June 2, 2025 • 22 mins
We are joined today by the Head Football Coach of the Maryland Terrapins, Mike Locksley. Coach is breaking down the two draft picks the Dolphins made out of Maryland in DT Jordan Phillips and S Dante Trader Jr.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Dolph fans, and welcome to the Draft
Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on
today's show a very very important guest. We're gonna have
Mike Loxley, the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins football program,
come on here and tell us about our two draft
picks out of Maryland, Dante Trader Junior and Jordan Phillips.
(00:31):
Really good content coming away here from coach. Let's go
ahead and jump right in from the Baptist Hell Studios
inside the Baptist Health Trading Complex.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
This is the Draft Time Podcast. Hey ye Daffe, what's up,
Dolph fans.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We are thrilled to be joined today here by the
head football coach of the Maryland Terrapins, Mike Loxley. Coach,
welcome into the show and thank you for your time today.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Thanks for having me on, Travis.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So we are excited to have you on because we
drafted not one, but two of your guys. And you
know you send players to the pros every single year,
but two getting drafted by the same team at this
level is quite a rarity.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm curious to kick things off.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Your coach, what was your reaction when you saw both
Jordan Phillips and Dante Trader Junior continuing to be teammates
here at the next level.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
I was excited for both those guys, you know, because
both those guys were tremendous leaders for our program and
you know, did not have the senior years or their
final years that they may be envisioned as a team.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
But you know what I saw on the growth in
leadership I saw of both.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Of them to have an opportunity to go play in Miami.
I've had two a tongue of Billoid Alabama and Chris Greer,
a deer, great friend of mine that I've gotten to
know over the last thirty years I've been in this profession.
You know, it couldn't have been to a better organization
for both those guys, and I think it's.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
A great fit.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
We'll come back and talk about two in just one second, Coach,
who believe me on that? But I want to go
back to something that you mentioned. I believe one of
our media members tweeted about it saying kind of a
quote from you, and I imagine this came up in
the you know, Chris career in Dolphins front office background
study of these players. But you talked about how both
Jordan and Dante are going to be really good pros
because of their approach to the game. I'm just curious
(02:17):
if you can maybe take us inside that a little
bit and tell us about how these guys are in
terms of how they get themselves ready for game day.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
You know, here in our program, we really do encourage
our players to learn to be pros as quickly as
they can, and we define being a professional as it's
twenty four to seven as opposed to a job which
is eight hours, nine to five, whatever that eight hour
window is. And both those guys were twenty four to
seven guys, you know, from a recovery standpoint, understanding the
(02:46):
way to take care of their bodies proper sleep morning routines.
You know, with guys like Dante and Jordan, they both
were early risers that studied the game. Both those guys,
you know, Dante played two sports here and had to
really do a great job of maintaining his body with
the wear and tear of a physical game like football,
(03:09):
and what I've learned now because of him playing lacrosse,
pretty physical sport there as well. But both those guys
understand what being the pro is about, the way you
approach meetings, the way you approach having a.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Positive impact on others.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
And that's the part where you know, to see both
of them and be on the same team again, I
think you'll see them add some value to the Dolphins,
but I think that they'll learn a lot from being
in an organization like Miami.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, you mentioned Dante's lacrosse career, and Jordan was a
wrestler and a powerlift or two as well.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Do you kind of maybe.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Push guys more towards multi sport athletes now because of
the success of those two guys or what was the
impact of those guys being multi sport athletes.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
No, I've always approached it. You know, We've had quite
a few guys that have done it. I played both
sports and college.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I was a football guy, played basketball my senior year
at Towson, and I just think being well rounded as
an athlete, and a lot of these guys start specializing
so early. I mean, I can remember talking to Dante,
and you know he wanted he didn't.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Play after his freshman year, but I.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Can remember going to talk to him saying, he listen,
now you said you wanted to play both sports.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
What are we doing?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
And you know, to see the work that he had
to put in to get his body in shape after
a football season, and now you go into the spring
with the lacrosse season and we're one of the top,
if not the top lacrosse programs in the country. So
it's not as if he's, you know, just running into
a situation where he becomes the guy. You saw him
(04:42):
really continue to grow, and you know, I was glad
that he was able to fulfill his dream of playing
both at Division one level.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, it's it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I think it's a special thing where you can do
both both two sports, I should say, and with Jordan
in his regard. So I wanted to ask you this
because the first time I stood next to Jordan, I
was kind of marveling over this is this is kind
of a weird way to put this, but like he's
his body composition is not what you would expect just
in terms of like it's a lot of weight, but
(05:10):
it's good weight, coach, And I'm curious, was it always
like that for him? Was he just a guy that
was really on top of his body and conditioning because
again watching him at three twenty three, twenty five, it's
it looks like it's mostly muscle.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, he was a.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Guy like that out of high school. You know, he
was one of those guys that visited us. I really
thought that we would land him, and at the end
he ended up wont to Tennessee for a season and
then by the end of that season, you know, even
prior to the the you know, it was just the
beginning of the transfer portal immediate eligibility type of stuff.
