Press Conference (Kayden McDonald)

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
On the D line. I gottaprove it every day. I can't have
it. You can't have no baddays of Ohio State. So I prefer
to have a good day every day. You know. I took different steps,
being in the film room, moreworking on my craft. I think
been better for me. Are youseeing that play out as spring practice progressive?
Yeah? I see that play out. I mean, coach make uh

(00:21):
it's all season that it was justfocusing on getting his shaved and you're getting
strong as possible for uh. Youknow, I feel like I'm showing them
that's It's weird when you're going throughI mean, when everybody says you're in
the liking you're gonna be a one, you know you're una be in nose.
I mean, how is how isthat you up within the system where
it seems like it's been a lotof threes that have been entertainable, but

(00:41):
not a lot of ones you again, yeah, I mean just just yeah,
just you would be near to youin a room that seems to have
a lot of threes. You kindof a different body type as a one.
I mean, how do you fitin? That's just in the steam
fitting well? But I think thisis the I can that's the game that

(01:04):
I this power. I mean,obviously you know there's the teams that you
guys go against are more runs driven. I mean, just how can you
how much you look forward to thatopportunity to get in there and be that
you that that runs off. Putin the work, really put in the

(01:26):
work. I feel like Saturdays,it's just like you're showing the world.
But the work that's when it reallycounts. That's why I really different how
different times was appear in spring practiceand maybe all practice last year and it's
not even quite fifty year, butwe talked to players, are like,

(01:49):
my body's transformed, blah blah.You know that the game was slowed down
to me where you like, I'mknowing the game more. Transfer was just
in high school last year going tothe fuck HPT, so I had to
adjust to it. But now I'mlearning the game and I'm knowing the assignments
I gotta do and I'm just doingmy job. That's what Coach Johnson was

(02:10):
really big on. What did youtake out of last season? You mentioned
coming straight out of high school,don't play a ton and how much how
much did you take away? Whatkind of things did you learn from from?
I don't say it was tough,you know, but I'm learning from
guys like my call TOYM Hamilton TireLeague. These guys are pro guys.
So I'm gonna just try to getI'm asking many questions I have for them,

(02:31):
and it's literally just getting better justevery day, fullback. I ain't
scored. What did you gotten?How much petition to No petition? No
petition. I just wanted to domy job. I'm I'm a team player,

(02:53):
so whatever I gotta do for myteam. I'm a boy for that
great fund. The last couple ofdays, okay, a couple of tell
me you got you all that you'vebeen having Some people have been having scation
walking us practice. Obviously, asyou said, you just that's a surprise
about you. Do you feel likeyou're breaking through a little No, this

(03:16):
is not surprising to me. I'vebeen putting in the work, couldn't work
my whole life. But I feellike coach Nick, I just like this
off season, man, it's reallybig for me. And uh I locked
in on it and you see theresults. So I was doing what I
actually doing my job? Kid LikeIX, what do you know then you

(03:43):
gotta super another you're gonna larger ormotivation at different way. I want to
say it motivated me, but I'mhere for a reason. God got me
here for a reason, So whateveruh happens, you know, it happens,
but I love it here. Ijust want that to be great.
That was a lot of times likethe player of the years when that county

(04:05):
doesn't get me to do actually imaginehim or something. That chip on the
shoulder, but it's motivated. Shoot, just get hey. I'm sure people
hear a breaking football. Yeah really, yeah, I got a big chip
on my shoulder. You know.I don't take no days for granted.
I know, because you gotta takeplay every play like your last play.

(04:27):
So that's how I do it.I'm just with to motivated, and you
know, it's a big season comingup, seventeen games. Somebody gotta step
up. I want day leading onthe young guys like me and Jason.
He wrote Tom Wan to step up. Can we see the fullback in the
spring game? Can we get atouchdown on Sprea? I don't know.
We ain't really been talking about it, but I think during the season,
just get out of saving to savecan't let the opposing teams know when we

(04:54):
got the players. How did youtake that one, sir? In the
Cowboy? Yeah, the fullbacks?Uh, it was awesome. Man,
it just felt like high school days. You know. I'm excited. Man,
I'm blocking for guys like Coleshawn TreyDallan. I mean it's I'm gonna
open it by uh because he wasjust talking about it too, so clearly

(05:17):
we should. I think we shareda couple of players. But you know,
whatever it is for my team,I'm gonna do it. You know,
educated and do it or I doit. Uh. I think it's
gonna be a good thing for us. What is the authentic line when you're
going d l O out that givesyou the best matchup? I like going
against Donnie and Friar. I feellike those are pro guys, you know,

(05:43):
So I'm going against the best.You have the Ohio State. So
every day you're gonna compete with thebest, So you gotta breathe. You
mentioned seventeen faster. Is that wherefirst center? Like this last year kind
of try out by fire? Isit just like, how is that process?
But not playing at all his herstyear starting it's you. It's for

(06:03):
whether it's Carson Hensman or you know, Johnny Jones, like you get thrust
into real reps and the full speed, it's faster than you've ever seen.
And so now he has that bookof work too that he can look back
on where the understanding of the game, the understand of the speed of the
game, the intensity. You know, I've said a thousand times that he

(06:24):
doesn't get incrementally faster or stronger.The game mentally slows down for him.
So he can use his skill setthat way. So what is that we're
talking about. That's his weight,that's his strength, because those numbers are
going up, so he can playwith more pillar strength, he can play
more contact, he can play morecomfortable. Even though his forty time didn't
go from a five to zero toa four to eight, he just jumped

(06:47):
right in. Unbelievable job both waysof him just coming in with shelving the
ego that he had he really hadnone, and walking in saying I'm walking
into a room, as we toldhim when we recruit, I'm like,
you're coming into a room a bunchof good dudes. And then our good
dudes are good dudes. He camein and there was no it's like,
you're here, here's how we do, here's how we operate, and let's

(07:09):
go. And so that learning curvefor all those whether it's a high school
media guy or a veteran media guythat transfers in, there's a learning curve
there, just you know, circlingback to what we had natural maturation a
little bit because he's been through alittle bit of spring boy, he's been
through a little bit of camps,so you're still learning new terminology, you're
learning a new skill set. Buthe just dove right in and wanted to
be a sponge and wanted to learnit. He's doing a good job and

(07:29):
he's improving every day, you know. So that's what's making the battle and
the competition all these graded snaps really, you know good for us is because
they all have that mindset. Sofrom seth awesome, the unit and the
group awesome because there was no combativenessto it. It was let's get in,
let's go, and let's compete andthen let the guys win. Skill

(07:50):
set. Uh, just learning thesame to you all young guys. You
come in, you got to learnhow to play in friction. So having
you know three tech having a twoI having those guys like right in front
of it that every time you takeone of those reps and you're out of
your base or you're in your base, you feel the good, you feel
the bad. So being more consistentthat way, you know, you can't

(08:11):
make moves or shift guys if they'renot mentally there. And so for him,
he's got a pretty good football FQ. So he's continued, he's growing
every day, he's working and he'sgetting beat every day too, and he's
learning from those you know, soin the springtime, you know, we
have saying in our room where likein the spring it's yes and it's no,
and I know it's k and owwhy didn't the rep work? What
happened? And how do I makesure I don't repeat the same mistake.
And so whether he's coming in andwatching the tape on his own and then

(08:35):
come up with questions, he's grabbingme and watching tape with me, or
we're coming doing stuff as a unit, he's learning so that the same deal
of the game can slow down andhe gets more comfortable there in friction.
So I mean he's his weights up, his strengths up, he's spending off
season with Mick. You know,there's a lot of development that still has
to be had. Obviously not afinished product, but being able mentally for
a guy to handle that, youknow, helps a lot. Similar to

(09:09):
Luke a leaner guy. Did youtell him that he paid you to say
that? That might be the firsttime you ever heard that in his life.
No. Uh, Now, youknow, like Luke Carson, whoever
it may be, that that jumpof eighteen to nineteen and nineteen to twenty

(09:31):
year old kid, that plays alot into it too. Being in a
full year with Mick. I meanall those guys you come in at midyear,
like your Devo and Dion and IanMoore. Right now you're keeping your
head above water. That's your wholefirst year. Now you can actually get
and we can sit. So whenyou sit and talk about a jam combo
or a lock or whatever the callmay be. To Luke, he registers

(09:52):
that and not like something new,because then there's paralysis by analysis. So
I think the mental part, ontop of another year natural churity of getting
bigger and stronger, that's always gonnahelp. You're not gonna guys here,
They're not gonna regress, it's gonnakeep adding progress and how fast can we
get that going. It's what we'reworking on every day with him. But
said that he would had been allguard to this point, and coach Days

(10:13):
mentioned it several times that like,Josh could play guard too, and you
guys are trying to work through thatfire. He's I mean Josh could play
all five. I mean he snappedthe ball in high school. You know,
Josh had a great offseason. Butfor you, when you're going through
a spring and it's fact finding anexperimentation, how much do you want to
put them in different spots or not? Because you also have an eye on

(10:35):
August to try and settle on fiveman rotation or what's the balance that you
have to get a really good gradeableset so that everybody has numbers of you
know, just like we said before, how many times have we done a
run blocking or pass blocking in thissituation so that that all evens out,
So that's it's not experimentation, it'sjust making sure that you get a good

(10:56):
book of work to look at andgrade that so as we you know,
work guys around the platoons and gojust to make sure that everybody gets good
gradable reps. So we can sitback by the end of spring and say,
all right, this is you're comparingapples to apples and oranges oranges and
not you know, apples oranges,because it's completely different that way. So
that's kind of the thought behind that. As you're going through the spring a

(11:16):
couple of years office that laughed,you know, but then I said,
you know, it's college football,so who knows, right, what's like,
Yeah, he just added to anotherpiece of just good people here.
I mean, you're still you're comingto work here with guys every day,

(11:39):
you know, with the kids,we talk about a ton, but then
for us as coaches and the staff, so adding just another good dude that's
in the room. Obviously as hesays something, and you know, he
might speak in old terms or termsthat we had, you know, maybe
be a little bit of a rosettestone, like no, no, this
is this He's like, yeah,that's right, because that's that happens to
all coaches. That happened to mewhen we got here. At first,
I was at with coach days sometimewith Ryan's like, you know, what

(12:01):
do we call this? Because hewas in a system like that before he
sas, oh this is this now? So I think just the you know,
uh translation of Rosettes stone there help. But just overall standpoint of adding
a great guy that's a great coachthat's been around. That's he's going to
supplement the room. And every timeyou add something new to the room,
then that makes the room better,it makes you individually better. Oh look

(12:22):
how he does that? Maybe Icould do that. Maybe I can bring
that to my meeting room. MaybeI can bring that to communication to the
staff or to the kids or whateverit is. Because he's he's done it
for a long time, and he'sdone at a high level for a long
time. So it's good to addthat guy to us and then continues us
to rest the staff for me andBrian and Key and and and everybody just
learning and growing with that specifically,just I mean, does he from a

(12:46):
talent standpoint is does he see thingssometimes others don't see? I mean,
does he? I mean you know, I mean what does he kind of
brings from the chalkboard aspect of things? Well, I mean what you're saying,
so what does he see? It'sgood to have fresh eyes come in
that maybe you know, you're gettinga routine and you get in a rhythm
and then all of a sudden,running game football. You know, he's

(13:11):
one of those guys I think goesinto the category it's forgotten a lot of
more football than some people have learnedin their life. But no, his
I believe he coached every position onthe field, both sides of Balter's whole
career. So as he looks upand he writes when he's talking about,
well, this will linebacker is goingto do that, then he might have
coached that at Columbia, right,or this is what the three text going
to read on the down block ofa tackle, because he's coached the offensive

(13:31):
line and he's been coordinated for along time. So just a really good
vision of big picture understanding and youknow, the next step and not just
being right now. Yeah, ifhe had a theme or whatever his spring,
because this seems kind of like ahow to make it or breaking time
for him, the time to stepup, this amazing opportunity. I'm glad

(13:54):
to be here with Marvin Harrison rightnext to me, so uh, I
feel great. I'm really excited.I'm excited for this journey. See you

(14:18):
fifteen here in town. Marvin,When did you know the Cardinals were going
to select you? Did you knowbefore they called or was there an agreement
in place before? No, Idid not know until I got that phone
call from the Arizona Cardinals. MarvinRichard signs Fox then welcome to the Valley.
I know kind of tweeted to you, tweeted out to you once you

(14:41):
got drafted. What was it liketo get a message from the franchise quarterback
and what kind of thoughts have youhad about teaming up with this guy in
the near future? Y? Yes, sir, it's been great. You
always wants to support and love fromyour quarterback and to cause a great player
suer excited to play with him,and it's gonna be my job to make
his job easier. Yes, DarrenUrban from Azycardinals dot Com. I know

(15:03):
that a lot of players these daysaren't sticking in one school, uh for
a long time? And you didit for five years. I mean even
Marvin did it for three Like whatwhat went behind that? And why was
it meaningful for you to stand oneschool? Yes? At Missouri, you
know we had some tough seasons,but we were really built with an edge
energy details good in emotional consistency,and I just found myself just trying to

(15:26):
grow and get better each year andalso as a team, you know,
win more games each year. Andthat was my that was my home.
I was my family. I wasblessed to you know, get two degrees
as well off the field, andI just love Missouri two degrees. Wow,
Marvin, Bob Mcbob McMahon at ArizonaRepublic, congratulations, Thank you to

(15:48):
both of you. You're known asall business, and I want to know
how that's going to serve you wellin this league. From personal standpoint,
your brand, everything you do ina daily preparation. There's a lot that
goes into being all business. Tellme what that is to you. Yeah,
I mean that's just being a pro. It's kind and raised and grew
up to do and keep the samemindset, same attitude that I've had throughout

(16:11):
my whole career. Once I gethere, continue to work hard, be
consistent and discipline, you know,and all that I do. So I'm
looking forward to putting the work.Hey Marvin Josh Waye ESPN, what were
the best pieces of advice your dadgave you about being an NFL player?
I mean, yeah, it takesa lot of work, a lot of
preparation. You know, from Mondayto Saturday, it's all work. And

(16:33):
then you know Sunday should be theeasy part. I go out there and
have fun, ready to put thework in. So it starts with the
work first, and then when Sundaycomes, is Rieka benefits. Hey Darius
Howard, balls are from cards wire. I can't help but notice that ring
on your finger. Is that acotton bowl ring? Yes, it is
the cotton bowler. You showed itTomorrowvin very quickly. No, I'll tell

(16:59):
the Marva. You know, hewas glad to play the whole week leading
up. You know, you seeOhio State. Everybody said, okay,
Marvin Harrison, and now is itgonna plays? To go play? He
didn't play, so you know weleucked out. So hey, Marvin Paul
KELBC Cardinals Broadcasting. Do you believethat receivers have to earn the trust of
their quarterback? And if so,what does that usually require? Absolutely,

(17:22):
you got to earn the trust ofthe quarterback. And I think it starts,
you know, every day in practiceand being consistent. Really, and
you can't just do it one day, can't you do it for one week,
has to be done over and overand over again. I think that's
how trust has earned. So nomatter where you get picked, when you're
first receiver, it's round seven,doesn't really matter. Have to go and
earn trust to the quarterback, yourcoaches, your teammates. So it all

(17:45):
starts in practice. What's going on, guys, Good to see again,
Tyler Drake, there's no sports systemsfor Darius. What's the feeling of just
being able to represent your school asthat first round pick and what kind of
impact can that have for those guysfalling in your footsteps. It's awesome.
I feel like I'm setting the standardgoing forward. But thats the name was
Zoo is known as Delon Zoo,so I'm just added to the family.

(18:07):
But now I feel like I'm settingthe standard for my younger teammates that this
is attainable if you work really hard, be consistent, and really get us
your strength coach. I feel likeevery program is built off the stremp coach
and that develops all the habits onand off the field. Darius zach ERSHMANEZI
Cardinals dot Com. Right over here, JJ mentioned that he loves the violence
that you play with. You mentionedthe different tendencies that you picked up.

(18:30):
The emotional consistency is the great.How do you balance that the violence with
discipline on the field. Honestly,just through preparation and practice. I'm a
big guy. I'm a big believerin inside hands, so that's why I'm
always working my hand placement and thenI lift weight, so you know,
that's all connected. So I'm justtrying to be focused on my technique as
much as possible. Hey, Marvinover here, David Brown with the Associated

(18:56):
Press. You know a lot ofrookies coming to the league and they get
little bit of leeway. It's like, oh, he's young, he needs
to grow and stuff like that.But obviously you're gonna be expected to be
the guy here really quickly. Howdo you deal with that pressure? How
do you go about just so muchbeing expected of you so quickly. I
mean, yeah, I have highstandards for myself, but I'm just gonna
go in there and try to work, you know, the best I can.

(19:18):
I just want to help the teamwin. Really, so without that
role I play, you know,come September, let me just do my
best, you know, do thatrole. This one's for both of you
guys. The fans want to knowwho you guys are on the inside.
I don't know how much you're willingto reveal to us today. A lot
would be nice. Could you tellus what you like to do away from

(19:38):
football, What what pisses you offabout things, and you know what what
makes you roll. I'm pretty simple. I like, you know, be
in my apartment, watch some movies. If I go out and I go
to a restaurant, get some food. But other than that, I may
do too much. And then I'mpretty easy going. Guys, so turn

(19:59):
out to that nothing bother me toomuch. Yeah, I say the same
thing, A real chill guy,just really obsessed with football. But outside
of football, Like I said,I got my two degrees. I got
my undergrad hospitality management and the minorand business, got my masters and Positive
Culture with m since FLA leadership.So just thinking about being well rounded.
And then I do philanthropy work.I started my own nonprofit foundation, Darius

(20:22):
Robinson Helping Hands Foundation. But reallyjust football and then everything else. Honestly,
congratulations, guys, welcome to thevalley. I'm Robbie Baker with Fox
ten. Darius. This is foryou. After the draft last night,
you had a great response about howyour process and preparing for a game,
just kind of wondering where your lovefor kind of the grind comes from and

(20:44):
your love for that process comes from. I would say my junior year,
because I played little league ball offand on. But I got my junior
year and I was playing high schooland my whole goal is just to earn
a scholarship. But during that process, I really fell in love with the
game, fell in love with workingout relationships with teammates, and now it's
kind of like my advice and Ican't let it go and just kind of
finding ways to always get better,you know. Luke Linting here with twelve

(21:07):
Sports, congrats both of you walkinginto the valley. This one's for you,
Marvin. I'm curious your thoughts orwhat was that conversation like with your
dad after your name was called andyou were able to be drafted by this
organization and how surreal is it foryou to be following on your own father's
footsteps but in your own way.Yeah, I mean it was very brief
actually just in a second graduation.He's like my best friend, but on

(21:27):
the other hand, I get tosee him, you know, continue to
take steps in his career. He'sstill very young, so he has a
lot of good football ahead of him. Literally your early with kings Bury his
offense and how things might be differentfor the offense and yeah, yeah,

(21:47):
we haven't honestly even started an installyet, so i haven't even got a
lay of the land quite yet.I'll probably take a look at just got
our iPads within the last few days, so I'll try to take a sneak
peek at what we have looking for. But you know, I know with
him talking to zach Ertz, hedoes a great job of trying to get
his playmakers involved, which I thinkwe have a really good group of guys
from the running backs to receivers andsome solid tight ends as well. So

(22:11):
I'm just looking forward to see whereI fit into that. And you know,
I think with him, his biggestthings is making sure the playmakers are
making plays and trying to fit thescheme around that, which is always good
to hear, good to see.Two, this is what your offense.

(22:32):
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely youknow, an adjustment obviously when you're learning
a new offense, and it's kindof the same mentality I take into last
year in years past, where youkind of just want to take a day
one approach, kind of erase whatyou've learned in the past. But at
the end of the day, Ithink, uh, you know, schemes

(22:55):
in the NFL are relatively similar.Is just the names and the formations that
may be a little different. Sojust getting used to the terminology and Cliff's
offense is just going to be somethingthat's an adjustment for all of us.
But the good thing about it isI got some good time on my hands
to really put some work in studyingwhen I leave this place, so I
could come in here when we havewalkthroughs and when we start to put our

(23:15):
helmets on, we can really hitthe ground running. So so far it's
we haven't learned anything yet. Butmy approach is the saying, try to
take good notes in there, askgood questions, and then study on my
own at night. I know youlike to go to the Yeah, yeah,

(23:37):
I think I got some really goodwork down in Florida. Is just
working on my footwork, just bettingbetter at the top of my routes,
sharper on my speed cuts, digroutes out routes and just being cleaner with
my footwork at the top of theroutes. I think, you know,
with a little bit of zone coversthat we've seen in the past, with
some teams kind of running more toohot shell, you're gonna get a little

(23:59):
bit more of catch technique where guysare kind of sitting at the top of
your route. So I want tobe better at being efficient to getting out
of those routes when the guy's kindof sitting at my depth, whether it's
a fifteen yard comeback or a twelveyard curl route, you know, being
able to get out efficiently so Ican keep create and keep the separation within
my route. So obviously I'm alwaysstill working on my ball skills and making

(24:22):
sure I'm just catching a lot offootballs in the off season, but just
really being better at the top ofthe routes and you know, sharper out
of my cuts is something that Ithink I can improve on. Good to
see you too. You know,you're obviously one of the leaders of this
team and team captain, and withso many new faces, new players locker
room, what is the challenge you'regoing to have and the other leaders in

(24:45):
that locker room blend everything together becausethere's so many new and different personalities.
Now, Yeah, I think Ithink that's really started with coach Quinn in
the way he's really integrated everybody overthe first two days. I think we
haven't even got into exces than thosequite yet. We've just really begin to
know one another, getting out therewith Chad and the strength coaches and getting
some good workouts in just kind ofcreating a foster in an environment where everybody's

(25:11):
the same and continuing to have acompetitive environment. I think that brings out
the best in one another. Andobviously, you know, you have guys
like Zach Ertz who's played a lotof football and won a championship, Marcus
Marriota, obviously, Bobby Wagner who'sa future Hall of Famer. So you
got some guys who have been broughtin here who know what it's supposed to
look like at this level. Andfor myself, I just want to continue

(25:32):
to add uh my value and beeven more vocal this year than I have
in the past, especially with possiblya new quarterback coming in. I think
that can really help our offense.Have you know, some more unity with
the guys who know what it lookslike helping bringing those guys, the younger
guys along. I don't know,if you had a chance to watch,

(25:52):
he didn't want to use the wordrebuild. Yeahranchise right, staff the players
is Honestly, I just think ofit as a as a new year.
Just talking to Sam Cosmy, Uh, we've been here for a few years,

(26:14):
so it's a lot of new faces. I think, you know,
this is probably the most I wouldsay turnover we've had in the last few
years. So there's guys coming fromall different areas walks of life, and
but I think the one thing isthe same. They're all coming in looking
for an opportunity to compete, takeanother step in their careers and uh prove
that they're one of the best playersat the position. And I think coach

(26:36):
Quinn has emphasized that we're gonna havethe opportunity to prove ourselves. Whether you're
a ten year VET or a secondyear player. You know, this is
a clean slate for everybody. SoI think it's just about getting on the
same page, enjoying coming in hereand working together and also just pushing each
other in these workouts. And thenwhen we start getting on the field.
UH, really get that competition going. Try to send you late as we

(27:00):
go along in this off season processof how the games are going to be.
Hey, how are you doing?Good to see too, and yeah,

(27:22):
I think Coach Quinn has really assembleassembled a very unique group of coaches.
There's multiple head coaches, there's multiplequarter UH coordinators have come from different
places, and so you have guyswho have a lot of football experience,
some have played, some have coachedin big games. And then you bring
in, you know, the thetalent that we have defensively and offensively.

