Husky Talk- Dan Deignan

Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
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(01:31):
the state. If you suffered any type of
injury, slip and. Fall.
A construction beam hit you at asight.
Your mother-in-law tried to run you over with your car.
The Finch firm is for you. Pete will go for go to war for
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(01:53):
compensation. All you have to do is go to
thefinchfirm.com and he will go over your case and he will tell
you your options. We have Dynamic Human
Performance, owned and operated by Andre Dixon, Yukon legendary

(02:14):
running back. He trains boys and girls of all
ages, works with them in all sports.
He just started a brand new athletic development program
where you pick your sport of choice.
Andre trains you from the groundup, develops you, makes you

(02:35):
reach your potential and be the best that you can be at that
sport. Andre has sent many kids, boys
and girls to college on scholarship on all different
sports. Doesn't matter.
So if you want to work with the best, he's got a
state-of-the-art facility in Hartford, CT.

(02:56):
Go to 5000 feet by the way, it'smassive.
Go to dynamichumanperformance.com.
Down South we have Julius Williams in Decatur, GA.
He runs the trench mob. They train offensive and
defensive lineman and let me tell you I don't know what's in

(03:19):
the water in Decatur, GA but he has some of the best lineman I
have ever seen. He has.
They travelled to tournaments and camps all over the country.
5V5 is the tournament, which is basically one-on-one for
offensive and defensive lineman and they send the film out to

(03:41):
coaches and that's how they get kids offered.
Julius has kids right now at Florida, Florida State, Miami,
Clemson, Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama, just to name a few
schools. And now for the man of the hour,
former UConn tight end and now in the workforce, doing very,

(04:07):
very well and looking spectacular still.
He looks like he has an age today.
Mr. Dan Dagden, who we've been trying to get on the show for a
while, we finally got him. Dan, great to see you.
What's up, Kelly? Good to see you, buddy.
Thanks for having me. You.
You. Were you were celebrating

(04:29):
something at your job recently? Weren't you it Was it a
promotion or you? You've been there a certain
amount of years. No, I, I, I thought I saw some
made quota, I think made quota and I was up on stage something
like that, but. What's what's?
What's your job? So I've been doing medical
device sales for a little over 20 years now.

(04:49):
That's that's what I thought, yeah.
So because because that's what my brother does.
My brother, my brother works forStryker, and that's I I knew
that you work for a company likethat.
Yeah, man. So yeah, I've been doing mostly
spine, spine hardware, kyphoplasties, everything.
Mostly spine for the most part. So I got in medical devices back

(05:11):
in the day doing orthopedic trauma.
Yeah, that's. Grind and been pretty much been
doing mostly orthopedic spine and and trauma for the most part
you know did some time and aesthetics and a few other
things but yeah yeah, it's. Been a good ride.
Yeah, my brother does orthopedics.

(05:33):
He does knees and hips. I believe he just, he's been,
he's been with Striker I think six years now.
And it's funny because Dan Ryan,another Yukon alum, is his boss.
No kidding. So every time I see Dan, I said
please, just just just fire my brother.

(05:53):
Please, you have my permission. Just fire him.
It's it's just, it's just funny because I'll run into them at
UConn games and I say Dan, Matt's got to go.
Just fire. Just fire.
Yeah, Dan's a big boy. Yeah.
So I, you know, I don't know your entire story, so this is

(06:17):
going to be good for me. You are from Florida and
obviously you played at a time when the team was exceptional.
Did you start playing football at an early age like the Pop
Warner? I did 6. 7-8 you did.

(06:37):
You wanted those. Yeah.
So I mean, if you wanted to count all the years, it was
pretty much 14 years plan, 13 years tackle one year was was
like football. That's why I got introduced,
introduced to football, you know, and, and then after flag
football, I did 90 LB football team 105, one 15135 and then
four years of high school and five years of college.

(06:59):
You worked your way all the way up.
Yeah, yeah. Did you initially like it?
Did you? Did you initially like flag
football? Yeah, I loved it.
It was. That's what kind of got me into
playing tackle. All my friends were doing tackle
and yeah, I didn't know what I was doing.
I was you. Know he's just having fun out
there, yeah. Just having fun.
I was, I wasn't. I was a little guy.

(07:20):
I wasn't. I didn't really hit a growth
spurt until like my sophomore year in high school.
Grew like 4 inches then. When did you like you?
You started playing tackle afterthat.
What position did they initiallyput you at?
Were you at tight end? You were all over.
All over. All over the place.

(07:40):
I had no, no, no real clue, not a lot of depths to the athletic
ability at that point. Well, no, I mean, it's different
at Pop Warner. The the, the coaches are usually
parents and they don't know. So they, so they pretty much
they put you everywhere, everywhere.
You got the player, you got the get get handoffs, you got the

(08:01):
ball thrown to you. You played some defense.
You did it all. Did it all yeah.
Now probably 135 LB team is probably when I developed into
like you know, playing a little bit of isolated positions, you
know, not like jump into every position.
But yeah, once I got the high school it was.
I mean, I I played soccer growing up too, played soccer

(08:21):
and baseball and football. I played every sport.
My parents coached me in just about everything, mostly
basketball and soccer. I think that makes a huge
difference because kids these days, they focus on one sport
and they play it all year round.And I think like what you did
and what a lot of other people did, playing multiple sports is

(08:43):
the way to go because you know, it works.
Different muscle groups, you getdifferent skill sets and it
helps you in whatever your sportof choices.
So it's good that you played everything.
Did you like baseball? Yeah, I did.
Yeah, I liked it. My my older brother pretty much

(09:04):
laid the foundation for me. He played every sport.
And I tried to, you know, followin his footsteps until I got
into high school and I was like,yeah, let me, let me track the
way. Let me do my own thing now, you
know what I mean? But.
You tried to him. Yeah.
No, I in high school, I was pretty much we had, we had a
freshman football team, we had JV and then varsity at Saint
Thomas. So I played freshman my first

(09:26):
year then not many people play varsity until you're a junior
senior at Saint Thomas. You unless you're a dynamic
player, you definitely don't start until you're a senior.
Back then, coach George Smith, that was kind of his rule.
You know, you, you, you got to pay, you got to pay your dues.
Unless you're you're a player that really stands out and.
You know you're going to. Benefit the team, Yeah, you

(09:47):
you're going to, you're going topay your dues and and wait in
line like the rest of them, but yeah, OK.
Can you do me a favor? Give me one second.
I forgot something. I'll be right back.
I'm just gonna pause. All right.
So you played initially when youwhen you were in Pop Warner and

(10:08):
you were kind of all over the place.
When did you say, when would yousay you developed like a passion
for football? Probably.
Probably like this 6th, 7th grade I would say.
And were you playing like juniorhigh football at that point or

(10:29):
still? No, well, we didn't have any
junior high. It was really just Pop Warner,
right? So it just went all the way up
for this, what, 5 leagues? It was 90#105115 I think, and
then 135 LB team. So there were those, those
weight limits back then. I think now they do it
differently. It's based on age now, but.
Yeah, there's no weight limits. Yeah, there it was a little fair
back then, I would say. So you're matched up against

(10:50):
kids that were, you know. Yeah, you're serious?
Your weight class. So I remember I was the only 11
year old on a diet trying to make weight for games when I was
in when I was playing popcorn. It was hilarious.
So you played that all the way up.
Do you feel that it prepared youfor the next level?

(11:11):
Yeah, I definitely think so. You know, I, I think I was a
little, I was a little a late bloomer, I would say on, on all
levels of, of life, physical andemotional, mental and all that
stuff. And so I, I definitely think
that building my confidence, youknow, year over year, it
definitely helped me, you know, yeah, I didn't really, you know,
fall into place as far as my true confidence probably until

(11:33):
like maybe my sophomore junior year in high school.
And I was like, no, you know what?
Maybe I can, maybe I can go to school for this, You know, I
don't know. So when you got to 9th grade,
did you play? Was it freshman football or JV?
Yeah, pretty much everyone played freshman football.
If you were legit, you played. JV football's a freshman.
If you were really, really legit, you played you played
varsity. But that was very few and far

(11:55):
between. I mean, we playing at Saint
Thomas, it was a true powerhouseschool in Fort Lauderdale.
So it was, I mean, you had the cream of the crop at every
level. So, you know, I, I probably
would say probably going into myjunior year is probably when
things really turn for me as faras like, you know, they, they
saw some potential in me and they moved me to tight end full

(12:16):
time at that point. So when you were playing in 9th
grade, what position did they have you at?
Oh God. I was playing linebacker.
I punted. I kicked.
You could kick, yeah. Yeah.
No, I, I didn't know that. That's awesome.
So my brother, we playing soccer, me and my brother kind
of had a natural act for kicking.
So it was kind of it was kind ofweird.
We went to all the camps like, you know, all the.

(12:38):
Kicking. Camps and that's what my brother
did and he had a, a cannon for aleg.
Wow. Yeah, He, he played at Purdue.
He was a punter and kicker at Purdue.
And then he, he played in the NFL for two preseasons with the
Dolphins and The Jets as a punter and it kicked off.
So yeah, I followed in his footsteps for a little while,
you know, and I, I did pretty good.
I I, I dropped some bombs punting the ball, that's for

(12:59):
sure. And then you go to varsity.
Yeah. What was it in 11th grade?
Or do you play 10th? Yeah, So I was in summer camp
going into my junior year is when our defensive coordinator
came up to me when I was stretching and I was playing
linebacker and I wasn't like, I wasn't a great linebacker, you

(13:21):
know. I mean, I and I punted and
kicked and I also play a little bit, you know, a few other
positions, but I didn't really see a lot of playing time but.
You were, you were a Jack of alltrades, but not a master of one.
Yeah. Exactly.
I started, I sprouted that summer and they're like, all
right, you're getting a little, you're getting big and you can
catch the ball. He came up to me when I was
stretching in summer camp. He's like, look, we're you're

(13:41):
not, you're not a linebacker. And I go, I know, I go you, you
know, you, you got a good leg. We're going to keep you a kicker
and kicking and punting, but we're going to move you to tight
end. And one of my best friends at
that time was the going to be the backup tight end his junior
year. And then I end up coming in and
I ended up being the backup tight end my junior year behind

(14:02):
the guy by the name of Ben Stafford, who ended up, he went
to, he played, he got a full ride to Wake Forest.
Wake Forest. Yeah, I was behind him at tight
end in my junior year, and then I was behind as a backup punter
to a guy who played who got a full ride to US for pun.
Wow, So you guys had some talenton that team?
Yeah. Saint Mark's is one of the best

(14:24):
schools in in Florida, right? Saint Thomas Aquinas, yeah.
Saint Thomas Aquinas, Yeah, that's one of the best schools.
That's in Florida. It's out, it's out of control.
I was pretty honored to play forCoach George Smith for my last
my last season. He he retired and then came back
and he's he's in the Hall of Fame.
Oh, wow. High school football.
Yeah, he's awesome. Now how, how did the team do

(14:45):
when you were there? Did you did you make the
playoffs? Did you did you go far?
So we. Didn't we didn't really do that
that great. I mean, junior year we did well.
We won the state championship mysophomore year, but I wasn't on
the varsity team. Right.
I mean, I don't know what they're up to now as far as
state championships. It's it's in the teens at this
point, but so we had a little transition going on during my

(15:08):
sophomore, junior, senior year so that our our Dean was also
the defensive coordinator. He became the head coach and our
our head coach, Coach Smith decided to step down, step down
for two years and then he came back.
He was a legend. I was looking forward to playing
for him all, you know, my whole career in high school and he
came back my senior year. So there was a little bit of a
some guys, didn't you know it? We didn't.

(15:29):
Do that great. We didn't do that great, but our
team was on paper was absolutelystacked.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think 11D1.
Players. That day, yeah.
Wow. Yeah, it was similar for me.
There was a legendary high school coach.
He retired, but he ended up staying on as kind of like an

(15:51):
assistant. And I was his pet project.
I, I played varsity when I was asophomore and he just used to
motherfuck me the whole time andscream at me.
I got, I got screamed at every day and I finally, finally
clicked my junior year and he started to started to like me.

(16:11):
But it was, it was funny becausehe was the same thing.
He won state titles. He was one of the, he's the
winningest coach in our school history.
He had to step down, but he still stayed on as an assistant
and was there every day like he was that coach.
So you had a like, when did you start to get recruited?

(16:35):
What would you say it was the summer of your junior year Where
you like back then it was sending out tapes, but your
school was so good. Coaches probably were coming in
and out. They did, yeah.
It was really just senior year. I mean there's some guys that
came down and we're looking looking at guys as seniors and
would see guys as juniors plan. I don't think I was one of those
guys that they were looking at me when I was a junior.

(16:56):
Maybe they I don't I wasn't thatguy.
They they probably saw me comingin.
You know, my senior year. You know, there was guys that
there was coach. There was teams that came in to
see me at punting, honestly, andthen there were some guys that
came in to see me at at tight end, You know, so did.
You did you Did you go to any camps?
I did. I did going into my senior year.
The the summer before my senior year, went to Florida State

(17:18):
football camp with four other guys.
Yeah, four other guys. And at that time, I wish I did
some other smaller camps, but Florida State was probably the
biggest one where we went to my went up there, stayed with my
buddy's sister who's going to school there.
It was. It was a lot of fun.
And that's when Bobby Dawden wasthere, right?
I think so. I'm pretty sure that was 95.

(17:39):
Yeah, Bob Bowden was there. Yeah, so he, I do remember that
the big stand out of that camp was Steve Hutchinson.
Do you remember him? He played at, he ended up
playing at Coral. He played high school at Coral
Springs High School, where I grew up in Coral Springs.
And then he, he was just like the pet project of that camp.
Like literally he was the guy given the tutorial for

(18:02):
everything. And yeah, I do remember them
taking out of taking him out of his dorm and showing him a good
time, like under the Radar I do remember.
Hearing about that, they do that, yeah.
But he got a full ride to Michigan and then, yeah.
He was. The lineman wasn't.
He yeah, he was. Who's off?
Who's Yeah? But he played both ways in high
school. He played defensive tackle and I
think or defensive end maybe andand tackle, offensive tackle.

(18:24):
But he was a stud. I mean, he was a monster.
Yeah. But yeah, I did that camp that
was like a three or four day camp.
That was awesome. That was an overnight.
Yeah, yeah, back that back then.It's, it's not like it is today
where it's all one day camps andthey run it like a combine and
you know, you're there for a fewhours and you're out bad.
Because I, I went to the Syracuse camp and the Buffalo

(18:46):
camp and it was the same thing. They were overnight and the kids
that were scholarship that they wanted that were special.
They would kind of pull a pull aside and give them like a tour
and love them up a little bit. So going into your senior year,
you must have had some confidence because now, now

(19:07):
you're the guy. You have paid your dues all the
all along, you've been a good soldier.
You've done everything that's been asked of you.
How did your senior year ago? We did.
We did OK as far as record wise,I think we were like 4 and 6
wasn't that great. Again, we kind of there was a
little bit of a divide on with the, the culture of the team at

(19:28):
that point. But again, our team was just
completely stashed and we had a,we had a couple of Michael
Irvin's cousins who are on our team.
We had guys that were because Michael Irvin went to our our
school went to. High school and St.
Wow. There's a there's a slew of
people. I can't even, the list is too
long. But yeah, like there was our
again. I mean our, our offensive line,

(19:51):
I mean we're all, I think our center was 61270, both guards
were 622280 tackles, 1 tackle was 65300.
The other tackle was 6/5 or 6/4 like 2890 or something like
that. Then they had me and me at
probably, at that time it was probably 63225.

