Press Conference (Nick Bosa)

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
A lot of them. I likehim. Yeah, it's a bunch of
good dudes just just out here.So we're gonna keep working and I like
I like our edge guys that wepicked up, and I'm excited to work
with them. You know much abouthow we played against him Leonard Boyd,
and what's been kind of your earlierread on him. I think he's super
skilled Russia at good length, andhe's more athletic than I even realized.

(00:25):
And I think guys like him whenthey come to our scheme are the best
is brought out of him. SoI'm excited to see what potential he has.
He's year nine, so I feellike you, as a d lineman,
you can keep improving all the waythrough ten years in this league.
So I'm excited to see what he'sgot. How old did you know Sores

(00:46):
and when he was assistant here?And have you gotten to know him a
lot better? What's the relationship?Maybe right now? I know him pretty
well. He was always just agood dude around the facility. He did
our ball meetings, so he's goodin front of a group. He's a
good leader. He knows the schemereally well, which is good. I

(01:08):
was happy to see him promoted.He called me in the off season,
we talked. I just congratulated him, and I think he's gonna bring something
similar to what we had with theMiko. It'll be good. Do you
know Brandon Stanley well at all?I mean, obviously Joey play for him.
I don't know too much about him. I've obviously heard from my brother,

(01:30):
but I don't even think i've saidhigh yet. I haven't ran into
him yet, but I'm sure i'llget to know him. When you say
it looks similar to Miko, theenergy or the system, maybe a little
different energy, but I think justknowing the system from the front to the
back, I think he knows howit ties in. And he's been around

(01:51):
with some really good coaches, soI think it'll be pretty pretty seamless,
and I think will be firing onall cylinders. You're three months removed from
the super Bowl now, So howhave you? I guess digested it,
and I guess physically everything good togo. Yeah, I feel really good.
I think it's been one of mybetter off seasons of just kind of

(02:15):
It was a long year, soI took it nice and slow to get
back into it. Not as youngas I once was, so I'm taking
at a little slower. But everything'sgreat. I'm feeling as good as I
felt. I'm excited to actually getsome practice in. Last year was kind
of tough getting thrown in week oneafter I walked through, so that was

(02:40):
another reason I'm excited to be here, is just to get practicing a little
bit in season. Practice is onething, but actually being able to work
your stuff and not have a gamecoming up is good. With the Super
Bowl unfortunately, I know how tobounce back from tough losses, so it

(03:00):
was rough for a little bit,but no, just annoying when people bring
it up. Since ael last season, we've seen a Rock on TV commercials
and on the stage with Kluke Coombsand throwing out the first pitch of the
Giants game. But he seems likea guy that's totally unaffected by celebrity,
which he has now. But whathave you noticed in his leadership style and

(03:21):
the way he carries himself any differenceat all. I think he's definitely getting
a little more vocal within the building, and uh yeah, I mean I
don't think he's ever gonna change.I don't think he's somebody that's gonna change
even when he gets paid next year. So he's he's a man of faith
and he kind of reminds me ofScotti Scheffler, but except for just super

(03:51):
humble and really good kid. Andyeah, he's definitely famous. It's famous,
do you know? I don't justfrom watching Armstead get released obviously meant
so much to the defensive line intothe team. I mean, Colin John

(04:12):
were pretty open that they were willingto talk about trading Deebo or are you
at raft? Does that just anotherwhat's that feel like in the locker room
when those sort of joels happened.I didn't even know that happened and I
wasn't here, but you're talking aboutthis offseason armstall in alarm Eric released,

(04:32):
so that's certainly one thing. Yeah, it's a tough business, for sure.
You have to have thick skin andI haven't gone through that, but
I think you just have to understandthat it is a business and the team's
going to try and get as goodas it possibly can with or without you,

(04:55):
and you have to look out foryourself. That's why you go through
holdouts and do certain things that seemselfish in the moment, but it is
what it is, and when everything'ssettled, we're gonna come together as a
team and try and go get oneNick. What's the overall feeling around the
group right now, Like, howmuch does it feel like the excitement of
the ramp up to the season.Even though it's early, it feels good.

(05:18):
It's been a couple of days forme, so I like all the
new guys. I'm getting to knoweverybody, but I think the past is
in the past and we're ready togo. Do you talk to me?
You talked to beat all about handlingthe business part of this. He's going
through something similar. We chat alittle bit, but not too much about

(05:38):
the details. I just told himkeep his head up and try and stay
positive through it all. We yourfirst impressions when you heard what your schedule
would be in that Aaron Rodgers's firstup, it'll be fun. Yeah,
it's gonna be gonna be a goodone. Euse me kind of alluded to

(05:58):
this for the fact that last yearyou had to have that hold out something
that affected you somewhat early in theseason. If you hadn't had that experience,
would you be here right now?I mean, was that part of
the motivation for being here early,just to have the opposite one last.
No, I don't think that's oneof the reasons. But I just talked

(06:20):
to Kyle and he kind of askedme. He kind of stated how he
felt about why it would be goodfor me to be here and asked if
I agreed, and I one dagree. So it's not like I'm missing
too much. I think I'm outhere. It's a little less workload than

(06:41):
I'm doing back home, so it'skind of a good active recovery thing for
me. And I'm getting football stuff, football working specifically, so that's good.
I'm not it's not compromising my trainingat all, and I get to
meet all the guys. It's positive. How did Joey kick the news your
brother? Did you have to likelet him down? And oh no,

(07:04):
he's he's there. He's got anew regime over there. Did you first?
I actually thought I was coming nextweek until recently, so I was
gonna have one more week at home, but we're both in California. Everything
you could share about tons reasons reasonsthat you agreed with here, Uh,

(07:30):
yeah, just the things I alreadystated, just getting around the guys and
just getting the football stuff honed ina little bit before camp starts. You've
been afraid. You've been afraid tospeak out on player safety issues and things
like that when it comes to playservice and things like that. The eighteen
game schedule has been kind of discussedagain here recently. What is your kind

(07:51):
of take on that possibility. Idon't know how many times I mean,
it's I guess it's easy to appreciatewhen you kind of see it working and
you see guys improving, getting better. I just think the details are really

(08:13):
important. You can pretend that leavingyour shoes a mess or your locker a
mess isn't a big deal, andwhat matters is playing football. But I
think all those tiny details and thingskind of add up and leak into the
important stuff, like what you're doingon the field. So if you can
have your toe behind the line,or have your locker and order and all

(08:35):
these things, they kind of stackup into performing well and playing well when
things count. So you know,I appreciate that. It also hasn't been
a fight with the guys in thelocker room. They buy in, and
you know, it's a lot ofyoung guys and I think they're hungry to
learn, hungry to compete, andwhen you know it's just an example,

(09:01):
whether it's we talked about first day, have you shot if you could,
if you could spend the time onthese small things when nobody's watching, I
think, like I was saying,it seems like it might not add up
too much, but I think inthe long term it does. And uh,
it leaks into other things, whetheryou're doing your right assignment on the
field, being late to meetings orall these things. If you hold a

(09:26):
standard and you stay to that standard, I think it benefits you long term.
It's it been like Ben Herbert,has there been anything in his training
program we're working with you that youfeel will benefit you later. Yeah,
yeah, definitely. He's been great. He's a no nonsense kind of guy,
but he's not an old school inthe sense that he's bringing his way

(09:50):
of doing things and that's the onlyway to do things. He understands that
guys have been in the in thebusiness for a long time, Khalil me
and we have a way of doingthings things and all he wants to do
is add to that and help youget better and perform the best you can.
He's He stresses it all the timethat he's a tool for us,
and you know, he's been he'sbeen great. The guys love him.

(10:13):
The energy brings is awesome, andI think the stuff that we're doing in
the weight room is great, agreat addition to stuff that I may may
do on the side or whatever thatis. Yeah, I think we I
mean, we had a presentation todaywith all the certain measurables that are changing,
and if you guys are in themeeting, you definitely see how beneficial

(10:35):
he's been to the team so far. So obviously, staying healthy is a
huge factor to anybody's success. I'dsay it's plagued us a little bit for
a while. So yeah, Ithink he's he's definitely incredibly beneficial. When
would you like fully, I know, at the end of last season,
you might have been able to Yeah, No, I was not ready to

(10:58):
go last year. No, triedpracticing, tried coming back, and uh
it was it was not good,but yeah, it was Unfortunately the year
wasn't going great and it just wasunnecessary risk for I mean, my foot
could have had some real real issuesif I came back too early. So

(11:20):
yeah, it's been it's been it'sbeen a great off season. My foot's
feeling great, toes good, hamstringsgood. I mean, there was a
list of things last year, myhand, so all those things are good.
Got surgery on my finger, sothat's feeling good. Yeah, it's
it's nice to be feeling better goinginto year nine than you have since maybe

(11:41):
five six years ago, which I'vesaid, I've said I've been feeling great
last couple of years. I'm tellingyou it's a real deal this time.
But obviously anything can happen. ButI just feel it's fun feeling really confident
in your body and being able toperform. So I could just go out
during practice and you know, goballs to the wall and do everything that

(12:05):
I feel like I need to tobe able to prepare. It's fun.
My brother and whoever I trained withmy trainer Todd back home, uh,
I think they'd be really proud ofhow I've been working this offseason, and
it's just exciting. Winning. Withthe injuries on the Green Bay game,

(12:26):
you kind of, yeah, itwas a bit of a build up,
a little bit of an overreaction,but you know, it's just tough.
It comes sometimes like that, andI just felt felt really uh defeated coming
back, had a broken hand.I'm like, oh, yeah, I
get to play Boom for a seriesfoot Pops. Thought I'd have to get

(12:48):
surgery, and all these thoughts floodedthrough my head. Broke down a bit,
and yeah, it just hurts.You know, you're losing, you're
getting injured. You've felt like youprepared really well in the off season,
and then the year before you hadgroin surgery, so you know, a
lot of things build up. Yeah, you don't get a break if you're
injured. Everybody wants to go on. Fans are very nice, but no,

(13:15):
I just I'm grateful that I feelthis way. I'm still still nicey
Ripe twenty eight, so not tooold yet, but yeah, I'm just
excited. I can't remember what theoriginal question was. At this point,
you get something about my body,How close you and Gift were. How

(13:41):
frustrating was it that you couldn't youknow soon for one of those last three
games. It was frustrating, butI mean Gift was had my back the
whole way. I think for Gift, for any but for the whole team,
just to show what it means tome, it would have been important
for me to be out there,but I literally could and I tried to

(14:01):
practice, injured my foot worse thevery first play I was and in practice,
So no chance that was happening unlessI wanted to throw my next season
away as well. But no,I'm just I'm proud of him for what
he did with the team, howhe handled it, and I need to
call him back. Actually sorry,I give Yeah, I'm happy he gets

(14:26):
to stay close by with the withthe Rams, and uh, just proud
of all we accomplished here together overthe years and and we'll be close for
the rest of our lives. Wasthe foot injury? Was the guys foot
sprang? Yeah, I sprained onearea of my foot. Then when I
tried to return and I sprained anotherarea. Was able to avoid getting surgery,
which is kind of the main goal, But yeah, it was.

(14:50):
It was tough when it comes tothe addition of but Dupree when he felt
like he's kind of brought to theto the room and and could bring on
the field. Yeah, it's whenI heard we got my brother some I
don't know, maybe my brother toldme. I'm like, really, we
just got budd Like that's no,that's no small pickup. He's a seriously

(15:13):
elite pass rusher. Has had sometrouble with injuries as well, so I
understand how that is, but notonly him as a player, but as
a personality. I heard Khalil justsaying he's he's a fun guy. He's
a funny guy, and and tohave that in the room another vet is
always a great addition. But I'mjust excited to have him into Lee and

(15:33):
to be able to rotate like thatand not drop off at all when we
come off the field is huge.And map Chule's going into a second year.
Just what do you what do youkind of what are some of the
maturity maturity areas you've seen from him? You know, I'm gonna say not
much, and that's a compliment becausehe was already mature in those areas.

(15:54):
I mean, he's on it everythingplaybook wise, always doing his job,
working hard, just refining his techniqueand pass rush. I mean, we
don't have the pads on right now, so the real work will will begin,
you know, in six weeks now. So but yeah, I love
Tulie. I've loved him since thefirst days he's walked into the facility and

(16:18):
I know, he's just gonna continueto get better. You think of the
addition of Joe Old. Yeah,yeah, I'm gonna need to beat him
up a little bit in camp.So he's so he's ready. But no,
I think anything to protect our numberten is a good, good investment.
So he seems like a real soliddude. Haven't talked to him too

(16:38):
much. Great build, seems likehe has good hands, good feet,
strong, We'll see. We'll seein a few weeks when I lay a
helmet in his chin, how heholds up. But it'll I'll take it
easy on him. Rashawn's a beast. Did you know coach Harbond before he

(17:00):
came here? And if he did, just what were those first couple of
conversations like that? Yeah, probablyhave crossed paths with him. Maybe maybe
not. Actually I think what wasit his first year when I was a
junior, So he kicked his assas usual? Mit Ohio State. No,

(17:22):
No, they just want a championship, so I'd say they probably have
the bragging rights right now. I'mlike the guy talking about his old high
school. Oh I remember, Yeah, we used to kicks. No but
no, yeah, no, therivalry is dead. I was just saying
this morning, you know, nineyears and kind of forget about that.
I'm not a great alumni. Sorry, sorry, coached, But no,

(17:48):
that's great. That's what's great aboutthe NFL is you just have guys from
all backgrounds. You could hate theirguts one one year, and then you
come on the same team and yourbrothers and you're all working towards one goal
together. So our first talk togetherwas great. I just sat down with
him, went up into his officeand chopped it up about life mainly and
his opportunity here and how much itmeans to him. And uh, yeah,

(18:11):
I think he's a special guy.I think he's uh the way he
conducts himself. He's an interesting catfor sure, and I'm still still feeling
him out. But one thing youcan't denies that he loves football and his
main goal is to win football games. And that's what we need. When
you see him working out with youguys and and pushing slaves and doing all

(18:32):
this stuff, just how interesting isthat to see him? Yeah, I
mean he was a he was agreat player himself, and I think he's
always been you know, built likethat lack of a better term. But
yeah, he's Uh, he's partof the guys, you know, he's
not this guy outside looking in.He he really, I mean he voiced

(18:52):
that to me. Is that hisfavorite part of all of it is being
with the guys and and the connectionshe makes. So yeah, to see
a guy like that come in andembrace it all and kind of be part
of it himself is important. Yourinitial impressions of Coachman during the defensive gaming,
Yeah, it's funny you go fromold gift, old gift to this

(19:15):
little young guy who's my age.I wouldn't want to get thrown into a
room with me and Khalilipos his age. But no, he's been great.
I love messing with him a littlebit. We a little sarcasm back and
forth, but no, he's great. He's uh, very talks very fast,

(19:36):
and I don't as you know,so sometimes I gotta be like slow
down, coach, come on.But no, he's great. I'm excited,
you know, to get closer asthe years. As the year goes
on, and I think he hashe has a lot of passion for the
position, and all he wants todo is learn and and help us to

(19:56):
improve. So I'm excited about him. Him in. I mean, I
do miss Skiff. Obviously, itwas a long time with him, but
I am excited to have a newface and kind of have that challenge for
me. You worked much with withJesse's dad, since I know he coached
line divers in Michigan. Did youask about Jesse? Did you ask about

(20:18):
doing? Okay, you asked aboutJesse. Oh my god, I was
talking about freaking doing the whole time. You guys are so confused. No,
sorry, I thought were I thoughtI was. I thought you mentioned
coach Ronie. No, No,coach Mentor has been great as well.
Yeah, they've both been great.Sorry, run that back. No,

(20:40):
he's been good. Yeah, veryknowledgeable guy. Same thing. I'm excited
to get to know him more asthe year goes on. Have you worked
if you worked much? Yeah,No, I have not. I don't
know if I've said one word tohim, but more words to come down

(21:02):
the road. Like you said,you've been in year since twenty sixteen.
Just what are some of the stuffyou uh, justone on a ramble about
the wrong guy for fifteen minutes walkingwhat Yeah? What the hecks? Actually

(21:23):
that's literally not the person. Yeah, yeah, I figured out what's something
that you you worked undering the offseason, something to improve your game or
is there something that you can Usuallymy answer is pretty consistent that I just
continue to try to prepare myself physically, whether that's my sprint work or agility

(21:51):
work and my lifting. But yeah, just to get everything feeling great and
ill dealt with those injuries so Ihad to kind of ramp it up with
my finger and foot and all thosethings. But now I'm I'm full full
speed out there and I'm just gonnacontinue to do what I know. Uh,
we'll prepare me for the season,and uh, I know I'm gonna

(22:14):
get plenty of technique work and positionwork when I'm out here. So for
now, I'm going to spend thesefive weeks really getting uh preparing about a
schematic standpoint, I don't know theins and outs of what I'm gonna be
doing yet, so I'll wait andsee soon. But just what everything going
on? See how to think thebest fit Christy again we go, Yeah,

(22:41):
Dria, welcome to Seattle. Thankwhat are you looking for? And
I fight as a loaded question forreal for uh, you know, in
terms of no pay system, teammates, environment, city, all those kind
of just like play into it.Besides just the money thing. I know,
financials always play a big role andI kind of steered you into the

(23:03):
direction you want to go. Buteverything kind of plays into it. And
how much did you reach out toShelby Drew knowing some of the guys you
knew the played here last year toget a sense for what what Seattle might
offer you. I mean, notmuch right now, I'll talk to I
talk to Shelby a little bit aboutit. Mainly no one Drew, Uh
just congratulated me, Bob. Didyou come together pretty quickly? I know

(23:32):
you kind of came to your agreementon that first Monday, and everything with
Seattle that a kind of come togetherreally faster. Now, it was a
long day. Seattle came in almostout of nowhere. We had like a
good set of teams that we weretalking to, just trying to finalize what
was going on, what was itthe term is going to be? You
know, and Seattle came in hot. They showed a lot of interest,
and uh, they kind of justmotivated me to come here more and more.

(23:56):
And how similar will your role be, you know in terms of playing
and from what you did and thenI don't know that yet. I kind
of just mentioned previously. I don'tknow my role. I don't know the
ins and out yet. Once we'llget NO through the protocols and nfl PA,
we'll we'll talk about NO, theschemes and everything, right, so
welcome. When you were in Denverin the three four, where did you

(24:19):
find yourself most comfortable? And Iplayed a lot of different positions in Denver,
I mean earlier in my year,I played zero, I played three,
two one. I mean, I'mdefinitely more comfortable in a shaded position,
mainly being a three technique and fivetechnique. That's why I found myself
to be more comfortable whether I'm standingup or I'm not, whether it's runner

(24:40):
or pass, those seem to bemy best my best fits. And what
is your impression of Pete Carroll's defenseand whole environment from AFAR? It seems
like he holds in our defense alot. Uh. I can't really say
too much about that. Yeah,I don't. I know Pete Carroll very
little, so uh, I'm justtrying to figure out more and I'll give
you a better answer later. What'ssome reputation around the League of Uh,

(25:06):
you know, hard nose, hardhad type of team, definitely on a
little more lack side as opposed tobeing stuck up or military style, and
which is definitely good because then thisprogram is one of a lot of football
games have been super successful for manyyears, as long as I've been alive,
as long as I've been watching football, and definitely this has been a
good program. And Pete Carroll hasbeen a hell of a coach for as

(25:27):
long as I remember, even backin his college days. So I'm looking
forward to experiencing that. Boyle.Yeah, I know you said you don't
know yet, you know what yourgoal is going to be, but just
what what kind of player you whohaven't watched to Denver? What kind of
player? Definitely a high motor,definitely not a one trick pony type of

(25:48):
player. I like to attack,you know, whether it's a first or
first through fourth down, I liketo attack. I'm always trying to apply
pressure. I'm definitely just a highmortar guy in my opinion. Brady are
the Brady Henderson from ESPN. Niceto meet you. Yeah, this is

(26:10):
not a team that really makes bigsplash signings in free agency. Did you
think going into it the Seattle wouldbe in play. Uh No, not
at all. Uh. You youjust it's kind of like being a cure
at the County store. You know, I've got a whole bunch of different
options coming at you, uh hearing, a whole bunch of different crazy things,
and uh, you know, youonly get to choose one. And
this is the place that that weboth chose each other. And I mean,

(26:30):
I'm loving Seattle so far. Youknow, I like these colors for
real, for real. What whathave you got to do with Seattle or
see since you've been here? Notmuch? Uh, just kind of just
drive around the city exploring. Uh, get down to the market a little
bit. I want to get onof the Ferris will do some more like
touristy type of things. You know, I'm new to the city and I
got a lot to learn about thecity. Laric. Yeah, there's been

(26:55):
a lot of comparisons with you toMichael Bennett. I was wondering if you
know Michael Bennett at all, andyou think those are accurate. I know
Michael Berger then like nothing, Iknow nothing about it but besides his style
of play. But I'm honored tobe considered in the same conversation as him
and style of play. You know, he's a Hall of Fame type of
deep lineman that I've known about sinceI was a kid. I mean,
last time he played here, Iwas in high school, So you know,

(27:17):
it's cool to it kind of camefull circle a little bit watching him
on TV and now I'm being kindof compared to him in the way.
You know. I mean, I'mnot touching the surface of Michael Bennett.
You know, he's a Hall ofFamer and I'm not there yet. So
you know, I just got tokeep doing my due diligence to be a
better player. Car Hey, Dreamont, welcome to Seattle. I know you

(27:38):
get to play several seasons for vicFango and the three four style defense,
and Seattle's playing a similar system nowdating back to last year as a defensive
lineman, what do you think ismost important to be successful in that system?
Maybe fundamentals or just playing style tobe successful. From what I learned,
being gap sound and being impatient hasalways been the biggest thing, and

(28:00):
that's how we've been successful when Iwas in Denver, just kind of like
relying on each other. I knowthat sounds kind of cliche, but like
it's kind of like the the realmof being in the three four defense.
You gotta really really rely on theguys behind you and the guys on the
side of you to really make theirto do their job to make your job
easier. Yeah. Uh, youryou didn't start playing football, so you

(28:27):
were junior in high school and largelyplayed basketball. So then that's what made
I guess decided to go to playfootball then was away from basketball. No,
No, I've always loved football first. Uh, it was just kind
of just playing it out. Youknow, I love the who but you
know, football was definitely about calling. Given I was a two hundred and
sixty five pounds power forward and Iwas like sixty threes and change, so

(28:49):
you know, I kind of chosethe route that God gave me. No,
I'm not six eight. Yeah,what comes to Seattle? And you
get quoted looking at a couple oforder things that player and can you just
talk a little bit about that thatthat I think decided the system always kind

(29:12):
of counted out that us came.Can you elaborate more than that? Just
from a standpoint, like I alwaysget like over overshadowed, overlooked, whether
it's a in something, you knowwhat I'm saying, Like, I feel
like I do a lot more thanwhat can be sitting by the eyes of
the inexperienced, you know, Scoutand I do a lot of different dynamic

(29:33):
things that help make plays for others. You know, I'm definitely an active
player. I'm always doing something,whether in the runner pass game, so
you know, I think that goeson others sometimes and I'm looking forward to
putting people on notice. Thanks Brady. What uh, what do you like
to do outside of football? Uh? Big gamer? I'm definitely I've been

(29:55):
getting to a lot of chests lately, so just to expand my brain.
Uh. I try to get intoreading, but if it's not sport related,
I'm really not interested in reading thatmuch, but mainly just video gaming
in chest. And then when weyou write and say your name, do
you prefer your grandma? Uh?I mean you can say, you can
say Draymond Jones. I mean,but like just I like, personally,

(30:17):
just call me drey because easy.Because people like to f my name up
a lot, like a lot theycall me DRAYMONDE. I don't know why
you put a draymonte in my name. Or Draymond T whatever you want to
say. Who do you think someof that I'll be able to bring out
out of your games? You cankeep trying to, you know, just
being more explosive, probably more yardsfor catch with the space that he's putting

(30:37):
us into. The more yards,more yards have to catch, more explosive
to pick, more exposed to playfor for not just only me, but
she ak and taste them. SoI'm excited to be able to be in
the system. I assume you thinkyou guys can be a lot more explosive
than than you in the last coupleof years. Oh yeah, of course.
It brings a lot of different things, you know what I'm saying,

(30:57):
the playbook, but just accountabilit Ifeel like that's gonna lead us to success.
They said, the language is alittle a little shorters it. Have
you found that the language that youguys use. Is it about the same
or is it at it's kind ofthe same. Really, it's a long
long plays, but it's more understandingfor sure. I feel like you can
get to that more understanding plays andI feel like that's that's the difference.

(31:22):
Hater was saying the other day,just kind of like coming into this offense
after like twenty years of Breeze andjust kind of how it was just kind
of built on top of each other, on top of each other, It's
like kind of a lot to kindof take in. Do you do you
find that they kind of turn itdown to something new, starting to like
zero with everybody. It's just alittle bit easier to kind of get everybody
on the same Yeah, I feellike it's way easier. Like you said,
it was kind of more of aDrew Brees style the last playbook,

(31:45):
So all credit to them though theybuilt that around him, around his players.
But like I said, it's it'smore. Uh, this playbook is
more for matchups, and I feellike it's gonna be better for us.
How do you think it's gonna reallytake advantage of your skill sets? Uh?
Just building around the strengths that Ihave. You know what I'm saying,

(32:07):
things that I can do and thingsthat she can do, Uh,
things that our players can do.Is kind of focus on what we can
do and and building on that.Uh. I feel like it's playing to
the player strengths. So I feellike it's gonna help us. A lot
has been around the way this offensewill have a lot more speed. And
how has that transition been so far? I mean, like I said,
it's building around the players strengths.So of course we got speed, uh

(32:29):
with me or uh she and atireceiver, so uh, just building around
that. Uh, Like I said, playing to our strengths and be able
to capitalize off that. Feel likeit's gonna help us a lot most of
like the up tempo asterict and youknow, getting a lot of plays in
the rest time. Oh yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's
definitely gonna play a big difference.Like I said, coming from the West
Coast, Uh, they bringing thatstand for an offense here. So I'm

(32:50):
excited to be be able to bea part of that. For you personally,
what what's uh what's the next levellook like for you? Where do
you where are you trying to gofrom? Shit? Uh? Just staying
consistent, man, a couple ofups and downs last year, just building
off that. It's always always gonnawork on the physical part, but being
able to bounce back after a badgame the mental mental aspect, Uh,

(33:10):
just learning learned that last year andbe able to build on that this year
is a huge part. You know, with Mike Gon, do you take
it upon yourself to kind of bethat voice in the room or to take
a step forward even further as Uh, I mean it's not really. I
mean everybody kind of grown in theNFL, so it's just on you to

(33:31):
be able to have that standard.Like I said, I just try to
do that lead by example. I'mnot really outspoken, but just lead by
example, working hard, trying todominate every rep and hopefully they follow after
that. And that yards after thecatch? Is that you feel like that's
the strength of yours that maybe wasn'tutilize. I don't know if utilizes the

(33:52):
right word, but you could showmore in that. Yeah, it's offense
that is built around that, uh, just catching the ball in space,
catching the ball over the middle oreven on the outside, uh, with
with space and separation. I feellike it's built around having yards have to
catch. So I'm definitely proud tobe in the system, like I said,

(34:12):
and I'm excited. But is thatis that a mindset too? Like
being good at yards after the catch? Like? Oh yeah, I mean
of course, I mean you don'twant to get tackled by the first person.
And my mindset is trying to takeevery take everything to the house,
you know, every touch. Souh, I definitely got to do that
more and definitely try to work onthat and practice a great dude man.

(34:35):
Uh some some that I definitely neededsomething that he relates to me. Uh
just from backgrounds, and uh he'sa great coach, great leader, Uh,
motivational and uh. Like I said, I'm excited to have him around
and for him to push me iseverything that I need. So you're talking
about like mentally bouncing back, youknow from tough performances or whatever, Like,

(34:57):
did you try to find your resourcesgoing to help you figure out to
do that? Oh? Yeah,I mean it's older guys. Uh tell
me that's natural. Most have badgames. But uh, just having a
standard that I have in my careeras a head coach to have him on
my staff in a couple of places, so I got a chance to see
him work firsthand. You know,I got to see him work firsthand as
a player and then as a coach. So the success he had is not

(35:20):
is not surprising to me. Isthere where you see Ryan the successes had?
Yeah, I think we all dothat. I think we come from
a unique place in a really smallhometown in New Hampshire where we all take
a lot of pride to where we'refrom and and when anybody's successful coming out
of there, then you kind oftake a little pride that that's it's the
upbringing that we all had, youknow, in the U sports program that

(35:40):
we grew up in in in everyaspect, whether it was football, baseball,
basketball, those coaches we had anamazing impact on us and that's why
we are where we are right now. Bill rabinwack Ryan said, he doesn't
think of it as you working underhim, it's working with him. Fact
is, he is the head coach. He makes me call him sir though

(36:04):
he just said can you do that? Day one and I was like,
all right, right now. ButI mean he ultimately is the decision maker.
You've been a head coach, Howdo you think that's going to work.
Do you think there'll be any asclose as you are, any kind
of awkward moments the right term,But when he's the ultimate decider and you

(36:24):
are working for him, Yeah,I certainly understand my role. I'm not
Alhaic like I'm not I'm not incharge here. Yeah, some people get
that reference. Other people don't getthat reference, but I'd certainly understand that,
and and I actually kind of relishit because I really love the scheming
part. I love the individual part. I love being in the meeting room

(36:45):
of the quarterbacks and trying to gameplan. But everything we do here is
collaborative. You know. The onething that that really struck me when I
walked in this place is there's anamazing coaching staff here. You know,
and if you get a chance totalk to Larry Johnson just about football,
or Tim Walton or Jim Knowle orBrian Hartline or any of these guys that
are on the staff here, it'sit's a very collaborative effort. I think

(37:06):
everybody's on the same page. Youknow, it's not our offense and their
defense and it's Ohio State, youknow, it's it's Ohio State versus the
twelve opponents that we're gonna play duringthe regular season and then beyond. So
it's really collaborative. And that's thething I like, just in the short
time that I've been here, ishow collaborative everybody's been. You know,
we're all trying to make each otherbetter, and we're all trying to develop

(37:27):
this team touched on this when yousaid, you know, you'd like to
do what you want to do andnot My sense is you, in your
perfect world, you'd like to scribbleplays on a napkin and not deal with
boosters, dot deal with all thestuff that coaches head coaches have to deal
with now. And how much ofa factor was that in this decision You
can just do football. No,that's not it. I mean, I

(37:49):
enjoy I mean we've had some amazingI've had an opportunity everywhere I've been to
meet some amazing people that are associatedwith the program. And there's people that
from my time at New Hampshire ormy time at Oregon. And I was
just with Phil Knight two weeks ago, you know, and got an opportunity
spend some time with him and hiswife Penny, who are dear friends of
mine that have been great mentors tome in my career. And there's a
bunch of people that and UCLA,Terry Donnahue Andrea Donna who were awesome to

(38:13):
me. Angela Mazzoni is a greatfriend, Casey Wassman, Troy Yikman.
There was a bunch of people atUCLA that I really enjoyed, you know,
being around and talking with So Ithink sometimes everybody wants to make a
narrative of it's either this or that. It's it's never that. It's never
just all ball, it's never justall recruiting, it's never just all boosters.
It's a mixture of everything. ButI think the one thing that as

(38:35):
this position as a head coach keptmoving on is that if you look at
a lot of them, they allbecome more CEOs. You know. I
can't tell you how many coaches thathave called me since I made this decision
that said I'm two years behind you, brother, you know that are thinking
the same exact way. And Ithink it's all part of what we have
to do. I think we allneed to protect this game and promote this
game, and I think there aresome rules that we need to get straightened
out so that people understand what it'sabout, because the game is still about

(38:59):
the player, and I hope thatnever gets discounted. You know. It's
it's always been about the players,and I think if we can keep that
at the forefront the people that aremaking decisions on this and I think Jean
Smith is one of the best influencesin in the NCAAA is to make sure
we keep that the main thing,the main thing it needs to be the
student athletes. You know, you'recoming in at a time where you've been

(39:23):
through some places where the expectations arehigh. I understand it's also coming into
a juncture where, you know,the three losses to Michigan, the not
making the playoff last year, theurgency is pretty high here. I guess
just sort of what the perspective doyou have on kind of the stakes that
there are for Ryan this year andthe decision that then he makes to bring

(39:44):
you in to kind of help solvethat. Yeah, I think the expectations
can be no harder than they arein your own brain, you know.
And I think if you try toworry about what other people are thinking in
their brains, you're going to getscrewed up a little bit. So,
you know, I talked earlier theone thing about Ryan that I know about
them, and as always, he'sthe ultimate competitor, so he's got there's
nowhere that has higher expectations of OhioState than Ryan does, nor the rest