(27:47):
And I just think you can feelthe unity and the sameness in in the
message that he's trying to preach toour team, and it's we're going to
be tough and we're going to becompetitive, but we're also going to have
fun. And he, like Ithink he said in Your Guys' interview,
he said he likes to do youknow, hardship with good people. So
I think that's fun. You know, a guy like me likes to put

(28:08):
my nose down and grind and work. So I know him and I are
going to continue to hit it off. And you know, it's just my
job to help bring other guys alongwith me, thank you more to your
next step as a vocal leader.Yeah, you're thinking, what does that

(28:29):
mean to you? I think forme, I I've grown a lot in
my vocal leadership. I think Itry to always find the balance of when
to say something, when not tosay something. I think I never want
I've always wanted to be a personwhen I say something that means something like
you don't want to be You're givingall the motivational speeches, but you're not
backing up with your play, oryou're you're talking so much you kind of

(28:51):
your message is drowned out. Andso it's kind of continued to find that
balance of when to say things andwhen to kind of just take a step
back. But I think I've I'vegot to really good feel of how to
do that. I think obviously witha new coaching staff, you just try
to understand what they how they wantthings done, and you try to,
you know, bring what you dowell into that and you also try to

(29:11):
encourage the guys who haven't taken thosesteps in their career to do that as
well. So I think for me, it's just really starting in my position
group. I think we have,uh, still a very young group,
kind of inexperience for the most part. But I think we have a lot
of talent in there, and it'sjust my job, in Bobby's job,
and to continue to bring that groupalong as we go throughout this season.

(29:41):
What is I guess? Yeah,yeah, I hit it really hard this
offseason, so I have to justin case something does happen to like you
know, I mean like Cohen oryou know, Pete of course, but
I'm always gonna be ready for lifeno matter what. How quickly have you

(30:03):
felt like you picked up this newsystem that you're working in at? Oh,
it's a we actually prey up pickedup pretty well cause it's the same
system that I'm used to back inthe hot stae cause we're more like spread
thin at how I say. So, you know, it's pretty good.
One of those like the draft processoff seasons. A lot of people outside
of the buildings, you readers getthe right time, Yeah, a lot

(30:23):
of yah, alright, now,A lot of people in the building right
like we have the right time.A lot of people get motivated about that.
You followed it, like if youpet Nature doing it, though I
don't I read into it a littlebit, but also at the same time,
like they not here of course,but I don't really care what they
say. I know what I cando, and the team know I what
I can do. So they trustedme right now and I'm not gonna let

(30:45):
them right down. How hard orhow easy is that to compartmentalize that if
you use that as fuels going forwardrather than to kind of maritated it.
Uh I j I just keep receiptsand everybody knows that one person I don't
really care for'em. And alsothat's all been f but it's all love
out love, uh outside of this. But I keep doing me, keep
it better, keep on these knights, doe what I can do there.

(31:07):
You've been a outspoken about your supporterof Zamir, and obviously it's just his
chance now to be the dog.Wait, what is it about him that
you bought in so early? Thereason why I bought it so early cause
uh, I was at a housethey they always taught us to actually,
I go get it, and that'ssince I got here. I'm'a always wanna
go get and I got picked late. And I always wanna prove people wrong.

(31:30):
You know, I think prove peoplewrong all my life. I don't
wanna keep doing that. That's allI do. How much I guess more
just like we don't put it inlike the set you feel like the community
years that you have h nine daydifference, nine day difference from my first
year, in my second year tonow. Like now, my guy,
I know I can play. Iknow I can go ahead and co one
of the best special Knights anybody elsethat we want to play this year,

(31:52):
and I know what I can do. So all I do now is ext
meet my potential and should do itand help everybody else out the team as
well. You've practiced a lot againstMalcolm and he's really come into his own.
What is it about Malcolm that's helpedhim make that next step? There?
Man, Malcolm, he's quiet,he doesn't really say too much.
He comes to the work every day, really does, and he works hard.

(32:15):
He doesn't blit twice at anything.Yeah, he'll get mad over a
co respose. At the same timethat like he has a mentality of it
all, like he's he don't reallycare what y'all think or anybody else thinks
for real. So it's just likeall right, let's keep going that's how
everybody is on the team. Howabout ty raising the Achilles was I would

(32:35):
say it's easy, you know,just because that's just my mentality, and
it was it was pretty easy tobe. But you know, I've had
these injuries and it's been stormed likethe past two years, you know,
having have like good, great games, 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,

(32:58):
you know, and I think I'mI'm gonna gonna take off now, you
know, and there will be nosetbacks and the injury prone thing will be
gone out of the window again.It's yep, I'm sorry, You're gonna
be back. I am. Iam excited. You know. He does
a lot of great things, andhe's a great person and we have a

(33:20):
great relationship. It's gonna be it'sgonna be a fun year. We're gonna
have a lot of fun. We'regonna do a lot of great things.
So I can't wait to hear waitingthe injuries you've had? Is that just
bad luck? Is every Is thereanything you can attribute to behind just misfortunately?
Yeah, it's just unfortunate, youknow, but God has a plan
always. You know, I don'tknow what the plan exactly is, you

(33:45):
know, I don't know, butwhatever plan it is, it's for me
to be here. You know.I had a great rookie year. Uh
I didn't. I didn't really havethe volume as other people my rookie year,
but I still had a great rookieyear. Six yards of carry,
you know, things like that.I think it was like nine touchdowns ten
including the playoffs. And so there'salways been like, all right, guy,

(34:08):
let me show my talent shine alittle bit. Like even when I
had the knee. So I hadthe knee, right, A lot of
people don't know, like I didn'tget hurt again. Whenever I got you
know, got cleaned up. SoI went down in twenty one, right,
had the injury, the knee injury, and then came back later the
next year and I played the firstfew games and it just there was a

(34:29):
lot of scars issue in there.So I did to get it cleaned up.
I didn't get hurt again. Icould have played the whole year,
but I got it cleaned up soI can feel like me. And so
after I got that cleaned up.The first two games back from the injury,
I had over one hundred and twentyyards rushing right and then went on
had great, great ending of theyear, you know, one hundred total

(34:50):
yards in the playoff game we lost, which I hate the most. Stays,
don't marry me. I don't wantto win. But then come back
the next year hurt again like tornachilles. So really unfortunate injuries. But
that's just God's plan, you know. And I think that the storm is
now over, you know, AndI do think that I'll be able to
shine my light to the whole world. Are you concerned that you have that

(35:13):
label? You can't say I couldcare less, because I do. I
do. I know this out therebecause as as it should be, it
should be. I got hurt twomajor injuries back or not back to back
years. But you know, soI haven't been on the field as much
as I should. That's true,that is true. But it's not like
I'm having these little little dinky injuriesand sitting out. It's something I can't

(35:38):
control, literally, So that's whyI'm not bothered by it. Like,
yeah, I am injury poem.You could say that, you know,
But I do think that the Chargersare getting a guy that's gonna be healthy
from now on. You know,God will it, and it's gonna be
great. And I do think thatit's gonna be It's gonna be a great
However, many years here don't feeleven highly adopted. Yeah, five yards

(36:02):
for very average for your career.Like knowing that when you're out there you're
very adopted. How much confidence doesthat give you that really all you need
is is not what you need allthe confidence in the world, you know.
The way I work. I wouldn'tsay just from the numbers, but
just the way I work, mywork ethic, you know, and my
relationship with Jesus is like I havethe most confidence when I step out there

(36:25):
because I do know, like,if he grants me the health, it's
overweight, is it. I don'tthink I would be, you know,
I think it will be a greatyear or whatever, a couple of years.
However, many years he grants megreat health, you know, And
I think just the work ethic,my prayer and all that stuff, that's
what helped me have that confidence.With the numbers will be there and they

(36:47):
might be higher after this year,you know what I'm saying. And it's
crazy to think about because I hadsix or six yards per carry, you
know. So we'll see you're lookingforward to the running behind this line that
you put together. Oh yeah,yeah, yeah. I played with Brandley,
I played with him. You know, I know the Slater, I
know all the I know all theguys you know, and I'm I'm excited.

(37:08):
I think it's like I said earlier, it's a talented group. You
know. We just got to putit together win some games. Cause that's
why I came here for that's allyear, or I wouldn't. I wouldn't
say part of the recruitming. Butlike whenever I decided I was gonna sign,
it was great to have him inthe room. What's your relationship,
Yeah, we're great. We're wehave a great relationship. That's he's like

(37:30):
my brother. So I think accompanych compliment each other very well. You
know. He can do a lotof stuff too, you know, God
Like a lot of people think he'sjust power, power, power, but
I think he has some other partsof his game two which it it'll be
great cause I feel like I coulddo everything, and when one get tired,
we we can roll it in.We keep rolling win some games.

(37:52):
So when you the two of youget going, well, how do you
think that's gonna look for? What? Like, what will be that partnership
that is back there. I knowthat's a hard question. How do I
think? I think it'll look beautiful. You know a lot of people call
this a passing league, but Ithink you got to run the ball to
win the super Bowl. You know, if you look at the teams who

(38:15):
win the Super Bowl, they canrun the ball, they can control the
clock, and so if we're bothgood, it'll look great, beautiful.
How would you describe the Gregor runningoffense? I would I would describe it
as, you know, a greatoffense. I think he gives a quarter
he's going to give the quarterback alot of options. He's going to give

(38:36):
the running back a lot of options. He's going to give the receiver a
lot of options, you know,and I think it'll be I think it's
going to be great. His offenseis going to be amazing. When we
talked to him, you know,I was like, why are you an
will build something good rushing offenses throughoutyour career every where you've been and you
said that one part of it isjust you got a call place, you
got a call a out of place. As a running back, you know

(38:58):
how much confidence, how much seconddoesn't give you. You know you have
to play caller that's gonna stick withit and allow you and the offense to
get yours. Gives me a lotof excitement. You know, it's gonna
be Like I said, it's funto play in his offense, you know,
And I think he does have somegood things in the past game too,
But like you said, he stickswith the run, and that's that's

(39:19):
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,it complements that identity. So I think
it's gonna be great. You're sohe will go for training him that's Look,

(39:42):
I ain't gonna answer any of thefour if it's up to me.
Yes, Look, because I hadthis problem like three two years three years
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 story above my prey pay grade. So but I don't know.
Hopefully I can start. I thinkI'm ready to start, you know,

(40:05):
at the beginning of training camp,but that's not up to me. As
I've learned, you know what Imean. So that's my guy. As
much as you love him on theWest Side, how bittersweet is a certain
matters because of what happened to him. Yeah, that's the thing. That's
not how It's definitely how I andhow I thought about the transition will go.
You know, I thought it wouldbe you know, homeson timing and

(40:28):
the cardinal his whole career. Youknow, you know, you want to
play here forever, you know whatI mean when I was talking about his
plans, so you know, youyou wis transitions like one of those fairy
tale like to your time. Butbut again, either way, you know,

(40:49):
we talked about it. You know, that's that's the how it goes,
you know. But obviously you knowhe's sees he's he's been one of
my biggest supporters and affect. Everybodyleads in their own way, you know,
not everybody's the guys coming around,because like that's not everybody, right,
Like I felt for me. That'sme specifically on game day with the

(41:13):
O line after we do one onone like that's my, Like, well
Hump did, like that's my likebig vocal time. I feel like I've
talked to Hump about this, youknow, just recently talking about how what
I want to do for the roomis I want to bring that Hump energy
that he brought right so last year. Of course some traits been doing it

(41:35):
for years, but the year whileI spent on him, he brought a
lot of the energy and excitement andthe happiness in the room was just his
natural energy to where I only hadto focus on me, you know,
I didn't have to make sure otherother guys are you know, feel some
type of way when it came inhere because Hump brought that but not the

(41:57):
Hump's not here. But I sawwhat he did for the room. I
want to be that guy to makesure everyone's amp to go to practice,
everybody's hype we're taking and field teamon period. You know it's a low
day or something. You know,it's a it's a day, but like
I wanna make it feel like parentsa tripper right now. I wanna bring
that cause that's what we help doto each other. We will hpe each

(42:17):
other other dudes like dudes were aboutto be walked through. We're lit.
So I want to do that.I want to bring that energy. I
want to make bring more guys,you know, to do that. You
know, I wanted to do thatfrom day one, you know, I
kind of I wanted to do thatfrom day one, from just talking to
him. And obviously it's that time. I spend the off season before OTA

(42:40):
started just being in my selfish thinkingabout what the room needs, you know,
because I know I knew a newrole as one of the leaders,
you know on the offense, isthat we need a guy like that that's
gonna make sure the old line ispicked up, ready to go every day

(43:00):
and it was held accountable. Littlethings I happened to practice. People aren't
saying anything. And how I maylead maybe different than somebody else may lead.
You know. I like to apractice at least like to leave with
positivity, you know what I mean. So, but he the energy yet
went beyond just the hype up thedeal I and start too. So that's

(43:20):
kind of how I wanna be sgoal mine literally my whole life. I
wanna be a NFL team captain,like specifically NFL. I wasn't a captain
of high school. I wasn't acaptain of college. But I made a
joke when I was in high school. It's like, did I feel like
I'm not gonna be a captain tilI get to the NFL. Yeah,
but that would be awesome, youknow, but you know, if it

(43:44):
happens, i'd be great. Butnot either way, I wanna assume a
role as a captain from the respectof the guys on the team. They
visual words at me, and toget back to that word, yeah,
I mean, I can't say that. I mean, I guess the biggest
thing is that I felt like ithas felt like how it you used to

(44:06):
in the past. But it didn'ttake just the first day OTAs. It
took training left and right once theseason ended because I didn't know what it
was gonna be true, So ittook a lot of reps just to get
back to feeling like myself for dayone OTAs and then that whole first week.

(44:27):
But now like today, specifically justchanging some small things with my feet
I did today talking about a linecoach about some things I can do with
my fee to get to that,to sell at the traditional angle that I
love to set on. Felt evenI thought I felt, I thought I
felt great already by my kat Ifelt even back up it. So I'm
even more excited tomorrow. And nowI'm getting my feedback and how I liked
it the right side and on theleft side. So I'm excited. I

(44:51):
mean, obviously, I feel likein the league, whether I left or
right, you're still going against premierguys, So obviously you have highestpenceations for
your left and your right tackle.But there's definitely uh like the the level
of energy and like the expectations definitelytaking the human start cause now conneted the
blind side that stuff, that's thetackle roles, you know. So so

(45:16):
yeah, I would say in termsof communication as far as just even outside
the facility and just stuff like that, like really creating that the tackle quarterback
bond even more off the field,I think has been something that's even been
cool. I got a text oneday and it's like, hey, like
you put left and I was like, yeah, you know, yeah,

(45:37):
I I've been training both. I'vebeen training both, you know, I
I aks after the season They're like, honestly you know, we'll talk to
you still play in the season andI just gotta text me like depending on
what happens. But with the freeagency then so I was like, you
know what, I had a wholeseason right tackle, So if I get
the word, I'm going, I'mstanding right tackle. Detail the way he

(45:59):
comes, you know, in eachand every day, comes in as the
same guy every day, and uh, to be honest, Ibn't you know,
I don't think I've had to coachthat detailed as Tom. You know,
he's very detailed in terms of youknow, practice with you, sending
us, uh the info, breakingdown each and every play and really just
really just focused on the details,to be honest with you. I think,

(46:20):
Uh, that's the thing that setshim apart. And you know he's
he pushed us to be hard.I mean our our indie periods or you
know, conditioning, So of coursethat's good for us. But I mean
he's been great so far. Soexcited to uh, you know, allow
that our allow our relationship to grow, and excited to work with him is
what he's doing kind of compliment whatyou're doing individually. You know, when
you're away from the facility, workingwith you know, coaches one on one

(46:44):
anything like that. He said,what does he what does he do here?
That kind of compliments what you doaway from the facility when you're troubling.
I mean, I think he doesdifferent stuff, So I think,
uh, that's a good thing aboutit. You know some stuff that we
do here. Oh sorry, Uh, I don't you know, usually do
outside of the facility. So it'sgood getting that different work in, different

(47:05):
drill work that I can and youknow, implement into my you know,
off season program and stuff like that. So it's good that I'm learning and
stuff. For sure. You're reallygood deep all of efficiency sources and times
that especially the last year what whatdid what? What is? Uh?
Our smith in the offense talked aboutyou about trying to make make that incorporate
that into being a big part ofthis office. I mean yeah, uh,
I think we have fast guys,guys that can get down the field

(47:27):
with speed. Uh, Guys likeQuez, Calvin, Scottie, Van,
you know, me and rest.You know, we've we've had a lot
of deep off success and a lotof explosive plays in the past. So
you know that's just uh, youknow what, Yeah, I guess how
our offense is built. To behonest with you, but I mean,
our job is to create explosives andyou know, push the ball down the
field. So anytime we get thoseops, we definitely wanna capitalize on those.

(47:50):
Are your inresting any part of yourmechanics and anybody that? I mean,
yeah, uh, I think there'salways room to improve, uh,
mechanic wise and stuff like that.So I think think you know Matt Baker,
uh, he's a quarterback assistant.He you know, usually stays on
me the most about it. Okay, So I appreciate the fact that he
does that, and I usually,you know, make sure he doesn't make
sure I just just stay on topof it, you know as a whole,

(48:13):
and you know, make sure mymechanics are always clean. Can you
talk about one particular element that they'restressing. It's it's different areas, to
be honest, I don't think it'sjust one specific area, but it's it's
different areas. Justin in your opinion, was there's something that you wanted to
work on maybe get better at whenyou got here at this point of your
career. I mean, like likeI said, there's you know, no
matter who you are, you know, there's always stuff to get better at,

(48:35):
always different areas. Nobody's perfect inone area, So I think you
can continue to prove in all yourmy game, you know me personally,
so I'm just focused on getting betteras you ever did. When we talked
to Russ yesterday, he said thatrusted that he personally felt kind of revived.
Do you bring at another stop inhis career? Is there any of
that sense of maybe rejuvenation or feelingrevivdcuse of cookies out like it's funny right

(48:58):
behind him. Tony Gurbin Bucket Huddler, how have you going about the assessment
of the talent in the room,uh In over the past week or two?
How much is that on field offfield? Like, what's the process
of getting to know who you haveas players? Well? I broke down
well me being a guy that lovesthe running back position, and I already
broke those kids down cause I recruited'em out of high school. You know,

(49:20):
c is from where I'm from,and Montgomery. I was one of
the first guys to offer him justwatching him great contact, balance, creative
runner, great hands and trey Irecruited him out of Virginia exceptional short air
of your bursting quickness and things thati'm'a help him get better on. And
then I recruited James Peeples out oft out of San Antonio, Texas.

(49:42):
I knew what he was gonna whathe was gonna be TC and Sam,
those two kids I'm getting to knowand I'm gonna help them improve the game.
But we got different runners in there. I like to call myself.
Uh, I'm in love with thisposition. So I get to break down
runners and help the game. Sotalented, talented, room, very talented.
Uh far back uh. Jeremy BirminghamPodcast Couch. How do you swear

(50:07):
that that the South past cookies areactually the best cookies to philiprit makes is
boring? Those are way better thanthe country chips and white things? Gal
Terman, I mean, do youdo you have to first find a balance
there or somewhere. Well, forme, I'm actually not eating any cookies.
Nah, I'm just saying I'm noteating any cookies this year. I
gave it up for a fast orno sweets for me for the whole year.

(50:30):
That something I gave up. Sothey the term the South bast cookie
term. Look, guys, Iactually took that from I represent the high
school coaches of Myths Tennessee. Iactually took that for a guy named coach
Slocum. He used to always saythat soft bast cookie. I actually stole
that from him. I give himcredit for it, and I tell him
all the time he said, you, I should have branded that, cause

(50:51):
you done took it and ran awaywith it. But that's just where that
comes from. So that that nowwas standing. As you get to Ohio
State, you start to look aroundthe country. Every organ's a big place,
that's a that's a major job.Really, how how do you think
that wearing your opposite of logo undrun the blocko when you get out out
of the the pe and trail,how does that change the way that you

(51:13):
feel you're either received or or doesit add a different level to to just
feeling like I could go anywhere andget anybody in the country. And that's
the sagest thing for me. Thisis a great place. Oregon is a
great place too. But guess what, whatever I put on, I know
what I'm going to represent for me. I n I N I know who

(51:37):
who put me here. I knowI represented something higher, you know,
like I told you, I knowwhat my purpose is. My purpose is
to poorting to people. So whateverlogo I have on, I'm still gonna
be doing the same thing. Sothis is a great logo. Great logo
by well another logo. Every dayit's across I see around my neck.
I know what I represent. Sothat's the greatest logo I could ever wear.

(51:58):
So it don't matter what other logoI have on. I got that
one though. I'm been going toany house and be a recruit. Uh
uh deep right camera, Ti Robinsonand the athletic pro which you you mentioned
the time at Memphis and them,and it's four NFL running backs you mentioned
there who you learned from that timethat we and you to take over to

(52:20):
managing your growl and kid? Whatdid I learned from them? I just
building a just teaching the kids.We live in such a selfish world though,
And I can tell the kids allthe times it's gotta be much more
to football. The ball gonna goflat one day. As I always say,
what being in that room there atMemphis is it wasn't four five teaching

(52:40):
them how to be a b bybeing one. I tell you them in
all time, it doesn't cost youanything to celebrate another man's success. So
teaching them how to be one,and then once they learned to be one,
they function and they feed off oneanother. So that's what I learned
from being there in Memphis, alright in front of Andy bachrom let'em
in road Cross. Heard of yourcareer in the law enforcement kind of influence
you as a coach, You kindof shait where you are. Ah well,

(53:04):
I just got through talking to somebodyabout that today. When I first
got in this profession and I gotmy own room in Western Tech, I
was aksed. No, how wasI was gonna be able to handle m
M my room? I said,Man, I had a part with fifty
one inmates. You talking about mehaving got six or seven guys? Are
you kidding me? I'm talking aboutme having to do traffic stop, So

(53:28):
going on domestic no virus calls,it's simple, easy. No people donna
know what you care. Also knowyou gotta have a certain demeaning about yourself.
So when I walk into a room, it's the reason why I go
train every morning. This is whenit's same thing when I was a police
officer. You look a certain waykind of deter people from doing certain things.

(53:49):
So that reason why I go trainevery morning. I'm'a look just as
good as my boys look. Souh it helped out a lot. In
other words, Uh from road rightAustin Ward. Uh the public, Carls,
welcome to Columbus. What would itmean to, I don't know,
revolutionize the way running backs are coach? What does that take? I ain't

(54:10):
even I'm not gonna say revolutionary.I just good. It's some good running
back coaches out here. Everybody's different. It's some great coaches out here.
I just want the head guys whosay that on these jobs to not just
hire guys. Just know, allcoaches on your staff should be great recruiters,
not just some running back coach.We coach a position. We developed

(54:30):
players as well. I just wantthe coaches to realize, Hey, you
know what, let me look andbe 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
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?

