtime game, We've had
a two minute drive to win thegame. We've had a possible situation where
we got to run our Our specialplays are one play lateral deals and stuff
like that. So and you getin those situations and you're not like what
they You're like, all right,well this do this, yeah and see
(31:51):
if it works. If it doesn'twork, well, lease, we know
what we're doing exactly. But everyone'son the same page. So I feel
like, yeah, I mean,we did this mock game. Yeah,
and I'm asking, I'm asking,I'm asking coach Wade. I'm like,
hey, how many plays we gottoday? He's like, uh, one
hundred and sixty? What are you? One hundred and sixty plays? And
we're doing every single situation that youcan't even think of, and you can't
(32:12):
even think of I'm like, whatwhat is going on out there? Yeah?
And obviously in Fridays it's it's alittle bit more simplified, but I
appreciate it because I'm going into prepfor Wyoming and I'm like, all right,
we're doing this, We're doing this, this is what's going to happen.
And it's like everyone understands what's goingto happen with these situations that it's
not like you're to bed, no, no, it happens. So it's
it's pretty unique to see how itwas the first time that it rolled out.
(32:36):
Everyone's just like, all right,we got this. I'm like,
what is that? What are wedoing? It takes some adjusting it very
much, does he I think it'salmost I think like back to like a
Mike Leach, the type thing whereyou know people would love to like sit
in the classroom for a day andsee the different scenarios that could happen in
the football game. Yeah, beforewe finish up, quick shock to our
(32:58):
friends at course Life, drink silverbullets course light. It's like gatorade for
adults. It's delicious. On anice Friday afternoon. You finish your war
week, slam a course light.You're gonna go watch Mikey play for the
dogs. Go drink a course lightthere. Shout out to course Light.
We appreciate you and bring the juice. You know my last question, I
(33:20):
didn't really have it written down untilyou talked about the experience. But I
went through a coaching staff change middleof my career, right and I don't
think and I kind of helped youngerkids in the recruiting process. Not from
a LACAW great I am perspective,but this is what I would did this,
This was my this is what myexperience was. Do what you want
(33:44):
with it. And people say thedebate of should you commit to a school
for the school or for the coach? And you always got to take in
this siner like what if I tourboth my acls tomorrow, would I still
want to attend school there? I. I mean, I grew up here,
so I always wanted to play atFresno. That's kind of what I
(34:05):
wanted to do. If I wasn'tgoing to play at Fresno, if they
didn't give me an opportunity, Iwas going to go somewhere else. But
my point is I had got inby a coaching got brought in by a
coaching staff, went one and eleven, and our coach got fired. Our
head coach got fired mid season,actually right after we went to Utah State,
(34:29):
Oh my gosh, and our everyonehad to step up, and everyone
was kind of young in their roles. It was like a first year OC,
first year of DC, and allof a sudden, you're an interim
and they did, and we were. We weren't getting blown out. We
were losing last places at the game. You were up thirty one nothing one
game and lost until overtime. Ohmy gosh, block field goals for game
(34:53):
winners from like ten yards out,Like we just could have together first and
goal two minutes left on the twoyard line, had four plays, couldn't
get it in, just like consistentDaggers. Daggers. Yeah, and that
team became really close because we sufferedso much pain. For sure. It's
(35:14):
not like they didn't practice hard.But you know, the U a coaching
staff both leaving is hard and acoaching staff coming in is also hard because
you're not there, dude, allthat stuff that you know, they know
you from, they recruited you,they saw value in you. You already
(35:34):
kind of have a built up upperhand perspective of a coaching staff. It's
all that's all out the window.Now you've got one hundred dudes in a
locker room with brand new strangers.And guess what, it's time to compete
if you were the five star oryou were a scrub walk on who's earned
his way to this role, likethey don't want to see you compete at
that point, no doubt. AndTedford, I don't know if I could
(35:57):
say this or not, but whateverI want, But like Dford, when
he went through his spring and hecut, he got rid of quite a
bit of guys, Like I wantto say, you know, fifteen to
thirty guys, scholarship walk on didn'tmatter, Like if you weren't an asset,
you were a liability. And hetried, we just went one and
eleven. He had every right todo that, you know, but I
(36:21):
want to know your perspective a littlebit on that coaching change, and you
know what went through your head whenyour guy left as well as when the
new guys were in the room,right, Yeah, And that goes to
there's a whole philosophy that I builtjust being through the experience of it in
(36:46):
college football is you gotta be adude to be able to get on the
field. But at the same time, you see these crazy stories of oh,
this guy was a walk on,worked his way up and things of
this sort. And you look atthose guys and they weren't the most athletic,
they weren't the tallest, but theydid their job. And that's what
(37:06):
as a quarterback. And I'll getto my I'll get to the point of
like we're at UCF, but Ithought that I had to speak about this.