(40:06):
of us that joined him in ourpart of this and that are working with
him, So, you know,I don't think. I think sometimes you
can spend too much time thinking aboutthose things. You know, what you
really have to do is just asthere's a big sign as you walk into
this place, it says when themoment you know, I think that's a
real thing that we have to doas coaches, is to make sure that
our players aren't worried about what's goingon in the future, or or aren't
worried about what's going on in thepast, or worry about can they get

(40:27):
a little bit better today, youknow, and can we make improvement?
And I think the one thing thatI've seen here and I've only been here
for three weeks, but there's aconsistency to the players approach when they walk
in this building every day, whichis it's unique. It's not like that
everywhere else. And it's one ofthe things that I remark to Mick when
I you know, he said,hey, what do you think, And
I was like, it's impressive.It's impressive the culture of the players that
are in this program right now.But I think it speaks a lot to

(40:47):
the leadership there. There's a lotof older players on this team and they've
set the tone for the younger players, and I think the younger players have
done a great job of followship andgetting right in line with that. It's
never over someone befoward. What doesit mean to you? I guess he
technically did it to Bill when hewas here for a couple of weeks.
But what does that mean to youto kind of be getting that responsibility from

(41:08):
him and he's calling essentially the offensethat you gave it? I guess in
some way. Yeah, I stillthink the play calling part will be a
collaborative effort. And by that Imean that if it's a good play,
I called it, and if it'sa bad play, he called it.
Because the great part is an assistantcoach, you can just point the finger
a little bit and just say,hey, you know, I wanted to

(41:28):
do this, but he trumped me. So we haven't actually discussed game day
yet. You know, we'll seehow that operates. But everywhere I've been
it's been a collaborative effort. Andall of a sudden, someone that's calling
the plays isn't isn't like pulls oneout of left field that you hadn't practiced
and hadn't been part of your offense. And said, hey, let's do
this. You know, we're notrunning the annexation of Puerto Rico. You

(41:49):
know, we're not coming up withsomething special, you know in the middle
of the fourth quarter that we haven'tdone. But I think it's the key
to really being successful on offense isis how you game plan, how you
put it all together, and thenhow you practice and train for that so
that you get a chance to executeit. Because the player's confidence comes become
comes from their demonstrated ability that they'vedone this so many times in practice that
when they get out on the fieldthat this is like that to them,

(42:12):
you know. And it's not thatthey do it so they do it right,
it's they practice it so much sothat they can't do it wrong.
So, you know, I thinkit's that whole part of it that is
really the key to being a reallygood game planning team, right Doug Lane,
Marie north Chip, when you hadthat feeling when you were coaching the
quarterbacks during BOWLD, did you considerat that point maybe resigning as the head

(42:35):
coach and thinking like this is thisis not where I am anymore. I'll
leave and then I'll look to seewhat else is out there. No,
I never thought about quitting anything.So you know, I just is there
an opportunity that I think I canthat fit, you know, And I
think that's the you know, it'sno different than when you're talking to a
recruit about them make a decision onwhere they're going to go to school.
I think that where they should goto school is where the best fit is

(42:58):
for them. So you know,I just entertained some opportunities and I always
felt I felt like this was thebest fit. But I never thought about
quitting or not coaching. I'm gonnacoach. I'm gonna coach, and then
I'm gonna die. I mean,that's how I think I think about things.
Is I can't picture that. Iknow someone I was on the Nike
trip and they like, how muchlonger are you gonna go? When I
said I to go another fifteen twentyyears. I don't think about I don't

(43:22):
think about retirement. I don't thinkabout any of those things. That's just
not kind of my mindset that youknow. I love football and in the
as long as I can be partof this game, then I'll be part
of this game. Just the waythings worked out with your departure from UCLA.
Is there anything that you wish youhad done differently, or anything you
regret, or just that the circumstancesthat presented themselves. Do you think that

(43:43):
you handled that departure the best thatyou could have. Yeah, I mean
I got an opportunity to tell myplayers personally. You know, I think
in this day and age of theInternet, where they read it somewhere else
and you have to text message,and you know, that was always important
to me that I wanted to makesure I talk to my players and explain
the reasons of what I was doing. I wasn't leaving to take a head
coach job somewhere else. I wasn'tthinking that the grass is greener at another
university. Was just in my personalsituation, this is what I wanted to

(44:06):
do. I wanted to take anopportunity to go be a position coach and
coordinator, and that's how it fit. You know. What I was happy
is that I always thought to SeanFoster, I think the world of them,
and I think he's a special youknow, and the fact that that
they were they gave him the opportunityto take over there was you know,
it worked out. I didn't haveany say in that decision. You know,

(44:27):
I was gone. But I alwaysthought that that Shaun would be a
great head coach, and I'm reallyproud of him and happy that that he
got the opportunity to take that jobright behind him or act have your reputation
as innovator? Was part of theappeal of this is that you get to
get in the weeds a little bit. Uh maybe not mad scientists, maybe
too too strong of a word,because you're working within the system. But

(44:51):
was there an appeal of I getto get my hands dirty here again and
innovate and to get back to thatside of things. It was, but
it was really more important of whoI get to work with, you know,
and so knowing you know, I'vegot I know a lot of guys
on the staff besides Ryan also,so you know, when I know what
their mindset is and what their valuesare and how they do things, and

(45:13):
so I want to be a partof that. But there's a part of
that. Yeah, how much ofa teacher you get labeled in the Innovators
The teachings are part of this.How much is how a teacher are you?
And how patient are you? Yeah? I think we're all teachers.
I mean, education is the transportationof knowledge, you know, So it
really doesn't matter what the coach knows, it matters what the players understand,
you know. So you have tobe able to make sure that while you're

(45:36):
implementing things is what resonates with themand how does that come back to them.
So, you know, a lotof our teaching styles that we've learned
is more the socratic method of there'sa lot of questions, you know,
and a lot of check for understandings, just to kind of find out where
the players are coming from, becauseit's what they know that that's ultimately going
to win games, not what weknow. You know that we're not playing
the games. We're not stepping acrossthose white lines, you know. And

(45:58):
your job as a coach is tocreate an environment where they have an opportunity
to be successful and then get outof their way and let them go do
it. So I think the teachingaspect is huge, and we continue to
research, you know, some ofthe latest trends in teaching to make sure
that we are transporting that knowledge toour players. The second rolld left Steve
Helwagan, twenty four seven Sports.Yeah, coach just curious. You got

(46:20):
five scholarship quarterbacks with differing levels ofexperience from age and everything else. Not
to annoyed him, but just wantto ask specifically about Will Howard coming in
after starting part of two years atHe has a staate. He just seems
to promote this idea that he's afootball player, you know above all else.

(46:40):
Just how impressed are you with hismakeup, his experience, what he's
bringing to the table walking in hereright now? Yeah? Really impressed.
You know that you don't have totalk to Will for more than five minutes
to kind of know where he's comingfrom. He's really focused. You know,
he knows he's got a short windowleft in his college career and really
wants to capitalize on what that is. There's a maturity to Will, you

(47:04):
know. I I I really I'vehad experience, my experience in in this
thing since the transfer portal opened incollege football is is some of the best
players I've had an opportunity to coach. Award transfers. Sometimes when you're a
true freshman and it's five years out, you know, it's like, hey,
I got a ton of time,you know, And sometimes when you're
a transfer, is that I've gotnine months, you know, so there's
a sense of urgency I think whenyou're dealing with with transfers, and I

(47:25):
think Will has exuded that since he'sbeen here. But the other thing that
I just in the short time thatWill has been here is how quickly he's
fit in with the entire team,you know, and how much the the
rest of the players respect him.You know. He was uh one of
the Gold Award winners for his workin the weight room in this offseason,
so that says a lot for himcoming in here as a in a short

(47:45):
time, being able to to wina weight room award, you know,
to start off. You guys hopeto have the number one internally externally at
the end of spring or I guessjust let it play out. I think
it always every time I've been involvedin these, I think when they're are
ganick is when it's the best that. I don't think you can anoint somebody
or force the issue because the playersknow. The players would understand. They

(48:07):
see it every single day, youknow, and there's a team chemistry part
of this thing too, So we'renot going to force the issue. But
I've always seen it play itself out. So I've been fortunate that there's always
gonna be some quarterback battles that atsome point in time at every school there's
a quarterback battle, you know.And then and really you got to let
them play it out on the field, and that's where it has to That's
that's where it has to be decided. Just a couple hey, welcomes than

(48:32):
We were excited to have you here. Thank you. I'm kind of to
talk about the innovative part. Ryansaid that that's something that he's always loved
but working with you and now hewants you to bring that here and how
it would fit with Ohio State.Do you have any idea what that's gonna
look like yet or is it justway too uply? I have no idea.
Now. I think part of itis is you're trying to put the

(48:52):
players in position to make plays.So a lot of that comes from getting
to understand the players and what theirskill sets are and how we feature what
their skill sets are, you know, and and the one thing after day
one, I can tell you thatthere's a lot of skill set out there,
you know. So that's that's whatgets you excited, you know,
That's what that's what you jump outof bed in the morning, and you're
excited to go to work because ofthe talent that you get to work with.

(49:15):
But the one thing that's the mostimpressive is the work ethic that goes
along with that talent. You know, it's not just empty talent. It's
you got some kids who want toI mean all of them since I've been
here, want to work, Sothat that's what gets you excited. But
I think assessing what the skill setis you know that we have available to
us on the offensive side of theball, is vitally important. And then
our job is to put those guysin positions to make place lots of pressure.

(49:38):
I mean, you've experienced what it'slike to coach national championship, how
over teams this program right now andmoving into a situation where you got to
win Quicken now. So does thatfeel like pressure here for you or is
it a little bit of excitement orboth? Well, I've always subscribed to
as pressure is what you feel whenyou don't know what you're doing. So

(49:58):
if you don't want to feel pressure, that you should know what you're doing,
So, you know, I thinkit's it's part of that and I
think part of our job with ourplayers in terms of the education process is
getting them to understand that too,is that you know, it's it's about
your preparation, It's about you andyour development. It's not about that you
can't be governed by what other peoplesay. It's it's what's my mindset and
how am I intrinsically motivated? Andthen how do I really compete against myself

(50:21):
on a daily basis to get alittle bit better. You know, we
got a little bit better today becausewe get out on the field today and
got a chance to do some football. And then the challenges when we get
back on the field on Thursday,can we be a little bit better than
we were on Tuesday? And ifwe're doing that, then we keep stacking
good days on top of good days, and I think we'll be in good
spot and welcome, Thank you.I'm gonna ask about the pros and cons
of coaching from the box and coachingfrom the field. It's interesting talk to

(50:44):
some off some coordinators. Tom Hermantalked about it. He swore he wanted
to coach from the box. Sawthe game so much better, sterile environment,
not all the chaos on the field. Some coaches you talk to the
like, I want to be onthe field so I can look at my
guys that in the eye. Whereare you at as a as a coordinator,
honestly, And I've thought of thisa lot out of it a lot
during COVID because we had the emptystands, you know, so I had

(51:04):
thought about just walking up into thestands for a little bit because I had
a better advantage. I've always believedyou can see the game better from up
above, but I believe you canfeel the game better from the field.
So if there was any way wecould get a zip wire where you could
do both, you know, coachcalled from there and then zip out of
the field get a chance to talkto him, because it's a different deal
when you're talking to the quarterbacks ona phone, you know, than being
able to look in their eye andkind of see where they are with it.

(51:28):
And part of it is the fieldpart of it. I remember when
I coached Ryan once we were playingUkon and he got hit hard going out
of bounds and he just walked byme, and I was a play caller,
and he was like, run thenext play, and I just kind
of looked at him. I sawthe look in his eyes because I don't
think he could have thrown it.You know, he was still trying to
get his win back. But youwouldn't know that if you're up in the
booth, you know, and youcall a pass play from up in the

(51:49):
booth and you're like, how comewe can't complete that? Well, he
just took a shot going out ofbound. So it's that fine line that
I don't have an answer, youknow. I think I think it's feel
on the ground and it's see fromup above. Maybe in this day of
technology, they'll figure it out.But we'll see how that that that operates,
and whatever Ryan feels is the bestfor the team is what we're gonna
do. So your teams at Oregonwere obviously no, never playing at this

(52:15):
assid pace and running a bunch ofplays for a minute and yep, maybe
not act by a past pretty fast. What role do you see tempo and
having an offense in the States incollege football? And has maybe changed?
I think the game is always evolving, you know. I think when I
left in two thousand and twelve togo to the National Football League, Oregon

(52:36):
was the only team that was playingreally, really fast and had shiny helmets.
And when I came back in twentyseventeen, everybody had shiny helmets and
everybody was playing fast. So Ithink the game is always going to go
up and down, and there's gonnabe different cycles that it goes through.
I think tempo is part of anoffense, but I don't think it's an
offense in itself. I think it'smore of like if you go to dinner,
it's a side order. You know, it's not the main course,

(52:59):
but it's it's always good to haveit. So I think there's times when
you'll use it, but you're you'renot gonna use it extensively the entire game,
just like you're not gonna throw theball every single snap in the game.
You're not gonna run the ball everysingle snap in the game. You
know, there there's there's not agame of absolutes anymore. I think the
ability to be diverse and and haveit as a tool in your two box,

(53:20):
so to speak, uh is reallyhow we would look at using it.
Here are now more familiar with itthen, I think. So,
you know, I think when youfirst started going Temple, there were people
in the NCAA they want to outlawthey want to make an NCAA role that
you had you couldn't do it,you know, and I'll I'll give coach
shaping credit. I mean, Ithink obviously Nick was the first one to
do it. He wanted it outlawed, and then all of a sudden he
adapted it and said, all right, we like this, you know,

(53:42):
so we'll keep it in. Butit's I think people have it doesn't matter
what you do. There's there's cyclesto this game, and then once people
catch on to that cycle, thenit moves. You know, it's no
different than four three defenses and threefour defenses. You know what is the
rage when the when the Giants wonthe Super Bowl, they were there were
three four defense and everybody, everybodysays, we have to do that.

(54:04):
What people didn't understand is they hadCarl Banks and Lawrence Taylor. It didn't
matter what defense they were running.I know, Gym's back there and Jim
played against the you know it wasthey could have been a four down defense
and those guys would have been greatplayers. But it's not the scheme.
I think that the coaches that doit the best way is they insert their
players and put them in the bestposition to make plays. And now now
will Temple be part of it.It'll be part of it, but it's
certainly not going to be the maincourse. Sorry, last question, Oh,

(54:30):
thank you very much, Jerry.Uh. Number one of there was
a there were a great moment therewhen y'all were warming up, when you
were you were talking with Tim Waltonand Caleb Downs comes up and conversing and
as you're in this kind of atwo part question, but number one,
what was just your take on thetalent you saw on that field today on
both sides of the ball. Wherewhere would you rank it? Yeah,

(54:51):
I'll rank it. I'll be verytransparent. As I was telling Tim and
Caleb what a great offensive player Ithought Caleb would be, would be and
should be. But I'm not thehead coach, so I always turned stretch
as a as an offensive coordinator,I'm always looking at the defensive players like
I could use him. Oh whatcould I do if I had him?

(55:13):
Life, if you do it theright way, so you know, being
accountable, you know, doing theextra stuff away from the f uh the
facility. That stuff matters at theend of the day because all the expectations
and all that pressure. That reallydoesn't matter if you do those things,
you know, So what are yourexpectations for a year two in this offense?
I'll just keep going. You know, the name of the game is

(55:34):
just execution. You know. Thetimes where we executed at a high level
at times we won those games.You know, So that's just the goal
is just to execute and to beable to be on the same page Bill
chemistry right now, so you know, when when the ball rolls, you
know, we're very we're ready tofly around at a high level. So,
I mean that's the goal, andthat's that's you know, there's goals

(55:54):
on top of that, but that'sthe that's the foundation right now with Yay's
foundation work. So that I knowthat it's still pretty early. But how
has it been so far getting towork with Diggs and how is he fitting
in? So far? He's beenfitting in great. You know, he's
come in with uh his head downmentality, just working. You know,
he's helped me out a lot.Just you know, he come comes from

(56:14):
a from a a good system overthere where when he was with the Bills,
and they did a lot of thingswith him and really just offense and
tell me how like Josh played andthings like that, things that you know
we do different than we've had thisplenty of conversation, you know, so
he been he's come in and andbeen a leader, which which I'm proud
of him for. And you knowit just really's has been unselfish and uh,

(56:37):
I wanted to see other guys eatand that was his main things.
Like he wanted to be around otherdogs. And you know, he he
he stepped into that role where there'sa dog everywhere. Every he looks right,
he looks left, there's gonna bea dog. So and he wanted
that and that's what you know.We we break to the table and he's
been nothing but just amazing so far. And I I'm very excited to work
with him as a teammate, asa what's like to have your friend take

(57:01):
back with you guys? What wasit like to go from the camon of
emotions from hearing about it to nowwhen it's over in your back yard there
you'll have puny. It's amazing,you know, it's s just a testament
to him and you know, oneof the god we serve. And then
two, uh, just the workthat he's put in. You know,
he's been uh you know, hecame back before it was even schedule.

(57:22):
He can get cleared. And thenon top of that, you know,
just coming back after that freak accident. And you know, I think that
we serve a God that's merciful andthat's that's purposeful, and he knows that,
and he stepping into and me andhim we have those conversations about our
faith and the cause. Like thisfoot box stuff. It it seems like
it's everything, but it's not.You know, we're we're people, and

(57:44):
we we go through a lot offthe field people don't know. And you
know, as his brother, Ihave to be there for him, like
just like he's there for me whenI go through what I go through.
So I mean, I'm just proudof him, man. Like the word
proud is even probably enough to likestate the the feelings that I have for
that guy. Man, he's myone of my best friends that I've n

(58:05):
you know, gotten a known overthe years in this in this world of
football and past that. Man,I feel like I'm going since I've been
three years old, you know,I think for like our connections kind of
like we grew up together and youknow, I just got a lot of
left for that guy. And youknow, I'm very excited for him.
He's been snapping that practice and doingreally well, and you know, to
knock off the rest that quick showshow much work he's been in. How
much more comfortable are you walking upto ats this year to the last year,

(58:28):
Things kind of a little bit slower. Just's the biggest difference to you.
Yeah, it's night and day.Man, It's really like I feel
like I'm running the show, andI've got a lot more uh responsibilities from
Slow and from de Beaca and fromdry Bill and really our whole officeive staff.
And you know, I'm the captainof the ship, and I got
to run it the right way.And I feel like I've you know,

(58:49):
stepped into that role just you know, and now not only holding out accountable,
but also you know, hold myselfaccountable to those moments like I don't
let anything slide, uh cause that'sthat's the point of winning and losing.
So so I think from last yearto this year, like I've gotten a
lot better with like controlling my emotions, controlling my ball placement, knowing what's
NFL opened, knowing my food workbetter, there's really every little thing I've

(59:12):
taken a step and then on theother side of the ball, you know,
just everything slowed down. Seeing coverage. Demiico does a good job of
blitching me, and you know,working on their different coverages or different looks
to start too high, go toone and go back to to motion like
as man, go to cover toolike all that stuff to keep me true
and honest. And you know,I think I've tried to do my best
with my off season study to youknow, be better, and I feel

(59:35):
like I've done that and had agood ota so far. So got to
finish with that mini camp, butit's been definitely a big transition of just
more comfortability from last year to thisyear. College, you you always had
like a really talented receiver room,and then last year you have a talented
receiver room. So you've had theexperience of having to feed a lot of
guys obviously you had in digs,even Joe Mixing coming out of the backfield.

(59:55):
How much would that experience from thoseyou know, college and last year
to help you with being able tomake sure that everybody's being fed the way
you are. So if you getyou know, have the best possible offer
that you guys just like get bore. Yeah, I mean I don't think
nothing changes, you know. It'slike I tell I tell guys, cause
I get that question a lot fromI got people just walking around just anywhere,

(01:00:15):
astra game whatever, and I waslike, man, it's football.
You know you're open, you getthe ball, so uh And my thing
is, you gotta pick your poisonplaying us, like who you gonna double,
who you gonna cater to? Whoyou like? You got five dogs
who are who are able to getthe get the ball in each give and
play? You know, So Ithink it's fine. I know Slow has
done a great job of being morecreative and you know, has put different

(01:00:39):
personnel packages out there, guys indifferent positions that going from inside and outside,
you know. And you know,I'm I'm very excited to work with
with coach Low again. He's doneamazing so far, you know OTAs and
will continue to do such. Butyeah, man, I think that past
experience of playing with Marv Jack's getChris Jamo, America Julian like those type

(01:01:05):
of guys. They'll tell you too, Like I know they'll probably have said
it before, but they'll tell youlike, they made me better and I
made them better. You know,that's my job is to make everybody around
me better. So I'm excited.Man has been healthy competition. Like I
know Garrett, I've seen his interviewday. He was talking about Ohio,
see how like the receivers, Likeif Gear made a play, Chris is
like, nah, watch this likeit's the same thing here, which is,

(01:01:29):
you know, really cool to watch. And you know, as the
quarterbacks meet, Davis in case andTim were the same way too. So
healthy competition is the best way togrow and get better. And I think
that that's what it's about. Yousee how excited Diggs gets for Tank when
he makes it play, and Matchgets for excited for when Nico makes a
play, and Tank gets excited whenRob makes a play. You know.

(01:01:50):
So it's amazing, and you knowwe got Noah coming back to which is
gonna be amazing. And I'm excited. Been there and a ton of guys.
There's a ton of talent, Steedshowing up. Really, everybody's really
doing Jay, Wayne, Johnny youknow so and man, it's been fun.
Uh Nick that and got you somesome mixture talent on the office side
of the ball. Well, whatdo you think about the dishes that he
made on the defensive side of theball. Yeah, man, it's been

(01:02:13):
great. It's been good on goodlike Demiga talks about irons, tromp and
iron. You know, it's beena lot of smack talk, a lot
of just uh, just good competition, you know. And then it starts
with me and his ease. Youknow, him being the leader of defense.
I'm the leader at the offense.And you know, playing him last
year. I mean, he alwaysshowed up on tape when I watched the
Titans last year. So it's coolto like see like the stuff he thinks.

(01:02:35):
We you can see him at mylocker, me at his or us
before practice, after practice talking aboutplays and you know, so, I
mean it starts with us. Andthen when you add Danielle, somebody who's
a very who plays really hard,who's gonna help will you know them two
dogs? You got team in thein the middle with Autry and and Sosa
and Y just a ton of guys, man, you know, in the

(01:02:58):
back end, got young guys shshowing up. Kaitlyn's doing really well in
the back end along with Petrie andJimmy along with Kamari. Kamar is shown
up. Steen is playing well asy'all seen. Uh So, man,
it's just been dogs on dogs,you know, like and that's that's that's
that's the best teams I've ever beenout. Has been the closest teams personally,
but also the most competitive team.So it's been dope seasons, y'all.

(01:03:22):
See. Then he broke out lastyear and you go broke out last
year and he go getst the contractexception, he's here too, twenty twenty
seven. What does that do foryou? Just knowing that you haven't familiar
target to work with for the nextfew years. You know, it's just
something I I'm first of all,I'm just proud of that guy. Uh
my brother Nico. He's showing upand shown out. You know when you

(01:03:44):
know when his number is called,he always makes the play. And you
know, he's just a special He'sa generation talent man. He's he's like
alright, ag is Andre Johnson inmy opinion of just how fast he is,
how he gets in and out ofhis brace, his releases, how
strong he is. And I thinklast year was just a uh a preview
to what it's to come for him, And the one thing I'm proud of
him for is just the work hasnever stopped. He's constantly here working on

(01:04:06):
his body, constant in here workingon his hands, his his mobility in
the weighting room, you know.So for me, I mean just having
a a true uh. I thinkwe have like five number ones, you
know. So that's kind of coolto have. And I've had that before
in college and I'll have it againand it's gonna be fine. Man.
And Nico he's gonna he's he lovesto see everybody else eat too, So

(01:04:27):
man, his his love for hisbrothers has a change. And you know,
it's it's a it's a special feelingto see somebody who deserves to get
paid and you know, get whatthey the d D wait, they what
they deserve, and you know,I'm just really proud of him. What
does it mean for you to haveanother opportunity to work with Artisola and Aeliie
Johnson. I don't know if youremember that was a moment going into the
playoffs last season where you really knowif either one of those guys would be

(01:04:50):
here better shit, Yeah, Imean for both of them to come back
was very special. I think weboth we all have a better feel of
how to work with one another.And you know, the talent I am
on the field and the play callerthat Bobby is, and then the common
coach droved is you know we allwork together or that. And you know,

(01:05:10):
slow as I'm in his office almostevery morning just going over stuff and
watch the film with him, goingover things that we need to go to
get better at. And he alwayshas his phrases, you know, working
for the end at mind, andyou know he holds me accountable when you
know it could be easier just tolike let me slide, cause you know
I'm out there still making plays,but he's like, nah, you need
to be better here, here andthere. And you know that's just shows

(01:05:33):
what type of a leader he is. And you know it's an honor to
be able to work with him again. And same for me, like to
him like, hey, flow,I'm not really feeling his play or I
want to add this play to tryto see if we can get better here
in this in this practice where youknow, I think we can be really
good at this type of player.And he's very, very accepting when it

(01:05:55):
comes to that. So it's beencool to work with both of them,
and I'm very excited to get anotheryear. What was it like, uh
teacher football internationally and the the rthe reception that you got from the people
there, it was it was amazing, you know. Uh, first of
all, shout out to Beijing,Shanghai and Tokyo you know for except the

(01:06:16):
need to micah with open arms andjust the hospitality and the uh just the
culture man there is just amazing.They want to learn about football, you
know, and it's it was cooljust to see like them already have like
the foundation of it, but wantingto grow from there. And you know,
I think football is a family sportand like those people are our family
now, and you know, theOlympics come into where it's gonna be international

(01:06:42):
with flag football, I think it'ssuper dope. And to be able to
get you know, to be ableto put our feet into those those uh
doors already, you know, it'skind of cool, you know. So,
I mean, I'm very grateful withmy team with uh uh Bernie and
David for setting that up and evenlike the guys out there who who gave
us top notch hospitality. It wit was just amazing. Man. The

(01:07:06):
whole experience. So, you know, just my first time really out the
country and just being able to likego to the Great Wall China and all
that stuff and still do what Ilove to do, you know, working
out when Micah it was cool anduh, he has a lot of crazy
takets, but you know, Igot love for that guy, but it
was fun. Man John and JonathanDad, what's uh, what's it like

(01:07:27):
how you can stover down here withyou and what's your relationship been like with
him? Oh? Yeah, Kay'smy brother. Man. You know,
I've been through taking thing with himand he's somebody who I I often look
at us like like our moms arelike the same, or our families are
super close. In college, Ithink he's like my blood brothers who like

(01:07:48):
somewhere from walking on the line.I don't know how it works, but
I just he's always like there forme. He's always you know, I
don't know, man, Kate isjust like that guy. He's a brother
that just you know, letting themknow I'm available for him. You know,
I think it can be something aslittle as just the steps on field

(01:08:09):
goal blot or field goal protection.You know, I've been doing it for
thirteen years us still crazy, I'mstill doing it, but uh, you
know, uh, those are thet type of things I'm just giving guidance
to. And then you know,off the field, it's you know what
to expect around the city. Whereshould you be, where you should be,
how you can help yourself, youknow the little things, Okay?

(01:08:31):
And what are you looking forward toyour contract? You know, I'm looking
to be here. You know,the value is what we decide. But
you know, I think for me, I I I want to be you
know, valued at my position.You know, I I understand I came

(01:08:51):
up a rough season, but Idon't think it's a step down of where
I can play. You know,I think when I'm at the top of
my game, I'm still you know, top five player in my position.
And you know I played a runin the past and I bring leadership and
uh that's a not anything I discover. Can you you plan to be here

(01:09:11):
for many? Camp ram a storyof any camp? Yeah? How difficult
has it been the last two weeksto not be here? I mean you
said in your podcasts the first timeyou've never not been a OT. Yeah,
it w it was difficult, butlike you know, the thing I
got very frustrated with was just andpeople questioned my communication with the team.
You know, I uh was communicatingwith guys left and right, and you

(01:09:32):
know, front office, coaches,teammates, and all I care about is
how I am with my teammates.I don't want them to ever think I
don't care about them or how I'mnot in it. And you know,
you can say whatever you want aboutme. But besides that, but I
always dedicate anything I can't do,and I don't want that to every question.

(01:09:55):
And they just said that it feltlike sometimes you were hold up somewhere
watching film. You text her,Yeah, r you miss this or you
want that. Well, like thefirst day, he was batting all up
Russ's passes, so I had tolet him know. You know, I
uh, you gotta take advantage ofthat. You gotta make sure guys are
you know, uh know that youyou still care and you still wanna be
a part of this. Uh,you know, just watching practice, there's

(01:10:17):
a couple of little things we're doingdifferent, whether I'm communicating with Dunbar or
other people, you know Soviet.Yeah, so you're that you're also talking
with him and you you've given hima pointer or during the off season,
just constant communication. How do yousee him grow as a person, you
know, as far as how he'sapproaching things, how he's getting ready for
this season from his rookie year.Uh. You know, I think the

(01:10:39):
thing with Keanu is he's more comfortable, you know. You know, it's
not his first time around the track. You know, it's actually like he
can you know, uh, catchhis feet under him. You know.
I always think when you're in yourrookie season, you're going from bowl game.
I don't even know Wisconsin playing abowl game. Sorry Wisconsin, I
don't even know. But you know, personally, I just think when you

(01:11:00):
go from bowl game to training forthe combine to you know, rookie mining
camps. OTA's the you know minicamp, I mean the training camp the
regular season, you really don't geta time to really catch yourself. You
know, he understands the playbook.Now you can be more vocal, you
know, And I think when myabsence, the other guys absence, you

(01:11:21):
know, you need guys like thatto step up and be ready for those
opportunities. A server you had youhave during the season was a more thorough
what was just tightened down everything,you know, on my left side,
cause I was overcompensating a little bit, but you know it was it wasn't
anything that lingers. You know,I'll say this, Uh, a growing

(01:11:44):
is not like an a cl It'snot like anything's that we're gonna ge affected
again. And you know, youknow, I'm feeling good, able to
do everything squat and heavy with powerand speed, so you know, it
feels good to get after again.What do you think of what the team
was able to feel? The shipsho off eas you return to bring guys
like Russian and things, you know, I I think they're all good acquisitions.