(20:12):
Yeah. But yeah, you know, we had sick
running back. We had a, we had a pretty decent
quarterback as well. But everyone, everyone got looks
and everyone, a lot of guys playing college, but we didn't
put it together. We didn't put the other.
So did you, did you have a lot of catches?
Did you put? Yeah, I had AI had a decent
amount of catches, a few touchdowns, nothing crazy

(20:34):
definitely a contributor. Not not like similar to college
wasn't like a game changer in any any any way, you know, but
definitely a a great teammate. I would say you know and you.
You always, you always were a great teammate and you were
always, I would say you had great leadership qualities,
which are tough to have because not everyone has leadership

(20:55):
qualities. You definitely had that.
And then I would say you definitely were a guy that led
by example because you always worked hard.
You were a hard worker and you set an example and that that
really made a difference. What schools were looking at you
your senior year or calling or talking to?

(21:17):
Yukon obviously was a a big one.There was two other schools that
were on the fringe I had, but I,I never took visits.
I only took one visit at Yukon. And I, I called it a day.
Yeah. So Colorado State was actually
looking at me. And the only reason that was
kind of the case is because my tight end coach in at Saint
Thomas, he coached the Cowboys for a while and he.

(21:40):
Oh, wow. He was best friends with Sonny
Lubeck for Colorado State. So I do remember when the time
came when they were allowed to reach out to you.
I remember Sonny Lubeck after practice.
He was, he told me he was calling me from one of those
those phones in the car, you know, I mean those big ass.
Bricks. Yes, the the.
Old I spoke to him for like 20 minutes so that would would have
been my next visit lined up. Didn't end up going.

(22:03):
Who recruited you from UConn? Todd Fitch.
It was Fitch, OK. Yeah, Todd Fitch and.
And Fitch was the OC at the. Time right.
Yep. Yeah, real good dude.
Yeah, OK. And then the other team was Ole
Miss, but they weren't they weren't serious.
And even if I would have went there, I wouldn't have played.
I would have probably played barely my senior year, you know,
I mean, I wasn't a caliber player to play there.

(22:25):
But and plus at that time they were going through, they were on
probation for like 5. Yes, yes, that's right.
For doing some some unethical stuff.
So it was really Colorado State.Like, I was probably going to
schedule a visit to Colorado State, stayed after UConn, but
when I went to UConn, I just it,that was my spot.
I just felt, felt the love and Iwas like, you know what, this is
where I need to be. I knew that I I would play

(22:47):
relatively quickly after redshirting, you know, and I
just felt the love, man. I really did.
I'd felt at home, you know, everyone said.
That. Yeah, it was just, first of all,
I never seen snow. Yeah, all the, all the Florida
guys born and raised, when they went out there, they they were
freaked out by the snow. Yeah, me and my brother and
sister are all born in Florida. So that was my first time seeing

(23:09):
snow, and it was a lot of it. And I I do remember going up
there. And it was was in in December or
January. Sometime around there, yeah,
yeah. After our season ended like end
of November, we it went up. Oh good, so school is still in
session when you went up? Yeah, yeah.
And Dennis Callahan was my, my I.

(23:30):
Had Callahan. That's awesome.
Love Dennis, great human being. I do remember being on the bus
after we're going to to take a visit to everything and I was on
the I was on the field doing Angel in the snow like a like a
weirdo. I do remember what was.
His name I would have too. Though all the guys in the bus
were like, look at the Florida weirdo.

(23:50):
I'm like, I'm like soaking wet and coming back on the bus and
like, dude, we're you're we're waiting on you, man.
And I'm like, I'm out Florida weirdo.
You know, that was, but it was cool.
It was a good time, man. I felt the love.
Skip Holtz and and Fitch were awesome.
You know, they made me feel welcomed and it it also helped
that I had my mom's family's from Massachusetts.

(24:12):
They were you know, 3 hours to the east.
My dad is from Jersey. So I mean, I had family that way
too. So I never, I never got homesick
when I was there for five years.So I always was only, you know,
3/3 and 1/2 hour drive from family if I needed to so it.
Was good. I loved it.
Everyone that I've talked to andinterviewed for Husky Talk has
said that the visit sold them that there was just something

(24:35):
special about the team, the culture, the guys all loved each
other, hung out together. There were, there weren't like
clicks and they were very welcoming to any visitors, any,
you know, all freshmen. So did you experience that on
your visit? Is that like what sold you 100?

(24:55):
Percent, yeah. And it did help that I was one
of, I think 9 Florida guys that some of the guys were on that
visit. But my my freshman class, I
think there was eight or nine ofus.
Yeah, they, they did. They really hit they they hit
Florida hard. They did.
They did and. Did you?
Did you commit right on your visit or did you?

(25:17):
Commit. I didn't.
I told him I was going to go home and talk to my family and
then make a decision. And it was real, real quick
after that. Yeah, I knew that.
I knew that was the place for me.
I went to. I wanted to talk to my family.
I want to talk to my head coach because he's obviously the one
that, you know, he he signed offon me, you know what I mean?
He's the one who who pushed me and knew that I could play at
the next level and knew that I'dbe a a good.

(25:39):
User to somebody, mentor influence and you know 100%.
Yeah, he's a, he's a big part ofour, our family's life.
He's just a good dude. That's awesome.
Oh, a lot to him. So you commit to UConn?
Yep, that's that's amazing. And your entire senior class
ended up having 11 Division One players.

(26:00):
So that's incredible too. You were part of just an amazing
team. Despite the record to have so
many Division One players, that's rare.
So you go your freshman year, you get there in August.
The other thing I wanted to ask you, because I've asked several
guys this, when they pitched you, did they tell you that the

(26:23):
plan was the GO Division 1A and B in the big?
East. They did.
It's crazy. It's funny, I, I've heard you
ask that question to, I've listened to a bunch of your
podcast. So it's like kind of like a
little ritual that I have like Isit on my sitting lawnmower and
I put my iPod in my iPad, whatever, iPods, earbuds and I,
I got like I got like 2 1/2 hours uninterrupted like.

(26:46):
That's funny. You know what I mean?
So. My son and my wife, no one's
going to be bothering me. It's like, it's like a, it's
like a 2 1/2 hour like toilet break.
Honestly, no one bothered you the toilet.
No one bothered me. When I'm on the lawnmower.
I got peace and quiet. It's like my meditation.
That's in a lot of your podcasts.
I appreciate. That yeah, of course, buddy,
you're doing you're doing a great job, man.
I'm super proud of you, bro. And I that question is accurate.

(27:09):
Yeah. No, they definitely did They
definitely did. And I don't fault them for it.
I don't. I mean they they probably
thought there was a. It was a work in the.
Sky a little bit for them, but that was a good selling point
for them and that definitely wasn't selling point for me to
play D1. I thought that would be pretty
cool and start off at one AA andyou get my feet wet.
And you got that opportunity to grow and then?
And that's kind of, you know, that's what happened.

(27:30):
I mean, we were. You know, by 2000, your senior
year, you got, you got it still.Play some big teams, yeah.
We sure did. So when you when you got there,
was it like a culture shock for you in the summer or were you
ready to go? Did you go to the did you go to

(27:50):
the Berkshires at that time? No.
No, Berkshires I think was a couple years later, but so.
You struggled. I know a couple people have said
a similar story to this, but I do remember first of all I think
I think our weight program at Saint Thomas wasn't as developed
as it is now. Put it that way.
I'm not blaming St. Thomas but I think I bench press
135 maybe like 4 times. Like, wow.

(28:14):
It I was. You, you got a lot bigger.
Stronger lower body, but I was not, I mean, I, I developed that
retro freshman year really helped me.
But I do remember going there and it was, I was definitely, I
was definitely shocked #1 I see Rennell and recall and jump, you

(28:35):
know, all right. I do remember that we went to
the inside the Aquatics complex there like in between like
workouts and work and these guysnot to sound weird all already,
but these guys take their shirtsoff and.
I'm like, they're monsters. I'm like, I'm put, I'm putting
my shirt back on, dude. I'm like, I'm like.
So, So what? What year are you and.
They're like. We're freshmen.
I go, all right, man, I'm going to.

(28:56):
I, I got some. I got.
Some broken up to do dude. And then on top of that, we I
saw came in as a freshman, really not really a freshman,
but Lou Wagner was there. Yeah, he was the older one,
right? Yeah.
And then who was it? Chris Dupree was awesome.
Yeah, they're they're JUCO transfers, but they were, this
is their first year there. So they were in like the rookie

(29:18):
camp. Right.
You guys are grown men. You're grown men.
And I'm, I'm 18 years old and I'm like, I turned 19 in
September and I'm like, I'm screwed, man.
I'm I'm, I'm have a tough, toughgo with this.
And then I see Durfish as a big dude and then Timco's a big dude
and you know, these other guys. I'm like, that's a great.
Class Wow, we had. A great class.

(29:38):
Yeah, we have a really, really great class, man.
And Darby was there and. Was Hoffman with you?
Hoffman was there, yeah. We had an awesome Murray Clayton
was another Florida guy. Dude, we had a, we had a squad.
We really had a really good, good group of guys that really,
really made you feel at home because, I mean, I was the
furthest S guy in Florida. I was.

(29:59):
So you were in. Fort Lauderdale, I never played
with those guys, never heard of them, never, never met them
until, you know, I was up there for, you know, summer camp.
But yeah, I mean, they all, theyall kind of played or knew each
other because they're in that Central Florida area together
mostly. So, yeah, man, they're a good
bunch of good bunch of dudes. Still talk to him this day.
I was actually with Derpis. Came down from Melbourne.

(30:22):
This weekend. Percy lives in Coral Springs,
which is about an hour South of males in Jupiter.
Timco came down from DeLand and yeah, Jim Tucker also was was
coming back from the Keys with. Yeah, I saw Tucker with the the
pictures of the fish he caught. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I'm not on social
media, so I'm sure you've seen all these pictures for all I
know, but. Yeah, I.
Took him out on on my boat and we went.

(30:43):
We cruised around, got some drinks and some bar hop and it
was fun man. That's awesome.
That's awesome. He's such a good dude.
I, I talked with him, Timco, I, I love that he's got his own
practice now and he's, he's doing very well.
All those guys are doing well. So you get there and I see, I
remember some, it was similar tome now.

(31:04):
I, I was, I was strong. Like I remember I broke the
freshman bench press record. But when I got on the field, I,
I just remember like the first week, I don't think I touched
anyone. Like I couldn't get even get in
the way. I was playing against Rob Long
and he he just annihilated me. But I'm like, I don't, I don't

(31:26):
know if I can do this. Like I couldn't touch him.
Like there's nothing I can do. Did you were you able to play
your freshman year on the field,like during practice?
Were you OK? Could I mean like blocking?
Going out, I think I had pretty good technique.
I think that's what saved me from my lack of strength.
You know, I mean, you know, I always, you know, knew that low

(31:48):
man kind of wins. So I would kind of have a, a
lower stance and I would kind ofgreet you right underneath your
chin. So I would have a little bit of
a little bit of leverage as far as, you know, kind of not, not
definitely not out muscling anybody because, you know, that
was that wasn't my strong suit, at least initially, but my
technique was decent. And I I just worked hard and
tried hard, you know, I mean, I just, I had to be able to to

(32:10):
compete. I held my own but there.
I'm very happy they decided to red shirt me though.
Yeah, that, that was a great decision.
Yeah, yeah. So you really took advantage of
that red shirt year to get bigger and stronger and make
sure that you were ready to go. Yep.
Yeah, yeah, I'm so. Happy they did.
Your your red shirt freshman year, did you see more playing

(32:35):
time? Did they get you on the field at
all? Yeah, no, they did.
I I do remember going back to myred shirt year.
I do remember the day before ourfirst game of the season, I knew
I was red shirted. So I knew I was like, all right,
I'm I'm going to be staying home.
I'm not traveling. We're going to Buffalo.
I do remember Coach Kelly. I don't know if you remember him
or not. He recruited me, Mike Kelly.

(32:56):
Yeah, yeah. Monster.
Monster of a human. Being big dude, yes.
Dude very intimidating looking. Just a good good dude.
Just a great guy. I know.
I think he was an all decade team at in College in Notre
Dame. Right.
He was, yeah. In every position of the
opposite line. I'm pretty sure too.
And then played with the boilersback in the day.
Yeah, he's. Just yeah.
And he was the tight ends coach.He was so I was at that point my

(33:19):
red shirt freshman year, I was fourth in line, right?
So there was I think 6 tight ends.
I was probably ranked 4th at that point.
Wow. But they red shirted me and
because they had Anthony McKinney starting who was a.
Who was a beast? A baller, such a good person to
learn off of. I mean, that guy's amazing.

(33:41):
And then underneath him was Chris Atkinson.
And then under him was a guy by the name of Harry Loomis.
And then it was me. So the day before our we
traveling to Buffalo, I get a call from Coach Kelly and he's
like, Danny, pack your bag. You're going, you're going to
the game tomorrow. And I go, I'm like, what?
What? And like, a good thing I didn't

(34:02):
start drinking at that point. I mean, I was.
Yeah, you were going to go to the weekend.
You know you're going to go. So what do?
You mean coach? He's like, well, Harry Loomis
just quit. And I was like, oh, he's like,
oh, now you're #3 So I'm like, oh.
Shit. So you always take three tight
ends? Yeah.
So I was like, oh, my God. OK, so he actually transferred
the day before. I guess he thought that he
wasn't going to see playing time.

(34:23):
And I think he might have been ajunior at that point.
And he transferred to Northeastern.
Wow. The day before the season
started. Yeah.
So at that point, I traveled to Buffalo and it was, it was
awesome. I traveled to every single away
game, every single home game. Yeah, it was like a like a
little vacation for me. It was cool.
I got, I got a little introduction to what traveling
was like, knowing that I would never play.
They're like, we're not going toplay you.

(34:43):
They didn't put you on the. Field they did not ruin at that
time. If you stepped foot on the field
for one play, you lost your whole year.
Oh I'm sorry, so you're saying the year they red shirted you?
They still. Traveled you and everything.
This is my first year. Oh.
OK, I traveled as a red shirt. Yeah.
That's awesome. But I, I do remember going to

(35:03):
Buffalo and still in the NiagaraFalls, I was literally on
vacation. It feels.
It was awesome. Yeah, it was just.
And it was awesome, rooming witha upperclassman.
And dude, it was awesome. It was a good time.
I do remember playing Yale. Oh, Yale, That used to be a big
rivalry. Yeah, it's a.
Big rivalry, the awesome stadium, a lot of history there.