(54:52):
I played dB in college too,but I love the running back position
so and I just want to seeit coach well. Podcast. Yeah,
a million questions. I'll ask acouple of Number one, when you,
when you, when your wife whatever? You got the message stuff? Are
we moving again? What was Whatwas her reaction? No, she's just
new guy that give us, gaveus a new assignment. It was never

(55:15):
like we're moving again. Let metell you guys something I grew up.
My mom was in the military,so I lived everywhere. I lived in
Panama, South America. I'm usedto picking up and moving. I lived
in Fort Riley, Kansas, Montgomery'shome if it was my second home.
So I'm I'm used to moving now. My wife was different for her.
But she's this new guy that gaveus a new assignments approaches things. I

(55:35):
love the way the questions he asks. I love the way he makes mistakes
and then correct mistakes. It's veryveteran, like, I mean, there's
so much ball he has to learn, Like he literally does things that are
good. I'm like, do youknow what that worked? He goes coach,
I have no freaking idea, solike I'm trying to teach him all
of that why it worked, sothen you know, the consistency at which

(55:55):
it works just goes to the roof. And so but I'm very you know,
excited and proud of the conversations we'recurrently having and I'm exciting it for
them to keep going. Bryan,what like powerful you working with you?
I love working with Chip Chip is. I love talking ball, I love
the viewpoints, I love I lovethe veteran that he has, you know,

(56:25):
and uh I love Yeah, Ilike, I love all of it.
I think that you know, earlyon the biggest impact, you know,
just you know, feeling perspective.I think in the run game has
been awesome, you know, andthen you know, off of the run
game some of the actions or orrelief throws or all that kind of stuff.
I love where it's at. Ilove working with them, and I

(56:55):
would say that I sleep a littlebetter, all right. Uh No,
It's it's really a great combo becauselike you know, we're obviously we're doing
a lot as a group. It'snot just Chip and I so but you
know, obviously Chip has an imageand a view on things that I never

(57:16):
had. So to have that experienceand to have that viewpoint, I'm just
trying to absorb as much as ican, but then also highlight some things
that we've really done a good jobof and make sure those you know,
nothing's really changing, We're just tryingto enhance. We're not changing, We're
enhancing. So where the things fitis perfect, you know, I think,
uh, you know, the restof the dynamics of search Chip can

(57:39):
talk about. But it's been it'sbeen awesome, so I'm excited about it.
We talked to a Mecca who's talkingabout moving from slot to the house
side. You know how good we'vebeen in the spot. Is that a
difficult move for you guys just coachesto know how good a guy is in
one spot, but know that maybefor his long term future and the the

(58:00):
No. I wouldn't say it's anythingon his future, because he's capable of
doing whatever you want to get done. But I'd say that it says more
about the room. I think it'sit's the growth of you know, Brandon
and the growth grow of Bryson that'sreally you know, allowing my mind to
say, hey, Mech, beprepared. You're gonna move around a lot.
You're gonna come out of that slot. You're gonna be outside. We're

(58:21):
going to create mismatches out there.I mean, his ability to move around
is critical. But I would saybetween Mech and between Carnell TAS's ability to
move around a lot, it's gonnaprovide a lot of flexibility for our room.
And uh and those top you know, six seven guys that are really
doing a good job right now.Progress look like this spring for like a
because there's no cod twe of thosethings are true when us balanced, how

(58:43):
much worst is a need versus yeah, heavy heavy emphasis on what work he
needs, you know, versus anythingelse. Uh, I rely on him.
We have great dialogue back and forth. It's a two way to It's
a two way conversation. And uh, frankly, there's gonna be times where
like, hey, Mech, whatdo you wanna do today? Want outside
and go inside? And I don'tcare. So we're not there yet.

(59:04):
We will be there, but it'sjust more about you know, when him.
I feel like you as a dlineman, you can keep improving all
the way through ten years in thisleague. So I'm excited to see what
he's got. How old did youknow Sorenson when he was assistant here?
And I had gotten to know hima lot. That WIT's a relationship,
Madie. Right now, I knowhim pretty well. He was always just

(59:25):
a good dude around the facility.He did our ball meetings, so he's
good in front of a group.He's a good leader. He knows the
scheme really well, which is good. I was happy to see him promoted.
He called me in the off season, we talked. I just congratulated
him, and I think he's gonnabring something similar to what we had with

(59:50):
the Miko. It'll be good.Do you know Brandon Stanley well at all?
I mean, obviously Joey played forhim. I don't know too much
about him. I've obviously heard frommy brother, but I don't even think
i've said high yet. I haven'tran into him yet, but I'm sure
i'll get to know him. Whenyou say it looks similar to Miko,
the energy or the system, maybea little different energy, but I think

(01:00:14):
just knowing the system from the frontto the back, I think he knows
how it ties in. And he'sbeen around with some really good coaches,
so I think it'll be pretty prettyseamless, and I think we'll be firing
on all cylinders. You're three monthsremoved from the Super Bowl now, so

(01:00:34):
how have you? I guess digestedit, and I guess physically everything good
to go. Yeah, I feelreally good. I think it's been one
of my better off seasons of justkind of it was a long year,
so I took it nice and slowto get back into it. Not as
young as I once was, soI'm taking a little a little slower,
but everything's great. I'm feeling asgood as I felt. I'm excited to

(01:01:00):
actually get some practice in. Lastyear was kind of tough, getting thrown
in Week one after a walk through, so that was another reason I'm excited
to be here is just to getpracticing a little bit in season. Practice
is one thing, but actually beingable to work your stuff and not have
a game coming up is good.With the Super Bowl unfortunately, I know

(01:01:27):
how to bounce back from tough losses, so it was rough for a little
bit. But now it's just annoyingwhen people bring it up. Since the
last season, we've seen a rockon TV commercials and on the stage with
Kluke Coombs and throwing out the firstpitch of the Giants game. But he
seems like a guy that's totally unaffectedby celebrity, which he has now.

(01:01:49):
But what have you noticed in hisleadership style and the way he carries himself
any difference at all. I thinkhe'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 somebodythat's gonna change even when he gets paid
next year. So he's he's aman of faith and he kind of reminds

(01:02:12):
me of Scottie Scheffler, but exceptfor just super humble and really good kid.
And yeah, he's definitely famous.I don't just from watching Armstead get

(01:02:37):
released obviously meant so much to thedefensive line into the team. I mean,
Colin John were pretty open that theywere willing to talk about trading deebo
or are you as you well?Does that just another what's that feel like
in the locker room when those sortof joels happened. I didn't even know
that happened and I wasn't here,but you talking about this offseason alarm alarm

(01:03:01):
er 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,

(01:03:24):
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

(01:03:45):
the ramp up to the season,Even though it's early, it feels good.
It's been a couple of days forme, so I like all the
new guys. I'm getting to knoweverybody, but I think the passes in
the past and we're ready to go. You talk. You talked to me
at all about handling the business partof this. He's going through something similar.
We chat a little bit, butnot too much about the details.

(01:04:09):
I just told him keep his headup and try and stay positive through it
all. First impressions when you heardabout your schedule would be in that Aaron
Rodgers' first time it'll be fun.Yeah, it's gonna be gonna be given
me kind of alluded to this.But the fact that last year you have

(01:04:46):
down the ladder, it's boom.This is how we're doing things, and
everybody's following that, and I thinkit's impressive the details that everybody have been
on, has has been on,the effort and just the competitiveness that that's
been going on over the last fewweeks. Yeah, it's it's been great.

(01:05:08):
How much do you appreciate that?To stop and just described with the
way jingle yes you shouldn't eat inthe messaging doesn't eat mixed up? Why
do you appreciate that so much?I mean, it's I guess it's easy
to appreciate when you kind of seeit working and you see guys improving,

(01:05:29):
getting better. I just think thedetails are really important. You can pretend
that leaving your shoes a mess oryour locker a mess isn't a big deal,
and what matters is playing football.But I think all those tiny details
and things kind of add up andleak into the important stuff, like what

(01:05:49):
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
the guys in the locker room.They buy in, and you know,

(01:06:11):
it's a lot of young guys,and I think they're hungry to learn,
hungry to compete and win walkers.Please. You know, it's just an
example, whether it's we talked aboutfirst day you have your shoot, if
you could, if you could spendthe time on these small things when nobody's
watching. I think, like Iwas saying, it seems like it might
not add up too much, butI think in the long term it does,

(01:06:33):
and it leaks into other things,whether you're doing your right assignment on
the field, being late to meetingsor all these things. If you hold
a standard and you you stay tothat standard, I think it benefits you
long term. It's been like BenHerbert, has there been anything in his

(01:06:55):
training program or working with you thatyou feel will benefit you later? Yeah,
Yeah, definitely. He's been great. 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
that guys have been in the businessfor a long time, Khalil me and

(01:07:16):
we have a way of doing things, and all he wants to do is
add to that and help you getbetter and perform the best you can.
He stresses it all the time thathe's a tool for us, and you
know, he's been great. Theguys love him. The energy brings is
awesome, and I think the stuffthat we're doing in the weight room is

(01:07:36):
great, a great addition to stuffthat I may do on the side or
whatever that is. Yeah, Ithink. I mean, we had a
presentation today with all the certain measurablesthat are changing, and if you guys
are in the meeting, you definitelysee how beneficial he's been to the team
so far. So obviously, stayinghealthy is a huge factor to anybody's success.

(01:08:00):
I'd say it's plagued us a littlebit for a while. So yeah,
I think he's he's definitely incredibly beneficial. When you like fully, I
know at the end of last season, you might have been able to play
yeah, No, I was notready to go last year. No,
tried practicing, tried coming back,and uh it was it was not good,

(01:08:27):
but yeah it was Unfortunately the yearwasn't going great and it just was
unnecessary risk for I mean, myfoot could have had some real real issues
if 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, therewas a list of things last year,

(01:08:47):
my hand, so all those thingsare good. Finger got surgery on
my finger, so that's feeling good. Yeah, it's it's nice to be
feeling better going into year nine thanyou have. So it's maybe five six
years ago, which I've said,I've said I've been feeling great the last
couple of years. I'm telling youit's a real deal this time. But

(01:09:09):
obviously anything can happen. But Ijust feel it's fun feeling really confident in
your body and being able to perform. So I could just go out during
practice and you know, go ballsto the wall and do everything that I
feel like I need to to beable to prepare. It's fun. My
brother and whoever I trained with mytrainer Todd back home. Uh, I

(01:09:34):
think they'd be really proud of howI've been working this offseason and it's just
exciting. The pointing was the injurieson the Green Bay game. You kind
of yeah, it was a bitof a build up, a little bit
of an overreaction, but you know, it's just tough. It comes sometimes

(01:09:55):
like that, and I just feltfelt really defeated coming back, had a
broken hand. I'm like, oh, yeah, I get to play Boom
first series foot pops. Thought I'dhave to get surgery, and all these
thoughts flooded through my head. Brokedown a bit, and yeah, it
just hurts. You know, you'relosing, you're getting injured. You've felt

(01:10:15):
like you prepared really well in theoff season, and then the year before
you had growing surgery, so youknow, a lot of things build up.
Yeah, you don't get a breakif you're injured. Everybody wants to
go on. Fans are very nice, but no, I just I'm grateful
that I feel this way. I'mstill still nicey Ripe twenty eight, so

(01:10:41):
not too old you had, butyeah, I'm just excited. I can't
remember what the original question was atthis point, something about my audy,
how close you and Gift were straightwas it that you couldn't for one of

(01:11:02):
those last three games? It wasfrustrating, but I mean, Gif was
had my back the whole way,I think for Gift, for any but
for for the whole team, justto show what it means to me.
It would have been important for meto be out there, but I literally
couldn't. I tried to practice,injured my foot worse the very first play

(01:11:23):
I was and in practice, Sono chance that was happening unless I wanted
to throw my next season away aswell. But no, I'm just I'm
proud of him for what he didwith the team, how he handled it,
and I need to call him back. Actually sorry, Gif. Yeah,
I'm happy he gets to stay closeby with the with the Rams,

(01:11:46):
and just proud of all we accomplishedhere together over the years and and we'll
be close for the rest of ourlives. It was the foot in the
foot sprang. Yeah, I sprainedone area of my foot. Then when
I tried to return and I sprainedanother area. Was able to avoid getting
surgery, which is kind of themain goal, But yeah, it was.

(01:12:10):
It was tough when it comes tothe addition of but Dupree when he
felt like he's kind of brought tothe to the room and could bring on
the field. Yeah, when Iheard we got my brother some I don't
know, maybe my brother told me. I'm like, really, we just
got Bud Like, that's no,that's no small pickup. He's a seriously

(01:12:30):
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 to havethat in the room another vet is always
a great addition. But I'm justexcited to have him into Lee and to

(01:12:51):
be able to rotate like that andnot drop off at all when we come
off the field is huge. AndMapchu he's going into his EV year.
Just what do you what are youkind of What are some of the maturity
maturity areas you see from him?You know, I'm going to say not
much, And that's a compliment becausehe was already mature in those areas.

(01:13:13):
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 Julie. I've loved him sincethe first day he's he's walked into the

(01:13:35):
facility, and I know he's justgonna continue to get better. What you
think of the addition of Joe Alt, Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna need
to beat him up a little bitin camp. So he's so he's ready.
But no, I think anything toprotect our number ten is a good,
good investment. So he seems likea real solid dude. Haven't talked

(01:13:57):
to him too much right build.Seems like he has good hands, good
feet, strong. We'll see.We'll see in a few weeks when I
lay a helmet in his chin howhe holds up. But it'll I'll take
it easy on him. No,Rashon's a beast. Did you know Coach

(01:14:18):
Harbond before he came here? Andif he did, just what were those
first couple of conversations like that?Yeah, probably have crossed paths with him.
Maybe maybe not. Actually, Ithink what was it his first year
when I was a junior, Sohe kicked his ass as usual at Ohio

(01:14:38):
State. No, no, theyjust want a championships. I'd say they
probably have the bragging rights right now. I'm like the guy talking about his
old high school. Oh I remember, yeah, we used to kicks.
No no, yeah, no,the rivalry is dead. I was just
saying this morning, you know,nine years and kind of forget about that.

(01:15:00):
I'm not a great alumni. Sorry, sorry, coach, But no,
it's great. That's what's great aboutthe NFL is you just have guys
from all backgrounds. You could hatetheir guts one one year, and then
you come on the same team andyour brothers and you're all working towards one
goal together. So our first talktogether was great. I just sat down
with them, went up into hisoffice and chopped it up about life mainly

(01:15:26):
and his opportunity here and how muchit means to him. And uh,
yeah, I think he's a specialguy. I think he's the way he
conducts himself. He's an interesting catfor sure. And I'm still still feeling
them out. But one thing youcan't denies that he loves football and his
main goal is to win football games. So and that's what we need when
you see him working out with youguys and pushing slaves and doing all this

(01:15:49):
stuff. Just how interesting is thatto see? Yeah, I mean he
was a he was a great playerhimself, and I think he's always been,
you know, built like that lackof a better term. But yeah,
he's uh, he's part of theguys. You know, he's not
this guy outside looking in. Hehe really, I mean he voiced that

(01:16:12):
to me, is that his favoritepart of all of it is being with
the guys and and the connections hemakes. So Yeah, to 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,
Yeah, it's funny you go fromold gift, old gift to this little

(01:16:33):
young guy who's my age. Iwouldn't want to get thrown into a room
with me and khalilis his age.But no, he's been great. I
love messing with him a little bit, we little sarcasm back and forth,
but no, he's great. He'suh, he's very talks very fast,

(01:16:55):
and I don't as you know,so sometimes I gotta be like down,
coach, come on. But No, he's great. I'm excited, you
know, to get closer as theyears, as the year goes on,
and I think he has he hasa lot of passion for the position,
and all he wants to do islearn and and help us to improve.

(01:17:15):
So I'm excited about him, andI mean I do miss Giff obviously,
it was a long time with him, but I am excited to have a
new face and kind of have thatchallenge for me. You worked much with
with Jesse's dad, since I knowhe coached linebackers in Michigan. Did you
ask about Jesse? Did you askabout doing? Okay, you asked about

(01:17:39):
Jesse. Oh my god, Iwas talking about freaking doing the whole time.
You guys are so confused. No, sorry, I thought we were.
I thought I was. I thoughtyou mentioned coach Ronie. No,
No, coach Mentor has been greatas well. Yeah, they've both been
great, So run that back.No, he's been good. Uh yeah,

(01:18:00):
very knowledgeable guy. Same thing.I'm excited to get to know him
more as the year goes on.Have you worked if you worked much during
the season, Jesse, Yeah,Uh no, I have not. I
don't know if I've said one wordto him, but more words to come
down the road. Like you said, you've been in year since twenty sixteen.

(01:18:26):
Just what are some of this stuffyou us? Just one ramble about
the wrong guy for fifteen minutes walkingwhat Yeah, what the heck? Actually
that's literally not the person. Yeah, yeah, I figured out what's something

(01:18:50):
that you you worked under him theoff season, something to improve your game
or is or 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
agility work and my lifting. Butyeah, just to get everything feeling great.

(01:19:15):
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 I know I'm gonna get
plenty of technique work and position workwhen I'm out here. So for now,

(01:19:38):
I'm going to spend these five weeksreally getting preparing my body. There's
workouts, competitor again, another yourcompetitors and all that stuff. Yeah.
Yeah, it's usually too hot outthere. For much competition. We're just
trying to survive. So but yeah, it's always. It's a it's a
silent competition between between each other,be like Peeking's like what was his time?

(01:20:02):
Was his time? But uh no, yeah, it's always. You
can never have an off day whenwhen you're out there and he's he's warming
up like a beat, like afreaking robot every day out there, So
there's there's no off days. Yeah, have you you didn't have talked at
all about I mean, I meanthis also when you were having a contract

(01:20:23):
then you have guys have to talkabout that anybody. Oh yeah, I
mean it's it's a conversation, nota not really a serious conversation, but
something that's come up before. Butyeah, I mean it would be cool.
It would be cool at some point, I uh gonna be more and
more and how similar will your willbe? You know in terms of playing.

(01:20:47):
I don't know that yet. Igot of just mentioned previously. I
don't know my role. I don'tknow the ins and out yet. Once
we'll get NO through the protocols andn f O p A, we'll we'll
talk about no the schemes and everything, right, Uh uh So welcome.
When you were in Denver in thethree four, where did you find yourself

(01:21:08):
most comfortable and most effective? AndI I played a lot of different positions
in uh Denver, I mean myearlier in my year, I played zero,
I played three two one. Imean I'm definitely more comfortable in a
shaded position, mainly being a threetechnique and five technique. That's why I
found myself to be more comfortable whetherI'm standing up or I'm not, whether
it's runner or pass. Uh.Tho, those seem to be my my

(01:21:30):
best, my best, fitch.And what is your impression of Pete Carroll's
defense and and whole environment in Seattle? Afar? Uh? From Afar,
it seems like he uh he holdsin on a defense a lot. Uh.
I can't really say too much aboutthat. Yeah, I don't.
I know Pete Carroll very little,so uh, I'm just trying to figure
out more and uh, I'll giveyou a better answer later. What's the
reputation around the league out of theSeahawks? Uh? You know Hard nos

(01:21:54):
Hard had type of team definitely ona little more lax side it as opposed
to being stuck up or military style, and which is definitely good because then
they this program is one of alot of football games have been super successful
for many years, as long asI've been alive, as long as I've
been watching football, and definitely thishas been a good program. And Pete
Carroll has been a hell of acoach for as long as I remember,

(01:22:16):
even back in his college of days. So I'm looking forward to experiencing that.
Sean Boyle, Yeah, I knowyou said you don't know yet.
You know what your role is gonnabe, which is what what kind of
player are you who haven't watched ittime to Denver? What what kind of
player? Get? Definitely a highmotor definitely not a one trippon any type
of player. Uh. I liketo attack, you know, whether it's

(01:22:40):
a first ste or first through throughfourth down, I like to attack.
I'm always trying to apply pressure.I'm definitely just a high mortar guy in
my opinion. Brady, are there, Brady Henderson for nice to meet you.
Yeah, this is not a teamthat really makes big splash signing agency.
Did you think going into it theSeattle would be in play? Uh?

(01:23:03):
No, not at all. Uhyou you just it's kind of like
being a cure at the County Store. You know, I got a whole
whole bunch of different options coming atyou. Uh hearing, a whole bunch
of different crazy things, and uh, you know, you only get to
choose one. And this is theplace that that we both chose each other.
And I mean, I l I'mI'm loving Seattle so far. You
know, I like these colors forreal? For real? What what did
you got to do with Seattle tosee since you've been not much? Uh,

(01:23:27):
just kind of just drive around thecity exploring. Uh, get down
to the market a little bit.I want to get down of the the
Ferris will do some more like touristytype of things. You know. I'm
I'm new to the city and Igot a lot to learn about the city,
right. Yeah, There's been alot of comparisons with you to Michael
Bennett. I was wondering if youknow Michael Bennett at all and you think
those are accurate. Uh, Iknow Michael Berger, then it n like

(01:23:49):
nothing. I know nothing about it, but besides his style of play.
But uh, I'm honored to beconsidered in the same conversation as him,
and uh style of play. Youknow, he's a Hall of Fame type
of deep line and that I've knownabout since I was a kid. I
mean, last time he played here, I was in high school, So
you know, it's cool to itkind of came full circle a little bit
watching him on TV and now I'mbeing kind of compared to him in the

(01:24:11):
way, you know. I mean, I'm not touching the surface of Michael
Bennett. You know, he's aHall of Famer and I'm not there yet,
So you know, I just gottakeep doing my due diligence to be
a better player. Can Hey Dreamont, Welcome to Seattle. I know you
get to play several seasons for VicFangio and the three four style defense and
Seattle's playing a similar system now datingback to last year as a defensive lineman,

(01:24:35):
what do you think is most importantto be successful in that system?
Maybe fundamentals or just playing style tobe successful. From what I learned,
being gap sound and being patient hasalways been the biggest thing, and that's
how we've been successful when I wasin Denver, just kind of like relying
on each other. I know thatsounds kind of cliche, but like there's

(01:24:55):
kind of like the realm of beingin the three four defense, you gotta
really really rely on the guys behindyou and the guys on the side of
you to really make their to dotheir job to make your job easier.
All yeah, Uh, your yourthat you didn't start playing football till you

(01:25:15):
were junior in high school and largelyplayed basketball, So then that's what made
you, I guess decided to goto play football then was away from basketball.
No, no, no, I'vealways loved football first. Uh,
it was just kind of just playingit out. You know, I love
the hoop, but you know,football was definitely about calling. Given I
was two hundred and sixty five poundspower forward and I was like sixty threes

(01:25:36):
and change, so you know,I kind of chose the route that God
gave me. No, I'm notsix eight much that you guys use.
Is it about the same or isit? It's kind of really it's a
long, long plays, but it'smore understanding. For sure. I feel
like you could get to that moreunderstanding plays, and uh, I feel

(01:25:58):
like that's that's the difference. Wassaying the other day, just kind of
like coming into this offense after liketwenty years of breeze and just kind of
how it was just kind of builton top of each other, on top
of each other. It's like kindof a lot to kind of take in.
Do you do you find that theykind of turn it down to something
new, starting to like zero witheverybody. It's just a little bit easier
to kind of get everybody on thesame end. Yeah, I feel like
it's way easier. Like you said, it was kind of more of a

(01:26:19):
Drew Brees style, uh the lastplaybook, so uh, all credit to
them though they built that around him, around his players. But uh,
like I said, it's is more. Uh, this playbook is more uh
for uh matchups, and uh,I feel like it's gonna be better for
us. How do you think it'sgonna really take advantage of your skill sets?

(01:26:39):
Uh? Just building around the strengthsthat I have. You know what
I'm saying, things that I cando and things that she can do,
Uh, things that our players cando. Is kind of focus on what
we can do and building on that. Uh. I feel like it's playing
to the players strengths. So Ifeel like it's gonna help us A lot
has been around the way. Thisoffense will have a lot more speed.
And how's that transitionvent so far.I mean, like I said, it's

(01:27:01):
building around the players strengths. Soof course we got speed, uh with
me or she and ati receiver,So just building around that, like I
said, playing to our strengths andbe able to capitalize off that. Feel
like it's gonna help us a lotmost of like the up tempo aspect and
you know, getting a lot ofplays in in less time. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah, that's definitely gonnaplay a big difference. Like I
said, coming from the West Coast, Uh, they bringing that stand for

(01:27:25):
an offense here, So I'm excitedto be able to be a part of
that. For you personally, What'swhat's the next level look like for you?
What do you what are you tryingto accomplish this year? Just staying
consistent, man, a couple ofupside downs last year, just building off
that. It's always always gonna workon the physical part, but being able
to bounce back after a bad game. The mental mental aspect, Uh,

(01:27:46):
just learning learning 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 for there isI mean it's not really I mean,
everybody kind of grown in the NFL, so it's just on you to be

(01:28:09):
able to have that standard. LikeI 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. Yards after the catch?Is that you feel like that's the strength
of yours that maybe wasn't utilize.I don't know if utilizes the right word,
but you could show more. Yeah, it's an offense that is built

(01:28:33):
around that, just catching the ballin space, catching the ball over the
middle or even on the outside,uh, with space and separation. Feel
like it's built around having yards aftercatch. So I'm definitely proud to be
in the system, like I said, and I'm excited. But is that
is that a mindset too? Likebeing good at yards after the catch?
Like? Oh yeah, I meanof course, I mean you don't want

(01:28:55):
to get tackled by the first person. And my mindset is trying to take
every take everything to the house,you know, every touch. So uh,
I definitely got to do that moreand definitely try to work on that
and practice keep a great dude man. Uh, some some that I definitely
needed. Some that he relates tome. Uh, just from backgrounds and

(01:29:18):
uh he's a great coach, greatleader, Uh, motivational and uh.
Like I said, I'm excited tohave him around and for him to push
me is everything that I need.So you're talking about like mentally bouncing back,
you know, from tough performances orwhatever. Like, did you try
to fund your resources going to helpyou figure out how to do that?
Oh? Yeah, I mean it'solder guys. Uh, uh tell me

(01:29:41):
that's natural. Just have bad games. But uh, just having the standard
that I have for myself and theexpectations I have for myself gets hard sometimes.
So just be able to be hardon your school, same high school,
same junior high, same college.You know. So I've known him
since for for a really long time, but that can competitive fire burns deep
with him. And that's the onething that I've always admired with him.

