Press Conference (Tim Walton)

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Uh, it's great. Uh he'staking a great step forward. Like I
said, he he he's he's he'sthe next guy up man. I mean
he's been extremely you know, importanton the the growth of our secondary because
now you know, we working himinside some Uh he's play outside uh at
both corner spots. You know,he got that it factor, you know
what I mean. So so welook what he brings the energy to competitiveness.

(00:25):
We gotta build off the the lastyear uh and expand the role for
him and make sure he's uh,he he's ready to go. But he's
been doing great. Bit is uh. We just authentic really not giving a
lot of recruiting talk. It iswhat it is. We try to shoot

(00:49):
straight, honest communication, honest assessment, the character, the value, the
work at it, and the mainthings the competition. You gotta compete.
If you don't want to compete,it's not gonna be the place for you.
Because that's the that's the thing thatwill get us where we need to
go is competition in the room.And those guys here love to compete.

(01:12):
We sell that. We're looking forguys who embrace that, who chairs being
in those spots and you can taketime to grow. You know, you
don't have to have the pig mentalityof problem of instant gratification. You know,
you can develop and grow so andsometimes you may be behind a guy

(01:33):
that's a really good player. Isnothing wrong with developing and growing and playing
when your time is right, andif the time is right right now as
a freshman like well, Jermaine,did you play early? You know,
so we try to also sell that, you know, we care about them
as people and try to prepare youfor life after football. So it's bigger
than just football. We're going toprepare you for life, whether it's the
NFL or on what a regular careerin the in the workforce. We want

(01:55):
you to prepare you as a youngman, and we try to sell that
and preach that to the pair withGermain and having that impact that you mentioned
and rolling all these different spots.Do you anticipate you know, there wasn't
a lot of rotation among the cornerbackslast year when everyone was healthy, And
do you anticipate maybe rolling him throughthe rest guys here with the longer season
potentially, Yeah, we play itby here, you know what I mean,
We see how it goes by thetime we get in the camp.

(02:17):
But you know, obviously he he'searning his stripes, so you know,
I mean, when you earn thestripes, you know the job to create
opportunities for you, you know whati mean. We have to see how
it goes with all that other stuff, you know, once we get closer
to the season and we'll get intogame plan stuff. But he's doing a
great job, and he's he andhe's taking a great step forward. Tim
is the way that you can buildor the way he kind of ested I'm

(02:38):
sure right now it seems like it'sbeen the centerpieces kind of relationships and kind
of building mind. And I'm curious, is that something that you came in
with the like a couple of yearsago with the intention of doing or is
it something that you're like, haskind of been cultivated over the course of
your time as a position here.No, No, it's been there for
a while. I've been doing thatfor a long time. It's all about
relationship. If you develop real relationshipand you're authentic and you can communication and

(03:00):
you have honest feedback and you haveyou know, direct teaching. The guys
that have value and character and theyappreciate that stuff. They embrace that.
So but they have to know yourcare and you have to know that it's
real, and they have to knowthat you you're really concerned about that where
of being as a young man.And when you get close to them and
spend a lot of time with themoff the field, you can coach them
hard and you can. You canand you can, you can say truthful

(03:23):
things to them and then they'll embraceit and you have real conversation because you
know the only goal is to helpthem get better as a young man.
Years ago, the receiver room isso far ahead of the corner. Get
kind of skew that evaluation sometimes doingAnd how is that dynamic change in these
two arfecist group's gotten older and youneed more talent. Yeah, it's done

(03:44):
balanced up a little bit. Now. That goes with great competition. We
have the uh we go against thebest receivers in college football. So that
helps escalate your growth process because ifyou don't figure it out real fast,
you'll get embarrassed. So that competition. But what happened with that, eye
guys start competing, eye guys startgrowing, eye guys got better and now
is even up a little bit sowhere you get really good work at practice
to day, you know what Imean. So it's competitive, it's fun.

(04:08):
Those guys both on both sides ofball care about each other, so
it's great competition and they're all real, real close. So you know what
I mean. It's that stuff thatgets us better. Uh, that will
prepare us for Saturday. Said butmy first day of practice, actually the
receivers kind of got them kind ofWell, no, it's just it's it's

(04:28):
gonna competitive. Man. They gotthe best group in the country that you're
going against every day, so youhave to bring it every day, you
know what I mean. So theywe got a great quarterback room. We've
got a great receiver room. Therunning backs are really good. So when
you out there going against them,it's deep, so you have to be
ready for it. And obviously,man, we're seeing a lot of good
stuff with with with Day and coachKelly doing over there, and so it

(04:49):
prepares you a lot and it helpsus grow or wide re seat room kind
of in like a part of yourregreeas like these are the guys you get
to play, yeah, always,because you know that's where you get better
iron shoppings. Iron So you know, you get to see that every day
at practice. That helps you grow. It's no better uh thing to go

(05:14):
against every day than to see thaton a daily basis. Also besides looking
at oh, we just moving alot of guys around. You watch that
practice. We have a lot ofguys in there right now. You know,
we probably have three or four differentguys in there. Obviously Little Lorenzo's
in there, Jermaine is in there, k MOUs we we have we have
about four or five guys moving aroundright now. We just try things out
in spring ball, see where thefit, you know, see what things

(05:36):
work together. So there's no probablysome more guys in there, you know.
We move it around to try tojust get the right fit throughout the
end and see how it goes bythe time we get ready to start the
season. He can run an he'sstrong, you know, I mean,
he's fast, Uh, very seriousabout his business. Uh. He's big,
it's two hundred pounds. He canrun. He's strong, he's conscientious,

(05:56):
you know what I mean. He'sstarting to grow and he's starting to
get get better with it, youknow what I mean. So we for
big things for him the spring.What do you want to see spring keep
competing, you know what I mean, Now he's made the transition competing today,
you know, I mean you startgoing in that transition is all just
like having Jermaine last year. Youthrow them in the fire, you let
them go, you compete, yougo me and coach make uh it's all
season that it was just focusing ongetting his shaved, and you're getting strongest

(06:19):
possible brouh. You know, Ifeel like showing him definitely when when you're
going through I mean when everybody sayyou could in the like you're gonna be
a one, you know you're upbe in nose. I mean, how
is how is that open within thesystem where it seems like it's been a
lot of threes that have been entertainable, but not a lot of wants you

(06:41):
again? Yeah, I mean justjust yeah, just you been here to
you coming out in a room thatseems to have a lot of threes,
you kind of bark a different bodytype as a one. I mean,
how did you fit in? Iin the ski? If I'm fitting well?
But I think this is the Yeah, that's the little thing that's what
I loved that punt. I meanobviously you know there's no the teams that

(07:08):
you guys go against are more runsdriven. I mean, just how can
be how much do you look forwardto that opportunity to get in there and
be that you that that brushed off. It's a great opportunity. Put it
to work, really put the work. I feel like Saturdays it's just like
just showing the world. But therethat's where it really counts. That's why

(07:32):
I really different how different times wasappear in spring practice and maybe fall practice
last year and it's not even quitefit a year, but we talked to
players, are like something my body'stransformed black back. You know that the
game will slowed down to me whereyou want to feel like I'm knowing the

(07:54):
game more transferring. I was justin high school last year going to the
far game, so I had toadjust to it. But now I'm learning
the game and I'm knowing the assignmentsI gotta do and I'm just doing my
job. That's what Coach Johnson wasreally big on. What did you take
out of last season? You mentionedcoming straight out of high school but don't
play a ton. How much howmuch did you take away? What kind

(08:15):
of things did you like from fromI would say it was tough, you
know, but I'm learnning from guyslike my call Tom Hadminton Tire League.
These guys are pro guys, soI'm gonna just try to get I'm asking
many questions I have for them,and it's literally just getting better just every
day. Fullback, I like toscore when you've gotten that cut? How

(08:41):
much the petitionerio, No petition,no petition. I just wanted to do
my job. I'm I'm a teamplayer, so whatever I gotta do for
my team, I'm a run forthat great fund. Last couple a couple
of you that having people have beenhaving cast us practice. Obviously, as

(09:05):
you said, you just makes asurprise about you. You feel like you're
breaking. You know, this isnot surprising to me. I've been putting
in the work, couldn't work mywhole life. But I feel like coach
Nick, I just like this offseason it's really big for me and uh
I locked in on it and yousee the results. I was doing what

(09:26):
I do, doing my job.Kid Like, oh, I say,
I know you gotta suffer another orlike that's a good motivation different but I
don't want to say it motivate me. But I'm here for a reason.

(09:48):
God got me here for a reason, So whatever happens, you know,
it happens. I love to hear. Uh. I just want that to
be great. That's a lot oftime like the player of the years that
County doesn't get actual imagine him orsomething. Ship on the shoulder, but
efect. It's motivates. You justget better here. I'm sure people here

(10:11):
and breaking football. Yeah really,yeah, I got a big chip on
my shoulder. You know. Idon't take no days for granted. I
know, because you gotta take playevery play like your last play. So
that's how I do it. I'mjust looking to motivated. You know,
it's a big season coming up,seventeen games. Somebody gotta step up.
I went day leading on the youngguys like me and Jason. He wrote

(10:33):
Tom Warren to step up. Canwe see the fullback in the spring game?
Can we get a touchdown in thespring game? I don't know.
We ain't really been talking about it, but I think during the season just
getting out of saving, out ofsave. Can't let the opposing teams know
when we got the players. Howdid you take that one story in the

(10:54):
Yeah? Fullack uh? It wasawesome. Man, I just felt like
high school days. You know,I'm excited I'm blocking for guys like Croissan
Trey Dallan. I mean, isI'm gonna open it by because he was
just talking about it too, soclearly we should. I think we shared

(11:15):
a couple of players. But youknow, whatever it is for my team,
I'm gonna do it. You knowit can do it or I do
it. Uh. I think it'sgonna be a good thing for us the
offective when you're going d l Oout that gives you the best faster confident
Is that work for a center likethis last year kind of trial by fire?

(11:37):
For him? Is it just likehow is that process? But not
playing at all his first year?Mitche it's for whether it's Carson Hensman or
you know Johnny Jones, like youget thrust into real reps and and the
full speed. It's faster than you'veever seen. And so now he has
that book of work too that hecan look back on where the understanding of
the game, the understanding of thespeed of the game, the intensity.

(11:58):
You know, I've said a thousandtimes that he doesn't get incrementally faster or
stronger. The game mentally slows downfor him, so he can use his
skill set that way. So whatis that we're talking about. It's his
weight, that's his strength because thosenumbers are going up, so he can
play with more pillar strength, hecan play more contact, he can play
more comfortable. Even though his fortytime didn't go from a five to zero

(12:20):
to a four eight himself in hejust jumped right in. Unbelievable job both
ways of him just coming in withshelving the ego that he had he really
had none and walking in saying,I'm walking into a room, as we
told him when we recruit him,like you're coming into a room a bunch
of good dudes, and then ourgood dudes are good dudes. He came

(12:41):
in and there was no It's likeyou're here, here's how we do,
here's how we operate, and let'sgo. And so that learning curve for
all those whether it's a high schoolmidia guy or a veteran midia guy that
transfers in, there's a learning curvethere, just you know, circling back
to what we had natural maturation alittle bit because he's been through a little
bit of spring ball, he's beenthrough a little bit camps, so you're
still learning new terminology, you're learninga new skill set. But he just

(13:03):
dove right in and wanted to bea sponge and wanted to learn it.
He's doing a good job and he'simproving every day, you know. So
that's what's making the battle and thecompetition all these graded snaps really you know
good for us is because they allhave that mindset. So from SETH awesome,
the unit in the group awesome becausethere was no combativeness to it.

(13:24):
It was let's get in, let'sgo, and let's compete and then let
the guys win. Set uh,just learning the same deal all young guys
you come in, you got tolearn how to play in friction. So
having you know, three tech,having a two I, having those guys
like right in front of it,that every time you take one of those
reps and you're out of your baseor you're in your base, you feel

(13:45):
the good, you feel the bad. So being more consistent that way,
you know, you can't make movesor shift guys if they're not mentally there.
And so for him, he's gota pretty good football FQ. So
he's continued. He's growing every dayhe's working and he's getting beat every day
too, and he's learning from thoseyou know from the springtime. You know,
we have saying in our room wherelike in the spring, it's yes
and it's no, and I knowit's K and o W why didn't the

(14:07):
rep work? What happened? Andhow do I make sure I don't repeat
the same mistake? And so whetherhe's coming in and watching the tape on
his own and then come up withquestions, he's grabbing me and watching tape
with me, or we're coming doingstuff as a unit, he's learning so
that the same deal of the gamecan slow down and he gets more comfortable
there in friction. So I meanhe's his weights up, his strengths up.
He's spent it off season with Mick. You know, there's a lot
of development that still has to behad. Obviously not a finished product,

(14:31):
but being able mentally for a guyto handle that, you know, helps
a lot. Similar to Luke aleaner guy. Did you tell him that
he paid you to say that?That might be the first time he ever

(14:54):
heard that in his life. No, uh no, you know, like
Luke Carson, whoever, it maybe that that jump of eighteen to nineteen
and nineteen to twenty year old kidthat plays a lot into it too.
Being in a full year with Mick. I mean all those guys you come

(15:15):
in at midyear, like your Devoand Dion and Ian Moore. Right now
you're keeping your head above water.That's your whole first year. Now you
can actually get and we can sit. So when you sit and talk about
a jam combo or a lock orwhatever the call may be to Luke,
he registers that and not like somethingnew because then there paralysis by analysis.
So I think the mental part,on top of another year natural maturity of

(15:37):
getting bigger and stronger, that's alwaysgonna help. You're not gonna guys here,
they're not gonna regress. It's gonnakeep adding progress. And how fast
can we get that Going's what we'reworking on every day with him. But
said that he would had been ballguard to this point, and coach Days
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 off.

(15:58):
I mean he snapped the ball inhigh school. You know, Josh
had a great off season, butfor you when you're going through a spring
and it's fact finding an experimentation.How much do you want to put them
in different spots or not, becauseyou also have an eye on August to
try and settle on a five manrotation. What's for you have to get
a really good gradable set so thateverybody has numbers of you know, just

(16:23):
like we said before, how manytimes have we done a run blocking or
pass blocking in this situation, sothat that all evens out. So that's
it's not experimentation, it's just makingsure that you get a good book of
work to look at and grade that. So as we you know, work
guys around the platoons and go justto make sure that everybody gets good gradable
reps. So we can sit backby the end of spring and say,

(16:44):
all right, this is you're comparingapples to apples and oranges oranges and not
you know, apples oranges, becauseit's completely different that way. So that's
kind of the thought behind that.As you're going through the spring. You've
got you a couple of years agoitymet you. If I would have pulled
you three years from now, Kelly'sgoing to be here as the Office of
four book that laughed, you know, but then I said, you know,
it's college football, so who knows, right, Yeah, I mean

(17:11):
he just added to another piece ofjust good people here. I mean,
you're still you're coming to work herewith guys every day. You know,
with the kids, we talk abouta ton, but then for us as
coaches and the staff. So addingjust another good dude that's in the room.
Obviously, as he says something,and you know, he might speak
in old terms or terms that wehad, you know, maybe be a
little bit of a Rosetta stone,like no, no, this is this,

(17:33):
He's like, yeah, that's right, because that's that happens to all
coaches. That happened to me whenwe got here. At first, I
was at with the coach day sometimewith Ryan's like, you know, what
do we call this? Because hewas in a system like that before.
He said, oh, this isthis now. So I think just the
you know, uh translation of theRosetta stone there helped. But just overall
standpoint of adding a great guy,that's a great coach that's been around,
that's he's going to supplement the room. And every time you add something new

(17:56):
to the room, then that makesthe room better, you individually better.
Oh look how he does that?Maybe I could do that. Maybe I
can bring that to my meeting room. Maybe I can bring that to communication
to the staff or to the kidsor whatever it is. Because he's he's
done it for a long time,and he's done a high level for a
long time. So it's good toadd that guy to us and then continues
us the rest of the staff forme and Brian and Key and and and

(18:18):
everybody just learning and growing with thatkind of specifically, just I mean,
does he from a talent standpoint,does he see things sometimes others don't see?
I mean, does he I meanyou know, I mean what does
he kind of brings from the chalkboardaspect of things? Well, I mean
what you're saying, so what doeshe see? It's good to have fresh
eyes come in that. Maybe youknow you're getting a routine and you get

(18:41):
in a rhythm and then all ofa sudden running game football. You know,
he's one of those guys I thinkgoes into the category it's forgotten a
lot of more football than some peoplehave learned in their life. But no,
his he I believe he coached everyposition on the field, both sides
of Balter's whole career. So ashe looks up and he writes when he's
talking about, well, this willlinebacker is going to do that, then

(19:03):
he might have coached that at Columbia, right, or this is what the
three texts going to read on thedown block of a tackle, because he's
coached the offensive line and he's beencoordinator for a long time. So just
a really good vision of big pictureunderstanding and you know, the next step
and not just being right now.Yeah, if he had a theme or
whatever this spring, because I meanthis seems kind of like a how to

(19:26):
make it a breaking time for him? There time to step up this amazing
opportunity. I'm glad to be herewith Marvin Harrison right next to me,
so uh, I feel great.I'm really excited and I'm excited for this
journey. See you fifteen here intown. Marvin. When did you know

(20:00):
the Cardinals were going to select you? Did you know before they called or
was there an agreement in place before? No? I did not know until
I got the phone call from theArizona Cardinals. Marvin Richard signs fox Den,
welcome to the valley. I knowkind of tweeted to you, tweeted
out to you once you got drafted. What was it like to get a

(20:21):
message from the franchise quarterback and whatkind of thoughts have you had about teaming
up with this guy in the nearfuture. Hey, yes, sir,
it's great. He always want tosupport and love from your quarterback and to
cause a great player so excited toplay with him, and it's gonna be
my job to make his job easier. Darius Darren Irban from Azycardinals dot com.
I know that a lot of playersthese days aren't sticking in one school

(20:45):
for a long time. And youdid it for five years. I mean
even Marvin did it for three.Like what went behind that and why was
it meaningful for you to stay atone school? Yes, at Missouri,
you know, we had some toughseasons, but we were really built with
edge, energy, details, goodin emotional consistency, and I just find
myself just trying to grow and getbetter each year and also as a team,

(21:07):
you know, win more games eachyear. And that was my that
was my home, I was myfamily. I was blessed to you know,
get two degrees as well off thefield, and I just love Missou
two degrees. Wow. Marvin McbobMcMahon and Arizona Republic, congratulations. Thank
you to both of you. You'reknown as all business, and I want

(21:29):
to know how that's going to serveyou well in this league. From personal
standpoint, your brand, everything youdo, or a daily preparation, there's
a lot that goes into being allbusiness. Tell me what that is to
you. Yeah, that's just beinga pro. It's kind of raised and
grew up to do and keep thesame mindset, same attitude that I've had
throughout my whole career. Once Iget here, continue to work hard,

(21:53):
be consistent and discipline you know,and all that I do. So I'm
looking forward to put in the workin. Josh Wayne 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. No, from Monday toSaturday, it's all work and then you
Sunday should be the easy part.I go out there and have fun,

(22:15):
ready to put the work in.So it starts with the work first and
then when Sunday comes. Rieka benefits, Hey, Darius Howard. Balls are
from Cards wire. I can't helpbut notice that ring on your finger.
Is that a cotton bowl ring?Yes, it is the cotton bowler.
You showed it to Marvin very quickly. No, I'll tell the Marvin.

(22:37):
You know he was glad he didn'tplay the whole week leading you know,
you see Ohio State. Everybody said, okay, Marvin Harrison and now he's
gonna play, to go play.He didn't play, so you know we
lucked out. So hey, MarvinPaul KELBC Cardinals Broadcasting, do you believe
that receivers have to earn the trustfor their quarterback? And if so,

(22:59):
what is that usually require? Absolutely, you got to earn the trust of
the quarterback. And think it starts, you know, every day in practice
and being consistent. Really and youcan't just do it one day, can't
you do it for one week?Has to be you know, done over
and over and over again. Ithink that's how trust has earned. So
no matter where you get picked,while you're first receiver it's round seven,
doesn't really matter, have to goand earn trust to the quarterback, your

(23:22):
coaches, your teammates. So itall starts in practice. What's going on,
guys? Good to see again,Tyler Drake, there's a sports systems
for Darius. What's the feeling ofjust being able to represent your school as
that first round pick and what kindof impact can that have for those guys
following in your footsteps. Yeah,it's awesome. I feel like I'm setting
the standard going forward. But that'sthe name with Zoo is known as Delon

(23:42):
Zoo, so I'm just added tothe family. But now I feel like
I'm setting the standard for my youngerteammates that this is attainable if you work
really hard, be consistent, andreally good trust your shrimp coach. I
feel like every program is built outthe strength coach and that develops all the
habits on and off the field.Darius zach ERSHMANEZI Cardinals dot Com. Right

(24:02):
over here, JJ mentioned that heloves the violence that you play with.
You mentioned the different tendencies that youpicked up. The emotional consistency is the
great. How do you balance thatthe violence with discipline on the field.
Honestly, just through preparation and practice. I'm a big guy. I'm a
big believer in inside hands, sothat's why I'm always working my hand placement
and then I lift weight, soyou know, that's all connected. So

(24:25):
I'm just trying to be focused onmy technique as much as possible. Hey,
Marvin over here, David Brownt withthe Associated Press. You know a
lot of rookies come into the leagueand they get a little bit of leeway.
It's like, oh, he's young, he needs to grow and stuff
like that. But obviously you're gonnabe expected to be the guy here really
quickly. How do you deal withthat pressure? How do you go about

(24:48):
just so much being expected of youso quickly? I mean, yeah,
I have high standards for myself,but I'm just gonna go in there and
try to work, you know,the best I can. I just want
to help the team win really,so I play, you know, come
September. Let me do my best, you know, do that role.
This one's for both of you guys. The fans want to know who you
guys are on the inside. Idon't know how much you're willing to reveal

(25:11):
to us today. A lot wouldbe nice. Can you tell us what
you like to do away from football? What what pisses you off about things,
and you know, what what makesyou roll. I'm pretty simple.
I like to you know, bein my apartment, watch some movies.
If I go out and I goto a restaurant, get some food.