(05:47):
And you know, he called us and to me, that
spoke to volumes to where he knew the impact.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
He knew exactly where he wanted to go.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
And you know, he came in here and always defined
leadership as having the positive impact on others. And from
the day he got here, he if single handedly as
a leader and a player, kind of revamped the work
ethic of our program because I think everybody started seeing
this guy that was in the meeting room blasting music
at four point thirty five am. This guy that you
(06:18):
look out your window on your practice field and he's
got his helmet on and hitting sleds.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I mean, most big guys don't that's not fun to
go do.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Let's go run into a sled for twenty minutes full speed,
putting my face, hands and hips through. But that's what
Jordan was and it's not an act that wasn't you know,
for me or anybody to see him doing it. It's
just how he approached the game. And you know, again,
I still think both those guys still have a tremendous
amount of room to grow as players. And as I've
(06:49):
learned about that Dolphin organization, they do a tremendous job
of developing draft picks and guys that they bring into
their program as young players to where they you start
to see them grow and reach max potential.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
That was one of the first things Dante told us
when we had him for media down here, was asking
about his former and new teammate Jordan Phillips, and he
was saying, yeah, when you walk into that weight room
at five o'clock in the morning, there's Jordan getting after
and he was trying to kind of match Jordan in
terms of, you know, setting that standard. And one of
the quotes that he gave us was he tried to
they wanted to be guys that elevated the standard there
(07:24):
at the program, and it sounds like that was how
Jordan did it through those workouts and all that stuff.
But I'm curious if there's other ways or maybe something
that Dante did this Stoyd out to you in terms
of helping elevate the standard of the Maryland football program.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Well, I think for one, you know, Dante was maybe
a little more heavily recruited in lacrosse than he was
in football. But the thing I always noticed about him
was that his leadership quality. It's that it factor, and
you know, as a true freshman to be thrown in
the fire as we did with him, to see him
(07:56):
in critical situations not be afraid to fit and end
up making plays.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
And it's because of that approach.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
I think that to me kind of sets him apart
because he's one of those deep safeties that's really smart
sometimes I always say almost maybe too smart, and that
he'll anticipate some stuff and he'll take chances, and similar
to a.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Guy that played right up the road from.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Us, And not that I'm comparing him to Ed Read,
but Ed was one of those guys that studied it.
We recognize certain things and it gave him almost like
a quarterback the ability to eliminate where the ball wasn't
going to go, which gave him the anticipation to make plays.
And Dante is that type of safety. He's one of
those guys that will study your tendencies. He will read
(08:41):
your mail, he will get guys lined up, he will
immerse himself in the structure of the defense and not
just learn, hey, here's what I have. He opens up
the blinders to hey, here's what we all need to have.
And you know it's going to be an adjustment obviously
for them to speed as different as we all know.
But the Big Ten and some of the people he's
(09:01):
played against is as close to NFL talent as as
most to see.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's what it takes is to exceed to succeed in
this league, right as you have to be on your
p's and q's and you have to be a pro
and approach it that same way every day. And I'm
curious because on the surface, all that stuff like obviously
sounds fantastic, but I'm wondering, how does that kind of
not ease the job of the coaching staff. But I mean,
in some ways kind of give you guys a conduit
on the field in terms of like a guy that
(09:29):
sees the game like a coach would. How did you
kind of lean into that from Dante and utilize that
ability to have him anticipate and see things and be
able to communicate all the things that he does see
to the rest of the team. How'd you guys lean
into that as the coaching staff.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Well, I mean it's the system that we run. You know, obviously,
the safety is the quarterback of our defense, and we
are part of the Nick Saban Alabama structure of defense
where we had as many checks on defense as most
offenses do because of the anticipation and what things people
(10:01):
can run out of certain sets and what their tendencies are.
And there's no doubt that you know Dante and his
aptitude and his football and intelligence, and he was a
guy that if you can teach it, then you can
execute it. And he's one of those guys that I
see all the time grabbing the young safeties, the young
corners and imparting the wisdom that he gained from not
(10:24):
just his successes but some of his failures as well.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
As a young player.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I mean, they're going to mistackles, they're going to make mistakes,
they're going to blow a coverage, But just his ability
to rebound from it and have that short term memory
that you need to have and not take away from
his ability to be aggressive is what I've you know,
the part of his game that I've really thought he
developed while he was here, and I think there's still
a lot of room left and you'll see a even
(10:47):
better version.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Of him at that level.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, it sounds like he's wise beyond his years. And
one of the things that makes me say that was
we talked to him about the motivational quotes and the
sticky notes that he had plashed all throughout his locker
and whatnot. Did you ever see those and maybe, you know,
give him some a hard time about how how on
top of all the motivational quotes he was No.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
I mean, he's you know, he grew up in this
system here where you know, at the end of every practice,
most team meetings on Friday, we are always trying to
feed the mind. And you know, part of his steal
is sports performance. You know, we've invested in a sports
performance person that worked with the positive mantras and the mindsets.