But I tell receivers all the time, and that's this is why I'm
like always buddies with like the walkon receivers, and at Fresno, it's
been the starting guys because they focuson the details and they're on there pretty
much. They enjoy the process.But if I don't know if you're going
(37:27):
to catch the ball when I throwit to you. If I don't know
if you're going to run full speed, and if I don't know if you're
going to be in the right spotor not, how the hell am I
going to have you on the fieldright? And so that's just not even
how. I didn't say anything abouthow fast you ran. I just want
your full speed. I didn't sayanything about how high you can jump,
how tall you are, any ofthis stuff. What school you came from?
(37:50):
Five star, one star? Becausethese coaches are going to put out
who is going to do their joband make them look good for teaching them.
It's a business, that's this theirjob, this is their livelihood.
They wait, they're not gonna haveit. They have families. So really,
when a when a new coaching staffcame in, I had to understand
that, all right. I gotto hone it on the little details.
I got to do my job andthey're gonna understand, and I hope that
(38:13):
they understand, which they did.I'm a freshman. I'm gonna make mistakes.
But if I handle all the processesbefore pre snap and take coaching,
and I'm coachable and I give greatattention to detail, it's gonna ultimately pay
off for me, whether or notI'm on the field or not. It's
gonna pay off for me in life. Yes, that's how. That's how
(38:36):
it's gonna work out and shake outregardless. So I say, the biggest
thing with that and getting a newcoaching staff is making yourself. You gotta
look at it this way. Youcannot give them a reason to not play.
You could not agree more. Soyou got to be looking at it
from their point of view, andthey're looking at all, right, I
can't play them because of this,this, this, If you shorten that
(38:59):
list, it's ultimately pay off toto where they're gonna be like, Okay,
I gotta play this guy. Itdoesn't it doesn't matter. He's going
to do his job and he's goingto be able to fight with this team
and put us in a great positionto win. So that's where ultimately comes
down to me in my thought processon how that goes with the new coaching
staff, because everyone's gonna run thesame things. Yeah, it's it's just
different names, different names, differentterminology. It may be a little bit
(39:21):
different nuances here and there, butit's all the same in all honesty.
So in it's just how much youcare you get in that playbook and then
ultimately you just work. You oweit. And I love how you said
give give, don't give them areason not to play exactly. And I
think you know one thing you kindof learn and this is this is like
(39:42):
a good nugget for the young athleteslistening, Like I've always understood being a
walk on dude who had to figureout how to make the bus, how
to get on that. There's onehundred and ten ding's on the team,
there's eleven on the field. Figureout a way to get on there as
much as you can. Doesn't matterhow you do it, but as much
of an ap set you could beto the team, the more like you
are to get on that field.If you only know X and you're a
(40:07):
wide receiver and you're not the oneor even like the two, you're probably
not gonna get a couple of specialteams. Show how you could block kicks,
Show how you could hold, Showthat you know X, Y,
h Z, running back, tightend, left tackle. All of a
(40:28):
sudden, you're an asset to thisteam, right, And that's this is
at the college footall level, you'rea high school football player, bro play
offense, defense, special teams,kick, do everything you possibly can back
to win. And I think thatalso comes with that competitive edge where you're
just like some people have it,some people don't. I can't. I
(40:51):
can't we if we played, ifwe played cards against each other. I
have to win. I want towin. I'm not going to Oh,
who cares, I'm trying to win. I just put a punning green in
my backyard. My wife started puttingwith me while I trigger meats right,
and we do this, we playlike horse, and she's like, you
(41:14):
never let me win. I said, I will never. Let's let you
win. You get better, andyou win, you win, but I'm
not going to let I will neverlet somebody win. And that is both
in a game and a competition andin life. And if you don't have
that hunger, you're not gonna getvery far. But if you do have
that hunger and that dog in youand that you, I will kill you
(41:37):
and I will not tap out beforeyou tap out, you're going to have
a chance of success. And atthe end of the day, all you
could ask for, like you saidit, you said, I just want
a fair opportunity. Let my letme go against him. Look at the
(41:58):
numbers, look at the great lookat all the intangibles, because there is
intangibles to this points. You know, there is great, there is heart,
there is juice, there is alikability of your teammates and people getting
behind you. Like it does matter, but obviously you have to produce.