(01:30:02):
And he's got an amazing athletic brainin terms of how to process things and
how to how to put people inposition to make place. He's always been
that prototypical coach on the field,no matter what sport he was playing,
So I knew he was destined tobe a coach, you know. And
I was fortunate in my career asa 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. Igot to see him work firsthand as a

(01:30:25):
player and then as a coach.So the success he had is not is
not surprising to me. Is therewhere you seeing Ryan the successes had?
Yeah, I think we all dothat. I think we come from a
unique place in a really small hometownin New Hampshire where we all take a
lot of pride to where we're from, and when anybody's successful coming out of
there, then you kind of takea little pride that that's it's the upbringing

(01:30:46):
that we all had, you know, in the UTH sports program that we
grew up in. In every aspect, whether it was football, baseball,
basketball, those coaches had an amazingimpact on us and that's why we are
where we are right now. Ryansaid, he doesn't think of it as
you working under him, that's workingwith him. The fact is he is

(01:31:06):
the head coach. He makes mecall him sir, though he just said
can you do that? Day one? And I was like, all right,
right now. But I 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

(01:31:30):
awkward moments the right term. Butwhen he's the ultimate decider and you are
working for him, Yeah, Icertainly understand my role. I'm not Alhaic,
like I'm not I'm not in chargehere. 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

(01:31:50):
part. I love the individual part. I love being in the meeting um
of the quarterbacks, uh and tryingto game plan. But everything we do
here is collaborative. You know.The one thing that that really struck me
when I walked in this place isthere's an amazing coaching staff here, you
know, And if you get achance to talk to Larry Johnson just about
football, or Tim Walton or JimKnowles or Brian Hartline or any of these

(01:32:11):
guys that are on the staff here, it's it's a very collaborative effort.
I think everybody's on the same page. You know, it's not our offense
and their defense and it's Ohio State, you know, it's it's Ohio State
versus the twelve opponents that we're gonnaplay during the regular season and then beyond.
So it's it's really collaborative. Andthat's the thing I like, just
in the short time that I've beenhere, is how collaborative everybody's been.

(01:32:31):
You know, we're all trying tomake each other better and we're all trying
to develop this team. You've touchedon this, you said, you know,
you'd like to do what you wantto do and not My sense is
you, in your perfect world,you'd like to scribble plays on a napkin
and not deal with boosters, don'tdeal with all the stuff the coaches head
coaches have to deal with. Now, how much of a factor was that

(01:32:53):
in this decision? You can justdo football? No, that's not it.
I mean, I enjoy I mean, we've had some amazing I've had
an opportunity and everywhere I've been tomeet some amazing people that are associated with
the program. And there's people thatfrom my time at New Hampshire or my
time at Oregon. I was justwith Phil Night two weeks ago. You
know, I got an opportunity tospend some time with him and his wife,
Penny, who are dear friends ofmine that have been great mentors to

(01:33:15):
me in my career. And there'sa bunch of people at UCLA Terry donnahe
and Andrea Donna who were awesome tome. Angela Mazzoni is a great friend,
Casey Wasserman, Troy Aikman. Therewas a bunch of people at UCLA
that I really enjoyed, you know, being around and talking with. So
I think sometimes everybody wants to makea narrative of it's either this or that.
It's never that. It's never justall ball, it's never just all

(01:33:35):
recruiting, it's never just all boosters. It's a mixture of everything. But
I think the one thing that asthis position as a head coach kept moving
on is that if you look ata lot of them, they all become
more CEOs. You know, Ican't tell you how many coaches that have
called me since I made this decisionthat said I'm two years behind you,
brother, you know that are thinkingthe same exact way. And I think

(01:33:57):
it's all part of what we haveto do. I think we all need
to protect this and promote this game, and I think there are some rules
that we need to get straightened outso that people understand where what it's about,
because the game is still about theplayers, and I hope that never
gets discounted. You know, it'sit's always been about the players, and
I think if we can keep thatat the forefront the people that are making
decisions on this, and I thinkJean Smith is one of the best influences

(01:34:18):
in in the NCAAA, is tomake sure we keep that the main thing.
The main thing needs to be thestudent athletes. You know, you're
coming in at a time where you'vebeen through some places where the expectations are
high. I understand you're also cominginto a juncture where, you know,
the three losses to Michigan, thenot making the playoff last year, the

(01:34:42):
urgency is pretty high here. Iguess just sort of what the perspective do
you have on kind of the stakesthat there are for Ryan this year and
the decision that then he makes tobring you in to kind of help solve
that. Yeah, I think theexpectations can be no harder than they are
in your own brain, you know. And I think if you try to
worry about what other people are thinkingin their brains, you're going to get
screwed up a little bit. So, you know, I talked earlier the

(01:35:04):
one thing about Ryan that I knowabout him and has always been he's the
ultimate competitor. So he's got There'snowhere that has higher expectations of Ohio State
than Ryan does, nor the restof us that joined him in are part
of this and that are working withhim. So you know, I don't
think. I think sometimes you canspend too much time thinking about those things.
You know. What you really haveto do is just as there's a
big sign as you walk into thisplace, it says when the moment you

(01:35:27):
know. I think that's a realthing that we have to do as coaches,
is to make sure that our playersaren't worried about what's going on in
the future, or or aren't worriedabout what's going on in the past,
or worry about can they get alittle bit better today, you know,
and can we make improvement? AndI think the one thing that I've seen
here, and I've only been herefor three weeks but there's a consistency to
the players approach when they walk inthis building every day, which is it's
unique. It's not like that everywhereelse. And it's one of the things

(01:35:47):
that I remark to Mick when Iyou know, he said, Hey,
what do you think, And Iwas like, it's impressive. It's impressive
the culture of the players 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

(01:36:08):
someone before. What does it meanto you? I guess he technically did
it to Bill when he was herefor a couple weeks. But what does
that mean to you to kind ofbe getting that responsibility from him and he's
calling essentially the offense that you gaveit. 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 bad play,he called it because the great part

(01:36:30):
is an assistant coach, you canjust hen point the finger a little bit
and just say, hey, youknow, I wanted to do this,
but he trumped me. So wehaven't actually discussed game day yet. You
know, we'll see how that operates. But everywhere I've been it's been a
collaborative effort. And all of asudden, someone that's calling the plays isn't
isn't like pulls one out of leftfield that you hadn't practiced and hadn't been

(01:36:53):
part of your offense and said,hey, let's do this. You know,
we're not running the annexation of PuertoRico. You know, we're not
coming up with something special you knowin the middle of the fourth quarter that
we haven't done. But I thinkit's the key to really being successful in
offense is is how you game plan, how you put it all together,
and then how you practice and trainfor that so that you get a chance
to execute it. Because the player'sconfidences comes from their demonstrated ability that they've

(01:37:15):
done this so many times in practicethat when they get out on the field
that this is like that to them, you know, and it's not that
they do it so they do itright, it's they practice it so much
so that they can't do it wrong. So, you know, I think
it's that whole part of it thatis really the key to being a really
good game planning team. Doug LaneReef Kings North Chip. When you had

(01:37:35):
that feeling when you were coaching thequarterbacks during Bowl, did you consider at
that point maybe resigning as the headcoach and thinking like this is this is
not where I am anymore. I'llleave and then I'll look to see what
else is out there. No.I never thought about quitting anything. So,
you know, I just is therean opportunity that I think I can

(01:37:57):
that fit, you know, AndI think that's the you know, it's
no different than when you're talking toa recruit about them make a decision on
where they're going to go to school. I think that where they should go
to school is where the best fitis for them. So, you know,
I just entertained some opportunities and Ialways felt I felt like this was
the best fit. But I neverthought about quitting or not coaching. I'm
gonna coach. I'm gonna coach,and then I'm gonna die. But I

(01:38:18):
mean that's how I think I thinkabout things is I can't picture that.
I know someone I was on theNike trip and they like, how much
longer are you gonna go? WhenI said I to go another fifteen twenty
years. I don't think about Idon't think about retirement. I don't think
about any of those things. That'sjust not kind of my mindset that you
know. I love football in theas long as I can be part of

(01:38:38):
this game, then I'll be partof this game. Just the way things
worked out with your departure from UCLA, is there anything that you wish you
had done differently, or anything youregret, or just that the circumstances that
presented themselves. Do you think thatyou handled that departure the best that you
could have? Yeah, I meanI got an opportunity to tell my players
personally. You know, I thinkin this day and age of the internet

(01:38:59):
where they read it some or elseand you have to text message him,
you know, that was always importantto me that I wanted to make sure
I talked to my players and explainthe reasons of what I was doing.
I wasn't leaving to take a headcoaching job somewhere else. I wasn't thinking
that the grass is greener at anotheruniversity. Was just in my personal situation,
this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to take an opportunity
to go be a position coach andcoordinator, and that's how it fit.

(01:39:20):
You know. What I was happyis that I always thought to Sean Foster,
I think the world of them,and I think he's a special you
know. And the fact that thatthey were they gave him the opportunity to
take over there was you know,it worked out. I didn't have any
say in that decision, you know, I was gone, But I always
thought that the Shawn would be agreat head coach and I'm really proud of

(01:39:41):
him and happy that that he gotthe opportunity to take that job right behind
him. Actually have your reputation asinnovator. Was part of the appeal of
this is that you get to getin the weeds a little bit. Maybe
not mad scientists, maybe too toostrong of a word, that you're working
within the system. But was therean a feel of you get to get
my hands dirty here again and innovateand get back to that side of things.

(01:40:05):
It was, but it was reallymore important of who I get to
work with, you know, andso knowing you know, I've got I
know a lot of guys on thestaff besides Ryan also, so you know,
when I know what their mindset isand what their values are and how
they do things, and so Iwant to be a part of that.
But there's a part of that.Yeah, how much of a teacher you

(01:40:27):
get labeled and the innovators, theteachings are part of this. How much
of a teacher are even? Howpatient are you? Yeah? I think
we're all teachers. I mean,education is the transportation of knowledge, you
know. So it really doesn't matterwhat the coach knows. It matters what
the players understand, you know.So you have to be able to make
sure that while you're implementing things iswhat resonates with them and how does that

(01:40:47):
come back to them. So,you know a lot of our teaching styles
that we've learned is more the socraticmethod of there's a lot of questions,
you know, and a lot ofcheck for understandings, just to kind of
find out where the players are comingfrom, because it's what they know that
that's ultimately gonna win games, notwhat we know. You know that we're
not playing the games. We're notstepping across those white lines, you know,
and your job as a coach isto create an environment where they have

(01:41:09):
an opportunity to be successful and thenget out of their way and let them
go do it. So I thinkthe teaching aspect is huge, and we
continue to research, you know,some of the latest trends in teaching to
make sure that we are transporting thatknowledge to our players. The second rolld
left Steve Hellwaggen, twenty four sevenSports. Yeah, coach, just curious
you got five scholarship quarterbacks with differinglevels of experience, age and everything else.

(01:41:33):
Not to annoint him, but justwant to ask specifically about Will Howard
coming in after starting part of twoyears at Kansas State. He just seems
to promote this idea that he's afootball player, you know, above all
else. Just how impressed are youwith his makeup, his experience, what

(01:41:54):
he's bringing to the table walking inhere right now? Yeah? Really impressed.
You know that you don't have totalk to Will form more 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
it really wants to capitalize on whatthat is. There's a maturity to Will,
you know. I really I've hadexperience. My experience in this thing

(01:42:15):
since the transfer portal opened in collegefootball is some of the best players I've
had an opportunity to coach. Awardtransfers. Sometimes when you're a true freshman
and it's five years out, youknow, it's like, hey, I
got a ton of time, youknow. And sometimes when you're a transfer,
is that I've got nine months,you know. So there's a sense
of urgency I think when you're dealingwith with transfers, and I think Will
has exuded that since he's been here. But the other thing that I just

(01:42:38):
in the short time that Will hasbeen here is how quickly he's fit in
with the entire team, you know, and how much the rest of the
players respect him. You know.He was one of the Gold Award winners
for his work in the weight roomin this offseason, so that says a
lot for him coming in here asin a short time, being able to
win a weight room award, youknow, to start off, you guys
hope to have the number one internallyexternally at the end of spring or I

(01:43:02):
guess just let it play out,how do you I? I think it
always every time I've been involved inthese, I think when they're organic is
when it's the best. Uh.I don't think you can anoint somebody or
force the issue because the players know, the players would understand. They see
it every single day, you know, and there's a team chemistry part of
this thing too, So we're notgonna force the issue. A But I've
always seen it play itself out.So I've been fortunate that there's always gonna

(01:43:27):
be some quarterback battles at at somepoint in time at every school there's a
quarterback battle, you know, andthen and really you you gotta let'em
play it out on the field,and that's where it has to that,
that's where it has to be decided. What's good Just a couple, Hey,
welcome, and we we're excited tohave you here. Oh think I'm
kind of to talk about the innovativepart. Ryan said that that's something that
he's always loved about working with you, and now he wants you to bring

(01:43:49):
that here and how it would fitwith Ohio State. Do you have any
idea what that's gonna look like yet? Or is it just way too or
I have no idea now. II think part of it is is you're
trying to put the players in positionto make play. So a lot of
that comes from getting to understand theplayers and what their skill sets are and
how we feature what their skill setsare, you know, and and the

(01:44:11):
one thing after day one, Ican tell you that there's a lot of
skill set out there, you know. So that's that's what gets you excited,
you know, That's what That's whatyou jump out of bed in the
morning and you're excited to go towork because of the talent that you get
to work with. But the onething that's the most impressive is the work
ethic that goes along with that talent. You know, it's not just empty
talent. It's you got some kidswho want to I mean all of them
since I've been here, want towork. So that that's what gets you

(01:44:33):
excited. But I think assessing whatthe skill set is you know that we
have available to us on the offensiveside of the ball is vitally important.
And then our job is to putthose guys in positions to make place lots
of pressure. I mean, you'veexperienced what's like to coach national championship call
over teams this program right now andmoving into a situation where you got to

(01:44:56):
win quick and now? So doesthat feel like pressure here? Free?
Or is a little bit excitement orwell, I've always subscribed to his Pressure
is what you feel when you don'tknow what you're doing. So if you
don't want to feel pressure, 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
them to understand that too. Isthat you know, it's it's about your

(01:45:17):
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 challenges when we get back
on the field on Thursday, canwe be a little bit better than we

(01:45:39):
were on Tuesday? And If we'redoing 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'mgonna ask about the pros and cons of
coaching from the box and coaching fromthe field. It's interesting to talk to
some off some coordinators. Tom Hermantalked about he swore he wanted to coach
from the box, saw the gameso much better, sterile environment, not
all the chaos and the field.Some coaches you talk to the like,

(01:46:01):
I want to be on the fieldso I can look at my guys in
the eye. Where are you asa as a coordinator? Honestly, And
I've thought of this a lot.I thought of it a lot during COVID
because we had the empty stands,you know, so I had thought about
just walking up into the stands fora little bit because I had a better
advantage. I've always believed you cansee the game better from up above,
but I believe you can feel thegame better from the field. So if

(01:46:21):
there was any way we could geta zip wire where you could do both,
you know, coach called from thereand then zip down of the field
get a chance to talk to him. Because it's a different deal when you're
talking to the quarterbacks on a phone, you know, than being able to
look in their eye and kind ofsee where they are with it. And
part of it is the field partof it. I remember when I coached
Ryan once. We were playing Ukonand he got hit hard going out of

(01:46:44):
bounce and he just walked by me, and I was a play caller,
and he was like, run thenext play, and I just kind of
looked at him. I saw thelook in his eyes because I don't think
he could have thrown it, youknow, he was still trying to get
his win back. But you wouldn'tknow that if you're up in the booth,
you know, and you call apass play from up in the booth
and you're like, how come wecan't complete that? Well, he just
took a shot going out of bounds. So it's that fine line and I
don't have an answer, you know. I think. I think it's feel

(01:47:06):
on the ground and it's see fromup above. Maybe in this day a
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 theOregon were obviously you know, we're playing
at this assid pace and running abunch of plays per minute and yep,

(01:47:28):
maybe not act by a passing prettyfast. What role do you see tempo
and having an offense? And inthe state yea in college football and has
maybe changed. I think the gameis always evolving, you know. I
think when I left in two thousandand twelve to go to the National Football
League, Oregon was the only teamthat was playing really really fast and had
shiny helmets. And when I cameback in twenty seventeen, everybody had shiny

(01:47:51):
helmets and everybody was playing fast.So I think the game is always going
to go up and down, andthere's gonna be different cycles that it goes
through. I think tempo is partof an offensive, but I don't think
it's an offense in itself. Ithink it's more of like if you go
to dinner, it's a side order. You know, it's not the main
course, but it's it's always goodto have it. So I think there's
times when you'll use it, butyou're you're not gonna use it extensively the

(01:48:15):
entire game, just like you're notgonna throw the ball every single snap in
the game. You're not gonna runthe ball every single say anything I can
do, and I don't want thatto every question. Isaiah said that it
felt like sometimes you were holed upsomewhere watching film. You texted, Hey,
you missed this, or you wantto tweet that. Well, like
the first day, he was battingall up Russ's passes, so I had
to let him know, you know, Uh, you got to take advantage

(01:48:36):
of that. You gotta make sureguys are you know, uh know that
you still care and you still wantto be a part of this. Uh,
you know, just watching practice,there's a couple of the things we're
doing different, whether I'm communicating withdumbbar or other people. You know,
so you're that you're also talking withhim and you've given him pointers during the

(01:48:57):
off season, just constant communication.How do you see the girl as a
person, you know, as faras how he's approaching things and how you're
getting ready for this season from hisrookie year. Uh, you know,
I think the thing with Keanu ishe's more comfortable, you know. You
know, it's not his first timearound the track. You know, it's
actually like he can you know,uh, catch his feet under him.
You know, I always think whenyou're in your rookie season, you're going

(01:49:20):
from bowl game. I don't evenknow Wisconsin play in a bowl game.
Sorry, Wisconsin, I don't evenknow. But you know, personally,
I just think when you go frombowl game to training for the combine to
you know, rookie minicamp to OTA'sthe you know mini camp, I mean
the training camp the regular season,you really don't get a time to really

(01:49:41):
catch yourself. You know, heunderstands the playbook now, he can be
more vocal, you know, andI think when my absence the other guy's
absence, you know, you needguys like that to step up and be
ready for those opportunities. But youhave the same during the season was a
more thorough what was just talking downeverything, you know on my left side

(01:50:01):
because I was overcompensating a little bit, but you know it was there wasn't
anything that lingers. You know,I'll say this, A growing is not
like an a c L. It'snot like anything's that we're going to get
afected again. And you know,you know, I'm feeling good, able
to do everything squat and heavy withpower and speed, so you know it

(01:50:24):
feels good to get after Again,what do you think of what the team
was able to feel accomplishis off usuallyturned to bring guys like Russian and things?
You know, I think they're allgood acquisitions. But you know,
you never want to be known asa paper champion, so can't win the
off season. I think the workgets done out here on the field,
gets done in the classroom. Wow, it gets done training, uh,

(01:50:47):
you know, and then you seewhere you're at in training camp and then
you build on that. You know, I think we got the right guys
in the building. It's just aboutputting a complete team on the field camp.
How temper Cubs separate the business partof the game in the actual football
player. Uh, you know youalways wanna you always have to treat it

(01:51:08):
like a business because you know oneday it's gonna end. Uh. And
that's Benny job. Uh. It'snot like in college where you know you
got four years guaranteed. I don'tknow, well, now you you don't
know what an iln't know. It'scrap but the transfer portal portal, But
you know you have to I stillhave love for this game, and I

(01:51:30):
still work my tail off and Istill put everything into it and that's not
gonna change. But you have toknow what you bring to the team and
what your what your value is youhave you wanted to be able 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, butuh, you know I loved it.

(01:51:55):
Uh, you know, just gettingafter it, learning new guys. Uh,
going through the DROs I've been doingby myself. Uh. I actually
like having more people around, causelike 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

(01:52:15):
be up here and get a chanceto you know, be with my guys.
Cam. Were you confident and deal? We'll get done with your emotional
Oh, I'm gonna we'll try toremain pretty neutral because you know, I
don't wanna be too either way.All I know is I want to be
here, but we'll see what happens. Is my last year here and I

(01:52:40):
I I've had a great career here, but we'll look forward to play next
yearn with that second surgery, yousaid it this time was on the left
side. Was the first time aroundon the right side, right side during
the season, left side, andthat was just tightening down my corner.
My corma saw it wasn't the sameas my ad doctor. You know,
you can ask doctor Bradley uh doctdoctor Zuckerbron who uh did the surgery as

(01:53:04):
well. You know, I ifanything'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 kind ofbeen Tyson? Oh, I've been training
with him for the last eight years. We've always trained together. We got
a trainer up north, uh shadowtCole Haley. He's my guy, traded

(01:53:25):
trained trained, uh Heath Miller,Brett Keesel. The multitude of guys that
all respect and we've just been gettingafter camis very true. Guys historically thirty
five that get paid big contract thatyou think that's held against you. I
think there's not a lot of historybehind it. But you know, for

(01:53:45):
me, I I look at asI'm not looking to be like anybody else.
You know, my game is differentfrom everybody else in this league.
You know, I like to think, you know, I can play the
run in the past, and thenthat's where I'm different. You know.
Uh, I remember last year,Mike t just brought to my attention.
You know. The thing that's reallycool is you watch powerlifters, and you

(01:54:06):
know, my game's built on poweringtechnique, and those guys go into their
forties and so you know, that'swhat kind of research I'm doing behind the
scenes. But you know, Iwe'll see what happens. There's not a
lot of history, but I'm hereto make history and I'm here to you
know, I win another Super Bowlyear and you know, have a great

(01:54:30):
season. Do you have a setgoal over yourself on how many years you
want to play in the NFL?Or do you just take things here by
the year? You know, itwas it was tough answering that question right
after the season. I will saythis, guys, I can't keep answering
that question right after the season.That is not fair to the season,
that's not fair to my family,you know. But in my mind,
I got three years and I wantto maximize them. I wanna play at

(01:54:54):
a high level and I want togo deep in the playoffs and you know,
we got a good team and I'mgonna do my part to be ready
for all those situations here. Ifyou playing on practicing when you report to
with Trover, or is your possibilitythat you might pulled in and enforce the
negotiations. I I have not eventhought that far. I'm taken a day
by day. Uh you know.Uh uh I told my agent and we

(01:55:16):
talked about it. I mean,uh, we were cool coming out here.
You know, I'll be here formany you know, and then I'll
be there for training band throw mytwo cents in there, you know.
So that's just uh, it's beenawesome. Man. We he's he's you
know, a resource for me,just a person that I can always bounce
my thoughts off of. And now, you know, just a year you

(01:55:36):
said, thirteen months. Now Ifeel more comfortable just you know, bringing
certain things up. You know,you never you never wanna come off too
Stan. But I'm a curious guy. I got a lot of questions.
I like I like football a lot. I like to talk and talk the
games. So you know, cometo find out, he's the exact same.
So we uh, you know,we get along well and you know,
we're gonna keep keep building that relationship. Sometimes in this league playing you

(01:55:58):
know, eighteen games, they tryingto make a twenty. You know,
it's like it sound like a littlea little fever dream to be honest,
but but uh, if we canfind a way to k you know,
stay up right out there, keepkeep Aaron on his feet. You know,
I'm I'm excited for that and uheverything that comes with it. But
uh but yeah, like I said, man, that's it's it's harder said
than uh or harder done, andsaid, I guess you know, it's
one of those things. It's likethat's a lot of games, you know,