(11:28):
And that's the part when I talk about being a pro.
It's doing those little things that you know, we're not
able to do in the eight hour window that we
get or the twenty hour work week that they get
here in college. So that means that they've got to
do some work on their own and then make an
investment where they're mutually invested as much as we are
with the time we're putting into them. And you know,
Dante was a guy that took full advantage of the
(11:49):
sports performance people that we have here, the positive mindset
mantra the quotes I mean when I tell you that
there's no doubt when he gets done playing, he didn't
up in the next. Hey, coach at Maryland at some
point because he is a special person when it comes
to how he approaches it almost like he's been here before.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Sounding a great guy to have as the quarterback of
your defense. My guest today is Maryland head coach Mike Loxley,
And you know that approach coach really carries over to
the third phase of.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
The game, right the kicking game.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
And he was a guy that acknowledged Raff the top
when he spoke to us his special teams experience in college.
And for a guy that is such a critical part
of the defense to be able to be an impact
and it be a four down player like that. I'm
sure that was also valuable to the program. I'm curious
to kind of get your take on what he was
as a special teamer and how valuable it was to
have a guy that could start like that on defense
but also not take off reps in the kicking game.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, there's no doubt in most of the guys in
our program.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
You know, we had Todd Felton drafted by the Vikings
and he was a phenomenal special teams player as well.
And I can tell you Dante was one of those
guys that was what we call a four core special
teams guy. You know, I typically have a rule that
if you're a starter on defense, you can't be a
starter on more than two special teams for our coordinator.
And you know, obviously punt and kickoff are two if
(13:06):
very important was but you know what, Dante was a
guy that did all four chose to do him. They
learned here that special teams is as as important as
offense and defense, and that you know, it reveals the
character you have when you watch a team and you
see them have their stars on special teams. I think
(13:27):
it shows the character of the team and it embraces that,
you know what, nobody's too big or too small to
go be the right guard on the punt team, because
very few of these guys were recruited to be the
left tackle and the kickoff return unit and to embrace
that role and then excel at it.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Duante did that.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
He did it for all four years to the point where,
you know, sometimes I felt bad because we were putting
so many plays on his body, but he would not
let us take him off of it because he knew
the importance of just that one play could could determine to.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Win or loss. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I mean, it's it seems like a mindset ready for
the NFL, and it's at all tracks of what.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You're saying here, coach.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
If I can't transition over here now to Jordan a
little bit, because one of the things that you know,
as our media gets to know Jordan who is as
a player, is some confusion about where he plays on
the defensive line, and you know, watching your guys' tape
and seeing him, you know, crash into the backfields a
three techniek or hold the point as a nose tackle,
you know, as a one shade or a zero technique.
I'm just curious about Jordan's versatility on the defensive line
(14:30):
and how valuable that was for you guys there.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yeah, there's no doubt that he was a guy that
a traditional probably knows or three technique, which is mostly
what we did. But we did have the ability at
times where I think he could play some four I
in these mint fronts because of the ability to hold
up double teams.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I mean, when you talk about a powerful.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Heavy handed, strong guy, there's no doubt that he is
a mountain of a guy to move and you know
he's able to absorb the double teams but also have
the balanced body control and explosiveness to separate and make plays.
He did his job in our system, and I know
coming into this draft some of the knockle on him
(15:14):
was the lack of production because but what we asked
him to do is eat up double teams powerfully and
knock the line back and it affected.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
The run game for a bit.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
And they don't get the credit for that production because
it doesn't have a tackle doesn't say TfL. But when
other people were making TFLs because he's pushed the a
gap three yards deep. People that know football understand what
that brings to the table.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And that's where I also.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Think you'll see Jordan Phillips continue to add to his
game as he starts to you know, continue to grow
into that big frame of his and develop the body
twitch and all those things.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
I think you'll see him be a great, great proct
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
With that, there's a bunch of selflessness too, right because
we talk about eating our double teams and kicking into
the nose tackle position where maybe the sacks aren't there
to be had. To your point, like you can you
speak on that because from from my perspective, Jordan seems
like a guy that just wants to make the team
better and doesn't care about the individual accolades so.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Much, no doubt about it.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
And you'll see him a get it also will come
over and be on the offensive line for our field
goal field goal unit, and again, selfless, he was one
of those guys. And he came in obviously as a transfer.
When you come in, you have to kind of feel
your way through. He came in, you know, after spending
a season there basically at Tennessee and transferred in midyear
(16:39):
to us. So it was here for springball, and you know,
it's tough for as you look at the way kids
are nowadays, peer pressure rules society, and Jordan didn't really
care what people thought about him in terms of what
he did, how he worked. And you know, as you
develop a standard and the mentality, you need those guys
that that stand out in the right way, not because
(17:02):
they dress differently, but stand out because of how they work,
how they treat their bodies, how they recover the professionalism
they showing. And he set the standard for us and
has left up tremendous impact on not just the defense,
but even our offensive players saw and recognized, Wow, what
he was real.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
It wasn't it wasn't made for TV. You know.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
You see all these guys that post every work out
there doing I don't think I ever saw Jordan post
one workout now. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but he's
one of those guys that I just saw do the
work behind the scenes and not with not a lot
of fanfare.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Part of that must be his wrestling background, right, because
he was a guy that that's a sport where like
I feel like most wrestlers are pretty you know, not
look at me, not like posting all the stuff on
social media, And I feel like he was kind of
in that same frame. And when you think about his
wrestling background and the way it impacted his football as
a guy that appreciates multi sport athlete, what did you
see there in terms of how you know, the grip
(18:02):
strength and the ability to kind of contort his body.