(35:24):
The Yale Bowl? Yep.
And I was the only guy on the team that didn't play.
And I remember one of the coaches coming to me is, hey
man, we're whipping their tail, do you want to play?
And I go. I don't want to blow my red
shirt. I'm not going to ruin my whole
year for a couple plays. Yeah, yeah.
Even even if it was 1/4, I'm like, I'm not going to do that.
But one funny thing about that game, I do remember, and you

(35:45):
might remember this as well. I don't remember the exact
phrase, but I do remember like all the kids in the stands, the
Yale kids screaming some chant like as.
We whipped. Them by like 30 it was like
safety. Schools Safety School.
You'll be working for us somedayor something.
Like that. Yeah.
They they would. Do they?
I remember they were chant that or they were chant safety school

(36:06):
at us, Yeah. It was funny.
It was a good time. And then, yeah, so then I was, I
got a little, you know. That that's great.
Warm introduction to what it's like to travel and be a part of
the team and do the whole team dinners and get a per diem and
all that cool stuff. I did this.
I mean, I did the same thing my freshman year.
I played a little bit, but yeah,I travelled everywhere and I, I

(36:31):
didn't play in most games, but Iplayed in a few.
And I remember Ed was Ed and J Chuck was similar to you.
He would call it being on the clam chowder club.
He loved it because he used to cut.
He used to used to love the teamdinners.
He eat like a a huge meal watching movies.
Like it'd be it'd be a vacation every weekend when we traveled,

(36:52):
he would take advantage of it. He'd go jump in the pool,
whatever, because he knew like he wasn't going to see the
field. So he would just love every trip
like it was at least that like avacation.
So that's awesome that you got to travel and dress as a
freshman. It's a great experience because
you know you're on the sidelinesand you're seeing everything and

(37:15):
it prepares you for your red shirt freshman year.
So you must have seen some time your red shirt freshman year.
Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, I did see some time.
Yeah, you were in like 2 tight end packages they would put you
in. Yeah.
And I got some, I got some playing time for sure.
Yeah. And then play a little bit more

(37:35):
my a little bit more of my, my Richard sophomore year and so
on. Yeah.
Was was Shane the quarterback when you were there?
He was, Yeah, Yep. What was there the first, first
three day three years was that Iwas under Skip Holtz for 9697
and 98 and right right pup was was a baller.

(37:58):
No, I know I do. I do a podcast with him and he
is so knowledgeable. He he, he's a special dude and
he had an incredible career afterwards.
I mean, he played in NFL Europe.He played arena ball for years
and was a star and did very well.
So you're sophomore year, Richard's sophomore year,

(38:22):
Richard junior year. You obviously got better.
You saw more time, you produced more, right?
You played a lot more. What was the 90?
Was the 98 season your right shirt sophomore year?
Yeah. So it was my third year there.
So is that what is that? Yeah.
Yeah, Richard's Richard. Yeah, Richard's sophomore.

(38:45):
So that was the special year because I remember that's when I
started to get recruited by UConn and Coach Kelly.
I came to the Colgate game, youryour opener.
That was a blast. That was it.
That was a really good game. What was your playing time like
for the 98 season? Because it Burton was a tight

(39:06):
end as well. Yeah.
Burton was converted into tight end also.
Great teammate. Yeah, it was a good time, man.
I Speaking of Colgate, I think he might have mentioned someone
might have mentioned that story about Coach Golden given.
His he had a talk saying about running through a wall.
I've told that story a few few times, and forgive me if Coach
Golden's listening. I'm not not mocking anybody but.

(39:28):
Man, he, he, he, well, everyone talks about that speech.
He. Got us all fired up, I remember
and. And then he said.
Can you run through that wall? We're like, yeah.
Can you run through that wall? I'm like, yeah.
He's like. You.
Can't run through that wall. You got to go through the damn
door. We're all like.

(39:48):
What? Huh.
Yeah. So we all just like went out
completely deflated and he, his effort was there.
He tried, but it was. We.
We. I.
Remember just running and I'm like, what was that all about,
man? We're just running.
We're just confused all. Right, let's.
Let's play. They know.
But yeah, going back to Burton, Burton was was a tight end with
me. Me and him saw a lot of playing

(40:08):
time. Yeah, yeah, we did a lot of
double tights. I love, I love that team because
you were so multiple, like you could go to tight ends.
You you did a lot of 11 personnel because you had so
many talented receivers with, with Fitzy and Shank, Tori
Taylor, you had Rick Colon and Barry Chandler.

(40:32):
Just amazing. And then up front, you guys were
stacked. Stacked I.
Mean with with Callahan, Derfus,Campoli, Harper.
I can't remember who the left tackle was, Callahan, but it was
incredible. I.
Think it was. I think it was tabar when it was
tabar there. Oh, T cost, T cost, you're

(40:53):
right. So did you guys know?
I mean, because I'm sure you stayed that summer and trained
and that's when everyone that I've talked to, like Shank pup,
Tori Taylor, all said that that summer really made the

(41:14):
difference because you guys busted your ass training, but
you got to know each other more on a personal level and kind of
became closer as friends that they said.
They said that summer really made the difference.
And during camp, you know, you were at the Berkshires, but you

(41:35):
guys knew that you had a chance to do something special.
We did, we did. We at that point, we were, we
were running on all cylinders. We all kind of there, the
camaraderie was super tight, man.
Upperclassmen, lowerclassmen, weall were, We all were just like
honestly very selfless, you know, we all really had a, just
a, a, a true vision on what we were doing.

(41:56):
We were led by great leaders too, you know, with PUP and
Callahan and Callahan. I mean, it, it was, it was
stacked with a lot of good guys that set good examples, you
know, and we all, we all just really didn't want to let each
other down, you know? I mean, we just and, and like
you said, in the summer, we all bonded, we all drank, we all had
keg parties. We all, yeah.
But we all put in the work though, too, you know what I

(42:17):
mean? It's like.
You worked hard and you played hard, 100.
Percent 100% and the coaching staff was awesome.
I mean Skip was a a good. He was a player's coach. 100%
was, 100% was, you know, he led that program just like his dad
LED Notre Dame. You know, we did a lot of the
same stuff. You know, back then.

(42:37):
I don't think it was too common,at least my freshman year, I
believe. But it wasn't too common to go
away to a hotel when you're on campus for a home game.
But he did that. No, he did that.
We're getting away. We're doing this.
He did the meditations at night,which looking back on it was
like pretty awesome. Those are huge, yeah.
Yeah, but it was just everythingabout it was just was first
class. And Lou Perkins, I give him all

(43:00):
the credit in the world because peace, his vision.
Yeah. He was such a great guy.
And he knew every player by name.
I, I I remember he talked to me as a freshman and I was just
shocked that he knew me. He he was asking me about the
cleats. He's like, hey, Steve, do you
like you like those cleats? Can we get you something else?

(43:21):
I'm like, no, Sir. That they're perfect.
Thank you. But he was the one that really
made the difference, you know, with the charter flights, with
the hotels for away games. Like he wanted to build that
program into a Division One powerhouse.
So that freshman year was there.That's that year was special.

(43:42):
I was at the Colgate game and then I was at both UMass games
and because I, I went to the UMass game being recruited by
UConn at home and then I went tothe game at UMass recruited by
UMass and I ended up being talked to by EU Conn coaches.
They spent more time with me than UMass guys did.

(44:05):
Cali Coach Googe talked to me and it was just amazing to see
that. And you know, that's when I knew
that, you know, they, they, theyreally wanted me because they,
they had offered me the summer of my junior year, which it,
which back then was not common. It was, it was pretty rare to

(44:26):
get offered when you were a junior.
So like I, I remember I didn't even know you kind of had a
football team. And when I, and the only reason
I was recruited by them was because my ecology teacher, his
son, his name is Chad Pens. He was a kicker for UConn back

(44:51):
before you were there. I believe he kicked for a few
years and now he's a physical therapist around here.
But Chad went to UConn and he had UConn memorabilia in his
classroom and he was the one whotold me he's like, you got to
look at UConn. I'm like, I mean, no UConn of
the team. And without even knowing, he

(45:15):
called UConn and he sent my filmto UConn and that's how I got
offered, which was hilarious because I'd I'd never talked to
anyone. But the UMass games were
unbelievable. That first game was it was home
was incredible. Do you have any memories from

(45:37):
that game? I do.
It's just kind of funny that maybe maybe I don't actually,
because I think it was that was the game.
It was the second game, UMass game wasn't that I'm.
Getting one of them, Hoffman started.
I think it was the second game. I'm getting, OK, maybe, maybe it

(45:57):
was. What year was it that I had?
I had the massive concussion. They had to plow the fields.
Did they have to plow the fieldsfor that second game?
I'm getting that yeah, 19. 98 or99?
Yeah, it was 98. Yeah.
I think I'm pretty sure PUP threw me the ball.
It was at a post route. So you went to that second game
they they did. Yeah, it was like 3 feet of snow

(46:18):
on the snow back. Yeah, I, I couldn't believe it.
Yeah, the. Ground was like marble and pup
threw me in like a it was. Late in the season.
Yeah, and the safety buckled me under the chin probably like at
the maybe, I don't know, maybe the.
Seven it would have been targeting. 7 yard line and then
my momentum kind of took me intothe end zone and it wasn't so
much the safety hit. Speaking of Burton, me and him
being sharing time at tight end.He came into the the scene and a

(46:41):
second later after I my head whacked onto the pretty much
marble ground and I, I did like an inadvertent icky shuffle.
When I stood up. I was like, where?
Where am I? People are coming up,
congratulate, congratulating me.And I do remember Burton coming
up to me and he's he's looking at everybody congratulating me

(47:03):
and hit me on the head and. He knew.
Stop hitting him. He looked at my eyes and I was
in law. He's like, he's like.
He saw the deer in the headlights like.
He's like here at Coast and at that point it was 2.
Me and him were wings on the PAT.
Oh, it would have. Taken too long for me to get off
and someone else to come back onso he's like he walked me over

(47:24):
physically to my wing position on the PAT and he said he's like
he goes all right just. Step.
That guy and that guy. Like, yeah, you got to step
inside and you. Got to take.
I'm like, OK. And as soon as the play was
over, he walked me right to Bob Howard.
And he's like, hey, Bob, take this guy's helmet.

(47:45):
He's done. Yeah, he he's he's out.
That's crazy. That's crazy.
So that was that was in the second game.
Yeah. And both games were high scoring
and one of. Pretty sure that was 98.
Pretty sure it was one of the UMass games.
That's all I. Remember, yeah, it's 98.
It was, it was 98 because it washigh scoring.

(48:05):
One of them went into overtime and it was, they were both just
such, such incredible games. And that's what sold me, just
seeing the camaraderie. I hate, I hate the word I've
always said it, culture. You guys had a great culture.
We did because culture is a buzzword that people throw

(48:27):
around that I hate because they don't really understand what it
means to have a great culture. But you guys definitely did, and
it must have been an awesome experience that year.
It was we we had a great squad and the last podcast that I did
listen to you, I listened to Jordan Younger and that was the
first time I've I've heard. JY was awesome.
It was. That was the first time I heard

(48:47):
his voice in like 20 years man. I know, I know.
I've been trying. To It was so nice to hear, hear
his story and all that stuff waspretty cool.
You know what? I mean, yeah, I didn't know his
story either. I couldn't believe that he
didn't play football until his sophomore year in high school.
He had been a soccer guy his whole time, and I couldn't
believe he went to the Hunt School.

(49:08):
The Hunt School is one of the most prestigious schools in the
country, especially in New Jersey.
It's right by Princeton, so you have to be really, really smart
academically, and it's obviouslyexpensive to go there.
But he went. George was a.
Speed demon man he. Was he?
Was a great contributor to the team for sure.

(49:28):
I couldn't believe it. Like he said that first of all,
Randy screwed up his pro day, which cracked me up because he
changed. He changed the date three.
It was three days later and so not as many scouts came and he
ran a he he ended up running well there, but then he went to
temples pro day because his agent got him in there.

(49:51):
You that's when you could go to other pro day.
You still can. And he ran a legit 4340 Electric
Time and I'm like, I, I couldn'tbelieve that.
And he said they made him run itlike 4 times because they wanted
to make sure they got it right, that it wasn't just an anomaly.
But yeah, yeah, JY was awesome. You had so many good

(50:14):
contributors on that team. And I remember defensively, Ron
Gamble and Chad Cook. I was terrified.
I was terrified of Chad Cook. I still, I still am.
I think you. Should probably, I haven't seen
Cook in a long, long time, but Imean, that guy, he was that guy
was a man among children. He's I believe he or no, it was

(50:37):
Gamble. Gamble's the CEO now.
I talked to Gamble. So real.
Quick, here's a here's a story real quick for cooking and this
probably you can relate to this completely.
And I think it might have been on scout team or something or I
don't know what. I was, I, I was.
I came back to the huddle super proud that I in my head, I
blocked Cook. Right.
Yes, for once, yes, I, I was I really.

(50:59):
Didn't I just kind of got in the?
Way got in his way. He.
Just didn't make the tackle, right.
He I didn't prevent him. He just, it was the play was the
other side of the field or whatever and I blocked him.
And I mean, if it was one of those plays where he was just
like, all right, you know, you got me.
And I remember going back to thehuddle and my gag my.
Bob, Chad. Cook, I can't believe this is

(51:20):
great and I looked over at him and he's looking on the other.
Side now he's he's looking rightat me.
He's. Like.
He's like, OK. Now watch what?
Happens, I'll give you that. And then next play he just like
just zoomed me around like a little like a little ragdoll.
I was just like, all right. It was short lived, but I was
like, man, he was he was a specimen man.
He really was. He was another great teammate.

(51:40):
He had a lot. Of great upperclassmen, man.
It was the same thing with me myfreshman year.
I was doing pretty well early onand they put me up against
Gamble and I I was OK against Gamble.
Then they put me up against Cookand I remember I, Norice Wilson
was the coach. I looked at Norice, I said you

(52:01):
really want me, is you sure I'm the guy you want to go against
this? And he said you're up.
And I was absolutely mortified and Chad Cook took me, drove me
back probably 3 yards and then tossed me like a rag doll.
Well, I'm pretty sure. And that's the very.

(52:21):
The very next play, I'm pretty sure if it wasn't that, it was
maybe very close to the time period where he decided just to
prove a prove a point. And I'm I'm pretty much
responsible for Hoffman tearing a ligament in his thumb.
You're. Throwing and hitting.
Hitting my helmet because he pushed me so far in the back.