(01:56:18):
all of a sudden, take alot of hits. They take a
lot of hits where they're not looking, and it's just how can we keep
him healthy? Yeah? Yeah,are you when you think I do?
You've received room now, positions youguys have made when want healthy and everything
like, yeah, you know,I'm excited to see it at at full
health. You know, we've ihaven't got to see all the all the
guys out there at once. Andand you know it's one of those positions

(01:56:38):
where every day is something might happento Nick up. You know, it's
just a a tough position to stayout there at all times. But I
feel like we got a great groupand and the number one thing is how
can we stay healthy? How canwe you know, I'll be out on
the field, and I think havingdepth like this and the group we have
is gonna help us. Having guysthat can do different things, that can
go catch ball over the middle,all types of things that it's gonna take

(01:56:59):
some of their strain off off allof us. You know, it's it's
a good group. So I'm excitedto, uh, you know, get
out there. I feel like wehaven't had the whole whole thing together,
but you know, come season time, Moroland, it's gonna be exciting.
What about the guy your whole number? Yeah, yeah, yeah, man,
he's uh it was a brute.And then once he catches that ball,
I mean he's he's got great instinctof where the defense is going to

(01:57:20):
be at, how to make someonemiss. Yeah, man, just just
like I was saying, you cango over the middle, take hits.
I mean, I'm excited to seehim run with the ball once we got
passed on because I know I wouldn'tbe trying to tackle him and he looks
like a like a problem a littlebowling ball out there, you know,
So I'm excited. Have we gotJeremiah JJ smiths JJ. How'd you feel

(01:57:45):
out that of that look came outthough? Man three and old pool player?
When you come to these kind oftournaments, what kind of techniques do
you like to work on? Seethink that you're gonna deep run some short
stuff from crossing routes? What doyou work on when you're out of tournament
like this? Really just getting backin the good clese already doing you meat?
So really just working on my releases. Uh, that's really your game,

(01:58:09):
my friend, Sid, I've beenI've been a chuck. So just
where you can getting back in yourcareer. Now we know you pulled the
trigger on Ohio State, obviously you'regonna take visits kind of make sure that
you're you're perfect on your decision.What was it about Ohio State and Brian
Hartline and Ryan David that made youfeel comfortable to commit early? Really?
They sent me my first visit WhenI think the first one you can't for

(01:58:30):
you they offered me out. Youfeel like my first one's system my first
one year you know, really,just what's up? What's up? What's
what they saw? Was? Reallythey they need? They gave me?
Uh really just a kid that I'mgonna talk about. I wasn't talk Artis,
but I'm trying to boie by timesNow. I know you got something

(01:58:55):
your SFV family up there. Yougot Brandon n S, you got Carnal
take What does it mean to tobe able to wink up with them in
a year and be able to kindof run back what you guys have done
in South Florida Express in Columbus Ohio. It'd be great Ohio State take over.
It'd be grateful, a great firstrout. Yeah, you're a super
humble kid. I've been really impressedby you today. Is there anything that

(01:59:18):
you want Ohio State fans to knowabout you? You know again, I
know you're just your all work,all work, a work. But what
are they getting when they get aJJ Smith to come to Ohio saying kids
coming out of the job thing?What I want to know, must take
care, don't just come in.That's perfect. Man. Well, God

(01:59:42):
bless you. I appreciate you,my man. Awesome watching you today.
Thank you so much. This isand JJ Smith you have to adapt.
But there's certain things that we're notgoing to change. There's certain values we're
not going to change. It justyou know, you know, principles that
have you know, stood the testof time. And I shared this with
with Groupe before when I started doingsome research as we were doing some some

(02:00:02):
of our recruiting you know, introductionsand some of our you know, talks
about you know, the traditions ofOhio State. We talked about how Ohio
Stadium was built, you know,and you when you when you do your
research on that one hundred years ago, you know, folks had the idea
of building a stadium over sixty thousandpeople, and that's because of what Chick

(02:00:25):
Carley was doing. And you know, they had a wooden bleachers over here,
and all these people started coming inand the idea of bringing in a
stadium that of our sixty thousand peopleat the time was like, this is
crazy. What is college football turninginto? And they they instead of going
to the state or going to theschool the community, they went to the
community to raise the money they raisedover at the time over a million dollars.
Well night, fast forward one hundredyears and the conversation still might be

(02:00:47):
like, what is college football doingright? And in this situation then il
we had to turn to the communityfor help, and Bucky Nation showed up
again in a big way. So, although the landscape is changing, I
don't know if you know, onehundred years later, if it's that much
different. It's just in a differenttime, in a different you know,

(02:01:08):
set of issues that we're working through. But I think it's exciting. I
think there's a lot of positives toit. I do. I think that
we're taking the next step with therevenue sharing to try to institutionalize some of
it, which would be big forus some real bills. Yeah, every
year's got question. It seems likethis year's team has fewer questions. Off

(02:01:32):
the line. Guard addressed that specifically, if you look ahead to rely against
Love more than a month, whatare the real questions that you have in
your mind about position battles? AndI would say on offense, you know,
we got to square away the quarterback, as you know, I feel

(02:01:53):
like, you know, the offensiveline on the right side, we've got
to solidify that. I feel likewe got to build, you know,
enough depth at receiver that we feellike we can put in five or six
in the game and feel good aboutit. On defense, I think we're
still looking to figure out, youknow, who are going to be the
guys inside, you know, thethird, the fourth, the fifth,

(02:02:16):
defensive interior alignment that we're going toput in the game. And then same
thing just just I would say depth, a little bit of safety, just
to kind of see who those nextguys are. They're going to step up
and so we know it's going tobe a long year. We're going to
need everybody, and and so ina lot of those areas it's depth.
Special teams wise. You know,punter is going to be you know that

(02:02:38):
that is significant. You know wejust brought in Nick and you know,
so there'll be a battle there.So I'd say those are probably the areas
we're focused on the most. Ryanjust to fall on the offensive line,
there was I think a school apologyguy might be looked for a transfer in
that post spring window. Did youguys do that? Did you guys not
find the guy or where you justconfident the guys you have, just like

(02:03:03):
you know in January, if ifif we're going to bring somebody in,
it is to fill a hole.We're not just gonna bring somebody in to
bring somebody in, Like at allpositions, we'll always look to see what's
out there. We did evaluate someof the guys that were out there,
and you know, you know,we felt like coming out of it as
we evaluated it. You know,there was a couple of guys that you

(02:03:23):
know, we checked on, butbut ultimately like based on where we were
and some of the young guys thatare coming up, you know, we
felt like we saw some progress inthe offensive line in the spring. So
you know, it wasn't there wasn'tas many folks in the portal, you
know, in after the spring.So we looked at it, we identified
it, We did our due diligence, but you know we're gonna go through.

(02:03:44):
We have now second round bills,right, you're it was interesting that
you have two of maybe the topfive ers or guys in sport and then
a bunch of guys who haven't plenty. Uh maybe someone that I know my
question, but did you consider tryingto add there? Understanding the probably the
difficult to sell, we can havesuch tell how to bring some of his
experiences, like what were those conversationslike and how did you set along being

(02:04:08):
comfortable with you know, Trey andwell, like you said, you know,
I think we're we will get someexperience there with those two guys.
And then you know, we feltlike coming out of the spring that James
and Sam both did a nice joband you know we're gonna have to play
them and they're gonna have to youknow, take on a little bit of
that. You know, we haveyou know, started having conversations with Caleb

(02:04:30):
Downs. I was part of therecruiting process of possibly you know, doing
a little bit of running back aswell. It's something that he wanted to
do. So we've been having himin some of the meetings and some of
the individual drills as a possibility thereif you know, needed so down the
road to continue to build depth atthat position. But you know, I
think, you know, we feellike, you know, if you have
you know, four strong running backsgoing into it, then you know that's

(02:04:55):
gonna be that's gonna be enough tocarry the season. I do think that
the quarterbacks will run the ball morethis season, so that should take some
carries away from them. But toyour point, you know, James and
Sam are gonna have to step upto you guys that we can count on.
Save that for another day. Yeah, just fall up on that.
Is he capable of stepping in andbeing running back? Obviously, we'll see,

(02:05:23):
we'll see. We talked about inthe recruiting process, you know,
the first time around and more specificallyin the second time around, and so
he's you know, he's been arounda little bit just to get a feel
for it. We did very littlein the spring. We did I think
we pitched them an option or somethinglike that in the spring just to kind
of get them going. But we'llsee, we'll see where that goes.

(02:05:44):
We don't have a specific plan rightnow, but we do want to introduce
him to that just the same thinglike Lorenzo styles. It's played reci where
he did that, Notre Dame.You know, he's out there a little
bit, just kind of learning.It's healthy. You know, you're seeing
it from the other side of theball. This time of the year,
you can get away with that alittle bit, a little bit in the
preseason. Where it goes, we'llsee, but you just never know.
And we're trying to put some contitigencyplans in place because it could be a

(02:06:05):
long season. Yeah, this ismy forty first year covering of house to
day, I don't remember ever expectationslike this in the summer. There were
some of them were almost this big. Sure, do you sense that too,
And what is that pressure like asyou're working through a summer. Yeah,
And people have asked me that,I go back to the expectations every
year are the same. I mean, it's just the truth. When opening

(02:06:27):
press conference, I said you gotto beat the team up north, and
when every game after that, that'sjust the expectations. And when you come
up short, you know, yougot to figure out a way to get
those things fixed. I think wehave done that. But the expectations are
the same every year. Pressure isthe same every year. I just like
the pressure when you've got a reallygood team behind you. So that's what
we've got right now. And youknow, we know it's going to be
a long season. We know whatwe're working towards. But I will say

(02:06:48):
this about this team, Well,we've been talented. That's there's been times
in the past we've been talented.I don't know since I've been here if
we've been this talented, and thisexperience together with guys that have played a
lot of football fourth and fifth yearguys, and that doesn't matter. We'll
go Thanks Extor, Stephen play sinceyou brought it up. Maybe this is

(02:07:09):
his talk because it's summertimes, soyou can now just have conversations. Maybe
we're making a big out of nothinglong term situations, but we've seen it
around college football in league guys playingboth sides of the ball and doing it
quite well. Right, Travia Suneris doing it out in Colorado and Caleb
Das has been apartment turns, sowe see what he could do with the
ball. But there's also the staminaaspect of that get into a sixteen game
season. So I'm not saying it'sany forty snaps or something like that,

(02:07:31):
But what about his athleticism what hebrings to the table, and let you
know that if you wanted to exploreit in a real game, he could
last and still be an effective seetyYeah. Yeah, we'd have to see
all that. He did it inhigh school. But we got some really
good running backs in a room,so it's not something that we're planning on
doing. But uh, well,we are gonna, you know, work
on a little bit. Caleb.Caleb enjoys that part of it. We

(02:07:54):
did agree that that was something thatwe were gonna look and doo where it
goes, I don't I don't reallyknow right now now, but I know
that he has the capability to doit. He has the athleticism and do
it, and you know, we'llkind of see where it goes, see
see how he does, and youknow, maybe hand the ball Tom a
little bit in the preseason, becauseagain it's going to be a long season.
We have to make sure we havecontinuoency plans in place. But I

(02:08:16):
know it's something that he enjoys havingthe ball in his hand. So even
during their first time around the recruitingprocess, we even't talked about him coming
in as a as an offensive player. Ultimately we think his ceiling is highest
on defense. But you know,but I also agree. I think that
having you know, guys going onthis side of the ball and just see
it, listen to meetings is reallyhealthy for their development. So we're going

(02:08:37):
to do that regardless. Your defensiverecruiting right now is maybe further along,
and it's been in the year's past, and I think we assed numous questions
about it in the past. Butis this a product of seeing it over
the last couple of years, andnow it's not just telling you guys,
hey, this might look like this, they're seeing it in real time.
Yeah, you know, we talkedabout it when Jim first came in,

(02:09:00):
and I think Tim wallons an unbelievablejob as well in the back end,
and you know, Matt stepped rightin and James and Larry. I think
they're all doing a great job.But like you said, you know,
it's one thing to talk about it. That's theory testimony is just look at
this is this is what we're doing. And then I think you're seeing a
lot of guys just excited about playingin this defense and they see the capabilities
and the flexibility too. You know, right now the way we play,

(02:09:22):
excuse me, the way we playright now is based on you know,
we have four really talented defensive linementhat are really good, and we got
a lot of that to those positions. But there's also flexibility with some of
the things Gym's done in the pastthat you know, we're definitely looking at
and some of the recruits that we'relooking at who brings some versatility pass rusher,
you know, we have that jackposition and those type of things.
So, uh, that's exciting aswell. And I think you're seeing a

(02:09:45):
lot of the recruits, you know, really get fired up when they get
here. People. Yeah, coach, first years, your identity was very
very awful, standpoint and air itout type team. Look at the key
best talent, the playmakers you havethere. Because your identity change, I
guess what do you think the identityis of this point four? Well,
we'll see as we go, butyou know, we know what we need

(02:10:09):
to do to play in the biggames. That's never changed. And we
have to be able to stop therun, run the football, take care
of the ball, and there'll beopportunities to throw the ball that'll that'll happen,
but you know we're gonna have to, you know, do those things
to win close games and play situationalfootball. But I think, you know,
you won't really get a feel forwhat the identity of the team is

(02:10:30):
until we get into probably the beginningof October, you know, and I
think we all have ideas of whatit could go. But you know,
now that we're playing in a playoffformat, just like a lot of those
NFL teams sometimes, you know,they don't really quite understand their identity until
they get about halfway through the season. I don't think it'll take that long.
But you know, we're able toplay some games and kind of work
through some things. And I don'tthink our defense is going to change a

(02:10:52):
bunch in terms of what we didlast year. I mean, it's a
lot of the same guys back couldlook a little different on offense time for
two more go to Doug Limras.Hey, Ry, you lose an important
recruiting staffer to promotion at Michigan justthe second time. So Mu's gone to
Michigan this offseason. How do youreact to something like that? Is something

(02:11:15):
that someone like that would take informationthat was learned here that could help the
Michigan or Burt Ohio stages. Whicha reaction to that? 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, the ones that
are Buckeyes. Joe digon with thescheduling change that was announced yesterday, how

(02:11:41):
why did they come together? Didn'thave anything to do with the expanded playoff?
Maybe think at the beginning of theseason a little different. Yeah,
you know, I don't know allthat came in came with it. I
know it got presented to me awhile back, and you know I was
on board with it. So yeah, I mean I think, you know,
we do have to look a littlebit different at our scheduling as we
move forward, based on the waythe format is at the end of the

(02:12:03):
season. That's quickly about the linebackers. Got in here a little bit late.
How do you feel about your linebackers? Cody seems like hes like he's
lucky as a STARTERJ When do yousee his role being Sonny? When you
see his role being Gay and allthis guys? Yeah, good versatility all
those guys Rvel Reese, Like yousaid, CJ, Gabe, Sonny,

(02:12:24):
Cody. You know I'm missing acouple, I'm sure, but like that
was that the Rvel? Yeah,I mean these guys are very versatile guys.
You can see the length on them, and you know, they do
a good job in terms of likefitting the runs. They can they have
enough length, you know, tocover and zone, but they'll also blitz

(02:12:45):
and that's something that we wanted toreally work on this offseason is getting better
at blitzing, you know, andhopefully we can even take the next step
in the preseason. But all playmakers, I think when you when you see
us, you know, in thelength that we have there, we look
a little bit different than then inthe past, and and that's exciting.
You know when you when you tiethat in with our front four in the
back end, you know, it'simportant to make sure that the linebackers the

(02:13:07):
one they're the glue. Cody's hadan unbelievable off season. He leads to
he leads the pack with that group. But you're seeing a lot of those
guys come on la right, youtalked about this defense being similar to last
year. You could be very goodas a base you can be more aggressive.
How do you envision envision aggression?I believe in this team. Okay,

(02:13:28):
maybe it isn't true. You fellosethey finished second for the first time
around because race is that true place, no comment, that's but obviously when
they were recruiting, you're still backa couple of years ago. Jim Knowsan
been here a lot of defensive topicsin two years, and maybe it was
more telling me what it could looklike. And now I guess seeing what's

(02:13:48):
looked like over the last few yearsas that made you mount where they would
tell he was back then the makings. That's definitely true. They played great
defense last year and just seeing howwatching the film and seeing how they progress
and seeing how their defense played lastyear definitely helped me make a more sound
decision and having more facts about whatit would be getting into. And they
told you like, what's the bostsays, just my big maybe see yet

(02:14:11):
or more so the adjuster than thebandit. But at the end of the
day, I mean, I Ijust wanna play where I can get on
the field. Can plays this defenselook like what they were pitching you on
as a group. Has it livedlived up to what they were trying to
tell you what all looked like?Yeah, it definitely has. Do you
ever get next? Kick boil?What with camp around the NBA in the

(02:14:35):
build? Very genuine person. Hehe always keeps it straight with you.
Everything that he says. He hascome to fluition, so I can't knock
him on anything. He's uh,very close to my pops too. They
grew up together. So just knowingthat relationship with him and our relationship together

(02:14:56):
is I tr I trusted him both, like you sort of campaign into your
friends play uh next year? Orwas that something that you want to keep
doing? When would you like doingthat other? I did like doing that
Alabama, But at the end ofthe day, that's the coach's decision.
So I can't really uh speak onthat right now. What are your trying
to great guy, very int uhintelligent. A lot to learn from him,

(02:15:18):
he knows this defense very well.Just being able to learn from him
and see how he sees the game, well, I think that'll very progress
my my development. Gack, youlike be just stuff a matter. But
if you in those last places orI was, had you start to get
a whim in decibula, see youlike from me out if you do a

(02:15:39):
lot of backer deal maybe maybe it'ssomething about fast parting, maybe something something
you'd watch us to do that lastday. Anything lest you get brought in
and how would you really get guysif you hey, how you doing though?
Uh be good? I've been good. It was. There was definitely
some back and forth. There wasa lot to think about, a lot

(02:16:00):
to process between me and my family, So it wasn't really much to say
to the media or anything but atthe end of the day, I made
the decision and I'm here, soI'm glad to be here. Help me
as you press, what is thisI'm impact you think already characters like that.

(02:16:24):
I think the development from when Iwas a kid. I've been training
with my dad and my brother sincei was four or five years old.
So I don't wanna say I wasbuilt for this, but I mean,
at the end of the day,I've been doing this since I was a
kid, so there's barely been nochange. What did j did see a
delp right now? As you lookback over it about nicked? Safety?
What? What? What made himspecial? Very disciplined person. He was

(02:16:48):
committed every single day to being hisbest self, and not many people can
actually say that and be truthful withthat. He was the same person every
single day, and he taught mea lot about commitment, about being disciplined,
consistency, everything that goes with thatand being great. I feel like
that's what he embodies. What withdead in mind? What is it about
safety? Depress? What's a bita big sid shoot? What you know

(02:17:13):
what I mean? Everybody makes aa a pig kid, It's somewhere in
their lives and play offense A bigfans. What what is it about playing
deep fans with decike shooting, Ifeel like it's being a part of a
a bunch of moving parts that haveto work together. The offense has to
do their own thing, but thedefense, everybody has their own responsibility.

(02:17:33):
And when everybody can do their ownresponsibility, everybody's gonna make plays and everybody's
gonna be able to succeed. SoI just feel like being a part of
that and trying to help myself andhelp my team be better in terms of
that, that's a that's a bigthing for me. Were dead in what
what did you get to a safeabout? And as I mean, obviously
it's not to keep pens good,root deep at the teams? What what

(02:17:54):
do you give part you know youwould in defense with that kind of dooty
A lot about how to see agame pre snap and during the play.
A lot about going into the gamein terms of how you watch film,
how you study, what things tosee from the other team, everything like
that. That's that's what he teaches. What does now? I mean he

(02:18:16):
used to come off with us.It's a fairly intelligent guy. I mean,
what what's your person who's played likeyou? Uh? Very intelligent for
sure. He sees a lot andhe has an answer for everything in terms
of what teams can bring him.So I just feel like him the different
ways that he plays defenses that willallow me to develop in different ways.

(02:18:43):
Were you very instinctual player, veryathletic, being able to make plays all
over the field, being able tosee plays before they happen, you would
thinks to most of you, didyou just play much? Here? Is
it? Understand a lot of reasonshe age into a game or playbook much

(02:19:05):
stuff some teachers lay the team.I think I understand it more. I
mean, I definitely can't understand itfrom a uh Ohio State perspective cause I
haven't played, and then I haven'tbeen through that, so I can't really
speak on how they feel. ButI'm definitely hungry to be missing myself.
Do you feel what you said?Ay? Good reason? Why? An

(02:19:26):
like? What is it about it? You know? I mean when you
played for the mix day with theGreatest book, you argued with you about
that month or any type of thingsdid you that put that faith to you
there? What is what is itabout? When you'd like to play the
prodcast the first time around and thenthe second time did did they come back
at you? How peach together?What was it about games? That teacher?

(02:19:46):
Teacher? He was the same person. He was, uh, very
genuine when I was getting recruited highschool, and he was very genuine when
I talked to him two weeks ago. So just being able to understand that
he's about the people that he workswith, and he's very he believes in
the people that he's around, andhe believes in the people that he believes
in. So just knowing that andknowing what he stands for that means a

(02:20:11):
lot. He said, it wasa lot, but you were for it.
Oh, I know everything you sendup the bastions or are going how
what was that light in your agentgets what I make this recruiting on steroids,
I'd say I got like a hundredand two calls in one day.
So just uh, well not inone day, probably seven or eight hours.

(02:20:33):
But just being able to minimize whatmy mind was going through that was
a that was a big thing forme. And being able to make a
sound decision off of what I knew. He has new calls and caps noise
and such. I think that's finebrand howdy blocks as adults, but what

(02:20:54):
the kind of ounds is what Iwant him and make him sound pretty much.
You have to go silent. Youhave to be able to control your
circle in terms of getting your opinionsfrom people that you trust in, people
that you know you can count on. So that was the biggest thing for
me, just being able to understandwhat the people around me were thinking and

(02:21:18):
how I wanted to go about itright else you liked pop. At the
end of the day, I loveplaying football and that's what I'm here to
do. I'm not here to makemoney or do anything like that. I

(02:21:39):
know there's a lot of opportunities herein terms of the city of Columbus,
but at the end of the day, I'm here to help this team with
football games and I'm here to domy best and try to develop. So
you will though, oh cool,uh? I I played and coll throughout
my life, so it's not Imean, Georgia's different, but I mean

(02:22:01):
I've had some cold experiences, sothat's not a really the big thing for
me. You're going through the process, Dad of Paris for it. How
much did you talk to the porchas a hipas you could just fun with
what your rule get you. Youwere talking about public and also silver cause
I discussed okay, I wanted toget a public person to do just that.
It was discussed, but it wasn't. It's not something that was a

(02:22:22):
deal worker or anything for me.So I wasn't. That wasn't the biggest
the biggest yes or no for me? And what do you want to go
with the expectations of a bio statethe same expectations that I've had my whole
life, the same expectations that wehad at Bama to win games and dominate

(02:22:43):
every game and go win a championship. Anyway, you were a gew a
lot of going sport ones and sawthe culture they ever saw the uber leads
or you thinking of for a coupleof weeks if there's similarities in the approach
to how they go about and tryto what anagements? But would you give
this program just a couple of sistersthat we were just going to up.
They're trying to get chan into aleadership. It's all about the work,

(02:23:05):
It's all about the process. It'sall about doing everything daily to push yourself
to be where we need to beat the end of the at the end
of the ride, I'm just theprogram. Very help that, uh,
I would say the day of orday like before the decision, it was

(02:23:26):
m pretty much just sitting on FaceTimewith him and my uncle, uh,
just talking about what was gonna gointo the decision and seeing their input on
what they had to say about things. You need a free point. I'm
a I would say, I'm apretty respectful person and I respect the people

(02:23:46):
that reached out to me, evenif I really wasn't trying to look at
their school. So I'd probably say, like the eighty of'em, you
have to tell me to go upto the school gets what you might and
a girl the just because of atinghaving your other games, how come I
feel like you have to have somesort of idea. But people have an
idea where they're gonna go during recruitmenttoo, So I wouldn't say it's that

(02:24:07):
big of a difference, but youdefinitely have to have a more of a
singular mindset on a few places.Is that what ware you people? What's
your wife? Very calm, veryI like to chill out, not not

(02:24:28):
a lot to do, just uh, hang out with my people and hang
out with my friends, hang outwith my family, just be around people.
You got to make places to makefusses. How much is that for
me to bring about? It was? Uh, it was a highlight for

(02:24:48):
me for sure, just being uhbeing named at and going in a relationship
with Seawn Alexander he's a great personand learning about him. It was it
was definitely an honor for me.You're with lad something like that, I
feel like more than just late thanthe Sunday. You can compliment each other.