(01:12:04):
But you know, you never wantto be known as a paper champion,
so can't win the off season.I think the work gets done out
here on the field, gets donein the classroom, It gets done training,
uh you know, and then yousee where you're at in training camp,
and then you build on that.You know, I think we got

(01:12:24):
the right guys in the building.It's just about putting a complete team on
the field camp. How Tenther collegesit to separate the business part of the
game in the actual football player.Uh, you know, you you always
wanna you you always have to treatit like a business because you know one
day it's gonna end. Uh andthat's been job. Uh. It's not

(01:12:47):
like in college where you know yougot four years guaranteed. I don't know,
well now you you don't even knowwhere nil and know it's crap,
but the transfer portal portal. Butyou know you have to Uh. I
still have love for this game,and I still work my tail off,
and I still put everything into it, and that's not gonna change. But

(01:13:10):
you have to know, uh whatyou bring to the team and and what
your what your value is. Okay, I wan did it feel to be
out there with your teammates today?Emotionally great? You know, we got
a new uh, we got anew training staff and still learning the the
warm up a little different. Uh, but uh, you know I loved
it. Uh, you know,just getting after it, learning new guys,

(01:13:30):
uh, going through the same drillsI've been doing by myself. Uh.
I actually like having more people around, cause like kind of go stir
crazy, cra crazy. When it'sjust you and another guy, You're like,
damn, I gotta go back upfor another rep already. And so
you know, it's nice to beup here and get a chance to you
know, be with my guys camwhere you're confident and be able to get

(01:13:51):
done with your emotions. Oh,I'm gonna I'll try to remain pretty neutral,
cause you know, I don't wannabe too either way. All I
know is I wanna be here,but we'll see what happens. Is my
last year here, I I II've had a great career here, but

(01:14:13):
uh, I'll look forward to playnext year. Can you hear what that
second surgery? You said it thistime was on the left side. It
was the first time around on theright side, right side during the season,
left side, and that was justtightening down my corner. My corma
saw. It wasn't the same asmy ad doctor. You know, you
can ask doctor Bradley, Uh,doctor doctor Zuckerbron who uh did the surgery

(01:14:35):
as well. You know, Iif anything's gonna help me and you'll make
me a lot stronger for hearing up. Did you say you were training with
another guy? Who have you kindof been Tyson? Oh? Uh,
I've been training with him for thelast eight years. We've always trained together.
We got a trainer up north.Uh shot out Cole Haley He's my

(01:14:55):
guy, traded, trained, trained, uh, Heath Miller, Brett Keesel,
the multitude of guys that I allrespect, and we've just been getting
after cans. Very few guys historicallythirty five that you paid big contracts.
You think that's held against you.I think there's not a lot of history
behind it. But you know,for me, I I look at as

(01:15:18):
I'm not looking to be like anybodyelse. You know, my game is
different from everybody else in this league. You know, I like to think,
you know, I can play therun in the past, and then
that's where I'm different. You know, I remember last year Mike t just
brought to my attention. You knowthe thing that's really cool is you watch
powerlisters, and you know, mygame's built on powering technique, and those

(01:15:41):
guys go into their forties and soyou know, that's what kind of research
I'm doing behind the scenes. Butyou know, I I We'll see what
happens. I it is. There'snot a lot of history, but I'm
here to make history and I'm hereto you know, winn another super Bowl
here and you know, have agreat season. Do you have a set
goal for yourself or how many yearsyou wanna play in the NFL or do

(01:16:04):
you just take things year by theyear? You know it? It was
it was tough answering that question rightafter the season. I will say this,
guys, I I can't keep answeringthat question right after the season.
That is not fair to the season, That's not fair to my family.
Uh you know. But in mymind, I got three years and I
wanna maximize'em. I wanna playat a high level, and I wanna

(01:16:27):
go deep in the playoffs. Andyou know, we got a good team,
and I'm gonna do my part tobe ready for all those situations here.
If you plan on practicing when youreport to latrob or is your possibility
that you might pull in and enforcethe new issuations? I I have not
even thought that far. I'm takingit day by day. Uh you know.
Uh uh. I told my agentand we talked about it. I

(01:16:48):
mean, we were cool coming outhere. You know. I'll be here
for many you know, and thenI'll be there for training band. You
know, I don't know what thework entails, but when we get there,
will we'll cross that Birch m Steer. For those three years, you
know, there was a conversation betweenme Omar and Mike t And there's certain

(01:17:15):
guys that are one helmet guys,you know, and I wanna be one
of those one helmet guys. Andyou know, there's a there's a hunger
and desire that I was doing alittle bit of carrying the ball. I
was behind Xavier Johnson. So learningfrom him and guys like that, it's
it. It makes me more comfortable. But I could do I feel like
I could do anything on the fieldnow. I'll do anything to play so

(01:17:36):
fast, to do with meet,throwing the ball, running the ball,
catching the ball, blocking, anythingI'll do to you got the field.
I agree with that. Coach Datespecifically talked about how competitive you are.
Where do you think that driving from? It just comes from where I'm from,
South Florida. I feel like everybodydown there we compete to the max.
There's no other place that competes likeSouth Florida. There's dogs all around

(01:17:56):
the the South Florida. So,I mean, it's just ever since I
was seven years old when I startedplaying, It's just it was instilled in
me to just compete and be thatdog. Speaking of once we thought about
Germanicami. I mean, I playedwith Jeremiah when I was ten and eleven,
and then we played against each othera couple of years in high school,

(01:18:16):
so I've seen him. The growthhe's made over these years is insane.
The way his body has changed iscrazy. And now seeing him out
here today, it's just like everythingcomes full circle. You know, he's
what, he was the best playerin the country last year and for him,
for me seeing him grow up andthings like that, it's been really
good to see Fresh such a stacker. Even Marvin Harrison Junior didn't play much

(01:18:40):
as a truth Fresh, but seemslike he might be the exception to the
rule. I feel like Jeremiah isjust I mean, he's definitely he's a
different caliber. When when you whenyou watch him and how smooth he is
and the physical abilities he brings tothe game, I feel like he has
to play some way. He hasto he has to play because he was
just better team. You're Jeremiah sohomoreand now this year the next years that

(01:19:20):
they're gonna get the best receiver receivingroom in the country. You know,
we've been helding that narrative for solong now, but We're gonna continue to
do that. I mean, wehave conversations with like as US three because
we're we all play for the sameteam. As you said, we just
want to be the best and weknow when it's our time to come,
we're gonna do We're gonna do thatand definitely get a national championship. How

(01:19:43):
special is that for you? Foryou guys get to it's very special because
you would have never known in OTseven when we were there, all on
the same field together on the sameteam. Who never thought we would have
been at the Ohio State University allplaying on the same field at the same
time. So it's definitely special forthem. So your income true, your
body changed in the soft season?How you? I definitely think my body

(01:20:09):
has changed a lot, and it'schanged the ways of like my body.
Fapper sentences went down a lot,and I just feel like I overall feel
better when I like do long runsand stuff like that. So I have
a good, really good stamina rightnow, So I just hope to keep
that up. Would you be guyswinded this year as you were after a
fifty seven years touchdown in your firstcatching winded? Yeah, yeah, I

(01:20:31):
feel like it was just adrenaline rushing. I feel like I was more so
a celebration, was more tired thanthe run. Actually, everybody jumping on
me and stuff like that. Butit was definitely a cool spa experience.
Just talk. Is there a littlesouthma is there outside? It feels like

(01:20:53):
there's a little bit of South borderand maybe there's nobody from there like the
good track proper. Yeah, whatdo you guys need? I feel like
if the if there were anybody tobe from South Florida at corner them,
it would be day. Uh.I g B Davidson ignos guard and looking
over to the my counterpart yard.It's a great thing to say. What
what about Carson's skills might just allowhim to shift over one's box was last

(01:21:15):
year? Why you didn't be successful? Right, he's athletic. He was
able to run the ball. Youhe've been as well, which is all
your favorite things and work in thespace. That's uh, it's a huge
uh thing to have. And uhhe's just trying to come up into the
guard spot. Now. It's howof those kind of other guys I gotta
said, very fine Florida, butuh he's doing he did a good job
today, Let's say we can dointo the summer and get into the fall

(01:21:36):
camp. After Sam squarre his touchdown, coach Lock and was talking to then
he kind of made his way overtoward you, grabbed his shoulder head like
what was going on at Oh yeah, yeah, I mean obviously, Uh,
young guy scores a touchdown on theshoe, he kind of blocks out
of everything. So I'm trying tocoach Locks, calling his name, trying
to get his attention back. Hegets some coach him. Uh it was
it was nothing too crazy, CoachLocks. It Now we handle on to

(01:21:57):
the retaurant here and so just makesure you know, uh, obviously it's
a great thing. Right now,I'm just going to touchdown. It's great
thing. Everybody saw you seen thescore, but you used to times got
a lot of quarterbacks running the ballup today. I don't uh you say
that part of the game. Imean, I think that just makes uh
offense even more passion as you can. That's played eleven on the eleventh,
ten on eleventh. So it's justanother guy to account for, another guy.
You have to uh move outside ofthe box, another guy. After

(01:22:19):
tend Thames, the rest of thedefense open for more uh options than you
know PENSI it. So it's ait's awesome thing. You know, personally
I want to slide, but butuh, it's it's still cool. See
how difficult did that make it?Last year? Were year? Your last
couple of years when you really haven'thad that? What's the running quarterback?
You've able to be the running forquarterback game? None, It wasn't difficult.

(01:22:39):
It's just uh U style and youknow coach Kelly comes in with uh
his philosophy and what he wants thecues to do and the cube I actually
went on the spring, so hwe're just gonna keep building off that.
Obviously, Uh, you did acouple of good things today some uh some
good runs by out all the cues, but just uh building off of it
and see what we can do betterdone. I think you open today in
the key formations and creative like that. What's it like working with the ship

(01:23:00):
Kelly? And how is that helpingthe offensive line's creativity? It's it's it's
really fun going through walkers. ObviouslyI only get the sort of run to
play the inside outside sound. Butyou know, we go back from filming,
like while we were in the teafor mission. But it's uh,
everything's a lot everything's a lot morefun. All the guys are buying in,
all the guys that coming a lotmore fun. So coach kind of
brings us on his own juice towhat we have, what you're going on,

(01:23:24):
and just uh, every day,every guy, everyone improves off of
it. Soally, do you feelthat improvement up front for you guys in
the offensive line? You feel likethat's helping you guys right now for sure?
Yeah, I mean, uh,we have a lot more experience in
the line, A lot more guyshave a year or two under the belts.
What did your impression of him?What does he do well that you're
like, okay, yeah, thisis this the own closely born here he

(01:23:46):
committed right after your visit. Imean, when you came down here,
was there a thought process that youcould commit. Did you come down with
an open mind or did you kindof have a feeling that this was gonna
be the weekend of you? Icame down with open one. I didn't
know about the name around that,and then I got here. I felt
the family, I care the player. What was that moment like for you
talking to the coaches telling there andtelling your family just what was that like

(01:24:11):
for you? But it was great. I have my mom, my dad,
or my mother's bed in the roomwith any other What was that reaction?
Well, my everybody already really exceptfrom the tay. So what was
coach after that? It was atime when you think of like just to
comment or the yeah just an ohiostraight back. You know, whether it's
physicality, like what are the firstthings that come to mind when you think

(01:24:33):
of the don't high share or anymoresweet of powers on and tey you got
it? Yeah, there is thatsomething that I mean you feel like you
have to you know we're going oris that something that you're like, yeah,
that's the kind of back I am. I'm just gonna be next to
mine in all lives. I thinkthat's the tip of back I am.
But you've always improved. Yeah,well, what are kind of a few
of those things that you're like,yeah, I need to work on like
over the course of the next fewmonths, or just everything make sure I

(01:24:56):
keep all the detailed low securityear Whata coach like to that he likes about
your game? Is it between thetackles you speed or what is he like
he said, you like marrow fuckerBrackfield, famous man. He liked that.
I'm not going to what's kind ofyour main I mean obviously as an
in state kid committed to this class, what's your pitch now to other recruits
and being like, this is whyyou should join Ohio State twenty twenty class.

(01:25:19):
It's a real family. I'mospe everybodygetting them on, everybody talking to
everybody know each other. What'd yousay once you get in to back or
who as bringing to it? Well, I've always looked up to Bill Jackson
watching this film. Do you uhthat's funny? Do you think that your

(01:25:43):
boy style Kamarra his for mis perspectiveand just the way that he can really
tost off Field thee thing that youwant to go into it? Yeah?
I think I can. I thinkthe speeding power, Yeah, I think
I Who are the main guys thatyou're you're talking to right now to join
the stools? I'm really talking toeverybody the listing in that auto com and

(01:26:05):
any guys that you want to jointhe past, to anybody at the top
of your list. Not didn't yousorry if you already asked this, but
coming up here as a as arecruit, as a commitment here? What
what did you want to show today? What did you want to get out
of this experience? It wasn't inthe show. Nothing cool. I just
want to get this one work herewith his life. How did you feel
like that went? Obviously he's stillrelatively new here, but he seems to

(01:26:28):
bring up a little bit of adifferent energy than than some of these camps
in the past. I feel likeit went good. Yeah, do you
sense that energy? I mean whenyou're out with him, it's I feel
is intense anything. He's different thanother guys though, right, I mean
kind of How do you would youexplain his coaching than some of the other
running back coaches you've made up workedwith in the path. It's just intense,
its sense, like go go go. Did you talk to coach flock

(01:26:48):
one when you even heart to organ? I did? Okay? So when
when didn't he didn't work? Andget him Martiner like Rufford around like after
season like not too far aftic?Okay? Is that I mean? Is
it was? He kind of thesame guy that he is now, so
just just in a new uniform.Basic. Yeah, and you guys obviously

(01:27:10):
added Isaiah to the class, andthere's no secret they would like to add
another one. What are your thoughtson being in a class with three different
running backs like that? I haveno problem to being able to pass.
What do you like about Isaiah?I don't know you never mat him,
but just damn it. On thefirst time when you committed, the were
some of the guys that you startedto reverse from the particularly about after they

(01:27:31):
growing up? I'm not really acouple of linebackers. Take me on your
thanks, that's cool. Can youjust get you are coming back? You're
just getting into I enjoy every times. Great, just you your life are

(01:27:59):
changes. Walk out the war andjust decide work. I'm committing and now
you're flash star number one player somecrazy us that's actually really picks ever say,
it's just even getting the office fromhere my life, that's just the
sky. Appreciate this. I mean, obviously got a couple of year before

(01:28:25):
you did here. I'm curious abouthow you put so high and shape like
how you do it's a pretty youstarted to be pretty good. But I
mean in terms of the guys,don't you want to draw? How do
you pick? You're not starving?Hun your cam? Sure? Great?

(01:28:48):
Right seas. Look, what doyou want out of a quarterback in your
class? Like what a specifically like? Yeah, this is what I wanted
to say. Great, think what'syour question Rochester or what? Thank you

(01:29:32):
brothers visiting coach? Thing you verymuch of children, Thank you very much,
Thank you once again your music.Talk to Mons and h Kelly about
that old pop? Don't you likeI'm it's the first time I met him.

(01:29:57):
You know, we just find it. Ou What do you think you
can bring to you know, we'relike with the lots of what's been like
for you just being up to California, being out of fun today, this
is a little obviously helping you.Like different being in one state recruit here

(01:30:26):
when you were just a couple isdefinitely different. So it's live here a
new generation of recruits where I don'tthink anybody outside looking UNI. The question
is the strength of your commitment,Like you're locked into the last date and
you said it over and over,but you're making visits around the country,
You've seen other schools. It's it'salmost a totally different mindset. How do

(01:30:51):
you approach those other visits and howdo you communicate with Ohio State about them?
But what's been the message. Ijust let it know that, you
know, Uh, I'm always lockedin, you know, I'm just still
enjoying the process, just being inthe group. You know, it's it's
slowly what's on? The siblings enjoys, Uh, the other schools. I

(01:31:14):
tell them like, yeah, it'sgonna be really hard to try to get
to the flip that's so high stageyou know where I would be. It's
uh, what is if it's madeyou wanna take most of us or want
to chase house? The rehab processgoing so far, it's going great.
Man. It just taking them oneday at a time. H At what
stage are you? I know theysaid they wanted to see you probably in
training camp and we would know alittle bit more. I guess after next
week when you see a doctor forwhat what stage are you? Yeah?

(01:31:38):
I'm back up training doing everything liftingthat was crazy, So I'm back in
that stage. Do you have atimetable like what I would you be ready
for training camp or uh? Likewhat is your expectation? Uh? Right
now, just take me one dayat a time. Standing in my playbook,
so my numbers called them ready andhow important for you? Hasn't been
to I guess stay around the teamwhile you're in this process. Uh,

(01:31:58):
great man, Nuh, you know, definitely getting in touch with the guys,
you know, knowing a lot ofs lot of the guys already,
a lot of the old State boyshere, So it's been great. Are
you encouraged by how you feel sofar after the procedure? Do you?
Oh? Yeah, what your expectationswork from what people told you? How
would how would you goes? Oh? Yeah, no, I f I
feel fine. Shit, I justran ten fifties. Shoot, I'm I'm

(01:32:19):
getting back in shape. Shoot,getting in the weight room, about to
get strong again. So yeah,I'm I'm, I'm i'm'a be ready.
What potential do you see with thisdefensive line? Yeah? I mean now
you definitely stacked. I see alot of great things. Uh, you
know we've worked together. Yeah,I think Scott's a limit. Some conversations

(01:32:41):
have you had with some of theveterans, like Cam or any other people
on the G line? Yeah?Just uh going to Cam just aks'e
about certain things in terms of howhe sees offenses just whole time he's been
in the league, in terms offormations and how he picks up on little
pre snap breeze things like that.See something make you said, you know
you dove into the deep end ofthe cool. H How I guess m

(01:33:02):
much important for you to be disinvestedwith this team in and how much are
you enjoying that investment? Yeah?Nah, it's real cool, but I
uh, I love it here.Only thing I had to get used to
is that heat. But uh it'sit's real cool. Great teammates and everybody
welcome me with open arms. Soit's a great experience. Case you gonna
get work inserted to Sorry, isuh training camp day one? Is that

(01:33:26):
a realistic expectation? I'm just focusingon today? Are you running it?
Yup? Marshawn is another oh hoosethey got just having him back in the
building, just talking about what's happening. Oh yeah, uh yeah, b
uh big bro. You know it'suh definitely excited to play with'em.
We always chatted obviously on different teams, but I'm definitely excited to to play

(01:33:49):
with'em. That's you know,that's gotta be big for me. Was
that one of the guys from makingthe decision that you you kind of talked
to about what this locker room islike, yeah, Marshaan on Tyrane,
but yeah, I mean it wasWe got a lot of great guys in
this d You look at that,you know on paper, you know,

(01:34:11):
I feel like definitely one of themost talented defenses in the league for sure.
Now it's all about just putting ittogether and you know, coming together
as a team. Your research onthat. One hundred years ago, you
know, folks had the idea ofbuilding a stadium over sixty thousand people,
and that's because of what Chick Harleywas doing. And you know, they
had a wooden bleachers over here andall these people started coming in and the

(01:34:34):
idea of bringing in a stadium thatwere sixty thousand people at the time was
like, this is crazy. Whatis college football turning into? And they
instead of going to the state orgoing to the school the community, they
went to the community to raise themoney. They raised over at the time,
over a million dollars one night.Fast forward one hundred years and the
conversation still might be like, whatis college football doing right? And in

(01:34:55):
this situation then il we had toturn to the community for help, and
Nation showed up again in a bigway. So although the landscape is changing.
I don't know, if you know, one hundred years later, if
it's that much different. It's justin a different time, in a different
you know, set of issues thatwe're working through. But I think it's

(01:35:16):
exciting. I think there's a lotof positives to it. I do.
I think that we're taking the nextstep with the revenue sharing to try to
institutionalize some of it, which wouldbe big for us some real Bill mills.
Yeah, every year's question. Itseems like this year's team has your
questions off the line addressed that specifically, if you look ahead to low than

(01:35:45):
a month, what are the realquestions that you have in your mind about
position battle? And I would sayon offense, you know, we've got
to square away the quarterback as youknow, I feel like, you know,
the offensive line on the right side, we got to solidify that.
I feel like we got to build, you know, enough depth at receiver

(01:36:09):
that we feel like we can putin five or six in the game and
feel good about it. On defense, I think we're still looking to figure
out, you know, who aregoing to be the guys inside, you
know, the third, the fourth, the fifth, defensive interier a linement
that we're going to put in thegame, and then same thing, just
just I would say depth, alittle bit of safety, just to kind

(01:36:30):
of see who those next guys are. They're going to step up, and
so we know it's going to bea long year. We're going to need
everybody and and so in a lotof those areas it's depth, special teams
wise. You know, Punter isgoing to be you know that that is
significant. You know, we justbrought in Nick and you know, so
there'll be a battle there. SoI'd say those are probably the areas we're

(01:36:53):
focused on the most. Right justto fall from the offensive line, there
was I think a school apology guysmight we looked for an answer in that
post spring window. Did you guysdo that? Did you guys not find
the guy or were you just confidentthe guys you have, Just like you
know in January, if if we'regoing to bring somebody in is to fill

(01:37:13):
a hole, We're not just goingto bring somebody in to bring somebody in.
Like at all positions, we'll alwayslook to see what's out there.
We did evaluate some of the guysthat were out there, and you know,
you know, we felt like comingout of it. As we evaluated
it, you know, there wasa couple of guys that you know,
we checked on, but but ultimately, like based on where we were and
some of the young guys that arecoming up, you know, we felt

(01:37:33):
like we saw some progress in theoffensive line in the spring. So you
know, it wasn't there wasn't asmany folks in the portal, you know,
in after the spring. So welooked at it, we identified it,
We did our due diligence, butyou know, we're gonna go with
through we have now second round,landis right, you're it was interesting that

(01:37:54):
you have two of maybe the topfive ers or guys in sport and then
guys who uh maybe someone that Iknow. My question, but did you
consider trying to add there? Understandingthat probably the difficult sell. We can
have such talent, how to bringsomebody of these experiences? Like what were
those conversations like and how did yousett along being comfortable with you know,

(01:38:14):
Trey and well, like you said, you know, I think we're we
will get some experience there with thosetwo guys, and then you know,
we felt like coming out of thespring that James and Sam both did a
nice job, and you know we'regonna have to play them and they're gonna
have to you know, take ona little bit of that. You know,
we have you know, started havingconversations with Caleb Downs. I was

(01:38:34):
part of the recruiting process of possiblyyou know, doing a little bit of
running back as well. It's somethingthat he wanted to do. So we've
been having him in some of themeetings and some of the individual drills as
a possibility there if you know,needed so down the road to continue to
build depth at that position. Butyou know, I think, you know,
we feel like, you know,if you have you know, four

(01:38:56):
strong running backs going into it,then you know that's gonna be that's gonna
be enough to carry the season.I do think that the quarterbacks will run
the ball more this season, sothat should take some carries away from them.
But to your point, you know, James and Sam are gonna have
to step up to the guys thatwe can count on. Save that for

(01:39:16):
another day, Yeah, just fallup on that. Is he capable of
stepping in and being running back?Obviously, we'll see, we'll see.
We talked about in the recruiting process, you know, the first time around
and more specifically in the second timearound, and so he's you know,
he's been around a little bit justto get a feel for it. We

(01:39:39):
did very little in the spring.We did I think we pitched them an
option or something like that in thespring just to kind of get them going.
But yeah, we'll see. We'llsee where that goes. We don't
have a specific plan right now,but we do want to introduce him to
that just the same thing like LorenzoStyles has played Recier where he did that
Notre Dame. You know, he'sout there a little bit just kind of
learning. It's healthy. You know, you're seeing it from the other side

(01:40:00):
of the ball. This time ofthe year, you can get away with
that a little bit, a littlebit in the preseason. Where it goes,
we'll see, but you just neverknow. And we're trying to put
some contingency plans in place because itcould be a long season. Yeah,
this is my forty first year coveringof house to day. I don't remember
ever expectations like this. In thesummer, there were something were almost a
big sure do you sense that too? And what's that pressure like as you're

(01:40:23):
working through a summer? Yeah,and people have asked me that I go
back to the expectations every year arethe same. I mean, it's just
the truth. When opening press conference, I said you got to beat the
team up north, and when everygame after that, that's just the expectations.
And when you come up short,you know you've got to figure out
a way to get those things fixed. I think we have done that.
But the expectations are the same everyyear. Pressure is the same every year.

(01:40:45):
I just like the pressure when you'vegot a really good team behind you.
So that's what we've got right now. And you know, we know
it's going to be a long season. We know we're working towards. But
I will say this about this team, Well, we've been talented. That's
there's been times in the past we'vebeen talented. I don't know since I've
been here, if we've been thistalented and this experience together with guys that
have played a lot of football,fourth and fifth year guys, and that

(01:41:06):
doesn't matter. Well, thanks extoor, Stephen play since you brought it up.
Maybe this is his talk because it'ssummer times, so you can now
just have conversations. Maybe we're makinga big get out of nothing long term
situations. But we've seen it aroundcollege football in league guys playing both sides
of the ball and doing it quitewell. Right Travis sunder is doing it
out in Colorado and Caleb Das hasbeen apartment turns, so we see what

(01:41:30):
he could do with the ball.But there's also the stamina aspect of that.
Just get into a sixteen game season. So I'm not saying it's many
forty snaps or something like that,But what about his athleticism what he brings
to the table and let you knowthat if you wanted to explore it in
a real game, he could lastand still be an effective See. Yeah,
you know, we'd have to seeall that he did it in high
school, but we got some reallygood run backs in a room. So

(01:41:53):
it's not something that we're planning ondoing, but we all we are gonna,
you know, work on a littlebit Caleb. Caleb enjoys that part
of it. We did agree thatthat was something that we were going to
look into. Where it goes,I don't I don't really know right now,
but I know that he has thecapability to do it. He has
the athleticism and do it, andyou know, we'll kind of see where
it goes, see see how hedoes, and you know, maybe hand

(01:42:13):
the ball Tom a little bit inthe preseason, because again it's going to
be a long season. We haveto make sure we have continuoency plans in
place. But I know it's somethingthat he enjoys having the ball in his
hand. So even during their firsttime around the recruiting process, we even't
talked about him coming in as aas an offensive player. Ultimately we think
a ceiling is highest on defense.But you know, but I also agree.

(01:42:36):
I think that having you know,guys going in this side of the
ball and just see it, listento meetings is really healthy for the development.
So we're going to do that regardless. Your defensive recruiting right now is
maybe further along it's been in theyears past, and I think we passed
numous questions about it in the past. But is this a product of seeing

(01:42:56):
it over the last couple of yearsand now it's not just telling guys,
hey, this might but like they'reseeing it in real time. Yeah,
you know, we talked about itwhen Jim first came in, and I
think Tim Walls an unbelievable job aswell. In the back end, and
you know, Matt stepped right inand James and Larry. I think they're
all doing a great job. Butlike you said, you know, it's
one thing to talk about it that'stheory testimony is just look at this is

(01:43:17):
this is what we're doing. Andthen I think you're seeing a lot of
guys just excited about playing in thisdefense and they see the capabilities and the
flexibility too. You know, rightnow the way we play, excuse me,
the way we play right now isbased on you know, we have
four really talented defensive linemen that arereally good and we got a lot of
that to those positions. But there'salso flexibility with some of the things Gym's

(01:43:39):
done in the past that you know, we're definitely looking at and some of
the recruits that we're looking at whobrings some versatility, pass rusher, you
know, we have that jack positionand those type of things. So that's
exciting as well. And I thinkyou're seeing a lot of the recruits,
you know, really get fired upwhen they get here. People. Yeah,
years, your identity was very uman standpoint and air it out type

(01:44:01):
team. Look at the key astalent and the play makers you have therese
your identity change. I guess whatdo you think the identity is of this
point point four? Well, we'llsee as we go, but you know,
we know what we need to doto play in the big games.
That's never changed. And we haveto be able to stop the run,
run the football, take care ofthe ball, and there'll be opportunity used

(01:44:21):
to throw the ball. That'll that'llhappen. But you know we're gonna have
to, you know, do thosethings to win close games and play situational
football. But I think, youknow, you won't really get a feel
for what the identity of the teamis until we get into probably the beginning
of October, you know, andI think we all have ideas of what
it could go. But you know, now that we're playing in a playoff

(01:44:44):
format, just like a lot ofthose NFL teams sometimes, you know,
they don't really quite understand their identityuntil the get about halfway through the season.
I don't think it'll take that long. But you know, we're able
to play some games and kind ofwork through some things, and I don't
think our defense is going to changea bunch in terms of what we did
last year. I mean, it'sa lot of the same guys back could
look a little different on offense.Have you got time for two more?
Go to Doug Limmer's Okay, right, you lose an important recruiting staffer to

(01:45:12):
promotion at Michigan, just the secondtime someone's gone to Michigan this offseason.
How do you react to something likethat? Is something that someone like that
would take information that was learned herethat could help Michigan or Burt Ohio stages?
Which a reaction to that? Yeah, all good questions, And you
know, I just I want totalk about the guys that are here,

(01:45:33):
you know, the staff members thatare here, the coaches that are here,
the players that are here, theones that are Buckeyes. Joe didgon
with the scheduling change that was announcedyesterday? How why did they come together?
Didn't have anything to do with theexpanded the playoff? Maybe no,
think beginning of the season a littledifferent. Yeah, you know, I

(01:45:55):
don't know all that came in camewith it. I know it got presented
to me a while back, andyou know I was on word with it.
So yeah, I mean I think, you know, we do have
to look a little bit different atour scheduling as we move forward based on
the way the format is at theend of the season. That's quickly about
the linebackers, got in here alittle bit late. How do you feel
about your linebackers? Cody seems likeheouse the Betrims, like he's lucking as

(01:46:17):
a starter. CJ. When doyou see his role being Sonny? When
you see his role being gay andall this guy? Yeah, good versatility.
All those guys are vel Reese,Like you said, CJ, Gabe,
Sonny, Cody. You know I'mmissing a couple, I'm sure,
but like that was that the rvel? Yeah? I mean these guys are

(01:46:38):
very versatile guys. You can seethe length on them, and you know,
they do a good job in termsof like fitting the runs they could.
They have enough length, you know, to covering zone. But they'll
also blitz and that's something that wewanted to really work on this offseason,
is getting better at blitzing, youknow, and hopefully we can even take
the name. Have you got Jeremiaj J? Smith? J. How'd

(01:47:00):
you feel out there today? Yougot a great time. I heard the
team. The team came out,don't three and on pool play when you
come to these kind of tournaments.What kind of techniques do you like to
work on it? See they gotyou going deep run some short stuff from
crossing routes. What do you workon when you're out of tournament like this?
Really just getting back in the gooseat doing you meat? So really
just working on my releases. Uhthat's when your game, my friends class

(01:47:25):
I've been I've been a chuck.So just really getting back in. Now
we know you pulled the trigger onOhio State. Obviously you're gonna take visits
kind of make sure that you're you'reperfect, done your decision. What was
it about Ohio State and Brian Hartlineand Ryan David? It made you feel
comfortable to commit early? Really theyset me my first visit. We're not
thinking the first one? You can'tthey offered me. You feel like being

(01:47:50):
system my friston? You really justwhat's up? What's up? What's what
they saw? Was what you mean? They need? They they gave me
what you just a kid that I'lltalk hart I wasn't talk artist. I
check them now. I know yougot some of your SFE family up there.

(01:48:12):
You got Brandon n s, yougot Cardinal Day. What does it
mean to potentially be able to wakeup with them in a year and be
able to kind of run back whatyou guys have done in South Florida.
Express in Columbus, Ohio, it'dbe great we go there to Ohio State
take over. It'd be grateful,all the great up the first round.
Yeah, you're a super humble kid. I've been really impressed by you today.

(01:48:32):
Is there anything that you want OhioState fans to know about you?
You know again, I know you'rejust your all work, all work,
all work. But what are theygetting when they get a J. J.
Smith to come to Ohio saying,Kim a job day, just what
I want to take care of myboss. Don't just come in through my

(01:48:55):
talk. That's perfect man, WellGod bless you. I appreciate you,
my man. Also watching today andthen later tonight, I'll probably come back
and watch the film again. Butat the end of the day, it's
just trying to be around football,be around the facility. How much of
your film watching, who is likesolo whatever? Just you buy yourself watch?
And how much team for Earlier we'vehad more safeties come in throughout the

(01:49:19):
spring, more guys try to learnthe system, and learn the game.
But I mean, at the endof the day, you gotta do what
you gotta do to put yourself ina best position to win. So myself,
I'll watch film at home too bymyself, but when I'm here,
there's always other players around me thatare trying to or to get better,
just like I am. Are youonly watching yourself? Who you watch?

(01:49:39):
No? I watched the NFL teams. Watch good NFL safeties that are playing
right now, Javon Holland, Hanswin Winfield, go as like that that
can that I can emulate and tryto see how they play. And then
also just watching other players here,other players that do things well here,
just learning from them, trying tosee how they play the game, trying
to get better. Some of thebig differences that you've seen so far between

(01:50:02):
what you went through at Alabama andso far you've gone through up here,
A lot of it's the same,a little differences in the defense and how
they operate and how they see things. But at the end of the day,
football's football, defensive defense. Soeverybody gotta get to the ball and
make the type of we think fullof us. Oh, I love the
city, I love uh High Street. I love being in the city.

(01:50:26):
I love going to the restaurants here. The food's great here. So I
ain't got no good place for mebecause it's like you have the campus as
then you also a big city.It's it's different than Alabama because Alabama was
a college town and Testalosa is notas big of a city. Here,
there's a lot of people to see, a lot of different businesses that you
can be a part of. Sojust trying to learn the city and learn

(01:50:48):
what everybody has to offer here.He'll you probably noticed that when ka Procky
made his decision to go back toAlabama, then that starts a whole level
of speculations. The are you wereyou taking back by that? Did you
feel like you needed to make adeclaration off of that? Uh? I
mean at the end of the day, No, I didn't feel like I
needed to say anything, cause atthe end of the day, I was

(01:51:08):
still here a practice, I wasstill here with my teammates. So I
mean, I feel my my actionsspeak for themselves. I'm I mean,
I don't I don't need to sayanything about that. Cayden. I talked
to him when he did it,and I congratulated him on his decision.
I mean that's what he feels hisbest as when he feels his best,
and I support him. But I'mhere. You guyss have here in this
new generation of you have that sortof freedom, You have that sort of

(01:51:30):
control over your career in a waythat other people didn't. Is it's something
that you you have to kind oftake with the certain seriousness that you're making
that right decision. You care atall times, I think ev I mean
it in life, you have tomake decisions based off of what you feels
best for yourself. So that wasa big decision for him. And if
he feels that's what was best forhimself, then I support it. But
at the end of the day,for college suble athletes, I think that's

(01:51:54):
the best thing because the coaches havethe same right to do what they do.
Coach can come here for a monthand leave, and I mean then
he's just leaving the player at Iand draw. So I mean, if
they're gonna have the ability to doit, why would the players and not
have some type of say in theirin their life. Ken you we made
the impact option last year in freshmen. What do you think you could do

(01:52:14):
as a sawt ye're under your belthere. I think I can grow and
what I did well last year andincrease on the qualities that I wasn't not
as a leite at during during theseason. So just being better in coverage,
being better in the post, beingbetter in my tackling, being a

(01:52:35):
better communicator with my teammates, allthat I think I can offer to the
team. And but at the endof the day, it's gotta be a
team collective to go do what wewanna do. What do you I mean
this offseason low with the packs?What do what do you think of being
a big part of that wasn't theelite last year and it should be better
this year. Yeah, they werea very elite defense last year, and

(01:52:55):
watching all the film from last yearand the whole season, they played a
great season. They played a lotof good defense. Excuse me a wish
question, just the idea of beinghard a big part. What about a
league defense? Uh? I meanI can only do my part. I
can only do my one to eleventhand do my job every play. I
can't. I can't try to domore than that, and every other player
just has to do their job andwe'll do what we need to do.