(52:42):
Though, Yeah, pretty hard. For a while, because of, because
of I was on roller skates, because Cook is a man child,
yeah. So the 98 season, do you have
any other memories? Because I mean, you guys just
dominated. You had the best team in UConn
history. You had ten wins.

(53:03):
You you beat everyone from, you know, Yale Northeastern that
tough it it was the Atlantic 10 back then, but it was really
still the Yankee Conference, James Madison, all those
schools. Any any memories that you can
think of from? I do remember 1, I think it was,

(53:26):
I think it was one of the last plays in the Hampton game.
That was, I think that was the game before Georgia Southern.
That was your first playoff game, yes.
Yeah, I do. Remember, it was at home.
It was at home and I do rememberhaving some film against me.
I mean for Cole or for Hampton where I was.

(53:46):
I played just every position of special teams for the exception
of kickoff team, I think. Yeah, is that, I mean, I, I, I
was field quick, but I wasn't, Iwasn't, you know, 60 hard quick,
you know what I mean? So I do remember being on
kickoff return. I pretty much was the the wedge
in the back and I was the, the front line at this time.

(54:07):
I was, I was the like the centeron the front line and I believe
maybe the game. Oh, wow, I got put on film where
I left early and I remember themsaying like, dude, that now the
other team sees that and they'regoing to plan against you.
You're you left early. They could possibly.
I do remember that and I remember working on it and not
leaving early. He's like, dude, I don't want

(54:27):
you leaving until you see the ball kicked because and then I
had to hustle back, get in the wedge, turn around and then get
my face blown up. You.
Know that's that's when he that's right, that's when he
could still do the two man wedge.
So, but I was on the front line,I was literally only what I was
1011 yards in in front of the guy at a running at a, at a
full, full Sprint. And they tried a, they tried a

(54:50):
little squib kick because of that previous game where I
showed. Them because they saw you turn
yeah, because they saw you but. This time I I didn't, I didn't
move and I, I remember. Catching you huge.
In the in the air, right at me. And I remember, I remember the
ball and my face were right hereand I was I was just like a
target. I just got just pummeled.

(55:11):
I remember my I got I helmet thehand, you know, one of those
deals. And I remember my, my fingers
bleeding because of the guy. Guy just really crushed me.
Helmet, helmet, hand, helmet. You know what?
I. Mean, but at least you you
caught the ball. You caught the ball and that
pretty much was, I think that put the the end of the, that was
pretty much the end of the the game at that point for the most

(55:31):
part. I do remember that, and then I
remember Georgia Southern, whichironically 8 years later my
sister got a soccer scholarship to Georgia Southern.
Her husband played football. They're eight years 8.
Years younger than me, my sister's eight years younger
than me, my brother's four yearsolder than me.
So my sister was a little bit ofa oops, you know, I mean.

(55:54):
Yeah, yeah, that's funny. Yeah, that was the last.
I think that was the last time my parents took a vacation by
themselves. Is that, you know, when my
sister was conceived to like agree.
I thought we were done. But the greatest surprise in the
planet. She's literally my my best
friend so. That's awesome.
She went to Georgia Southern. So anyway, we were there and I
remember Adrian Peterson, who I'm I'm friends with, well,

(56:15):
somewhat to this day because my brother in I do remember he, he.
Played in the NFL for a while. He did as he should have.
His brother also played in the NFL.
His brother was a linebacker forMike Peterson for the for
University of Florida. OK.
And. His brother played in the NFL
for a while, but Adrian was justa he was a specimen.

(56:38):
Man, no, I know, I know. That whole team was now I've
talked to, you know, between Temco, Gamble, JY, they all,
yeah, changing the defense really messed things up and they
all believe had you not made those changes and just played

(57:00):
your bass stuff. They also said the heat was a
factor, but they believe that changing the defense was the
mistake the coaching staff made.Yeah, if they say it, it could
be true. I mean, hindsight's always 2020,
you know what I mean? But it's so hard to defend
against that. That that that option, Yeah, you

(57:23):
never see it. The quarterback probably ran A4
four. The both running backs ran a
4445 the all the office of Lymanhad, you know, had like great
feat. You know, they were, they were
all light and agile. I mean, it, it was, it was
really hard to defend. I mean, it, it, it'd be
difficult to point the finger atone thing, but who knows?
I mean, they coaches probably did the best they could based

(57:44):
off the information they had andthey knew what they're going up
against. They're like, shit, we're going
to have to adapt to this. Yeah.
I mean, Adrian, I think on one play he, he might have broken 9
tackles on one play. And I and I think maybe two
tackles might have been a secondattempt by two of our guys.
Like it it, he was just a, he was just a, a specimen man.

(58:07):
And it's no knock against our defense.
Our defense was strong as hell. I mean, I mean, Jamar Baller,
great leader, defensive leader Rennell.
I mean, we, we, they, we had a great defense, man.
But that just got, got, got one up on us, you know?
Yeah, they, they just, they justwere special.
It's tough to watch. And I, I think I think had it,
you know, because you beat the national champions twice, you

(58:31):
beat UMass twice, UMass beats Georgia Southern, I think
because they got to play at home.
And again, like you said, it wascold and snowy and completely
slowed them down. So UMass was able to compete
with them and that's why they won.

(58:54):
But you still go 10 and three amazing season, still the best
season Uconn's ever had. And then unfortunately, like a
few weeks later, Coach hopes is gone.
He ends up going to South Carolina and follows in his
father's footsteps. And that must have been what?

(59:18):
Yeah, 'cause from what Shank hadsaid and Tori Taylor, they said,
you know, he would be there for at least four years.
He, he committed to that. You know, he didn't want them
thinking he was going to stay two years and leave.
He said, I'm going to be there for your career.
And, you know, I, I can promise you that.

(59:42):
So he leaves. You guys must have been, I mean,
were you, were you shocked that he.
Left. Or I mean, obviously you were
dejected by it, but were you shocked?
A. Little shocked, yeah.
Yeah, 'cause you were building something special.
Portion of of college sports at that point you know being older

(01:00:03):
now I I totally get it and totally think it's warranted
decision for him to do that. You know I mean he had the
opportunity to play with his father.
It was a. Yeah, he was the OC first then.
Yeah, I mean. In the FCC.
So I mean, how can you? Who would turn that down?
Yeah, I do. I do remember a funny story.
So at that point, my brother, heplayed it in the Pro Bowl when

(01:00:26):
he's at Purdue and he when you go there for in Hawaii, whatever
the pro. Oh, we played the Senior Bowl.
The Senior Bowl. Sorry.
Yeah, Senior Bowl. Sorry.
Not Pro Bowl. So he's the Senior Bowl.
And everyone exchanges all theirapparel and hey, you know, so
he, my brother came home with a South Carolina like shirt, like
a Gray shirt South. Carolina Cocks.

(01:00:47):
Yeah. And he came home one time and I
I stole that shirt. It was it was just a comfortable
shirt. I was just wearing.
I just stole it just to wear it.And I brought it back up to
school and I was rooming with Temco at that point and when and
I just had it felt like one of those shirts, you just walking
around the dorm and nothing, nothing crazy.
And, and Temco took it and he wore it to that meeting when he.
Found out. Yeah, yeah.

(01:01:08):
It just has a I I should have, Ishould have talked to him about
that, that this weekend because I just remembered that and I'm
probably screwing up some of those details.
But I do remember him saying Nah, Nah, I'm wearing it.
I'm like, bro, I'm like, don't, don't do that dude.
I mean, and he's like, Nah, I'm like looking back on it was
pretty freaking hilarious. Was it what?
Because. I got I got to follow up with

(01:01:29):
him on the more on the details of that, but I do.
Remember him? He told you right?
That he was leaving? Yeah, he had a meeting and he
told the team. I think we all got the heads.
We might have gotten the heads up prior to to the meeting.
That's why I think right shirt. But I mean, but yeah, all that's
a little fuzzy, honestly, that whole the whole goodbye and all
that stuff. But I was definitely shocked
because, you know, I, I, I like more, I like playing for him,

(01:01:52):
even though he was he. Was a player's coach.
He, he, he got, he got on me a few times.
I do, I do. I get, you know, like every
coach, I do remember playing Northeastern and every, all of
my high school friends were there because a lot of my
friends came up to visit. Like that's awesome.

(01:02:13):
They're. At that game, and it was
Northeastern game is like you'rein a, you're in a neighborhood,
you know what I mean? It's like.
Yeah. That's Susan.
You can see everybody's like you.
Know Oh, you're talking about Northeastern Stadium?
Northeastern Stadium, Yeah. Yeah, and I.
Remember, I remember 1, Callahancame to my rescue, even though
the damage is already done. I already got spit on and and

(01:02:34):
yelled at. But I do remember we were on the
goal line and I'm on, I'm playing tight end and hey, one
of the linebackers came up and he, the linebacker, said Hut,
right? So oh, he simulated the count.
He simulated the count which. Is illegal, yeah.
I jumped offsides on the OH. God.

(01:02:57):
And Fields, I'm like, I guess wehad to settle for a field goal
or something at that point. I'm not really sure.
Etzel grabbed me by the face mask and he's like, he's ripping
into me. And I'm like, at this point I'm
like, coach, I'm sorry, it's my fault.
But and then Dennis goes coach, he came up to me.
He came to my defense. And he's like, I don't care.

(01:03:18):
You got to be more disciplined. Than that he's like literally
spitting into my face and I'm atthis point I'm like, all right,
so I do remember like turning and slapping coach.
That's their coach Holtz on the ass.
And I said I'm like, all right, coach, good talk, good talk.
And I walked off completely dejected and getting the look
from a few people like laughing that I smacked him in the ass,

(01:03:42):
but he wasn't listening to my coach.
I'm sorry, you know, but and Callahan, he definitely tried to
come to my defense, but the damage is already done.
I already already. Had that that's that's.
Hilarious and everything just getting ripped.
Ripped a new one but. Yeah, that's funny.
So I, I, I, I do remember, like the guy said, that Skip had the

(01:04:04):
meeting and announced he was leaving.
And I have respect that he did it like that.
He did it like a man. He explained that he had an
opportunity and he was taking it.
So he leaves and quickly Coach Etzel was named the head coach.

(01:04:24):
He was the defensive coordinatorat Georgia Tech, and I actually
had Edsel on the show and he hadtold me he had wanted to be a
head coach for a while and he interviewed for a bunch of jobs
and he never got them because hedidn't have coordinator

(01:04:45):
experience. He was always a defensive back
coach and like Syracuse, he wanted, he expected to have an
opportunity. When Dick McPherson left, he
didn't. Tom Coughlin leaves, he thought
he was next in line. He didn't get it and the the
reason was coordinator experience.

(01:05:06):
So he goes to Georgia Tech. They have a great year.
He was the DC. They beat Notre Dame in the bowl
game. UConn hires them now.
He, he, he admits this, he, he comes to UConn and he tries to
beat Tom Coughlin and he comes in with a really, really tough

(01:05:28):
attitude, especially on the players that were there.
And the story that everyone tells is when you guys got your
championship rings at the meeting, he was just throwing
them at you. So I got here, here, here you
go, here you go. And he didn't really like
appreciate that's that season and how well you did.

(01:05:49):
Do you remember that meeting? It was, it was fuzzy.
I don't remember him like throwing the rings at everybody.
I, I mean, I, I think that he heshowed not so much disrespect,
but it was, it was it kind of that's what it was, but it was
just like, yeah, yeah, we're on a bigger, better things here.
Here's your ring, here's your one AA ring.
Congratulations. Here's your you know but.

(01:06:10):
We're moving on up. Yeah, it wasn't.
Some people took big time offense to it, but I was like,
who's this guy, you know? But I do remember I, I remember
that which I think he would haveknown everybody on this on the
roster at that point by the timehe came.
I'm sure he I would think he would have done his research,
even if it was on the plane or even if it was like, oh, here's
my players here. They are where they came from.

(01:06:32):
Maybe he didn't, maybe he did tomaybe some of the the big time
game changers. But I do remember us going like
in a line and introducing ourselves to him after his
speech that day. And I introduced myself to him
and he shook my hand and he looked at me and he goes, Dan
Degnan, He goes, dude, do you have a brother, Rob Degnan?

(01:06:57):
And I go. Right.
And I go. Yeah, I do.
I do, yeah. Oh, you know, you know.
What? You know, I was like, OK, yeah.
He goes. He looked at me.
He's like, nice to meet you, son, nice to meet you.
And I'm like, all right, cool. The head coach knows my brother.
Maybe this is good for me. I don't know.
Or maybe I have a shot. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so it turns out that he recruited my brother at Boston

(01:07:21):
College when he was there with Coughlin.
My brother went there for a visit with another guy from
Saint Thomas playing with Kirk, all the Dottie.
His dad was a special teams coach in the NFL for like 30.
Years. Yeah, Yeah.
So one of a legend. That special.
So they they both went to BostonCollege together and they both
went to Purdue together and theygave the maybe they gave Edsel

(01:07:41):
the impression that they really liked it.
And it's wow. And then they didn't commit
they're. Like, hey, well, we're going to
go to another another school andafter that we make our decision.
But I guess at that time, Etzel kind of thought it was a shoe in
that they're coming to Boston College, they're not going to go
to Purdue, they're going to. Come to Boston College.
And both of them decided to go to Purdue.
So, so my mom, when she saw thatEtzel was the head coach, my mom

(01:08:04):
goes, she was super worried thathe was going to hold it against
me that, that my brother, my brother didn't didn't choose
him, you know, but but she but yeah, that's a funny story.
But I do remember him coming in and all that stuff.
And I I had a decent relationship with.
Why? You did and and when I came in
in 99, you know, I just rememberit was you, Tommy Collins,

(01:08:31):
Rashad came in and I thought youguys were like the hardest
working, most talented group. Lyndon Johnson was your head
coach. I had I had him on a couple
weeks ago. Oh, no kidding.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was on I and and he just, you

(01:08:52):
guys worked so hard and there were only a few of you and you
busted your tails like you. I I remember watching your indie
like our indie was tough as an offensive lineman, but we had,
you know, 12 guys. You guys had like 3 or 4 and it
was your indie was non-stop. You guys worked so hard and

(01:09:12):
that's that's how I remember, you know, getting to getting to
know you because you know, you really stepped up as a leader.
You led by example with how hardyou worked in practice, how hard
you worked in the weight room, how hard you played in the game
because you know, you were always on the field, offense,

(01:09:34):
special teams, you did everything asked of you and that
really stood out. And you know, a lot of guys that
I've had on struggled when CoachEtzel came in and you managed to
win his trust, I would say like you, you got on his good side

(01:09:58):
because he saw your work ethic. He saw how hard you played.
He saw that during games you were dependable, you were
reliable, you didn't make mistakes and you can make plays.
And so Burton moved to center and you you became the starting
tight end. You and you and Tommy were in

(01:10:21):
there. So just, I mean, was that, was
that a difficult experience for you when when coach came in and
you know, you got to prove yourself all over again?
Yeah, so it's funny you say thatbecause Speaking of, you
mentioned Tommy and Rashad, bothgreat friends and awesome,
awesome athletes, awesome tight end.