(02:25:09):
A lot of people in the secondarycan work together to be cohesive and
be uh a brotherhood. So butl Than and Sunny they've welcome me and
I appreciate them for that. SoI think us working together we can we
can do some real damage. Andif if there's a game, there's a
game that if you have them goto that a piece's who layer, it's
a bolgical day to national Which gamewould you play this to you and feel

(02:25:31):
like it's got to take? Iwould say as a collective the whole season.
You can see the growth. Youcan see the growth from the beginning
season to the end. But Iwould say M Mississippi State or Texas A
and M would probably be the besttoo interesting game happening? Okay, what

(02:25:56):
are you The fore of peasts isthe best particular? Yeah, oh,
I can't say that. That's that'sfor God to decide. I can't really
say that is it? Is itTwitter? Is it hot? Under recruit
as high school or referred to arecruitment. Definitely as a high school,
not as rushed. I would saytick like then you think VoMi gipec a

(02:26:20):
injury care or something. The mentalaspect of what have problems, I would
say, I'm e lead at that. Being able to watch film and determine
what are the keys to look ateach pay play. Being able to determine
which guys I need to change upmy techniques for Uh. Being able to
determine what I'm looking at in termsof before the play and what my teammates

(02:26:46):
need to look at before to play. I would say I'm i'm elade at
that and being able to make thosedifferences each week are a big thing for
me. They look you mentioned tothe move in the strength inditions my here
an he speaking that it's play grandier. Uh, there's a lot of similarities.

(02:27:11):
Uh. Coach Blue runs a greatprogram and I love everything that he
did for me there and those guysuh that worked there, like coach you
G you J. So I'm appreciativeof how they worked and they did great
things there. Coach Mick does agreat job here. So I can't really
say one's better than the other.But Coach MC he's he's a very intense
person. What do you have oneus apart? You know, what do

(02:27:33):
you have onea support than earlier?Oh? I love the city. I
love being around here. Uh.I love the feel of the town.
So just being a part of itis it's a great thing for me.
How about to see your I sI expect us to be one of the

(02:27:54):
best. I expects us to exceland be better than they were last year.
I expect us to be elite muchexcuse me real, I mean I

(02:28:16):
saw it, but honestly, itwas about me making my own decision.
Uh, me making the decision thatwas best for myself. So I mean,
like, if you're going against highLeague, you're going against high You're
going against you know, with theHero and k Mack and these guys.
Now we're getting really good gradable reps. That way. He had a great

(02:28:37):
he had a great offseason. Uh, just all started in the weight room
with Mick. I mean, hishis weights up, he's thick. He's
always been an explosive guy, butplaying with a little bit of power,
you know behind that he's learning todo that, you know, in the
natural maturation. I mean for allthose guys, you talk for him,
you talk, I mean just hisclass alone. I mean you're talking him,
you're talking George, you're talking Tiger, Like those guys are going into

(02:29:01):
year three, that's when you reallystart to figure it out your body,
the speed of the game, thetechnique, the fundamentals. And he's done
a good job of adapting and reallygrowing himself on the pace that you need
to for a young guy. That'syou know, coming out of the fire
a little bit. Last year hetalked about being at a better weight.
Now it's a better weight, it'sreal weight close to three hundred, and
it comes up being faster, moreconfident. Is that where for a center

(02:29:24):
like was last year kind of trialby buyer for him? Is it just
like how is that process? Butnot playing at all his first year starting
Mitchew. It's for whether it's CarsonHensman or you know, Johnny Jones,
like you get thrust into real repsand the full speed, it's faster than
you've ever seen. And so nowhe has that book of work too that
he can look back on where theunderstanding of the game, the understanding of

(02:29:48):
the speed of the game, theintensity. You know, I've said it
a thousand times that he doesn't getincrementally faster or stronger. The game mentally
slows down for him. So hecan use his skill set that way.
So what is that we're talking about. It's his way, that's his strength
because those numbers are going up,so he can play with more pillar strength,
he can play more contact, hecan play more comfortable. Even though

(02:30:09):
his forty time didn't go from afive to zero to a four eight A
made himself in that he just jumpedright in. Unbelievable job both ways of
him just coming in with shelving theego that he had he really had none
and walking in saying I'm walking intoa room as we told him when we
recruit him, like you're coming intoa room a bunch of good dudes,

(02:30:30):
and then our good dudes are gooddudes. He came in and there was
no it's like you're here here's howwe do, here's how we operate,
and let's go. And so thatlearning curve for all those whether it's a
high school media guy or a veteranmedia guy that transfers in, there's a
learning curve there just you know,circling back to what we had natural maturation
a little bit because he's been througha little bit of spring ball, he's
been through a little bit of camps, so you're still learning new terminology,

(02:30:52):
you're learning a new skill set.But he just dove right in and wanted
to be a sponge and wanted tolearn it. He's doing a good job
and he's improving every day, youknow. So that's what's making the battle
and the competition all these graded snapsreally you know good for us is because
they all have that mindset. Sofrom seth awesome, the unit in the
group awesome because there was no combativenessto it. It was let's get in,

(02:31:15):
let's go, and let's compete andthen let the guys wint uh,
just learning the same deal all youngguys you come in, you got to
learn how to play in friction.So having you know, three tech,
having a two I, having thoseguys like right in front of you that
every time you take one of thosereps and you're out of your base or
you're in your base, you feelthe good, you feel the bad.

(02:31:35):
So being more consistent that way,you know, you can't make moves or
shift guys if they're not mentally there. And so for him, he's got
a pretty good football FQ. Sohe's continued, he's growing every day,
he's working and he's getting beat everyday too, and he's learning from those
you know, so in the springtime, you know, we have saying in
our room, we're like in thespring it's yes and it's no, and
I know it's k and ow whydidn't the rep work? What happened?

(02:31:58):
And how do I make sure Idon't repeat the same mistake. And so
whether he's coming in and watching thetape on his own and then come up
with questions, he's grabbing me andwatching tape with me, or we're coming
doing stuff as a unit, he'slearning so that the same deal of the
game can slow down and he getsmore comfortable there in friction. So,
I mean he's his weights up,his strengths up. He's spent an off
season with Mick. You know,there's a lot of development that still has

(02:32:18):
to be had. Obviously not afinished product, but being able mentally for
a guy to handle that, youknow, helps a lot concern. Similar
to Luke a leaner guy. Didyou tell him that he paid you to

(02:32:41):
say that? That might be thefirst time he ever heard that in his
life. No, uh, nowyou know Luke Carson, whoever it may
be that that jump of eighteen tonineteen nineteen to twenty year old kid,
that plays a lot into it too. Being in a full year with Mick.

(02:33:03):
I mean all those guys you comein at midyear, like your Devo
and Dion and Ian Moore. Rightnow you're keeping your head above water.
That's your whole first year. Nowyou can actually get and we can sit.
So when you sit and talk abouta jam combo or a lock or
whatever the call may be. ToLuke, he registers that and not like
something new, because then there's paralysisby analysis. So I think the mental

(02:33:26):
part, on top of another year, natural maturity of getting bigger and stronger,
that's always gonna help. You're notgonna guys here, They're not gonna
regress. It's gonna keep adding progress. And how fast can we get that
going. It's what we're working onevery day with him, but said that
he had been ball guard to thispoint, and coach Day mentioned it several
times that like, Josh could playguard too, and you guys are trying
to work through that fire. Yeah, he's I mean Josh could play all

(02:33:48):
five. I mean he snapped theball in high school. You know,
Josh had a great offseason. Butfor you, when you're going through the
spring and it's fact finding an experimentation, how much do you want just put
them in different spots or not,because you also have an eye on August
to try and settle on a fiveman rotation. What's you have to get

(02:34:09):
a really good gradable set so thateverybody has numbers of you know, just
like we said before, how manytimes have we done a run blocking of
pass blocking in this situation so thatthat all evens out. So that's it's
not experimentation, it's just making surethat you get a good book of work
to look at and grade that soas we you know, work guys around
the platoons and go just to makesure that everybody gets good gradable reps.

(02:34:31):
So we can sit back by theend of spring and say, all right,
this is you're comparing apples and applesand oranges oranges and not you know,
apples oranges, because it's completely differentthat way. So that's kind of
the thought behind that. As you'regoing through the spring A couple of years
ago, I would have pulled youto be here as offensive. What would
you said? That? Laughed?You know, but then I said,

(02:34:52):
you know, it's college football,so who knows, right, what's that
been? Like, I'm sure you'reenjoying. Yeah, I mean he just
added to another piece of just goodpeople here. I mean, you're still
you're coming to work here with guysevery day, you know, with the
kids, we talk about a ton. But then for us as coaches is
the staff. So adding just anothergood dude that's in the room. Obviously

(02:35:16):
as he says something, and youknow, he might speak in old terms
or terms that we had, youknow, maybe be a little bit of
a Rosetta stone like no, no, this is this He's like, yeah,
that's right, because that happens toall coaches. That happened to me
when we got here. At first, I was at with the coach day
sometime with Ryan's like, you know, what do we call this because he
was in a system like that before. He said, oh this is this
now. So I think just theyou know, translation of the Rosettes stone

(02:35:37):
there help. But just overall standpointof adding a great guy, that's a
great coach that's been around, that'she's going to supplement the room. And
every time you add something new tothe room, then that makes the room
better, It makes you individually better. Oh look how he does that.
Maybe I could do that. MaybeI can bring that to my meeting room.
Maybe I can bring that to communicationto the staff or to the kids

(02:35:58):
or whatever it is. Because he'she's done it for a long time,
and he's done at a high levelfor a long time. So it's good
to add that guy to us andthen continues us the rest of the staff
for me and Brian and Key andand and everybody just learning and growing with
that kind of specifically, just Imean, does he from a talent standpoint
is does he see things sometimes othersdon't see? I mean, does he?

(02:36:20):
I mean you know, I meanwhat does he kind of bring from
the chalkboard aspect of things? Well, I mean what you're saying, so
what does he see? It's goodto have fresh eyes come in that maybe
you know you're getting a routine andyou get in a rhythm and then all
of a sudden, running game,uh football. You know, he's one
of those guys I think goes intothe category it's forgotten a lot of more

(02:36:41):
football than some people have learned intheir life. But no, his he
I believe he coached every position onthe field, both sides of Balter's whole
career. So as he looks upand he writes when he's talking about,
well this will linebacker is going todo that, then he might have coached
that at Columbia, right, orthis is what the three texts gonna read
on the down block of a tacklebecause he's coached the offensive line and it's
been the coordinator for a long time. So just a really good vision of

(02:37:03):
big picture understanding and you know thenext step and not just being right now.
Yeah, if he had a themeor whatever, it is spring because
ob means it seems kind of likea how to make it or breaking time
for him. But the time tostep up and step in. The point
was nobody cares. Nobody cares whatyou know, what struggles do you have

(02:37:24):
or whatever you gotta go to yourfield to get the job done. I
mean it's if you don't anything differentabout Tag or do you get what do
you see about Tiger? Yeah,he was competing his butt off. I
mean he's kind of living that way. You know. That's why we have
that the red line over there whenyou cross the line. You know,
Coach State talks about that here likethat. It's it's the game doesn't care

(02:37:45):
you're off the field. You gotto come out and step out and do
your job. It doesn't care aboutanything off the field. Right. That
can sound really negative and harsh,but then it also if you just spend
your tone like isn't it beautiful thatthe game doesn't care. It doesn't care
that your skin cult or your socioeconomicbackground where you've come from. If you
just want to do it the rightway in the fifty three and a third,
the game will love you back,you know. And so I think

(02:38:07):
it's the approach mentally that guys takethat way. So yeah, for Tegra
he's he's taking that approach like hewants to come in and be a guy.
So he's fighting and cawing and scratchingevery day. So when he makes
a mistake. He's trying to correctit when he does it, well,
he's trying to enhance it. Andthat's what competitive people do and that's what
he showed up to do. SoI that's that's good that he said that's

(02:38:28):
coming on the field been like asa center And is that difficult when you're
coming in to a new offensive lineto have that? Or is there something
made about the center position if you'vebeen experiencing at it like he has,
where you kind of have that.I guess a command on the field over
with any officive onse, so tosay it over and start over again.
You're saying the comfort of center withwho now seth Okay? Yeah, I'm

(02:38:50):
saying, like, how has hisHiggs command of the field been and hasn't
been difficult? I guess to adjustfor him if he's to have a certain
level off field command you know atthat time, Yeah, I mean it's
on command. It's just great communication, getting everybody on the same page.
Yes, having a bunch of bankedreps helps. But then when you do
come into a new offense. Uh, just like we talked you know with

(02:39:11):
Chip a little bit earlier. Youknow he might have called it yellow and
we call it green or something,but when it came to Ohio State,
is that you know, the expectationis, yeah, I'm gonna have everything
I need. And I think that'sjust gotten better now going at you three
where you can really look at itand say, we have veteran players who

(02:39:31):
understand the defensive understanding the position,plus the great athlete. What do you
like about Sonny antact? Most ofyou know, it's a it's a change
for Sonny because he's playing in thebox, you know, from a low
position instead of dropping in, sothings happen a lot faster. But you

(02:39:54):
know, he's reacted superbly. Imean he's he's a guy who's got football
intelligence. He understands the scheme,played a lot of physicians. I think
he's gonna be great because one ofthe biggest, uh parts of being a
linebacker is you have to know everyall the pieces around you. Saying you
can play fast and uh, youknow, something's showing a lot of that

(02:40:16):
in the first two days. HowJim, how did that many see turn
the spots where where you where youst bat Yeah, I feel it's it's
permanent. But you know, interms of face and and Nickel packaging.
You know it's permanent, but theremay be other things where he'll still have

(02:40:39):
multiplicity. You know, there's gonnabe packaging. What gives you up to
the climb back at this level?Is that verd you do if you just
just going into the just swum thepretty five pounds now? Or give you
to be bodies against? Who isyour moment ho ste Im? It's is
that things? Yeah, a littlebit of both. I mean, anytime
you make a move, you wantedto be right for the player and for
the you know, the defense andthe team. And I think that fit

(02:41:01):
up naturally. You know, Sonny, Sonny had to fight to stay lean
as a DV and now he nowyou know, he gets to east,
you know, and and uh andbut I think it worked out for both
of us. Idea of this kindof sto well, you know when you

(02:41:22):
when you when I first met him, when when I first got here.
You know, I think every everybodytalks about, you know, he's going
to be a linebacker. He's goingto be a linebacker. But I really
wanted to see him at safety first. That's what he wanted to do.
That's what I wanted to see,you know, I felt long term.

(02:41:45):
In my vision for him that playingsafety early in his career was going to
give him a better perspective of thedefense. You know, had Malcolm Rodriguez
who was with the Lions at OklahomaState. Now he's about half a sunny
eyes, but he started as asafety and when he became a linebacker he
understood things a lot better. Somy visions of Sunny was to, you

(02:42:07):
know, start him out of safetyand then eventually move him down. How
is CJ Hicks doing? And CJand and Sonny competing for the same spot
and generally speaking, yeah, Imean, you know, part of the
time they are you know, partof the time we'll have all three of
them on the field with coach,So there's balance there and that they're competing,

(02:42:31):
and they also could be in thesame package. But CJ's got a
great attitude. You know, I'vealways felt that CJ has a lot of
pressure on him, you know,being from Ohio. But he's coachable,
and he understands growth and our plansfor hit him. And he's got a
great attitude and gay powers. Where'she at entering his third year? Probably

(02:42:54):
and I didn't you didn't see itbecause he didn't play a lot in the
games, but in our opinion,Gabe, you know, the second half
of the season, what we seein practices, it's probably one of the
most improved guys he really was.So he made a huge jump second half
of the season in terms of whathe was doing in practice and when he

(02:43:15):
got into the game, a hugejump. You know. So I feel
like he is a guy that isgoing to compete. He's a guy that's
gonna be ready. You know.I feel like he's made tremendous improvements and
we can start to count on him. Are you looking at just to Will
right now? Or is he aguy that's moving around to the Taj's moving

(02:43:35):
around too, you know. Soyou know, you get into a three
linebacker package, you know, Sonnyand Cody and CJ. You're you're pretty
good right but now, but youcan't just have one yob so you know,
the son he's not there at theSAM then CJ's got to know how
to play it too, you know, so that you can play gave in

(02:43:58):
at Mike, Cody can play well, you know, and you still have
a great line up, so youalways have to plan for you know,
Okay, we'll start out this way, but who's who's in next? So
CJ has to know both positions too. Yeah, are are y'all still a
four two five defense? How wouldyou? I mean? Yeah, we're
still fortune five? Yeah, no, absolutely absolutely we're still Fortune five,

(02:44:20):
but multiple multiple deployments at times,you know we can be four three.
But yeah, you still got someright, So now you got Yeah,
you got Sonny at a sam backerwho's who's has experienced playing safety, you
know what I mean? So thatthat that really creates more multiplicity. How

(02:44:43):
does it help you do your jobnow that you have a full time linebacker's
coach and j Yeah, it's uh, you know, just having James initially
last year was a big bonus becauseof his experience and and the way he
works with the players. He's anicer to them than I am. You
know, the last year it wasgood cop, bad cop. You know,

(02:45:07):
now the bad cops left the room. So I'm sure the players love
it. You know, the season, I think the defense, when you
look at the defensive line and feelsettled. What in the secondary it feel
settled? I think outside looking atline back in this spot, what what's
their what? You know? TheBate's question about time kid in disap that
have the right guys to make thatweek started. Yeah, really confident.

(02:45:33):
I think adding sunning it into thatmakes a guy who's got a lot of
experience, a lot of playing time, you know, that really bolsters that
position in that room. So I'mconfident in what we have there. Cody
Simon, you know, is aguy who we think is gonna be great,
and he's hearing the a leader ofthe defense, So I think it'll
be a strangle you feel like yousee other those team you know. Yeah,

(02:46:00):
r Vel. You know, wekind of experimented with r Vel at
the the end last year a littlebit, and you know, I keep
getting asked, you know, canhe be a linebacker? Can he be
a linebacker? And I think he'sgonna be a great linebacker. You know,
he just needs growth and learning.So I would like to just continue

(02:46:22):
to grow our vel mentally in footballintelligence, you know, at the linebacker
position. So will there be arole for him this year? I don't
know, because he is so athletic, you know, he's a guy you
kind of look at and say Ican do different things with you know,
when we get to the season.You know, that's a guy you can
always create something for that doesn't involveas much thinking, you know, so

(02:46:46):
he can just go. But outhere, I want to keep growing him
as a linebacker because his time willcome where you're as far as the Jacks.
Yeah, I mean it's it's it'salways you know, I'd like to
get it in this spring. Youknow, we didn't used it, dabbled
in at year one, didn't useit last year. It's always in our

(02:47:09):
package, you know, so atsome point we'd like to get to it
just to kind of keep it fresh. Jam look like registerials. What do
you like about their technique? Size, sport. Yeah, he's got great
speed, you know, good size. He's just that he looks like a
nickel. You know, his skillsare his skills are like a nickel.

(02:47:35):
So you know he's still learning.But you saw Jordan make just cement tremendous
progress with that last year. Sowe gotta we gotta bring Lorenzo on there
team last year, but you kindof keep it there. Yeah, Hero

(02:47:58):
really flashed last year at time iswhen you go back and watch the film.
So, uh, the fact thatwe play a lot of Russman,
I mean that's a that's a guywho's whom he's to have a good thing
for us because he's gonna be uh, he's going to be next man in
you know. And you know witha guy like Hero, he starts to
really come along. You know,you start to look at some you know,

(02:48:24):
double egle type of packaging. Youknow. My thoughts are you know,
with the with Jack and j T. You know that at some point
I want to train them as outsidelinebackers. You know, so if you
got Hero Ti League of Tie andyou get to you can get to more
of you know, uh, youknow, five five guys, five d

(02:48:48):
lineman in the game. You know, with training guys like Jack and and
j T and Kiyata, you know, it's just kind of in my thoughts
like if we're strong inside those thoseguys can become more multiple, you know,
and I think it's techniques and thingsthat they can use when they get

(02:49:09):
to the next level. So that'skind of been my thoughts too. Expound
on that a little bit. You'resaying Jack and JT possibly with that outside
linebacker concept, what exactly, Well, you know, you're always looking to
get the best eleven on the fields, right, so when when you look
at a twelve personnel set. Yousay, Okay, I got you know,

(02:49:31):
Sonny, Cody and CJ with withbefore down. You know, you
know, could we have another componentwith you know, Jack and JT and
and three tackles and Cody and Sonnyor Cody and CJ. You know,
I think you know who's going tobe who's going to be the best eleven

(02:49:52):
you know against bigger sets. Couldit possibly be hero you know, versus
having a third linebacker? It couldit be three tackles? You know,
that's in my thoughts. We haven'tinstalled that yet, but but I I'd
like to get to that just tosee. And like I said, I
feel like with those guys, uh, the more they know of how to

(02:50:16):
really be an outside linebacker better,it's gonna help them when they get to
the next the next level. Soit's something I'd like to do for them
to do. Yeah, I expect. I mean Lathan was making very good

(02:50:39):
progress. You know, always lovedthe way he played, his attitude,
his physicality. First year, youknow, he had some eye violations.
You know, he was he wasimproving on that until he got hurt.
So you know, he goes down. I'd say the responsibility is you know,

(02:51:01):
first and foremost to lead by example. I can sit there and I
can say all the things that Iwant to say, talk up a storm.
At the end of the day,you gotta just you gotta work the
work, got to do dut're supposedto do. And I think that's gonna
ultimately lead guys in the right direction. So that's just the thing that I
can kind of take it on themost is just lead by example. Hit

(02:51:24):
Yeah, Okay, Well the quicklooks hurry, I'm a flying standpoint to
me, like we had a goodyear last year. I mean you know
what I mean, if we ifyou look back at your pop so so,
how far have you come in thatround? Yeah, I've came along
with It's it's a very say.I'd argue to say tight end is probably
the most developmental position on the field. It takes a long time to get

(02:51:46):
around to. It takes a lotof work. I think it's a full
process. It's not something that it'sa winner turnaround or a six month turnaround.
You come and trying to catch iton the fly and something that takes
a lot of time and attention.I'm just thankful for, you know,
my great, great coaches ask andthe great unit around me guys from back
then starting off with you know,rout from those guys to kid, I
think there's been a great example forthe way they're supposed to attack, blocking

(02:52:09):
and being tight end here out ofHill State. And I've been just you
know, thankful to be able tohave that example. We feel the way
what are you wait now? Fortywhere? What's for? What's it been
like when you have world quick?Yeah? Well, what's been great?
He's been good as somebody that's camein humble and is ready to work.
That's that's been like the only wordsthat I have from not not a minute

(02:52:31):
of just like many words, buthe's here to get up here to work
and he's done just that. AndI'm just we're glad to have you learned
a lot at start walking or justkind of it's a horn puck like I
know you guys were sorry Billy youmissed your guy anyways, but also that's
what he's you know, you guyshave learned a little bit. You guys
learned a little bit of walking intoYeah. I think essentially that's the that's
the culture of our room is whenwe come off football, violent we're looking

(02:52:54):
to swing as hard as we can. We'll clean up the details out And
so that's kind of our mindset goinginto it. And uh that you freaking
your flocking off chas how hard doesit go like to know that you still
be a receiver? So your inreality like you know you're us block What're
you gonna do it? Like?How hard is it to kind of change
the resection do what you want?I know you guys don't pay attest with

(02:53:15):
like outside noise, but also blockpeople that she Scott like catch but really
pretty good from walking too. Yeah, I'd say it starts off with like
you kind of got to It startsoff with tuning out with the outside noise
and and what other people have tosay about it, and it's really grew
up the mindset. I kind oflook at it as it's like a drop
in a bucket. You know,if I got a big bucket, there's

(02:53:35):
no one thing I'm gonna do tomake this bucket full. It's it's a
daily thing where I put one dropit in the day and you look back
over a year, two years,three years, you look back and be
like, man, I've gotten alot better. And so like I said,
I'm just very thankful for the unit, the guys that I have around.
You pushed me very hard, butI'm just thankful. You mentioned that
you're bout that's really harder today.What was the most challenging part of you

(02:53:56):
to me developing into the sad Yeah, I'd say it's definitely the size component.
You know, you can't you gotto be someone that's you know,
one the You gotta be big,you gotta be strong, you got to
be fast. With a lot ofjobs that a little blue, it's a
very asking job. You need tobrought the big some of the biggest guys
in the field, but also runroutes off some of the smallest guys in

(02:54:16):
the field. And so I thinkjust thankful just to be out here and
do exactly that. What was itlike to get that shot the other day
in front of the pro scouts,you know, just run routes, catch
falls, oh yeah, show off. Yeah. No, it was a
good opportunity. I think some ofthe big you know, reasoning behind it
was just kind of giving those guysout there that we're at Podamia limited numbers,
so just get out there and givethose guys a breather. But the

(02:54:37):
need the opportunity to get to goout there in front of scouts. I
think that's a it's a pretty gooddeal. And your take on the quarterbacks
to this point, the quarterback battleis going on. What what what's been
your take on Will? For example, we'll get to know him. Yeah,
and then of course David, Ithink the mindset that be embody around
here is ironing, shoppening iron andso that's kind of like it's not just
you know, one room, it'sfrom top to bottom thought this whole team,

(02:55:00):
no matter what positions you are,we're here to work and I think
we're all here to make each otherbetter. Whether it's in a corner back
room and tighten room, were runningback room, offense, pirus defense,
coach for his coach, doesn't matter. We're all just you know, iron
and shopper and iron. Especially inthis time of year in spring ball,
we're not doing too much game planningfor next week, which we're really just
spending this time to get better andbuil just build a good foundation for ourselves.
It's something to work on moving forward. If you've seen Will, Will

(02:55:22):
Howard fitting in more and more isthe practices have gone on you know,
getting the note of the body andall that kind I mean, I know
we've been beenner for a while.Yeah, No, I think I think
that's time. I think as timesgoes, no matter where you are,
you start to adapt and you startto get used to the what we got
going on here, and so it'sgood to have them. Thanks you.
Yeah, came in. What's itbeen like, Yeah, the morning polution.