(25:33):
But other than that, they dotoo much. And then I'm pretty easy
going guys, so try not tonothing bother me too much. Yeah,
I said the same thing, Areal chill guy, just really obsessed with
football. But outside of football,like I said, I got my two
degrees. I got my undergrad hospitalitymanagement and the minor and business I got
my masters, and Positive Culture withits FLA leadership. So just thinking about

(25:56):
being well rounded. And then Ido philanthropy work. I start my own
non probably the foundation Darius Robinson HelpingHands Foundation, but really just football and
then everything else. Honestly, congratulationguys, Welcome to the Valley. I'm
Robbie Baker with Fox ten. Darius. This is for you. After the
draft last night. You had agreat response about how your process and preparing

(26:17):
for a game. Just kind ofwondering where your love for kind of the
grind comes from and your love forthat process comes from. I would say
my junior year because I played litleleague ball off and on. But I
got my junior year and I wasplaying high school and my whole goal is
just to earn a scholarship. Butduring 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

(26:41):
just kind of finding ways to alwaysget better, you know. Luke liting
here with twelve Sports. Congrats bothof you. Welcome to the valley.
This one's for you, Marvin.I'm curious your thoughts or what was that
conversation like with your dad after yourname was called and you were able to
be drafted by this organization, Andhow surreal is it for you to be
following on your own father's foots putin your own way. Yeah, I
mean it was very brief actually,just in a second graduation. He's like

(27:04):
my best friend. But on theother hand, I get to see him,
you know, continue take steps inhis career. Uh, he's still
very young, so he has alot of good football ahead of him.
Literally offense and how things may bedifferent for the offense. Yeah. Yeah,

(27:25):
we haven't honestly even started install yet, so I haven't even got a
lay of the land quite yet.I'll probably take a look at just got
our I pass within the last fewdays, so I'll try to take a
sneak peek at what we have lookingfor. But you know, I know
with him talking to zach Ertz,he does a great job of trying to
get his playmakers involved, which Ithink we have a really good group of
guys from the running backs to receiversand some solid tight ends as well.

(27:48):
So I'm just looking forward to seewhere I fit into that. And you
know, I think with him,his biggest things is making sure the playmakers
are making plays and trying to fitthe scheme around that, which is always
good to hear, good to see. Two, this is what your offense?

(28:10):
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely,you know, an adjustment obviously when
you're learning a new offense. Andit's kind of the same mentality I take
into last year in years past,where you kind of just want to take
a day one approach, kind oferase what you've learned in the past.
But at the end of the day, I think, uh, you know,

(28:32):
schemes in the NFL are relatively similar. Is just the names and the
formations that may be a little different. So just getting used to the terminology
and Cliff's offense is just going tobe something that's an adjustment for all of
us. But the good thing aboutit is I got some good time on
my hands to really put some workin studying when I leave this place,
so I could come in here whenwe have walkthroughs and when we start to

(28:53):
put our helmets on, we canreally hit the ground running. So so
far it's we haven't learned anything yet, but my approach is the saying,
try to take good notes in there, ask good questions, and then study
on my own at night. Iknow you like to go to the seasons.
Yeah, m hm, yeah,I think I got some really good

(29:17):
work down in Florida. Is justworking on my footwork, just being better
at the top of my routes,sharper on my speed cuts, dig routes,
out routes, and just being cleanerwith my footwork at the top of
the routes. I think, youknow, with a little bit of zone
covers that we've seen in the pastwith some teams kind of running more too
hot show, you're gonna get alittle bit more of catch technique where guys

(29:38):
are kind of sitting at the topof your route. So I want to
be better at being efficient to gettingout of those routes when a guy's kind
of sitting at my depth, whetherit's a fifteen yard comeback or a twelve
yard curl route, you know,being able to get out efficiently so I
can keep creating keep the separation withinmy route. So obviously I'm always still

(29:59):
working on my ball skills and makingsure I'm just catching a lot of footballs
in the off season, but justreally being better at the top of the
routes and you know, sharper outof my cuts is something and I think
I can improve on. Good tosee you too. You know, you're
obviously one of the leaders of thisteam and team captain, and with so
many new faces, new players lockerroom, what is the challenge you're going

(30:22):
to have and the other leaders inthat locker room blend everything together because there's
so many new and different personalities.Now, yeah, I think I think
that's really started with coach Quinn inthe way he's really integrated everybody over the
first two days. I think wehaven't even got into x's and those quite
yet. We've just really beginning toknow one another. Getting out there with
Chad and the strength coaches and gettingsome good workouts in just kind of creating

(30:45):
a foster in an environment where everybody'sthe same and continuing to have a competitive
environment. I think that brings outthe best in one another. And obviously,
you know, you have guys likeZach Ertz who's played a lot of
football and won a championsh ship,Marcus Marriota, obviously, Bobby Wagner,
who's a future Hall of Famer.So you got some guys who have been
brought in here who know what it'ssupposed to look like at this level.

(31:07):
And for myself, I just wantto continue to add uh my value and
be even more vocal this year thanI have in the past, especially with
possibly a new quarterback coming in.I think that can really help our offense.
Have you know, some more unitywith the guys who know what it
looks like, helping bringing those guys, the younger guys along. I don't
know, if you had a chanceto watch Dan open conference, he didn't

(31:30):
want to use the word rebuild.Yeah, changes going on with this franchise,
all the new changes, new coachingstaff, all the new players.
Is there a certain word you use? How do you vie everything? Honestly,
I just think of it as aas a new year. Just talking
to Sam Cosmy, Uh, we'vebeen here for a few years, so

(31:52):
it's a lot of new faces.I think. You know, this is
probably the most I would say turnoverwe've had in the last few years.
So there's guys coming from all differentareas walks of life, and but I
think the one thing is the same. They're all coming in looking for an
opportunity to compete, take another stepin their careers, and prove that they're
one of the best players at theposition. And I think Coach Quinn has

(32:15):
emphasized that we're gonna have the opportunityto prove ourselves whether you're a ten year
vet or a second year player.You know, this is a clean slate
for everybody. So I think it'sjust about getting on the same page,
enjoying coming in here and working togetherand also just pushing each other in these
workouts, and then when we startgetting on the field, Uh, really

(32:36):
get that competition going. Try tosimulate as we go along in this off
season process of how the games aregoing to be. Hey, how are
you doing. Good to see youtoo. Most Yeah, I think Coach

(33:01):
Quinn has really assemble assembled a veryunique group of coaches. There's multiple head
coaches, there's multiple quarter h coordinatorsthat have come from different places, and
so you have guys who have alot of football experience, some have played,
some have coached in big games,and then you bring in, you
know, the talent that we havedefensively and offensively, and I just think

(33:25):
you can feel the unity and thesameness and the message that he's trying to
preach to our team, and it'swe're gonna be tough and we're going to
be competitive, but we're also goingto have fun. And he, like
I think he said in Your Guys'interview, he said he likes to do
you know, hardship with good people. So I think that's fun. You
know, a guy like me likesto put my nose down and grind and

(33:49):
work. So I know him andI are going to continue to hit it
off, and you know, it'sjust my job to help bring other guys
along with me, like you morelook like to take your next step as
a vocal leader. Yeah, Ithink for me, I've grown a lot

(34:09):
in my vocal leadership. I thinkI try to always find the balance of
when to say something, when notto say 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
your message is drowned out. Andso it's kind of continue to find that

(34:31):
balance of when to say things andwhen to kind of just take a step
back. But I think I've I'vegotten a 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 encourage the guys who haven't takenthose steps in their career to do that

(34:52):
as well. So I think forme, it's just really starting in my
position group. I think we havea 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's justmy job, in Bobby's job, and
to continue to bring that group alongas we go throughout this season. Good

(35:19):
what is I guess you're planning fora milestone personally, Yeah, you approached.
Yeah, I hit it really hardthis off season, so I have
to just in case something does happeningto like you know what I mean,
like Cohen or you know, Pete, of course, but I'm always gonna
be ready for life no matter what. How quickly have you felt like you

(35:43):
picked up this new system that you'reworking in there? We actually pretty picked
up pretty well because it's the samesystem that I'm used to back in the
set, because we're more like spreadI say, so, you know,
it's pretty good. It's one likethe draft offsass off season as a lot
of people out the buildings are arrangersme the right time. Yeah, a
lot of yeah alright now, Buta lot of people in the building were

(36:05):
like, we have the right time. We people get motivated by that.
You follow it like if you picturedo it though I don't. I read
into it a little bit. Butalso the same time, like they not
here of course, but I don'treally care what they say. I know
what I can do, and theteam know I what I can do,
so they trusting me right now andI'm not gonna live in right now.
How hard or how easy is that? To compartmentalize that and use that as

(36:27):
fuel going forward rather than to kindof meritate. Uh I j I just
keep the seats. Everybody knows thatone person I don't really care for him.
And also that's all good, butit's all love. I love uh
outside of this, But you keepdoing me, keep it better, keep
on these nights, doe what Ican do there? You've been a outspoken
about your support of Zamir, andobviously it's just his chance now to beat

(36:50):
the dog. Wait, what isit about him that you bought in so
early? The reason why I boughtsome earliest cause us I was at a
house they they always talk essantially.I help getting and ext since I got
here, i'm'a always wanna go getand I gotta picked late. And I
always wanna prove people wrong. Youknow, I think prove people are wrong
all my life. I don't wantto keep doing it's which I guess poor.

(37:14):
Just like competing, like the set, you feel like a community years
nine day difference, nine day differencefrom my first year, in my second
year to now like now, myguy, I know I can play.
I know I can go against oneof the best special mats anybody else that
we want to play this year,and I know what I can do,
So all gotta do now is actuallymeet my potential and should do it and

(37:37):
help everybody else out on the teamas well. You've practiced a lot against
Malcolm and he's really come into hisown. What is it about Malcolm that's
helped him make that next step?There? Man, Malcolm, he's quiet,
he doesn't really say too much.He comes to the work every day,
do what he does, and heworks hard. He doesn't plait twice
at anything. Yeah, he'll getmad over a coch rest welse. At
the same time that like he hasa mentality of ad all, like he's

(38:00):
he don't really care what y'all ainor anybody else thinks for real. So
it's just like all right, let'skeep going. That's how everybody is on
the team. About ty raising 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. Butyou know, I've had these injuries and

(38:20):
it's been storm like the past twoyears. You know, having have like
good, great games, the nextthing you know, hurt and then you
know, so got got the injuryprone out there, you know. But
I think the storm is over with, you know, you know, and
I think I'm I'm gonna gonna takeoff now, you know, and there
will be no setbacks and the injuryprone thing will be gone out of the

(38:44):
window again. That's yep. I'msorry that I am. I am excited.
You know. He does a lotof great things, and he's a
great person, and we have agreat relationship. Be it's gonna be a
fun year. We're gonna have alot of fun. We're gonna do a
lot of great things. So Ican't wait take here waiting. The injuries

(39:07):
you've had, is that just badluck? Is there anything you've been attribute
to beyond just misfortunate? Yeah,it's just unfortunate, you know. But
God has a plan always, youknow. I don't know what the plan
exactly is, you know, Idon't know, but whatever plan it is,
it's for me to be here.You know. I had a great

(39:30):
rookie year. I didn't I didn'treally have the volume as other people my
rookie year, but I still hada great rookie year. Six yards of
carry, you know, things likethat. I think it was like nine
touchdowns ten including the playoffs, andso there's always been like, all right,
God, lets me show my talentshine a little bit. Like even
when I had the knee. SoI had the knee, right, A

(39:52):
lot of people don't know, likeI didn't get hurt again. Whenever I
got you know, got cleaned up. So I went down in twenty one,
right, had the injury, theknee injury, and then came back
later the next year and I andI played the first few games and it
just feel there was a lot ofscars issue in there. So I did
get it cleaned up. I didn'tget hurt again. I could have played
the whole year, but I gotit cleaned up so I can feel like

(40:14):
me. And so after I gotthat cleaned up, the first two games
back from the injury, I hadover one hundred and twenty yards rushing right,
and then went on had great,great ending of the year, you
know, one hundred total yards inthe playoff game we lost, which I
hate the most stats. Don't marryme. I don't want to win.
But then come back the next yearhurt again like torn achilles. So two

(40:37):
really unfortunate injuries. But that's justGod's plan, you know, And I
think that the storm is now over, you know, and I do think
that I'll be able to shine mylight to the whole world. Are you
concerned that you have that label ofyou just sat three? I could care
less because I do. I do. I know this out there because as

(41:00):
it should be. It should be. I got hurt two major injuries back
or not back to back years.But you know, so I haven't been
on the field as much as Ishould. That's true, that is true.
But it's not like I'm having theselittle little dinky injuries and sitting out.
It's something I can't control, literally, So that's why I'm not bothered

(41:20):
by it. Like, yeah,I am injury poem. You could say
that, you know, but Ido think that the Chargers are getting a
guy that's gonna be healthy from nowon, you know, God willing,
and it's gonna be great. AndI do think that it's gonna be.
It's gonna be a great. However, many years here, when you've been
on the field, you've been highlyadopted five point of years, but very

(41:40):
average for your career. Like knowingthat when you're out there you're very adopted,
how much confidence does that give youthat really all you need is is
not what you need. All theconfidence in the world, you know,
the way I work. I wouldn'tsay just from the numbers, but just
the way I work, my workethic, you know, and my relationship
with Jesus is like I have themost confidence when I step out there because

(42:04):
I do know, like if hegrants me the health, it's over with.
I don't think I would be youknow, I think it will be
a great year or whatever, acouple of years. However, many years
he grants me great health, youknow. And I think just the work
ethic, my prayer and all thatstuff, that's what helped me have that
confidence. With the numbers will bethere, and they might be higher after

(42:27):
this year, you know what I'msaying. And it's crazy to think about
it because I had six or sixyards per carry, you know. So
we'll see. You're looking forward tothe running behind this line that they put
together. Oh yeah, yeah,yeah. I played with Bradlee. I
played with him, you know,I know the Slater, I know all
the I know all the guys,you know, and I'm excited. I
think it's like I said earlier,it's a talented group. You know,

(42:50):
we just got to put together winsome games because that's what I came here
for a year. Or I wouldn'tI wouldn't say part of the recruitment,
but like whenever I decided I wasgonna sign, it was great to have
him in the room. What's yourrelationship? Yeah, we're great. We're
we have a great relationship. That'she's like my brother, So I think

(43:12):
compliment each other very well. Youknow, he can do a lot of
stuff too. You know, wegot a lot of people think he's just
power, power, power, butI think he has some other parts of
his game two which it'll be greatbecause I feel like I could do everything
and when one get tired, wecan roll it in. We keep rolling
win some games. So when youthe two of you get going, well,

(43:34):
how do you think that's gonna lookfor? What would like? What
will be that partnership kind of backthere? I know that's a hard question.
How do I think I think it'lllook beautiful? You know a lot
of people call it a passing league, but I think you gotta run the
ball to win the super Bowl.You know, if you look at the
team to win the Super Bowl,they can run the ball, they can
control the clock, and so ifwe're both good, it'll look great,

(43:59):
beautiful. How would you describe theGregor running offense? I would I would
describe it as, you know,a great offense. I think he gives
a quarter he's gonna give the quarterbacka lot of options. He's gonna give
the running back a lot of options. He's gonna give the receiver a lot
of options, you know. AndI think it'll be I think it's gonna

(44:20):
be great. His offense is gonnabe amazing. When we talked to him
a minute, you know, Iwas like, why have you, Manela
built some may give rushing offenses throughoutyour career every where you've been, And
you said that one part of itis just you got a call place.
You got a call run place asa running back. You know, how
much confidence, how much a seconddoes it give you? You know you
haven't played color. That's gonna stickwith it and allow you and the offensive

(44:43):
linement to get your resident. Givesme a lot of excitement. You know,
it's gonna be Like I said,it's fun to play at his offense,
you know. And I think hedoes have some good things in the
past game too, But like yousaid, he sticks with the run,
and that's that's the identity. YouYou want an offense that have as an
identity, right, you won't belooking everywhere else to find your your identity.

(45:04):
You want to have it. Andso I think his offense has that,
and the guys he builds and putsin there, it complements that identity.
So I think it's gonna be great, full go for training him.
That's look, I ain't gonna answerany of the four if it's up to
me. Yes, Look, becauseI had this problem like three two years

(45:28):
three years ago, I'm thinking I'mfull go. I think I'm ready to
go, and the next thing,you know, I'm on pup like,
hey, look some story above myprey pay grade. So but I don't
know hopefully I can start. Ithink I'm ready to start, you know,
at the beginning training camp. Butthat's not up to me. As
I've learned, you know what Imean. So that's my guy. As

(45:51):
much as you love the website,how bittersweet, is that a certain matters
because what happened to him? Yeah, that's the thing that's not how I
was definitely how I how I thoughtabout the transition will go. You know,
I thought it would be you know, homesong timing, but the cardinal
his whole career, you know,you know you want to play or forever,

(46:13):
you know what I mean when Iwas talking about his plans, so
you know, you you wish transitionslike one of those fair intel like to
your time now. But but againeither way, you know, we talked
about it. You know, that'sthat's the how it goes, you know.
But obviously you know he sees he'she's been one of my biggest supporters.