There was a play against Orgon we broke down on
our tape here on a film breakdown we did where
he like did a quarkscrew technique and stacked up two
bodies and made the play at the last grimmage. Just
really impressive how he moves his body. It seems like
a really good transformation from the wrestling matt to the
football field.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
What did you see from him in that regard?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
You know, the big thing with wrestlers and O line
and D line is.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Obviously the leverage. You know, leverage is the most uncoached.
It's the thing that probably has more impact on the
game in a lot of ways than most people understand it.
Because of wrestling, he understood the body underbody, pad underpad,
and that's how you eat up double things, that's how
you maintain the line.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Of scrimmage, the low man typically wins.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
And I think that's where you know him being built
the way he's built.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I mean, he is the.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Prototypical if you if you were to look up those
guard in the Webster Dictionary, it looked like Jordan's big plags,
big old hamhowks on him on his on his backside,
a big strong upper body neck connected to his shoulders.
I mean, he looks as you would think a traditional
(19:10):
nose tackle looks like. And uh and again, like I said,
I still think because he's so young man, I think
he just turned twenty one, maybe here twenty two, I
don't know. I know he was a young high school
entry guy. So I mean his best football still had him.
They got to steal.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
That's that's what I'm saying, Coach.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I look at him and like usually guys at age,
there's some some baby fat still, but not on that guy.
He is is built and ready for for the the I.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Can tell you if we tried, we tried, like Hill
to get him to stay for another year for us.
I mean, uh, now with this nil did I was like, Jordan,
you may be able to make more money here here
and continue to develop. But he made the right choice.
And I can remember even you know, making a call
to Chris Career to say, hey, what are your thoughts
on him? Because I was trying to advise him on
(19:57):
you know, what most people thought he should do, because
he he's a guy that came out early, and I
know the Dolphins have always liked them, so just for
them to get them to win, they got them. As
I've said, I think they got them a tremendous steal.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, all that stuff is great, and I wanted to
ask you this last one on Jordan here before I
pivot to a couple of two questions for you before
I get.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
You out of here.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I was I was curious because when he talked about
players that he watched on tape, the you know, defensive
tackles like Warren Sapp was a guy that came up
and I'm like, SAP's career happened before you were born,
my man.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So I was curious, were you guys showing him that tape?
Was he fine that tape by himself?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
How did he get so innudated with players from the
late nineties early two thousands.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
We do research projects around him.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
I'm always one of my favorite things to do is
you know, when I coached receivers of quarterbacks, I asked
the quarterback, who's your favorite quarterback.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
You watched or he like growing up?
Speaker 4 (20:47):
And then I'd make cutups that show the things that
we want to see done with their quarterback. But you know,
he's a guy that studies tape. He studies the history
of it. When I tell you that it's not just
you know, made for TV, like, he's different. I mean,
he's one of those college guys that acted like a
pro very mature in terms of like his approach, so
(21:10):
to understand that he didn't see more on SAP ever play.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
But he looks at football.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
There's a generation of kids now that they'll play the
video game football, but they.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Don't go out and play tackle and throw the ball.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
You know, the neighborhood football games anymore is like they
used to.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
You know, he's one of these.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Guys that he studied the position because he wants to
be one of the best. And there's no doubt that
history repeats itself and it also leaves clues. And our
players in our program understand that, and they study the
great ones to see what things they can take from
their games that will make.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Them better players.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Maryland head coach Mike Loxley here on the Draft Time podcast. Coach,
appreciate your time today. That was awesome, great stuff on Dante,
on Jordan and two of there. At the end, best
of luck this season, and again we appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Thank you, coach, and.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
There he goes short edition of the podcast today. We're
going to come back tomorrow recap of practice. There's a
potential that if we sign a player overy the time
I do this podcast and it comes out, I might
add the breakdown of that player, but we shall see.
I doubt that happens, So let's go ahead and put
a pennant right there. We'll talk to you guys tomorrow.
But as for today's show, it's going to be my time.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
You all.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Please be sure subscribe, rate, review the show, all that
fun stuff. Follow me on social at winkfle NFL. The
team at Miami Dolphins, check out Seth and Juice and
the Fish Tank podcast, the YouTube channel for Dolphins, HQ,
Media availabilities, and so much more, and last but not least,
Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up, Carolyn
and Cameron. Daddy just coming home,
This is Drivetime with Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Dolph fans, and welcome to the Draft
Time Podcast. I am your host, Travis Wingfield. And on
today's show a very very important guest. We're gonna have
Mike Loxley, the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins football program,
come on here and tell us about our two draft
picks out of Maryland, Dante Trader Junior and Jordan Phillips.