(01:53:17):
Okay, we'll be talking about yourfield watching habits. Was that the same
in high school? What did thatlook like for you on a regular in
high school? My high school coachwas one of my favorite people in the
world, Uh, Freeman Davis.Me and him watch film together a lot,
But that was more so just myselfwatching film and trying to grow.
So I would say I had alot of the same habits and has trusted

(01:53:40):
over to college, but a lotof that was me and my high school
coach started a game together another movie. You around everywhere here, but you
know, it seems like you're atthat free safety spot as opposed to the
strong safety spot you played at Alabama. Just what said transition? Like,
do you feel that does that evenmatter in this kind of defense? I
mean it's the same spot really tothe is the safety to the field,

(01:54:01):
the safety playing in the most space. That's what I'm used to. But
at the end of the day,I I feel like I can play to
the boundary, I can play thedim money position, I can play nickel.
So I mean, at the endof the day, you gotta make
plays wherever you're at. And CalebUh, what have you been? What
have your thoughts about on the Jeremiasnet? A very elite athlete, very

(01:54:23):
instinctual player, has a great ballskills. Should uh should have a big
impact this year. Anybody you cancomparis that you've seen nah j Jason's own
self. Jesus, he's on it'shis own man. Uh. Who almost
caught your ride at word receiver group? Kayle? That UH is elite in

(01:54:44):
your opinion? Uh, I watcheda Mecca Buka a lot and co when
I was in high school watching thegames, and then last year watching some
of his film. He's been anelite receiver then and he's a league receiver
now. And Cardinals has had agreat spring as well. Yeah, and
then you you personally, Uh,after the UH student appreciation day on Saturday,

(01:55:06):
you were mobbed about as much asanybody. What is what? How
have you felt the recept meaning ofautograph seekers et Saturday? You know?
Uh? How have you felt thereception here? Uh? For you over
the last several months, but especiallylike Saturday, I think it's been very
welcoming. I appreciate everybody and likeI appreciate when I go to class seeing
people that know me and just beingable to meet them, being able to

(01:55:28):
say that I'm glad to be here, being able to say I'm glad to
be here to everybody that came upto me. Yeah. So I'm just
I'm very appreciative of it. Doyou feel there are expectations for you?
You know what I mean that?Uh? I mean people mad so as
a versatility then so I'm happy aboutit. There. You moved around a
lot throughout your career that there's jumboside, you know, tackle I guess
and says and clean up and lefton the right side. Do you think

(01:55:49):
you kind of benefit from focusing alittle bit more on the right center?
Yeah, a little bit. Butyou know, there is a new assystem
that we have. I have Ifound my mind set most in the right
but also have my mind sound oflove too, just in case something that's
happening to like you know what Imean, like Colon or you know,
Pete of course. But I'm alwaysgonna be ready for life no matter what.

(01:56:11):
How quickly have you felt like youpicked up this new system that you're
working in now? You know it'sa we actually prey up picked up pretty
well cause it's the same system thatI'm used to back in the hot stacke
cause we're more like spread back athow I state, so you know,
it's pretty good. So it's oneof those like the draft process off seasons
as a lot of people outside ofthe buildings and mamagers getting the right tack.
Okay, a lot of yeah,alright now, A lot of people

(01:56:33):
in the building were like, wehave a right time. All the people
do get motivated about that. Youfollowed it like if you hadna to do
it, though I don't. Iread into it a little bit. But
also the same time, like theynot here of course, but I don't
really care what they say. Iknow what I can do, and the
team know I what I can do, so they trusted me right now.
And How'm I gonna live in rightnow? How hard or how easy is

(01:56:55):
that to compartmentalize that and use thatas fuel going forward rather than to kind
of marinating it, uh I jI just keep receipts. Everybody knows that
one person I don't really care forhim. And also that's all going on.
But it's all love. I loveuh outside of this, but you
keep doing me, keep it better, keep on these nights do what I
can do there. You've been aoutspoken about your supporter Zumr and obviously it's

(01:57:18):
just his chance now to be thedog. Wait, what is it about
him that you bought in so early? The reason why I bought so earliest
cause uh, I was at ahouse they they always taught us, actually
I go get it, and eversince I got here, i'm'a always wanna
go get and like gotta picked late, and I always wanna prove people wrong.
You know, I think prove forpeople wrong all my life. I

(01:57:40):
don't wanna keep doing that. That'sall doing which I guess more just like
we all put it like set youlike a community this year have uh nine
eight difference nine they difference from myfirst year, in my second year to
now like now, my guy,I know I can play. I know
I can go against one of thebest special nights anybody else that we point
this year, and I know whythe new So all gotta do now is

(01:58:03):
as meet my potential and should doit and help everybody else out the team
as well. You've practiced a lotagainst Malcolm and he's really come into his
own. What is it about Malcolmthat's helped him make that next step there,
man, Malcolm. He's quiet,he doesn't really say too much.
He comes to the work every day, do what he does, and he
works hard. He doesn't bit twiceat anything. Yeah, he'll get mad

(01:58:25):
over a co restols. At thesame time that like he has an entality
of adult like he's he don't reallycare what y'all think or anybody else thinks
for real, So it's just like, alright, just keep going. That's
how everybody is on the team.About tyraise to that same mindset. He
does have the same mindset. Alittle nervous, but uh nah nah.

(01:58:46):
He has definitely grown up a lotfrom his like first year here to now
like he has, but he's he'sgrowing up a lot mentally too. Until
you guys are reimagining the offensive linea little bit with you the right side,
farm there next to you on theon the ost side too, and
then drafting the guys on the linehere. How exciting is that to be
part of something that's that's kind ofbeing you know, having that trust but

(01:59:09):
also being reinvented a little bit.That's very you know, but me and
doing those like big go keep replacingus of course, but all the same
time. We gotta keep going,you know, kings really and think about
what they did. All we gottado is staying about what what came to
do. Witheel better in fourty teens. Well, sorry, don't put a
lot on the backside and the righta little bit more. How how long

(01:59:30):
are you guys working together? I'mone hundred percent now. And it was
like a walk in the park.It's like a sprained ankle. You know.
It was very easy, you know, because I had the knee.
The knee was pretty hard, youknow, and the achilles was I would
say it's easy, you know,just because that's just my mentality, and
it was. It was pretty easyto be. But you know, I've

(01:59:51):
had these injuries and it's been stormedlike the past two years, you know,
having haveing like good grey Gay.The next thing, you know,
hurt and then you know, sogot got the injury prone out there,
you know. But I think thestorm is over with, you know,
you know, and I think I'mI'm gonna gonna take off now, you

(02:00:13):
know, and there will be nosetbacks and the injury prone thing will be
gone out of the window again.Yep. Also get me back. I
am I am excited. You know, he does a lot of great things,
and he's a great person, andwe have a great relationship. It's
gonna be it's gonna be a funyear. We're gonna have a lot of

(02:00:34):
fun. We're gonna do a lotof great things. So I can't wait.
Take here waiting. The injuries you'vehad, is that just bad luck?
Is every Is there anything you've canattribute to beyond just misfortunate? Yeah,
it's just unfortunate, you know,But God has a plan always.
You know, I don't know whatthe plan exactly is, you know,

(02:00:56):
I don't know, but whatever planit is, it's for me to be
here. You know, I hada great rookie year. I didn't really
have the volume as other people myrookie year, but I still had a
great rookie year. Six yards ofcarry, you know, things like that.
I think it was like nine touchdownsten including the playoffs. And so

(02:01:17):
there's always been like, all right, guy, let me show my talent
shine a little bit. Like evenwhen I had the knee. So I
had the knee, right, Alot of people don't know, like I
didn't get hurt again whenever I gotyou know, got cleaned up. So
I went down in twenty one right, had the injury, the knee injury,
and then came back later the nextyear, and I played the first

(02:01:39):
few games and it just feel therewas a lot of scars issue in there.
So I had to get it cleanedup. I didn't get hurt again.
I could have played the whole year, but I got it cleaned up
so I can feel like me.And so after I got that cleaned up,
the first two games back from theinjury, I had over one hundred
and twenty yards rushing right and thenwent on had great, great ending of

(02:02:00):
the year, you know, onehundred total yards in the playoff game we
lost, which I hate the most. Stays, don't marry me. I
don't want to win. But thencome back the next year hurt again like
torn achilles. So two really unfortunateinjuries. But that's just God's plan,
you know. And I think thatthe storm is now over, you know.
And I do think that I'll beable to shine my light to the

(02:02:20):
whole world. Are you concerned thatyou have that label? You can't say
the three I could care less becauseI do. I do. I know
this out there because as it shouldbe. It should be. I got
hurt two major injuries back or notback to back years. But you know,
so I haven't been on the fieldas much as I should. That's

(02:02:41):
true, that is true. Butit's not like I'm having these little little
dinky injuries and sitting out. It'ssomething I can't control, literally, So
that's why I'm not bothered by Like, yeah, I am injury polling,
you can say that, you know, but I do think that the Chargers
are getting a guy that's gonna behealthy from now on, you know,

(02:03:02):
God willing, and it's gonna begreat. And I do think that it's
gonna be. It's gonna be agreat However, many years here, when
you've been on the field, you'vebeen highly adopted. Yeah, five point
of years was very average for yourcareer. Like knowing that when you're out
there you're very adopted, how muchconfidence does that give you? That really
all you need is is not whatyou need all the confidence in the world.

(02:03:25):
You know, the way I work, I wouldn't say just from the
numbers, but just the way Iwork my work ethic, you know,
and my relationship with Jesus is likeI have the most confidence when I step
out there, because I do know, like, if he grants me the
health, it's over with is Idon't think I would be you know,
I think it will be a greatyear or whatever, a couple of years.

(02:03:47):
However many years he grants me greathealth, you know. And I
think just the work ethic, myprayer and all that stuff, that's what
helped me have that confidence with thenumbers will be there and they might be
higher after this year, you knowwhat I'm saying. And it's crazy to
think about because I had six orsix yards per carry, you know.
So we'll see you living forward torunning behind this line that they put together.

(02:04:11):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.I played with Brandley. I played
with him, you know, Iknow the Slater, I know all the
I know all the guys, youknow, and I'm excited. I think
it's like I said earlier, it'sa talented group. You know. We
just got to put together win somegames. Cause that's what I came here
for a part of year, orI wouldn't I wouldn't say part of the

(02:04:31):
recruitment. But like whenever I decidedI was gonna sign, it was great
to have him in the room.What's your relationship. Yeah, we're great.
We're we have a great relationship.That's he's like my brother. So
I think compliment each other very well. You know, he can do a
lot of stuff too. You know, we got a lot of people think
he's just power, power, power, but I think he has some other

(02:04:55):
parts of his game two which itit'll be great because I feel like I
could do everything. When one gettired, we can roll it in.
We keep rolling win some games.So when you the two of you get
going, well, how do youthink that's gonna look for? What?
Like, what will be that partnershipkind of back there? I know that's

(02:05:15):
a hard question. How do Ithink I think it'll look beautiful. You
know a lot of people call ita passing league, but I think you
gotta run the ball to win thesuper Bowl. You know, if you
look at the team to win thesuper Bowl, they can run the ball,
they can control the clock, andso if we're both good, it'll
look great, beautiful. How wouldyou describe the Gregor running offense? I

(02:05:38):
would I would describe it as,you know, a great offense. I
think he gives a quarter He's goingto give the quarterback a lot of options
he's gonna get the running back alot of options, He's gonna give the
receiver a lot of options, youknow, And I think it'll be I
think it's gonna be great. Hisoffense is going to be amazing. When
we talked to him, and youknow, I was like, why have
you any will built something give rushingoffenses throughout your career every where you've been,

(02:06:02):
And you said that one part ofit is just you gotta call place.
You gotta call run place as arunning back. You know, how
much confidence, how much excite doesit give you? You know, you
have a play caller that's gonna stickwith it and allow you any offensive line
to get in your resident gives mea lot of excitement. You know.
It's gonna be Like I said,it's fun to play at his offense,

(02:06:23):
you know. And I think hedoes have some good things in the past
game too, But like you said, he sticks with the run and that's
that's the identity you You want anoffense that has an identity, right,
You won't be looking everywhere else tofind your your identity. You want to
have it. And so I thinkhis offense has that and the guys he
builds and puts in there. Itcomplements that identity. So I think it's

(02:06:46):
gonna be great. You mentioned yourone hundred percent now, so you'll be
full go for portraying him. That'sLook, I ain't gonna answer any of
the four if it's up to me. Yes, Look, because I had
this problem like three two years threeyears ago, I'm thinking I'm full go.
I think I'm ready to go,and the next thing, you know,
I'm on pup, like, hey, look some stuff above my prey

(02:07:10):
pay grade. So but I don'tknow. Hopefully I can start. I
think I'm ready to start, youknow, at the beginning of training camp.
But that's not up to me.As I've learned, tell you how,
I wouldn't say that. I thinkI've been I've been in some great
organizations, and I think this thisorganization is a great organization, and the

(02:07:32):
training staff is great, and sothey just want what's best for me,
you know, and they're they're takingcare of me, which that's what you
want in an organization. And sothat's where that comes from, which I
appreciate it, Like I really appreciatethat, you know, because I'm the
type of guy, like I workreally hard so maybe sometime I'm blind to

(02:07:53):
you know, the danger of something. You know, so I appreciate it.
But like I said, if it'sup to me, yeah, I'm
out there. But never know whatany frustration for you during the heading into
free agency, you know, dealingwith with rehab and not you know,
having won a full season tape orproduction out there? Was there any part
of that where you're like, God, wish you know, had hit the
open market with a different situation.You know, Nah, I like it.

(02:08:18):
I like, how would I saythis? I like it the hard
way, but not, you know, I like it the hard way.
I like it. I like trialand tribulations. So I mean the dice

(02:08:39):
that I was given the role wasI was coming off of Achilles, and
that was that was the lowest plan. So it was beauty in that,
like I was comfortable. I wascaught like there was multiple teams, you
know, I wasn't. It wasn'tlike I didn't have any other team.
But I was comfortable and sitting backand just enjoying the process, letting myself

(02:09:03):
get fully healed. So whenever thatteam, whoever I would sign with,
who now is the Chargers, isgonna get the best me, you know,
And I think people all around theleague know that, like, Okay,
this guy, Okay, it's ahigh risk, high reward type thing,
right, not even a high risk, hilar rice, because you it's
a business, right. So Igot hurt last year, so not as

(02:09:24):
much money needs to be throwing there. But I think everyone around the league
knows that whenever I am on thefield, the numbers don't lie, and
so they know that. And alot of teams were like, all right,
here, you can, we giveyou this, but we want you
to be healthy. So when I'mhealthy, it's gonna be great. This
is the chance that I've been givinghere. I'm so grateful and I know

(02:09:46):
that's gonna be. They won't bethey won't regret it. Are you the
type of person that likes to crewpeople wrong? Like you've run a couple
of things like the high risk,high reward injury. That's two cents I've
heard. But me being who Iam, you know, I'm I'm gonna
throw my two cents in there,you know. So that's just uh,
it's been awesome, man. WeHe's he's a you know, a resource
for me, just a person thatI can always bounce my thoughts off of.

(02:10:09):
And now, you know, justa year you said, thirteen months.
Now I feel more comfortable just youknow, bringing certain things that you
know, you never you never wannacome off too. Stan. But I'm
a curious guy. I got alot of questions. I like, I
like football a lot. I liketo talk talk the games. So you
know, come to find out he'sthe exact same. So we uh,
you know, we get along well, and and uh, we're gonna keep
keep building that relationship. Sometimes inthis league, playing you know, eighteen

(02:10:31):
games, they tryna make a twenty. You know, it's like it sound
like a little a little fever dreamto be honest, but but uh,
if we can find a way tok you know, stay up right out
there, keep keep airing on hisfeet. You know, I'm I'm excited
for that and uh everything that comeswith it. But uh but yeah,
like I said, man, that'sit's it's harder said than uh or harder
done. And said, I guessyou know, it's one of those things.
It's like that's a lot of games, you know, all of a

(02:10:52):
sudden take a lot of hits.They take a lot of hits where they're
not looking, and it's just howcan we keep him healthy? Yeah?
Yeah, are you when do youthink like the years the room now positions
you guys have made one more moneyhealthy and everything like, Yeah, you
know, I'm excited to see itat at full health. You know,
we've I haven't got to see allthe all the guys out there at once.
And and you know, it's oneof those positions where every day is

(02:11:13):
something might happen to Nick up.You know, it's just a a tough
position to stay out there at alltimes. But I feel like we got
a great group and and the numberone thing is how can we stay healthy?
How can we you know, I'llbe out on the field, and
I think having depth like this andthe group we have is gonna help us.
Having guys that can do different things, that can go catch ball over
the middle, all types of thingsthat it's gonna take some of the strain
off off all of us. Youknow, it's it's a good group.

(02:11:35):
So I'm excited to, uh,you know, get out there. I
feel like we haven't had the wholewhole thing together, but you know,
come season time, morol, andit's gonna be exciting. What about the
guys in your old number. Yeahyeah, Malaka, yeah, man.
Oh. He helped me a lot, even feel like the first day,
just trying to help me get usedto right tagle. He got my feet

(02:11:58):
used to right tagle. Like myfirst day of practice. I'm like,
dude, I still feel you feela little off. I don't feel as
balanced in my stands. And heshowed me the small technique and to do
with my feet, which I stilldo even even though I left tackle just
caps part of my routine. Thatwas part of my process and getting to
my stands. So stuff like thatthat he taught me from day one and

(02:12:20):
obviously in practice was fun. Justcompete with him, you know, it's
just to meet at the back ofthe pocket and to dap each other back
toever you rep like that was compete, you know what I mean. So
that's my guy, as much asyou love him on your the west side,
how bittersweet is as a certain mattersbecause it would happened to him.
Yeah, that's the thing. That'snot how It's definitely not how I n

(02:12:41):
a And that's not how I thoughtabout the transition would go. You know,
I thought it would be you know, I'm homesome timing a cardinal his
whole career, you know, andknow even want to play here forever,
you know what I mean When Iwas talking about his plans, so you
know, you us transitions like oneof those fairy tale like it's your time

(02:13:03):
now. But but again either way, you know, we talked about it.
You know that that's that's the howit goes, you know, but
obviously you know he sees he's he'sbeen one of my biggest supporters. Again,
I affect that everybody leads in theirown way, you know, not

(02:13:24):
everybody's the guys coming around like,that's not everybody, right, Like I
felt for me, that's me specificallyon game day with the O line after
we do one on one like that'smy Like, well, Hump did,
like that's my like big vocal time. I feel like I've talked to Hump
about this, you know, justrecently talking about how what I want to

(02:13:48):
do for the room is I wantto bring that Hump energy that he brought
right so last year. Of coursesome trads been doing it for years,
but the year I spent with him, he brought a lot of the energy
and the excitement and the happiness inthe room was just his natural energy to
where I only had to focus onme, you know, I didn't have

(02:14:09):
to make sure other other guys were, you know, feel some type of
way when they came in here becauseHump brought that. But out of Hump's
not here, but I saw whathe did for the room. I wanna
be that guy to make sure everyone'samped to go to practice. Everybody's hype
weren't taking and field team one periodand you know it's a low day or

(02:14:30):
something. You know, it's ait's a day. But like I wanna
make it feel like prepar's the tripperright now. I wanna bring that cause
that's when me and Hump did witheach other. We wople hype each other's
up. Dudes like dudes about tobe walked through were lit. So I
wanna do that. I wanna bringthat energy. I wanna make bring more
guys, you know, to dothat. You know, yeah, I
wanted to do that from day one, you know, I kind of I

(02:14:52):
wanted to do that from day onefrom just talking to him, and obviously
it's that time I spend off seasonbefore OTA started just being in myself,
just thinking about what the room needs, you know, because I know I
knew a new role as one ofthe leaders, you know on the offense,

(02:15:13):
is that we need a guy likethat that's gonna make sure the old
line is picked up ready to go. Every day I was held accountable.
Little things aren't happened to practice andpeople aren't saying anything. And how I
may lead maybe different than somebody elsemay lead. You know. I like
to a practice at least like toleave with positivity, you know what I
mean. So, but he theenergy yet went beyond just the hype up

(02:15:37):
the deal line and stuff too.So that's kind of how I wanna be
some goal mine literally my whole life. I wanna be a NFL team captain,
like specifically NFL. I wasn't acaptain of high school, wasn't a
captain of college. But I madea joke when I was in high school.
I was like, there, Ifeel like I'm not gonna be a
captain til I get to the NFL. Yeah, but that would be awesome,

(02:16:03):
you know, but you know,if it happens, i'd be great.
But if not, either way,I wanna assume a role as a
captain from the respect of the guyson the team the visual word today and
to get back from that point.Yeah, I mean, I can't say
that. I mean, I guessthe biggest thing is that I felt like
it has felt like how it youused to in the past. But it

(02:16:28):
didn't take just the first day OTAs. It took training left and right once
the season ended, cause I didn'tknow what it was gonna be sure,
So it took a lot of yeahreps just to get back to feeling like
myself for day one OTAs and thenthat whole first week. But now like
today, specifically just changing some smallthings with my feet that I did today,

(02:16:50):
talking about Oline coach about some thingsI can do with my fee to
get to th to sell at thetraditional angle that I love to set on.
Felt even I thought I felt,I thought I felt great already by
mother Kat, I felt even backup it. So I'm even more excited
tomorrow. Now I'm getting my feedbackthan how I liked it the right side
and on the left side, andso I'm excited. I mean, obviously,

(02:17:13):
I feel like in the league,whether I left or right, are
still going against premier guys, Soobviously you have high expectations for your left
hand or right tackle, but there'sdefinitely uh, like the the level of
energy and like the expectations, definitelytaking a human spect cause now connected the
blind side that stuff that's de tacklerole, you know. So so yeah,

(02:17:37):
I would say in terms of communicationas far as just even outside of
facility and just stuff like that,like really creating that like tackle quarterback bond
even more off the field, Ithink has been something that's even been cool.
Ex. I got a text oneday as a hey, like,
you play left and I was like, yeah, you know, yeah,

(02:17:58):
I I've been training both. I'vebeen training both, you know. I
I asked after the season. They'relike, honestly, you know, we'll
talk to you still play in theseason and I just gotta text me,
like depending on what happens with withthe free agency then. So I was
like, you know what, Ihad a whole season right tackle, So
if I get the word, I'mgoing I'm standing right tackle. I don't

(02:18:18):
need to do what I did before. I'm built on that bus. I
was like, I might as alosttrain the left tackle now as if I'm
gonna be a left tackle, AndI'd rather do that than training on the
right time and get the ko Heyyou're the left tackle. I'm like,
oh, I didn't even switch onmy feet yet, you know what I
mean. So I'm like, letme just prepare in advance. I was
like, yeah, let's god,you know, I think occasionally i'm third

(02:18:39):
down, there would be a lotof twists. I would just know like
it's I'm automatically coming. And Ithink that was my mindset for like the
first half of the season, likeI didn't have to go into a game
and with surprise like oh my gosh, they did that. I kind of
figured like, okay, like thisis this is the type of rush.
Mean again, like this is howthis guy usually rushes. But I get
the vibe, this is how theends like the rush, you know,

(02:19:01):
tackles that are you know, firstyear guys who got the premiere patch on.
I already knew what it was gonnabe, already knew every stunt and
honestly just knowing that it's kind ofan advantage too, so you're not you're
not you're not old. They proablytwisted my side. Again, it was
never an Aaron Donald like, youknow, they're coming up with minds like
three plays in the world in twominutes, I knew that it was gonna
win. He happen, So youknow what I mean, I'm watching more

(02:19:24):
than everybody else, and he rarelyEngland goes out there on occasional third down
was on the d end. Iwas like, already know it's gonna be.
He's gonna pick me, you knowwhat I mean. So in fact,
in fact, it's kind of ait's also kind of an advantage in
the way, but it's also exciting, like Okay, I'm gonna get the
hardest look, you know. Sothose are real, real reps, you
know the bank. So really Idon't know. I really didn't kind of

(02:19:48):
process that. I was like,hey, when they tell me to let
me know about I'm just gonna trainit. I was training all left to
Ta's. I guess if I didn'thear anything about Ta's, I wouldy came
in. So you know what Imean, because just like I'm coor training
both continuing, I would have beencour training both continually. But I feel

(02:20:09):
like anybody, any position will belike okay, like you wanna as soon
as possible get your feet kind ofhand. Well look at say, well
this guy only been on the fieldfor three years. Westernn Tucky and Oregon.

(02:20:31):
Just because I didn't have the titleof a running back coach where I
was at the Memphis, I nevercarried myself that way. I was carried
myself as a running back coach.I approach every day that way. So
at Memphis we had Darren Henderson,Patrick Taylor, Tony Poller, Kenny Gangwell,
Tonyo Gibson. I've seen talented backs, and I've seen him be able
to function with one another. SoI hear that all the time about well,

(02:20:54):
I say my first roudio. Samething out there at Oregon wet Buckevery
Norwich and George Jay. You golook at their numbers. They all function
well together. We learned how toplay as one. So this ain't my
first rodeo. So and plus Iknow those two kids because I recruited on
when they was in high school.So I'm up for the challenge and the
responsibility of it. Right behind it. Damn Hope, Carlos, Just what

(02:21:16):
is your kind of coaching philosophy?How do you get the best out of
your running backs? I get thebest out them because I love the young
men. My main focus is tochange the hearts and minds of them and
they'll play for me. I hadjust got through reading Coach Trestle's Winners Manual,
and it's some day that I tookfrom that book. You have your
purpose and you have your goals,all right. My purpose is to serve

(02:21:39):
and pourtant to the young men.Now my goals is a football coach.
All of them take care of themselves. So that's one of the ways.
I'm just real relationship based in avery detailed at this position. I know
y'all heard me say it before,and I'm gonna keep saying. This is
the worst coach position in football.It's terrible. Guys hire anybody to coaches
position and recruiters. It was locked. It's not a recruiter. I'm an

(02:22:01):
elite relationship builder, but I coachedthis position. I'm a ball coach,
so that's who I am. SoI'm gonna pouring to these kids. I
think they kind of seeing it now. And I jumped in day one,
I'm ready to coach and phrase,you know, soft batched cookies. Where
did that phrase come from? Kindof what was this boy? Let me
tell you about that boy. I'vebeen called everything but the name the child

(02:22:22):
of God by the people at theother places I left, so that I
been getting. Pillsbury needs to giveme a deal because I've been getting I've
been getting some DM and textas andsome of it, some of them have
been so funny. The saftbat's cookiething came from just having a frame of
mind, a mental toughness. Ithad nothing to do with guys getting in

(02:22:43):
the portal and anything. Now mostpeople say I'm a salt bat's cookie for
leaving there, but actuality I'm not. Because it takes great strength to make
a decision to leave a place.No, a weak minded person wouldn't be
able to make the decision I made, So it took great strength to do
that. So I'm telling you,if I literally in my DMS, it's
some it's some great comedians out herethat have been sending me like tons of

(02:23:05):
cookies and out like it's funny.Right behind him, Tony, how have
you going about the assessment of thetalent in the room over the past week
or two? How much is thaton field off field? Like, what's
the process of getting to know whoyou have as players? Well, I
broke down, well, me beinga guy that loves the running back position,

(02:23:26):
and I already broke those kids downcause I recruited him out of high
school. You know, Q isfrom where I'm from in Montgomery. I
was one of the first guys tooffer him just watching him great contact,
balance, creative runner, great handsand trey. I recruited him out of
Virginia exceptional short air, your burstingquickness and things that I'm gonna help him

(02:23:48):
get better on. And then Irecruited James Peeples out of t out of
San Antonio, Texas. I knewwhat he was gonna what he was gonna
be TC and Sam. Those twokids I'm getting to know and I'm gonna
help them improve the game. Butwe got different runners in there. I
like to call myself, I'm inlove with this position, so I get
the break down runners and help theirgame. So talented, talented room,

(02:24:11):
very talented. Uh far back uh. Jeremy Birmingham Podcasting couch, how do
you swear that that the soft pastcookies are actually the best cookies to Philip
Nix and got way better than theCounty chips and white things with Terman,
I mean, do you do youhave to first find a balance there or
somewhere. Well, for me,I'm actually not eating any cookies. Now

(02:24:35):
I'm just saying I'm not eating anycookies this year. I gave it up
for a fast or no sweets forme for the whole year. That's something
I gave up. So they theterm the South bast cookie term. Look,
guys, I actually took that fromI represent the high school coaches of
Meths, Tennessee. I actually tookthat for a guy named coach Slocum.