(01:10:42):
So I hosted, I'm 2 for two on hosting.
I hosted Luke Richmond. And he, he hosted the Duke,
Yeah. Hosted Luke Richmond.
He came and then I, I, I hosted Tommy Collins for his.
And I was there, too. I was on Tommy's visit.
Yeah. Yeah, Harper hosted me.
I remember we went, Tommy wasn'tso I'll, I remember this going

(01:11:05):
on our recruiting visit and we're in the field house and
I'm, I'm looking at Tommy and I'm like, man, this kid's a
stud. He's he's going to make an
impact here. He's just.
He was he he he had went to the bowl school which one of the top
programs in Florida as well for a while.
Yep. And then I think he did he did
he transfer? I think he.
Transfer. Yes.
He transferred Kenny. Transfer.
Bishop Kenny. Yes, Yeah.

(01:11:25):
Just a stud. You look at him, you're like,
dude, you've been working out for a while.
Yeah, no, I showed the same thing.
Yeah, he's, he was just a physical specimen.
I remember, you know, I, I welcomed him with open arms,
knowing he was a tight end. And I do remember at the field
house, Etzel, he was, I was showing him everything.
And there was a couple guys playing basketball and Etzel
comes through the door like where the coaches are.

(01:11:46):
And Etzel wanted to show everybody his his recruit like.
Hey, guys, look at Tom. This is This is.
This is my guy. Hey, hey, Danny, pass, pass,
pass Tommy the ball. I'm like, oh, oh, sure, coach.
Yeah. And you all, he goes, hey, guys,
come here. And he brings everybody out.
Like all the coaches are lined up with the basketball.
And he goes, hey, Tommy, why don't you show them a quick

(01:12:08):
dunk? Real quick, buddy.
And I'm. And here I am.
I'm. I'm throwing the ball.
Like we're just like messing around.
I'm just like, oh, here's the racquetball courts, basketball.
Here's basketball. And I throw Tommy the ball.
I'm like, oh, dunk. I go.
Oh, you, you can dunk. And not only he did.
He dumped, he took the. Ball and just like straight up
like tomahawk Dominique Wilkins.Like Oh my God, elbow above the

(01:12:32):
rim like. You.
Know what I mean? And I and I look over at Edsel.
I look over and he's. Like, huh, Hey, you see my boy?
Oh my. And I'm like and I I look.
At he well, he just did. And I'm like, I go, I might not.
I might never play again. Oh my God.
And I'm like, all right, let's get away from the basketball

(01:12:53):
court. Let's do something you're not
going to embarrass me at, you know, so.
I That's crazy. Yeah, he just, like dunked it
like as if you had like. Jumped into him.
Oh my God, that's he was an amazing athlete and I was on
that visit with him and I remember he was like a a reason

(01:13:13):
why I committed because I talkedto him.
I said, are, are, are are you going to do this?
And he said, yeah, I think I am.And he said, all right, if
you're, if you're coming, I'm, I'm going to come to, I said,
let's do it. And the visit was so much fun.
We, you know, we, we got to go to Huskies and then we got to go

(01:13:34):
to a house party. And I remember we were just so
hungover. And Coach Edsel, the next day,
you know, we were doing the academics with Bev and then he
gave us like a couple hours to take naps because we were all
hungover and we all took naps. And then we went out again
Saturday night. Well, I was definitely, I was

(01:13:57):
definitely there throwing them back.
I I. That's hilarious for myself.
Too, But yeah. And I had already committed at
that point. It was, it was weird because I
was one of the people like I committed without visiting,
which is crazy. I was just like, because I, I
had, I had a lot of offers, but I had New Hampshire, I had

(01:14:20):
Northeastern, UMass, I had Rutgers, Buffalo and Maine.
And I wanted to play Division One.
I really wanted Syracuse. Syracuse didn't offer me.
I had Buffalo too. Buffalo was horrible.
Rutgers was horrible. Yukon was going into the Big

(01:14:42):
East and I just figured I want to play in the Big East, I want
to be part of that foundation. So I committed without even
seeing campus, without even visiting.
So on my visit I had already committed and Tommy said he was
he was doing it as well and thatwas a big part of it.

(01:15:03):
And we had such a great visit. So the 99 season now, I always
say we, you know, coach even admitted it.
He was, he was tough. And you know, we had we had
talent and we could have won a lot more, but he just was stuck
in his ways. He was a strict disciplinarian.

(01:15:26):
He ran a lot of guys off. He was, he was so tough on
Hoffman. And that's one looking back on.
I wish, I wish my, my, my balls would have dropped sooner with
that, so to speak. I wish I would have built up the
courage to maybe pull that soul aside and say, hey, look, you

(01:15:47):
know, this is a. You got a light?
Now with with Hoffman and also with Fezzy.
Yeah, he he fest check. He was tough on him.
Yep. You know, I mean, those guys
were just bled, you know, blue, they just bled team.
They were just, I mean, Fest Check was probably one of the
toughest dudes I've ever. Come off.
Yeah, He was a human bulldozer. Yeah.

(01:16:08):
I know you've you've talked about it in a couple other
podcasts maybe. I I I tried to look on the
Internet for probably 2 hours one night after I heard it on
your podcast and it reminded me of that Kentucky hit with Fez.
Oh, Layman was talking about it too, yes.
Yeah, I, I couldn't find it anywhere.
I almost want to. I almost want to e-mail Kathy
and say, hey, can you find this?We need to.

(01:16:30):
I need to see this. Yeah.
I, I remember him again, fuzzy details.
I, I don't know if I, I usually was on every kickoff return
team, but I for some reason, I think I might have been on the
sideline because I felt like I was watching it like front row.
Who knows, maybe I was on the field.
I don't know. But I do remember the hit, the
sound, and I do remember both ofthem falling back and the guy,

(01:16:54):
other guy in Kentucky too. Yeah.
The guy was that other guy was out cold.
Yeah, check was like out for maybe a second and just rolled
over and and stumbled and neededhelp off the field.
And the other guy needed two guys to carry him off the field.
Not I. For some reason I feel like that
guy came back and played. Yeah.
I I do vaguely remember that, but that hit was that was a

(01:17:15):
straight up car accident. Yeah, no, I remember, 'cause I,
I, I do. I do a podcast with Laban and
that was the game that ended hiscareer, the Kentucky game.
He got a really, really bad concussion on kickoff as well.
And I remember on the bus ride home, he was a disaster and he

(01:17:41):
couldn't play after that. He just, he ran indoor track and
fuzzy play. Fuzzy played.
And like you said, he bled blue.He, you know, we ran power, we
ran ISO. And he was, like I said, a human
bulldozer, whatever, whenever itwas called, he would just drill
everyone. But that year, unfortunately,

(01:18:05):
was a disappointment. I thought we could have done
better. And coach kind of, you know,
every coach kind of does it. We, we saw Deion Sanders do it.
You know, when he came in Colorado, the players that were
there, he, he got rid of them, he ran them off.
And Coach Etzel kind of did the same thing.
And, you know, we, we could havekept a lot of guys for the 2000

(01:18:30):
year, but you're one of the guysthat he kept.
Were you surprised, like when you met with him after the
season, that he stuck with you? I, you know, you felt really
good. Relationship.
I think that I was just, I thinkhe just saw me as, you know, a

(01:18:51):
guy that was just going to put his head down and work hard and,
you know, and just be a good team player type guy.
Not cause problems. Not cause problems.
I know that taxi he ran taxi offand Fezzi and Hoffman and then I
think that I think that was it. But I mean, Hoffman was a stud.
Yes, he was an incredible athlete.

(01:19:12):
Unbelievable athlete. Great quarterback.
He's a good, good friend of mine.
And I mean, he went over to whenhe left there, he went to
whatever was it. Eastern.
Yeah, he transferred to KentuckyWesleyan.
And he broke every record that. Ever.
Existed in their program, you know what I mean different
talent level, but I mean as far as what the competition he's

(01:19:34):
playing, I'm sure, but the guy will is just proven to be.
I mean they just had they just butted heads.
They're like 2 lions and one den.
They just didn't, you know? Well, I remember Randy had him
seeing a sports psychologist because he was, he was messing
with his head so much and you know, he didn't have his
confidence and it was just toughplaying for him because.

(01:19:55):
You know, there was a little bitmore support behind him and
just, you know, I believe in you.
I think that you know. He would have been.
Sky's the limit for Hoffman. He was.
And he proved. This.
He was an awesome quarterback, awesome athlete.
You know the last thing you wantthat guy to do is get out of the
pocket as a defense. You don't want him running.
He will. Exactly.
He's just a just a natural, gifted athlete.

(01:20:18):
And he proved it. And, you know, I remember that
year RC had trouble with his knee.
Tabor stepped up, Barry, Barry Chandler stepped up.
You know Barry. Barry was a great running back.
It was. And 99 just didn't go as
planned. 2000 happens and it's Brian, Brian Tracy comes in.

(01:20:42):
He, he's unbelievable. And you were the tight end.
Tommy got moved to full back. And you know, we, we had, we had
a lot of success early on. I remember Tracy playing well.
I remember the Colgate game. We, we started out.
That was the first night game. They brought the lights in.

(01:21:06):
I just remember having fun. That was I I got to start that
year. Do you have any memories early
on? I do.
Tracy was a good, good human being, man, He really just.
A great guy. Great guy.
I do remember he blew out his knee.
I remember that that set him back.

(01:21:27):
Yes, yes, that was Rhode Island,I think.
And then he who was the office according to the new quarterback
coach or someone who was number.One Dave, Dave Warner, Dave
Warner. And something happened with his
confidence and changing this andchanging that when he was in
recovery, he just, he was in a bad space mentally, you know,

(01:21:48):
and. You saying when he when he left?
Well, right, that's what I do remember after his injury, he
tried to come back and. Yes, yes, they that's when
Warner left and they brought in Jerry Franks.
Yes, Who was a high school coach?
That's where I think he not, he was not only struggling to
recover from a, a pretty bad knee injury, but then to build

(01:22:08):
his confidence back up and then the, then the, the change in
coaching and then I, I think it,it, it stole the like the love
of the game from him. It did.
It did. And I think he had a lot of, I
mean, he had. He was incredible.
Potential man, he had potential to play at another level.
I think if if he didn't have theknee and then everything else.
I I do remember when I after I graduated, it was Jeff Heil

(01:22:32):
called me. Yeah.
And I don't even know how he got.
I didn't even know if I had a cell phone at that point.
But he got a hold of me and he goes, hey, I want to let you
know that Tracy left and I go, what?
We talking about he left in the middle of the night.
He left in the middle of the night and got his car and drove
to California. Yeah.
Yeah, and I, I remember talking to him in the car, calling him

(01:22:56):
like Kyle called me. And probably, I was probably
maybe one of a few people. I'm like, hey.
Do you? Oh, you.
Actually got a hold of him. I spoke to him, yeah.
Oh my God. And looking back on it.
We all tried calling us. I wonder.
If he would have, there's a few things that I, I was thinking
about after that, I hung up the phone that I'm like, I wish I
would have said and looking backon it, I didn't.
It would have probably made it sound like I was guilting him

(01:23:17):
and that this was his journey. You know, I mean, I was going to
let him, but I, what I wanted tosay was, man, you got a, you got
a lot of people relying on on you.
Depending on you, yeah. Then I'm not saying you
abandoned them in any way because you but like I think
Rashad Drayton could have playedin the NFLI think yeah, or at

(01:23:37):
least had a better chance if he you know, and and I'm not saying
that that. We we didn't have a quarterback
that. There was a flow.
There's a flow that Tracy had and he just, it just, he was In
Sync with a lot of the receivers, a lot of the tight
ends and. With Fitzy, Yep.
It just okie, yeah, it, you know, there's a lot of people's
trajectory changed because of that, that move, but he did what

(01:23:58):
was best for him and I, I, I'm, I'm OK with that.
But yeah, he did call me almost like, hey, can you convince him
to come back? Kind of like he's in a bad
place. Call him.
And I remember calling him, speaking him for.
Like, I can't believe he. I can't believe I'm glad.
I'm glad you got him. And at the end of the
conversation, it came to, you know, he's like Danny.
I, I, I just, I don't. Maybe this will change.

(01:24:19):
Maybe I'll get to California. And I'll regret this decision.
Maybe I'll regret it 10 years from now.
I don't know. But right now I don't.
The love of the game has been robbed from me.
Yeah, he, he really, he couldn'tstand Jerry Franks because he,
Franks didn't know the offense. He would send in plays during
practice and they would be called wrong.

(01:24:41):
And I remember Tracy would yell,coach, we can't run it this way.
Like, he'd call the formation wrong or he'd call the route
combination wrong. And it drove Tracy nuts.
And, you know, he really wanted Norice to be the OC.
He loved playing for Warner. And, you know, he just couldn't

(01:25:03):
stand Jerry Franks. And he left in the middle of the
night. But going back to the 2000
season, what I didn't like was we never named captains.
We had game day captains and then at the end of the year they
named who the captain was and you are the captain.

(01:25:24):
And I thought that was so such an incredible accomplishment
because you know, Randy, it was a very, very difficult to earn
his respect. And you did that.
You did that because you came towork every day.
You never took a playoff. You played so hard.

(01:25:45):
You made plays. And at a position, tight end,
you know, I coached tight ends in college at Holy Cross.
Tight end is the most difficult position because you have to
block like a tackle. You have to run routes and catch
passes like a wide receiver. You're expected to block in

(01:26:07):
space like a wide receiver and you have to do so many different
things. Like what I, when I coached, we
ran counter where we would pull the guard in the tight end.
We wouldn't pull, pull the guardand tackle.
So my tight ends had to pull andand follow through the hole.
My tight ends, we ran zone divide where the we run zone

(01:26:32):
right and the tight end would beat a wing and he'd come across
and Wham the backside at. So they had the Titan had to do
so much. And that's what you did.
And then I remember at the banquet, you were named captain.
And I thought that was just an amazing accomplishment.
And I thought that you absolutely earned it because

(01:26:56):
that team you were that you werethe true leader.
I mean, you took control when things were going wrong.
I, I, I, I know you probably don't remember this, but we, we
were having a bad practice in the Berkshires.
And Randy, Randy just said, fuckit, we're done.
And he, he was leaving and you called everyone back and you

(01:27:19):
said, we're going to run plays, let's go.
And we kept practicing and we ran through the script by
ourselves with a couple of the assistants stayed and coach kind
of watched from a distance. But you made that happen.
You called everyone back and everyone, because everyone
respected you. We continued practicing.