(00:31):
Really good content coming away here from coach. Let's go
ahead and jump right in from the Baptist Hell Studios
inside the Baptist Health Trading Complex.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
This is the Draft Time Podcast. Hey ye Daffe, what's up,
Dolph fans.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We are thrilled to be joined today here by the
head football coach of the Maryland Terrapins, Mike Loxley. Coach,
welcome into the show and thank you for your time today.
We appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Thanks for having me on, Travis.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So we are excited to have you on because we
drafted not one, but two of your guys. And you
know you send players to the pros every single year,
but two getting drafted by the same team at this
level is quite a rarity.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm curious to kick things off.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Your coach, what was your reaction when you saw both
Jordan Phillips and Dante Trader Junior continuing to be teammates
here at the next level.
Speaker 4 (01:19):
I was excited for both those guys, you know, because
both those guys were tremendous leaders for our program and
you know, did not have the senior years or their
final years that they may be envisioned as a team.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
But you know what I saw on the growth in
leadership I saw of both.
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Of them to have an opportunity to go play in Miami.
I've had two a tongue of Billoid Alabama and Chris Greer,
a deer, great friend of mine that I've gotten to
know over the last thirty years I've been in this profession.
You know, it couldn't have been to a better organization
for both those guys, and I think it's.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
A great fit.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
We'll come back and talk about two in just one second, Coach,
who believe me on that? But I want to go
back to something that you mentioned. I believe one of
our media members tweeted about it saying kind of a
quote from you, and I imagine this came up in
the you know, Chris career in Dolphins front office background
study of these players. But you talked about how both
Jordan and Dante are going to be really good pros
because of their approach to the game. I'm just curious
(02:17):
if you can maybe take us inside that a little
bit and tell us about how these guys are in
terms of how they get themselves ready for game day.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
You know, here in our program, we really do encourage
our players to learn to be pros as quickly as
they can, and we define being a professional as it's
twenty four to seven as opposed to a job which
is eight hours, nine to five, whatever that eight hour
window is. And both those guys were twenty four to
seven guys, you know, from a recovery standpoint, understanding the
(02:46):
way to take care of their bodies proper sleep morning routines.
You know, with guys like Dante and Jordan, they both
were early risers that studied the game. Both those guys,
you know, Dante played two sports here and had to
really do a great job of maintaining his body with
the wear and tear of a physical game like football,
(03:09):
and what I've learned now because of him playing lacrosse,
pretty physical sport there as well. But both those guys
understand what being the pro is about, the way you
approach meetings, the way you approach having a.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Positive impact on others.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
And that's the part where you know, to see both
of them and be on the same team again, I
think you'll see them add some value to the Dolphins,
but I think that they'll learn a lot from being
in an organization like Miami.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Yeah, you mentioned Dante's lacrosse career, and Jordan was a
wrestler and a powerlift or two as well.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Do you kind of maybe.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Push guys more towards multi sport athletes now because of
the success of those two guys or what was the
impact of those guys being multi sport athletes.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
No, I've always approached it. You know, We've had quite
a few guys that have done it. I played both
sports and college.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
I was a football guy, played basketball my senior year
at Towson, and I just think being well rounded as
an athlete, and a lot of these guys start specializing
so early. I mean, I can remember talking to Dante,
and you know he wanted he didn't.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Play after his freshman year, but I.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
Can remember going to talk to him saying, he listen,
now you said you wanted to play both sports.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
What are we doing?
Speaker 4 (04:22):
And you know, to see the work that he had
to put in to get his body in shape after
a football season, and now you go into the spring
with the lacrosse season and we're one of the top,
if not the top lacrosse programs in the country. So
it's not as if he's, you know, just running into
a situation where he becomes the guy. You saw him
(04:42):
really continue to grow, and you know, I was glad
that he was able to fulfill his dream of playing
both at Division one level.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, it's it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
I think it's a special thing where you can do
both both two sports, I should say, and with Jordan
in his regard. So I wanted to ask you this
because the first time I stood next to Jordan, I
was kind of marveling over this is this is kind
of a weird way to put this, but like he's
his body composition is not what you would expect just
in terms of like it's a lot of weight, but
(05:10):
it's good weight, coach, And I'm curious, was it always
like that for him? Was he just a guy that
was really on top of his body and conditioning because
again watching him at three twenty three, twenty five, it's
it looks like it's mostly muscle.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Yeah, he was a.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Guy like that out of high school. You know, he
was one of those guys that visited us. I really
thought that we would land him, and at the end
he ended up wont to Tennessee for a season and
then by the end of that season, you know, even
prior to the the you know, it was just the
beginning of the transfer portal immediate eligibility type of stuff.