(02:24:56):
He used to always say that softbast cookie. I actually stole that from
him. I give him credit forand I tell them all the time he
said, you I should have brandedthat cause you don't took it and ran
away with it. But that's justwhere that comes from. So that that
I was standing. As you getto a high standing and you start to
look around the country. Every Oregon'sa big place, that's a that's a
major job with how how would youthink that aring your opposite get logo un

(02:25:18):
Jake ran the blocko. When youget out out of thev pree and trail,
how does that change the way thatyou feel you're either received or or
does it add a different level toit to just feeling like I could go
anywhere and get anybody in the country. And that's the sagest thing for me.
This is a great place. Oregonis a great place too. But

(02:25:39):
guess what, whatever I put on, I know what I'm going to represent
for me. I N I NI know who who put me here?
Uh? I know I represented somethinghigher, you know, Like I told
you, I know what my purposeis. My purpose is to porting to
people. So whatever logo I haveon, I'm still gonna be doing the
same thing. Ain't. So thisis a great logo, great logo,

(02:26:03):
But I wear another logo every day. It's across I see around my neck.
I know what I represent. Sothat's the greatest logo I could ever
wear. So it don't matter whatother logo I have on. I got
that one on. I'm going toany house and be a recruit. Uh
uh deep right, camera tiqu Robinsonand the athletic so which you you mentioned
the time? If Memphis is nothing, it's four NFL going backs you mentioned

(02:26:26):
there? Who you learned from thattime that we that you can take over
to managing your group kids? Whatdid I learn from them? I just
building a just teaching the kids.We live in such a selfish world,
though, and I can tell thekids all the times, it's gotta be
much more the football. The ballgonna go flat one day. As I
always say, what being in thatroom there at Memphis is, it wasn't

(02:26:48):
four five? Teaching them how tobe abo by being one? I tell
you them in all time, itdoesn't cost you anything to celebrate another man's
success. So teaching them how tobe one, and then once they learned
to be one, they function andthey feed off one another. So that's
what I learned from being there inMemphis. In road Carl started your career

(02:27:09):
in law enforcement, kind of influenceyou as a coach and kind of shape
where you are. Oh well,I just got through talking to somebody about
that today. When I first gotin this profession and I got my own
room in Western Tech, I wasasked, No, how was I was
gonna be able to handle my room? I said, Man, I had

(02:27:31):
a part with fifty one inmates.You talking about me having got six or
seven guys? Are you kidding me? I'm talking about me having to do
traffic stops or going on domestic noviolence calls. It's simple, easy.
No. People don't know what youcare also know, you gotta have a
certain demeaning about yourself. So whenI walk into the room, it's the

(02:27:52):
reason why I go train every morning. This is when it's same thing when
I was a police officer. Youlook a certain way kind of deter people
from doing certain things. So it'sjust why I go train every morning.
I'm gonna look just as good asmy boys look. So it helped out
a lot. In other words,uh from Rol right Austin word the podcast,
Carls, Welcome to Columbus. Whatwould it mean to I don't know,

(02:28:16):
revolutionize the way running backs or coach? What does that take? I
ain't even I'm not gonna say Revolutionariz. I said some good it's some good
running back coaches out here. Everybody'sdifferent. It's some great coaches out here.
I just want to head guys whosay that on these jobs to not
just hire guys just you know,all coaches on your staff should be great

(02:28:37):
recruiters, not just some running backcoach. We coach a position. We
developed players as well. I justwant the coaches to realize, hey,
you know what, let me lookand be thorough about this guy that I'm
hiring for this job is he teachingthe position? Is he development the position?
Because you're not gonna hire anybody justcoach quarterbacks, are you. Well,
it shouldn't be like that for therunning back position either. And I'm

(02:28:58):
only passionate about it because I playedit. I love it, so it's
the only position I want to coach. Could I coach other positions? Yeah?
I played dB in college too,but I love the running back position
so and I just wanted to seeit coach well. Ten May podcasts.
Yeah, a million questions. Allthat's a couple. Number one, when
you when you when your wife whatever? You got the message stuff? Or

(02:29:18):
are we moving again? What was? What was her reaction? Nah?
She she's just new guy had giveus, gave us a new assignment,
she w It was never like we'removing again. Let me tell you guys
something I grew up. My momwas in the military, so I lived
everywhere. I lived in Panama ofSouth America. I'm used to picking up
and moving. I lived in FortRiley, Kansas, Montgomery's home. Meph's
my second home, so I'm I'mused to moving now. My wife it

(02:29:41):
was different for her, but she'sjust knew guy that gave us a new
assignment, So it's time to go. What did uh? What did Coach
Day tell you when you heard youthat he wants out of you? That
may be different, it's not slammingsomebody else. But what did he say
he wanted you to bring to therunning back room? I think he did
his reach her on me. Hesaid, you want the guy to to

(02:30:03):
develop the position. That's not takinga shot at the coach that was here
who I'm friends with. He said, they want somebody to really get the
guys going. Uh, I canonly be me and I told him that
couch. I'm gonna be me everyday now cause See, my mindset is
when I step in this building,I got one mindset. That's to do

(02:30:24):
my job so well that the livingdead or unborn can do it any better.
So when I leave it, that'swhat my mindset is. Hopefully I'm
here for a long time, butonly God knows that. So, but
that's my mindset. Every day stepinto the Wizard Hate soent, that's my
mindset. I'm'a do my job sowell that living dead or I'm born couldn't
do it any better. So that'swhat my mindset is. Suppose you got

(02:30:46):
time for one last question, BillRabinowitz's Plumbus Dispatch Carlos. First of all,
it's the truth that nobody calls youCarlos, never calls you Locke.
That's the truth. Yeah, Iprefer to be called locked, and I
would say that, not him inparticular, but I wouldn't say everyone doesn't
really know how to handle it properly. You see it currently. I mean,

(02:31:07):
it's just it's a variable that's newand how to handle it. There's
not a transcript on on how tohandle that variable. So you just guys
just trying to do what they thinkis right. That's all they're really trying
to do. And I'm not sayingthat right or wrong, but he was
trying to do the same, andyou know, I think at the end
of the day he realized he manmade the wrong decision and we connected on
it, we talked about it,and you know, it was a great

(02:31:31):
opportunity to to write or wrong.And obviously we're very glad he's here.
I've always believed in him. Webelieve in him, and he believes in
himself and that's part of the justtrying to understand what's my path, right.
So, uh, but yeah,it's been great. Steps have been
made. He's growing, but he'snowhere near where he knows he's capable of
being. He's just probably a pricelessCaeremiah. I love the way he lives.

(02:31:58):
I love the way he approaches things. I love the way the questions
he asks. I love the wayhe makes mistakes and then correct mistakes.
It's very veteran, Like, Imean, there's so much Ball he has
to learn. Like he literally doesthings that are good. I'm like,
do you know what that worked?He goes coach, I have no freaking
idea, So like I'm trying toteach him all of that why it worked,

(02:32:18):
so then you know the consistency atwhich it works just goes through the
roof. And so but I'm veryyou know, excited and proud of the
conversations we're currently having, and I'mexciting it for them to keep going.
Like so powerful you work, andI love working with Chip chip Is.
I love talking Ball, I lovethe viewpoints I love I love the veteran

(02:32:48):
that he has, you know,and I love Yeah, like I love
all of it. I think thatyou know, early on the biggest impact,
you know, just you know,fearing perspective. I think in the
run game has been awesome, youknow, and then you know, off
of the run game, some ofthe actions or relief throws or all that

(02:33:09):
kind of stuff. I love whereit's at. I love working with them,
and I would say that I sleepa little better, all right.
No, it's it's really a greatcombo because, like you know, we're

(02:33:31):
obviously we're doing a lot as agroup. It's not just Chip and I
so but you know, obviously Chiphas an image and a view on things
that I never had. So tohave that experience and have that viewpoint,
I'm just trying to absorb as muchas i can, but then also highlight
some things that we've really done agood job of and make sure those you

(02:33:52):
know, nothing's really changing. We'rejust trying to enhance. We're not changing.
We're enhancing. So where the thingsfit is perfect, you know,
I think, uh, you know, the rest of the dynamics of search
hip can talk about. But it'sbeen it's been awesome, so I'm excited
about it. We talked to aMecca who was talking about moving from slot
to the outside. You know,how good he's been in the slot.

(02:34:13):
Is that a difficult move for youguys just coaches to know how good a
guy is in one spot, butknow that maybe for his long term future
and the no. I wouldn't sayit's anything on his future because he's capable
of doing whatever you want to getdone. But I'd say that it says
more about the room. I thinkit's it's the growth of you know,

(02:34:35):
Brandon and the growth grow of Bryson. That's really you know, allowing my
mind to say, hey, Mech, be prepared. You're gonna move around
a lot. You're gonna come outof that slot, You're gonna be outside.
We're gonna create mismatches out there.I mean, his ability to move
around is critical. But I wouldsay between Mech and between Carnell Takes's ability
to move around a lot, it'sgoing to provide a lot of flexibility for

(02:34:56):
our room and uh and those topyou know s seven guys that are really
doing a good job right now.Progress look like this spring for Mecca because
there's no times. It's one ofthose things I'm true when you guys balanced,
how much work does a need versusyeah, heavy heavy emphasis on what
work he needs, you know,versus anything else. Uh, I rely
on him. We have great dialogueback and forth. It's a two way

(02:35:18):
to it's a two way conversation.And frankly, there's gonna be times we're
like, hey, Meg, whatdo you wanna do today? You wanna
go outside? You and go inside? And I don't care. So,
uh, we're not there yet.We will be there, but it's just
more about, you know, whenthe room is ready to start mixing things
up. I would say, there'sGod. I mean, I make sure

(02:35:50):
I bring in guys that are ableto do all, but I have not
asked them to yet. So theonly guys that in our room currently I
have asked to do that has beenMecca and Carnell, and those are probably
the two guys that I would,you know, think heavily on doing moving
around a lot. I'm not puttingthat on anybody else right now, not
saying they can't, but at thispoint, having two guys being able to

(02:36:11):
swing, you probably don't need muchmore than that. I need guys being
experts at what they're good at.So it it helps the offense still be
great at everything and be an expertat something, and we can use that
to our to our advantage. Thisyear is different, like maybe you guys
were more situational. The room's alwaysdifferent, frankly, I mean from twenty

(02:36:33):
eighteen and then nineteen and through COVIDand and those guys, and and then
the depth of those guys and thenwhere Mech and Marvin and those guys were
as freshmen compared to you know,It's just it's always different, and uh,
I expect this one to be different. Again, I'm not sure at
what level yet. Last question,your relationship between the TV roote and your
last room, especially you know,back of the towards. I'm curious to

(02:36:56):
see dB as a leader just likeyou, you know, played as I'm
curious about how you've seen him kindof build different backs and especial recreits.
I mean specially maybe had the effectiverecruits. He would probably know more for
that question than I would, butI would say that, yeah, we

(02:37:18):
obviously feed off each other, right, I mean, there really is a
team sport, and we can't dowithout them, and they can't do it
without us, and we can't doit without the quarterback, and we can't
do it without the old line.So all the way through ten years in
this league. So I'm excited tosee what he's got. How old did
you know sores So when he wasassistant here and you've gotten to know him
a lot, that it wins arelationship. Maybe right now, I know

(02:37:41):
him pretty well. He was alwaysjust a good dude around the facility.
He did our ball meetings, sohe's good in front of a group.
He's a good leader. He knowsthe scheme really well, which is good.
I was happy to see him promotedme in the off season. We

(02:38:01):
talked. I just congratulated him,and I think he's gonna bring something similar
to what we had with the Miko. It'll be good. Do you know
Brandon Stanley well at all? AndI mean obviously Joey played for him.
I don't know too much about him. I've obviously heard from my brother,
but I don't even think i've saidhigh yet. I haven't ran into him

(02:38:22):
yet, but I'm sure i'll getto know him. When you say it
looks similar to the Miko of theenergy or the system, maybe a little
different energy, but I think justknowing the system from the front to the
back, I think he knows howit ties in. And he's been around
with some really good coaches, soI think it'll be pretty pretty seamless,

(02:38:46):
and I think we'll be firing onall cylinders. You're three months removed from
the Super Bowl now, so howhave you? I guess digested it,
and I guess physically everything good togo. Yeah, I feel really good.
Think it's been one of my betteroff seasons of just kind of it
was a long year, so Itook it nice and slow to get back
into it. Not as young asI once was, so I'm taking a

(02:39:11):
little, uh, a little slower, but everything's great. I'm feeling as
good as I felt. I'm excitedto actually get some practice in. Last
year was kind of tough, gettingthrown in Week one after I walked through,
so that was another reason I'm excitedto be here is just to get

(02:39:31):
practicing a little bit in season.Practice is one thing, but actually being
able to work your stuff and nothave a game coming up is good.
With the Super Bowl unfortunately, Iknow how to bounce back from tough losses,
so it was rough for a littlebit. But now it's just annoying
when people bring it up. Sincethe last season, we've seen a rock

(02:39:58):
on TV commercials on This Days withLuke Coombs and throwing out the first pitch
in the Giants game. But heseems like a guy that's totally unaffected by
celebrity, which he has now.But what have you noticed in his leadership
style and the way he carries himselfany difference at all. I think he's
definitely getting a little more vocal withinthe building. And uh yeah, I

(02:40:20):
mean, I don't think he's evergonna change. I don't think he's somebody
that's gonna change even when he getspaid next year. So he's he's a
man of faith and he kind ofreminds me of Scotti Scheffler, but except
for just super humble and really goodkid. And yeah, he's definitely famous.

(02:40:50):
I don't just from watching Armstead getreleased obviously meant so much to the
defensive line into the team, CollinJohn, we're pretty open that they were
willing to talk about trading Deebo orare you as youll? Does that just
another what's that feel like in thelocker room when those sort of jowels happen.

(02:41:11):
I didn't even know that happened andI wasn't here, but you're talking
about this offseason arms in alarmed erreleased, So that's certainly one thing.
Yeah, it's a tough business forsure. You have to have thick skin
and I haven't gone through that,but I think you just have to understand

(02:41:37):
that it is a business and theteam's going to try and get as good
as it possibly can with or withoutyou, and you have to look out
for yourself. That's why you gothrough holdouts and do certain things that seem
selfish in the moment, but itis what it is, and when everything's
settled, we're gonna come together asa team and try and go get one.

(02:41:58):
And what's the overall feeling around thegroup right now? Like, how
much does it feel like the excitementof the ramp up to the season.
Even though it's early, it feelsgood. It's been a couple of days
for me, so I like allthe new guys. I'm getting to know
everybody, But I think the pastis in the past and we're ready to
go. Do you talk to Be? Can you talk to Be at all

(02:42:18):
about handling the business part of this? He's going through something similar. We
chat a little bit, but nottoo much about the details. I just
told him to keep his head upand try and stay positive through it all.
You first impressions when you heard whatyour schedule would be in that Aaron
Rodgers' first up, it'll be fun. Yeah, it's gonna be gonna be

(02:42:41):
good. Excuse me kind of alludedto this, But the fact that last
year you had to have that holdoutsaid that affected you somewhat early in the
season. If you hadn't had thatexperience, would you be here right now?
I mean, was that part ofthe motivation for being here early just

(02:43:01):
to have the opposite No, Idon't think that's one of the reasons.
But I just talked to Kyle andhe kind of asked me, Uh,
he kind of stated how he feltabout why it would be good for me
to be here and asked if Iagreed. And I agree. So it's

(02:43:22):
not like I'm missing too much.I think I'm out here. It's a
little less workload than I'm doing backhome, so it's kind of a good
active recovery thing for me. AndI'm getting football stuff, football working specifically,
so that's good. I'm not it'snot compromising my training at all,
and I get to meet all theguys. It's it's positive. Your brother

(02:43:50):
to let him down and oh no, he's he's there. He's got a
new regime over there. First,I actually thought I was coming next week
until recently, so I was goingto have one more week at home,
but we're both in California. Shareabout reasons that you agreed with. Bad

(02:44:18):
here does feel different? Yeah,you know, it's not like these last
eight years have come in and thoughtwe were going to lose or have have
a bad year. I felt likeevery year when I tell you things are
feeling good and I feel optimistic,it wasn't a lie. But yeah,
I think things are are definitely,like I said, trending in the right

(02:44:39):
direction. Everybody's on the details.I'm sure it's a word that you've heard
a million times, So yeah,I think it just feels like, uh,
it feels like coaches leading the teamthe way it should be led.
It has a feel of being backin college, you know, with coach

(02:45:00):
ierber Meyer, and you know themessage is sent from the top and it
doesn't get mixed up as it's movingdown the ladder. It's boom. This
is how we're doing things, andeverybody's following that. And I think it's
impressive the details that everybody have beenon has has been on the effort and

(02:45:22):
just the competitiveness that that's been goingon over the last few weeks. Yeah,
it's it's it's been great. Howmuch do you appreciate that the stope
is described with the way jingles weshouldn't eat in the messaging doesn't eat mixed
up? I appreciate that so much. I mean, it's I guess it's

(02:45:43):
easy to appreciate when you kind ofsee it working and you see guys improving,
getting better. I just think thedetails are really important. You can
pretend that leaving your shoes a messor your locker mess isn't a big deal,
and what matters is playing football.But I think all those tiny details

(02:46:03):
and things kind of add up andleak into the important stuff, like what
you're doing on the field. Soif you can have your toe behind the
line, or have your locker andorder and all these things, they kind
of stack up into performing well andand playing well when things count. So
you know, I appreciate that.It's It also hasn't been a fight with

(02:46:28):
the guys in the locker room.They buy in, and you know,
it's a lot of young guys,and I think they're hungry to learn,
hungry to compete and win. Youknow, it's just an example, whether
it's we talked about first day youhave your shoot, if you could,
if you could spend the time onthese small things when nobody's watching. I

(02:46:48):
think, like I was saying,it seems like it might not add up
too much, but I think inthe long term it does, and it
leaks into other things, whether you'redoing your right assignment on the field,
being late to meetings or all thesethings. If you hold a standard and
you stay to that standard, Ithink it benefits you long term. It's

(02:47:09):
been like working Ben Herbert, whohas there been any anything in his training
program we're working with you that youfeel will benefit you later. Yeah,
yeah, definitely. He's he's beengreat. He's a no nonsense kind of
guy. But he's not an oldschool in the sense that he's bringing his
way of doing things and that's theonly way to do things. He understands

(02:47:31):
that guys have been in the inthe business for a long time, Khalil
me and we have a way ofdoing things, and all he wants to
do is add to that and helpyou get better and perform the best you
can. He's he stresses it allthe time that he's a tool for us,
and you know, he's been,he's been great. The guys love
him. The energy brings is awesome, and I think the stuff that we're

(02:47:56):
doing in the weight room is great, great addition to stuff that I may
may do on the side or whateverthat is. Yeah, I think we
I mean, we had a presentationtoday with all the certain measurables that are
changing, and if you guys arein the meeting, you definitely see how
beneficial he's been to the team sofar. So obviously, staying healthy is

(02:48:18):
is a huge factor to anybody's success. I'd say it's plagued us a little
bit for a while. So yeah, I think he's he's definitely incredibly beneficial.
When were you fully recovered, Iknow at the end of last season
you might have been able to Yeah, No, I was not ready to
go last year. No, triedpracticing, tried coming back, and uh

(02:48:43):
it was it was not good,but yeah, it was Unfortunately the year
wasn't going great and it just wasunnecessary risk for I mean, my foot
could have had some real real issuesif I came back too early. So
yeah, it's been, it's been. It's been a great off season.
My foot's feeling great, toes good, hamstrings good. I mean, there

(02:49:07):
was a list of things last yearin my hand, so all those things
are good. Finger gout surgery onmy finger, so that's feeling good.
Yeah, it's nice to be feelingbetter going into your nine than you have
since maybe five six years ago,which I've said, I've said I've been
feeling great last couple of years.I'm telling you it's a real deal this

(02:49:28):
time. But obviously anything can happen. But I just feel it's fun feeling
really confident in your body and beingable to perform. So I could just
go out during practice and you know, go balls to the wall and do
everything that I feel like I needto to be able to prepare. It's
fun. My brother and whoever Itrained with my trainer Todd back home,

(02:49:54):
I think they'd be really proud ofhow I've been working this off season and
it's just exciting. Obvious pointing wasthe injuries on the Great Big Game.
You kind of yeah, it wasa bit of a build up, a
little bit of an overreaction, butyou know, it's just tough. It
comes sometimes like that, and Ijust felt felt really uh defeated coming back,

(02:50:20):
had a broken hand. I'm like, oh, yeah, I get
to play Boom first series foot Pops. Thought I'd have to get surgery,
and all these thoughts flooded through myhead. Broke down a bit, and
yeah, it just hurts. Youknow, you're losing, you're getting injured.
You've felt like you prepared really wellin the offseason, and then the
year before you had growing surgery,so you know, a lot of things

(02:50:41):
build up. Yeah, you don'tget a break if you're injured. Everybody
wants to go on. Fans arevery nice, but no, I just
I'm grateful that I feel this way. I'm still still nice right twenty eight,
so not too old yet. Butyeah, I'm just excited. I

(02:51:05):
can't remember what the original question wasat this point, something about my body,
How close you and Gift were,How how frustrating was it that you
couldn't you know soon for one ofthose last three games. It was frustrating,

(02:51:26):
but I mean Gift was had myback the whole way. I think
for Gift, for any but forthe whole team, just to show what
it means to me. It wouldhave been important for me to be out
there, but I literally couldn't.I tried to practice, injured my footworse
the very first play I was andin practice, So no chance that was

(02:51:46):
happening unless I wanted to throw mynext season away as well. But no,
I'm just I'm proud of him forwhat he did with the team,
how he handled it, and Ito call him back. Actually sorry,
I gif. Yeah, I'm happyhe gets to stay close by with the
with the Rams and uh, I'mjust proud of all we accomplished here together

(02:52:09):
over the years and and we'll beclose for the rest of our lives.
It was the foot injury. Itwas this guy does a foot sprang?
Yeah, I sprained one area ofmy foot. Then when I tried to
return and I sprained another area.Was able to avoid getting surgery, which
is kind of the main goal.But yeah, it was. It was

(02:52:30):
tough when it comes to the additionof but Dupree, when he felt like
he's kind of brought to the tothe room and could bring on the field.
Yeah, it's when I heard wegot my brother some I don't know,
maybe my brother told me. I'mlike, really, we just got
Bud, Like that's no, that'sno small pickup. He's a seriously elite

(02:52:52):
pass rusher has had some trouble withinjuries as well, so I understand how
that is, but not only himas a player, but as a personality.
I heard Khalil just saying he's he'sa fun guy. He's a funny
guy, and to have that inthe room another vet is always a great
addition. But I'm just excited tohave him and Tuleye and to be able

(02:53:13):
to rotate like that and not dropoff at all when we come off the
field is huge. And now Tooley'sgoing into a second year. Just what
do you what are you kind ofwhat are some of the maturity maturity areas
you've said from him? You know, I'm gonna say not much, And
that's a compliment because he was alreadymature in those areas. I mean,
he's on it everything playbook wise,always doing his job, working hard,

(02:53:39):
just refining his technique and pass rush. I mean, we don't have the
pads on right now, so thereal work will will begin, you know,
in six weeks now. So butyeah, I love Tuli. I've
loved him since the first day he'she's walked into the facility and I know
He's just gonna continue to get better. The addition of Joe Old. Yeah,

(02:54:01):
yeah, I'm gonna need to beathim up a little bit in camp.
So he's so he's ready. Butno, I think anything to protect
our number ten is a good,good investment. So he seems like a
real solid dude. Haven't talked tohim too much. Great build, seems
like he has good hands, goodfeet, strong, We'll see. We'll

(02:54:24):
see in a few weeks when Ilay a helmet in his chin, how
he holds up. But it'll I'lltake it easy on him. No,
Rashon's a beast. Did you knowcoach Harbond before he came here? And
if he did, just what werethose first couple of conversations like that?
Yeah, probably have crossed passed withhim. Maybe maybe not. Actually I

(02:54:50):
think what was it his first yearwhen I was a junior? So he
kicked his ass as usual at OhioState. No, No, they just
want a championship, so I'd saythey probably have the bragging rights right now.
I'm like the guy talking about hisold high school. Oh I remember
we used to kick No but no, yeah, no, the rivalry is

(02:55:16):
dead. I was just saying thismorning you know, nine years and kind
of forget about that. I'm nota great alumni. Sorry, sorry,
coached, But no, it's great. That's what's great about the NFL is
you just have guys from all backgrounds. You could hate their guts one one
year, and then you come onthe same team and your brothers and you're
all working towards one goal together.So our first talk together was great.

(02:55:39):
I just sat down with them,went up into his office and chopped it
up about life mainly and his opportunityhere and how much it means to him.
And uh, yeah, I thinkhe's a special guy. I think
he's uh, the way he conductshimself. He's an interesting cat for sure.
And I'm still still feeling them out. But one thing you can't denies

(02:56:01):
that he loves football and his maingoal is to win football games. So
and that's what we need. Whenyou see him working out with you guys
and and pushing slaves and doing allthis stuff, just how interesting is that
to see? Yeah, I meanhe was a he was a great player
himself, and I think he's alwaysbeen you know, built like that lack

(02:56:22):
of a better term. But yeah, he's uh, he's part of the
guys. You know, he's notthis guy outside looking in. He he
really, I mean he voiced thatto me. Is that his favorite part
of all of it is being withthe guys and and the connections he makes.
So Yeah, to to see aguy like that come in and embrace
it all and kind of be partof it himself is important. Your initial

(02:56:46):
impressions of Coachman during the defensive game. Yeah, it's funny to go from
old gift, old gift to thislittle young guy who's my age. I
wouldn't want to get thrown into aroom with me and his age. But
no, he's been great. Ilove messing with him a little bit.

(02:57:07):
We little sarcasm back and forth,but no, he's great. He's uh,
very talks very fast, and Idon't as you know, so sometimes
I gotta be like slow down,coach, come on. But no,
he's great. I'm excited, youknow, to get closer as the years
or as the year goes on.And I think he has he has a

(02:57:30):
lot of passion for the position,and all he wants to do is learn
and and help us to improve.So I'm excited about him and me and
I do miss Giff obviously it wasa long time with him, but I
am excited to have a new faceand kind of have that challenge for me
work much with with Jesse's dad,since I know he coached line divers in

(02:57:52):
Michigan. Wait did you ask aboutJesse? Did you ask about doing Okay,
you asked about Jesse? Oh mygot it was talking about freaking Dylan
the whole time. You guys areso confused. No, sorry, I
thought we I thought I was.I thought you mentioned coach RONI No,
No, coach mentor has been greatas well. Yeah, they'd both been

(02:58:16):
great. Sorry, run that back. No, he's been good. Uh
yeah, very knowledgeable guy. Samething. I'm excited to get to know
him more as the year goes on. Have you worked Have you worked much
during Rick Jesse s? Yeah,No I have not. I don't know
if I've said one word to him, but more words to come down the

(02:58:41):
road, Like you said, you'vebeen in years in twenty sixteen, Just
where are some of this stuff?You just one on a ramble about the
wrong guy for fifteen minutes. Ilove you walking? What Yeah? What

(02:59:01):
the hecks? Actually that's literally notthe person. Yeah, I figured out
what's something that you you worked unduringthe off season, something impruger game,
or is there something that you canUsually my answer is pretty consistent that I
just continue to try to prepare myselfphysically, whether that's my sprint work or

(02:59:28):
agility work and my lifting. Butyeah, just to get everything feeling great.
I dealt with those injuries, soI had to kind of ramp it
up with my finger and foot andall those things. But now I'm I'm
full full speed out there, andI'm just going to continue to do what
I know will prepare me for theseason. And uh, I know I'm

(02:59:52):
gonna get plenty of technique work andposition work when I'm out here. So
for now I'm going to spend thesefive weeks it's really getting uh preparing my
body's workouts competitive again, another yourcompetitive and all that stuff. Yeah,
yeah, it's usually too hot outthere for much competition. We're just trying

(03:00:13):
to survive. So but yeah,it's always it's a it's a silent competition
between between each other, be likePeeking's like what was his time? Was
his time? But uh no,yeah, it's always you can never have
an off day when when you're outthere and he's he's warming up like a
beat, like a freaking robot everyday out there, so there's no there's

(03:00:35):
no off days. Have you youand him talked at all about I mean,
I mean this when you were havinga contract thing you a guy ever
talked about pay system, teammates,environment, city, all those kind of
just like play into it. Besidesjust the money thing. I know,
financials always play a big role,and I kind of steered you into the

(03:00:56):
direction you want to go. Buteverything kind of plays into it. And
how much did you reach out toShelby Drew, knowing some of the guys
you knew the play here last yearto get a sense for what what Seattle
might offer you. I mean,not much right now, I'll talk to
I'll talk to Shelby a little bitabout it. Mainly no one, Drew,
Uh, just congratulate me, Bob. Did you come together pretty quickly?

(03:01:24):
I know you kind of came toyour agreement on that first Monday,
and everything with Seattle that all kindof come together really faster. Now,
it was a long day. Seattlecame in almost out of nowhere. We
had like a good set of teamsthat we were talking to just trying to
finalize what was going on, whatwas the term is going to be?
You know, and Seattle came inhot. They showed a lot of interest,
and uh, they're kind of justmotivating me to come here more and

(03:01:46):
more. And how similar will yourrole be, you know, in terms
of playing from what you did atDenver. I don't know that yet.
I kind of just mentioned previously,I don't know my role. I don't
know the ins and out yet.Once we'll get you no through the the
protocols and nfl PA, We'll we'lltalk about no, the schemes and everything,
right, U, so welcome.When you were in Denver in the

(03:02:11):
three four, where did you findyourself most comfortable and most effected. I
played a lot of different positions inDenver. I mean earlier in my year
I played zero, I played three, two, one. I mean,
I'm definitely more comfortable in a shadedposition, mainly being a three technique and
five technique. That's why I foundmyself to be more comfortable whether I'm standing
up or I'm not, whether it'srunner or pass, those seem to be

(03:02:33):
my best my best fits. Andwhat is your impression of Pete Carroll's defense
and whole environment. Uh. FromAfar, it seems like he holds in
on the defense a lot. Uh. I can't really say too much about
that. Yeah, I don't.I know Pete Carroll very little, so
uh, I'm just trying to figureout more and I'll give you a better
answer later. What's the reputation aroundthe league out of the Seahawks? Uh,

(03:02:58):
you know hard knows hard that typeof team definitely on a little more
lack side as opposed to being stuckup or military style, and which is
definitely good because then this program isone of a lot of football games have
been super successful for many years,as long as I've been alive and as
long as I've been watching football,and definitely this has been a good program.

(03:03:18):
And Pete Carroll has been a hellof a coach for as long as
I remember, even back in hiscollege days. So I'm looking forward to
experiencing that. John Boyle, Yeah, I know you said you don't know
yet. You know what your roleis going to be, but just what
what kind of players who haven't watchedit time to denver, what kind of
player? Definitely a high motor,definitely not a one trick pon any type

(03:03:41):
of player. I like to attack, you know, whether it's a first
or first through fourth down, Ilike to attack. I'm always trying to
apply pressure. I'm definitely just ahigh mortar guy in my opinion. Brady
are the Brady Henderson from ESPN.Nice to meet you, that's what.
Yeah, this is not a teamthat really makes big splash signings in free

(03:04:05):
agency. Did you think going intoit that Seattle would be in play?
Uh? No, not at all. Uh you you just it's kind of
like being a cure at the Countystore. You know, I've got a
whole whole bunch of different options comingat you. Uh hearing, a whole
bunch of different crazy things, anduh, you know, you only get
to choose one. And this isthe place that that we both chose each
other. And I mean, I'mI'm loving Seattle so far. You know,
I like these colors for real,for real. What what have you

(03:04:28):
got to do with Seattle or seesince you've been here? Not much?
Uh just kind of just drive aroundthe city exploring. Uh, get down
to the market a little bit.I want to get on of the Ferris
will do some more like touristy typeof things. You know, I'm new
to the city and I got alot to learn about the city, right.
Yeah, there's been a lot ofcomparisons with you to Michael Bennett.
I was wondering if you know MichaelBennett at all and you think those are

(03:04:52):
accurate. Uh, I know MichaelBerger, then it like nothing. I
know nothing about it but besides hisstyle of play, But I'm honored to
be considered in the same conversation ashim and style of play. You know,
He's a Hall of Fame type ofdeep lineman that I've known about since
I was a kid. I mean, last time he played here I was
in high school. So you know, it's cool to it kind of came
full circle a little bit watching himon TV and now I'm being kind of

(03:05:15):
compared to him in the way youknow. I mean, I'm not touching
the surface of Michael Bennett. Youknow, he's a Hall of Famer and
I'm not there yet. So youknow, I just gotta keep doing my
due diligence to be a better player. Can Hey Dreamont welcome to Seattle.
I know you get to play severalseasons for vic Fango and the three four
style defense and Seattle's playing a similarsystem. Now, dating back to last

(03:05:39):
year as a defensive lineman, whatdo you think is most important to be
successful in that system? Maybe fundamentalsor just playing style to be successful.
From what I learned, being gapsound and being patient has always been the
biggest thing, and that's how we'vebeen successful. When I was in Denver,
just kind of like relying on eachother. I know that sounds kind
of cliche, but it's kind oflike the the realm of being in the

(03:06:01):
three four defense. You gotta reallyreally rely on the guys behind you and
the guys on the side of youto really make their to do their job
to make your job easier. Bob, Yeah, Uh, your yourhose State.
Ploffs said you didn't start playing footballtill you were junior in high school
and largely played basketball. So thenthat's what made you, I guess,

(03:06:24):
decided to go to play football.Then. Was that away from basketball?
No, no, no, I'vealways loved football first. Uh, it
was just kind of just playing itout. You know. I love the
who, but you know, footballwas definitely about calling. Given I was
a two hundred and sixty five poundpower forward and I was like sixty threes
and changed. So you know,I kind of toldse the route that God
gave me. No, I'm notsix eight sena. Yeah, we'll come

(03:06:52):
to Seattle and you get quoted,and you're looking a couple of art things
that you playing, and can youjust talk a little bit about that definite?
I think just said of the neisonalways kind of counted out. Can
you elaborate more than that? Justfrom a standpoint like I always get like
over overshadowed, overlooked, whether it'sah in something, you know what I'm

(03:07:15):
saying, Like, I feel likeI do a lot more than what can
be sitting by the eyes of theinexperienced, you know, Scout and I
do a lot of just different dynamicthings that help make plays for others.
You know, I'm definitely an activeplayer. I'm always doing something, whether
in the runner pass game, soyou know, I think that goes on
another sometimes and I'm looking forward toputting people on notice. Thanks Brady.