(01:27:41):
Do you remember that? Moment I do I do I so I, I do
remember it was, I think it was raining or it was wet, right?
Yeah, it was awful. Yeah, people were.
Everyone was feeling sorry for themselves.
I do remember that. And I knew that we were on
borrowed time. We was.
He was. A ticking time bomb and we're
like, dude, this is not going togo well for us right for all of
us and we're we're we're playingon a a field that's like a

(01:28:05):
marble. You know, it's like 1 big.
In the Burton Rock, You know it.Was off and you know so and but
it was wet and rainy and everyone's dropping the ball or
catch, you know, everyone's justplaying poor on the other side
of the ball. And I could, you know, and then
I do remember them dropping the ball and then Randy's like,
that's it, call it up and. I'm done and.

(01:28:26):
I said that's that I think. And I, I said, no, no, practice
ain't over. And I go everyone, I called
everyone up and I called the defense up and I, I said, what
is it not going to rain during the season?
Well, it's going to be perfect weather all the time.
You're feeling sorry for yourselves.
I'm like, dude, we are running the play and I and I say coaches
feel free to leave and and then I said O CS if you want to stay

(01:28:47):
and call in some plays out from the sideline field.
For Tracy will call him, yeah. But we'll, we're we're going to
finish this practice. I'm sorry.
You can you don't need to be a part of this anymore.
And, and then I remember callingJamar over and and I said,
Jamar, you know, do the same forthe other side of the field, for
the defense. And then we call the plays.
And I do remember that. And we finished well.

(01:29:08):
It was probably another 30 minutes, just just to kind of
end on a good note. It was just a big moment, yeah.
Yeah, but I I it was one of those times that I like, I
literally like saw like red. Like I'm like, dude, this is not
happening. You guys are being wusses.
And anyway, I remember us walking off the field after we
called it up after practice is over.
And I remember, Oh my gosh. Oh, T Rich, Terry Richardson.

(01:29:30):
T Rich, Yeah. T Rich comes up to me and we're
walking. We're walking.
We're all like raining. We're wet, you know, and I
remember him coming up to me andand he's from he's from South
Florida. He's.
Yeah, he's a Florida guy. Yeah.
Yeah, so. And he comes up to me, Andy, he
knows my he knows my head coach at Saint Thomas.
And he came up to me. He's like Dan.

(01:29:53):
Coach Smith can be real proud tohear of this story.
Yeah, it is. I'm like, oh, I'm like, I didn't
do it for accolades. And I'm like, well, thank you,
coach. I appreciate it, you know, But
it was like one of those moments.
I was like, dude, someone's got to do something because this is.
We're going to. Yeah, this is not good.
I remember it to this day. Yeah, but thanks for bringing
that up. That's the first time I've heard
remember that story in a while. I remember it to this day

(01:30:15):
because, you know, there there aren't many people who would
step up and take charge in a situation like that where
everything's going wrong, everyone's down, everyone's
dejected. And they're the one guy says,
fuck that, we're not going out like this, Come back.

(01:30:37):
We're going to practice, we're going to show what we can do and
we're going to finish strong. And that's what you did.
And you know, I know we had gameday captains all year and he
named the true captain at the end of the year.
And it was you. And I just thought that was such
an amazing accomplishment and something you truly earned.

(01:31:02):
And I you should have been captain all year, but being
named at the end of the year, out of all the awards that were
given, I thought that was the most prestigious award that you
that you got. Thanks bro, I appreciate it man,
that means a lot to me. It's one of my most proudest
moments, I would say. And, and, and it was a, you

(01:31:23):
know, that year was tough. I mean, we played BC we played
Louisville. I mean, we had a tough schedule
and we competed in every game even though we were we were four
and seven or whatever. We we could have easily won a
few more games, but we were competitive.

(01:31:44):
Tracy threw 20 touchdowns to five interceptions in the eight
games he played. He got hurt because Evan Benson
missed the cup block against Rhode Island, I believe.
And then then it was, you know, then we kind of lost because,

(01:32:07):
yeah, we had Willis, we had the Duke that played and we just
struggled. But it was our first year of one
a ball. I remember the first game at
Eastern Michigan we had we couldhave won that.
We we were driving down to win the game and we we got stuffed.
But it was just an amazing experience and I was so happy
for you guys because you you went through everything, you

(01:32:31):
went through hell, you weren't on that 98 team and then you
finally made it and you played Division 1A football.
You were A1A player and a captain so.
Real quick, going back to I'm going to rewind just a just a
second when you're talking aboutCaptain and Etzel and all that,

(01:32:54):
going back even before that, after my last, going into my
last year after like what is it?Red shirt junior year, I don't
remember what it is, but the year, the year before my last
year playing, yeah, I had to getshoulder surgeries, right?
So yes, yes, yes, yes. And I and the year before that,
me, me, Bob, and at the time wasmarried to Bornek.
It was. An Angel.

(01:33:14):
Absolutely, Angel. They're like, hey, we were
contemplating surgery the year before and I'm like, let's just
go ahead and strengthen the shoulders and the deltoids.
So I did that. So going into my right after the
seasons ended going and I have one more season left.
Doctor Messenger, Was he still the Doctor on?
Your yeah, yeah, he. Was the orthopedic.
Guy we had Doc A, we, we had thedoctor Joyce, the guy that

(01:33:36):
limped, he was the orthopedic guy.
That was him then. Joyce was a messenger mate.
Joyce. So the guy had a one leg was
shorter or something? Like that.
Yeah, that was him, Yeah. I think he was my surgeon,
honestly. It's.
Something, yeah, he, he did, he did.
He did a lot of the ortho stuff,yeah.
So I remember having a conversation with him.
Doc Anderson, rest in Peace and Bob Howard and Mary saying, hey

(01:33:57):
look, you're going to need bilateral shoulder
reconstructions. Oh, so it was major surgery?
So yeah, so he told me he goes, I I think you're playing days
are over. And I didn't tell him to in so
many words. I dropped a couple F bombs in
that meeting. I remember that saying, with all
due respect, I didn't tell him to go FF offense.

(01:34:20):
I just pretty much said that's not even happening type thing.
So I'm like you do your job, fixmy shoulders, I'll do I'll do my
job when I'm in recovery. So I I did that it.
Was did they put you in a brace after that?
Yeah, so I woke up on my left one was subluxing.
It was like multi directional instability, bank art, legion,

(01:34:40):
labral, labral tears, you name it.
So I remember waking up like this and A and a, you know, a, a
a a real stiff cast right here after the first one.
And that was the like that was the season got over like
November 21st and that one was done I think December 3rd or
something like that. And.
Then did they do your rotator cuff too?

(01:35:02):
They did just about everything. I got a bunch of anchors in
there, you name it. And then this one I got cut open
in the front and I woke up like this.
And this one was only six weeks,five weeks after this one, so I
could. Barely.
You did both. Holy, I could barely, I could
barely wipe my rear end before Igot the other one done.
Yeah, I. Was like, I'm playing my last
year, yeah, let's do them both. Let's get it done.

(01:35:26):
And. Every rehab must have been
crazy. Awful.
I think it was like 26 straight weeks, six days a week at. 6.
AM so I was I bring that up because I was determined I
missed spring ball. I was trying to get back in the
to play the next year, my final year because I was like I'm not
going to play on let's be honest.
I mean, I after this surgery is pretty much put the nail in the

(01:35:46):
coffin for my career. And I don't think I had the
talent to play at the next level.
Maybe, maybe a scout team personor something.
But if that, But I, I, the reason I bring that up is
because I was kind of out of sight, out of mind a little bit.
You know, I mean, because I was in rehab therapy six, 6 1/2 days
a week. I was doing something every
single day. Regardless, even if I was.

(01:36:08):
Had to train, so I was doing something to get my my stuff
back to, you know, playing. And.
All that right, So and Mary Tavornik.
Awesome human. Being.
She was there with me every stepof the way.
Bob was there every step of the way for me to get me back to
where I need to be. Miss Spring Ball.
But I was kind of absent. I was kind of on the team, but I

(01:36:29):
was kind of there as like a cheerleader kind of almost, you
know, I mean, I. Wasn't I Remember you were there
every day. During the season, Coach Martin,
rest in peace. As well God.
Bless his soul, he he was with me and Hootie, who I love to
this death to this day, she's a unbelievable human being.
Doing a great job, yes, Yeah. Coach, Coach Martin was with me

(01:36:50):
and we were doing all these random like exercises on the
field and I would come over withwith ice on my shoulders and
just kind of be there for the younger guys.
But I was at that time. You were a coach, yeah.
Etzel formed a like a leadershipcouncil.
Yes, he did. Yes, and I had a.
Problem with it 'cause he left me off of it, yes.

(01:37:11):
And I remember it was one of theother moments where I was like,
no, so I went to his office and I said, we need to talk.
And I pretty much said, Hey, look, look, I know that I'm in
recovery, in rehab and I'm kind of not on the field.
So I'm maybe not being seen and leading by example on the field.
But you know, I've been killing myself to come back to play for
you. And I think you're making a bad

(01:37:32):
decision, leaving me off this leadership council, which was
mostly all the seniors. And he said, he said, he said,
I'm, I'm extremely, I apologize.You're 100% right.
I, I apologize, you're, you're on it.
Our next meeting is, you know, so and so and I was on it from
that point on. And at that point, I do remember

(01:37:53):
just kind of almost being there in spring ball, just kind of
just being there as a moral support guy, you know what I
mean? You were you.
You were a coach. You were a coach on the field,
basically. I remember that.
But when he did say he didn't he, I remember that meeting, he
said. He goes.
We're not picking captains because no one has stepped up.
To to win, yeah. To show, so we have 11 games in
the season. There's 10 graduate.

(01:38:15):
You knew there's 10, there's 10 graduating seniors.
Well, he he made that announcement.
I thought he made that announcement to the team because
we had 10 graduating seniors, which was me, Darby, Jamar.
Durfus. Durfus Temco.
Renell. I think Bill Newman, I think,

(01:38:38):
was also graduating that year. Yep. 50 Who else?
I'm missing two more. Colin, Chris.
Casper. Casper.
I can't remember his name. Did I say Derfa?
Sorry. Yeah, the the white kid, we used
to call him Casper. I can't there was there was 10

(01:38:59):
of us. I apologize for forgetting
somebody, but I remember him being 10.
So he's look, he's like here, everyone's going to get a game.
And then he, you know, so it's not like a knock against me or
anything, but I guess, you know,it's kind of like almost like
everyone's like interviewing runaway for the, the captain's
thing, you know, the captain's job.
But I had Louisville. I do remember that, but it was

(01:39:20):
kind of a weird way to do it I thought.
But. I agree super.
Honored that I was chosen. I mean, I honestly, it could
have been I, it could have been anybody, if you ask me.
I mean, we had no, no big guys. You know, I mean, it could not
have been. Damar, Darby.
It it was either you were you were.
You were Jamar, in my opinion. Yeah, Jamar was a stellar
leader. And Jamar, when I interviewed,

(01:39:40):
when I had him on, he, he said he knew.
He said my responsibility was tokeep the work ethic and culture
going in the program. So it you know, that when I
leave, these guys continue to work as hard as they're expected
to work. And I remember he even did a

(01:40:02):
winter workout with us after he had been done playing.
He, he came, he's like, I'm, youknow, you guys aren't working
hard enough. I'm going to show you guys how
to work. And he did.
He did a winter workout with us because he wanted the defensive
line. He knew how special they could
be because if they ended up being incredible, we had

(01:40:26):
Mulcahy, we had Smoot, we had UI, we had Hakeem Kashama and
and they just became a force. And it was because of, you know,
how Jamar LED them. And I, I think the same with the
tight end group because of the example you let nobody worked

(01:40:50):
harder than you. And I think that it, it paid off
because the underclassmen saw that and they kept it going.
So you being you being you beingnamed captain, like I said, I
know they handed out a bunch of awards, but in my opinion, that
was the most prestigious award won that year.

(01:41:14):
And nobody worked harder and youearned it.
And I was so proud that you werenamed captain and you were the,
you were the real captain because nobody, nobody had,
nobody had the passion, the desire, determination and the
heart that you had. And that's something you can't

(01:41:36):
coach, having heart and determination.
You had that every year you played.
And nobody, you know, Burton started bleeding blue for good.
Nobody blood blue more than you.So that's what I congratulate.
Well, you know what? It also there's a lot of people
before me that set set good examples, like absolutely, like

(01:41:58):
De Lucia, you know, like you know, like Pop, like Carl Don.
Chains. Even going back to Pat Russo or.
You. Know Kevin Bannister, all those
guys, you know what I mean? They all set good examples, so I
mean. And to this and I think.
It was an honor to to to be named captain and was honored to

(01:42:19):
play with you guys. I mean, I'm it.
Was literally. That's all I wanted to do.
I just the camaraderie. I will say after after
graduating, I don't know if any other players have said it.
I mean, I definitely went through a little bit of a tough
time like. Yeah, everyone.
Everyone kind. Of did, yeah.
You know, it's you're a, you're a little pawn.
And then you come out in the real world and they're like
you're you're you're a nobody. You're starting over all over

(01:42:40):
again. Absolutely.
The brotherhood, the camaraderie, you know, so it
was, it was definitely tough. It was, it was very tough for me
as well because you know, everything was done for you as a
player. You know, your classes were
booked for you, your books were all set for you, your meals were
set for you. And then all of a sudden it's

(01:43:02):
taken away. You're just a regular, regular
student. And, you know, we didn't have an
alumni support group like we're trying to build now.
I I don't know if you're a member of the National Sea Club,
but you should be having a Freeman runs it.
It's an alumni group that we're trying to set up to help the

(01:43:28):
student athletes who are graduating get jobs in the field
that they're interested in. So the National C Club, Kevin
Freeman runs it, It's free to join.
And you should absolutely join it because you know, you could
definitely help the players thatare graduating that may want to

(01:43:48):
get into medical sales. So what was your first job
coming out? So I do remember we spoke about
Luke Perkins earlier. So it was when me and me and
Fitzy had a real quick, I'll, I'll give you a long story here.
So me and Fitzy had a we work for Kyle Muncie in the marketing
department that was. Our Oh, OK.

(01:44:10):
That was our pass fail like class we had.
So I was my fifth year, so it was really my.
You would, yeah. You would graduate.
I had a class on Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30 to 11:00 and
then I had Kyle's class where wewould like go into like the
basketball bus and like do statsand like put the envelopes in,
do alumni stuff, like do a lot. Of yeah, yeah, there was there.

(01:44:31):
Was literally it was a pass. Fail.
And we were like, we're we're passing, Yeah.
And Kyle was just a great dude. Yeah, he still is to this day.
When I was up there for one of the what was it the game we went
to for the captains came out in the field.
I I was trying to see Kyle, but Kyle was, I think a whale at a
wedding. Oh, you, you came up.
You came up to that game this year.

(01:44:52):
This past year, yeah. Oh, the first time in a long
time. Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes, I
remember that. So.
Good for you. Yeah, it was a good time.
It was. I brought my son.
He was 10 years old. It was my it was his first time
and my wife's first time come going back to a football game.
But my son saw like he was up inthe boots and he.
Yeah. Yeah, she thought it was.