(05:47):
And you know, he called us and to me, that
spoke to volumes to where he knew the impact.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
He knew exactly where he wanted to go.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
And you know, he came in here and always defined
leadership as having the positive impact on others. And from
the day he got here, he if single handedly as
a leader and a player, kind of revamped the work
ethic of our program because I think everybody started seeing
this guy that was in the meeting room blasting music
at four point thirty five am. This guy that you
(06:18):
look out your window on your practice field and he's
got his helmet on and hitting sleds.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I mean, most big guys don't that's not fun to
go do.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
Let's go run into a sled for twenty minutes full speed,
putting my face, hands and hips through. But that's what
Jordan was and it's not an act that wasn't you know,
for me or anybody to see him doing it. It's
just how he approached the game. And you know, again,
I still think both those guys still have a tremendous
amount of room to grow as players. And as I've
(06:49):
learned about that Dolphin organization, they do a tremendous job
of developing draft picks and guys that they bring into
their program as young players to where they you start
to see them grow and reach max potential.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
That was one of the first things Dante told us
when we had him for media down here, was asking
about his former and new teammate Jordan Phillips, and he
was saying, yeah, when you walk into that weight room
at five o'clock in the morning, there's Jordan getting after
and he was trying to kind of match Jordan in
terms of, you know, setting that standard. And one of
the quotes that he gave us was he tried to
they wanted to be guys that elevated the standard there
(07:24):
at the program, and it sounds like that was how
Jordan did it through those workouts and all that stuff.
But I'm curious if there's other ways or maybe something
that Dante did this Stoyd out to you in terms
of helping elevate the standard of the Maryland football program.
Speaker 4 (07:35):
Well, I think for one, you know, Dante was maybe
a little more heavily recruited in lacrosse than he was
in football. But the thing I always noticed about him
was that his leadership quality. It's that it factor, and
you know, as a true freshman to be thrown in
the fire as we did with him, to see him
(07:56):
in critical situations not be afraid to fit and end
up making plays.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
And it's because of that approach.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
I think that to me kind of sets him apart
because he's one of those deep safeties that's really smart
sometimes I always say almost maybe too smart, and that
he'll anticipate some stuff and he'll take chances, and similar
to a.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
Guy that played right up the road from.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Us, And not that I'm comparing him to Ed Read,
but Ed was one of those guys that studied it.
We recognize certain things and it gave him almost like
a quarterback the ability to eliminate where the ball wasn't
going to go, which gave him the anticipation to make plays.
And Dante is that type of safety. He's one of
those guys that will study your tendencies. He will read
(08:41):
your mail, he will get guys lined up, he will
immerse himself in the structure of the defense and not
just learn, hey, here's what I have. He opens up
the blinders to hey, here's what we all need to have.
And you know it's going to be an adjustment obviously
for them to speed as different as we all know.
But the Big Ten and some of the people he's
(09:01):
played against is as close to NFL talent as as
most to see.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That's what it takes is to exceed to succeed in
this league, right as you have to be on your
p's and q's and you have to be a pro
and approach it that same way every day. And I'm
curious because on the surface, all that stuff like obviously
sounds fantastic, but I'm wondering, how does that kind of
not ease the job of the coaching staff. But I mean,
in some ways kind of give you guys a conduit
on the field in terms of like a guy that
(09:29):
sees the game like a coach would. How did you
kind of lean into that from Dante and utilize that
ability to have him anticipate and see things and be
able to communicate all the things that he does see
to the rest of the team. How'd you guys lean
into that as the coaching staff.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Well, I mean it's the system that we run. You know, obviously,
the safety is the quarterback of our defense, and we
are part of the Nick Saban Alabama structure of defense
where we had as many checks on defense as most
offenses do because of the anticipation and what things people
(10:01):
can run out of certain sets and what their tendencies are.
And there's no doubt that you know Dante and his
aptitude and his football and intelligence, and he was a
guy that if you can teach it, then you can
execute it. And he's one of those guys that I
see all the time grabbing the young safeties, the young
corners and imparting the wisdom that he gained from not
(10:24):
just his successes but some of his failures as well.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
As a young player.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
I mean, they're going to mistackles, they're going to make mistakes,
they're going to blow a coverage, But just his ability
to rebound from it and have that short term memory
that you need to have and not take away from
his ability to be aggressive is what I've you know,
the part of his game that I've really thought he
developed while he was here, and I think there's still
a lot of room left and you'll see a even
(10:47):
better version.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Of him at that level.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, it sounds like he's wise beyond his years. And
one of the things that makes me say that was
we talked to him about the motivational quotes and the
sticky notes that he had plashed all throughout his locker
and whatnot. Did you ever see those and maybe, you know,
give him some a hard time about how how on
top of all the motivational quotes he was No.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
I mean, he's you know, he grew up in this
system here where you know, at the end of every practice,
most team meetings on Friday, we are always trying to
feed the mind. And you know, part of his steal
is sports performance. You know, we've invested in a sports
performance person that worked with the positive mantras and the mindsets.
(11:28):
And that's the part when I talk about being a pro.