(46:37):
Again, I affect everybody leads intheir own way, you know,
not everybody's the guys coming around,and that's not everybody, right Like I
felt for me, that's me specificallyon game day with the O line after
we do one on one like that'smy like ba Hump did, Like that's
my like big vocal time. Ifeel like I've talked to Hump about this,

(47:00):
you know, just recently talking abouthow what I want to do for
the room is I want to bringthat Hump energy that he brought right so
last year of course some traits beendoing it for years, but the year
I spent on him, he broughta lot of the energy and excitement and
the happiness in the room was justhis natural energy to where I only had

(47:24):
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 for theroom. I want to be that guy
to make sure everyone's ampt to goto practice, everybody's hype. Weren't taking

(47:45):
and field team on period. Youknow, it's a low day or something.
You know, it's a it's aday, but like I want to
make it feel like prepar's the tripperright now. I want to bring that
because that's what me and Hump dideach other. We people hype each other
up. Dudes like dudes about topeople walked through We're lit. So I
wanna do that. I wanna bringthat energy. I wanna make bring more
guys, you know, to dothat. You know, yeah, I

(48:07):
wanted to do that from day one, you know, I kind of I
wanted to do that from day one, from just talking to him, and
obviously it's that time I spend theoff season before ota started just being in
myself, just thinking about what theroom needs, you know, because I
know I knew a new role asone of the leaders, you know on

(48:30):
the offense, is that we needa guy like that that's gonna make sure
the old line is picked up readyto go. Every day I was held
accountable. Little things aren't happened topractice and people aren't saying anything. And
how I may lead maybe different thansomebody else may lead. You know,
I like to a practice at leastlike to leave with positivity, you know

(48:51):
what I mean. So, buthe the energy yet went beyond just the
hype up the deal line and starttoo. So that's kind of how I
wanna be s goal mine literally mywhole life. I want to be a
NFL team captain, like specifically NFL. I wasn't a captain of high school,
wasn't a captain of college. ButI made a joke when I was

(49:13):
in high school. I was like, did I feel like I'm not gonna
be a captain to like get tothe NFL. Yeah, but that would
be awesome, you know, butyou know, if it happens, i'd
be great. But if not.Either way, I wanna assume a role
as a captain, from the respectof the guys on the team, vidual
award to me, and to getback to that word yeah, I mean,

(49:36):
I can't say that. I mean, I guess the biggest thing is
that I felt like it has feltlike how it you used to the past.
But it didn't take just the firstto Olta's. It took training left
and right once the season ended,cause I didn't know what it was gonna
be true, So it took alot of yeah reps just to get back

(49:58):
to feeling like myself for day oneOTAs and then that whole first week.
But now like today, specifically justchanging some small things with my feet.
I did say talking about a linecoach about some things I can do with
my feed to get to that tosell at the traditional angle that I love
to set on. Felt even Ithought I felt, I thought I felt

(50:19):
great already, but I'm okay,I felt even better o it. So
I'm even more excited tomorrow. NowI'm getting my feedback than how I liked
it the right side and on theleft side, so I'm excited. I
mean, obviously, I feel likein the league, whether I left or
right, you're still going against premierguys. So obviously you have high expectations
for your left hand and right tackle, but there's definitely, uh, like

(50:42):
the the level of energy and likethe expectations, definitely taking the human spect
cause now connected the blindside that stuffthat's de tackle roles, you know.
So so yeah, I would sayin terms of communication as far as just
even outside of facility and just stufflike that, like really creating that the
tackle quarterback bond even more off thefield, I think has been something that's

(51:07):
even been cool. I got atext one day He's like, hey,
like you play left, and Iwas like, yeah, you know,
yeah, I I've been training both. I've been training both. You know.
I I aks after the season,They're like, honestly, you know,
we'll talk to you some play inthe season. And I just got
a text him like depending on whathappens with with the free agency then,

(51:29):
so I was like, you knowwhat, I had a whole season right
tackle. So if I get theword, I'm going, I'm standing right
tackling detail. The way he comesyou know, in each and every day,
he comes in the same guy everyday, and uh, to be
honest, ivn't you know I don'tthink I've had to coach that detailed as
Tom. You know, he's verydetailed in terms of you know, practice

(51:50):
review sending us, uh the info, breaking down each and every play and
really just really just focused on thedetail. To be honest with you,
I think, uh, that's thething that sets him apart. And you
know he's he pushed us to behard, I mean our our indie periods
or you know, conditioning, Soof course that's good for us. But
I mean he's been great so far. So excited to uh, you know,

(52:10):
allow that allow our relationship to grow, and excited to work with and
is what he's doing kind of complimentwhat you're doing individually, you know,
when you're away from the facility,working with you know, coaches, one
on one anything like that. Yousaid, what is he what does he
do here? That kind of complimentswhat you do away from the facility when
you're troubling. I mean, Ithink he does different stuff, So I

(52:31):
think, uh, that's a goodthing about it. You know some stuff
that we do here. Oh sorry, uh, I don't you know usually
do outside of the facility. Soit's good getting that different work in different
drill work that I can you know, implement into my you know, off
season program and stuff like that.So it's good that I'm learned this stuff.
For sure. You probably deep alloff efficiency numbers in the time that

(52:52):
especially the last year. What whatwhat what is our smith in the offense
talk about? You are trying tomake make that incorporate that into us to
being a big part, that's allI mean? Yeah, Uh, I
think we have fast guys, guysthat can get down the field with speed,
Uh, Guys like Quez, Calvin, Scottie Van, you know,
me and Rust. You know,we've we've had a lot of deep ball

(53:13):
success and know a lot of explosiveplays in the past. So you know,
that's just uh, you know what, I guess how our offense is
built to be honest with you,but I mean, our job is to
create explosives and you know, pushthe ball down the field. So anytime
we get those ops, we definitelywanna capitalize on those. Are your coach
arresting any part of your mechanics inany way that I mean? Yeah,
Uh, I think there's always roomto improve, uh, mechanic wise and

(53:35):
stuff like that. So I think, you know, Matt Baker, Uh
he's a four quarterback assistant. Heyou know, 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
just stay on top of it,you know as a whole, and you
know, make sure my mechanics arealways clean. Can you talk about one
particular when they're distressing. It's it'sdifferent areas, to be honest, I

(53:59):
don't think it's just one specific area, but it's it's a different areas,
justin in your opinion, was theresomething that you wanted to work on,
maybe get better at when you gotyou 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,
always different areas. Nobody's perfect inone area, So I think you can
continue to prove in all areas inmy game, you know me personally,

(54:20):
So I'm just focused on getting better. When did we talked to Russ yesterday?
He said that rusted that he personallyfelt kind of revived can bring at
another stop in his career. Isthere any of that sense of maybe rejuvenation
or feeling revivleuse of cookies out likeit's funny right behind him, Tony Urban
bucket huddle. How have you goneabout the assessment of the talent in the

(54:40):
room? Uh, over the pastweek or two? How much is that
on field off field? Like,what's the process of getting to know who
you have as players? Well?I broke down well m me being a
guy that loves the running back position, and I already broke those kids down
cause I recruit them out of highschool. No Q is from where I'm

(55:00):
from in Montgomery. I was oneof the first guys to offer him just
watching him great contact balance, creativerunner, great hands and trey. I
recruited him out of Virginia exceptional shortair, your bursting quickness and things that
I'm gonna help him get better on. And then I recruited James Peoples out
of t out of San Antonio,Texas. I knew what he was gonna

(55:21):
what he was gonna be TC andSam. Those two kids I'm getting to
know and I'm gonna help them improvethat game. But we got different runners
in there. I like to callmyself, I'm in love with this position.
So I get the break down runnersand help their game, so talented,
talented room, very talented. Uhfar back uh Jerremy Birmingham podcast couch,

(55:45):
how do you swear that that thatsaw Beast triokies are actually the best
cookies to Philos brittin mix or thoseare way better than the County chips and
white things with terrify, I mean, do you do you have to first
find a balance there or somewhere.Well, for me, I'm actually not
eating any cookies. Nah, I'mjust saying I'm not eating any cookies this
year. I gave it up fora fast or no sweets for me for

(56:07):
the whole year. That's something Igave up. So they the term the
south bast cookie term. Look,guys, I actually took that from I
represent the high school coaches of missTennessee. I actually took that from a
guy that coach Slocum. He usedto always say that south bast cookie.
I actually stole that from him.I give him credit for it, and
I tell him all the time hesaid, you I should have branded that,

(56:29):
cause you done took it and ranaway with it. But that's just
where that comes from. That thatI was standing as you get to Ohio,
stand and start to look around thecountry any Oregon's a big place,
that's a a major job with Howhow do you think that where you opposite
logo are the Jas Brandon blocko.When you get out out of the little
feed and trail, how does thatchange the way that you feel you're either

(56:53):
received or or does it add adifferent level to to just feeling like I
could go anywhere and get anybody inem And that's the sangest thing for me.
This is a great place. Oregonis a great place too. But
guess what, whatever I put on, I know what I'm going to represent
for me. I n I NI know who who put me here?

(57:16):
Uh? I know I represent somethinghigher, you know. Like I told
you, I know what my purposeis. My purpose is to poorting the
people. So whatever logo I haveon, I'm still gonna be doing the
same thing. So this is agreat logo, great logo, but I
wear another logo every day. It'sacross I see around my neck. I
know what I represent. So that'sthe greatest logo I could ever wear.

(57:36):
So it doesn't matter what other logoI have on. I got that one
on. I'm going to any houseand be a recruit uh uh deep rite
to camera, Tick Robinson and theathletic from which you you mentioned the time
in Memphis and themis for NFL orbacks you mentioned there. Who you learn
from that time that you that youtake over to managing your growd and keeping

(58:00):
What did I learn from them?Just building up, just teaching the kids.
We live in such a selfish worldthough, and I can tell the
kids all the times, it's gottabe much more to football. The ball
gonna go flat one day. AsI always say, what being in that
room there at Memphis is, Itwasn't four five? Teaching them how to
be abou about being one? Itell you them in all time, it

(58:22):
doesn't cost you anything to celebrate anotherman's success. So teaching them how to
be one, and then once theylearned to be one, they functioned in
They feed off one another. Sothat's what I learned from being there at
Memphis and let them in road Crossheard of your career in law enforce that
kind of influenced you as a coachand kind of shape where you are.
Oh well, I just got throughtalking to somebody about that today. When

(58:46):
I first got in this profession andI got my own room in Western Tech.
I was aked, No, howwas I was gonna be able to
handle my room? I said,Man, I had a power 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 stops. So

(59:06):
going on domestic no virus calls,it's simple easy. You know, people
don't know what you care. Alsoknow, you gotta have a certain demeaning
about yourself. So when I walkinto a room, it's the reason why
I go train every morning. Thisis when it's the same thing when I
was a police officer. You looka certain way kind of deter people from
doing certain things. So reason whyI go train every morning. I'm gonna

(59:29):
look just as good as my boyslook. So U it helped out a
lot. In other words, uhfrom Rol Right Austin wore the podcast Carls
Welcome to Columbus. What would itmean to I don't know, revolutionize the
way running backs are coach? Whatdoes that take? I ain't even I'm

(59:50):
not gonna say revolutionized. Just somegood. It's some good running back coaches
out here. Everybody's different. It'ssome great coaches out here. I just
want the head guys who say thaton these to not just hire guys.
Just know, all coaches on yourstaff should be great recruiters, not just
a running back coach. We coacha position, We developed players as well.
I just wanted the coaches to realize, Hey, you know what,

(01:00:12):
let me look and be thorough aboutthis guy that I'm hiring for the job.
Is he teaching the position? Ishe development the position? Because you're
not gonna hire anybody just coach quarterbacks, are you. Well, it shouldn't
be like that for the running backposition either. And I'm only passionate about
it cause I played it. Ilove it, so it's the only position
I want to coach. Could Icoach the other positions? Yeah? I
played dB in college too, ButI love the running back position so and

(01:00:35):
I just wanted to see it coachwell May podcasts. Yeah, a million
questions. All that's a couple.Number one, when you when you when
your wife whatever? You got themessage stuff? Or are we moving again?
What was what was her reaction?Nah? She she's just now.
Guy that give us gave us anew assignment. Sit. It was never
like we're moving again. Let metell you guys. Something I grew up.

(01:00:55):
My mom was in the military,so I lived everywhere or lived in
on my South America. I'm usedto picking up and moving. I lived
in Fort Riley Kynas Montgomery's home ifit was my second home. So I'm
I'm used to moving now. Mywife it was different for her, but
she's this new guy that gave usthe new assignments approaches things. I love
the way the questions he asks.I love the way he makes mistakes and

(01:01:17):
then correct mistakes. It's very veteran, like I mean, there's so much
ball he has to learn, Likehe literally does things that are good.
I'm like, do you know whythat worked? He goes coach, I
have no freaking idea, So likeI'm trying to teach him all of that
why it worked, so then youknow the consistency at which it works just
goes through the roof. And sobut I'm very you know, excited and

(01:01:38):
proud of the conversations we're currently having, and I'm exciting it for them to
keep going by play power for youwork and what you tell her. Oh,
I love working with Chip chip Is. I love talking Ball. I
love the viewpoints I love. Ilove the veteran that he has, you

(01:02:02):
know, and I love yeah,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.

(01:02:22):
I love where it's at. Ilove working with them, and I
would say that I sleep a littlebetter all right. Uh No, it's
it's really a great combo because likeyou know, we're obviously we're doing a

(01:02:45):
lot as a group. It's notjust Chip 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, a like as much asI can, but then also highlight some
things that we've really done a goodjob of and make sure those you know,

(01:03:06):
nothing's really changing. We're just tryingto enhance. We're not changing,
we're enhancing. So where the thingsfit is perfect, you know, I
think, uh, you know,the rest of the dynamics of search hip
can talk about, but it's beenit's been awesome, so I'm excited about
it. We talked to a Mecca. They're just talking about moving from slot
to the outside. You know howgood he's been in the slot. Is

(01:03:28):
that a difficult move for you guysjust coaches to know how good a guy
is in one spot, but knowthat maybe for his long term future.
And then no, I wouldn't sayit's anything on his future, because he's
capable of doing whatever you want toget done. But I'd say that it
says more about the room. Ithink it's it's the growth of you know,

(01:03:49):
Brandon and the growth grow of Bryson. That's really you know, allowing
my mind to say, hey,Mech, be prepared. You're gonna move
around a lot. You're gonna comeout of that slot. You're gonna be
outside. We're going create mismatches outthere. I mean, his ability to
move around is critical. But Iwould say between Mech and between Carnell Takes's
ability to move around a lot,it's gonna provide a lot of flexibility for

(01:04:10):
our room and uh and those topyou know, six seven guys that are
really doing a good job right now. Progress look like this spring for a
mecca because there's no times some oneof those things are true when he has
balanced how much work does a needversus yeah, heavy heavy emphasis on what
work he needs, you know,versus anything else. Uh. I rely
on him. We have great dialogueback and forth. It's a two way

(01:04:32):
to it's a two way conversation.And uh, frankly, there's gonna be
times we're like, hey, mechwhat do you wanna do today? You
wanna go outside and you wanna goinside 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 I feel like he has a d
lineman you can keep improving all theway through ten years in this league.
So excited to see what he's got. How old did you know? And

(01:04:55):
when he was assistant here? AndI've gotten to know him a lot,
but it's a relationship. Maybe rightnow I know him pretty well. He
was always just a good dude aroundthe facility. He did our ball meetings,
so he's good in front of agroup. He's a good leader.
He knows the scheme really well,which is good. I was happy to

(01:05:16):
see him promoted. He called mein the off season we talked. I
just congratulated him, and I thinkhe's gonna bring something similar to what we
had with the Miko. It'll begood. Do you know Brandon Stanley well
at all? I mean, obviouslyJoey playing for him, I don't know
too much about him. I've obviouslyheard from my brother, but I don't

(01:05:39):
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 to
the Miko of the energy or system, maybe a little different energy, but
I think just knowing the system fromthe front to the back, I think
he knows how it ties in,and he's been around with some really good

(01:06:00):
coaches, so I think it'll bepretty pretty seamless, and I think we'll
be firing on all cylinders. You'rethree months removed from the super Bowl now,
so how have you? I guessdigested it and I guess physically everything
good to go. Yeah, Ifeel really good. I think it's been
one of my better off seasons ofjust kind of it was a long year,

(01:06:24):
so I took it nice and slowto get back into it. Not
as young as I once was,so I'm taking a little a little slower,
but everything's great. I'm feeling asgood as I felt. I'm excited
to actually get some practice in.Last year was kind of tough getting thrown
in Week one after I walked through, so that was another reason I'm excited

(01:06:49):
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
how to bounce back from tough losses, so it was rough for a little

(01:07:09):
bit, but no, just annoyingwhen people bring it up. Since ael
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.
But what have you noticed in hisleadership style and the way he carries himself

(01:07:30):
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'sa man of faith and he kind of
reminds me of Scotti Scheffler, butexcept for just super humble and really good

(01:08:01):
kid. And yeah, he's definitelyfamous suffer. I don't just from watching
Armstead get released obviously meant so muchto the defensive line into the team.
I mean, Colin John were prettyopen that they were willing to talk about

(01:08:23):
trading Deebo or are you at raf? Does that just another what's that feel
like in the locker room when thosesort of joels happened. I didn't even
know that happened and I wasn't here, but you're talking about this offseason Armstead
in alarm Eric released, so that'scertainly one thing. Yeah, it's a

(01:08:45):
tough business, for sure. Youhave to have thick skin and I haven't
gone through that, but I thinkyou just have to understand that it is
a business and the team is gonnatry and get as good as it possibly
can with or without you, andyou have to look out for yourself.

(01:09:05):
That's why you go through holdouts anddo certain things that seem selfish in the
moment, but it is what itis, and when everything's settled, We're
gonna come together as a team andtry and go get one nick. What's
the overall feeling around the group rightnow, Like, how much does it
feel like the excitement of the rampup to the season, Even though it's
early, it feels good. It'sbeen a couple of days for me,

(01:09:28):
so I like all the new guys. I'm getting to know everybody, but
I think the passes in the pastand we're ready to go. Do you
talk to me? You talked tobeat all about handling the business part of
this. He's going through something similar. We chat a little bit, but
not too much about the details.I just told him to keep his head
up and try and stay positive throughit all. First impressions when you heard

(01:09:54):
what your schedule would be in thatAaron Rodgers' first time it'll be fun.
Yeah, it's gonna be gonna begiven kind of alluded to this for the
fact that last year down the ladder, it's boom. This is how we're

(01:10:27):
doing things, and everybody's following that, and I think it's impressive the details
that everybody have been on has hasbeen on the effort and just the competitiveness
that that's been going on over thelast few weeks. Yeah, it's it's
it's been great. How much doyou appreciate that the stopping just described the

(01:10:49):
way Jim, we shouldn't eat inthe messaging doesn't eat mixed up? Might
appreciate that much. I mean,it's I guess it's easy to appreciate when
you kind of see it working andyou see guys improving, getting better.
I just think the details are reallyimportant. You can pretend that leaving your

(01:11:14):
shoes a mess or your locker amess isn't a big deal, and what
matters is playing football. But Ithink all those tiny details and things kind
of add up and leak into theimportant stuff, like what you're doing on
the field. So if you canhave your toe behind the line, or
have your locker and order and allthese things, they kind of stack up
into performing well and playing well whenthings count. So you know, I

(01:11:42):
appreciate that. It also hasn't beena fight with the guys in the locker
room. They buy in, andyou know, it's a lot of young
guys, and I think they're hungryto learn, hungry to compete, and
when you know, it's just anexample, whether it's we talked about first
day, have your shoot, ifyou could, if you could spend the

(01:12:02):
time on these small things when nobody'swatching. I think, like I was
saying, it seems like it mightnot add up too much, but I
think in the long term it does, and it leaks into other things,
whether you're doing your right assignment onthe field, being late to meetings or
all these things. If you holda standard and you stay to that standard,

(01:12:26):
I think it benefits you long term. It's been like w Ben Herbert,
who has there been any anything inhis training program we're working with you
that you feel will benefit you later. Yeah, yeah, definitely. He's
been great. He's a no nonsensekind of guy, but he's not an
old school in the sense that he'sbringing his way of doing things and that's

(01:12:47):
the only way to do things.He understands that guys have been in the
in the business for a long time, Khalil me and we have a way
of doing things, and all hewants to do is add to that and
help you get better and perform thebest you can. He's he stresses it
all the time that he's a toolfor us, and you know, he's
been He's been great. The guyslove him. The energy brings is awesome,

(01:13:12):
and I think the stuff that we'redoing in the weight room is great,
great addition to stuff that I maymay do on the side or whatever
that is. Yeah, I thinkwe I mean, we had a presentation
today with all the certain measurables thatare changing, and if you guys are
in the meeting, you definitely seehow beneficial he's been to the team so
far. So obviously staying healthy isis a huge factor to anybody's success.

(01:13:39):
I'd say it's plagued us a littlebit for a while. So yeah,
I think he's He's definitely incredibly beneficial. When are you like fever, I
know at the end of the lastseason you might have been able to Yeah,
No, I was not ready togo last year. No, tried
practicing, tried coming back, anduh it was it was not good,

(01:14:04):
but yeah it was Unfortunately the yearwasn't going great and it just was unnecessary
risk for I mean, my footcould have had some real real issues if
I came back too early. Soyeah, 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.

(01:14:26):
My hand, so all those thingsare good. F gut surgery on my
finger, so that's feeling good.Yeah, it's it's nice to be feeling
better going into year nine than youhave since maybe five six years ago,
which I've said, I've said I'vebeen feeling great last couple of years.
I'm telling you it's a real dealthis time. But obviously anything can happen.

(01:14:48):
But I just feel it's fun feelingreally confident in your body and being
able to perform. So I couldjust go out during practice and you know,
go balls to the wall and doeverything that I feel like I need
to to be able to prepare.It's fun. My brother and whoever I

(01:15:09):
trained with my trainerer Todd back home, Uh, I think they'd be really
proud of how I've been working thisoffseason and it's just exciting. Pointing was
the injuries on the Green Bay game? You kind of yeah, it was
a bit of a build up,a little bit of an overreaction, but

(01:15:30):
you know, it's just tough.It comes sometimes like that, and I
just felt felt really uh defeated comingback had a broken hand. I'm like,
oh, yeah, I get toplay boom first series foot pops thought
I'd have to get surgery, andall these thoughts flooded through my head.
Broke down a bit, and yeah, it just hurts. You know,
you're losing, you're getting injured.You've felt like you prepared really well in

(01:15:56):
the off season, and then theyear before you had growing surgery, so
you know, a lot of thingsbuild up. Yeah, you don't get
a break if you're injured. Everybodywants to go on. Fans are very
nice, but no, I justI'm grateful that I feel this way.
I'm still still nice. Ripe twentyeight, so not too old yet,

(01:16:20):
but yeah, I'm just excited.I can't remember what the original question was.
At this point, you get somethingabout my body, How close you
and Gift were, How frustrating wasit that you couldn't, you know soon

(01:16:41):
for one of those last three games. It was frustrating, but I mean
Gift was had my back the wholeway. I think for Gift, for
any but for the whole team,just to 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 I was and in practice,so no chance that was happening unless I

(01:17:05):
wanted to throw my next season awayas well. But no, I'm just
I'm proud of him for what hedid with the team, how he handled
it, and I need to callhim back. Actually sorry, I give
Yeah, I'm happy he gets tostay close by with the with the Rams
and uh, I'm just proud ofall we accomplished here together over the years

(01:17:29):
and and we'll be close for therest of our lives. It was the
foot injury. Yeah, this guygoes a foot sprang. Yeah, I
sprained one area of my foot.Then when I tried to return and I
sprained another area. Was able toavoid getting surgery, which is kind of
the main goal. But yeah,it was. It was tough when it

(01:17:49):
comes to the addition of but Dupree, when he felt like he's kind of
brought to the to the room andcould bring on the field. Yeah,
it's when I heard we got mybrother. I don't know, maybe my
brother told me. I'm like,really, we just got budded, Like
that's no, that's no small pickup. He's a seriously elite pass rusher.