But let those difference little makers things. Let the Hey, I'm in the
(42:20):
weight room a little bit longer thanthe other guy. Maybe you do it
for one day, it doesn't matter. Yeah, two weeks doesn't matter.
But over the course of like aspring ball, summer ball, a year,
people just gonna understand me. That'sfunny. That's funny that you say
that is because my mentality. Imean I had, like I keep bringing
up Mackenzie Milton, but it wastruly like a big mentor for me through
(42:40):
this time. Right. He waslike, be around that facility as much
as you can, so don't gojust sit at your dorm. I was.
It didn't even it didn't even matter. I mean, I'm best friends
with everyone in this facility at thispoint. By the end of summer,
dudes are walking in there coming.We finished workouts in the morning, when
we finished workouts in the morning,you're done for the rest of the day
(43:01):
totally, like you don't have class. Like if you're done the rest of
the day, dudes are coming back, they're grabbing snacks until this chill in
the weight room. You're not evendoing anything or just my presence. I'm
around, I'm around the building.I'm playing cards with the equipment guys.
I'm playing and I'm playing Madden inthe in the video office with these guys.
I mean, I'm just building relationshipswith everyone in that in that building,
(43:23):
and the staff respected me for it. I mean I'm seeing coaches all
the time, they're seeing me.Uh so, just showing those guys,
I'm like, loude, this isthis is my life, right, this
is I'm gonna be here. Thisis getting all my undivided attention. Of
course, I set myself and haverelaxation time and then freedom and things like
that. But at the same time, I was like, no, I'm
(43:44):
gonna I'm here, like you're gonnasee me. And it was a deal
where it started building up to whereguys were talking to me about it,
like what do you do during theday, Like, I'm here, bro,
Yeah, you can come hang outwith me if you want to,
I'm gonna yeah exactly. I'm like, I'm I'll get in a little lift
later. I was like, thenI'll just chill here. I agree.
(44:05):
You're gonna watch film. Watch itthere, go home watching watch it right
there, right like before I wrapit up. Anything you want to say
to Bring the Juice Nation, alot of dog fans watching a lot of
people from across the country. Bigmoment. Yeah, No, I mean
I appreciate, Frank, I appreciateyou having me out. Bring the Juice
is doing incredible things. And wewere talking about this before the pods started.
(44:28):
I mean, this isn't something thatit's it's it's authentic. You give
about this, and and and thevalley cares about it too. Uh.
I know that you have the supportof the valley, and I appreciate the
valley as well for welcoming welcoming mewith open arms, and and and so
this the support has been nothing butunconditional. I appreciate everything that everyone has
(44:49):
done for me up to this point. And I'm excited. I got another
two years here, so I'm firedup to be in Fresno. There's no
other place that I'd rather be inthe country. Bring the Juice is doing
great things. You're gonna see everythingthat's coming along with with with Frank,
a lot of cool shulming, alot of dudes are gonna be on this
podcast. A lot of dudes havebeen on this podcast. So it's a
(45:09):
great time to be in the podcastworld. And Frank is so appreciate Bring
the Juice for having me on.And go Dogs, Go Dogs, Mikey
Keen everybody, fire me up,get your juice merch. Subscribe unsubscribed,
resubscribe, Follow Mikey on the Gram, go watch him win football games,
and we'll see you next week.
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