It's doing those little things that you know, we're not
able to do in the eight hour window that we
get or the twenty hour work week that they get
here in college. So that means that they've got to
do some work on their own and then make an
investment where they're mutually invested as much as we are
with the time we're putting into them. And you know,
Dante was a guy that took full advantage of the
(11:49):
sports performance people that we have here, the positive mindset
mantra the quotes I mean when I tell you that
there's no doubt when he gets done playing, he didn't
up in the next. Hey, coach at Maryland at some
point because he is a special person when it comes
to how he approaches it almost like he's been here before.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Sounding a great guy to have as the quarterback of
your defense. My guest today is Maryland head coach Mike Loxley,
And you know that approach coach really carries over to
the third phase of.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
The game, right the kicking game.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
And he was a guy that acknowledged Raff the top
when he spoke to us his special teams experience in college.
And for a guy that is such a critical part
of the defense to be able to be an impact
and it be a four down player like that. I'm
sure that was also valuable to the program. I'm curious
to kind of get your take on what he was
as a special teamer and how valuable it was to
have a guy that could start like that on defense
but also not take off reps in the kicking game.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Yeah, there's no doubt in most of the guys in
our program.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
You know, we had Todd Felton drafted by the Vikings
and he was a phenomenal special teams player as well.
And I can tell you Dante was one of those
guys that was what we call a four core special
teams guy. You know, I typically have a rule that
if you're a starter on defense, you can't be a
starter on more than two special teams for our coordinator.
And you know, obviously punt and kickoff are two if
(13:06):
very important was but you know what, Dante was a
guy that did all four chose to do him. They
learned here that special teams is as as important as
offense and defense, and that you know, it reveals the
character you have when you watch a team and you
see them have their stars on special teams. I think
(13:27):
it shows the character of the team and it embraces that,
you know what, nobody's too big or too small to
go be the right guard on the punt team, because
very few of these guys were recruited to be the
left tackle and the kickoff return unit and to embrace
that role and then excel at it.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Duante did that.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
He did it for all four years to the point where,
you know, sometimes I felt bad because we were putting
so many plays on his body, but he would not
let us take him off of it because he knew
the importance of just that one play could could determine to.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Win or loss. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
I mean, it's it seems like a mindset ready for
the NFL, and it's at all tracks of what.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You're saying here, coach.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
If I can't transition over here now to Jordan a
little bit, because one of the things that you know,
as our media gets to know Jordan who is as
a player, is some confusion about where he plays on
the defensive line, and you know, watching your guys' tape
and seeing him, you know, crash into the backfields a
three techniek or hold the point as a nose tackle,
you know, as a one shade or a zero technique.
I'm just curious about Jordan's versatility on the defensive line
(14:30):
and how valuable that was for you guys there.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Yeah, there's no doubt that he was a guy that
a traditional probably knows or three technique, which is mostly
what we did. But we did have the ability at
times where I think he could play some four I
in these mint fronts because of the ability to hold
up double teams.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
I mean, when you talk about a powerful.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
Heavy handed, strong guy, there's no doubt that he is
a mountain of a guy to move and you know
he's able to absorb the double teams but also have
the balanced body control and explosiveness to separate and make plays.
He did his job in our system, and I know
coming into this draft some of the knockle on him
(15:14):
was the lack of production because but what we asked
him to do is eat up double teams powerfully and
knock the line back and it affected.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
The run game for a bit.
Speaker 4 (15:24):
And they don't get the credit for that production because
it doesn't have a tackle doesn't say TfL. But when
other people were making TFLs because he's pushed the a
gap three yards deep. People that know football understand what
that brings to the table.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
And that's where I also.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
Think you'll see Jordan Phillips continue to add to his
game as he starts to you know, continue to grow
into that big frame of his and develop the body
twitch and all those things.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
I think you'll see him be a great, great proct
for a long time.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
With that, there's a bunch of selflessness too, right because
we talk about eating our double teams and kicking into
the nose tackle position where maybe the sacks aren't there
to be had. To your point, like you can you
speak on that because from from my perspective, Jordan seems
like a guy that just wants to make the team
better and doesn't care about the individual accolades so.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Much, no doubt about it.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
And you'll see him a get it also will come
over and be on the offensive line for our field
goal field goal unit, and again, selfless, he was one
of those guys. And he came in obviously as a transfer.
When you come in, you have to kind of feel
your way through. He came in, you know, after spending
a season there basically at Tennessee and transferred in midyear
(16:39):
to us. So it was here for springball, and you know,
it's tough for as you look at the way kids
are nowadays, peer pressure rules society, and Jordan didn't really
care what people thought about him in terms of what
he did, how he worked. And you know, as you
develop a standard and the mentality, you need those guys
that that stand out in the right way, not because
(17:02):
they dress differently, but stand out because of how they work,
how they treat their bodies, how they recover the professionalism
they showing. And he set the standard for us and
has left up tremendous impact on not just the defense,
but even our offensive players saw and recognized, Wow, what
he was real.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
It wasn't it wasn't made for TV. You know.