(01:18:12):
Has had some trouble with injuries aswell, So I understand how that is,
but not only him as a player, but as a personality. I
heard Khalil just saying he's he's afun guy. He's a funny guy,
and and to have that in theroom another vet is always a great addition.
But I'm just excited to have himand Tulle and to be able to
rotate like that and not drop offat all when we come off the field

(01:18:33):
is huge. And now too,he's going into a second year. Just
what do you what are you kindof what are some of the maturity maturity
areas you say from him? Youknow, I'm gonna say not much,
and that's a compliment because he wasalready mature in those areas. I mean,
he's on it everything playbook wise,always doing his job, working hard,

(01:18:58):
just refining his technique and pass rush. I mean, we don't have
the pads on right now, sothe real work will begin, you know,
in six weeks now. So butyeah, I love Tulie. I've
loved him since the first day he'swalked into the facility, and I know
he's just gonna continue to get better. Do you think of the addition of
Joe old. Yeah. Yeah,I'm gonna need to beat him up a

(01:19:21):
little bit in camp. So he'sso he's ready. But no, I
think anything to protect our number tenis a good, good investment. So
he seems like a real solid dude. Haven't talked to him too much.
Great build, seems like he hasgood hands, good feet, strong,

(01:19:42):
We'll see. We'll see in afew weeks when I lay a helmet in
his chin, how he holds up. But it'll I'll take it easy on
him, for Shawn's a beast.Did you know coach Harbond before he came
here? And if he didn't,just what were those first couple of conversations
like that? Yeah, probably havecross paths with him. Maybe maybe not.

(01:20:06):
Actually I think what was it hisfirst year when I was a junior?
So he kicked his ass as usualat Ohio State. No, No,
they just want a championships. I'dsay they probably have the bragging rights
right now. I'm like the guytalking about his old high school. Oh,

(01:20:26):
I remember we used to kicks.No but no, yeah, no,
the rivalry is dead. I wasjust saying this morning, you know,
nine years and kind of forget aboutthat. I'm not a great alumni.
Sorry, sorry, coach, butno, it's great. That's what's
great about the NFL is you justhave guys from all backgrounds. You could

(01:20:48):
hate their guts one one year,and then you come on the same team
and your brothers and you're all workingtowards one goal together. So our first
talk together was great. I justsat down with them up into his office
and chopped it up about life mainlyand his opportunity here and how much it
means to him, and uh,yeah, I think he's a special guy.

(01:21:10):
I think he's uh, the wayhe conducts himself. He's an interesting
cat for sure, and I'm stillstill feeling him out. But one thing
you can't denies that he loves footballand his main goal is to win football
games. So and that's what weneed. When you see him working out
with you guys and and pushing slvesand doing all this stuff, just how
interesting is that to see. Yeah, I mean he was a he was

(01:21:33):
a great player himself, and Ithink he's always been, you know,
built like that lack of a betterterm. But yeah, he's uh,
he's part of the guys. Youknow, he's not this guy outside looking
in. He he really I meanhe voiced that to me is that his
favorite part of all of it isbeing with the guys and and the connections

(01:21:55):
he makes. So Yeah, toto see a guy like that come in
and embrace it all and kind ofbe part of it himself is important.
Your initial impressions of Coachman during thedefensive saving, Yeah, it's funny you
go from old Gift, old Giftto this little young guy who's my age.

(01:22:15):
I wouldn't want to get thrown intoa room with me and khalil IPOs
his age. But no, he'sbeen great. I love messing with him
a little bit. We little sarcasmback and forth. But no, he's
great. He's uh, he's verytalks very fast, and I don't as
you know, so sometimes I gottabe like, slow down, coach,

(01:22:38):
come on. But no, he'sgreat. I'm excited, you know,
to get closer as the years,as the year goes on, and I
think he has he has a lotof passion for the position and all he
wants to do is learn and andhelp us to improve. So I'm excited
about him and me and I domiss Gift. Obviously, it was a

(01:23:00):
long time with him, but Iam excited to have a new face and
kind of have that challenge for me. You worked much with with Jesse's dad,
since I know he coached linebackers inMichigan. Did you ask about Jesse?
Did you ask about doing? Okay, you asked about Jesse. Oh
my god, I was talking aboutfreaking doing the whole time. You guys
are so confused. No, sorry, I thought I thought I was.

(01:23:26):
I thought you mentioned coach Ronie.No, No, coach Mentor has been
great as well. Yeah, they'veboth been great. Sorry, run that
back. No, he's been good. Uh yeah, very knowledgeable guy.
Same thing. I'm excited to getto know him more as the year goes
on. Have you worked Have youworked much during the Yeah? No,

(01:23:51):
I have not. I don't knowif I've said one word to him,
but more words to come down theroad. Like you said, you've been
in year since twenty sixteen. Justwhat are some of this stuff? You
justone on a ramble about the wrongguy for fifteen minutes walking what? Yeah?

(01:24:18):
What the hecks? Actually that's literallynot the person. Yeah, I
figured out. What's something that youyou worked unduring the off season? Something
impruger game or is there something thatyou can. Usually my answer is pretty

(01:24:38):
consistent that I just continue to tryto prepare myself physically, whether that's my
sprint work or agility work and mylifting, but yeah, just to get
everything feeling great. I dealt withthose injuries, so I had to kind
of ramp it up with my fingerand foot and all those things. But

(01:24:59):
now I'm I'm full full speed outthere, and I'm just gonna continue to
do what I know will prepare mefor the season. And uh, I
know I'm gonna get plenty of techniquework and position work when I'm out here,
So for now, I'm going tospend these five weeks really getting uh
preparing my body workouts. Competitor again, another year competitive and all that stuff.

(01:25:27):
Yeah, yeah, it's usually toohot out there for much competition.
We're just trying to survive. Sobut 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? Was his time? Butuh, yeah, it's always you can
never have an off day when whenyou're out there and he's he's warming up

(01:25:48):
like a beat, like a freakingrobot every day out there, so there's
no there's no off days and youyou and him talked at all and out.
I mean, I need to talkwhen you were having a contract that
you have, guys have to talkabout it. Oh yeah, I mean
it's it's a conversation, not anot really a serious conversation, but something

(01:26:11):
that's come up before. But yeah, I mean it would be cool.
It would be cool at some point. I uh, it's gonna be more
and more. And how similar willyour role be, you know in terms
of playing Denver. I don't knowthat yet. I kind of just mentioned
previously. I don't know my role. I don't know the ins and out
yet. Once we'll get NO throughthe protocols and nfl PA, we'll we'll

(01:26:34):
talk about no, the schemes andeverything. Right, so welcome. When
you were in Denver in the threefour, where did you find yourself most
comfortable and most effective role? Iplayed a lot of different positions in Denver.
I mean earlier my year I playedzero, I played three, two

(01:26:55):
one. I mean I'm definitely morecomfortable in to shady position, mainly being
a retechnique and five technique. That'swhy I found myself to be more comfortable
whether I'm standing up or I'm notwhether it's runner or pass. Uh,
they'll seem to be my best mybest fits. And what is your impression
of Pete Carroll's defense and whole environment? Uh? From afar, it seems

(01:27:17):
like he he holds in on adefense a lot. Uh. I can't
really say too much about that.Yeah, I don't. I know Pete
Carroll very little, so uh,I'm just trying to figure out more and
I'll give you a better answer later. What's some reputation around the league out
of the seas? Uh? Youknow hard nos Hard had type of team
definitely on a little more lack sideas opposed to being stuck up or military

(01:27:40):
style, and which is definitely goodbecause then they this program is one a
lot of football games have been supersuccessful for many years, as long as
I've been alive and as long asI've been watching football, And definitely this
has been a good program. AndPete Carroll has been a hell of a
coach for as long as I canremember, even back in his college of
days. So I'm looking forward toexperiencing that. John Boyle, Yeah,

(01:28:02):
I know you said you don't knowyet. You know what your role is
going to be but just what whatkind of player you fans who haven't watched
it time of Denver, what kindof player get? Definitely a high motor,
Definitely not a one trick pony typeof player. I like to attack,
you know, whether it's a firstor first through fourth down, I
like to attack. I'm always tryingto apply pressure. I'm definitely just a

(01:28:25):
high mortar guy in my opinion.Brady, are there, Brady Henderson for
ESPN. Nice to meet you.Yeah, this is not a team that
really makes big splash signings in freeagency. Did you think going into it
the Seattle would be in Uh No, not at all. You just it's

(01:28:45):
kind of like being a cure atthe county store. You know, I've
got a whole bunch of different optionscoming at you, hearing, a whole
bunch of different crazy things, anduh, you know, you only get
to choose one. And this isthe place that that we both chose each
other. And I mean, I'mloving Seattle so far, you know,
I like these colors. What whatdid you gut to do with Seattle or
see? Since you've been not much? Uh, just kind of just driving

(01:29:05):
around the city exploring, Uh,getting down to the market a little bit.
I want to get on the Ferriswill do some more like touristy type
of things. You know, I'mnew to the city and I got a
lot to learn about the city,all right. Yeah, there's been a
lot of comparisons with you to MichaelBennett. I was wondering if you know
Michael Bennett at all and you thinkthose are accurate. I know Michael Berrt

(01:29:27):
Bennet like nothing. I know nothingabout it but besides his style of play.
But I'm honored to be considered inthe same conversation as him and uh
style of play. You know,He's a Hall of Fame type of deep
lineman that I've known about since Iwas a kid. I mean, last
time he played here, I wasin high school. So you know,
it's cool to it kind of camefull circle a little bit watching him on
TV and now I'm being kind ofcompared to him in the way, you

(01:29:49):
know. I mean, I'm nottouching the surface of Michael Bennett. You
know, he's a Hall of Famerand I'm not there yet. So you
know, I just got to keepdoing my due diligence to be a better
player. Carbon Hey, dreamont welcometo Seattle. I know, you get
to play several seasons for Vig Fangioand three four style defense and Seattle's playing

(01:30:10):
a similar system. Now, datingback to last year as a defensive lineman,
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

(01:30:32):
kind of like the the realm ofbeing in the three four defense. You
got to really really rely on theguys behind you and the guys on the
side of you to really make theirto do their job to make your job
easier. Bob, yeah, dreamWell, well, uh, you your
house date fiyoffs that you didn't startplaying football, So you were junior in

(01:30:54):
high school and largely played basketball.So then that's what maybe I guess decided
to go go play football then wasfrom basketball. No, No, I've
always loved football first. It wasjust kind of just playing it out.
You know, I love a hoop, but you know, football was definitely
my calling, given I was atwo hundred and sixty five pound power forward
and I was like sixty threes andchange, so you know, I kind

(01:31:15):
of chose the route that God gaveme. No, I'm not six eight
much that you guys use Is itabout the same or is it? It's
kind of really it's a long longplays, but it's more understanding for sure.
I feel like you could get tothat more understanding plays and I feel
like that's that's the difference. Haterwas saying the other day, just kind

(01:31:39):
of like coming into this offense afterlike twenty years of breeze and just kind
of it was just kind of builton top of each other, on top
of each other. It's like kindof a lock to kind of take in.
Do you do you find that waykind 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. Yeah, I feel like it's
way easier. Like you said,it was kind of more of a Drew
Brees style or the last playbook,So uh, all credit to them though

(01:32:01):
they built that around him, aroundhis players. But uh, like I
said, it's it's more. Uh, this playbook is more uh for uh
matchups and uh I feel like it'sgonna be better for us or do you
think it's gonna really take advantage ofyour skill sets? Uh? Just building
around the strengths that I have.You know what I'm saying, things that
I can do and things that shecan do, uh, things that our

(01:32:25):
players can do. Is kind offocus on what we can do and and
building on that. Uh. Ifeel like it's playing to the player strengths.
So I feel like it's gonna helpus a lot around the way this
offense will have a lot more speed. And how has that transition been so
far? I mean, like Isaid, it's building around the players strengths.
So of course we got speed uhuh with me or uh she and
ati receiver, so uh, justbuilding around that. Uh. Like I

(01:32:48):
said, playing to our strengths andbe able to capitalize off that. Feel
like it's gonna help us a lotmost of like uh the up tempo astract
and you know, getting a lotof plays in the less time. Oh
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's definitely gonna play a big
difference. Like I said, comingfrom the West coast, Uh, they
bringing that stand for an offense here, So I'm excited to be able to
be a part of that. Foryou personally, what's what's the next level

(01:33:09):
look like for you? What doyou What are you trying to accomplish this
year? Just staying consistent, man, a couple of ups and downs last
year. Just building off that.Uh, it's always always gonna work on
the physical part. But being ableto bounce back after a bad game,
the mental mental aspect. Uh,just learning learning that last year and be
able to build on that this yearis a huge part. You know with

(01:33:30):
Mike Gon, did you take itupon yourself to kind of be that voice
in the room or to take astep forward even further as Uh? I
mean it's not really. I meaneverybody kind of grown in the NFL,
so it's just on you to beable to have that standard. Like I
said, I just try to dothat. Lead by example. I'm not

(01:33:54):
really outspoken, but just lead byexample, working hard, trying to dominate
every rep and hopefully they follow afterthat yards after The catch is that you
feel like that's the strength of yoursthat maybe wasn't utilize. I don't know
if utilizes the right word. Butyou could show more and yeah, it's
it's an offense that uh is builtaround that. Uh, just catching the

(01:34:15):
ball in space, catching the ballover the middle or even on the outside,
uh with with space and separation.Feel like it's built around having yards
have to catch. So I'm definitelyproud to be in the system, like
I said, and I'm excited.But is that is that a mindset to
like being good at yards after thecatch? Like? Oh yeah, I
mean of course, I mean youdon't want to get tackled by the first
person. And my mindset is tryingto take every take everything to the house,

(01:34:39):
you know, every touch. Souh, I definitely got to do
that more and definitely try to workon that in practice. Great dude,
man some some that I definitely needed. Some that he relates to me,
uh, just from backgrounds and uhhe's a great coach, great leader,

(01:34:59):
motive and like I said, I'mexcited to have him around and for him
to push me is everything that Ineed. So you're talking about like mentally
bouncing back, you know, fromtough performances or whatever, Like, did
you try to fund your resources goingto help you figure out how to do
that? Oh? Yeah, Imean it's older guys. Uh uh,
tell me that's natural. Just havebad games, but uh, just having

(01:35:23):
a standard that I have for myselfand the expectations I have for myself,
giz are sometimes so just being ableto be hard on your school, same
high school, same junior high samecollege. You know. So I've known
him since for for a really longtime, but that competitive fire burns deep
with him, and that's the onething that I've always admired with him.
And he's got an amazing athletic brainin terms of how to process things and

(01:35:45):
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
player and then as a coach.So the success he had is not is

(01:36:05):
not surprising to me. Is therewhere you see Ryan the success had?
Yeah, I think we all dothat. I think we come from a
unique place and in a really smallhometown in New Hampshire where we all take
a lot of pride to where we'refrom and and when anybody's successful coming out
of there, then you kind oftake a little pride that that's it's the
upbringing that we all had, youknow, in the U sports program that

(01:36:27):
we grew up in in in everyaspect, whether it was football, baseball,
basketball, those coaches we had anamazing impact on us and that's why
we are where we are right now. Ryan said, he doesn't think of
it as you working under him,that's working with him. Fact is he
is the head coach. He makesme call him sir though he just said

(01:36:50):
can you do that? Day oneand I was like, all right,
right now? But I mean heultimately is that is the decision making.
You've been a head coach. Howdo you think that's going to work?
Do you think there'll be any asclose as you are, any kind of
awkward moments? The right term,But when he's the ultimate decider and you

(01:37:12):
are working for him, Yeah,I certainly understand my role. I'm not
al Haag like I'm not. I'mnot in charge here. Yeah, some
people get that reference. Other peopledon't get that reference, but I'd certainly
understand that, and and I actuallykind of relish it because I really love
the scheming part. I love theindividual part. I love being in the
meeting room of the quarterbacks and tryingto game plan. But everything we do

(01:37:34):
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
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

(01:37:56):
and their defense, and it's it'sOhio State. You know, it's it's
Ohio State versus the twelve opponents thatwe're gonna play during the regular season and
then beyond. So it's it's reallycollaborative. And that's the thing I like,
just in the short time that I'vebeen here, is how collaborative everybody's
been. You know, we're alltrying to make each other better. And
we're all trying to develop this team. Touched on this when you said,
you know you like to do whatyou want to do and not My sense

(01:38:20):
is you, in your perfect world, you'd like to scribble plays on a
napkin and not deal with boosters,dot deal with all the stuff that coaches
head coaches have to deal with.Now, how much of a factor was
that in this decision you could justdo football? No, that's not it.
I mean I enjoy I mean we'vehad some amazing I've had an opportunity
and everywhere I've been to meet someamazing people that are associated with the program.

(01:38:42):
And there's people that from my timeat New Hampshire or my time at
Oregon. I was just with PhilNight two weeks ago, you know,
and got an opportunity to spend sometime with him and his wife Penny,
who are dear friends of mine thathave been great mentors to me in my
career. And there's a bunch ofpeople that and UCLA, Terry Donna who
Andrea Donna who were awesome to me. Angela Mazzoni is a great friend,
Casey Wasserman, Troy Ayikman, therewas a bunch of people at UCLA that

(01:39:03):
I really enjoyed, you know,being around and talking with. So I
think sometimes everybody wants to make anarrative of it's either this or that.
It's never that. It's never justall ball, it's never just all recruiting,
it's never just all boosters. It'sa mixture of everything. But I
think the one thing that as thisposition as a head coach kept moving on

(01:39:23):
is that if you look at alot of them, they all become more
CEOs. You know, I can'ttell you how many coaches that have called
me since I made this decision thatsaid I'm two years behind you, brother,
you know that are thinking the sameexact way. And I think it's
all part of what we have todo. I think we all need to
protect this game and promote this game, and I think there are some rules
that we need to get straightened outso that people understand what it's about,

(01:39:44):
because the game is still about theplayers, and I hope that never gets
discounted. You know, It's alwaysbeen about the players, and I think
if we can keep that at theforefront the people that are making decisions on
this and I think Geene Smith isone of the best influences in the NCAAA
to make sure we keep that themain thing. The main thing needs to
be the student athletes, Right,you know, you're coming in at a

(01:40:08):
time where you've been through some placeswhere the expectations are high. I understand
it's also coming into a juncture where, you know, the three losses to
Michigan, the not making the playofflast year, the urgency is pretty high
here. I guess just sort ofwhat perspective do you have on kind of
the stakes that there are for Ryanthis year and the decision that then he

(01:40:30):
makes to bring you in to kindof help solve that. Yeah, I
think the expectations can be no higherthan they are in your own brain,
you know. And I think ifyou try to worry about what other people
are thinking in their brains, you'regoing to get screwed up a little bit.
So, you know, I talkedearlier the one thing about Ryan that
I know about him and has alwaysbeen he's the ultimate competitor. So he's
got There's nowhere that has higher expectationsof Ohio State than Ryan does, nor

(01:40:51):
the rest of us that joined himin our part of this and that are
working with him. So you know, I don't think. I think sometimes
you can spend too much time thinkingabout those things. You know. What
you really have to do is justas there's a big sign as you walk
into this place, it says whenthe moment, you know. I think
that's a real thing that we haveto do as coaches, is to make
sure that our players aren't worried aboutwhat's going on in the future, or
or aren't worried about what's going onin the past, or worry about can

(01:41:13):
they get a little bit better today, you know, and can we make
improvement? And I think the onething that I've seen here and I've only
been here for three weeks, butthere's a consistency to the players approach when
they walk in this building every day, which is it's unique. It's not
like that everywhere else. And it'sone of the things that I remarked to
Mick when I you know, hesaid, Hey, what do you think,
And I was like, it's impressive. It's impressive the culture of the
players that are in this program rightnow. But I think it speaks a

(01:41:33):
lot to the leadership. There's alot of older players on this team,
and they've set the tone for theyounger players, and I think the younger
players have done a great job offollowship and getting right in line with that.
It's never ended over play calling tosomeone before. What does it mean
to you? I guess he technicallydid it to Bill when he was here
for a couple of weeks. Butwhat does that mean to you to kind
of be getting that responsibility from himand he's calling essentially the offense that you

(01:41:58):
gave it? I guess. Soyeah, I still think the play calling
part will be a collaborative effort.And by that I mean that if it's
a good play, I called it, and if it's a bad play,
he called it. Because the greatpart is an assistant coach, you can
just point the finger a little bitand just say, hey, you know,
I wanted to do this, buthe trumped me. So we haven't
actually discussed game day yet. Youknow, we'll see how that operates.