(01:45:13):
That was a cool dude at that point.
When he sees me go on the field,it was kind of cool.
Did you? You got to see Burton.
No, Burton actually didn't. Didn't make it.
He was probably the Suns game. Yeah, his son at Georgetown, but
I think yeah, he he didn't, he didn't make it, but I didn't
know. I did see Kevin Basser, who's
right next to me and Uli. Yeah.
And obviously, you know Phil Hunt.

(01:45:37):
Yeah, I just, I talked. I just talked to Phil.
He's in the president's office. We no better person.
Yeah, it was good. We went up there after that
game. Me, Me Ernie Lowe.
Titan and. And.
Was Darby there? No, Darby wasn't there.

(01:45:59):
He actually was going to see hisson's game up in college.
Oh, right, right, right. His son plays in Worcester.
Yep, WPI. Yeah, so anyway, we went out to
dinner after that. But but no, it was good to it
was good to go up to the game and my son to see, you know, see
the football game on and kind of, you know, we, we toured the
campus and because Baylock gave us a whole VIP.
He loves that. Awesome.

(01:46:21):
Yeah. He's perfect for that, you know,
And man, the the campus has changed so much.
Man, I almost did. I, I know I I get lost.
We have such great facilities and yeah, it's completely
different than when we were there.
Yeah, so beautiful, man, it's beautiful.
But no going back to your question.
So went right when I. Did the marketing. 22 Well, once

(01:46:42):
football ended, Kyle's like you got you and fits your passing.
So I had one class, Tuesdays andThursdays.
I was like, I became a Johnny Reg, you know, for the last four
weeks of school. So I was like, you guys are
going to the bar. I mean, I would never graduate.
All these kids were going to thebar.
We're having fun. It was like.
Literally did you? Did you?
Graduate in December or did you?December, yeah, I graduated in
December, so I had a a month of being just a regular old Johnny,

(01:47:05):
you know what I mean? And I mean, I would have, I
would have flunked out if I was a regular student man, all the.
All. The free time and no structure
and all that stuff and just partying at the at the bars and
all that. It would be be tough.
But so I went to Lou Perkins's office and I say, hey, Lou, I, I
heard that pharmaceutical sales is you can make a good living at
that. Can you help me out, you know,
type thing. And I went in his office and he

(01:47:26):
goes, he's like Danny, it's you're graduating in two weeks.
You're. Going to come to my office now
and ask me to help you get a job.
You know, I, I don't know what the hell I want to do.
I mean, this was my life for thepast five years.
I'm AI wasn't even thinking about it.
Yeah. I I can utilize that and
communicate with people you know, so.
Yeah. He's like, all right, you know,
all right. So at that point I didn't have a

(01:47:47):
cell phone. I yeah, I didn't either.
Yeah, So he's like, all right, well, when you get home, just
make sure you call so and so my secretary.
Give them the number. Give them the number to call
you. I know if you do, you want to
stay in Connecticut. And I'm like, I'm like, no, I'm,
I'm going. Home.
I'm going home. I've had enough.
I'm going back to Florida and atthat point my dad was

(01:48:08):
struggling. He was, he got diagnosed with
cancer. So I'm like, I'm going home.
I'm going home with my family. And so he's like, all right,
give me the number we're going to be at.
I know the, the you know, a big way with Pfizer up here in
Connecticut, if you were to stayin Connecticut, I can get you a
job tomorrow. But since I don't know what's in
Florida, I'll make some phone calls.
I'll get back to you and all that stuff.
So I ended up my sister, who's eight years older than me, got

(01:48:32):
her full her cell phone in our entire family.
So I said, I need to borrow yourcell phone.
What's your number? And I gave it to to Lou.
And I do remember Darby and his wife went down to Key West and I
took my sister's phone with me. I'm like, Lou's gonna call me
any minute. I need, I need to.
So I went down there and visitedthem, stayed with them.
We're in the hot tub, Cell phoneon the towel.

(01:48:52):
Someone grabbed the towel. Her cell phone went to the
bottom of the hot tub. I'm like, how is Lou gonna get a
hold of me now? You know?
Oh my. God, Oh my.
God and I. Ruined my my sister's like was
overjoyed that she got a her first cell phone.
You know what I mean, My first cell phone first anyway, so
ended up getting another phone. He never during that period of
time, he didn't call me, but he's like nothing really came to

(01:49:16):
fruition with it. But I ended up, to answer your
question, I ended up getting a pharmaceutical sales, went to a
couple job fairs with my sister-in-law and a couple of
her friends. A couple people we knew
interviewed with everybody at these job fairs and they're
like, well, you need 2 1/2 yearsof business to business sales
experience. Yeah, they want experience
before I'm like, OK. Well, how do I get this

(01:49:36):
experience? I mean, how do these people get
this experience to even interview?
And I'm like, so I still went onthe interviews and they're like,
you don't have experience. I'm like, yeah, well, I want
experience to interview and how about that?
So I interviewed and practice. And then I went in, I saw a guy
at AT&T Wireless doing business to business like sales, the cell
phone. And it turns out his name was
Skip Harbaugh. Turns out he's best friend is

(01:49:59):
Cornelius Benton. Who the?
Quarterback. Who played at Saint Thomas?
Yes, Also played at UConn. Yes, he was a.
Quarterback was close friends with Lyndon Johnson.
Oh my God, I've been trying to get him on the show.
Yeah, such a small world, right?So good dude.
And he hired me on the spot and I got, I got business to

(01:50:21):
business sales experience. But before, but before that, I
interviewed with a couple pharmaceutical companies and one
of the guys there, he's like, come on, we'll interview.
You're not going to get the job because we need experience.
That's one of the prerequisites.I interviewed with him.
He's like, he's like you, you did a great job.
Come back, come back in two years.
Yeah, so. OK, cool.
But I went over to another room,interviewed, interviewed,

(01:50:41):
interviewed, got the job with AT&T Wireless, did that for 13
months or so. And then I went back to that
same job fair the next year and saw the same guy.
He said, I thought I told you tocome back in two years.
And I said, well. How about a year?
And he goes and I. And then he hired me.
Oh, that's awesome. That same guy that hired me
ended up he was my manager for two years.

(01:51:03):
He ended up moving on to medicaldevices.
Did you did you like pharmaceutical sales?
Did you like it? Did you like it?
Pharmaceutical sales because it's very complicated to learn
the drugs and meet with the doctors.
And I did. But you're you're pretty much
like a glorified PR person. You're just passing out pens and
throwing samples at people Samples.
Yeah, the glory days of pharmaceutical sales was was

(01:51:25):
prior to me getting involved. It it, it is.
You're right, You're right. Like.
You know, boat trips and golf trips and all this golf before
they, yeah, before they put all these regulations on and all.
That stuff so. So anyway, so I was
pharmaceutical sales for that guy.
He went on. He just was tired of babysitting
reps, so he went into medical devices and brought me with him.
Oh, he had like Palm Beach territory.

(01:51:46):
I had like Broward County territory.
And then ironically, that same guy introduced me to my my wife.
What? What company?
Did you? So I was with TAP
Pharmaceuticals, which was like a part of Abbott Labs.
And then the medical device company.
And the medical devices was Cynthia's trauma, Cynthia's

(01:52:06):
orthopedic. So I did that for like 3 years
where I was literally on call. I did orthopedic trauma for car
accidents. Long bone.
Fracture and you're actually, because my brother does it,
you're actually in the surgery room, right a. 100% in there and
I was literally on call. I had a pager, believe it or
not. I had a beeper.
An old school beeper. That's amazing.
It was tough. I did it for three years and

(01:52:26):
dude, I literally I during that dating scene scene, I, I had to
like bring a separate car. Like I'd go on a date with a
girl and I was like, Hey, I'll meet you there.
Just like you can actually come pick me up.
I'm like you don't understand. I'm.
Probably going to have to leave before dessert, like, and it
happened all the time. So, but yeah, no, it was fun.
It was, it was an intense job, very intense.

(01:52:48):
But I cut my teeth to medical devices doing trauma, which is
really, really tough. And then when did you transition
into your current job? Yeah.
So that that that went into I got into spine after that and
I've pretty much been mostly in spine for the majority of.
Time with the same company. Not multiple different
companies, yeah. So I, I, I went to Johnson and
Johnson and did aesthetics there.

(01:53:11):
Breast and tissue expanders for cancer patients did work for
another spine company, but I would say that majority of that
time was mostly in spine or orthopedic trauma.
So you got a couple other littlestart up companies that I I went
to and but always came back to spine.
That's where my. And when did you, when did you

(01:53:32):
get married? Got married.
It'll be 16 years in November. God bless you, man.
Yeah, man. I mean, 'cause you, you still
look like you're 28. Like I can't believe that that's
16 years. How many kids?
1110 year old boy. How's he doing?
He's. Doing great man.
He's thriving. We just, he's going to a great
school now. We held him back, He was.

(01:53:54):
At a smart. School not not for athletics,
but it might benefit him later. Later.
You always should hold him back.You always should hold him back.
That's smart. Wouldn't.
Wouldn't anybody benefit from another?
Year that they do you need to you need to I I firmly agree
with that we. Switched schools and in order to
switch schools, we use on the fence of being held back and I'm
like, you know what? Let's just keep him in 3rd

(01:54:15):
grade. He's going to go to, he's going
to a Catholic school, which is agreat feeder school for Cardinal
Newman, which is kind of like. Cardinal Newman is an
outstanding school. Yeah, it's a good school.
It's it's in West Palm. So yeah, that that'll probably
he'll either go there or JupiterHigh School, you know?
Yeah, but that's down the road. That's down the road a little
bit. But he's thriving right now at

(01:54:36):
his school and he's he's big. He plays.
I've coached him in just about everything, man.
And he plays all sports. All sports.
He's really gravitated towards lacrosse.
Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, he just made the
travelling lacrosse team for like the third year in a row,
so. Yeah, he's isn't that crazy that
they have they, they have travelling teams at such young

(01:54:58):
ages. So you guys probably go
everywhere. On the weekends, you're all over
the place. Well this travelling across is
like too many seasons. They're really 3 tournaments
each season. The the farthest we go is
Orlando, which is 2 1/2 hours north.
But he gets a lot of game experience.
Yeah, he does play a lot of games.
That's awesome. He's currently finishing up his

(01:55:19):
rec season. He's got two more weekends of
that, and then he's got flag football, which I'm going to
coach him in coming up. Beautiful.
But yeah, I've coached him in like honestly, like 3 flag
footballs, 3 basketballs, 2. Do you like?
Coaching. I do because.
You are, you really are. You really have a coach's
mentality. So I could definitely see you
being a being a coach. Do you coach lacrosse as well?

(01:55:42):
I do. The first year I didn't because
I'm like, I don't know. I know nothing about.
That I know. The first time I saw lacrosse is
when I was up at UConn. I'm like what the heck is this
man? This is cool.
And if we, we didn't? Have it we didn't have.
It coach anything. I think you coach try anything.
But no, for the first year I was, I sat back and learned the
game, you know, And then, so nowI'm, I've been an assistant
coach with them for the past twoseasons.

(01:56:03):
Not head coach because the head coach is a college.
I mean, they're all college players.
I mean, our neighborhood that welive in is pretty awesome.
We've got, both of his coaches are in our neighborhood.
We've got like 5 or 6 kids that are all Connor's age that, that
he plays with every day. That's like, it's like a
lacrosse Mecca, our neighborhood.
That's awesome, man. One of the head coaches played

(01:56:23):
at Duke, the other guy played at.
There's guys who played at Maryland.
I mean, there's a lot of coachesin this area.
It's a pretty big program. That that played in huge
programs and you, you, you live in a great area, you have a
boat, correct? Yes, Sir.
Do you fish as well? Yeah.
Yeah, a little bit out. My brother's more the die hard

(01:56:43):
blood and guts fisherman, you know, but I've done, I've
probably done a dozen fishing tournaments with him, but.
I'm I'm going to have to come down and fish with you.
You're going to Take Me Out on your boat.
That's what I. Want to do?
You're more than welcome anytimebuddy.
Our neighborhood actually has a a private boat ramp, so it's
pretty, we're pretty lucky we'reone.
Of like 3. Neighborhoods in Jupiter that
have their own own boat ramp that's on the water.

(01:57:04):
Is it salt water? Yeah, yeah, the, the, the river
that we're on is a brackish water, but it's literally 5
minutes to the ocean. Then I, I definitely want to
come down 'cause I've never fished in the ocean.
That is my one dream to fish in the ocean.
And it would, oh man, it would be so great to see you guys.
But God bless you. I mean you built a tremendous

(01:57:26):
life for yourself. Just quickly.
I I want to get your opinion. I ask everyone this your
thoughts and IL transfer portal.You know what?
I don't I know we can do a separate podcast on it, but I.
Just want I don't know enough tobe educated on it honestly, but
I will. What I do know of it, I'm not a

(01:57:48):
fan. Yeah, I'm not a fan.
Either I'm not a fan just because it takes the and
actually on on the boat. Me, Temco, Durfis, and Percy and
Tucker, we're all talking about this exact.
Same thing, yes. And all of them had great takes
on it and they all were way moreeducated on it than I am.
I but I so I think to the kids get played, get paid, Yeah.

(01:58:13):
I agree. I agree, but I think it should
be regulated. I think it's it's kind of tough
to be in a team sport and you'rein a locker right next to the
guy getting paid $1,000,000. And you're not?
Here to get a nun or 1000 or youknow, it's like it's kind of
hard not to become a complete narcissist.

(01:58:33):
Yeah, look at me, you know, I mean, it's the social media
world, which I'm not on social media, but it's like, hey, look
at myself as I, I don't know, I'm not, I don't know, maybe I'm
more old school than that. But I, I think it kind of
creates a divide. I agree and.
When you hit the portal, you're constantly always, you're always
a flight risk. You know, I'm like you.
If you're a coach, it's got to be awful being a coach.
I that's why I got out of it, because I coached the Holy Cross

(01:58:56):
for 10 years. I hated recruiting and I would
hate recruiting. I don't even know how I would
recruit now because you really have to recruit your own players
to try to keep them to stay so they don't go in the goddamn
portal. And then you know Burton is
doing all he can with the NIL atUConn.
He's doing a great job, thank you to him.

(01:59:18):
I mean, yeah. I mean, definitely stepped up.
He stepped up, he created Store Central.
So that's if you're not a member, definitely join Store
Central. It's $10 a month and you get
inside info on all the sports teams.
That's what they put together for the NIL.
I'm definitely, I'm a member of that.

(01:59:39):
But it's tough for UConn becauseyou know, the Big East, we, we
won for the women and I do a show with Maria Conlon.
Maria went over the payouts for the conferences of the
tournament. The SEC got $3.7 million.
The Big 10 got $3.7 million. The Big 12 got $2.8 million.