(03:07:41):
What uh, what do you liketo do outside of football, big gamer?
I'm definitely I've been getting to alot of chess lately, so just
to expand my brain, I tryto get into reading. But if it's
not sportulated. I'm really not interestedin reading that much, but mainly just
video gaming and chess. And thenwhen we write and say your name,

(03:08:01):
do you prefer your grandma? Uh? I mean you can say, you
can say Draymond Jones. I mean, but like just I feel like personally
just call me Jordy cause easy causepeople like to f my name up a
lot, like a lot they callme Draymond ta. I don't know,
what do you think some of thatI'll be able to bring out of out
of your game as you can keeptrying to, you know, just being
more explosive, probably more yards forcatch with the uh space that he's putting

(03:08:26):
us into. Uh, the moreyard, more yards have to catch,
more EXPOSI to pick, more exposedto play for for me, not just
only me, but she and uhAka and tayste them. So I'm excited
to to be able to be inthe system. I assume you you think
you guys can be a lot moreexplosive than than you in the last couple
of years. Oh yeah, ofcourse. Uh. It brings to a
lot of different things, you knowwhat I'm saying the playbook, but just

(03:08:48):
accountability, Uh, I feel likethat's gonna lead us to success. They
said, the language is a littlea little shorter, has it. Have
you found that the language that youguys use. Is it about the same
or is it it's kind I'm saying, really it's a long long plays,
but it's more understanding for sure.I feel like you could get to that
more understanding plays and I feel likethat's that's the difference. Hater was saying

(03:09:11):
the other day, just kind oflike coming into this offense after like twenty
years of Breeze and just kind ofhow it was just kind of built on
top of each other and on topof each other. It's like kind of
a lot to kind of take in. Do you do you find that they
kind of turn it down to somethingnew, starting to like zero with everybody.
It's just a little bit easier tokind of get everybody on the same.
Yeah, I feel like it's wayeasier. Like you said, it
was kind of more of a DrewBrees style the last playbook, So all

(03:09:35):
credit to them though they built thataround him, around his players. But
like I said, it's it's morethis playbook is more for matchups, and
I feel like it's gonna be betterfor us. How do you think it's
gonna really take advantage of just skillsets? Uh, just building around the
strengths that I have. You knowwhat I'm saying, things that I can

(03:09:56):
do and things that she can do, things that are play gers can't do.
It's kind of focused on what wecan do and building on that.
Uh. I feel like it's playingto the player strengths. So I feel
like it's gonna help us a lothas been around the way this offense will
have a lot more speed, andhow has that transition being so far?
I mean, like I said,it's building around the player strengths. So

(03:10:16):
of course we got speed, uhwith me or she and ati receiver.
So uh, just building around that, Like I said, playing to our
strengths and be able to capitalize offthat. Feel like it's gonna help us
a lot most of like the uptempo astract and getting a lot of plays
in less time. Oh yeah,yeah, yeah, that's definitely gonna play
a big difference. Like I said, coming from the West Coast, Uh,
they bringing that stand for an offensehere, So I'm excited to be

(03:10:39):
able to be a part of that. For you personally, what what's what's
the next level look like for you? What do you What are you trying
to accomplish this year? Uh,just staying consistent. Man, a couple
of upside downs last year. Justbuilding off that. Uh, it's always
always gonna work on the physical part. But being able to bounce back after
a bad game the mental mental aspect. Uh. Learning learned that last year

(03:11:01):
and be able to build on thatthis year is a huge part. You
know, with Mike Gon, doyou take it upon yourself to kind of
be that voice in the room orto take a step forward even further as
I mean, it's not really Imean everybody kind of grown in the NFL,
So it's just on you to beable to have that standard. Like

(03:11:22):
I said, I just try todo that. Lead by example. I'm
not really outspoken, but just leaveby example, working hard, trying to
dominate every rep and hopefully they followafter that. That yards after the catch,
is that you feel like that's thestrength of yours that maybe wasn't utilize
I don't know if utilizes the rightword, but you could show more in

(03:11:43):
that kind of Yeah, it's anoffense that is built around that. Just
catching the ball in space, catchingthe ball over the middle or even on
the outside. Uh, with spaceand separation. I feel like it's built
around having yards have to catch.So I'm definitely proud to be a system,
like I said, and I'm excited. But is that is that a
mindset too? Like being good atyards after the catch? Like? Oh

(03:12:05):
yeah, I mean of course.I mean you don't want to get tackled
by the first person. And mymindset is trying to take every take everything
to the house, you know,every touch. So uh, I definitely
got to do that more and definitelytry to work on that in practice.
Keeps a great dude man. Uhsome some that I definitely needed, some

(03:12:26):
that he relates to me. Uhjust from backgrounds, and uh he's a
great coach, great leader, Uh, motivational and uh like I said,
I'm excited to have him around andfor him to push me is everything that
I need. So something you're talkingabout like mentally bouncing back, you know,
from tough performances or whatever, like, did you like try to find
your resources going to help you figureout how to do that? Oh yeah,

(03:12:50):
I mean it's older guys, Uuh tell me that's natural. Just
have bad games, but uh,just having the standard that I have for
myself and the expectations I have formy so uh it gets hard sometimes.
So uh just be able to uhbe hard on yourself, but at the
same time just let it go andjust bounce back for the next game is
something that I learned last year.You one of those guys that feels like

(03:13:13):
you should always have a certain levelproduction. Are you okay with those certain
games where the defense is so focusedon you the other guys have big games
and where you're just running good routesand uh yeah, I definitely. It
was like that early in my career, especially in college. Uh, but
I found out, Uh it's justabout winning really, Uh, just trying

(03:13:33):
if if you are that number oneguys to bring that attention to you so
other guys can get open. It'sgonna be games like that. Uh,
but as long as we win andtake back with you guys, what was
it like to go from the cameratof emotions from hearing about it to now
when it's over in your back outthe feel it's amazing, you know,
it's S's just a testament to himand you know, one of the god

(03:13:56):
we serve. And then two uh, just the work that he's put in.
You know, he's been you know, he came back before it was
even schedule he can get cleared.And then on top of that, you
know, just coming back after thatfreak accident, and you know, I
think that we serve a guy that'smerciful and that's that's purposeful and he knows
that, and he stepped into andme and him we have those conversations about

(03:14:18):
our faith and then because like thisfootball stuff it seems like it's everything,
but it's not. You know,we're we're people, and we go through
a lot off the field people don'tknow. And you know, as his
brother, I have to be therefor him, like just like he's there
for me when I go through whatI go through. So I mean,
I'm just proud of him, man, Like the word proud is even probably
enough to like state the the feelingsthat I have for that guy. Man,

(03:14:41):
he's my one of my best friendsthat I've you know, gotten a
known over the years in this inthis world of football and past that man,
I feel like I'm known to thinkI've been three years old, you
know, I think for like ourconnections kind of like we grew up together
and you know, I just gota lot of love for that guy,
and you know, I'm very excitedfor him. He's been snapping that practice
and doing really well, and youknow, to knock off the rust that

(03:15:03):
quick shows how much work he's beenin. How much more comfortable are you
walking up to ots this year toread the last year? Things kind of
a little bit slower. Just what'sthe biggest difference to you? Yeah,
it's night and day. Man.It's really like I feel like I'm running
the show and I've got a lotmore uh responsibilities from Slow and from Demaca
and from dry Bill and really ourwhole office of staff. And you know,

(03:15:26):
I'm the captain of the ship,and I gotta run it the right
way. And I feel like I'veyou know, stepped into that role just
you know, and I not onlyholding out accountable, but also you know,
hold myself accountable to those moments likeI don't let anything slide, uh
cause that's that's the point of winningand losing. So I think from last
year to this year, like I'vegotten a lot better with like controlling my

(03:15:46):
emotions, controlling my ball placement,knowing what's NFL open, knowing my food
work, better. There's really everylittle thing I've taken a step and then
on the other side of the ball, you know, just everything slowed down
seeing coverage. Demico does a goodjob of blitching me in, you know,
working on their different coverages or differentlooks and start too high, go
to one, go back to twomotion like as man, go to cover

(03:16:07):
too like all that stuff to keepme true and honest. And you know,
I think I've tried to do mybest with my off season study to
you know, be better, andI feel like I've done that and had
a good ota so far. Sogotta finish with that mini camp. But
it's been definitely a big transition ofjust more comfortability from last year this year's
College you you always had like areal talented receiver room, and then last

(03:16:28):
year you had a talented receiver aroom. So you've had the experience of
having to feed a lot of guys. Obviously you had in digs, even
Joe Mixon coming out of the backfield. How much would that experience from those,
you know, college and last yearhelp you with being able to make
sure that everybody's being fed the waythey are. So if you can,
you don't have the best possible offerif you guys get more up. Yeah,

(03:16:48):
I mean I don't think nothing changes. You know. It's like,
uh, I tell I tell guys, cause I get that question a lot
from I got people was just walkingaround just anywhere, astra game whatever,
and I was like, man,it's football. You know you're open,
you get the ball. So uhand my thing is, you gotta pick
your poison playing us, like whoyou gonna double, who you gonna cater
to? Who? Like you gotfive dogs? Who are who are able

(03:17:11):
to get the get the ball ineach give and play? You know?
So I think it's fine. Iknow Slow has done a great job of
being more creative and you know,has put different personnel packages out there,
guys in different positions that going frominside and outside, you know. And
you know, I'm I'm very excitedto work with with coach Low again.
He's done amazing so far, youknow OTAs and will continue to do such.

(03:17:35):
But yeah, man, I thinkthat past experience of playing with Marv
Jax, Garrett, Chris Jamo,America Julian like those type of guys,
they'll tell you too, Like Iknow they'll probably have said it before,
but they'll tell you like, theymade me better and I made them better.
You know, that's my job isto make everybody around me better.

(03:17:56):
So I'm excited. Has been healthycompetition, Like I know Geart, I've
seen his in the real day.He was talking about Ohio, see how
like the receivers, like if Gearmade a play, Chris is like,
nah, watch this like it's thesame thing here, which is, you
know, really cool to watch.And you know, as the quarterbacks meet,
Davis in case and Tim were thesame way too. So healthy competition
is the best way to grow andget better. And I think that that's

(03:18:20):
what it's about. You see howexcited Diggs gets for Tank when he makes
it play, and Metchi gets forexcited for when Nico makes it play,
and Tank gets excited when Rob makesa play. You know. So it's
amazing, and you know we gotNoah coming back to which is gonna be
amazing. And I'm excited. Gotbeen there and a ton of guys.
There's a ton of talent, Steedshowing up. Really everybody's really been doing

(03:18:41):
Jay, Wayne, Johnny you knowso, and man, it's been fun.
Uh Nicko done got you some somemaketure talent. On the office side
of the ball. Well, whatdo you think about their dishes that he
made on the defensive side of theball. Yeah, man, it's been
great. It's been good on goodlike Demigo talks about iron Shop behind.
You know, it's been a lotof smack talk, a lot of just
uh, just a good competition,you know. And then it starts with

(03:19:03):
me and disease. You know,him being the leader of defense. I'm
the leader at offense. And youknow, playing him last year. I
mean, he always showed up ontape when I watched the Titans last year.
So it's cool to like see likethe stuff he thinks. You can
see him at my locker, meat his or us before practice, after
practice talking about plays and you know, so, I mean it starts with

(03:19:24):
us. And then when you addDanell, somebody who's a vet who plays
really hard, who's gonna help willyou know? Them two dogs? He
got team in the in the middlewith Autrey and and Sosa and just a
ton of guys. Man, youknow, in the back end, got
young guys showing up. Kaitlin's doingreally well in the back end along with

(03:19:45):
Petrie and Jimmy, along with Kamara, Kamar is showing up, Stein is
playing well as y'all seen. UhSo, man, it's just been dogs
on dogs, you know, likeand that's that's that's that's the best teams
I've ever been on. Has beenthe closest teams personally, but also the
most petitive team. So it's beendope. S's see. Then he broke
out last year and Nico broke outlast year and he Goo gets the contract

(03:20:05):
Eccentrion, He's here to twenty twentyseven. What does that do for you?
Just knowing that you have a familiartarget to work with for the next
few years. You know, it'sjust something I I'm first of all,
I'm just proud of that guy.Uh my brother Nico. He's shown up
and shown out, you know,when you know and his number is called,

(03:20:26):
he always makes to play. Andyou know, he's just a special
He's a generation talent man. He'she's like alright, age is Andre Johnson
in my opinion of just how fasthe is, how he gets in and
out of his brace, his releases, how strong he is. And I
think last year was just a uha preview to what it's took come for
him and the one thing I'm proudof him for is just the work has
never stopped. He's constantly here workingon his body, constanting here working on

(03:20:48):
his hands, his his mobility inthe weighting room, you know. So
for me, I mean just havinga a true uh. I think we
have like five number ones, youknow. So that's kind of cool to
have. And I've had that beforein college and I'll have it again and
it's gonna be fine. Man.And Nico he's gonna he's he loves to
see everybody else eat too, Soman, his his love for his brothers

(03:21:09):
has a change. And you knowit's it's a it's a special feeling to
see somebody who deserves to get paidand you know, get what they to
day, what they deserve, Andyou know, I'm just really proud of
him. What does it mean foryou to have another opportunity to work with
Bobbisola Andeloi Johnson. I don't knowif you remember that was a moment going
into the playoffs last season. Wheredo you really even know if either one

(03:21:31):
of those guys wild beat h Yeah, I mean for both of them to
come back was very special. Ithink we both we all have a better
feel of how to work with oneanother, and you know the talent I
am on the field and the playcaller that uh Bobby is and then the
the common coach drought is you know, we all work together and that and
you know, slow as I'm inhis office almost every morning just going over

(03:21:54):
stuff and watch the film with him, going over things that we need to
go to get better at. Andhe always has this pras you know,
working for the end at mind,and you know he holds me accountable when
you know it could be easier justto like let me slide, cause you
know I'm I'm out there still makingplays, but he's like, nah,
you need to be better here,here and there, And you know that
that's just uh shows a type ofa leader he is, and you know

(03:22:16):
it's a honor to be able towork with him again. And same for
me, like to him like,hey, flow, I'm not really feeling
this play or I wanna add thisplayer to try to see if we can
get better here in this inn inthis practice where you know, I think
we can be really good at thistype of player. And he's very very
accepting when it comes to that.So it's been cool to work with both

(03:22:37):
of them, and I'm very excitedto get another year on our belt.
What like right here, what wasit like, uh, teacher football internationally
and the the r the reception thatyou got from the people there, it
was it was amazing. You know. Uh, first of all, shout
out to Beijing, Shanghai and Tokyoyou know for accepting me to micah uh

(03:22:58):
with open arms and just the hospitalityand the just the culture man there is
just amazing. They want to learnabout football, you know, and it's
it was cool just to see likethem already have like the foundation of it,
but wanting to grow from there.And you know, I think football
is a family sport and like thosepeople are our family now, and you
know, the Olympics come into whereit's gonna be international with flag football,

(03:23:24):
I think it's super dope. Andto be able to get you know,
to be able to put our feetinto those those doors already, you know,
it's kind of cool, you know. So, I mean, I'm
very grateful with my team with Bernieand David for setting that up and even
like the guys out there who whogave us top notch hospitality. It it

(03:23:46):
was just amazing, man, thewhole experience. So you know, just
my first time really out the countryand just being able to like go to
the Great Wall China and all thatstuff and still do what I love to
do. You know. Working outwith Micah was cool and uh he has
a lot of crazy takes, butyou know, I I got lovet for
that guy. But it was fun. Mann and Jonathan Dad, what's uh,

(03:24:07):
what's it like how you cant stoverdown here with you And what's your
relationship been like with him there?Oh yeah, Kay's my brother. Man.
You know, I've been through takingthing with him, and he's somebody
who I I often look at aslike like our moms are like the same
or our families are super close.In his college, I think he's like

(03:24:28):
my blood brothers who like somewhere walkingdown the line. I don't know how
it works, but I just he'salways like there for me. He's always
you know, I don't know,man, Kate is just like that guy.
He's a brother that y uh theytalk about in the Bible, you
know, like that like it's it'sit's he's a friend that is you know,
like just like a brother. AndI don't know if the word brother

(03:24:50):
just always just comes up with that, like he's just always there to,
you know, hold me up,and he sees me and he knows my
emotions. And for him to beable to, uh, it's impress up
the culture of the pl that arein this program right now. But I
think it speaks a lot to theleadership. There's there's a lot of older
players on this team, and they'veset the tone for the younger players,
and I think the younger players havedone a great job of followship and getting
right in line with that. He'snever hit it over a play calling to

(03:25:13):
someone before. What does it meanto you? I guess he technically did
it to Bill when he was herefor a couple of weeks. But what
does that mean to you to kindof be getting that responsibility from him and
he's calling essentially the offense that yougave it? I guess in some way.
Yeah, I still think the playcalling part will be a collaborative effort.
And by that I mean that ifit's a good play, I called
it, and if it's a badplay, he called it. Because the

(03:25:35):
great part is an assistant coach,you can just hen point the finger a
little bit and say, hey,you know, I wanted to do this,
but he trumped me. So wehaven't actually discussed game day yet.
You know, we'll see how thatoperates. But everywhere I've been it's been
a collaborative effort. And all ofa sudden, someone that's calling the plays
isn't isn't like pulls one out ofleft field that you hadn't practiced and hadn't

(03:25:58):
been part of your offense and said, hey, let's do this. You
know, we're not running the annexationof Puerto Rico. You know, we're
not coming up with something special,you know in the middle of the fourth
quarter that we haven't done. ButI think it's the key to really being
successful on offense is is how yougame plan, how you put it all
together, and then how you practiceand train for that so that you get
a chance to execute it. Becausethe player's confidence comes become comes from their

(03:26:20):
demonstrated ability that they've done this somany times in practice that when they get
out on the field that this islike that to them, you know.
And it's not that they do itso they do it right, it's they
practice it so much so that theycan't do it wrong. So you know,
I think it's that whole part ofit that is really the key to
being a really good game planning team, Right, Doug Laye, Marie north

(03:26:41):
Chip. When you had that feelingwhen you were coaching the quarterbacks during Bowl,
did you consider at that point mayberesigning as the head coach and thinking
like this is this is not whereI am anymore. I'll leave and then
I'll look to see what else isout there. N I never thought about
quitting anything, So, you know, I just is there an opportun t
unity that I think I can thatfit, you know, And I think

(03:27:03):
that's the you know, it's nodifferent than when you're talking to a recruit
about them make a decision on wherethey're going to go to school. I
think that where they should go toschool is where the best fit is for
them. So, you know,I just entertained some opportunities and I always
felt I felt like this was thebest fit. But I never thought about
quitting or not coaching. I'm gonnacoach. I'm gonna coach, and then
I'm gonna die. I mean,that's how I think I think about things.

(03:27:26):
Is I can't picture that I knowsomeone I was on the Nike trip
and they like, how much longerare you gonna go? When I said
I I have to go another fifteentwenty years. I don't think about I
don't think about retirement. I don'tthink about any of those things. That's
just not kind of my mindset thatyou know. I love football and in
the as long as I can bepart of this game, then I'll be
part of this game. Just theway things worked out with your departure from

(03:27:48):
UCLA, is there anything that youwish you had done differently, or anything
you regret, or just that thecircumstances that presented themselves. Do you think
that you handled that departure the bestthat you could have? Yeah? I
mean I got an opportunity to tellmy players personally. You know, I
think in this day and age ofthe internet, where they read it somewhere
else and you have to text messagehim. You know, that was always
important to me that I wanted tomake sure I talk to my players and

(03:28:11):
explain the reasons of what I wasdoing. I wasn't leaving to take a
head coaching job somewhere else. Iwasn't thinking that the grass is greener at
another university. Was just in mypersonal situation this is what I wanted to
do. I wanted to take anopportunity to go be a position coach and
coordinator, and that's how it fit. You know. What I was happy
is that I always thought to SeanFoster, I think the world of them

(03:28:31):
and I think he's a special youknow. And the fact that that they
were they gave him the opportunity totake over there was you know, it
worked out. I didn't have anysay in that decision, you know,
I was gone, But I alwaysthought that de Shaun would be a great
head coach, and I'm really proudof him and happy that that he got
the opportunity to take that job rightbehind him. Act have your reputation as

(03:28:52):
innovator. Was part of the appealof this is that you get to get
in the weeds a little bit.Maybe not mad scientists, maybe too strong
of a word, because you're workingwithin the system. But was there an
appeal of I get to get myhands sturdy here again and innovate and get
back to that side of things.It was, but it was really more

(03:29:13):
important of who I get to workwith, you know, and so knowing
you know, I've got I knowa lot of guys on the staff besides
Ryan also, so you know,when I know what their mindset is and
what their values are and how theydo things, and so I want to
be a part of that. Butthere's a part of that. Yeah,
how much of a teacher you getlabeled and innovators. The teaching is a

(03:29:35):
part of this. How much isis how a teacher are you? And
how patient are you? Yeah,I think we're all teachers. I mean,
education is the transportation of knowledge,you know, So it really doesn't
matter what the coach knows. Itmatters what the players understand, you know.
So you have to be able tomake sure that while you're implementing things
is what resonates with them and howdoes that come back to them? So,
you know a lot of our teachingstyles that we've learned is more the

(03:29:58):
Socratic method. There's a lot ofquestions, you know, and a lot
of check for understandings, just tokind of find out where the players are
coming from, because it's what theyknow that that's ultimately gonna win games,
not what we know. You knowthat we're not playing the games, we're
not stepping across those white lines,you know, And your job as a
coach is to create an environment wherethey have an opportunity to be successful and
then get out of their way andlet them go do it. So I

(03:30:18):
think the teaching aspect is huge,and we continue to research, you know,
some of the latest trends in teachingto make sure that we are transporting
that knowledge to our players. Secondroll left, Steve Hellwagen twenty four seven
Sports. Yeah, coach, justcurious you got five scholarship quarterbacks with differing
levels of experience from age and everythingelse. Not to annoy him, but

(03:30:41):
just want to ask specifically about WillHoward coming in after starting part of two
years at Kens a stage he justseems to promote this idea that he's a
football player, you know above allelse. Just how impressed are you with
his makeup, his experience, whathe's bringing to the table walking in here

(03:31:01):
right now? Yeah, really impressed. You know, you don't have to
talk to Will for more than fiveminutes to kind of know where he's coming
from. He's really focused. Youknow, he knows he's got a short
window left in his college career andit really wants to capitalize on what that
is. There's a maturity to Will, you know, I really I've had
experience. My experience in in thisthing since the transfer portal opened in college

(03:31:24):
football is some of the best playersI've had an opportunity to coach ward transfers.
Sometimes when you're a true freshman andit's five years out, you know,
it's like, hey, I gota ton of time, you know.
And sometimes when you're a transfer,is that I've got nine months,
you know. So there's a senseof urgency I think when you're dealing with
with transfers, and I think Willhas exuded that since he's been here.
But the other thing that I justin the short time that Will's been here

(03:31:45):
is how quickly he's fit in withthe entire team, you know, and
how much the rest of the playersrespect him. You know. He was
one of the Gold Award winners forhis work in the weight room in this
offseason, so that says a lotfor him coming in here as a in
a short time, being able toto win a weight room award, you
know, to start off, doyou guys hope to have the number one
internally externally at the end of springor I guess just let it play out,

(03:32:09):
how do you I? I thinkit always every time I've been involved
in these. I think when they'reorganic is when it's the best. U.
I don't think you can anoint somebodyor force the issue because the players
know, the players would understand.They see it every single day, you
know. And there's a team chemistrypart of this thing too, So we're
not gonna force the issue. Abut I've always seen it play itself out.
So I've been fortunate that there's alwaysgonna be some quarterback battles at at

(03:32:33):
some point in time. At everyschool there's a quarterback battle, you know,
and then and really you gotta letthem play it out on the field,
and that's where it has to That'sthat's where it has to be decided.
Just a couple more, Hey,welcome, then we we're excited to
have you here. Than I'm kindof to talk about the innovative part.
Ryan said that that's something that he'salways loved but working with you and now

(03:32:54):
he wants you to bring that hereand how it would fit with Ohio State.
Do you have any idea of whatthat's good to look like yet or
is just way too ly? Ihave no idea, you know. I
I think part of it is isyou're trying to put the players in position
to make play. So a lotof that comes from getting to understand the
players and what their skill sets areand how we feature what their skill sets

(03:33:15):
are, you know, and andthe the one thing after day one,
I can tell you that there there'sa lot of skill set out there,
you know. So that's that's whatgets you excited. You know, that's
that's what you jump out of bedin the morning and you're excited to go
to work because of the talent thatyou get to work with. But the
one thing that's the most impressive isthe work ethic that goes along with that
talent. You know, it's notjust empty talent. It's is you got
some kids who want to I meanall of them since I've been here,

(03:33:37):
want to work. So that that'swhat gets you excited. But I think
assessing what the skill set is youknow that we have available to us on
the offensive side of the ball,is vitally important. And then our job
is to put those guys in positionsto make place lots of pressure. I
mean, you've experienced what's like tocoach national championship call over teams this program

(03:33:58):
right now and moving in to asituation where you got to win Quicken Now,
so does that feel like pressure herefor you or is it a little
bit of excitement or both. Well, I've always subscribed to as pressure is
what you feel when you don't knowwhat you're doing. So if you don't
want to feel pressure, and thenyou should know what you're doing. So,
you know, I think it's it'spart of that, and I think
part of our job with our playersin terms of the education process is getting

(03:34:20):
them to understand that too. Isthat you know, it's it's about your
preparation, It's about you and yourdevelopment. It's not about that you can't
be governed by what other people say. It's it's what's my mindset and how
am I intrinsically motivated? And thenhow do I really compete against myself on
a daily basis to get a littlebit better. You know, we got
a little bit better today because weget out on the field today and got
a chance to do some football.And then the challenge is when we get

(03:34:41):
back on the field on Thursday,can we be a little bit better than
we were on Tuesday? And ifwe're doing that, then we keep stacking
good days on top of good days, and I think we'll be in good
spot and welcome. Thank you.I'm gonna ask about the pros and cons
of coaching from the box and coachingfrom the field. It's interesting to talk
to some off some coordinators over TomHerman talking about it, he swore he
wanted to coach from the box.Saw the game so much better, sterile

(03:35:03):
environment, not all the chaos onthe field. Some coaches you talk to
the like, I want to beon the field so I can look at
my guys in the eye. Whereare you at as a as a coordinator?
Honestly, And I've thought of thisa lot. I thought of it
a lot during COVID because we hadthe empty stands, you know, so
I had thought about just walking upinto the stands for a little bit because
I had a better advantage. I'vealways believed you can see the game better
from up above, but I believeyou can feel the game better from the

(03:35:26):
field. So if there was anyway we could get a zip wire where
you could do both, you know, coach called from there and then zip
out of the field get a chanceto talk to him, because it's a
different deal when you're talking to thequarterbacks on a phone, you know,
than being able to look in theireye and kind of see where they are
with it. And part of itis the field part of it. I
remember when I coached Ryan once.We were playing Ukon and he got hit

(03:35:48):
hard going out of bounce and hejust walked by me, and I was
a play caller, and he waslike, run the next play, and
I just kind of looked at him. I saw the look in his eyes
because I don't think he could havethrown it, you know, he was
still trying to get his win back. But you wouldn't know that if you're
up in the booth, you know, and you call a pass play from
up in the booth and you're like, how come we can't complete that?
Well, he just took a shotgoing out of bound. So it's that

(03:36:09):
fine line that I don't have ananswer, you know. I think I
think it's feel on the ground andit's see from up above. Maybe in
this day a technology, they'll figureit out. But we'll see how that
that that operates, and whatever Ryanfeels is the best for the team is
what we're gonna do. So yourteams at the Oregon were obviously you know,
we're playing at this assid pace andrunning a bunch of plays for a

(03:36:31):
minute, and yep, maybe notby a fast, pretty fast. What
role do you see tempo and havingan offense and in the state yea in
college football? And has it maybechanged? I think the game is always
evolving, you know. I thinkwhen I left in two thousand and twelve
to go to the National Football League, Oregon was the only team that was
playing really really fast and had shinyhelmets. And when I came back in

(03:36:54):
twenty seventeen, everybody had shiny helmetsand everybody was playing fast. So I
think the game is always going togo up and down, and there's going
to be different cycles that it goesthrough. I think tempo is part of
an offense, but I don't thinkit's an offense in itself. I think
it's more of like if you goto dinner, it's a side order.
You know, it's not the maincourse, but it's it's always good to
have it. So I think there'stimes when you'll use it, but you're

(03:37:18):
you're not going to use it extensivelythe entire game, just like you're not
going to throw the ball every singlesnap in the game. You're not going
to run the ball every single snapin the game. You know, there's
there's not a game of absolutes anymore. I think that the ability to be
diverse and and have it as atool in your two box, so to
speak, uh is really how wewould look at using it. Here are
now more familiar with it then,I think. So, you know,

(03:37:41):
I think when you first started goingtempo, there were people in the NCAA
they want to outlaw they want tomake an NCAA role that Yeah, you
couldn't do it, you know,and I'll I'll give coach Shaping credit.
I mean, I think obviously Nickwas the first one to do it.
He wanted it outlawed, and thenall of a sudden he adapted it and
said, all right, we likethis, you know, so we'll keep
it in. But it's I thinkpeople have it doesn't matter what you do.

(03:38:03):
There's there's cycles to this game.And then once people catch on to
that cycle, then it moves.You know, It's no different than for
three defenses and three four defenses.You know what is the rage When the
when the Giants won the Super Bowl, they were there were three four defense
and everybody everybody says we have todo that. What people didn't understand is
they had Carl Banks and Lawrence Taylor. It didn't matter what defense they were
running. I know Gym's back thereand Jim played against the you know it

(03:38:24):
was. They could have been afour down defense and those guys would have
been great players. But it's notthe scheme. I think that the coaches
that do it the best way isthey insert their players and put them in
the best position to make plays.And now now will Temple be part of
it. It'll be part of it, but it's certainly not going to be
the main course. And awesome Sorrylast question, Tim, Oh, thank
you very much, Jerry uh.Number one, there was a great moment

(03:38:46):
there when yall were warming up,when you were you were talking with Tim
Walton and Caleb Downs comes up andconversing and as you're in this kind of
a two part question, but numberone, what was just your take on
the talent you saw on that fieldtoday on both sides of the ball.
Where would you rank it? Yeah, I'll rank it. I'll be very
transparent. As I was telling Timand Caleb what a great offensive player I

(03:39:09):
thought Caleb would be. Could beand should be, but I'm not the
head coach, so I always turnedstretch as a as an offensive coordinator,
I'm always looking at the defensive playerslike I could use him. Oh what
could I do if I had him? What could I do if I have
him? But I don't. Idon't get the chick sixty. After he

(03:39:31):
came back, you know, itwas more of a just a game time
decision every week. You know,I wasn't practiced on Thursdays, and that
was the first time in my careerI've really had to really just spite the
bullet and that approach. And thenit was just responding to a game.

(03:39:52):
And then you know, after thefirst game against Tennessee, it was,
you know, just trying to climbup, climb up and think out of
a hole. But you know,I wanted to get back and I felt
like I could, but I knewI wasn't gonna be at one hundred percent,
but I had to push it to, you know, be there for
my team. Okay, I'm toclarify you reporting today doesn't is an indicative

(03:40:13):
of your contract status, not atall. Yeah, I mean you mentioned
leadership and about how you want tobe the best leader you can be.
Do you use any of this timeto you know, speak with any of
the better or the rookie players andtry to, you know, give them
some guidance as you approach step.Yeah, you know, whether it's on
the field, off the field,you know, communication, uh dinners,

(03:40:37):
just you know, letting them knowI'm available for him. You know,
I think it can be something aslittle as just the steps on field goal
blot or field goal protection. Youknow, I've been doing it for thirteen
years. U It's still crazy,I'm still doing it, but uh,
you know, Uh, those arethe type of things I'm just giving guidance
to. And then you know,off the field, it's you know,

(03:40:58):
what to expect around the city.Where should you be, where you should
be, how you can help yourself, you know, the little things And
what are you looking for in yourcontract? You know, I'm looking to
be here. You know, thevalue is what we decide. But you

(03:41:20):
know, I think for me,I I want to be you know,
valued at my position. You know, I understand I came up a rough
season, but I don't think it'sa step down of where I can play.
You know, I think when Iwas at the top of my game.
I'm still you know, top fiveplayer in my position, and you
know I played a run in thepast and I bring leadership and you know

(03:41:43):
that's not anything I discover. Canyou you plan to be here for mini
camp and in the start of trainingcamp? Yeah? How difficult has it
been the last two weeks to notbe here? I mean you said in
your podcast the first time you've nevernot been at Yeah, it w it
was difficult, But like you know, the thing I got very frustrated with
was just and people questioned my communicationwith the team. You know, I

(03:42:05):
uh was communicating with guys left andright, and you know, front office,
coaches, teammates, and all Icare about is how I am with
my teammates. I don't want themto ever think I don't care about them
or how I'm not in it.And you know, you can say whatever
you want about me, but besidesthat, but I'll always dedicate anything I

(03:42:28):
can to them, and I don'twant that to every question. Isaiah said
that it felt like sometimes you wereholed up somewhere watching film. You texted
you miss this, well, likethe first day he was batting all up
Russ's passes, so I had tolet him know, you know, Uh,
you gotta take advantage of that.You gotta make sure guys are you
know, uh know that you youstill care and you still want to be

(03:42:48):
a part of this. Uh.You know, just watching practice, there's
a couple of little things we're doingdifferent, whether I'm communicating with Gunbar or
other people. You know, yeahfor yours that you're also talking with him
and you you've given him a pointersduring the off season, just constant communication.
How do you see him grow asa person, you know, as

(03:43:09):
far as how he's approaching things,how he's getting ready for this season from
his rookie year. Uh. Youknow, I think the thing with Keanu
is he's more comfortable, you know. You know, it's not his first
time around the track. You know, it's actually like he can you know,
uh catch his feet under him.You know. I always think when
you're in your rookie season, you'regoing from bowl game. I don't even

(03:43:30):
know Wisconsin played in a bowl game. Sorry Wisconsin, I don't even know.
But you know, personally, Ijust think when you go from bowl
game to training for the Combine toyou know, rookie mining camps, OTAs,
the you know, mini camp.I mean the training camp the regular
season. You really don't get atime to really catch yourself. You know,
he understands the playbook. Now hecan be more vocal, you know,

(03:43:54):
and I think when my absence theother guy's absence, you know,
you need guys like that to stepup and be ready for those opportunities.
What do you say you had duringthe season was more thorough? What was
just tightened down everything? You knowon my left side because I was overcompensating
a little bit, but you knowit was there wasn't anything that lingers.