(01:42:19):
But everywhere I've been it's been acollaborative effort. And all of a sudden,
someone that's calling the plays isn't isn'tlike pulls one out of left field
that you hadn't practiced and hadn't beenpart of your offense and said, hey,
let's do this. You know,we're not running the annexation of Puerto
Rico. You know, we're notcoming up with something special, you know
in the middle of the fourth quarterthat we haven't done. But I think

(01:42:41):
it's the key to really being successfulon offense is is how you game plan,
how you put it all together,and then how you practice and train
for that so that you get achance to execute it. Because the player's
confidence comes comes from their demonstrated abilitythat they've done this so many times in
practice that when they get out onthe field that this is like that to
them. You know, it's notthat they do it so they do it
right, it's they practice it somuch so that they can't do it wrong.

(01:43:03):
So, you know, I thinkit's that whole part of it that
is really the key to being areally good game planning team, right Doug
Lane Reef Kings of the North Chip. When you had that feeling when you
were coaching the quarterbacks during BOWLD,did you consider at that point maybe resigning
as the head coach and thinking likethis is this is not where I am

(01:43:24):
anymore. I'll leave and then I'lllook to see what else is out there.
No, I never thought about quittinganything. So you know, I
just is there an opportunity that Ithink I can that fit, you know,
And I think that's the you know, it's no different than when you're
talking to a recruit about them makea decision on where they're gonna go to
school. I think that where theyshould go to school is where the best
fit is for them. So,you know, I just entertained some opportunities

(01:43:47):
and I always felt I felt likethis was the best fit. But I
never thought about quitting or not coaching. I'm gonna coach. I'm gonna coach,
and then I'm gonna die. ButI mean, that's how I think
I think about things is I can'tpicture that. I know someone I was
on the Nike trip and they like, how much longer are you going to
go? When I said I couldgo another fifteen twenty years. I don't
think about I don't think about retirement. I don't think about any of those

(01:44:11):
things. That's just not kind ofmy mindset that you know. I love
football and in the as long asI can be part of this game,
then I'll be part of this game. Just the way things worked out with
your departure from UCLA. Is thereanything that you wish you had done differently,
or anything you regret, or justthat the circumstances that presented themselves.
Do you think that you handled thatdeparture the best that you could have.
Yeah, I mean I got anopportunity to tell my players personally. You

(01:44:34):
know, I think in this dayand age of the Internet, where they
read it somewhere else and you haveto text message them. You know,
that was always important to me thatI wanted to make sure I talk to
my players and explain the reasons ofwhat I was doing. I wasn't leaving
to take a head coaching job somewhereelse. I wasn't thinking that the grass
is green or at another university.Was just in my personal situation, this
is what I wanted to do.I wanted to take an opportunity to go

(01:44:55):
be a position coach and coordinator,and that's how it fit. You know.
What I was having is that Ialways thought to Sean Foster, I
think the world of them, andI think he's a special you know,
and the fact that that they werethey gave him the opportunity to take over
there was you know, it workedout. I didn't have any say in
that decision, you know, Iwas gone. But I always thought that

(01:45:16):
that Shaun would be a great headcoach, and I'm really proud of him
and happy that that he got theopportunity to take that job right behind him.
Act you have your reputation as innovator. Was part of the appeal of
this is that you get to getin the weeds a little bit. Uh
maybe not mad scientists, maybe tootoo strong of a work because you're working
within the system. But was therean appeal of I get to get my

(01:45:40):
hands dirty here again and innovate andget back to that side of things.
It was, But it was reallymore important of who I get to work
with, you know, and soknowing you know, I've got I know
a lot of guys on the staffbesides Ryan also, so you know,
when I know what their mindset isand what their values are and how they
do things, and so I wantto be a part of that. But

(01:46:00):
there's a part of that. Yeah, how much of a teacher you get
labeled in the Innovator? The teachingsare part of this. How much of
a teacher are even? How patientare you? Yeah? I think we're
all teachers. I mean education isthe transportation of knowledge, you know.
So it really doesn't matter what thecoach knows, it matters what the players
understand, you know. So youhave to be able to make sure that

(01:46:20):
while you're implementing things is what resonateswith them and how does that come back
to them. So, you know, a lot of our teaching styles that
we've learned is more the socratic methodof there's a lot of questions, you
know, and a lot of checkfor understandings, just to kind of find
out where the players are coming from, because it's what they know that's ultimately
going to win games, not whatwe know. You know that we're not

(01:46:42):
playing the games. We're not steppingacross those white lines, you know.
And your job as a coach isto create an environment where they have an
opportunity to be successful and then getout of their way and let them go
do it. So I think theteaching aspect is huge, and we continue
to research, you know, someof the latest trends in teaching to make
sure that we are transporting that knowledgeto our players. The second rolld left
Steve Hellwagen twenty four seven Sports.Yeah, coach, just curious, you've

(01:47:04):
got five scholarship quarterbacks with differing levelsof experience from age and everything else.
Not to annoyed him, but justwant to ask specifically about Will Howard coming
in after starting part of two yearsat Key has a state. He just
seems to promote this idea that he'sa football player, you know above all

(01:47:27):
else. Just how impressed are youwith his makeup, by his experience,
what he's bringing to the table walkingin here right now? Yeah, really
impressed. You know that you don'thave to talk to Will for more than
five minutes to kind of know wherehe's coming from. He's really focused.
You know, he knows he's gota short window left in his college career,
and it really wants to capitalize onwhat that is. There's a maturity

(01:47:48):
to Will, you know. Ireally I've had experience. My experience in
this thing since the transfer portal openedin college football is some of the best
players I've had an opportunity to coachor transfer. Sometimes when you're a true
freshman and it's five years out,you know, it's like, hey,
I got a ton of time,you know, And sometimes when you're a
transfer, is that I've got ninemonths, you know. So there's a

(01:48:09):
sense of urgency I think when you'redealing with with transfers, and I think
Will has exuded that since he's beenhere. But the other thing that I
just in the short time that Will'sbeen here is how quickly he's fit in
with the entire team, you know, and how much the the rest of
the players respect him. You know. He was uh one of the Gold
Award winners for his work in theweight room in this offseason, so that
says a lot for him coming inhere as a in a short time,

(01:48:31):
being able to to win a weightroom award, you know, to start
off. You guys hope to havethe number one internally externally at the end
of spring or I guess just letit play out. I think it always
every time I've been involved in these, I think when they're organic is when
it's the best that. I don'tthink you can anoint somebody or force the
issue because the players know. Theplayers would understand, they see it every

(01:48:53):
single day, you know, andthere's a team chemistry part of this thing
too, So we're not going toforce the issue. But I've always seen
it play itself out. So I'vebeen fortunate that there's always gonna be some
quarterback battles that at some point intime at every school there's a quarterback battle,
you know, and then and reallyyou got to let them play it
out on the field, and that'swhere it has to That's that's where it
has to be decided. Just acouple age, Hey, welcome, and

(01:49:18):
we were excited to have you here. I'm kind of to talk about the
innovative part. Ryan said that that'ssomething that he's always loved about working with
you, and now he wants youto bring that here and how it fit
with Ohio State. Do you haveany idea what that's gonna look like yet
or is it just way too lovely? I have no idea, you know.
I think part of it is isyou're trying to put the players in

(01:49:39):
position to make plays. So alot of that comes from getting to understand
the players and what their skill setsare and how we feature what their skill
sets are, you know, andand the the one thing after day one,
I can tell you that there there'sa lot of skill set out there,
you know. So that's that's whatgets you excited, you know,
That's what that's what you jump outof bed in the morning and you're excited
to go to work because of thetalent that you get to work with.

(01:50:01):
But the one thing that's the mostimpressive is the work ethic that goes along
with that talent. You know,it's not just empty talent. It's you
got some kids who want to Imean all of them since I've been here,
want to work. So that that'swhat gets you excited. But I
think assessing what the skill set isyou know that we have available to us
on the offensive side of the ballis vitally important. And then our job
is to put those guys in positionsto make places of pressure. I mean,

(01:50:26):
you've experienced what it's like to coachnational championship, how over teams this
program right now and moving into asituation where you got to win quick and
now. So does that feel likepressure here for you or is it a
little bit of excitement or both?Well, I've always subscribed to as pressure
is what you feel when you don'tknow what you're doing. So if you
don't want to feel pressure, andthen you should know what you're doing,
so, you know, I thinkit's it's part of that, and I

(01:50:48):
think part of our job with ourplayers in terms of the education process is
getting them to understand that too.Is that, you know, it's it's
about your preparation, It's about youand your development. It's not about that
you can't be governed by what otherpeople say. It's it's what's my mindset
and how am I intrinsically motivated?And then how do I really compete against
myself on a daily basis to geta little bit better. You know,

(01:51:09):
we got a little bit better todaybecause we get out on the field today
and got a chance to do somefootball. And then the challenges when we
get back on the field on Thursday. Can we be a little bit better
than we were on Tuesday. Andif we're doing that, then we keep
stacking good days on top of gooddays, and I think we'll be in
good spot and welcome, Thank you. I'm gonna ask about the pros and
cons of coaching from the box andcoaching from the field. It's interesting talk

(01:51:30):
to some up some coordinators. TomHerman talked about he swore he wanted to
coach from the box. Saw thegame so much better, sterile environment,
not all the chaos on the field. Some coaches you talk to the like
I want to be on the fieldso I can look at my guys in
the in the eye where are youat as a as a coordinator, honestly,
And I've thought of this a lot. I thought of it a lot
during COVID because we had the emptystands, you know, so I had
thought about just walking up into thestands for a little bit because I had

(01:51:53):
a better advantage. I've always believedyou can see the game better from up
above, but I believe you canfeel the game better from the field.
So if there was any way wecould get a zip wire where you could
do both, you know, coachcalled from there and then zip out of
the field get a chance to talkto him, because it's a different deal
when you're talking to the quarterbacks ona phone, you know, than being
able to look in their eye andkind of see where they are with it.

(01:52:15):
And part of it is the fieldpart of it. I remember when
I coached Ryan once we were playingYukon and he got hit hard going out
of bounce and he just walked byme and I was a play caller,
and he was like, run thenext play, and I just kind of
looked at him. I 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

(01:52:35):
and you're like, how come wecan't complete that? Well, he just
took a shot going out of bound. So it's that fine line and I
don't have an answer, you know. I think I think it's feel on
the ground and it's see from upabove. Maybe in this day a technology,
they'll figure it out. But we'llsee how that that that operates,
and whatever Ryan feels is the bestfor the team is what we're gonna do.

(01:52:56):
So you're we're obviously no, neverplaying at this pass pace and run
a bunch of plays for a minute, and yep, maybe not by past
pretty fast. What rule do yousee tempo and having an offense and in
the state yea in college football?And has it maybe changed? I think
the game is always evolving, youknow. I think when I left in

(01:53:18):
two thousand and twelve to go tothe National Football League, Oregon was the
only team that was playing really,really fast and had shiny helmets. And
when I came back in twenty seventeen, everybody had shiny helmets and everybody was
playing fast. So I think thegame is always going to go up and
down, and there's going to bedifferent cycles that it goes through. I
think tempo is part of an offense, but I don't think it's an offense

(01:53:40):
in itself. I think it's moreof 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 good to have it. So I think there's times when you'll
use it, but you're you're notgoing to use it extensively the entire game,
just like you're not going to throwthe ball every single snap in the
game. You're not going to runthe ball every single and I don't want
that to every question. Isaiya saidthat it felt like sometimes you were hold

(01:54:03):
up somewhere watching film. You textyour yeah you missed this, or you
want to be well, Like thefirst day, he was batting all up
Russ's passes, so I had tolet him know, you know, I,
uh, you gotta take advantage ofthat. You gotta make sure guys
are you know, UH know thatyou you still care and you still wanna
be a part of this. Youknow, just watching practice. There's a

(01:54:24):
couple of things we're doing different,whether I'm communicating with Gunbar or other people,
you know, Soviet, so you'rethat you're also talking with him and
you you've given him points during theoff season, just constant communication. How
do you see him grow as aperson, you know in part of how
he's approaching things and how he's gettingready for this season, promos his rookie
year. Uh, you know,I think the thing with Keanu is he's

(01:54:46):
more comfortable. You know, youknow it sid his first time around the
track. You know, it's actuallylike he can you know, uh,
catch his feet under him. Youknow, I always think when you're in
your rookie season, you're going frombowl game. I don't even know Wisconsin
played in a bowl game. SorryWisconsin, I don't even know. But
you know, personally, I justthink when you go from bowl game to

(01:55:10):
training for the Combine to you knowrookie mining camps, OTAs, the you
know mini camp, I mean thetraining camp the regular season, you really
don't get a time to really catchyourself. You know, he understands the
playbook. Now you can be morevocal, you know, and I think
when my absence the other guy's absence, you know, you need guys like
that to step up and be readyfor those opportunities. But you had the

(01:55:33):
same you had during the season wasthe more thorough What was just tightened down
everything, you know on my leftside because I was overcompensating a little bit,
but you know it was it wasn'tanything that lingers. You know,
I'll say this, A growing isnot like an a cl It's not like
anythings that we're gonna ge affected again. And you know, you know,

(01:55:55):
I'm feeling good, able to doeverything squat and heavy with power and speed,
so you know, it feels goodto get after again. What do
you think of what the team wasable to accomplish whis offas you return of
bringing guys like Russian and things ended. You know, I think they're all
good acquisitions. But you know,you never want to be known as a
paper champion and so you can't winthe off season. I think the work

(01:56:18):
gets done out here on the field, gets done in the classroom, it
gets done training, you know,and then you see where you're at in
training camp and then you build onthat. You know, I think we
got the right guys in the building. It's just about putting a complete team
on the field. Camp how tentpercolleges to separate the business part of the

(01:56:39):
game in the actual football player.Oh, you know you always wanna you
always have to treat it like abusiness because you know one day it's gonna
ENDU and that's been the job.Uh. It's not like in college where
you know, you got four yearsguaranteed. I don't know what now you

(01:57:00):
don't even know what nil and all. It's crap and the transfer portal portal.
But you know, you have toI still have love for this game,
and I still work my tail offand I still put everything into it,
and that's not gonna change. Butyou have to know what you bring
to the team and what your whatyour value is. Yeah, we all

(01:57:20):
did a feel to be out therewith your teammates today. Emotionally great.
You know, we got a newuh, we got a new training staff
and still learning the the warm upa little different, but uh, you
know, I loved it. Uh, you know, just getting after it,
learning new guys. Uh, goingthrough the same drills I've been doing
by myself. I actually like havingmore people around cause like kind of go

(01:57:44):
stir crazy crazy. When it's justyou and another guy, You're like,
damn, I gotta go back upfor another rep already. And so you
know, it's nice to be uphere and get a chance to you know,
be with my guys. Cam wereyou confident and deep? Will get
done with your emotion? Oh,I'm gonna, I'm we'll try to remain
pretty neutral, cause you know,I don't wanna be too either. What

(01:58:11):
all I know is I wanna behere, but we'll see what happens case
my last year here, I've I'veI I've had a great career here,
but uh, I'll look forward toplay next year. Can you what's that
second surgery? You said if thistime was on the left side. It
was the first time around on theright side, right side during the season,
left side, and that was justtightening down my corner. My corma

(01:58:32):
saw. It wasn't the same asmy ad doctor. You know, you
can ask doctor Bradley, uh,doctor doctor Zuckerbron who uh did the surgery
as well. You know, Iif anything's gonna help me and it'll make
me a lot stronger from here onup. And you said you were training
with another guy. Who have youkind of been Tyson? Oh, I'll

(01:58:53):
I've been training with him for thelast eight years. We've always trained together.
We got a trainer north uh shadowtCole Haley, He's my guy,
traded trained, trained, uh HeathMiller, Brett Keesel, the multitude of
guys that I all respect and we'vejust been getting after can the very few

(01:59:13):
guys historically thirty five that paid bigcontracts. You think that's held against you.
I think there's not a lot ofhistory behind it. But you know,
for me, I I look atas I'm not looking to be like
anybody else. You know, mygame is different from everybody else in this
league. You know, I liketo think, you know, I can
play the run in the past andthen that's where I'm different. You know,

(01:59:38):
I remember last year Mike t justbrought to my attention. You know
the thing that's really cool is youwatch powerlifters, and you know, my
game's built on powering technique, andthose guys go into their forties and so
you know, that's what kind ofresearch I'm doing behind the scenes. But
you know, I I we'll seewhat happens. The is there's not a

(02:00:00):
lot of history. But I'm hereto make history and I'm here to you
know, win another Super Bowl yearand you know, have a great season.
Do you have a set goal foryourself or how many years you want
to play in the NFL? Ordo you just take things here by the
year? You know it was itwas tough answering that question right after the
season. I will say this,guys, I I can't keep answering that

(02:00:20):
question right after the season. Thatis not fair to the season, That's
not fair to my family, youknow. But in my mind, I
got three years and I wanna maximizethem. I wanna play at a high
level, and I wanna go deepin the playoffs. And you know,
we got a good team and I'mgonna do my part to be ready for

(02:00:40):
all those situations here. Have youplan practice when you report to latrob or
is your possibility that you might pullin and enforce the negotiations. I I
have not even thought that far.I've taken a day by day. Uh.
You know, I told my agentand we talked about it. I
mean, we were cool coming outhere. You know. I'll be here
for many you know, and thenI'll be there for training game throw my

(02:01:04):
two cents in there, you know. So that's just uh, it's been
awesome. Man. We he's he'syou know, a resource for me,
just a person that I can alwaysbounce my thoughts off of. And now,
you know, just a year yousaid, thirteen months, Now I
feel more comfortable just you know,bringing certain things that if you know,
you never you never wanna come offtoo strong. But I'm a curious guy.
I got a lot of questions.I like, I like football a

(02:01:24):
lot. I like to talk andtalk the games, so you know,
come to find out, he's theexact same. So we uh, you
know, we get along well,and and uh, we're gonna keep keep
building that relationship. Sometimes in thisleague, playing you know, eighteen games,
they tryna make a twenty. Youknow, that's like it sound like
a little a little fever dream tobe honest, but but uh, if
we can find a way to kyou know, stay up right out there
and keep keep Aaron on his feet, you know, I'm I'm excited for

(02:01:45):
that and uh everything that comes withit. But uh but yeah, like
I said, man, that's it'sit's harder said than uh or harder done.
And said, I guess you know, it's one of those things.
It's like that's a lot of games, you know, all of a sudden
take a lot of hits. Theytake a lot of hits where they're not
looking in and it's just how canwe keep him healthy? Yeah? Yeah,
are you when do you think?I do you ever see your room
now? Positions you guys have madewhen the want healthy and everything like,

(02:02:06):
Yeah, you know, I'm excitedto see it at at full health.
You know, you've I haven't gotto see all the all the guys out
there at once, and and youknow, it's one of those positions where
every day is something might happen tonick up. You know, it's just
a a tough position to stay outthere at all times. But I feel
like we got a great group andand the number one thing is how can
we stay healthy? How can weyou know, I'll be out on the

(02:02:28):
field, and I think having depthlike this and the group we have is
gonna help us. Having guys thatcan do different things, that can go
catch ball over the middle, alltypes of things that it's gonna take some
of the strain off off all ofus. You know, It's it's a
good group. So I'm excited to, uh, you know, get out
there. I feel like we haven'thad the whole whole thing together. But
you know, come season time,Moroling, it's gonna be exciting. What

(02:02:49):
about a guy is a your oldnumber? Yeah, yeah, Malakai.
Yeah, man, he's uh itwas a brute and once he catches that
ball, I mean he's he's gotgreat uh instinct of where the defense is
gonna be at and how to makesomeone miss. Yeah. Man, just
just like I was saying, youcan go 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. Man,

(02:03:10):
he looks like a like a problema little bowling ball out there, you
know. So I'm excited. Thankswe got Jeremiah JJ Smith JJ. How'd
you feel out there to day?You got to hear the TV team came
out, Don't make three and oldpool play. When you come to these

(02:03:31):
kind of tournaments, what kind oftechniques do you like to work One you
think that you're gonna deep run someshort stuff from crossing the routes. What
do you work on when you're outof tournament like this. Really just getting
back in the Google doing the week, so really just working on my releases.
Uh that's when I've been I've beena chuck. So just getting back.