Speaker 4 (17:24):
You see all these guys that post every work out
there doing I don't think I ever saw Jordan post
one workout now. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but he's
one of those guys that I just saw do the
work behind the scenes and not with not a lot
of fanfare.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Part of that must be his wrestling background, right, because
he was a guy that that's a sport where like
I feel like most wrestlers are pretty you know, not
look at me, not like posting all the stuff on
social media, And I feel like he was kind of
in that same frame. And when you think about his
wrestling background and the way it impacted his football as
a guy that appreciates multi sport athlete, what did you
see there in terms of how you know, the grip
(18:02):
strength and the ability to kind of contort his body.
There was a play against Orgon we broke down on
our tape here on a film breakdown we did where
he like did a quarkscrew technique and stacked up two
bodies and made the play at the last grimmage. Just
really impressive how he moves his body. It seems like
a really good transformation from the wrestling matt to the
football field.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
What did you see from him in that regard?
Speaker 3 (18:20):
You know, the big thing with wrestlers and O line
and D line is.
Speaker 4 (18:23):
Obviously the leverage. You know, leverage is the most uncoached.
It's the thing that probably has more impact on the
game in a lot of ways than most people understand it.
Because of wrestling, he understood the body underbody, pad underpad,
and that's how you eat up double things, that's how
you maintain the line.
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Of scrimmage, the low man typically wins.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
And I think that's where you know him being built
the way he's built.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
I mean, he is the.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Prototypical if you if you were to look up those
guard in the Webster Dictionary, it looked like Jordan's big plags,
big old hamhowks on him on his on his backside,
a big strong upper body neck connected to his shoulders.
I mean, he looks as you would think a traditional
(19:10):
nose tackle looks like. And uh and again, like I said,
I still think because he's so young man, I think
he just turned twenty one, maybe here twenty two, I
don't know. I know he was a young high school
entry guy. So I mean his best football still had him.
They got to steal.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
That's that's what I'm saying, Coach.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
I look at him and like usually guys at age,
there's some some baby fat still, but not on that guy.
He is is built and ready for for the the I.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Can tell you if we tried, we tried, like Hill
to get him to stay for another year for us.
I mean, uh, now with this nil did I was like, Jordan,
you may be able to make more money here here
and continue to develop. But he made the right choice.
And I can remember even you know, making a call
to Chris Career to say, hey, what are your thoughts
on him? Because I was trying to advise him on
(19:57):
you know, what most people thought he should do, because
he he's a guy that came out early, and I
know the Dolphins have always liked them, so just for
them to get them to win, they got them. As
I've said, I think they got them a tremendous steal.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
Yeah, all that stuff is great, and I wanted to
ask you this last one on Jordan here before I
pivot to a couple of two questions for you before
I get.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
You out of here.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I was I was curious because when he talked about
players that he watched on tape, the you know, defensive
tackles like Warren Sapp was a guy that came up
and I'm like, SAP's career happened before you were born,
my man.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So I was curious, were you guys showing him that tape?
Was he fine that tape by himself?
Speaker 2 (20:31):
How did he get so innudated with players from the
late nineties early two thousands.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
We do research projects around him.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
I'm always one of my favorite things to do is
you know, when I coached receivers of quarterbacks, I asked
the quarterback, who's your favorite quarterback.
Speaker 3 (20:46):
You watched or he like growing up?
Speaker 4 (20:47):
And then I'd make cutups that show the things that
we want to see done with their quarterback. But you know,
he's a guy that studies tape. He studies the history
of it. When I tell you that it's not just
you know, made for TV, like, he's different. I mean,
he's one of those college guys that acted like a
pro very mature in terms of like his approach, so
(21:10):
to understand that he didn't see more on SAP ever play.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
But he looks at football.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
There's a generation of kids now that they'll play the
video game football, but they.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Don't go out and play tackle and throw the ball.
Speaker 4 (21:23):
You know, the neighborhood football games anymore is like they
used to.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
You know, he's one of these.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Guys that he studied the position because he wants to
be one of the best. And there's no doubt that
history repeats itself and it also leaves clues. And our
players in our program understand that, and they study the
great ones to see what things they can take from
their games that will make.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Them better players.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Maryland head coach Mike Loxley here on the Draft Time podcast. Coach,
appreciate your time today. That was awesome, great stuff on Dante,
on Jordan and two of there. At the end, best
of luck this season, and again we appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Thank you, coach, and.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
There he goes short edition of the podcast today. We're
going to come back tomorrow recap of practice. There's a
potential that if we sign a player overy the time
I do this podcast and it comes out, I might
add the breakdown of that player, but we shall see.
I doubt that happens, So let's go ahead and put
a pennant right there. We'll talk to you guys tomorrow.
But as for today's show, it's going to be my time.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
You all.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Please be sure subscribe, rate, review the show, all that
fun stuff. Follow me on social at winkfle NFL. The
team at Miami Dolphins, check out Seth and Juice and
the Fish Tank podcast, the YouTube channel for Dolphins, HQ,
Media availabilities, and so much more, and last but not least,
Miami Dolphins dot com. Until next time, fins up, Carolyn
and Cameron. Daddy just coming home,
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