(02:00:04):
And the ACC got 2.5, the Big East got $650,000.
And I'm like, so UConn wins the national championship and that
must be worth $250,000. And the Big East got 650.
And they got to share it. And I'm like this, this isn't

(02:00:26):
going to work. Like they got to get out of it.
And football's an independent and they really like I, I think
that they have to make a big push to join a conference.
And Hurley, Maura and Gino need to go out and, and hit donors up
and get money. I mean, that's really what it's

(02:00:48):
going to take to keep winning and be special at UConn.
We got to get the money and we got to got to get into a
conference. But you know, as far as like
dividing out what players get, like I'm speaking obviously just
on football, 'cause it's all. In Yeah.
Oh yeah. So I mean, if it's a business,
which it is, the University of Connecticut is a business.

(02:01:09):
Yep, Athletes are employees. Pretty much they are.
Business so. They are not make it more of
like a profit sharing. They need to do that.
They need to do that if. Yukon brings in X amount of
media dollars or X amount of money, then it should go in the
pool and it should be a profit sharing, you know?
I mean they Yukon is doing everyone gets OK.
So I don't, I don't think I'm not educated.

(02:01:30):
I'm just speaking out loud here.I don't know.
But I mean, so everyone should get an equal amount on the team,
you know what I mean? Correct.
Maybe the top five players mightget a little couple stipends
here and there if they're reallygame changing.
I don't know. But it's kind of makes it
awkward when every what, every two years?
What is what's the how's the portal work like?
It's that's coming up here soon,right?
The the portal just opened. It's opened after 10 days.

(02:01:53):
How do you how do you create like you mentioned a culture
when you got kids, they're goingto come in and.
They're mercenaries. They're hired guns, yeah.
And you're a kid who comes to a university and you're getting
paid 1,000,200 million, $3,000,000, whatever it might
be. I mean, of course you're going
to take that money, especially if you've got some of the kids

(02:02:15):
that don't that come from, you know, underprivileged areas.
They're going to take that moneybecause that's game changing
money for them, you know what I mean?
It's life changing, absolutely. But then they go to another
program. I don't know.
I think it just messes with the culture.
It messes with a lot of stuff. It messes messes with the
continuity of everything and what these coaches are trying to
develop. Because I can again, going back
to US playing, I redshirted. It took me 5, four or five

(02:02:38):
years, Four Seasons. Yeah, and they don't do that
anymore. Five seasons really, right.
So it took me that long to ramp up for me personally.
So if you're coming in as a a freshman.
You have to be a. Baller straight up to be able.
To to be able. To have the ability to market
yourself, to get the money, to get someone luring you away to

(02:03:01):
another program, you know what Imean?
So I think it kind of hurts probably the kids that really
need that development. I would think yeah, but I don't
know. What do I know but.
No, you're right. UConn only took 12 freshmen and
they took 30 transfers, which I I couldn't believe.
Did you? Did you see the situation at all
with the Tennessee quarterback? I know a little bit about it,

(02:03:24):
yeah. That blows my mind.
He he signed a form a four year NIL deal when he was a junior in
high school. He was getting paid on NIL money
as a senior in high school. And then right before the spring
game two days or last week, he decides he wants more money.
So he doesn't show up for practice or meetings.

(02:03:48):
And he is trying to get a raise from 2 million a year to 4
million a year. And Josh Heiple, the head coach,
just said fuck it, you're done, go go transfer.
And he was praised for it. And then the other quarterback
that left, I don't know if you know the story.
He is Jayden. He was committed to Florida.

(02:04:09):
He didn't get his money because he was supposed to enroll.
Once he enrolled, he would get paid.
He didn't get paid. He ends up going to Arizona,
Arizona State. I mean, goes there, gets his
money, doesn't play much, transfers to Georgia behind
Carson Beck, doesn't play much, enters the portal again And

(02:04:32):
Yukon was looking at him and I, I messaged Burton.
I said, Burton, do do not pay that man.
Please don't pay. Don't take him.
And Burton started laughing and he's like, don't believe
everything you read. We're not, we're not going to,
we're not going to take him because they're they got Nick
Evers is the quarterback that they had paid and they were

(02:04:52):
going with. But it's great to hear your
thoughts on that. I feel the same way.
At the same token I do, I do appreciate, you know, Mike
Burton and all the efforts he's done because this is the, this
is the world we live in right now.
So you, if you're going to live in the world, you got to.
You know you got to. You got to you got to make you
know as much effort to be in themix as possible, right?

(02:05:14):
So if you're, if you're going tobe, you're being in that world,
you got to, you got to be there.MM Always I, when I interviewed
him, I, I asked him, I said, dude, like you always answer the
call like whenever 100% Yukon needs you, you answer like why?
And he said it was because of his father.
He said his father taught him, you know, because football made

(02:05:37):
such a difference in his life. You know I listened.
To that podcast, yeah. Yeah, and he said that's why
that's why I contribute because my father has scholarships at
all different colleges because he knows how much it can help
kids and that's why that's why Ido what I do.

(02:05:58):
So your job, you need to join the national C club because
you'll you'll make a huge difference.
Let. Me.
Write that down. Actually, let me see that Connor
wants to say hi. Come here.
Oh, I'm sorry, I. No, he he's up to a minute.
He's off tomorrow. Hey.
There's a big guy. How you doing?

(02:06:20):
Yeah, you're a lacrosse star. He's up.
He's up late tonight, he's off school tomorrow for.
Oh, Good Friday. Yes, yes.
I'm sorry man, I kept your dad up like.
No, it's totally cool. National at the Sea Club, I got
that. You need to join the National
Sea Club with Kevin Freeman. Yeah.

(02:06:41):
You you'll definitely be a mentor because it, it, it really
teaches the student athletes, they'll pair them, they'll pair
someone with you and you help them, you know, put together a
resume, you show them how to interview for jobs and if you,
you can connect them if anyone'sinterested in working in medical

(02:07:02):
device sales. So that would be a huge for, for
them to have you as, as a member.
And it's free to join and then join store central.
That is our NIL program that Burton runs it.
It's $10 a month. You get inside info on all the
sports I, I join and then you can donate.

(02:07:27):
That's you can pick what sport you want and you donate money to
it. So I try to donate whatever I
can, whatever I get from the sponsorships from the podcast.
I donate to Burton's Nili. Just try to help them out
because I, we need it. So you definitely should join

(02:07:49):
Store Central. But thank you so much for doing
this man. This was.
Yeah, man, sorry. I had a little verbal diarrhea
there for a little while. But no, you know what, your
story is amazing. I mean it if if it was boring, I
would have cut you short, but itwas it was amazing story.
Hearing where you came from, allof the trials and tribulations

(02:08:10):
that you went through. And you know, the determination
that you had to make it through is incredible.
And now you're successful. You have a family, you have a
great job, and I'm just so happythat you're doing well.
And I think this podcast will bea hit with everyone.
I. Hope so.

(02:08:30):
That's good. That's nice to hear man.
You were you were one of the most requested guys, really.
Yeah, yeah, JYJY yourself. Yeah.
We're we're guys that in Mulcahy.
We're guys that most people saidI needed to have on.
I want to have Hoffman on. If you, if you talk to Hoffman,

(02:08:52):
please ask. I've messaged him.
Please ask please. Tell Hoffman.
We were we were texting back andforth about.
Please, please tell him it's notthat bad.
It's just we just have some fun on here.
I I love. Texting with him earlier we
we're on another text thread JimTucker and send us pictures on
fish and and Hoffman big big fish as well.
Yeah, yes. Anyone you can get me to?

(02:09:13):
Come on, I I really want to get more guys on.
I'm proud. Of you.
I'm proud of you. Oh, Persy too, Yeah.
Yeah, I I want anyone. Persy's Percy's son is a stud
soccer player. He's like going to skip college
with my GoPro. Like he's that legit.
Oh, that's great. Yeah, that's great.
Yeah. Persy's been up here a couple
times on the boat and yeah, he'sa good buddy.

(02:09:35):
Me and him go way back. I had Darfus, but anyone you can
get me, I definitely want to have on Fitzsimmons and Okie.
I'm still trying to get, but I even though I know Hoffman's
experience was tumultuous, at the end, it doesn't matter.
His story's great and he was he was a great guy.
But I, again, I appreciate you doing this.

(02:09:59):
I think I think this one's goingto be great.
I can't wait to put it up. I'll put it up on LinkedIn so
you can see it. I'll put it up on Spotify so you
can listen to it if you want to.Definitely man, but.
Guys are but guys are going to hear it You, you did great.
So thank you again. No.

(02:10:19):
Problem buddy. I.
I appreciate you having me on, man.
I'm super proud of everything you're doing, man.
You're really. Thank you.
You're really, you're, you're doing a lot of great things for
all these old athletes, honestly, because I, I, there's
a lot of these people's stories.I I mean, I don't know, I I.
I know, me too. Even prior to even, you know,
playing with them, you know, andit was just an honor playing
with them at at school and playing with you, buddy.

(02:10:41):
And I'm just, I'm proud of everything you've done so far,
bro, and all the networking. Well, the good thing is Rashad
and Tommy, their feet are all messed up because I used to step
on them all the time. I don't know if I broke your
toes at all. If I did, I apologize, but.
Between you, Harper and Tavar, I'm I'm pretty sure I got some
nerve damage. Rashad always tells a story

(02:11:03):
because one of his nails doesn'tgrow in right and it's because I
smashed his stuff because I was just a clumsy guy.
But I appreciate it. My goal is to, you know, we're
working with, with Phil and Kevin to try to work with the
university. To I, I, my goal is to build a

(02:11:25):
network to where, you know, I can provide.
I work with Dave Schuman, Shuman's my partner, and we want
to build a network, work with the school, help people to join
the C Club, help to raise money for Burton and then build a
network where we can provide business for everyone, alums to

(02:11:50):
work together so the money staysin the family.
That's kind of the goal of what Schumann and I are doing.
So we're hoping Kevin Freeman ismost likely going to bring us on
in July and use our podcast 'cause we, you know, we do Husky
huddle, we do Husky talk, we do Husky hoops and he can use that.

(02:12:15):
We can use those podcasts to raise money and cover the teams
'cause there's no coverage anymore.
You know, we try to, we try to cover UConn football for, for
the spring. There's nothing there.
You know, the only the current has a paywall and there's no
other coverage. So I, I get info from Burton and

(02:12:36):
you know, we got some info from the players on the team to see
how spring spring practice was going.
But we want to be that conduit between everyone to connect
them. And, you know, I'm helping Razul
out. Razul's got a fundraiser this
weekend that I'm going up to. Tell him I'm so low, man.

(02:12:58):
I will. I will for sure.
But yeah, we're we're working and we're going to build that
network and hopefully you get upto a game this year because I'd
love to see you and I'm definitely going to come down
and get on your boat, but I'd love to.
I'd love for them to do another golf tournament.
I was. I know we've mentioned that.
To Burton, OH. Yes, yes, yes.

(02:13:19):
I got AI got a text Burton aboutthat.
Yes, they are going to do that. They're going.
To I do know the guy we used to play with you.
You probably don't know he's an older, older guy, Rodney Butler.
You know Rodney. No, I don't.
Rodney Butler played with us forwell, when I was there for two
years. He, I think he played all four
years, but he was. Were you there?
He's a great player. He's the he's the CEO of

(02:13:41):
Foxwoods. Oh.
So it was just something we wereall were talking about.
It would be great to have another golf tournament at
Foxwoods and maybe having Rodneyhelp out because Rodney Rodney
played played with us back in the day and that we could be a
good, good opportunity. That's what something that I
threw out there and I think Derpis and yeah, a few other
guys mentioned on the boat the other day, that'll be pretty
cool to do. I'm.

(02:14:02):
Not speaking for Burton or Webber's planning at the alumni
golf tournament, but we did thatseveral years back.
It was a lot of fun, man. It was a lot of fun.
Me, Hoffman, Percy. And who was it?
Joey Vilpiano? Where 4.
Jovi was there. Yeah.
Yeah. Great.
I love Jovi. He's in California right now, so
yeah. So that's your mission.

(02:14:23):
If get me, get me Hoffman, get me Percy, and if you can get me
Rodney, I'll have Rodney on. That'd be great.
I think Burton's, Burton's pretty close to them.
I haven't talked to Rodney in 20years, but.
Oh, OK, OK, but there's some other.
Upperclassmen are are tight withhim.
All right, we'll definitely do that.
But no, I love, I love. I mentioned it because I'd love

(02:14:44):
for us to do another alumni golftournament.
We did that, yeah, probably about 10 years ago, it seems at
this point. But that would be pretty awesome
to get all to get the crew back together.
Yeah, yeah, it'd be, it'd be a great opportunity.
I'll definitely mention that to Mike.
But again, thank you so much fordoing Husky Talk.
Congratulations on all your accomplishments.
I'm so happy for your family andyour kid.

(02:15:07):
And you know, again, you, you are the definition of being a
leader in Bleeding Blue and a good representative mentor and
an inspiration to guys. You really were, and still.
Are it means a lot, means a lot.It's an honor playing with you
and an honor to be on your your podcast.

(02:15:27):
But I appreciate it. Thanks man.
So for Dan Dagdon, former teammate and now works in
medical device sales, former tight end star and I am Steve
Cully, we have to thank. We have to thank Ned Von Young
Fresh himself, Fresh Fold Laundry Company.

(02:15:48):
It's in Carrboro, NC. It's a high end laundry service.
You drop, you broke, you can book online, you drop your
clothes off, they wash, dry and fold them for you and lightning
speed record, you come and you pick them up.
It's all done for you. It saves you time.
You people spend 6 to 12 hours aweek on laundry, so think of

(02:16:12):
what you could do with that timeif you had it to yourself.
That's it. That's what that's what he says.
He also has deals for any college students.
He's just outside of Chapel Hilland it's North Carolina at North
Carolina Central and Duke University students take
advantage. He also has an online

(02:16:33):
subscription model where you canbook weekly or bi weekly to have
your laundry done. All you have to do is go to
freshfold-laundry.com. You can see all the services
they offer. Go sign up and you can save some
money. And we also have Razul Wallace.

(02:16:54):
He has a fundraising dinner for the House of Changes.
The House of Changes is a halfway house for recovering
drug addicts, people who've beenincarcerated and homeless
people. They have services, case
management, social workers, mental health therapists.

(02:17:15):
We want to help these men rebuild their lives and we need
your help as please donate money.
Please come to the fundraising dinner.
It's Saturday. It's at the Swift Factory.
Legendary chef Cisco's cooking. It's from 6:00 to 9:30.
It's going to be a blast. There's a DJ, there's going to

(02:17:37):
be prizes auctioned off, and I am your keynote speaker, so for
any reason, come to hear me speak and entertain you.
But it's for a good cause and weneed your help.
We need your support to keep theHouse of Changes going and help
these men rebuild their lives, get into Fresh Start.

(02:17:59):
And Razul is also looking to pursue another house so he can
help more men. And that's this Saturday.
That's awesome. So, Dan, thank you again.
And remember, when life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade.
Take two oranges. Throw them right back at life.

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