(02:03:51):
Now we know you pulled the triggeron the High State. Obviously you're
gonna take visits kind of make surethat you're you're perfect on your decision.
What was it about Ohio State andBrian Hartline, Ryan Day that made you
feel comfortable to could make early Reallythey sent me my first visit. When
I think the first Kim you theyoffered me out, you feel like system

(02:04:15):
my first year? Really just what'sup? What's up? What's what they
say? Was? Really they theygave they gave me, uh really just
a kid that I'm a top artist. I wasn't top artist. Guys,
I'm trying to have them side.Now, I know you got something,
your s f a family up there. You got Brandon n s, you

(02:04:35):
got card I'll take What does itmean to potentially be able to wink up
with them in a year and beable to kind of run back what you
guys have done in South Florida Expressin Columbus, Ohio, it'd be great
we go there to Ohio State takeover, it would be grateful. Great
you can up for my first round. Yeah, you're a super humble kid.
I've been really impressed by you today. Is there anything that you want

(02:04:58):
to Ohio to stay fans to nowabout you? You know again, I
know you're just your all work,all work, all work. But what
are they getting when they get aJJ Smith to come to Ohio State coming
in on the job. Do whatI got to know, must work?
Does just come in? That's perfectmantal God, bless you. I appreciate

(02:05:20):
you, my man. Awesome watchingtoday. Thank you so much. The
jjon You have to adapt, butthere's certain things that we're not going to
change. There's certain values we're notgoing to change. It just you know,
you know, principles that have youknow, stood the test of time.
And I shared this with with agroup before when I started doing some
some research. As we were doingsome some of our recruiting you know,

(02:05:44):
introductions and some of our you knowtalks about you know the traditions of Ohio
State. We talked about how OhioStadium was built, you know, and
when you when you when you doyour research on that one hundred years ago,
you know, folks have the ideaof building a stadium over sixty thousand
people, and that's because of whatChick Carley was doing. And you know,
they had a wooden bleachers over here, and all these people started coming

(02:06:08):
in and the idea of bringing ina stadium that of over sixty thousand people
at the time was like, thisis crazy. What is college football turning
into? And they instead of goingto the state or going to the school
the community, they went to thecommunity to raise the money they raised over
at the time over a million dollars. Well night, Fast forward one hundred
years and the conversation still might belike, what is college football doing right?

(02:06:28):
And in this situation with then ilwe had to turn to the community
for help, and Bucky Nation showedup again in a big way. So
although the landscape is changing, Idon't know if you know, one hundred
years later, if it's that muchdifferent. It's just in a different time,
in a different you know, setof issues that we're working through.
But I think it's exciting. Ithink there's a lot of positives to it.

(02:06:53):
I do. I think that we'retaking the next step with the revenue
sharing to try to institutionalize some ofit, which would be big for uses.
Yeah, every years got question.It seems like this year's team has
fewer questions of the line specifically,if you look ahead to really more than

(02:07:16):
a month, what are the realquestions that you have in your mind about
position battles and who's gonna I wouldsay on offense, you know, we've
got to square away the quarterback asyou know, I feel like, you
know, the offensive line on theright side, we got to solidify that.

(02:07:38):
I feel like we got to build, you know, enough depth at
receiver that we feel like we canput in five or six in the game
and feel good about it. Ondefense, I think we're still looking to
figure out, you know, whoare going to be the guys inside,
you know, the third, thefourth, the fifth, defensive interier linement
that we're going to put in thegame. And then same thing just just

(02:08:01):
I would say depth, a littlebit of safety, just to kind of
see who those next guys are they'regoing to step up, and so we
know it's going to be a longyear. We're going to need everybody and
and so in a lot of thoseareas, it's depth. Uh, Special
teams wise, you know, punteris going to be you know that 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

(02:08:24):
we're focused on the most Ryan justto fall on the offensive line, there
was I think a school apology youguys might be looked for a transfer in
that post spring window. Did youguys do that? Did you guys not
find the guy or were you justconfident of the guys you have, Just
like you know in January, ifif if we're going to bring somebody in,

(02:08:45):
it is to fill a hole.We're not just going to bring somebody
in to bring somebody in, Likeat all positions, we'll always look to
see what's out there. We didevaluate some of the guys that were out
there, and you know, youknow, we felt like coming out of
it as we evaluated it, youknow, there was a couple of guys
that you know, we checked on, but but ultimately, like based on
where we were and some of theyoung guys that are coming up, you

(02:09:07):
know, we felt like we sawsome progress in the offensive line in the
spring. So you know, itwasn't there wasn't as many folks in the
portal, you know, in afterthe Spring. So we looked at it,
we identified it, we did ourdue diligence, but you know,
we're gonna go through what we havenow. Second round. Bill landis right,
You're it was interesting that you havetwo of maybe the top five ors

(02:09:30):
of guys in Sport and then abunch of guys who haven't plenty uh maybe
similar that I don't want question,but did you consider trying to add there?
Understanding that probably the tyficult sell wehave such talent, how the prince
over you have these experiences, likewhat were those conversations like and how did
you sett along being comfortable with youknow, Trey and well, like you

(02:09:50):
said, you know, I thinkwe're we will get some experience there with
those two guys, and then youknow, we felt like coming out of
the Spring that James and Sam bothdid a nice job and we're gonna have
to play them and they're gonna haveto you know, take on a little
bit of that. You know,we have you know, started having conversations
with Caleb Downs. I was partof the recruiting process of possibly you know,

(02:10:11):
doing a little bit of running backas well. It's something that he
wanted to do. So we've beenhaving him in some of the meetings and
some of the individual drills as apossibility there if you know, needed so
down the road to continue to builddepth at that position. But you know,
I think, you know, wefeel like, you know, if
you have you know, four strongrunning backs going into it, then you
know that's gonna be that's gonna beenough to carry the season. I do

(02:10:35):
think that the quarterbacks will run theball more this season, so that should
take some carries away from them.But to your point, you know,
James and Sam are gonna have tostep up to the guys that we can
count on. Save that for anotherday. Yeah, just fall up on
it. Is he capable of steppingin and being running back? Obviously?

(02:11:00):
Says a lot. We'll see,We'll see. We talked about the recruiting
process, you know, the firsttime around and more specifically in the second
time around, and so he's youknow, he's been around a little bit
just to get a feel for it. We did very little in the spring.
We did I think we pitched theman option or something like that in
the spring just to kind of getthem going. But we'll see, we'll
see where that goes. We don'thave a specific plan right now, but

(02:11:24):
we do want to introduce him tothat just the same thing like Lorenzo Styles
has played your see where we didthat in Notre Dame. You know he's
out there a little bit just kindof learning. It's healthy. You know,
you're seeing it from the other sideof the ball. This time of
year, you can get away withthat a little bit, a little bit
in the preseason. Where it goes, we'll see, but you just never
know. And we're trying to putsome contingency plans in place because it could
be a long season. Yeah,this is my forty first year cover of

(02:11:46):
House to Day. I don't rememberever expectations like this in the summer.
There were some of them were almostas big. Sure do you send that
too? And what does that pressurelike as you're working through a summer.
Yeah, and people have asked methat I go back to the expectations every
year are the same. I mean, it's just the truth. When opening
press conference and said you got tobeat the team up north, and when

(02:12:07):
every game after that, that's justthe expectations. And when you come up
short, you know, you've gotto figure out a way to get those
things fixed. I think we havedone that. But the expectations are the
same every year. Pressure is thesame every year. I just like the
pressure when you've got a really goodteam behind you. So that's what we've
got right now. And you know, we know it's going to be a
long season. We know we're workingtowards. But I will say this about
this team, Well, well,we've been talented. That's there's been times

(02:12:31):
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 fifthyear guys, and that doesn't matter.
We'll go X door Stephen. Maybemaybe this is just talks because it's summer
conviously, you can just have aconversations. Maybe we're making a big nothing

(02:12:52):
long term situations. But we've seenit around college football in league, guys
playing both sides of the ball anddoing it quite well. Right Travison is
doing college Caleb jas has been apartmentturns, so we see what he could
do with the ball. But there'salso the stamina aspect of that. Just
getting into a sixteen game season soI'm not saying it's any Morty snaps or
something like that, but what abouthis athleticism what he brings to the table

(02:13:13):
and let you know that if youwanted to explore it a real game,
he could last and still be aneffective safety. Yeah, yeah, we'd
have to see all that he didit in high school. But we got
some really good running backs in aroom. So it's not something that we're
planning on doing, but uh,we all we are gonna, you know,
work on a little bit Caleb.Caleb enjoys that part of it.
We did agree that that was somethingthat we were going to look into.

(02:13:35):
Where it goes, I don't Idon't really know right now, but I
know that he has the capability todo it. He has the athleticism and
do it, and you know,we'll kind of see where it goes,
see see how he does, andyou know, maybe hand the ball to
a little bit of the preseason becauseagain, it's going to be a long
season. We have to make surewe have continuency plans in place. But
I know it's something that he enjoyshaving the ball in his hand. So

(02:13:56):
even during their first time around therecruiting process, we even talked about them
coming in as a as an offensiveplayer. Ultimately, we think a ceiling
is highest on defense. But youknow, but I also agree. I
think that having you know, guysgo on the other side of the ball
and just see it, listen tomeetings is really healthy for their development.

(02:14:16):
So we're gonna do that regardless.Your defensive recruiting right now is maybe further
along, and it's been in theyears past, and I think we passed
nufmous questions about it in the past. But is this a product of seeing
it over the last couple of yearsand now it's not just telling 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,

(02:14:37):
and I think Tim walls 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 this, look
at this is this is what we'redoing. And then I think you're seeing
a lot of guys just excited aboutplaying in this defense and they see the
capabilities and the flexibility too. Youknow, right now, the way we

(02:15:00):
play, excuse me, the waywe play right now is based on you
know, we have four really talenteddefensive linemen that are really good, and
we got a lot of depth tothose positions. But there's also flexibility with
some of the things Gym's done inthe past that you know, we're definitely
looking at and some of the recruitsthat we're looking at who bring some versatility
pass rusher, you know, wehave that jack position and those type of
things. So, uh, that'sexciting as well. And I think you're

(02:15:22):
seeing a lot of the recruits,you know, really get fired up when
they get here. People. Yeah, coach, first couple years, your
identity was was very very from anAWFU standpoint and air it out type team.
Look at the deep as talent andthe playmakers you have there. Has
your identity changed? I guess whatdo you think the identity is of this

(02:15:43):
point point four? Well, we'llsee as we go, but you know,
we know what we need to doto play in the big games.
That's never changed. And we haveto be able to stop the run,
run the football, take care ofthe ball, and there'll be opportunities to
throw the ball and that that'll happen. But you know we're gonna have to,
you know, do those things towin close games and play situational football.

(02:16:03):
But I think, you know,you won't really get a feel for
what the identity of the team isuntil we get into probably the beginning of
October, you know, and Ithink we all have ideas of what it
could go. But you know,now that we're playing in a playoff format,
just like a lot of those NFLteams sometimes, you know, they
don't really quite understand their identity untilthey get about halfway through the season.
I don't think I'll take that long. But you know, we're able to

(02:16:24):
play some games and kind of workthrough some things. And I don't think
our defense is going to change abunch in terms of what we did last
year. I mean, it's alot of the same guys back could look
a little different on offense. Haveyou got time for two more? Go
to Doug Limris. Okay, right, you lose an important pruding staffer to
promotion at Michigan just this offseason.How do you react to something like that?

(02:16:52):
Is something that someone like that takeinformation that learned that could help machine
or stages. Yeah, all goodquestions, And you know, I just
I want to talk about the guysthat are here, you know, the
staff members that are here, thecoaches that are here, the players that
are here, the ones that areBuckeyes. Joe, didjit with the scheduling

(02:17:16):
change that was announced yesterday? Didthey come together? Didn't have anything to
do with the expanded the playoff?Maybe thin beginning of the season a little
different. Yeah, you know,I don't know all that came in came
with it. I know it gotpresented to me a while back, and
you know I was on board withit. So yeah, I mean I
think, you know, we dohave to look a little bit different at

(02:17:39):
our scheduling as we move forward,based on the way the format is at
the end of the season. That'squickly. About the linebackers, I got
in here a little bit late.How do you feel about your linebackers?
Cody seems like he always eased theVetriman rs is like he's lucking as a
starter. J When do you seehis role being Sonny? When you see
his role being gay and all thisguys? Yeah, good versatility, all
those guys ravel Reese, Like yousaid, c J, Gabe, Sonny,

(02:18:03):
Cody, you know I'm missing acouple, I'm sure, but like
that was that y R. Bell? Yeah, I mean these guys are
very versatile guys. You can seethe length on them, and you know
they do a good job in termsof like fitting the runs. They could
they have enough length, you know, to covering zone. But they'll also
blitz and that's something that we wantedto really work on this offseason, is

(02:18:24):
getting better at blitzing, you know, and hopefully we can even take the
next step in the preseason. Butall playmakers, I think when you when
you see us, you know,in the length that we have there,
we look a little bit different thanthan in the past, and and that's
exciting. You know when you whenyou tie that in with our front four
in the back end, you know, it's important to make sure that the

(02:18:45):
linebackers is the one they're the glue. Cody's had an unbelieable off season.
He leads to he leads the packwith that group. But you're seeing a
lot of those guys come on rightyou talked about being similar to last year.
You could be very good as canbe more aggressive how do you envision
in envision the aggression. I believein this team. Okay, maybe this

(02:19:07):
isn't true though, maybe play likeohiose they finished second for the first time
around the race? Is that true? Place for no comedy? That's great,
But obviously when they were recruiting youstill back it a couple of years
ago. Jim Molsan been here,A lot of defensive staff was in the
years, and maybe it wasn't moretelling me what it could look like.
And now I guess seeing what's lookedlike over the last few years as that

(02:19:28):
made you manage where they would tellit back then with the episil. That's
definitely true. Uh, they playedgreat defense last year and just seeing how
watching the film and seeing how theyprogress and seeing how their defense played last
year definitely helped me make a moresound decision and having more facts about what
it would be getting into. Andthey told you like, what's the good

(02:19:48):
safeties? Matt? Maybe see yeahright, No, more so the adjuster
than the bandit. But at theend of the day, I mean,
I I just wanna play where Ican get on the field. Okay,
this defense look like what they wereVirginian as a group. Has it lived
lived up to what they were tryingto tell you? What's about all look
like? Yeah, that definitely hasDo you have a connection ho what what's

(02:20:11):
came? Doun differ? Very genuineperson. He he always keeps it straight
with you. Everything that he says, he has come to fluition, so
I can't knock him on anything.He's uh very close to my pops too.
They grew up together. So justknowing that relationship with him and our

(02:20:33):
relationship together, is I tr Itrusted him? What look like you sort
of campaign into your friend prince uhmuch of year or is that something that
you want to keep doing? Whatdid you like doing right ather? I
did like doing that at Alabama,But at the end of the day,
that's the coach's decision. So Ican't really uh speak on that right now.
How are your trying to back?Great guy, very int uh intelligent.

(02:20:56):
A lot to learn from him,he knows this defense very well.
Just being able to to learn fromhim and see how he sees the game,
well, I think that'll very progressmy uh my development. You'll really
good jabs too much because stuffing matter. But if those last place or I
always if you started your mother,Winn said it, you might turn me

(02:21:16):
out. But if you know alot of back and forth. Maybe maybe
it's something guy's batterbility, Maybe it'sany thing you'd walk up through that last
day, anything you like with brother? And how did you get the bet
job? If you see, Hey, how you doing though? Uh?
Be good, I've been good.It was. There was definitely some back
and forth. There was a lotto think about, a lot to process

(02:21:39):
between me and my family, soit wasn't really much to say to the
media or anything. But at theend of the day, I made the
decision and I'm here, so I'mglad to be here. Pretty that's a
person. Just how do you tackyou all ready? How did you play

(02:22:00):
that? Uh? I think thedevelopment from when I was a kid.
I've been training with my dad andmy brother since I was four or five
years old, So I don't wannasay I was built for this, but
I mean, at the end ofthe day, I've been doing this since
I was a kid, so there'sbarely been no change. What did j
it stands out right now? Doyou look back up about nicked safety?

(02:22:20):
What what what made him special?Very disciplined person? He was committed every
single day to being his best self, and not many people can actually say
that and be truthful with that.He was the same person every single day,
and he taught me a lot aboutcommitment, about being disciplined, consistency,
everything that goes with that and beinggreat. I feel like that's what

(02:22:43):
he embodies. What with that inmind? What what is it about safety
deep mass that excites you? Whatdo you know what I mean? Everybody
makes a a a pig kid,it's somewhere in their lives and pay off
as a fish pass. What whatis it about playing keep beats that excites
you? I feel like it's beinga part of a a bunch of moving

(02:23:05):
parts that have to work together.The offense has to do their own thing,
but the defense everybody has their ownresponsibility. And when everybody can do
their own responsibility, everybody's gonna makeplays and everybody's gonna be able to succeed.
So I just feel like being apart of that and trying to help
myself and help my team be betterin terms of that, that's a that's
a big thing for me. Inwhat what did you get from sat as

(02:23:28):
many? You know obvious six timesto pers good root in physic teams.
What would you get part would interms of that kind of dooty A lot
about how to see the game presnap and during the play, a lot
about going into the game in termsof how you watch film, how you
study, what things to see fromthe other team, everything like that.

(02:23:50):
That's that's what he teaches. Whatis known right now? I mean he
used to come off with us.It's just barely intelligence gap. What what's
the imperson who played? Uh?Very intelligent for sure. He sees a
lot and he has an answer foreverything in terms of what teams can bring
him. So I just feel likehim the different ways that he plays defenses

(02:24:13):
that will allow me to develop indifferent ways your heart how people last year
were very instinctual player, very athletic, being able to make plays all over
the field, being able to seeplays before they happen. So if you
were helping, but to most ofyou did you know just played guys always

(02:24:37):
do it? How much here isit for me? Understand a lot of
reasons he pays into a game andplay the last teaching. I think I
understand it more. I mean Idefinitely can't understand it from a uh Ohio
State perspective, cause I haven't playedand then I haven't been through that,
so I can't really speak on howthey feel. But I'm definitely hugging to

(02:25:01):
be missing with myself. Did youever said people believe in Why about that?
What is it about him? Imean when you played for the nick
day with the greatest place, heargued with you about that? You know,
hun the teams to them put thatface to you? What is what
is it about one? Would youlike to do? You know? He
just about that the first time aroundyou stood and then the second time when
did they come back here to you? How to eat together? What was

(02:25:22):
about games? And making next toyouth teacher? He was the same person.
He was, uh, very genuinewhen I was getting recruited high school,
and he was very genuine when Italked to him two weeks ago.
Okay, So just being able tounderstand that he's about the people that he
works with, and he's very hebelieves in the people that he's around,

(02:25:43):
and he believes in the people thathe believes in. So just knowing that
and knowing what he stands for,that means a lot. Okay, you
said you said it was a lotback for that in during the lad Oh,
just I know everything you sim asthe fastings or what? How what
was that like to be get agentbecame him to a kid's what I make
this recruiting on steroids, I'd sayI got like a hundred and two calls

(02:26:07):
in one day, so just uh, well not in one day, probably
seven or eight hours, but justbeing able to minimize what my mind was
going through. That was a thatwas a big thing for me. And
being able to make a sound decisionoff of what I knew he has except

(02:26:30):
that's congrat o Walt, some assadults? What the kind of studs?
What I wanted to make the signorpretty much you have to go silent.
You have to be able to controlyour circle in terms of getting your opinions
from people that you trust in,people that you know you can count on.
So that was the biggest thing forme, just being able to understand

(02:26:54):
what the people around me were thinkingand how I wanted to go about it
as good hun opportunity. At theend of the day, I love playing
football and that's what I'm here todo. I'm not here to make money

(02:27:16):
or do anything like that. Iknow there's a lot of opportunities here in
terms of the city of Columbus,But at the end of the day,
I'm here to help this team winfootball games, and I'm here to do
my best and try to develop.So if you will to uh, I
I played in cold throughout my life, so it's not I mean, Georgia's

(02:27:39):
different, but I mean I havehad some cold experiences, so that's not
a really a big thing for me. Table xperiance for it. How much
did you talk to the sports asa quite state? Shok? So just
spart with what your role? Wouldyou let me talk about public school you
want to stamp cause I discussed Okay, I wanna get public shooks to do
this and bad. It was discussed, but it wasn't. It's not something

(02:28:00):
that was a deal worker or anythingfor me. So I wasn't. That
wasn't the biggest the biggest yes orno for me. And what do you
do? You go with the expectationsof a hive state, the same expectations
that I've had my whole life,the same expectations that we had at Bama
to win games and dominate every gameand go win a championship. You when

(02:28:24):
you were a few player with alot of unstop ones and you saw the
culture they ever saw they operated ordo you think of for a couple of
years if there's similar reasons approach tohow they go about and try the way
a national schools if you live inon this program, just in a couple
of the teachers think we were justgoing about for the travels became for lampionship.
It's all about the work. It'sall about the process. It's all

(02:28:45):
about doing everything daily to push yourselfto be where we need to be at
the end of the at the endof the ride, I'm thinking program pretty
often, uh, I would saythe day of or day like before the
decision, it was m pretty muchjust sitting on FaceTime with him and my

(02:29:05):
uncle, uh, just talking aboutwhat was gonna go into the decision and
seeing their input on what they hadto say about things you need you I'm
a I would say, I'm apretty respectful person and I respect the people
that reached out to me, evenif I really wasn't trying to look at

(02:29:28):
their school. So I'd probably say, like eighty of'em, you have
to tell me go onfore the ideaof what you might have been together just
because of having having enough what todo? How's that going out with you?
But I feel like you have tohave some sort of idea. But
people have an idea where they're gonnago during recruitment too, So I wouldn't
say it's that big of a difference, but you definitely have to have a

(02:29:52):
more of a singular mindset on afew places like what wait you for?
What you find about? Very calm, very I like to chill out.
Not not a lot to do,just uh, hang out with my people
and hang out with my friends,hang out with my family, just be

(02:30:13):
around people. Farma, what doyou let me make flap from people?
How much do that for me?What about? It was? Uh?
It was a highlight for me forsure, just being uh being named at
and going in a relationship with ShawnAlexander. He's a great person. In
learning about him, it was itwas definitely an honor for me. I

(02:30:43):
feel like more than just Late Thanthe Sunny can compliment each other. A
lot of people in the secondary canwork together to be cohesive and be uh
a brotherhood. So but Late Thanand Sunny they welcome me and I appreciate
them for that. So I thinkus working together, we can we can
do some real damage. That there'sa game. There's a game that if

(02:31:03):
you have to go to it apiece's who are That's a poltical game to
watch? Ye? What game didyou playst do A see? I just
have to take I would say asa collective the whole season. You can
see the growth. You can seethe growth from the beginning of season to
the end. But I would sayimportant Missisippi State or Texas A and M

(02:31:28):
would probably be the best to games. Just okay, what are you the
part of past to this best ofgood? Oh? I can't say that
that's that's for God to decide.I can't really say that is it?
Is it better? Is it nofun? You recruited as a high school
or refred on the people? Definitelyas a high school. Not as rushed.