(02:55:54):
Yeah, I'd say when it comesto that, I think it's all
the Lord to the Lord. AndI decided to give my life completely to
the Lord a little over a yearago, and that kind of really changed
my outlook on the way that Iapproach in football. It's no longer something
that I idolize. It's just somethingthat I do. And I think from
the time of my life where Istopped, you know, compartmentalizing who God
was in my life. God wasn'tjust something that I do on Sundays or

(02:56:16):
something that I do in a Biblestudy. It was something. It went
from what I do to who Iam. And so now I embody that
is who I am. And sosome of the fruits of the spirit is
peace, patience, and kindness,and so those are kind of the things
that I've started to embody this onthis journey. I think it's easy to
kind of compartmentalize football away from faith, but ultimately it's all one. It's
all one, and so it's givenme a spirit of patience, peace and

(02:56:41):
enjoy with the guys around me.And so I'm just I'm thankful. I'm
thankful to be here. But justbeing quite honest, I just I know
for a fact, I wouldn't bewhere I'm at right now. And I
know on the outside looking in,you know, asked like, you know,
where are you right now? ButI wouldn't be where I'm at,
you know, right now if itwasn't for my you know, relationship with
the Lord until they came into mylife and you know he changed around for

(02:57:01):
the buddy. Gee, what didyou see from Bennett Christian last year?
How did you go that suspension andhow did you work through about who you
are? Yeah? I think hedid a great job. A lot of
perseverance. I think that's no matterwho you are, we kind of hear
news like that that you're gonna beout for a year. That's hard no
matter where you are. One thing, I'm really proud of him because he
you know, he came up andhe he he came to show up every

(02:57:22):
single day, and he got better. He got better. The easy thing
to do in that kind of situationis a throw in the towel and be
like, man, you know,you know, forget this, or you
know, I'll get better next year. But I saw the drive at him,
one thing I seen out of him. Every day he showed up,
he got better, and I'm proudof Bennett. I'm proud of this unit.
Last question seemed like you said whatyou feel here in your herd?

(02:57:48):
I mean, yeah, I meanI don't know. I don't really know
how to answer that question. Becauseif you go from one unit to another
unit, the moment you trade units, you're no longer in the unit you
were initiative in. So you're you'renow a tight end. And so I
mean to answer that question, Ithink the time that I went from in
the receiver that approaches things. Ilove the way the questions he asks.

(02:58:09):
I love the way he makes mistakesand then correct mistakes. Uh, it's
very veteran, like I mean,there's so much ball he has to learn,
Like he literally does things that aregood. I'm like, do you
know what that worked, he goes, coach, I have no freaking idea,
So like I'm trying to teach himall of that why it worked.
So then you know, the consistencyat which it works just goes through the
roof. And so but I'm veryyou know, excited and proud of the

(02:58:33):
conversations we're currently having, and I'mexcited it for them to keep going.
I love working with Chip Chip is. I love talking ball, I love
the viewpoints, I love I lovethe veteran that he has, you know,

(02:58:58):
and uh I love I like,I love all of it. I
think that, you know, earlyon the biggest impact, you know,
just you know, feeling perspective.I think in the run game has been
awesome, you know, and thenyou know, off of the run game
some of the actions or or reliefthrows or all that kind of stuff.
I love where it's at. Ilove working with them, and I would

(02:59:28):
say that I sleep a little betterall right. Uh No, It's it's
really a great combo because like youknow, we're obviously we're doing a lot
as a group. It's not justChip and I so but you know,
obviously Chip has an image and aview on things that I never had,

(02:59:48):
so to have that experience and havethat viewpoint, I'm just trying to absorb
as much as i can, butthen also highlight some things that we've really
done a good job of and makesure those you know, nothing really changing,
We're just trying to enhance. We'renot changing, We're enhancing. So
where the things fit is perfect.You know, I think, uh,
you know, the rest of thedynamics and search chip can talk about.

(03:00:11):
But it's been it's been awesome,so I'm excited about it. We talked
to a mecha and you just talkingabout moving from slot to the outside.
You know how good we've been inthe spot. Is that a difficult move
for you guys just coaches to knowhow good a guy is in on one
spot, but know that maybe forhis long term future and the the No,

(03:00:31):
I wouldn't say it's anything on hisfuture, because he's capable of doing
whatever you want to get done.But I'd say that it says more about
the room. I think it's it'sthe growth of you know, Brandon and
the growth grow of Bryson that's reallyyou know, allowing my mind to say,
hey, mech be prepared. You'regonna move around a lot. You're
gonna come out of that slot.You're gonna be outside. We're going to

(03:00:52):
create mismatches out there. I mean, his ability to move around is critical.
But I would say between mech andbetween Carnell tastes ability to move around
a lot, it's gonna provide alot of flexibility for our room and uh
and those top you know, sixseven guys that are really doing a good
job right now. Progress this springfor like a because there's no time.
It's one of those things. I'mtrue when you has balanced how much the

(03:01:13):
work does a need versus ho much? Yeah, heavy, heavy emphasis on
what work he needs, you know, versus anything else. Uh. I
rely on him. We have greatdialogue back and forth. It's a two
way to It's a two way conversation. And frankly, there's would be times
we're like, hey, Max,what do you wanna do today? You
wanna go outside and go inside?And I don't care. So, Uh,
we're not there yet. We willbe there, but it's just more

(03:01:37):
about, you know, when theroom is ready to start mixing things up.
I would say, there's God.I mean, I make sure I

(03:01:58):
bring in guys that are able toto do all, but I have not
asked them to yet. So theonly guys that in our room currently I've
asked to do that has been Meccaand Carnell, and those are probably the
two guys that would, you know, think heavily on doing moving around a
lot. I'm not putting that onanybody else right now, not saying they
can't, but at this point,having two guys be able to swing,
you probably don't need much more thanthat. I need guys being experts at

(03:02:22):
what they're good at. So itit helps the offense still be great at
everything and be an expert at somethingand we can use that to our to
our advantage. Situational, the room'salways different, frankly, I mean from
twenty eighteen and then nineteen and throughCOVID and and those guys, and and

(03:02:43):
then the depth of those guys andthen where 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 tobe different again, I'm not sure at
what level yet. Last question,relationship between the EV room you're watch especially
you know, back of the forwards. I'm curious Yeah, Depu as a

(03:03:05):
leader just like you, you know, played at Ohio sas at Intel experience.
I'm curious about how you've seen himkind of build a different backer,
especially on the recreetab not a successfulguys and maybe kind of the effective you're
recruit How how that's gonna been againstHe would probably know more for that question
than I would, but I wouldsay that, Yeah, we obviously feel
them right at the work. Helloeverybody, Darius Robinson, University of Missouri.

(03:03:31):
I just want to thank mister Billwill Mont to you coach Gannon for
this amazing opportunity. I'm glad tobe here with Marvin Harrison right next to
me. So uh, I feelgreat. I'm really excited and I'm excited
for this journey. Gratefully see fifteenhere in town. Marvin, when did

(03:04:03):
you know the Cardinals were going toselect you? Did you know before they
called or was there an agreement inplace before? No? I did not
know until I got that phone callfrom the Arizona Cardinals. Marvin Richard signs
fox Den, Welcome to the valley. I know kind of tweeted to you,
tweeted out to you once you gotdrafted. What was it like to

(03:04:24):
get a message from the franchise quarterbackand what kind of thoughts have you had
about teaming up with this guy inthe near future. Hey, yes,
sir, it's been great. Youalways want to support and love from your
quarterback and to cause a great playerser excited to play with him, and
it's gonna be my job to makehis job easier. Darius Darren Urban from
Azycardinals dot com. I know thata lot of players these days aren't sticking

(03:04:48):
in one school for a long time. You did it for five years.
I mean even Marvin did it forthree. Like what went behind that and
why was it meaningful for you tostay at one school? Yes, at
Missouri, you know, we hadsome tough seasons, but we were really
built with an edge, energy,details, gret in, emotional consistency.
And I just find myself just tryingto grow and get better each year and

(03:05:09):
also as a team, you know, win more games each year. And
that was my that was my home, I was my family. I was
blessed to you know, get twodegrees as well off the field, and
I just love MISSOI two degrees.Wow, Marvin, Bob Mcbob McMahon and
Arizona Republic. Congratulations, Thank youto both of you. You're known as

(03:05:31):
all business, and I want toknow how that's going to serve you well
in this league. From personal standpoint, your brand, everything you do in
a daily preparation. There's a lotthat goes into being all business. Tell
me what that is to you.Yeah, yes, it's being a pro.
It's kind of raised and grew upto do and keep the same mindset,

(03:05:52):
same attitude that I've had throughout mywhole career. Once I get here,
continue to work hard, be consistentand discipline you know, and all
that I do. So I'm lookingforward to putting the work. Hey Marvin
Josh Wayne for ESPN, what werethe best pieces of advice your dad gave
you about being an NFL player?I mean, yeah, it takes a
lot of work, a lot ofpreparation. You know, from Monday to

(03:06:15):
Saturday, it's all work. Andthen you know, Sunday should be the
easy part. I go out thereand have fun, ready to put the
work in. So it starts withthe work first and then when Sunday comes
its Rieka benefits. Hey Darius Howard, balls are from cards Wire. I
can't help but notice that ring onyour finger. Is that a cotton bowl
ring? Yes, it is thecotton bowler. You showed it to Marvin

(03:06:39):
very quickly. No, I wastelling Marma. You know he was glad
he didn't play. The whole weekleading up. You know, you see
Ohio State. Everybody said, okay, Marvin Harrison, and now he's is
he gonna plays? To go play? He didn't play, so you know
we lucked out. So hey,Marvin Paul KELBC Cardinals Broadcasting, do you
believe that receivers have to earn thetrust of their quarterback? And if so,

(03:07:03):
what does that usually require? Absolutely, you got to earn the trust
of the quarterback. And think itstarts every day in practice and being consistent.
Really, and you can't just doit one day, can't you do
it for one week? Has tobe done over and over and over again.
I think that's how trust has earned. So no matter where you get
picked, when you're first receiver it'sround seven, doesn't really matter. Have

(03:07:24):
to go and earn trust for thequarterback, your coaches, your teammates.
So it all starts in practice.What's going on, guys, Good to
see again, Tyler Drake, there'sno sports systems. For Darius, what's
the feeling of just being able torepresent your school as that first round pick
and what kind of impact can thathave for those guys following in your footsteps.
Yeah, it's awesome. I feellike I'm setting the standard going forward.

(03:07:45):
But that's the name of Zoo isknown as Delon Zoo, so I'm
just added to the family. Butnow I feel like I'm setting the standard
for my younger teammates that this isattainable if you work really hard, be
consistent, and really get trust yourshort coach. I feel like every program
has built out the shrimp coach anddevelops all the habits on and off the
field. Darius Zachersmanezi Cardinals dot Com. Right over here, JG mentioned that

(03:08:07):
he loves the violence that you playwith. You mentioned the different tendencies that
you picked up. The emotional consistencyis the great. How do you balance
that the violence with discipline on thefield. Honestly, just through preparation and
practice. I'm a big guy.I'm a big believer in inside hands,
so that's why I'm always working myhand placement and then I lift weight,
so you know that's all connected.So I'm just trying to be focused on

(03:08:31):
my technique as much as possible.Hey, Marvin over here, David Brown
with the Associated Press. You knowa lot of rookies come into the league
and they get a little bit ofleeway. It's like, oh, he's
young, he needs to grow andstuff like that. But obviously you're gonna
be expected to be the guy herereally quickly. How do you deal with
that pressure? How do you goabout just so much being expected of you

(03:08:54):
so quickly. I mean, yeah, I have high standards for myself,
but I'm just gonna go in thereand try to work the best I can.
I just want to help the teamwin really, so without that role
I play, you know, comeSeptember, let me do my best do
that role. This one's for bothof you guys. The fans want to
know who you guys are on theinside. I don't know how much you're

(03:09:15):
willing to reveal to us today.A lot would be nice. Can you
tell us what you like to doaway from football? What what pisses you
off about things, and you know, what what makes you roll. I'm
pretty simple, like you know,be in my apartment, watch a movie.
If I go out and I goto a restaurant, get some food,

(03:09:37):
but other than that, they dotoo much. And then I'm pretty
easy going, guys, so trynot to nothing bother me too much.
Yeah, I said the same thing, A real chill guy, just really
obsessed with football. But outside offootball, like I said, I got
my two degrees. I got myundergrad hospitality management and the minor and business
got my masters and Positive Culture FLAleadership. So just thinking about being well

(03:10:00):
rounded. And then I do philanthropywork. I started my own nonprofit foundation,
Darius Robinson Helping Hands Foundation, Butreally just football and then everything else.
Honestly, congratulations, guys, welcometo the Valley. I'm Robbie Baker
with Fox ten. Darius. Thisis for you. After the draft last
night, you had a great responseabout how your process and preparing for a

(03:10:22):
game, just kind of wondering whereyour love for kind of the grind comes
from, and then your love forthat process comes from. I would say
my junior year, because I playedlittle league ball off and on. But
I got my junior year and Iwas playing high school and my whole goal
is just to earn a scholarship.But during that process I really fell in
love with the game, fell inlove with working out relationships with teammates,
and now it's kind of like myvice and I can't let it go and

(03:10:45):
just kind of finding ways to alwaysget better, you know. Luke g
litting here with twelve Sports. Congratsto both of you, Welcome to the
valley. This one's for you.Marvin. I'm curious your thoughts or what
was that conversation like with your dadafter your name was called and you were
able to be drafted by this organization, and how surreal is it for you
to be following on your own father'sfootsteps but in your own way. Yeah,

(03:11:05):
I mean it was very brief.Actually, just in the second graduations,
I walk up to the stage andthen I had to do a bunch
of interviews after words. So Idon't think it's hit both of us yet.
I don't know what's happened. Ithink, you know, one of
Michaels always make him proud, soI hope I did that. Marvin bo
Brock pH and X Sports. Whendo you anticipate catching your first passes from

(03:11:26):
Kyler Murray? I don't know.I don't know. I guess we'll see
and hopefully as soon as possible.Darius, you mentioned philanthropy, and I
know there's been it's been talked abouthow you took some of the NI nil
money to do get back to schoolfor the kids in Colombia. Where where
did that belief in doing those thingscome from? I say my family,

(03:11:48):
My brother and my mom really instilledthat into me and to me at a
young age. Just give back yourblessings to others. And my fifth year
on MISSOU is the best year inmy life, so why would I not
share my blessings with others. Sothat's what really motivated me to do that.
And now being in NFL, youknow, my goals to do three
events each year. I just giveback because you know, it's life outside
of football and bigger blessings out there. Marvin, you obviously played with a

(03:12:13):
number of highly drafted receivers at OhioState. What sort of feedback have you
gotten about the NFL from them?And you know about making the transition in
the league itself. Yeah, it'sa long season. I think going from
a twelve game record season you havein college to was it seventeen games now?
And you got three preseason Actually justthe biggest challenge the game stations thing

(03:12:33):
obviously never all skilled and very talentedathletes. So the mental part is probably
the biggest thing and the biggest changefrom the college to pros. Marvin,
what's your timeline for hiring an agent? Right over here on the way part
right, you haven't hired an agent? Why is that? Is there a
timeline to hiring one? And areyou going to sign the NFLPA licensing?

(03:12:54):
I think the taalle on this teamis really good too, and I think
that I can come in here andmake a big differ friends, you know,
and we can win a lot offootball games, you know. So
that was my That was part ofmy decision. Your achilles quick names like
how tough was that? How longdid see? And where are you at
now? I'm one hundred percent now, And it was like a walk in

(03:13:18):
the park. It's like a sprainedankle, you know. It was very
easy, you know, because Ihad the knee. The knee was pretty
hard, you know, and theAchilles was I would say it's easy,
you know, just because that's justmy mentality, and it was it was
pretty easy to be but you know, I've had these injuries and it's been
storm like the past two years,you know, having haveing like good,

(03:13:43):
great games. The next thing,you know, hurt and then you know,
so got got the injury prone outthere, you know. But I
think the storm is over with,you know, you know, and I
think I'm gonna gonna take off now, you know, and there will be
no setbacks and injury prone thing willbe gone out of the window again to

(03:14:05):
yep. Also, you gonna beback. I am. I am excited.
You know. He does a lotof great things, and he's a
great person, and we have agreat relationship. It's gonna be it's gonna
be a fun year. We're gonnahave a lot of fun. We're gonna
do a lot of great things.So I can't wait to here waiting.
The injuries you've had, Is thatjust bad luck? Is every Is there

(03:14:28):
anything you've can attribute to beyond justmisfortunately? Yeah, it's just unfortunate,
you know. But God has aplan always, you know. I don't
know what the plan exactly is,you know, I don't know, But
whatever plan it is, it's forme to be here. You know.
I had a great rookie year.Uh I didn't. I didn't really have

(03:14:50):
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 there's
always been like, all right,guy, let me show my talent shine
a little bit. Like even whenI had the knee. So I had
the knee, right, A lotof people don't know, like I didn't
get hurt again. Whenever I gotyou know, got cleaned up. So

(03:15:13):
I went down in twenty one,right, had the injury, the knee
injury, and then came back laterthe next year, and I played the
first few games and it just feelthere was a lot of scars issue in
there. So I had to getit cleaned up. I didn't get hurt
again. I could have played thewhole year, but I got it cleaned
up so I can feel like me. And so after I got that cleaned

(03:15:35):
up, the first two games backfrom the injury, I had over one
hundred and twenty yards rushing right,and then went on had great, great
ending of the year, you know, one hundred total yards in the playoff
game we lost, which I hatethe most. Stays, don't marry me.
I don't want to win, butthen come back the next year hurt
again like torn achilles. So tworeally unfortunate injuries. But that's just God's

(03:15:58):
plan, you know. And Ithink that the storm is now over,
you know, And I do thinkthat I'll be able to shine my light
to the whole world. Are youconcerned that you have that label you can't
stay and free? I could careless, because I do. I do.
I know this out there because asas it should be, it should
be. I got hurt two majorinjuries back or not back to back years.

(03:16:20):
But you know, so I haven'tbeen on the field as much as
I should. That's true, thatis true. But it's not like I'm
having these little little dinky injuries andsitting out. It's something I can't control,
literally, So that's why I'm notbothered by like, yeah, I
am injury polling. You could saythat, you know, But I do
think that the Chargers are getting aguy that's gonna be healthy from now on,

(03:16:45):
you know, God will it,and it's gonna be great. And
I do think that it's gonna beIt's gonna be a great. However,
many years here, when you've beenon the field, you've been highly adopted
years been very average for your career. Like knowing that when you're out there
you're very adopted, how much confidencedoes that give you? That really all
you need is what you need allthe confidence in the world, you know,

(03:17:09):
the way I work. I wouldn'tsay just from the numbers, but
just the way I work, mywork ethic, you know, and my
relationship with Jesus is like I havethe most confidence when I step out there
because I do know, like ifhe grants me the health, it's over
with is I don't think I wouldbe you know, I think it will
be a great year or whatever,a couple of years. However, many

(03:17:31):
years he grants me great health,you know. And I think just the
work ethic, my prayer and allthat stuff, that's what helped me have
that confidence. With the numbers willbe there and they might be higher after
this year, you know what I'msaying. And it's crazy to think about
because I had six six yards percarry, you know. So we'll see

(03:17:52):
you're looking forward to running behind thisline that they put together. Oh yeah,
yeah, yeah. I played withBradley. I played with him,
you know, I know the slater, I know all the I know all
the guys, you know, andI'm excited. I think it's like I
said earlier, it's a talented group. You know, we just got to
put together win some games, causethat's what I came here for. That's
all part of you, or Iwouldn't I wouldn't say part of the recruitming.

(03:18:16):
But like whenever I decided I wasgonna sign, it was great to
have him in the room. What'syour relationship, Yeah, we're great.
We're we have a great relationship.That's he's like my brother. So I
think a company ch compliment each othervery 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

(03:18:37):
parts of his game two which itIt'll be great because I feel like I
could do everything and 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?
What would like? What will bethat partnership kind of back there? I

(03:18:58):
know that's a hard question. Andhow do I think I think it'll look
beautiful? You know a lot ofpeople call it a passing league, but
I think you got to run theball to win the super Bowl. You
know, if you look at theteam to win the Super Bowl, they
can run the ball, they cancontrol the clock. And so if we're
both good, it'll look great,beautiful. How would you describe the Gregor

(03:19:18):
running offense? I would I woulddescribe it as, you know, a
great offense. I think he givesa quarter he's going to give the quarterback
a lot of options. He's goingto give the running back a lot of
options. He's gonna give the receivera lot of options, you know,
And I think it'll be I thinkit's gonna be great. His offense is
going to be amazing. When wetalked to him, you know, I

(03:19:41):
was like, why have you beenable to build something good rushing offenses throughout
your career every where you've been,And you said that one part of it
is just you got a call place. You got a call running place as
a running back. You know,how much confidence, how much excite does
it give you? You know,you have a play caller that's gonna stick
with it and allow you, andit gives me a lot of excitement.

