UConn DL Matt Hoffman - August 19

Hoffman is one of the key members to the D-Line in 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yep. Hey man, how much communication goes into being a
D line.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
You should think of it as you know, defense rackers
happening communicating.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
What about you guys up front? Uh, I mean with
this defense, it's really all levels. It's really important. Uh
F We get yelled at a lot to to communicate
from the back end all the way to the front,
cause we we gotta be a unit. We gotta uh
work together and all the pieces. So it's it's very important,
especially with the D line. What a lot new p

(00:32):
lot of new faces, but you're not new? Yeah, so
what's that like? You know, how are you helping get
everybody else? It's cool? I mean my fourth I'm going
to my fourth year here, so uh there's transfers every
single year, so I'm I'm used to making new friends
and I'm used to seeing everybody get on the same
page and kind of buying to the culture. I think
we're all getting along very good. Uh. We spend we

(00:53):
spend twenty four twenty four seven together. We spend all
uh all of our time together, so it's kind of
hard to the uh not be on the same page.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's hard enough for us to follow the companies and
goings in the offseason, but it for you or you
like waking up somebody's oh wait, I have a new
TV or I lost the team.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
How do you manage all that? Uh? Yeah sometimes, But
like I said, we're with each other at twenty four
to seven. So if I see a new face, you know,
just always go up, introduce yourself. Just see where they
came from. They always got some kind of cool story
and where they came from, and you can always learn
something you been here for. Fish rejectory of the program
going up a big part of it. Does it feel
like the expectations are the highest they've been this year

(01:30):
as supposed to the previous year's to space on what
you guys have done? Yeah, I think so. I'm winning
has always been an expectation, but uh, you know, especially
coming off a ball game season last year, I think, uh,
our expectations are a little higher, especially the players and
coaches too. But the players are we're hungry.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Coach are talking about how some of the guys on
the D line have to make that jump now with
you know a long time Jolani Dell all gone, How
do you feel where that's going and are you ready
to make that jump yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yes, sir. You know those guys they started together. I
just think about this, they started together for three years,
which is uh pretty crazy. Not many to de linemen
to get to do that. But I think we're all
doing a good job of, uh getting ready to step up.
Like everyone in our room has to step up. So
I think we're we're prepared and we're doing our best
to prepare. And I think it's sort of.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Measure where it's at right now compared to previous camps.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
I let the coaches do that. I'm not. I don't know.
I just put my head down and at work. I
think we're all just we're just working. Okay. What is
it uh like having coach Jilani Stafford in the coaches
room now this year? Uh? It was fun. He's actually
not with us anymore. It's actually he's not coaching right
now with uh he was coaching with us, got it.

(02:44):
But that was good. It was great to have him,
ye cause you know, he ran the defense. He was
the only person that uh only d lineman that actually
ran the defense that could help us out with that
coach with that coaching position. I mean, uh so he
you could understand it and he could do a pretty good,
pretty good job explaining things. Awesome. Thanks Matt, thank you,
thank you.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Guys.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Guys, we got Jackson Harper wide receiver JAX and Harper
had second Jackson.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Don't you know what it is? I gotta go okay, well,