(02:31:50):
I would say, could you likethe union? When any commis that
games in the period or something mechnicalizspectsthat have Probably I would say I'm a
lead at that. Being able towatch film and determine what are the keys
to look at each pay play,being able to determine which guys I need

(02:32:15):
to change up my techniques for uh, being able to determine what I'm looking
at in terms of before the playand what my teammates need to look at
before to play. I would sayI'm I'm eleade at that and being able
to make those differences each week area big thing for me. They look
to mention for the movie, whatstrengthen traditions the play that he speak that

(02:32:43):
gets programs there. Uh, there'sa lot of similarities. Uh. Coach
Blue runs a great program and Ilove everything that he did for me there.
And those guys uh that worked there, like coach you get you J
So I'm appreciative of how they workedand they did great things there. Coach
Mick does a great job here.So I can't really say one's better than

(02:33:05):
the other. But Coach mc he'she's a very intense person. What do
you have, Pampas? So far? You know? What do you what
is your lumpas so far? Earlier? Oh, I love the city.
I love being around here. Ilove the feel of the town. So
just being a part of it isit's a great thing for me. I

(02:33:30):
sp I expect us to be oneof the best. I expect us to
excel and be better than they werelast year, I expect us to be
elite. How much do exat?I didn't expect. Excuse me, God
is not? What will that one? Have you lived? N I mean

(02:33:54):
I saw it, but honestly,it was about me making my own decision.
Uh, me making the decision thatwas best for myself. So I
mean, he like, if you'regoing against high league, you're going to
against high You're going against you know, with the Hero and k Mack and
these guys. Now we're getting reallygood gradable reps. That way. He

(02:34:15):
had a great he had a greatoffseason. Uh just all started in a
weight room with Mick. I mean, his his weights up, He's thick.
He's always been an explosive guy,but playing with a little bit of
power. You know behind that,he's learning to do that, you know,
in the natural maturation. I meanfor all those guys you talk for
him, you talk I mean justhis class alone. I mean you're talking
him, you're talking George, you'retalking Tiger. Like those guys are going

(02:34:37):
into year three, that's when youreally start to figure it out your body,
the speed of the game, thetechnique, the fundamentals. And he's
done a good job of adapting andreally growing himself on the pace that you
need to for a young guy.That's you know, coming out of the
fire a little bit. Last year. Yeah, he talked about like being
at a better weight. Now it'sa better weight, it's real weight close

(02:34:58):
to three hundred and comes that beingfaster or confident. Is that where for
a center like was last year kindof a trial by fire for him?
Is it just like how is thatprocess? But not playing at all his
first year starting Mitschew. It's forwhether it's Carson Hensman or you know Johnny
Jones, like you get thrust intoreal reps and the full speed, it's

(02:35:18):
faster than you've ever seen. Andso now he has that book of work
too that he can look back onwhere the understanding of the game, the
understanding of the speed of the game, the intensity. You know, I've
said a thousand times that he doesn'tget incrementally faster or stronger. The game
mentally slows down for him. Sohe can use his skill set that 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 play with more pillar

(02:35:43):
strength, he can play more contact, he can play more comfortable. Even
though his forty time didn't go froma five to zero to a four to
eight m into that, he justjumped right in. Unbelievable job both ways
of him just coming in with shelvingthe ego that he had he really had
none, and walking in saying,I'm walking into a room, as we

(02:36:05):
told him when we recruit him,like you're coming into a room a bunch
of good dudes, and then ourgood dudes are good dudes. He came
in and there was no it's like, you're here, here's how we do,
here's how we operate, and let'sgo. And so that learning curve
for all those whether it's a highschool midiar guy or a veteran midia guy
that transfers in, there's a learningcurve there, just you know, circling
back to we had natural maturation alittle bit because he's been through a little

(02:36:26):
bit of spring ball, he's beenthrough a little bit of camps, so
you're still learning new terminology, you'relearning a new skill set. But he
just dove right in and wanted tobe a sponge and wanted to learn it.
He's doing a good job and he'simproving every day, you know.
So that's what's making the battle andthe competition and all these graded snaps really
you know good for us is becausethey all have that mindset. So from
SETH awesome, the unit and thegroup awesome because there was no combativeness to

(02:36:52):
it. It was let's get in, let's go, and let's compete and
then let the guys win. Skillset, Uh, just learning the same
deal all young guys you come in, you got to learn how to play
in friction. So having you know, three tech, having a two I,
having those guys like right in frontof him, that every time you
take one of those reps and you'reout of your base or you're in your

(02:37:13):
base, you feel the good,you feel the bad. So being more
consistent that way, you know,you can't make moves or shift guys if
they're not mentally there. And sofor him, he's got a pretty good
football FQ. So he's continued,he's growing every day, he's working and
he's getting beat every day 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 the spring it's yesand it's no, and I know it's
k and ow why didn't the repwork? What happened? And how do

(02:37:37):
I make sure I don't repeat thesame mistake? And so whether he's coming
in and watching the tape on hisown and then come up with questions,
he's grabbing me and watching tape withme, or we're coming doing stuff as
a unit. He's learning so thatthe same deal of the game can slow
down and he gets more comfortable therein 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 ofdevelopment that still has to be had.

(02:37:58):
Obviously not a finished product, butbeing able mentally for a guy to handle
that, you know, helps alot. Similar to Luke a leaner guy.
Did you tell him that he paidyou to say that that might be

(02:38:20):
the first time you ever heard thatin his life. No, uh,
now, you know, like LukeCarson whoever it may be that that jump
of eighteen to nineteen and nineteen totwenty year old kid that plays a lot
into it too. Being in afull year with Mick, I mean,

(02:38:41):
all those guys you come in atmidyear, like your Devo and and Dion
and Ian Moore, right now,you're keeping your head above water. That's
your whole first year. Now youcan actually get and we can sit.
So when you sit and talk abouta jam combo or a lock or whatever
the call may be to Luke,he registers that and I like something new

(02:39:01):
because then there's paralysis by analysis.So I think the mental part on top
of another year natural maturity of gettingbigger and stronger, that's always gonna help.
You're not gonna guys here, They'renot gonna regress. It's gonna keep
adding progress. And how fast canwe get that going. It's what we're
working on every day with him,but said that he would had been ball
guard to this point, and coachDays mentioned it several times that like,

(02:39:22):
Josh could play guard too, andyou guys are trying to work through that
fire. He's I mean Josh couldplay all five. I mean he snapped
the ball in high school. Youknow, Josh had a great offseason.
But for you, when you're goingthrough a spring and it's fact finding an
experimentation, how much do you wantto put them in different spots or not?
Because you also have an eye onAugust to try and settle on a

(02:39:43):
five man rotation. What's the balance. You have to get a really good
gradable set so that everybody has numbersof you know, just like we said
before, how many times have wedone a run blocking or pass blocking in
this situation so that that all evensout. So that's the it's not experimentation,
it's just making sure that you geta good book of work to look

(02:40:03):
at and grade that. So aswe you know, work guys around the
platoons and go just to making surethat everybody gets good gradable reps. So
we can sit back by the endof spring and say, all right,
this is you're comparing apples to 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're goingthrough the spring. A couple of years
ago, I would have from hereoffice and what would you say? That

(02:40:28):
laughed, you know, but thenI said, you know, it's college
football, so who knows, right, Yeah, I mean he just added
to another piece of just good peoplehere. I mean, you're still you're
coming to work here with guys everyday, you know, with the kids,
we talk about a ton. Butthen for us as coaches and the
staff. So adding just another gooddude that's in the room. Obviously,

(02:40:54):
as he says something, and youknow, he might speak in old terms
or terms that we had, youknow, maybe be a little bit of
the Rosette stone, like no,no, this is this He's like,
yeah, that's right, because that'sthat happens all coaches. That happened to
me when we got here 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, and he said, oh, this
is this now. So I thinkjust the you know, uh translation of

(02:41:15):
the Rosetta stone there help. Butjust overall standpoint of adding a great guy,
that's a great coach that's been around. That's he's going to supplement the
room. And every time you addsomething new to the room, then that
makes the room better, it makesyou individually better. Oh look how he
does that. Maybe I could dothat. Maybe I can bring that to
my meeting room. Maybe I canbring that to communication to the staff or
to the kids or whatever it is. Because he's he's done it for a

(02:41:39):
long time, and he's done ata high level for a long time,
So it's good to add that guyto us and then continues us to rest
the staff for me and Brian andKey and and and everybody just learning and
growing with that kind of specifically justfrom a talent standpoint. Does he see
things sometimes others don't see? Imean does he? I mean what does
he kind of where from the chalkboardaspect of things? Well, I mean

(02:42:03):
what you're saying, so what doeshe see? It's good to have fresh
eyes come in that. Maybe youknow you're getting a routine and you get
in a rhythm and then all ofa sudden running game, uh football.
You know. He's one of thoseguys I think goes into the category it's
forgotten a lot of more football thansome people have learned in their life.
But no, his he I believehe coached every position on the field,

(02:42:26):
both sides of balter his whole career. So as he looks up and he
writes when he's talking about, well, this will linebacker is gonna do that,
then he might have coached that atColumbia, right, or this is
what the three texts gonna read onthe down block of a tackle. Because
he's coached the offensive line and he'sbeen coordinator for a long time, so
just a really good vision of bigpicture understanding and you know, the next

(02:42:46):
step and not just being right now. Yeah, if he had a theme
or whatever this spring, because obviouslythis seems kind of like a how to
make it a breaking time for him? There time to step up and step
in. His point was, no, nobody cares what you know, what
struggles you have or whatever. Yougotta go to the field to get the
job done. I mean it's ifyou don't anything different about tag get it.

(02:43:09):
What do you see about tak Yeah, he was competing his butt off.
I mean he's kind of living thatway. You know. That's why
we have that the red line overthere when you cross the line. You
know, Coach State talks about thathere like that. It's it's the game
doesn't care you're off the field.You got to come out and step out
and do your job. It doesn'tcare about anything off the field. Right.
That can sound really negative and harsh, but then it also if you

(02:43:31):
just spin your tone like isn't itbeautiful that the game doesn't care. It
doesn't care that your skin color,your socioeconomic background, where you've come from,
If you just want to do itthe right way. In the fifty
three and a third the game willlove you back, you know, And
so I think it's the approach mentallythat guys take that way. So yeah,
for Tagri that he's he's taking thatapproach like he he wants to come

(02:43:52):
in and be a guy. Sohe's fighting and clawing and scratching every day.
So when he makes a mistake,he's trying to correct it. When
he does it well, he's tryingto enhance it. And that's what competitive
people do and that's what he showedup to do. So I that's that's
good that he said that coming inon the field been like as a center,
And is that difficult when you're cominginto a new offensive line to have

(02:44:13):
that or is there something nate aboutthe center position if you've been experienced at
it like he has, where youkind of have that I guess command on
the field over with any offensive line, Sorry to say it over and start
over again. You're saying the comfortof center with who? Now? Okay,
Yeah, I'm saying, like,how has his Higgs command of the
field been and hasn't been difficult?I guess to adjust for him if he's

(02:44:35):
to have a certain level of offfield command, you know at that center
position. Yeah, I mean it'son command. It's just great communication,
getting everybody on the same page.Yes, having a bunch of banked reps
helps. But then when you docome into a new offense, Uh,
just like we talked you know withChip a little bit earlier. You know
he might have called it yellow andwe call it green or something. Is

(02:44:56):
that you know, the expectation isyou know, I'm gonna have that within
the league. And I think thatshow just got better now going into their
three where you can really look atit and say, we have veteran players
who understand the defense and understand theposition, plus the great affort. Jim,
what do you like about Sonny Asounds actors that you set the first

(02:45:18):
seas you know, it's a it'sa change for Sonny because he's playing in
the box, you know, froma low position instead of dropping in,
so things happen a lot faster.But you know, he he's reacted superbly.
I mean in the team share.He's a guy who's got football intelligence.
He understands the scheme. Played alot of physicians. I think he's

(02:45:43):
gonna be great because one of thebiggest uh parts of being a linebacker is
you have to know every all thepieces around you. Say you can play
fast and uh, Sonny's showing alot of that in the first two days.
Jim helps them SAPs where where youwhere you start at? Yeah,

(02:46:03):
I feel it's it's permanent, butyou know, in terms of face and
and nickel packaging, you know it'spermanent. But there may be other things
where he'll still have multiplicity. Youknow, there's gonna be packaging. Who
gives to find back at this level? Is that would you do if he's

(02:46:24):
just putting into it? To listento a pretty five pound now were giving
us a d ponies against fers poniesand steelemons is thank Yeah, a little
bit of both. I mean,anytime you make a move, you wanted
to be right for the player andfor the you know, the defense and
the team. And I think thatfit up naturally. You know, Sonny.
Sonny had to uh fight to staylean as a DV and now he

(02:46:46):
now you know, he gets toeat you know, and and and uh
and but I think it worked outfor both of us kind of well,
you know, when you when youwhen I first met him or when I
first got here. You know,I think everybody talks about, you know,

(02:47:07):
he's going to be a linebacker.He's going to be a linebacker.
But I really wanted to see himat safety first. That's what he wanted
to do, That's what I wantedto see. You know, I felt
long term in my vision for himthat playing safety early in his career was
going to give him a better perspectiveof the defense. You know, had

(02:47:31):
Malcolm Rodriguez who was is at theLions at Oklahoma State. Now he's about
half a sunny size, but hestarted as a safety and when he became
a linebacker, he understood things alot better. So my vision for Sonny
was to, you know, starthim out of safety and then eventually move
him down. How was Hicks doingand CJ and and Sonny competing for the

(02:47:52):
same spot generally speaking, Yeah,I mean, you know, part of
the time they are, you know, part of the time we'll have all
three of them on the field withcoach, so there's balance there and that
they're competing and they also can bein the same package. But CJ's got

(02:48:13):
a great attitude. You know,I've always 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 him, and he's got a
great attitude and gay powers. Where'she at entry his third year probably and

(02:48:33):
it didn't you didn't see it becausehe didn't play a lot in the games,
but in our opinion game, youknow, the second half of the
season, what we see in practices, it's probably one of the most complete
guys he really was. So hemade a huge jump second half of the
season in terms of what he wasdoing in practice and when he got into
the game, a huge jump.You know. So I feel like he

(02:48:56):
is a guy that is going tocompete. He's a guy that's gonna be
ready. You know. I feellike he's made tremendous improves and and we
can start to count on him.Are you looking at just to Will right
now? Or is he a guythat's moving around to CJ's moving around too,
you know, so you know,you get into a three linebacker package,

(02:49:20):
you know, Sonny and Cody andCJ. You're you're pretty good right
but now, but you can't justhave one yot. So you know,
the Sonny's not there at the sameand then CJ's got to know how to
play it too, you know,so that you can ring Gabe in and
Mike and Cody can play well,you know, you still have a great
line up, so you always haveto plan for you know, Okay,

(02:49:43):
and we'll start out this way,but he's who's in next, So CJ
has to know both positions too.Yeah. Are you are y'all still a
four to five defense? How wouldyou? I mean? Yeah, we're
still fortune five. Yeah, no, absolutely, multiplayers. Absolutely, we're
still forty five, but multiple multipledeployments at times, you know, we

(02:50:05):
can be four three. But yeah, you still got Sunny right, So
now you got yeah, you gotSonny at a sam backer who's who's has
experienced playing safety, you know whatI mean. So that that that really
creates more multiplicity. How does ithelp you do your job now that you
have a full time linebacker's coach andJames? Yeah, it's uh, you

(02:50:28):
know, just having James initially lastyear was a big bonus because of his
experience and and the way he workswith the players. He's a lot nicer
to them than I am. Youknow. The last year it was good
cop, bad cop. You know, now the bad cops left the room.
So I'm sure the players love it, you know. Season, I

(02:50:50):
think the defense, you're looking atthe defensive line and you feel settle.
You look in the secondary, goodfeel settled. I think outside looking at
what what's there? What a littlebit of the question on to top mark
in disappear that the right guys tomake exact stuff starting. Yeah, really

(02:51:11):
confident. I think adding sunning itinto that makes a guy who's got a
lot of experience, a lot ofplaying time, you know, that really
bolsters that position in that room.So I'm confident in what we have there.
Cody Simon, you know, isa guy who always think is gonna
be great and he's hearing or aleader or the defense. So I think
it'll be a strengths you feel like, did you see others less too?

(02:51:35):
You know? Yeah? R Vel? You know, we kind of experimented
with r Vel at the d endlast year a little bit, and uh,
you know, I keep getting asked, you know, can he be
a linebacker? Can he be alinebacker? And I think he's gonna be
a great linebacker. You know,he just needs growth and learning. So

(02:51:58):
I would like to just continue togrow our veil mentally in football intelligence,
you know, at the linebacker position. So will there be a role for
him this year? I don't know, because he is so athletic. You
know, he's a guy you kindof look at and say I can do
different things with you know when weget to the season. You know,

(02:52:20):
that's a guy you can always createsomething for that doesn't involve as much thinking,
you know, so he can justgo. But out here, I
want to keep growing him as alinebacker because his time will come. As
far as the Jackets, Yeah,I mean it's it's it's always there,
you know. I'd like to getit in this spring. You know,

(02:52:41):
we didn't used it, dabbled inat year one, didn't use it last
year. It's always in our package, you know, so at some point
we'd like to get to it justto kind of keep it fresh. Jam
look like Regisilds. What do youlike about their technique site sport. Yeah,

(02:53:01):
he's got great speed, you know, good size. He's just that
he looks like a nickel. Youknow, his skills are his skills are
like a nickel. So you knowhe's still learning. But you saw Jordan
make just cement tremendous progress with thatlast year. So we gotta we gotta

(02:53:22):
bring Lorenzo on the team year.So you kind of came up there,
Mike. Yeah, Hero really flashedlast year at times when you go back
and watch the film. So,uh, the fact that we play a
lot of Russiman, I mean,that's a that's a guy who's whosed to

(02:53:46):
have a good spring for us becausehe's gonna be h he's gonna be next
man in, you know. Andyou know where a guy like Hero he
starts to really come along, youknow, you start to look at some
uh you know, double egle typeof packaging. You know. My thoughts
are you know, with the withJack and j T. You know that

(02:54:09):
at some point I want to trainthem as outside linebackers. You know,
so if you've got Hero TI Leagueof Tie and you get to you can
get to more of you know,uh, you know, five five guys,
five d linemen in the game,you know, with training guys like

(02:54:30):
Jack and and j T and Kiyata, you know, you know, it's
just kind of in my thoughts likeif we're strong inside those those guys can
become more multiple, you know,And I think it's techniques and things that
they can use when they get tothe next level. So that's kind of
in my thoughts too on that alittle bit. You're saying Jack and j

(02:54:52):
T possibly with that outside linebacker concept. Well, you know, you're always
looking to get the best eleven onthe fields, right, So when when
you look at a twelve personnel set, you say, Okay, I got
you know, Sonny, Cody andCJ with with before down you know,

(02:55:16):
you know, could we have anothercomponent with you know, Jack and JT
and and three tackles and Cody andSonny or Cody and CJ. You know,
I think you know who's gonna beWho's going to be the best eleven,
you know against bigger sets. Couldit possibly be hero, you know,
versus having a third linebacker? Couldit be a three tackles you know,

(02:55:41):
that's in my thoughts. We haven'tinstalled that yet, but but I
I'd like to get to that justto see. And like I said,
I feel like with those guys,the more they know of how to really
be an outside linebacker better, it'sgonna help them when they get to the

(02:56:01):
next the next level. So it'ssomething I'd like to do for them to
Yeah, i'd expect. I meanLathan was making very good progress. You
know, always loved the way heplayed, his attitude, his physicality.