(03:20:03):
You know, it's gonna be.Like I said, it's fun to play
at his offense, you know,and I think he does have some good
things in the past game too,But like you said, he sticks with
the run, and that's that's theidentity. You You want an offense that
has an identity, right, youwon't be looking everywhere else to find your
your identity. You want to haveit. And so I think his offense

(03:20:24):
has that, and the guys hebuilds and puts in there, it complements
that identity. So I think it'sgonna be great, your hundred percent,
so you'll be full go for traininghim. That's Look, I ain't gonna
answer any of the four if it'sup to me. Yes, Look,
because I had this problem like threetwo years three years ago, I'm thinking

(03:20:46):
I'm full go. I think I'mready to go, and the next thing,
you know, I'm on pup like, hey, look some story above
my prey pay grade. So butI don't know. Hopefully I can start.
I think I'm ready to start atthe beginning of training camp, but
that's not up to me. AsI've learned, I'll tell you I wouldn't

(03:21:09):
say that I think I've been I'vebeen in some great organizations, and I
think this, This organization is agreat organization, and the training staff is
great, and so they just wantwhat's best for me, you know,
and they're they're taking care of me, which that's what you want in an
organization. And so that's where thatcomes from, which I appreciate it,

(03:21:30):
Like I really appreciate that, youknow, because I'm the type of guy
like I work really hard, somaybe sometime I'm blind to you know,
the danger of something, you know, So I appreciate it. But like
I said, if it's up tome, yeah, I'm out there.
But never know what that igrustration foryou during the heading into agency, you
know, dealing with with rehab andnot you know, having won a full

(03:21:52):
season tape or production to go outthere. Is there any part of that
where you're like, god, youknow, have hit the open market with
a difference issue. Yeah, nah, I like it. I like,
how would I say this? Ilike it the hard way, but not,

(03:22:13):
you know, I like it thehard way. I like it.
I like trial and true relations.So I mean the dice that I was
giving the role was I was comingoff of Achilles, and that was that
was the Lord's plan. So itwas beauty in that like I was comfortable.

(03:22:33):
I was caught like there was multipleteams, you know, I wasn't.
It wasn't like I didn't have anyother team. But I was comfortable
and sitting back and just I thinkit's like you know how to write,
like when you use your right hand, you know how your handwriting should look.
It's about taking the reps to makesure matches. I guess, you
know, so just taking the repsto get back to that. I think

(03:22:56):
it's all what it does. Imean obviously like he's one of my biggest
supporters, you know, so obviouslyyou know he's he's he's excited about the
opportunity for me, you know,so I'm excited about it. Help you
with oh a lot. He helpedme a lot, even felt like the

(03:23:16):
first day, just trying to helpme get used to to write tackle.
He got in my feet, usedto write tackle like my first day practice,
I'm like, dude, I stillfeel he feel a little off.
I don't feels balanced to my stands. And he showed me the small technique
and to do with my feet,which I still do even even though left
tackle just kept part of my routine. That was part of my process and

(03:23:39):
getting to my stands. So stufflike that that he taught me from day
one, and obviously in practice wasfun just compete with him, you know,
it's just to meet at the backof the pocket and to dap each
other back to every rep like thatwas competing, you know what I mean.
So that's my guy. As muchas you loved him on shore the
West Side, how bittersweet is whathappened to him. Yeah, that's the

(03:24:03):
thing. That's not how it wasdefinitely how I and and that's how I
thought about a transition will go.You know, I thought it would be
you know, on homeson timing anda cardinal his whole career, you know,
you know, even want to playhere forever, you know what I
mean when always talk about his plans, so you know, you w you

(03:24:24):
wis transitions like one of those fairytale like it's your time now. But
but again, either way, youknow, we talked about it. You
know, that's that's the how itgoes, you know. But obviously you
know, he sees he's he's beenone of my biggest supporters. Again,
I felt that everybody leads in theirown way, you know, not everybody's

(03:24:48):
the guys coming arounds like, that'snot everybody, right, Like I think
for me, that's me specifically ongame day with the O line after we
do one on one, that's mylike what Hump did, Like, that's
my like big vocal time. Ifeel like I've talked to Hump about this,
you know, just recently talking abouthow what I want to do for

(03:25:11):
the room is I want to bringthat Hump energy that he brought right so
last year. Of course some traitsbeen doing it for years, but the
year when I spent with him,he brought a lot of the energy and
excitement and the happiness in the roomwas just his natural energy to where I

(03:25:31):
only had to focus on me,you know, I didn't have to make
sure other other guys are you know, feel some type of way when they
came in here because Hump brought that. But out of Hump's not here,
but I saw what he did forthe room. I want to be that
guy to make sure everyone's ampt togo to practice, everybody's hype weren't taken
and field team one period. Youknow it's a low day or something.

(03:25:54):
You know, it's it's a day. But like I want to make you
feel like right now, I wannabring that cause that's when Me Hume did
to each other. We willahpe eachother up, dudes like dudes about to
be walked through. They were lit. So I wanna do that. I
wanna bring that energy. I wannamake bring more guys you know, to
do that. You know, yeah, I wanted to do that from day
one, you know, I kindof I wanted to do that from day

(03:26:18):
one, from just talking to'em. And obviously it's that time. I
spend the off season before OTA startedjust being in myself, just thinking about
what the room needs, you know, because I know I knew a new
role as one of the leaders,you know on my offense is that we

(03:26:39):
need a guy like that that's gonnamake sure the old line is picked up,
ready to go every day and itwas held accountable. Little things aren't
happened to practice, People aren't sayinganything, and how I may lead maybe
different than somebody else may lead.You know. I like to a practice
at least like to leave with positivity, you know what I mean? So,
but he the energy yet went beyondjust the hype up the dale and

(03:27:03):
start too. So that's kind ofhow I wanna be s goal mine literally
my whole life. I want tobe a NFL team captain, like specifically
NFL. I wasn't a captain ofhigh school. I wasn't a captain of
college. But I made a jokewhen I was in high school, so
I did, I feel like,I'm not gonna be a captain til I
get to the NFL. Yeah,but that would be awesome, you know,

(03:27:26):
but you know, if it happens, i'd be great, but not
either way, I wanna assume arole as a captain from the respect of
the guys on the team visual wordto me and to get back to that
word. Yeah, I mean,I can't say that. I mean,
I guess the biggest thing is thatI felt like it has felt like how

(03:27:50):
it you used to in the past. But it didn't take just the first
day Olta's. It took training leftand right once the season ended, cause
I didn't know what it was gonnabe sure, So it took a lot
of yah reps just to get backto feeling like myself for day one OTAs
and then that whole first week.But now like today specifically, just changing

(03:28:13):
some small things with my feet Idid today talking about a line coach about
some things I can do with myfeet to get to the to sell at
the traditional angle that I love toset on. Felt even I thought I
felt I thought I felt great alreadyby Mokat, I felt even back up
there. So I'm even more excitedtomorrow. Now I'm getting my feedback than
how I liked it the right sideand on the left side, So I'm

(03:28:35):
excited. I mean, obviously,I feel like in the league, whether
I left or right, you're stillgoing against premier guys, So obviously you
have high expectations for your left handor right tackle. But there's definitely uh
like the the level of energy andlike the expectations definitely taking the human spect
cause now connected the black side thatstuff that's the tackle roll, you know.

(03:28:58):
So so yeah, I would sayin terms of communication as far as
just even outside the facility and juststuff like that, like really creating that
but tackle quarterback bond even more offthe field, I think has been something
that's even been cool. I gota text one day and it's like,
hey, like you play left,and I was like, yeah, you

(03:29:20):
know, yeah, I've been trainingboth. I've been training both, you
know. I asked after the season, They're like, honestly, you know,
we'll talk to you still play inthe season, and I just got
a text. I'm like, dependingon what happens. But with the free
agency then, so I was like, you know what, I had a
whole season right tackle. So ifI get the word, I'm going I'm

(03:29:41):
standing right tackle. I don't usedto do what I did before. I'm
built on that bus. I waslike, I might as almost trained the
left tackle now as if I'm gonnabe a left tackle, and I'd rather
do that than training on the righttackle. Get the ko, Hey you're
the left tackle. I'm like,oh, I didn't even switch my feet
yet, you know what I mean. So I'm like, let me just
prepare in advance. Say yeah,it was god. You know, I
think occasionally on third down there wouldbe a lot of twists. I would

(03:30:05):
just know like it's automatically coming.And I fact, that was my mindset
for like the first half of theseason. Like I didn't have to go
into a game and was surprise like, oh my gosh, they did that.
I kind of figured like, okay, like this is this is the
type of rushman again. Like thisis how this guy usually rushes, but
I get the vibe. This ishow the ends like the rush, you
know, tackles that are you know, first year guys who got the premiere

(03:30:28):
patch on. I already knew whatit was gonna be, already knew of
every stunt and honestly just knowing thatit's kind of an advantage too, So
you're not you're not you're not old. They brought the twist on my side.
Again, it was never an AaronDonald, like you know, they're
coming out of minds, like threeplays in a row and two minutes.
I knew that it was going tohappen, you know what I mean.

(03:30:48):
I'm watching more than everybody else andhe rarely England goes out there on occasional
third down was on the d M, and I was like, already know
it's gonna be. He's gonna pickme, you know what I mean,
So fact fact it's kind of it'salso kind of a thing in the way,
but it's also exciting, like,Okay, I'm gonna get the hardest
look. You know, those arereal, real reps, you know,
the bank, So really, II don't know, I really didn't kind

(03:31:11):
of process that I was like,hey, when they tell me to let
me know, but I'm just gonnatrain it. I was training all left
to Ta's. I guess if Ididn't hear anything about Ta's, I would
have came in like so you knowwhat I mean, Cause just like I'm
cool training both continuing, I wouldhave been cool training both continually. But

(03:31:33):
I feel like anybody, any positionwill be like, okay, like you
wanna as soon as possible get yourfeet of accountability at the time, Thustin,
what about what did you seeing theguy counted always? Yeah, I
mean he's quick. You know,he can create a lot of space and
uh small spaces, so uh it'squick, you know, uh savvy with
its rout running, and you knowhe's just he's just a hard worker,

(03:31:54):
you know. You know there's someplaces where he knows he's not getting the
ball and he's still still winning orout. So you know, just to
have that player, uh a aplayer like that give that much effort uh
on the field every play, it'sreally really good to see. And I
think it's you know, really uhgonna rub up on the other guys too.
I'm good about the I'm getting anotherwhat's it like working with Uh some

(03:32:16):
of the tight ends that you guyshappened room there. I know a you'
smith his story just talked about theversatility that a lot of the guys have,
especially in that crip. Yeah,I mean we have a different uh
uh a lot of you know,different guys in the tight end room.
You know, Darnelly brings sides tothe room. Uh, Rodney Speed,
Uh Connor he has a great awarenessin the field. Pat of course he
you know, he's a great allthe round tight end and then uh you

(03:32:37):
know, uh Crew, he's ahe's a bat. He's smart, he
knows what he's doing. So,I mean just all the guys in the
rooms, you know, they're smartand intensive and they've i f I feel
like they're ju justice to the offensive. Well, so, what's it what's
been like working with tom or fromwhat's he from? Kind of work on
what you want? Yeah, Imean Tala's been great. Uh just his

(03:33:01):
a tis attention to detail, theway he comes you know, in each
and every day. He comes inas the same guy every day. And
uh to Beyonce c ibn' you know, I don't think I've had to coach
that detailed as Tom. You know, he's very detailed in terms of you
know, practice with you, sendingus uh the info, breaking down each
and every play and really just reallyjust focused on the detail. To be

(03:33:24):
honest with you, I think,uh, that's the thing that sets him
apart. And you know he's hepushed us to be hard, I mean
our our indie periods or you knowconditioning. So of course that's good for
us. But I mean he's beengreat so far. So excited to uh,
you know, allow that our allowour relationship to grow, and excited
to work for him is what he'sdoing kind of compliment what you're doing individually,

(03:33:46):
you know, when you're away fromthe facility, working with you know,
coaches, one on one anything likethat. He said, what does
he what does he do here thatkind of compliments what you do away from
the facility when you're troubling. Imean I think he does different stuff.
So I think, uh, that'sa good thing about it. You know
some stuff that we do here,Oh sorry, uh, I don't you
know, usually do outside of thefacility. So it's good getting that different

(03:34:09):
work in different drill work that Ican and you know, implement into my
you know, off season program andstuff like that. So it's good that
I'm learned this stuff. For sure. You're real deep all off efficiency sources
a time, how it especially thelast year what what did what? What
is uh arga Smith in the offensetalk about you about trying to make make
that incorporate that into being a bigpart of this allor I mean yeah,
Uh, I think we have fastguys, guys that can get down the

(03:34:31):
field with speed, Uh, guyslike Quez, Calvin, Scottie Van,
you know, me and Rust.You know, we've we've had a lot
of deep of all success and alot of explosive plays in the past.
So you know that's just uh youknow what, Yeah, I guess how
our offense is built to be honestwith you, but I mean, our
job is to create explosives and youknow, push the ball down the field.

(03:34:52):
So anytime we get those ops,we definitely wanna capitalize on those.
Are you tossing any part of yourmechanics and anybody plum that? I mean
yeah, uh, I think there'salways room to improve, uh mechanic wise
and stuff like that. So Ithink you know, Matt Baker, uh,
he's a quarterback assistant. He youknow, usually stays on me the
most about it, So I appreciatethe fact that he does that, and
I usually, you know, makesure he doesn't make sure. I just

(03:35:16):
just stay on top of it,you know, as a whole, and
you know, make sure my mechanicsare always clean. Can you talk about
one particularly albument that they're stressing.It's it's different areas. To be honest,
I don't think it's just one specificarea, but it's it's different areas,
justin in your opinion, was there'ssomething that you wanted to work on,
maybe get better at when you gothere at this point of your career.
I mean, like, like Isaid, there's you know, no
matter who you are, you know, there's always stuff to get better at,

(03:35:39):
always different areas. Nobody's perfect inone area. So I think you
can continue to prove in all airin my game, you know me personally,
So I'm just focused on getting better. You sho never do. When
we talked to Russ yesterday, hesaid that Rust said that he personally felt
kind of revived you you, beingat another step in his career. Is
there any of that sense of mayberejuvenation or feeling revived. So you haven't

(03:36:00):
been in the league for thirteen years, but is there a new energy that
you get being in a different organization, going through mini camp in a different
way for the first time. Ithink, so, you know, just
being around a new team, uh, an organization that's you know, just
just with this culture. You know, me being in two different places now,
you just I realize that, youknow, you don't get this culture

(03:36:22):
everywhere. I think Chicago, Ithink they are you know, kind of
changing the narrative now, but Imean this has just been the culture here
for so many years to where Imean you can see it. It's just
the way that you know, weattack each every day and coach to you
know, he stays honest about it. So I think just having that and
uh, you know, reiterating thatyou know each and every day, that

(03:36:45):
keeps guys in the toes and guysare ready to compete each and every day.
Is it easy to step into anorganization when there already is such a
culture that's been established for a longterm to kind of know where you fit
and know what's expected. Most mostdefinitely, I think, you know,
especially as a leaders player on theteam, you just don't have Thank you

(03:37:07):
for checking out this content from postsat Sports. If you watch this p
on YouTube, please like the videosize least. Yeah. I mean,
I think college football is different andh ideologies and understandings and have changed.
And I think that, you know, the portal is a variable, and
I would say that, not himin particular, but I wouldn't say everyone

(03:37:31):
doesn't really know how to handle itproperly. You see it currently. I
mean, it's just it's a variablethat's new and how to handle it.
There's not a transcript 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 sayingthere right or wrong, but he was
trying to do the same, anduh, you know, I think at
the end of the day he realizedhe made made the wrong decision and we

(03:37:54):
connected on it, we talked aboutit, and you know, it was
a great opportunity to to or wrong. And uh, obviously we're very glad
he's here. I've always believed inhim. We believe in him, and
he believes in himself. And that'spart of the just trying to understand what's
my path? Right? So,uh, but yeah, it's been great.
Stuffs have been made. He's growing, but he's nowhere near where he

(03:38:16):
knows he's capable of being. Andhe's just probably a priceless Caeremiah. I
love, uh the way he lives. I love the way he approaches things.
I love the way the questions heasks. I love the way he
makes mistakes and then correct mistakes.Uh, it's very veteran, Like I
mean, there's so much ball hehas to learn, Like he literally does

(03:38:39):
things that are good. I'm like, do you know what that worked?
He goes coach, I have nofreaking idea, So like I'm trying to
teach him all of that why itworked, so then you know the consistency
at which it works just goes tothe roof. And so but I'm very
you know, excited and proud ofthe conversations we're currently having and I'm excited
it for them to keep going.For you, working with you. I

(03:39:01):
love working with Chip chip Is.I love talking Ball, I love the
viewpoints I love I love the veteranthat he has, you know, and
uh, I love Noah like Ilove all of it. I think that

(03:39:22):
you know, early on the biggestimpact, you know, just you know,
feeling perspective. I think in therun game has been awesome, you
know, and then you know,off of the run game, some of
the actions or or relief throws orall that kind of stuff. I love
where it's at. I love workingwith them, and I would say that

(03:39:50):
I sleep a little better, allright. Uh No, it's it's really
a great combo because, like youknow, we're obviously we're doing a lot
as a group. It's not justChip and I so but you know,
obviously Chip has an image and aview on things that I never had.
So to have that experience and havethat viewpoint, I'm just trying to absorb

(03:40:13):
as much as i can, butthen also highlight some things that we've really
done a good job of and makesure those you know, nothing's really changing.
We're just trying to enhance. We'renot changing, We're enhancing. So
where the things fit is perfect,you know, I think, uh,
you know, the rest of thedynamics and search Chip can talk about.
But it's been it's been awesome,so I'm excited about it. We talked

(03:40:37):
to a mecha who's talking about movingfrom slot to the house side. You
know how good we've been in theslot. Is that a difficult move for
you guys as coaches to know howgood a guy is in one spot but
know that maybe for his long termfuture and the no. I wouldn't say
it's anything on his future, becausehe's capable of doing whatever you want to
get done. But I'd say thatit says more about the room. I

(03:40:58):
think think it's it's the growth ofyou know, Brandon and the growth grow
of Bryson. That's really you know, allowing my mind to say, hey,
Mech, be prepared. You're gonnamove around a lot. You're gonna
come out of that slot, You'regonna be outside. We're gonna create mismatches
out there. I mean, hisability to move around is critical. But
I would say between Mech and betweenCarnell Takes's ability to move around a lot,

(03:41:20):
it's gonna provide a lot of flexibilityfor our room and uh and those
top you know, six seven guysthat are really doing a good job right
now. Progress look like this springfor like a because there's no time.
It's one of those things I'm surewhen U has balanced how much the worst
does a need versus much. Yeah, heavy, heavy emphasis on what work
he needs, you know, versusanything else. Uh, I rely on

(03:41:43):
him. We have great dialogue backand forth. It's a two way to
it's a two way conversation. Anduh, frankly, there's gonna be times
where like, hey, mech whatdo you wanna do today? You wanna
go outside? You gonn 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 make and
things up, I would say there'sgot I mean, I make sure I'm

(03:42:18):
bringing guys that are able to doall, but I have not asked them
to yet. So the only guysthat in our room currently I've asked to
do that has been Mecca 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 putting that on anybody elseright now. I'm not saying they
can't, but at this point,having two guys be able to swing you

(03:42:39):
probably don't need much more than that. I need guys being experts at what
they're good at, so it ithelps the offense. Don't be great at
everything and be an expert at somethingand we can use that to our to
our advantage. This is different,like maybe you guys who are more situational.
The room's always different, frankly,I mean from to I was in

(03:43:00):
eighteen and then nineteen and through COVIDand and those guys, and and then
the depth of those guys and thenwhere Mec 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 differentagain, I'm not sure at what
level yet. Last question, rrelationship between the TV room for your right,

(03:43:20):
especially you know the back of theforwards. I'm curious acause yeah,
Dbag as a leader just like you, you know, played at Ohio.
Has any help stands. I'm curiousabout how you've seen Tim kind of build
a different mart backroom, especially onthe recruit probably not a succession guys,
and maybe kind of the effective yourrecruit, how how that's kind of been
anced. Yeah, he would probablyknow more for that quart all the way

(03:43:43):
through ten years in this league.So excited to see what he's got.
How old did you know sorts andwhen he was assistant here, and i'd
gotten to know him a lot thatit wins a relationship. Maybe right now,
I know him pretty well. Hewas always just a good dude around
the facility. He did our ballmeetings, so he's good in front of
a group. He's a good leader. He knows the scheme really well,

(03:44:09):
which is good. I was happyto see him promoted. He called me
in the offseason, we talked.I just congratulated him, and I think
he's gonna bring something similar to whatwe had with the Miko. It'll be
good. Do you know Brandon Stanleywell at all? I mean, obviously
Joey play for him. I don'tknow too much about him. I've obviously

(03:44:30):
heard from my brother, but Idon't even think i've said high yet.
I haven't ran into him yet,but I'm sure i'll get to know him.
When you say it looks similar tothe Miko of the energy or system,
maybe a little different energy, butI think just knowing the system from
the front to the back, Ithink he knows how it ties in.

(03:44:52):
And he's been around with some reallygood coaches, so I think it'll be
pretty pretty seamless, and I thinkwe'll be firing on all cylinders. You're
three months removed from the Super Bowlnow, so how have you? I
guess digested it and I guess physicallyeverything good to go. Yeah, I
feel really good. I think it'sbeen one of my better off seasons of

(03:45:16):
just kind of It was a longyear, so I took it nice and
slow to get back into it.Not as young as I once was,
so I'm taking at 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,

(03:45:41):
so that was another reason I'm excitedto be here is just to get
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 what about. It's back from tough

(03:46:01):
losses, so it was rough fora little bit, but no, just
annoying when people bring it up.Since the last season. We've seen a
Rock on TV commercials and on thestage with Kluke Coombs and throwing out the
first pitch in the Giants game.But he seems like a guy that's totally
unaffected by celebrity, which he hasnow. But what have you noticed in

(03:46:22):
his leadership style and the way hecarries himself any difference at all. I
think he's definitely getting a little morevocal within the building. And uh yeah,
I mean I don't think he's evergonna change. I don't think he's
somebody that's gonna change even when hegets paid next year. So he's he's
a man of faith and he kindof reminds me of Scotti Scheffler, but

(03:46:46):
except for just super humble and reallygood kid. And yeah, he's definitely
famous shuffler. I don't just fromwatching Armstead get released obviously meant so much

(03:47:11):
to the defensive line into the team. I mean, Colin John were pretty
open that they were willing to talkabout trading Deebo or are you at you?
Does that just another what's that feellike in the locker room when those
sort of joels happened. I didn'teven know that happened and I wasn't here,
but you're talking about this offseason Armsteadin alarm Eric released, So that's

(03:47:35):
certainly one thing. Yeah, it'sa tough business, for sure. You
have to have thick skin and Ihaven't gone through that, but I think
you just have to understand that itis a business and the team's going to
try and get as good as itpossibly can with or without you, and

(03:47:58):
you have to look out for yourself. That's why you go through holdouts and
do certain things that seem selfish inthe moment, but it is what it
is, and when everything's settled,we're gonna come together as a team and
try and go get one. What'sthe overall feeling around the group right now,
Like, how much does it feellike the excitement of the ramp up
to the season, Even though it'searly, it feels good. It's been

(03:48:20):
a couple of days for me,so I like all the new guys.
I'm getting to know everybody, butI think the passes in the past and
we're ready to go. Do youtalk to Be You talk to Be at
all about handling the business part ofthis? He's going through something similar.
We chat a little bit, butnot too much about the details. They

(03:48:41):
just told him to keep his headup and try and stay positive through it
all. First impressions when you heardwhat your schedule would be in that Aaron
Rodgers' First up, it'll be fun. Yeah, it's gonna be gonna be
a good one. Excuse me tothis for the fact that last year you
had to have that hold out forsaid that affected you somewhat early in the

(03:49:07):
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 to have the opposite last year? What might be? No, I
don't think that's one of the reasons. But I just talked to Kyle and
he kind of asked me. Hekind of stated how he felt about why

(03:49:28):
it would be good for me tobe here and asked if I agreed.
And I agree. So it's notlike I'm missing too much. I think
I'm out here. It's a littleless workload than I'm doing back home,
so it's kind of a good activerecovery thing for me. And I'm getting
football stuff, football working specifically,so that's good. I'm not it's not

(03:49:54):
compromising my training at all, andI get to meet all the guys.
It's positive. Joey Kitson news brother, your brother, did you have to
like let him down and say,oh, no, he's he's there.
He's got a new regime over there. Did you get you first? I
actually thought I was coming next weekuntil recently, so I was gonna have

(03:50:18):
one more week at home, butwe're both in California. Everything you could
like share about Conn's reasons, reasonsthat you agreed with for being here,