(03:44:16):
You know, I'll say this,A growing is not like an a c
L. It's not like anything's thatwe're going to get afected again. And
you know, you know, I'mfeeling good, able to do everything squat
and heavy with power and speed,so you know, it feels good to
get after again. What do youthink of what the team was able to
accomplish a shot easily turn to bringguys like Russian and things. You know,

(03:44:39):
I think they're all good acquisitions.But you know, you never want
to be known as a paper champion, so you can't win the off season.
I think the work gets done outhere on the field gets done in
the classroom. Wow, it getsdone training. Uh, you know,
and then you see where you're atin training camp and then get built on
that. You know, I thinkwe got the right guys in the building.

(03:45:01):
It's just about putting a complete teamon the field. Cam, how
Tetri call is it to separate thebusiness part of the game in the actual
football player? Uh? You knowyou always wanna you always have to treat
it like a business because you knowone day it's gonna end. Uh.
And that's any job. Uh.It's not like in college where you know

(03:45:24):
you got four years guaranteed. Idon't know, well now you don't know
whether an I an't know. It'scrap but the transfer portal portal. But
you know, you have to Istill have love for this game, and
I still work my tail off andI still put everything into it and that's
not gonna change. But you haveto know what you bring to the team

(03:45:48):
and what your what your value is. Cam, you wan did a feel
to be out there with your teammatestoday? Emotionally great? You know we
got a new uh you got anew training staff and still learning the the
warm up a little bit. Uh, but uh, you know I loved
it, Uh, you know,just getting after it, learning new guys,
going through the same drills I've beendoing by myself. Uh. I

(03:46:09):
actually like having more people around,cause like kind of go stir crazy crazy
when it's just you and another guy, You're like, damn, I gotta
go back up for another rep already. And so you know, it's nice
to be up here and get thechance to, you know, be with
my guys. Cam were you confidentand people will get done with your emotion.
Oh, I'm gonna we'll try toremain pretty neutral because you know,

(03:46:35):
I don't wanna be too either way. All I know is I want to
be here, But we'll see whathappens. This was my last year here.
I I've had a great career here, but we'll look forward to play
next year. Can you what thatsecond surgery? You said it this time
was on the left side. Itwas the first time around on the right

(03:46:56):
side, right side during the season. Left side that was just tightening down
my corner. My corma saw.It wasn't the same as my ad doctor.
You know, you can ask doctorBradley, uh doct doctor Zuckerbron who
uh did the surgery as well.You know, I if anything's gonna help
me and it'll make me a lotstronger from here on up. And you

(03:47:18):
said you were training with another guy, who have you kind of been Tyson?
Oh? Uh, I've been trainingwith him for the last eight years.
We've always trained together. We gota trainer up north, uh shadow
of Cole Haley, who's my guy, traded h trained trained, Uh,
Heath Miller, Brett Hezel. Themultitude of guys that I all respect,

(03:47:39):
and we've just been getting after itcan They's very few guys historically thirty five
to get paid big contract that youthink that's held against you. I think
there's not a lot of history behindit. But you know, for me,
I I look at as I'm notlooking to be like anybody else.
You know, my game is differentfrom everybody else in this league. You

(03:48:00):
know, I like to think,you know, I can play the run
in the past and then that's whereI'm different. You know, I remember
last year Mike t just brought tomy attention. You know the thing that's
really cool is you watch powerlifters,and you know, my game's build on
power and technique, and those guysgo into their forties and so you know,
that's what kind of research I'm doingbehind the scenes. But you know,

(03:48:24):
I I we'll see what happens.There's there's not a lot of history,
but I'm here to make history andI'm here to you know, win
another super Bowl here and you know, have a great season. Do you
have a set goal over yourself orhow many years you want to play in
the NFL? Or do you justtake things here right here? You know
it was it was tough answering thatquestion right after the season. I will

(03:48:48):
say this, guys, I Ican't keep answering that question right after the
season. That is not fair tothe season, That's not fair to my
family. Uh you know, butin my mind, I got three years
and I want to maximize'em.I wanna play at a high level and
I wanna go deep in the playoffs. And you know, we got a
good team and I'm gonna do mypart to be ready for all those situations

(03:49:09):
here. If you plan on RAFAsoon when you report to the trob or
is your coross agility that you mightuh fuld in and enforces I I have
not even thought that far. I'vetaken a day by day, Uh you
know. Uh uh, I toldmy agent and we talked about it and
we we were cool coming out here. You know, I'll be here for
many you know, and then I'llbe there for training pan. You know,

(03:49:33):
I don't know what the work entails, but right when we get there,
we'll we'll cross that bridge. Whyis it you don't remain a stealer
for those three years? You know, there was a conversation between me Omar
and Mike t And there's certain guysthat are one helmet guys, you know,

(03:49:54):
and I wanna be one of thoseone helmet guys. And you know,
there's a there's a hunger and desirethere. But that doesn't mean just
hanging it up and calling a careerto me, I think, you know,
I got more bullets to fire,and uh, you know, I'm
excited to do that. What doesn'tmean last one, you and Russell Wilson

(03:50:15):
are going to be out there withWaltimnon, Waltimpayton, Man of the Year,
patches up. I saw Russ's onsocial media, but I haven't had
a chance to see it. Uh. I. Let that surprise happens when
it happens. But at the sametime, we're in the process of recruiting,
you know, people to our teamas opposed to drafting. So it

(03:50:35):
is different than the NFL, andthere's a lot of things to consider,
especially with some of the I AWP rules that come with recruiting prospect back
left with me, Ryan, You'vetalked a lot about evaluating players with considering
the truth for Portland, trying tokeep guiding all that is it more so
just trying to get as many ofthe best players as we can out words.

(03:50:56):
It's still very positioned focused in fillinggaps. As that changed at all.
Well, the first thing is youhave to bring in the people that
fit Ohio State. That's the thing, and now more than ever. I
mean, you know what do youhate said it a long time ago.
You win with people like that's moreprevalent now maybe even the back then.
And I say that because there's somuch that goes with today's day and age.
You know, there's there's the portallike you're saying, there's nil,

(03:51:18):
there's just there's a lot. Soyou want to have great people in your
program, great coaches, great staffmembers, great supporting you know, people
around the program, supporting the people. But also you know, the players,
you know, the family members,it's all gonna fit. And I
think it's important that we make surewe're doing that at a high level.
And you know, just say well, let's go bring in the best players

(03:51:41):
in the country. Like, itdoesn't work that way. You have to
build a culture and a winning culture, and that's what we're focused on now
right. I know things can certainlychange it in in August, But when
you guys wrapped up camp, wheredid you got planned on Josh Bryer right
tackle? Maybe the right side ofthe lineup that you guys saw. Yeah,
we see Josh making a lot ofprogress. He's had another he's had

(03:52:03):
a really good June, an othergood offseason, and we felt like the
spring he did a nice job there. So we feel like there's there's just
been a lot of progress. Man. I think coming off of last year,
he built some confidence and then heknows he could do it. He
knows the area's got to improve inin order for him to, you know,
help us win the games we needto win. So we feel confident
with him playing guard and tackle.We've got to figure out what that right

(03:52:24):
side looks like. You know,I would say we're probably leaning towards you
know, playing him at tackle andtrying to figure out who that right guard
is at this time. But wedo have some flexibility there. And you
know, he's been a leader forus, he's on the leadership committee and
and just looking at you know,his numbers and how he's changed his body,
we're expecting a big fall from him, all right, when when you

(03:52:46):
look at all this stuff that's changedsince you took over all, how do
you constantly continue to adjust? Imean at this point of every single day,
how do you allow him to doself to kind of change with the
changes? Well, it even started. I feel like in nineteen that was
like the first year we were makinga transition, and then you know,
COVID hit, and then you know, every year it just seems like there's

(03:53:07):
something else. And I because cometo the conclusion that every year is going
to be different and we have toadapt. But there's certain things that we're
not going to change. There's certainvalues we're not going to change. It
just you know, you know,principles that have you know, stood the
test of time. And I sharedthis with a group before when I started
doing some research. As we weredoing some some of our recruiting, you

(03:53:30):
know, introductions and some of ouryou know, talks about you know,
the traditions of Ohio State. Wetalked about how Ohio Stadium was built,
you know, and when you whenyou when you do your research on that
one hundred years ago, you know, folks had the idea of building a
stadium over sixty thousand people, andthat's because of what Chick Carley was doing.
And you know, they had awooden bleachers over here and all these

(03:53:52):
people started coming in and the ideaof bringing in a stadium that of our
sixty thousand people at the time waslike, this is crazy. What is
college football turning into? And theyinstead of going to the state or going
to the school the community, theywent to the community to raise the money
they raised over at the time overa million dollars. Well night, Fast
forward one hundred years and the conversationstill might be like what is college football

(03:54:13):
doing right? And in this situationthen I l we had to turn to
the community for help, and BuckyNation showed up again in a big way.
So although the landscape is changing,I don't know, if you know,
one hundred years later, if it'sthat much different, it's just in
a different time, in a differentyou know, set of issues that we're

(03:54:33):
working through. But I think it'sexciting. I think there's a lot of
positives to it. I do.I think that we're taking the next step
with the revenue sharing to try toinstitutionalize some of it, which would be
big for us. Yeah, everyyears question, it seems like this year's
team has questions of the line.Specifically, if you look ahead to in

(03:55:03):
a month, what are the realquestions that you have in your mind about
position battle? I would say onoffense, you know, we got to
square away the quarterback as you know, I feel like, you know,
the offensive line on the right side, we got to solidify that. I

(03:55:24):
feel like we got to build,you know, enough depth at receiver that
we feel like we can put infive or six in the game and feel
good about it. On defense,I think we're still looking to figure out,
you know, who are going tobe the guys inside, you know,
the third, the fourth, thefifth defensive interier alignment that we're gonna
put in the game. And thensame thing just just I would say depth,

(03:55:48):
a little bit of safety just tokind of see who those next guys
are they're going to step up,and so we know it's going to be
a long year. We're going toneed everybody and and so in a lot
of those areas, it's depth,uh, actual teams wise. You know,
Punter is going to be you knowthat that is significant. You know,
we just brought in Nick and youknow, so there'll be a battle
there. So I'd say those areprobably the areas we're focused on the most.

(03:56:13):
Ryan just to fall on the offensiveline, there was I think a
school apology. Guys might be lookedfor a transfer in that post spring window.
Did you guys do that? Didyou guys not find the guy or
were you just confident the guys youhave, Just like you know in January,
if if we're going to bring somebodyin, it is to fill a
hole. We're not just going tobring somebody in to bring somebody in.

(03:56:35):
Like at all positions, we'll alwayslook to see what's out there. We
did evaluate some of the guys thatwere out there, and you know,
you know, we felt like comingout of it as we evaluated it,
you know, there was a coupleof guys that you know, we checked
on, but but ultimately, likebased on where we were and some of
the young guys that are coming up. You know, we felt like we
saw some progress in the offensive linein the spring, so you know,

(03:56:56):
it wasn't there wasn't as many folksin the ortal, you know, in
after the spring. So we lookedat it, we identified it, We
did our due diligence, but youknow we're gonna go with through. We
have now second round bills, right, you're it was interesting that you have
two of maybe the top five ersor guys in sport and then a bunch
of guys who haven't plenty uh,maybe someone that I know my question,

(03:57:20):
but did you consider trying to addthere? Understanding that probably the difficult sell.
We can have such talent, howto bring somebody of these experiences?
Like what were those conversations like?And how did you set along being comfortable
with you know, Trey and andthen well, like you said, you
know, I think we're we willget some experience there with those two guys.
And then you know, we feltlike coming out of the Spring that

(03:57:41):
James and Sam both did a nicejob and you know, we're gonna have
to play them and they're gonna haveto you know, take on a little
bit of that you know, wehave you know, started having conversation with
Caleb Bowns. I was part ofthe recruiting process of possibly you know,
doing a little bit of running backas well. It's something that he wanted
to do. So we've been havinghim in some of the meetings and some

(03:58:03):
of the individual drills as a possibilitythere if you know, needed so down
the road to continue to build depthat that position. But you know,
I think, you know, wefeel like, you know, if you
have you know, four strong runningbacks going into it, then you know
that's gonna be that's gonna be enoughto carry the season. I do think
that the quarterbacks will run the ballmore this season, so that should take

(03:58:24):
some carries away from them. Butto your point, you know, James
and Sam are gonna have to stepup to the guys that we can count
on. Save that for another day, Yeah, just fall up on it.
Is he capable of stepping in andbeing running back? Obviously, we'll

(03:58:46):
see, we'll see. We talkedabout in the recruiting process, you know,
the first time around, and morespecifically in the second time around,
and so he's you know, he'sbeen around a little bit just to get
a feel for it. We didvery little in the spring. We did
I think we pitched them an optionor something like that in the spring just
to kind of get them going.But we'll see. We'll see where that

(03:59:07):
goes. We don't have a specificplan right now, but we do want
to introduce him to that just thesame thing like Lorenzo Styles has played your
Sea where he did that at NotreDame. You know, he's out there
a little bit, just kind oflearning. It's healthy. You know,
you're seeing it from the other sideof the ball. This time of the
year, you can get away withthat a little bit, a little bit
in the preseason. Where it goes, we'll see, but you just never
know. And we're trying to putsome contingency plans in place because it could

(03:59:30):
be a long season. Yeah,this is my forty first year covering of
house to day. I don't rememberever expectations like this In the summer.
There were some of them were almosta big sure do you send that too?
And what is that pressure like asyou're working through a summer. Yeah,
people have asked me that I goback to the expectations every year are
the same. I mean, it'sjust the truth. When opening press conference.

(03:59:50):
I said, you got to beatthe team up north, and when
every game after that, that's justthe expectations. And when you come up
short, you know you got tofigure out a way to get those things
fixed. I think we have donethat. But the expect are the same
every year. Pressure is the sameevery year. I just like the pressure
when you've got a really good teambehind you. So that's what we've got
right now. And you know,we know it's going to be a long
season. We know we're working towards. But I will say this about this

(04:00:13):
team, Well, we've been talented. That's there's been times in the past
we've been talented. I don't knowsince I've been here, if we've been
this talented and this experience together withguys that have played a lot of football,
fourth and fifth year guys, andthat doesn't matter. We'll go Thanks
ex door Stephen playing since you broughtit up, maybe this is his top
because it's summer. Conviously, youcan now just have conversations. Maybe we're

(04:00:37):
making a big of nothing, longterm situation, but we've seen it around
college football league, guys playing bothsides of the ball and doing it quite
well. Right Travia Suner is doingit out in Colorado and Kayla Jas has
been apartment turns, So we seewhat he could do with the ball.
But there's also the stama aspect ofthat getting into a sixteen game season.
So I'm not saying it's many fortysnaps or something like that, But what
about his athleticism, what he bringsto the table and let you that if

(04:01:00):
you wanted to explore it in areal game, he could last and still
be an effective See. Yeah,yeah, we'd have to see all that.
He did it in high school.But we got some really good running
backs in a room. So it'snot something that we're planning on doing.
But uh, we all we aregonna, you know, work on a
little bit. Caleb. Caleb enjoysthat part of it. We did agree
that that was something that we weregonna look into. Where it goes,

(04:01:22):
I don't I don't really know rightnow, but I know that he has
the capability to do it. Hehas the athleticism and do it, and
you know, we'll kind of seewhere it goes, see see how he
does, and you know, maybehand the ball Tom a little bit in
the preseason because again it's going tobe a long season. We have to
make sure we have continuoency plans inplace. But I know it's something that
he enjoys having the ball in hishand. So even during their first time

(04:01:43):
around the recruiting process, we eventalked about him coming in as a as
an offensive player. Ultimately we thinkhis ceiling is highest on defense. But
you know, but I also agree. I think that having you know,
guys go on this side of theball and just see it, listen meetings
is really healthy for the development.So we're gonna do that regardless. Your

(04:02:05):
defensive recruiting right now is maybe furtheralong it's been in the years past,
and I think we passed numous questionsabout it in the past. But is
this a product of seeing it overthe last couple of years and now it's
not just telling guys, hey,this might look like this, they're seeing
it in real time. Yeah,you know, we talked about it when
Jim first came in, and Ithink Tim walls an unbelievable job as well

(04:02:26):
in the back end, and youknow, Matt stepped right in and James
and Larry. I think they're alldoing a great job. But like you
said, you know, it's onething to talk about it that's theory testimony
is this, look at this isthis is what we're doing. And then
I think you're seeing a lot ofguys just excited about playing in this defense
and they see the capabilities and theflexibility too. You know, right now
the way we play, excuse me, the way we play right now is

(04:02:48):
based on you know, we havefour really talented defensive linemen that are really
good and we got a lot ofthat to those positions. But there's also
flexibility with some of the things Gym'sdone in the past that you know,
we're definitely looking at and some ofthe recruits that we're looking at who bring
some versatility, pass rusher, youknow, we have that jack position and
those type of things. So,uh, that's exciting as well. And
I think you're seeing a lot ofthe recruits, you know, really get

(04:03:11):
fired up when they get here.People. Yeah, coach, I think
your first years your identity was wasvery bigger from an awful standpoint and air
and out type team. Look atthe keyp best talent and the playmakers you
have there. Has your identity changed? I guess what do you think the
identity is? Of this twenty pointfourth. Well, we'll see as we
go. But you know, weknow what we need to do to play

(04:03:33):
in the big games. That's neverchanged. And we have to be able
to stop the run, run thefootball, take care of the ball,
and there'll be opportunities to throw theball that'll that'll happen, but you know
we're gonna have to, you know, do those things to win close games
and play situational football. But Ithink, you know, you won't really
get a feel for what the identityof the team is until we get into

(04:03:54):
probably the beginning of October, youknow, and I think we all have
ideas of what it could go.But you know now that we're playing in
a playoff format, just like alot of those NFL teams sometimes, you
know, they don't really quite understandtheir identity until they get about halfway through
the season. I don't think I'lltake that long. But you know,
we're able to play some games andkind of work through some things. And
I don't think our defense is goingto change a bunch in terms of what

(04:04:16):
we did last year. I mean, it's a lot of the same guys
back could look a little different onoffense, got time for two more go
to Doug Lyamras. Okay, right, you lose an important recruiting staffer to
promotion at Michigan. Just time somuch this offseason. How do you react

(04:04:37):
to something like that? Is somethingthat someone like that would take information that
was started here that could help Michiganor Ohio stages reaction? Yeah, all
good questions, and you know,I just I want to talk about the
guys that are here, you know, the staff members that are here,
the coaches that are here, theplayers that are here. Have we got

(04:05:00):
Jeremiah J J? Smith J J? How'd you feel out there today?
You got a great came out,don't make three and old pool play.
When you come to these kind oftournaments, what kind of techniques do you
like to work on it? Seethey get you're going deems run some short
stuff and crossing routes. What doyou work on when you're out of tournament
like this? Really just getting backin the Google all run doing the week

(04:05:22):
So really just working on my releases. Uh that's when your game, my
fridge faster I've been I'm gonna chuck. So just where you can get back
in now we know you pulled thetrigger on Ohio State. Obviously, you
gotta take visits kind of make surethat you're you're perfect, done your decision.
What was it about Ohio State andBrian Hartline and Ryan David It made
you feel comfortable to cold make early? Really they me my first visit,

(04:05:43):
but I think the first one canoffer me my first year really just what's
up? What's up? What's whatthey say? Was? But they they
they gave me. Uh really justa kid that help a top hard I

(04:06:05):
was a tough artt chuck them wanttis Now. I know you got some
of your SFE family up there.You got Brandon n s, you got
Carnal Day. What does it meanto potentially be able to wake up with
them in a year and be ableto kind of run back what you guys
have done in South Florida Express inColumbus Ohio. It'd be great we go
there to Ohio State take over.It'd be grateful all the great fund up

(04:06:31):
the first round. Yeah, you'rea super humble kid. I've been really
impressed by you today. Is thereanything that you want Ohio State fans to
know about you? You know again, I know you're just your all work
all work on work. But whatare they getting when they get a JJ
Smith to come to Ohio saying,O kid me in them round the job
the day. Just do what Iwant to do, take care of my

(04:06:52):
books, school sport. Don't justcome in through my talk. That's perfect
man' God bless you. I appreciateyou, my man, watch you today,
Thank you so much. And JSmith to be ahead of him,
just liter like, what is yourtime away from the practice folds like it
allows you to be such another player? First off, coaches line he here

(04:07:16):
all day no matter what. Butfor me myself, ever since I was
a kid, my dad always instilledme and my brother to work hard and
be like just be around football,be around what we want to be good
at. So after here, I'llgo watch more film, do a little
school work, and then later tonightI'll probably come back and watch the film
again. But at the end ofthe day, it's just trying to be

(04:07:37):
around football, be around the facility. How much of your film watching it's
like solo endeff just you buy yourselfwatch and stuff. How much team we've
had more safeties come in throughout thespring, more guys try to learn the
system and learn the game, butI mean, at the end of the
day, you gotta do what yougotta do to put yourself in a best

(04:07:58):
position to win or myself. I'llwatch film at home too by myself,
but when I'm here, there's alwaysother players around me that are trying to
work to get better, just likeI am. Are you only watching you
so you watch? No. Iwatched the NFL teams, watch good NFL
safties that are playing right now,Javon Holland, Antswine Winfield, go as
like that that can that I canemulate and try to see how they play.

(04:08:20):
And then also just watching other playershere, other players that do things
well here, just learning from them, try to see how they play the
game, trying to get better.Cab, what are some of the big
differences that you've seen so far betweenwhat you went through at Alabama and so
far you've gone through a fear ofa lot of it's the same little differences
in the defense of how they operateand how they see things. But at

(04:08:43):
the end of the day, football'sfootball defensive defense. So everybody gotta get
to the ball and make the typeof you thinks. Oh, I love
the city, I love High Street, I love being in the city.
I love going to the restaurants here. The food's great here. So got
no complace for me? Have youfounda there be? Cause it's like you
have the campus all of a sudder, then you also a big city.

(04:09:03):
It's it's different than Alabama, causeAlabama was a college town and Tessalosa is
not as big of a city.Here, there's a lot of people to
see, a lot of different businessesthat you can be a part of.
So just trying to learn the cityand learn what everybody has to offer here.
He'll be probably noticed that when Kadprobably made his decision to go back

(04:09:24):
to Alabama, then that starts awhole level of speculation and stuff. Are
you were you taken back by that? Did you feel like you needed to
make a declaration off of that?Uh? I mean at the end of
the day, No, I didn'tfeel like I needed to say anything,
cause at the end of the day, I was still here a practice,
I was still here with my teammates. So I mean, I feel like
my actions speak for themselves. I'mI mean, I don't I don't need

(04:09:45):
to say anything about that. Kaydenand I talked to him when he did
it I mean I congratulated him onhis decision. I mean, that's what
he feels his best as when hefeels his best, and I support him.
But I'm here you guys used tohave here in this new generation of
you have that so freedom. Youhave that sort of control over your career
in a way that other people didn't. This it's something that you you have

(04:10:05):
to kind of take through the certainseriousness that you're making that right decision at
all times. I think ever,I mean in life, you have to
make decisions based off of what shefeels best for yourself. So that was
a big decision for him, Andif he feels that was best for himself,
then I support it. But atthe end of the day, for
college suble athletes, I think that'sthe best thing because the coaches have the
same right to do what they do. Coach can come here for a month

(04:10:28):
and leave, and I mean thenhe's just leaving the player at high and
draw. So I mean, ifthey're gonna have the ability to do it,
why would the players not have sometype of say in their in their
life. Kel you you made themtap opp to last year as a freshmen.
What do you think you could doas assault. With you under your
belt, I think I can growand what I did well last year and

(04:10:54):
increase on the qualities that I wasn'tnot as a lead at during during the
season. Just being better in coverage, being better in the post, being
better in my tackling, being abetter communicator with my teammates. All that
I think I can offer to theteam. And but at the end of
the day, it's gotta be ateam collective to go do what we want
to do. What do you comein? This odyssee is a lovely dabs

(04:11:16):
What what do you think of beinga big part of Spence was the elite
last year and it should be betterthis year. Yeah, they were a
very elite defense last year, andwatching all the film from last year and
the whole season, they played agreat season. They played a lot of
good defense. Excuse me, whichyour question just the idea of being hard.
I'm a big part about an elaituedefense. Uh. I mean I

(04:11:37):
can only do my part. Ican only do my one to eleventh and
do my job. Every player Ican't. I can't try to do more
than that, and every other playerjust has to do their job and we'll
do what we need to do.Okay, we'll be talking about your field
patching habits. Was that the samein high school? What did that look
like for you on a regular highschool good My high school coach was one
of my favorite people in the world, uh Freeman David. Me and him

(04:12:01):
watch film together a lot, Butthat was more so just myself watching film
and trying to grow. So Iwould say I had a lot of the
same habits and as trusted over tocollege, but a lot of that was
me and my high school coach startof the game together and another movie.
You around everywhere here, but youknow, it seems like you're at that
free safety spot as opposed to thestrong safety spot you played at all.

(04:12:22):
Damn though, just what said transition? Like, do you feel that does
that even matter in this kind ofdefense? I th I mean it's the
same spot really to the it's thesafety to the field safety playing in the
most space, That's what I'm usedto. But at the end of the
day, I I feel like Icould play to the boundary, I can
play the down money position, Ican play nickel. So I mean,
at the end of the day,you gotta make plays wherever you're at Calen.

(04:12:46):
What have you been what have yourthoughts went on? Jeremia Snip a
very elite athlete, very stinctual player, has a great ball skills. Should
uh should have a big impact thisyear. Anybody don't in your parents what
you've seen? Oh? Nah,Ja, Jesus's on self. Jesus,

(04:13:07):
he's on it's his own man.Uh. Who else who's caught your rye?
At your receiver group? Kayle?That uh is elite in your opinion?
Uh? I watch a Mecca Bukaa lot o H and co when
I was in high school watching thegames, and then last year watching some
of his film. He's been anelite receiver then and he's on a leade
receiver now. And Carlote has hada great spring as well. Yeah,

(04:13:31):
and uh you you personally, Uhafter the uh Steve Appreciation Day on Saturday,
you were mobbed about as much asanybody. Okay, what is what?
How have you felt the receip meaningof autograph seekers at Saturday? Now?
Uh? How have you felt thereception here? Uh? For you
over the last several months, butespecially like Saturday, I think it's been
very welcoming. I appreciate everybody andlike I appreciate when I go to class,

(04:13:54):
seeing people that know me and justbeing able to meet them, being
able to say that I'm glad tobe here, able to stay glad to
be here, to everybody that cameup to me. So I'm just I'm
very appreciative of it. Do youfeel their expectations for you? You know
what I mean? Uh? Imean people may have expectations, but at
the end of the day, onlyone person in Kimberly judge me, and
that's God. I mean, otherthan that, at the end of the

(04:14:16):
day, it doesn't really matter.How much have you been going tweeting the
three different safety spots every day.I take reps at all three spots just
to try to It helps you understandand learn the defense from a new perspective.
So being able to see the ballfrom the boundary safety, see the
ball from the nickel spot, beingable to see the ball from the dime,

(04:14:37):
it helps you be able to seethe whole game and be able to
understand everything that goes on around you. You've moved the scrimage flying of every
few times on some sacks, it'sbeen a vocal point. One of the
vocal points just the oppos'd back thetop exactly. All right. We are
back on The Andre Duke Show withCarter Smith and we have a massive special

(04:15:00):
guest tonight, Kirk Barton, formerOhio State offensive lineman, former NFL player,
and it is a massive thank youKirk for coming on. How are
you doing. I'm doing great,man. I appreciate you guys having me
and I love the Massive shirt.That is the That's my favorite shirt I've
ever created, because we put Massivein our YouTube titles a lot and then

(04:15:24):
I people made fun of it thatdon't like us, and I was like,
well, I'll put on a shirt. We're gonna sell it. We
sold more of those than any anyidea in our shop, So thank you
for buying that. I appreciate you, my man. No no problem,
Carter. How are you doing doingthis same? I'm doing doing great man,
Just you know, going through theweek getting it done. Super excited

(04:15:45):
to have a chance to talk withKirk. I loved Kirk when he was
a player at Ohio State. He'sgot a good relationship with my brother,
so I've met him a couple oftimes of that. So just really excited
to have you on the show.Kirk, really appreciate you taking the time
to do this always. Man,Man, I appreciate you guys. So
with that being said, we willhop right into it. Kurk, you've

(04:16:07):
talked on your podcast Buckeye Scoop aboutthe Texas game in two thousand and five.
So and you brought it up thatthe kicker from Miami of Ohio went
to went to Alabama. So howbig would a kicker be in a game

(04:16:30):
like that back when you were playing? Well, I mean, you know
I played with NuGen obviously Nude onthe second round, and you know,
he hit a game winning fifty fiveyard field goal against Marshall where we could
have lost that game and we weretied, you know, with like three
seconds left and he hit a fieldgoal that thankfully didn't send us to overtime,

(04:16:51):
but you know, we and againI'm not pitting this on Josh Houston.
You know he kicked five field goalsthat night, but yeah, we
had a fifty yarder to basically icethe game him over, and yeah,
we would have been up nine withno time, you know, four minutes
left, so they other needed twoscores. They'd ever would have gotten two
scores versus our defense. And wemissed it. And again that's not blaming

(04:17:11):
Josh, it's just stating evact,you know. Or if we have Mike
Nugent or we have you know,an ace kicker, you know, we
we win the Texas game. AndI think we have a whole different set
of circumstances. Like I just Iremember in oh four, we were so
bad on offense, especially in thebeginning of the season that, like Mike
dudes, that we played NC State. NC State had one of the best

(04:17:33):
defenses I've ever seen. They hadMario, they had three first round picks
on their defensive line. They hadMario Williams, Manny Lawson, uh uh
da, Mario Presley, Tank Tyler. I mean, I mean it was
literally like unbelievable how good their defensewas. And Steven Tullock was also like
a second round pick Liebeck, sotheir front seven was incredible. And Nuge
like kicked I think he kicked fouror five, but we won like twenty

(04:17:56):
two to like fourteen or some weirdscore, and Hug kicked like five field
goals that day. I think hekicked five. And like, you know,
if we don't have Nuge, welose that game. We lose as
a Marshall game. So I justthink in the air of the transfer portal,
man, when you can get akicker who's maybe kicked early in his
career, you know, because sometimeslike kickers, they're not the easiest thing

(04:18:18):
to evaluate. But if a kidgoes somewhere where we can start as a
freshman, he does great. Andlike a kid like this who's got a
year left, I think you takehim in a heartbeat and just totally fortify
the offense and make it an aplus offense because you see like the best
offenses in the NFL. You know, Lamar Jackson won the MVP. He
had justin Tucker. The Chiefs obviouslyhad Harrison, Butker, I just I
love kickers that have huge legs,like guys that can hit from mid fifties

(04:18:45):
hit from fifty And there's got tobe a kicker somewhere on this earth that's
you got eligibility, that can dothat. And we haven't had a guy
that could do that consistently for along time. But Michigan finds guys and
these other school somehow fun guys.And in the transfer portal era, I
think that our kicking, uh notpunting our punters have been good, Cam
Johnston still in the NFL, butour kicking, you know, we haven't

(04:19:07):
had a kicker do anything in theNational Football League since Nuge and that was
an four, So I don't knowhow that's possible. But again that's just
my opinion. And you know,Jaden Feeling might prove me wrong. I
hope he listens to everything I sayand he proves me wrong and he wins
the gross of this year because again, Mike NuGet as a true freshman was
terrible and then as a sophomore hewas the best kicker in America. So

(04:19:30):
things can change. But you know, I think that kickers are valuable.
And again, I know everyone makeslight makes fun of kickers and they're not
real players, but you know whenthey win national championships and they win Super
Bowls, and you know, they'rethe guys that have their balls on the
line, you know, with onesecond left and they got to ace it
down the middle to win the game, like that counts to me. So

(04:19:52):
that's just my opinion. I wasvery disappointed we didn't get this kid from
Miami because I was praying that he'dhit the portal and he did and then
of course he goes to Alabama.So there's my thoughts. Yeah, and
I mean, how big would ithave been to have a kicker like Nugent
in the Georgia game a couple ofyears ago, right where you could possibly
win the game there if you havea kicker that can bury a fifty five
yarder, Yeah, I mean,that's I mean, and and honestly it's

(04:20:15):
sometimes it's not just that that endof game kick, but sometimes there's just
there's points in games with where whenyou miss a field goal it's a humongous
momentum swing and you can feel likethe air come out of the building sometimes,
like when we miss one on theroad or or when you hit it.
If you hit it, it's ahuge you know, going in at
halftime or whatever, like you getsome points on the board. Anyway,
people might think that that's nothing,getting an extra three, but you know,

(04:20:37):
when you miss a field goal,man, especially in a tight game
versus like equal talent, it reallymeans something. So when you play Michigan,
then you got to hit your layups, man, you got to hit
your three. You know. Andthat's the thing that we're not we haven't
been great about absolutely so just realquick, going back to the Texas game
from that year, Obviously we're dealingwith another quarterback battle this year. Correct

(04:21:00):
me if I'm wrong. You guyskind of had a quarterback battle going on
to start that season. Correct,Yeah, it was. It was a
weird situation because you know, Troyobviously got suspended for the Ala Mobile and
for Week one versus Miami of Ohio. Uh, and then you know we
uh, you know, Justin Justinplayed the Ala Mobile, who did a
great job. He did well againstMiami of Ohio. And then you know,

(04:21:22):
week two, we're playing Texas,who's the best team in the country.
They won the national title, andwe had this kind of a wonky
rotation where Justin started and then Troycame in, and you know, it
just it was one of those circumstanceswhere it was tough because you know,
I mean, I I hate rotatingquarterbacks. I don't think it's fair to
the quarterbacks, but I think thatwhen you've got two guys that are equal,

(04:21:45):
and I felt like at the endof O four Troy separated, but
then he kind of stubbed his toewith the suspension. So it was a
tough call and again, I do. I wish that we would have just
picked one and one with it,probably especially if we got to pick Troy,
but it uh. You know,thequarterback things aren't always as cut and
dry as as you can think,especially when guys aren't there non contact in

(04:22:07):
fall camp. H you know,because Troy, you know, when guys
can can move. You know,when you see these modern quarterbacks like Kyler
Murray and Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson, the guys that you take in your
fantasy football league, and basically it'slike having like a third running back in
your starting lineup when you have theguys that are athletic, like when they're
when those guys are in a quarterbackcompetition during fall camp and they're non contact

(04:22:30):
and they can't create and do thethings that make them special, then all
of a sudden, I don't thinkyou really know what they can do until
you put them out there in areal game where there is no black jersey,
there is no non contact jersey.But you know, a guy like
Troy, you know, when hecould create on the run, it was
kind of like Alan Iverson with hiscrossover, you know, I mean,
like when you get open man Imean he could, he could make things

(04:22:52):
happen that nobody in the history ofa high slay football could make happen.
So I you know, it wasit was tough again and it was Uh
that's one of those haunting wins.I mean that that game probably haunts me
more than Florida because Florida, wejust got our our wheels, we got
our doors blown up. But Floridaalso like we weren't We weren't really that
good in O six, Like inO five we were really good, like

(04:23:15):
like that O five Ohio State team. If they wuld have played the six
team, the five team would havedog locked us just because our defense was
so much better and and and reallyour offense was to because we had nick
Man Gold and Robson's Like we hadNFL dudes on our line. Uh that
were much better than the guys thatwe played in in O six. So
that that Texas game haunts me tothis day because we had the best team
in the country beat and we letthem go, Which that sucks. Yeah.

(04:23:40):
Absolutely. In another game that you'rewhat about Penn State, did we
played those Yeah, that was thefirst white out, So that spawned the
white out craze and it was.It was. It was the best college
football environment of all time. Imean it was. It was so loud,

(04:24:00):
it was so crazy, and andhonestly, you know, i'd never
been there. Most of us hadnever been there. Some of the older
like like uh, you know,something like Rob SAMs, Nickmangle, they've
been there. But they played andI think it was a noon game in
three, but they we'd never experiencedit white out before, so I don't
think we were ready for the noise. And I got hurt, which is

(04:24:22):
what really sucked. In the secondquart, I blew my knee out on
a field goal protection and it hurtbad, and it sucked, and I
couldn't finish the game. And they'retheir best player was their d n that
I blocked all day. And hewas a first round pick, Tom Beholey,
he played for the Chiefs. Iwas pro bowler and like I played
him in OH four and I thoughthe was good, but I didn't think
he was like incredible or anything like. I didn't think he was like some

(04:24:45):
guy was like, oh my god, how I'm gonna block this guy?
And when I was in there Ofive, like I handled him and he
played and I played against him thewhole game because he didn't flip, like
they don't flip their dns. Theyplay the same guy plays against the right
tack all the whole game. SoI was handling him and I killed him
four when I was a freshman,and I frankly wasn't even good. And
you know, so then when Igot hurt, it like it got a

(04:25:07):
little bit tougher because we had toput you know, we put Rob Sims
at right tackle. Rob Sims itnever played right tackle his life, and
they put him out there, andthen we put Booty out there at right
tackle. Booty was a true freshmanand you know, no eighteen year old
can handle that environment. And heactually did pretty well. But you know,
at the end of the game,you know, Tom of course sacks
the quarterback and it's like my nightmare, Uh realized when the guy that I
handled the whole year, like endsthe game and kills story and trade as

(04:25:30):
a summersault and like they still playthat clip when we play Penn State because
it was the dramatic of an ending. So that sucked. So, yeah,
those are the two and that wasthe hardest part. Man is like
by that time in the season,like the season was over basically because we
lost two and you know, backthen it was like if you're not in
the you know, the top two, ish, you're not going to have

(04:25:52):
a shot to play for the championship. That was pre BCS, but it
was still you know, once youget down you get a second loss through
like six weeks, man, yourseason's over for you. You know,
in terms of winning the Natty,which was our natural that was actually our
goal. Yeah, absolutely, backthen it was you know, one loss
you might still have a chance,but two losses basically you're out of it.
So that had to be tough andthen kind of getting away from maybe

(04:26:17):
some of the more negative memories ofthat year. The one game that I
personally had a invested interest in wasthe I believe it was a Fiesta Bowl
with Notre Dame. Kind of walkme through what you guys thought when you
watch them on film and kind ofyour guys's mentality going into that game.
Well, I mean, we knewthey were really good. We knew that

(04:26:38):
they had a lot of NFL guysthat were really well coached. People can
say whatever they want about Charlie Weiss, but you know, their offense was
was really good. I mean,Brady was playing at a very high level.
Obviously, he was a guy thatprobably could have left him in a
top ten pick. I don't thinkit's safe for his senior year helped him.
I think if he had left afterthat third year, he had made

(04:27:00):
more good running back Darius Walker.Their line was really good. Ryan Harry
had a bunch of NFL guys,Ryan Harris the left tackle, good player,
Samarga who ended up being a pitcherin the in the big leagues.
Uh was a force as a widereceiver. Defensively, I remember that victor
Or Abby Amieri who again that wasthere were another team that didn't flip.
So I played against Victor Abby Marythe entire game and he was the best

(04:27:22):
player in their entire defense. Heended up being a second round pick by
the Eagles. Uh. They hadZibbi Uh Thomas of Vikalski, who we
actually had the same agent. Sowe actually became pretty tight once we got
to the league. But you know, they they had UH, they had
dudes. But again we we hadwe had guys that could really run,
and we thought we could get aftertheir back end a little bit, and
we did, like That's why wewere thrown it up over the top to

(04:27:44):
Teddy and San Antonio, and wedidn't think they could run with us,
and they couldn't, So that wasthat was something that like our game plan
was, let's let's take him deep, and uh, we knew they were
gonna blitz it. Was It's kindof funny when you study these teams,
is that what are the weird thingsyou study, or like what could they
do against you that they maybe haven'tshown on film given the break, given

(04:28:04):
a thirty day absence between you know, the Michigan game and then the Bull
game. So like we didn't havea big ten title game back then,
so after we beat Michigan before Thanksgiving, we didn't play again until January.
So it's a big thirty five daywinnow. So you could literally install an
entire new defense. And we thoughtthey were going to blitz us pretty heavy,
just based on our runs and ourtendencies and the one end around the

(04:28:27):
Z round which you know ched ginwas the Z which is like your flank
or your speed receiver. We wedid a self scout and we'd ran to
the right behind me like seventy fivepercent of the time that year. So
we ran our signature play which waslike it was called eight load, which
is an option play that Troy neverpitched it. It was an option play

(04:28:49):
where he'd never pitched it. Heonly carried it, and I guess Iowa.
We scored two touchdowns with it.We ran it a lot, but
we put in a reverse off ofit. So you start the option action
and you see the linebackers come flyingright into the hole where where we hit
it. Cause I'm sure that theywent over that with their scout team for
a long time and uh and theyover commit big time to where the play

(04:29:11):
was going. But then you haveTed coming back the other way on the
on the Z round, so therewas nobody there and san Antonio. San
Antonio had the best crack block andhe probably he had been thrown in prison
if he did that today because hehad been targeting and everything else. But
san Antonio killed their uh, theirtheir their walkout guy, their their walk
out linebacker, like killed him,took him off his feet and uh and

(04:29:33):
Ted was like off to the races. So I just remember our offensive staff
did a great job tress bulls likeJim Bowman. Those guys really did a
good job of scheming those guys up, and uh, you know, our
defense, our defense played well,you know, I mean they weathered the
early storm because Notre Dame went rightdown the field and scored to start the
game, and then they clamped upa little bit. And uh, but
it was good. I mean,we do it would be a challenge and

(04:29:53):
those are the fun games because theyhad they had equal talent, so us
we were probably a little more talented, but it wasn't like the normal huge
gas of talent that Ohio State footballnormally encounters on a Saturday. Yeah.
Absolutely. That was the one thingthat I wondered if you touch on just
because watching the game, you know, the thing that jumped off the screen
to me was just how much fasteryou guys were, at least at receiver

(04:30:14):
compared to the defensive backs. Itlooked like they were running in long grass
and you guys were on AstroTurf.Yeah, I mean, we just were
lucky. We had Ted and Santonioand Gonzo and uh, you know,
obviously Gonzo that that that play wherehe didn't catch it was the play of
the game where Zibakowski picked it upand ran it back to the house because
that was you know, that waslike the early the early times of replay

(04:30:36):
where they said that he didn't catchit and it was incomplete and because that
was that was gonna be a fumblefor a touchdown. Yeah, And I
was like sitting there, I waslike, please God, do not whether
this be in touch because I wantto tie. I think that would tie
the game. But we were ableto go out and score and ice game
down. But yeah, it was, uh, you know, those are
type those are type games. Andagain that's why it's fun at high stitch
play against teams that are equal talentor close, because then you have to

(04:31:00):
really you know, you gotta reallyreally sharp. You can't you can't just
you know, Ohio State ninety ninepercent of the time when we play,
we've got better players than the otherteam on the sideline. But it's not
one percent when you play Georgia oryou play a good Notre Dame team where
you got to actually, you know, win, you have to go win
the game instead of just being betterthan they are. So it was it
was a fun night and I didn'tknow that'd be my last Bowl win,

(04:31:22):
but you know, it was reallyfun and it kind of I think it
kind of set us in a littlebit of a trap where it was like
we had this this streak of goingto the Fiesta Bowl, we stayed at
the Fairmont Scotts Sale Princess, andthen we wore the white jerseys and we
beat you know, the Hurricanes,we beat Kansas State, we beat Notre
Dame. So then of course thenext year we played Florida, we got

(04:31:45):
our breaks beat off, and it'slike, but we sayed at the same
hotel and we're the same we were. We were the one seed, and
we wore our white jerseys. Yeah, because again, like I don't know
if it was superstition or what itwas, but it just kind of is
what it is. I mean,it didn't matter what color jerseys were were
and I'm just being funny, butit was like we like fell into the
trap of familiarity. And again Iget it because you know, if you

(04:32:06):
wear the red jers against Florida andwe get we lose forty one to fourteen,
then people were like, why didyou wear the white jerseys? You
could have did that we undefeated it. So this is some one of those
like funny things that you think aboutsometimes twenty years later. Yeah, for
sure. That Florida game was howwas at that game? That was the
crowd and the electricity in the stadiumwhen Teddy took that kickoff back and then

(04:32:26):
the just shock and haul when theysaw him hobbling off the field was oh
my god. Well, the funnything is that I won't talk too much
about it, but it's like hecame back in and played in the game.
Like that was funny thing. Itis like I didn't even know he
got hurt because, like I mean, that first offensive play that we had
after Florida scored, he's back outthere and he actually ran a route and

(04:32:47):
we threw him the ball. Solike I it wasn't like okay, it
wasn't like his leg was like thebone was poking out of the skinner.
Yeah, Like so I didn't knowwhat was going on. Obviously ted was
too hurt to play, but itwas I remember, like I asked that,
and the thing I was like,why aren't you in? And he's
like he looked at me and heis like, come on, man,
let's go, And I'm like I'mlike, I love Teddy, but I

(04:33:11):
was like, why aren't you playing? Like I mean, we need you
you're the best. You're you're literallythe best player on our team by far.
You were the eighth overall pick orninth pick in the draft like that.
No one else did the team wasany were close to the top ten
in the draft. So yeah,I mean that was like one of those
ones where you just know that itain't gonna be your night when your best
player gets hurt on the first play. You're just like this sometimes the football

(04:33:33):
where you're just like, God,this is gonna suck. And it was,
like I tell people, like itwas like when the forty nine ers
last year, uh in the NFCChampionship, Like they lose Brock Purty and
then they lose their backup quarterback andthey're down to Deebo Samuel playing quarterback.
Like you just said that, Likesometimes a football man, it just ain't
your night. And that was anight. It was definitely not a night.
And and again it's not taking anythingweight from Urban and you know Urban,

(04:33:53):
and yeah, Urban was the masterof getting guys ready to go.
And those guys were hungry and disrespectand they played that part up to the
hill and and they smashed us.And again that's like I tell people That's
the beauty of football is everybody who'sever played or coach has had their brains
beat out at some point. Youknow, it doesn't matter if Nick Saban,
Dabo Sweeney, Ryan Day, Likethat's that's the beauty of it.

(04:34:17):
Bill Belichick got you're gotta at somepoint it's gonna be your turn to get
smashed. And that was our turn, and it was. It was a
humbling night, but it was ait was a terrible night. But that's
a part of part of life,Like you don't get to littlem All and
uh, it was. It suckedbecause I felt terrible for Troy because that
was a game that haunts his legacybecause he probably if he wins that,

(04:34:37):
he's probably the best Buckeye of alltime. But it just kind of is
what it is. Yeah, definitely, I mean coming off winning the Heisman,
and I mean it's not like Troyhad a bad game that game or
anything either. Well, I mean, you know, he didn't have a
chance because we didn't we didn't runthe ball, he didn't have his number
one receiver. You know. Again, it's like if you take Kelsey away

(04:34:57):
from the Holmes or when you seethe quarterbacks, if their number one guy
goes down. Sometimes if they're justreally incredible, they can still make it
work. But a lot of times, man, it's it's tough, you
know, when you don't have youryour top guy. And and again,
like you know, we we justwouldn't play well, like I mean,
like we didn't play there was ateddy fast, like I mean, are

(04:35:18):
you know our offense we sucked thatoffense, but our defense gave up forty
one points too. You know,we had we had a bunch of personal
fouls. We played dumb football.So and Urban, you know, Urban
was ahead of his time with thatoffense. That offense was I was sitting
there watching that man, and ourguys were out of gas. Our guys
were winded, tired, and Iwas watching it on the big screen,
and they're the way that they theystretched the field horizontally in the running game.

(04:35:42):
I mean, our guys were basicallylike running gassers the whole game,
and they were they were exhausted.So Urban was ahead of his time with
what he did there. And Iwas excited when he came here because I
got to learn that offense and itwas it was really cool. Yeah.
Absolutely. In another game from fromyour playing days. How about the game

(04:36:04):
in two thousand and six, whatwas the build up going into that game?
Well, I think you know itwas it was one that obviously,
like when you look at the schedules, and it was like, once we
got past like Penn State, weknew that it was kind of cupcake city
and we had a scare against Illinois, but otherwise it was, you know,

(04:36:25):
we were coasting, and so wasMichigan. I mean, Michigan got
past Notre Dame or Penn State orsomebody, and then they were coasting,
and it was like we saw whatwas coming. After they smashed Notre Dame,
they jumped up with the polls prettyhigh, and that, you know,
that's what made it the magic ofthe one two games. I mean,
they beat that Notre Dame team waslike a preseason number two team.

(04:36:45):
I think they were cause they'd playedus and they had like twenty guys come
back, so Brady was back andall those guys and and Michigan just smashed
them out at Notre Dame and sowe knew they were going to be good.
And again they were go to No. Five. They just you know,
they had some bad losses. Theywere injured, but they still had,
like you know, sometimes the recorddoesn't reflect the talent level because they

(04:37:10):
still had Alan Branch and Lamar Woodleyand Leon Hall and you know, Mario
Manningham. They had guys that werelike dudes, like real dude. Jake
Long obviously first overall pick in thedraft, So you know, we knew
they were gonna be good. Theyput in a new running game, they
ran the Denver Broncos zone offense,and they were really good at that,
and they were like just buzz sawingteams when I'd watch them on film,

(04:37:32):
and I think that you know,we knew it was gonna be a big
challenge. And I worried about ourdefense in that game because I thought our
defense was good. I think itwas great, and I was right,
and we ended up giving up likethirty nine points. But thank god,
we scored forty two. But thatwas the most points I think we'd ever
give it up to a Michigan team, I think, but it was,
Hey, we scored three more thanthey did, and it's a team game.

(04:37:52):
But you know, I knew thattheir offense was legit because I mean,
we've got Manningham as your number oneguy. Mike Cartt was a good
college player to get a NFL player, Jake long as your left tackle.
Henny who played like fifteen years inthe league, was a really good quarterback.
Like you knew it was gonna betough, and you knew you weren't
going to shut him out, anduh I just the build up was crazy.
And then you know, Bo diesthe day before the game, which

(04:38:12):
makes it even crazier because you've gotyou know there, you know, the
guy that they're they're you know,we've got the Woody Hayes Center, they've
got the Schaenn Beckler Hall. UhSo, the guy that their football building
is named after, dies the daybefore the game or Thursday before the game.
It was. It was nuts.So yeah, there was a lot
of pressure to win. And Idon't know if we blew our stack that

(04:38:33):
night and we ran out of gasfor Florida or we thought we were too
good or what it was, butyou know, it was kind of like
we sold out to beat Michigan andthen like, you know, we didn't
have that same We didn't play anywherenear as flawless of a game against Florida,
obviously, because that Michigan team waswas a team that I think they
they kind of suffered the same fatewhere they you know, they kind of
blew their energy. Uh, andthen they didn't do well in the Rosewell

(04:38:55):
versus sc either, because I thinkwe were so exhausted from that and they
were probably defeated from losing that game. So I always like kind of wonder
about that because we just we didn'tlook like the same team, you know,
And sometimes that happens when you've gotall this energy and you expend it
and then you get to win,then you know you really need the coaching
staff and the leaders to to beatyou back down and just submission to get

(04:39:18):
ready to go for that next one, because it's it's hard. Man,
you beat Michigan in that one twogame. Like, the environment around Columbus
is different people. You know,it's it's almost like you gotta the what
he hasting where it's like, youknow, you know, kick the old
granny and the knee, Like anyonethat gives you a compliment over the age
of eighty three, kicker, kickhim in the knee or whatever. Like,
yeah, that thing where it's likeif someone compliments, you don't take
it, like don't eat the cheese. Like there's all these motivational things where

(04:39:42):
it's like when people are saying greatthings about you and how great you are,
don't listen to it, like,you know, don't focus on you
know, you gotta make it allwhite noise. And I think that's something
that we obviously could have been betterat, but that that Michigan game will
always be special one of my favoritegames. You know. Again, that's
another game that's clouded just because ofhow poorly we did in the championship game.

(04:40:03):
But at the time, the oneversus two game was incredible one and
that was you know again, likeI told it, that was like a
real Michigan team. That was agood Michigan team. That wasn't some of
these teams that we've played recently havejust stunk up at Michigan. But that
was like, you know, lookat the guys. Look at David Harris,
played ten years for the Jets,was a captain, and you know,
like those guys went on and wentto the league and they were like

(04:40:26):
legit in the league. Yeah,and you'd already touched on it a little
bit, and I don't know,I'm curious to your thoughts. I almost
feel like when you come off abig win like that, it's almost better
to go right back and play yournext game the next week, so you're
still off that high. But obviouslywith the National Championship game, you guys
had forty days off in between.Do you think that played a role as

(04:40:48):
far as you guys maybe lost someof your energy or lost some of your
focus after the Michigan game, andmaybe that was part of the reason you
guys didn't perform as well in thechampionship game. Well, I think that.
You know, obviously, now withthe current structure with the Big Ten
Championship game, you can't really celebratethe Michigan game anymore because you got to
go play especially now where they removethe divisions and now it's like you're gonna

(04:41:12):
have to go play Oregon. You'vegot to go play a top five team
on the other side of the BigTen because it's literally gonna be the two
top teams now. So I mean, there could be a scenario you play
Michigan again, so you don't youdon't get to relate celebrate because I mean
back then, like when we playedlike we were done before Thanksgiving, which
is crazy. I mean, Imean in O six, you know we
had a bye week. Uh weactually I think we played twelve straight games

(04:41:34):
in O six. We didn't wedidn't even have a bye week in O
six because we played we had tobuy and then they removed the bye week
for whatever reason, and we playedBowling Green that was during what was supposed
to be our bye week. Sowe played twelve straight and we were done
super early. But I think withthe current structure, it's all different because
there's no real I mean, obviouslyyou're gonna celebrate beating Michigan, but you

(04:41:56):
know, when you gotta play Oregonthe next week, like your celebration is
going to be you know, likea couple hours and that's it because when
you got to go play the OregonDucks or whoever is that two team in
the Big Ten, like, yougotta get your mind right. You can't
be out, you know, kickingit and having a good time and relaxing
because you're gonna be fight. You'regonna be facing a monster. And that's
something that's gonna be intriguing this yearbecause we don't we don't get to play

(04:42:18):
Iowa or Northwestern or Michigan State orthese like turds from the old Big ten
like Western Conference that now you're gonnago play like real teams, so that
makes it tough. And then youknow with the playoffs, like, it's
just gonna be such a it's gonnabe such a mental and physical proposition for
these guys because they've got to stayeven and they've got to peak at the

(04:42:38):
right time. And that's something thatUrban was great about, is he'd get
the guys to peak at the righttime, because that's delicate because you know,
you gotta figure out how hard doI push them? How hard do
I beat him down? You know, do we put the hammer down on
him and practice today or not?How beat up are they? And that's
why the Kibaratti is really good,is because he'd always give them good advice
on you know, the team games, beach trash, take it down a

(04:43:02):
little bit, or hey, let'sturn it up a little bit and beat
them down a little bit, becauseyou know, managing your roster and managing
the health of your players is gonnabe so critical when you can play seventeen
games now because you know, likethe olden days, like when I played,
it was thirteen at most, andnow you've got to add four more
games on top of it, andyou're not playing Akron four times. You're
playing like SEC skolls. You're playinggood Big ten schools, and it's gonna

(04:43:26):
be it's gonna be a battle,and I mean I'm excited for it.
I think it's gonna be great forcollege football. But yeah, managing your
roster is gonna be so critical goingforward. And that's why you know,
Ohio State, knock on wood,hanging on to their depth in the transferporter
right now is is absolutely huge.Yeah, absolutely. I mean they're playing
seventeen games. That's a full NFLseason. So in speaking of Michigan Kirk,

(04:43:53):
I didn't know if you've got achance to catch the Sharon More postgame
interview for the spring game. Italmost to me kind of looked like a
hostage interview because he did his pressconference and then they interviewed him on the
field and he he looked zero energy, didn't have hardly anything to say,

(04:44:18):
Yeah, we played well, We'regonna continue to work. It was almost
like he was deer in headlights almost. I think he knows what's coming again.
I know Michigan fans want to saynothing's gonna happen. Slap on the
rest or whatever. But it's justlike, what do you look at how
egregious the cheating was and how muchof a luxury it is to have an

(04:44:40):
electronic paper material from a guy likeConnor Sallions who just used his own name
for buying tickets. And I'm surethey found, you know, transactions,
and I'm sure they're going through hisvenmo and his bank statements and whatever like
I mean, because you know,you can, you know, subpoena that
stuff and it's gonna be it's gonnabe ugly. And again, Michigan,
the Hamburger gate thing just dropped likethis week and that was from twenty twenty

(04:45:06):
during COVID. So you know,these things take time. And everybody's like
they want instant justice and instant executions, but you know, the NCAA has
got to be thorough and honestly,some of this information takes time to get
and I think that they're going tobe smashed. And again I say it,
I've said it a billion times onmy show, like every single coach

(04:45:26):
left the Strength coach, I mean, Joe Harbaugh pillaged the entire scham Becker
Hall of every coach that he couldget except for Shanmore, you know,
and the guys that he didn't want. So he didn't want Mike Hart obviously
because Mike Hart's a head case.And then his son Jay Harbaugh went to
Seattle with McDonald, who was there, you know, two years ago.

(04:45:48):
But I or three years go,excuse me, so I I think that
they know what's coming. I thinkit's gonna be hard to recruit up there.
You know again, they're getting kidsto commit right now, which is
great. They got a good defensiveplayer the other day, but will it
stick if they get hammered, whichis what I'm projecting. They're gonna get
hammered worse than we've seen just becauseof you know again, they were cheating

(04:46:10):
US Integrity, which is a companyyou guys should google if you guys will
as simulates like US Integrity is involvedin this thing. In US Integrity,
they they're they're uh, they're hiredby every major gambling company, every major
league as in like the NFL,the NHL, Major League Baseball, the
NBA to investigate fraudulent, fraudulent movementin in gambling lines. You know again,

(04:46:34):
like we saw the NBA player recentlyget get a lifetime Dan because his
friend you know, dropped eighty thousanddollars at a casino on you know him,
like scoring under eight points and undersix assists and under four rebounds,
and so that was like yeah,yeah, people like guess I mean that
that's like a layup for US integrity. But they they investigate all batting patterns.

(04:46:56):
They have access to all of thethe online transactions, and you know,
their computers can pick up when there'sreally suspicious activity on some random event
or random game or you know,some acron versus bowling Green Tuesday night game,
all of a sudden it gets amillion dollar wager on one side,
Like that's gonna send up a bigred flag. So those guys are investigating

(04:47:17):
Michigan. Obviously there's rumors of potentialgambling going on inside of Chanduckler Hall,
which would be a no no.So again, it's there's a lot of
layers to this, and we haveprobably we've probably seen twenty percent of it
compared to what the investigation has gottenunveil. So I'm excited for it.
I can't wait for it, andit's gonna be all the best days in

(04:47:37):
bluckey scoop history when it happens rightright. You guys were the first ones
to report on that in to keepit going. And I almost have second
hand embarrassment for the fan base upthere and for the Beat Repartment wrote that

(04:48:00):
reporters just for the simple fact ofthat they had a lot of information that
they sat on. And it's wildto me that that their love for the
University of Michigan would outweigh, youknow, checks and balances and doing it
the right way. Well, Ithink that they're desperate. I think that

(04:48:23):
that was something that was you know, again, they were i mean,
Urban Meyer beat Jim Harball five straighttimes, and then they dodged us Ryan
beat him in nineteen and then theydodged us in the COVID year because they
could and I knew they were twoand four that COVID year. And then
you know, they come back intwenty one, twenty two, twenty three,
and they you know, they theywax us, you know, they
beat us, you know, prettygood. And I think that they were

(04:48:45):
desperate, you know. And again, Jim Harball's you know, he's a
guy that he'll do anything to win, and he proved it by doing what
he did. And and he's alsoa liar like he I mean he literally
non cooperative, you know, playeddumb with the cheeseburger gate things. So
he did the same thing with thissign stealing deal. And again, like
I always tell people, like,look, I've been It's like you know

(04:49:07):
your brother Zach, he's he's beena coach. Like if Zach was calling
plays for Ohio State or Michigan orwherever, like he's not going to listen
to some intern unless that intern isgiving him like the golden ticket, like
he's got like the he's got theGray Sports Arlmanek of plays and he's like
saying, oh, this is arun, Oh this is a pass,
Oh this is a coverage. We'regetting like and Connor Sallions do it.

(04:49:29):
And again it was sophisticated. Hestudied it like it was like it was
a like a graduate level exam,uh to know who is the signaler,
who is the live signaler, whatthe signals were. And he was accurate.
And again, even if you're notone hundred percent accurate, even if
you're eighty percent accurate, that's ahumongous advantage. And again I always tell

(04:49:51):
people like you guys play cards,you guys play blackjack, you guys play
poker. If you know what everyoneelse has and what's in the deck and
what's coming next, Like, isthat an edge? I think it's an
edge. I think it's the biggestedge of cover. It's the biggest edge
you could ever have. And againthat's why you know, if you do
you try to do the card countingstuff in Vegas, like you're gonna get
you know, it's gonna be likecasino where they put your head in the
vice basically because they don't they don'tlook kindly upon cheating, uh and and

(04:50:17):
and taking money and making money.And that's that's what Michigan did. And
again it might not have been inthe form of gambling. But you know,
Jim Harbo has signed up, youknow about one hundred million dollar contract.
You have six seven years, twentymillion dollars a year, you know,
off of winning a national championship,because if he goes too and ten
again, no one's hiring him.But I think, uh, like I
said, it's gonna be fascinating tosee this thing. I'll wind down because

(04:50:38):
again I think that the the startcontrast and how much better they got is
is pretty damning. You know,they're two and four of the COVID year
and then all of a sudden theyturn into a jugger, not because they
know what's coming. And again Iwas a GA and an intern, and
when I got to draw blitzes,when the coach would say, hey,

(04:50:59):
pick any bla you want to runagainst this play, I would literally look
at what the protection was. Iknow what the protection was, and I'd
pick the perfect blitz to get homeversus that protection something that guys just flat
out couldn't block, they couldn't switchit, or I'd get him to switch
it and change the protection the wrongway, and I'd bring it from the
other side because I do what wouldtrigger everything. So that was kind of

(04:51:22):
a huge edge for me. Sothat's kind of what they were working with.
But like I said, I'm excitedfor the hammer to drop. Yeah,
absolutely, But one thing that Iwanted to just touch on and we
can get you out of here andget you on your way. But what
do you think I mean, obviouslywe don't have an official starting quarterback.
I know it's been reported that WillHoward will be the starting quarterback at Ohio

(04:51:45):
State. What do you think hisceiling is as a quarterback at Ohio State.
I mean, I think it's youknow, I don't know if he's
Josh Allen. Josh Allen went topten obviously, so that's pretty gaudy.
But could he be like a dietcoach and end up being a second or
third round pick. Sure. Imean he's a big guy. He's been
inaccurate in the past, but youknow that's on Ryan Day to fix it.

(04:52:07):
And Chip Kelly. I mean,those guys are I mean, especially
Ryan Ryan's you know, him andLincoln Riley are the stier quarterback gurus in
college football. And so if it'sa mechanical thing, if it's a processing
thing, if it's a whatever thing, like you know, like he's got
to get all that fixed. Butthe other part of this is, like,
you know, I don't know howgood his receivers were at Kansas State,

(04:52:30):
but I can't remember a guy fromKansastate going to the NFL since Jordan
Nelson. And that was, youknow, fifteen years ago or whatever it
was. So Jordan Nelson played inmy senior bowles. That was a long
long time ago. So I Ithink that you know, when all of
a sudden, you're throwing it toguys that are better players, and magically,
I think you look a lot betterthan you really are. I think

(04:52:52):
that that's going to be something that'llbe uh really helpful because obviously, when
you've got JJ Smith and you've gotInnis, and you've got Tate, and
you've got a Mecca and you've gotuh whoever we roll out at tight end,
and you've got Trey and Quinn Shawnin the backfield, like, I
think you're magically going to be alot better because that's