(02:56:24):
First year, you know he hadsome eye violations. You know he was
he was improving on that until hegot hurt. So you know he goes
down. I'd say the responsibility is, you know, first and foremost to
lead by example. I could sitthere and I can say all the things

(02:56:45):
that I want to say, talkup a storm about the end of the
day. You gotta just you gottawork the work you got, you got
to do. Troubles you and Ithink that's gonna ultimately the guys in the
right direction. So that's just thething that I can kind of take it
on. The most is just thebody say yet get up? Yeah,
okay, Well of the quick looks, can you hurry? I'm a flying

(02:57:05):
standpoint to me, like we hada good year last year. I mean
you know what I mean, ifwe if you look back at the opposition,
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
around to. It takes a lotof work, and I think it's a

(02:57:26):
full process. It's not something thatit's a winner turnaround or a six month
turnaround. You come in trying tocatch it on the fly and something that
takes a lot of time and attention. I'm just thankful for you know,
my great, great coaching staff anda great unit around me and got you
back then starting off with you knowRock, from those guys to kid,
I think there's been a great examplefor the way they're suposed to attack blocking
and being a tight end here outof Ohio State. And I've been just

(02:57:48):
you know, thankful to be ableto have that example. We fail a
way. What are you waiting nowfor about? What's what's it been like?
You have to work? Yeah,well it's been great. Well he's
been good. Is somebody that's camein humble and it is ready to work.
That's that's been like the only wordsthat I have from not not a
minute of just like many words.But he's here, here here to work,

(02:58:11):
and he's done just that. AndI'm just the we glad to have
you learned a lot at smart Walkingin just kind of d are all in
fun, Like, I know youguys were sorry Bill you met more guy
on anything. But also that's whathe's known. You guys have learned a
little bit. You guys learn alittle bit of walking into Yeah, I
think essentially that's the that's the cultureof our room. It's when we come
off the ball violent, we're stilllooking to swing as hard as we can.

(02:58:33):
We'll clean up your details out andso that's kind of our mindset going
into it. And uh, yeahyou fret you're from walking Watch how hard
though, like to know that youstill be received? So know your in
reality, like you know you're usa would block what you gonna do it?
Like how hard is it to kindof change the word section. I
know you guys don't pay attest withlike outside noise, but also a lot

(02:58:54):
of people sa G. Scott textreally pretty good for walking too. Yeah,
I'd say it starts off with likeyou kind of got to It starts
off with tuning out for the outsidenoise and and what other people have to
say about it. And it's reallymore of a mindset. I kind of
look at it as it's like adrop in a bucket, you know,
if I got a big bucket.There's no one thing I'm gonna do to

(02:59:16):
to make this bucket full. It'sa daily thing where I put one drop
hood of the day and you lookback over a year, two years,
three years, you look back andbe like, man, I've gotten a
lot better. And so, likeI said, I'm just very thankful for
the unit. The guys that Ihave around me pushed me very hard.
When I'm just thankful you mentioned thatout bi harder today. What was the
best challenging part that you to mefellating is to the p if you are
in the same yeah, I'd sayit's definitely the size component. You know,

(02:59:39):
you can't you gotta be someone that'syou know one. You got to
be big, you gotta be strong, you gotta be fast. There's a
lot of jobs that you have todo. It's a very asking job.
You need to brought the big onsome of the biggest guys in the field,
but also run routes off some ofthe smallest guys in the field.
And so I think, just thankfuljust would be out here and do exactly
that. What was it like toget that shot the other day front of

(03:00:01):
the pro scouts? You know,just run routes, cats balls, Oh
yeah, show off. Yeah.No, it was a good opportunity.
I think some of the big youknow, reasoning behind it was just kind
of giving those guys out there thatwe're at we have limited numbers, so
just get out there and give thoseguys that we're either but need the opportunity
to get to go out there infront of scouts. I think that's a
it's a pretty good deal. Andyour take on the quarterbacks to this point,
the quarterback battle is going on.What what what's spend? Your take

(03:00:24):
on Will, for example, getto know him? Yeah? And then
and of course David, I thinkthe mindset that we be embody around here
is ironing shopping iron. And sothat's kind of like it's not just you
know, one room, it's fromtop to bottom thought this whole team,
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 cornerback room,
a tight end room, were runningback room, offense versus defense,

(03:00:46):
coach first coach, it doesn't matter. We're all just you know, iron
and shopping iron. Especially this timeof year in spring ball, we're not
doing too much game planning for nextweek, which we're really just spending this
time to get better and hid justbuild a good foundation for ourselves, have
something to work on moving forward.If you've seen Will Will Howard fitting in
more and more, is the practiceshave gone on, you know, getting
to know every body and all thatkind. I mean, I've always been
Benner for a while. Yeah,No, I think, yeah, I

(03:01:09):
think that's time. I think astimes goes, no matter where you are,
you start to adapt and you startto get used to the what we
got going on here, and soit's good to have them. Thanks.
Yeah, you came in. What'sit been like to me? Yeah,
there's learning polutions. Yeah, conditionI'd say when it comes to that,

(03:01:37):
I think it's all the glory tothe Lord. And I decided to give
my life completely to the Lord alittle over a year ago, and that
kind of really changed my outlook onthe way that I approached in football.
It's no longer something that I idolize. It's just something that I do.
And I think from the time ofmy life where I stopped, you know,
compartmentalizing who God was in my life. God wasn't just something that I
do on Sundays or something that Ido in a Bible study. It was
something it went from what I doto who I am. And so now

(03:02:00):
I embody that is who I am. And so some of the fruits of
the spirit is peace, patience,and kindness, and so those are kind
of the things that I've started todo embody on this on this journey.
I think it's easy to kind ofcompartmentalize football away from faith, but ultimately
it's all one. It's all one. So it's given me a spirit of
patience, peace and enjoy with theguys around me. And so I'm just

(03:02:20):
I'm thankful. I'm just I'm thankfulto be here. But just being quite
honest, I just I know fora fact, I wouldn't be where I'm
at right now. And I knowan outside looking in, you know,
asked like, you know, whereare you right now? But I wouldn't
be where I'm at, you know, right now if it wasn't for my
you know, relationship with the Lorduntually came into my life and you know,
he changed around for the body.Gee, what did you see from

(03:02:41):
Bennett Christian last year? How didyou handle that suspension and how did you
working about. Who was that?Yeah, I think he did a great
job. A lot of perseverance.I think that's no matter who you are.
When you kind of hear news likethat that you're gonna be out for
a year, that's hard no matterwhere you are. One thing, I'm
really proud of him because he youknow, he came up and he came
to show up every single day,and he got better. He got better.

(03:03:01):
The easy thing to do in thatkind of situation is a throw in
the towel and be like, man, you know, you know, forget
this, or you know, I'llget better next year. But I saw
the drive at him. One thing, I've seen him every day. He
showed up, he got better,And I'm proud of Bennett, and I'm
proud of this unit. Last questionseem like you said you know her.

(03:03:26):
I mean, yeah, I don'tknow. I don't really know how to
answer that question, because if yougo from one unit to another unit,
the moment you trade units, you'reno longer in the unit you were initially
in, so you're now a tightend. And so I mean to answer
that question, I think the timethat I went from in the receiver it
to approaches things. I love theway the questions he asks. I love

(03:03:48):
the way he makes mistakes and thencorrect mistakes. It's very veteran, Like,
I mean, there's so much Ballhe has to learn, Like he
literally does things that are good.I'm like, do you know why that
worked? He goes coach, Ihave no freaking idea, So like,
I'm trying to teach him all ofthat why it worked, so then you
know the consistency at which it worksjust goes to the roof and so uh.

(03:04:09):
But I'm very you know, excitedand proud of the conversations we're currently
having, and I'm exciting it forthem to keep going. Like I love
working with Chip Chip Is. Ilove talking Ball, I love the viewpoints
I love I love the the veteranthat he has, you know, and

(03:04:35):
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, 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 h I would

(03:05:05):
say that I sleep a little better, all right. Uh No, it's
it's really a great combo because,like 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

(03:05:26):
had. So to have that experienceand have that viewpoint, I'm just trying
to absorb as much as i can, but then also highlight some things that
we've really done a good job ofand make sure those you know, nothing's
really changing, We're just trying toenhance. We're not changing, we're enhancing.
So where the things fit is perfect, you know, I think,
uh, you know, the restof the dynamics and search Chip can talk

(03:05:48):
about. But it's been it's beenawesome, so I'm excited about it.
You talked to a mecha. You'rejust talking about moving from slot to the
house side. You know how goodhe's been in the slot. Is that
difficult move for you? Guys justcoaches to know how good a guy is
in at one spot, but knowthat maybe for his long term future and
the no, I wouldn't say it'sanything on his future because he's capable of

(03:06:13):
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's really, you know, allowing my
mind to say, hey Mech,be prepared. You're gonna move around a
lot. You're gonna come out ofthat slot, You're gonna be outside.
We're gonna create mismatches out there.I mean, his ability to move around
is critical. But I would saybetween Mech and between Carnell Takes's ability to

(03:06:37):
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 Amica because
there's no time to think. It'sone of those things, I'm sure when
you guys balance how much work doesa need versus how much does Yeah,
heavy heavy emphasis on what work heneeds, you know, versus anything else.

(03:07:01):
I rely on him. We havegreat dialogue back and forth. It's
a two way it's a two wayconversation. And frankly, there's gonna be
times where like, hey, Mech, what do you wanna do? Today,
you wanna go outside, you wannago inside, and I don't care.
So we're not there yet. Wewill be there, but it's just
more about, you know, whenthe room is ready to start mixing things
up, I would say there's gotI mean, I make sure I bring

(03:07:35):
in guys that are able to doall, but I have not asked them
to yet. So the only guysthat in our room currently I have asked
to do that has been Mecca andCarnell, 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 onanybody else right now. I'm not saying
they can't. But at this point, having two guys been able to swing,

(03:07:56):
you probably don't need much more thanthat. I need guys is being
experts at what they're good at.So it it helps the offense. Don't
be great at everything and be anexpert at something and we can use that
to our to our advantage. Thisyear is different, like maybe you guys
more situation. The room's always different. Frankly, I mean from twenty eighteen

(03:08:18):
and then nineteen and through COVID andand those guys and and then the depth
of those guys, and then whereMec and Marvin and those guys were as
freshmen compared to you know, It'sjust it's always different, and uh,
I expect this one to be differentagain, I'm not sure at what level
yet. Last question, your relationshipbetween the TV rooms and your last room,

(03:08:39):
especially afterwards. I'm curious d asa leader, just like you,
you know, played at Ohio experience. I'm curious about how you've seen him
kind of build a different warterbacks room, especially on the recruite. Tell the
amount of guys and maybe kind ofthe effective your recruit how that's kind of
been cancers. Yeah, he wouldprobably know more for that question that I

(03:09:00):
would, but I would say that, Yeah, we obviously feel are right
at the work. Hello everybody,Darius Robinson, University of Missouri. I
just want to thank you, misterBill Wilmant to your coach Gannon for this
amazing opportunity. I'm glad to behere with Marvin Harrison right next to me,
So I feel great. I'm reallyexcited and I'm excited for this journey.

(03:09:37):
See fifteen here in town. Marvin, when did you know the Cardinals
were gonna select you. Did youknow before they called or was there an
agreement in place before? No,I did not know until I got that
phone call from the Arizona Cardinals.Marvin Richard signs Fox then welcome to the
Valley. I know kinda tweeted toyou, tweeted out to you once you

(03:10:01):
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. Yes, sir, it's great. You always want to
support and love from your quarterback,and the car is a great player.
Excited to play with him, andit's gonna be my job to make his
job easier. Darius Darren Urban fromAzycardinals dot com. I know that a

(03:10:24):
lot of players these days aren't stickingin one school, uh for a long
time, And you did it forfive years. I mean even Marvin did
it for three Like, what whatwent behind that? And why was it
meaningful for you to stay at oneschool? Yes, at Missouri, you
know, we had some tough seasons, but we were really built with an
edge energy, details good in emotionalconsistency, and I just found myself just

(03:10:46):
trying to grow and get better eachyear and 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
two degrees as well off the field, and I just love Missouri. Wow.
Marvin, Bob mc bob McMahon atArizona Republic, congratulations, Thank you

(03:11:07):
to both of you. You're knownas all business, and I want to
know how that's going to serve youwell in 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 of raised and grew

(03:11:28):
up to do and keep the samemindset, same attitude that I've had throughout
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 Wayne ESPN,
what were the best pieces of adviceyour dad gave you about being an NFL
player? I mean, yeah,it takes a lot of work, a
lot of preparation, you know,from Monday to Saturday, it's all work

(03:11:54):
and then Sunday should be the easypart. I go out there and have
fun, ready to put the workin so that it starts with the work
first and then the one Sunday comesits Rieka benefits. Hey, Darius Howard,
balls are from cards wire. Ican't help but notice that ring on
your finger. Is that a cottonbowl ring? Yes, it is the
cotton bowler. You showed it toMarvin very quickly. No, I'll tell

(03:12:18):
the Marva. You know, hewas glad he didn't play the whole week
leading up. You know, yousee Ohio State. Everybody said, okay,
Marvin Harrison, and now he's ishe gonna play? To play?
He didn't play, so you knowwe left out. So hey, Marvin
Paul KELBC Cardinals Broadcasting, do youbelieve that receivers have to earn the trust

(03:12:39):
for their quarterback? And if so, what does that usually require? Absolutely,
you got to earn the trust ofthe quarterback. And think it starts,
you know, every day in practiceand being consistent. Really you can't
just do it one day. Can'tyou do it for one week? It
has to be you know, doneover and over and over again. I
think That's how trust has earned.So no matter where you get picked,
when you first round seven doesn't reallymatt coat and or trusted a quarterback,

(03:13:03):
your coaches, your teammates, soit alsots in practice. What's going on,
guys, Good to see again,Tyler Drake, there's no sports systems
for Darius. What's the feeling ofjust being able to represent your school as
that first round pick and what kindof impact can that have for those guys
following in your footsteps? Yeah,it's awesome. I feel like I'm setting
the standard going forward. But bestname was Zoo is known as Delon Zoo,

(03:13:26):
so I'm just added to the family. But now I feel like I'm
setting the standard for my younger teammatesthat this is attainable if you work really
hard, be consistent, and reallyget trust your strength coach. I feel
like every program is built out thestrength coach and that develops all the habits
on and off the field. Dariuszach ERSHMANEZI Cardinals dot Com. Right over
here, JJ mentioned that he lovesthe violence that you play with. You

(03:13:48):
mentioned the different tendencies that you pickedup. The emotional consistency is the great.
How do you balance that the violencewith discipline on the field. Honestly,
just through preparation and practice. I'ma big guy. I'm a big
believer in inside hands, so that'swhy I'm always working my hand placement and
then I lift weight, so youknow, that's all connected. So I'm
just trying to be focused on mytechnique as much as possible. Hey,

(03:14:13):
Marvin over here, David Brant withthe Associated Press. You know, a
lot of rookies come into the leagueand they get a little bit of leeway.
It's like, oh, he's young, he needs to grow and stuff
like that. But obviously you're gonnabe expected to be the guy here really
quickly. How do you deal withthat pressure? How do you go about
just so much being expected of youso quickly. I mean, yeah,

(03:14:33):
I have high standards for myself,but I'm just gonna go in there and
try to work, you know,the best I can. I just want
to help the team win really,so without that role I play, you
know, come September, let medo my best. No do that role.
This one's for both of you guys. The fans want to know who
you guys are on the inside.I don't know how much you're willing to
reveal to us today. A lotwould be nice. Could you tell us

(03:14:58):
what you like to do away fromfootball, what pisses you off about things,
and you know what what makes youroll. I'm pretty simple. I
like to you know, be inmy apartment, watch some movies. If
I go out and I go toa restaurant, get some food. But
other than that, they do toomuch. And then I'm pretty easy going,
guys, so try not to nothingbother me too much. Yeah,

(03:15:22):
I said the same thing, Areal chill guy, just really obsessed with
football. But outside of football,like I said, I got my two
degrees. I got my undergrad hospitalitymanagement and the minor and business I got
my masters and Positive Culture with FLAleadership. So just thinking about being well
rounded. And then I do philanthropywork. I start my own nonprofit foundation

(03:15:43):
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, This isfor you. After the draft last night,
you had a great response about howyour process and pairing for a game.
Just kind of wondering where your lovefor kind of the grind comes from,
and then your love for that processcomes from I would say my junior

(03:16:07):
year because I played Little league balloff and on. But I got my
junior year and I was playing highschool and my whole goal is just to
earn a scholarship. But during thatprocess, I really fell in love with
the game, fell in love withworking out relationships with teammates. And now
it's kind of like my advice andI can't let it go and just kind
of finding ways to always get better, you know. Luke Linting here with

(03:16:28):
twelve Sports, congrats both of youwalking into the valley. This one's for
you, Marvin. I'm curious yourthoughts or what was that conversation like with
your dad after your name was calledand you were able to be drafted by
this organization, And how surreal isit for you to be following on your
own father's footsteps but in your ownway. Yeah, I mean it was
very brief. Actually, just inthe second graduations, I walk up to
the stage and then I had todo a bunch of interviews afterwards. So

(03:16:50):
I don't think it has hit bothof us yet. I don't know what's
happened. I think, you knowone of Michaels always make him proud,
So I hope I did that.Marvin, Bobrock, pH and X Sports.
When do you anticipate catching your firstpasses from Kyler Murray? I don't
know. I don't know. Iguess we'll see and hopefully as soon as
possible. Darius, you mentioned philanthropy, and I know there's been it's been

(03:17:15):
talked about how you took some ofthe NI nil money to do get back
to school for the kids in Colombia. Where where did that belief in doing
those things come from? I saymy family, my brother and my mom
really instilled that into me, intome at a young age. Just give
back your blessings to others. Inmy fifthyear on Missou is the best year
of my life, so why wouldI not share my blessings with others.

(03:17:37):
So that's what really motivated me todo that. And now being in NFL,
you know my goals to do threeevents each year. I just give
back because you know, his lifeoutside of football and bigger blessings out there.
Marvin, you obviously played with anumber of highly drafted receivers at Ohio
State. What sort of feedback.Have you gotten about the NFL from them
and you know about making the transitionin the league itself. Yeah, it's

(03:18:00):
a long season, I think goingfrom the twelve game record season you have
in college to what was it,seventeen games now and you got three preseason.
I feel like just the biggest challengethe game stations is thing. Obviously
the We're 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

(03:18:22):
right, you haven't hired an agent? Why is that? Is there a
timeline to hiring one? And areyou gonna slign the NFLPA Licensing? I
think the taalle on this team isreally good too, and I think that
I can come in here and makea big difference, you know, and
we can win a lot of footballgames, you know. So that was
my that was part of my decision. Your Achilles coming night, How tough

(03:18:48):
was that? How long did ittake? Where are you at now?
I'm one hundred percent now and itwas like a walk in the park.
It's like a sprayinged ankle. Youknow, it was very easy, you
know, because I had the knee. The knee was pretty hard, you
know, and the achilles was Iwould say it's easy, you know,

(03:19:09):
just because that's just my 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, youknow, having have like good, great
games. The next thing, youknow, I heard 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

(03:19:31):
think I'm gonna gonna take off now, you know, and there will be
no setbacks and the injury prone thingwill be gone out of the window again.
That's yep. I'm sorry that Iam. I am excited. You
know. He does a lot ofgreat things, and he's a great person,

(03:19:52):
and we have a great relationship.It's gonna be it's gonna be a
fun year. We're gonna have alot of fun. We're gonna do a
lot of great things. So Ican't wait to here what the injuries you've
had? Is that just bad luck? Is there anything you've been attributed to
behind just this? Forms? Yeah, it is unfortunate, you know,
but God has a plan always.You know. I don't know what the

(03:20:16):
plan exactly is, you know,I don't know, but whatever plan it
is, it it's for me tobe here. You know. I had
a great rookie year. Uh Ididn't. I didn't really have the volume
as other people my rookie year,but I still had a great rookie year.
Six yards of carry, you know, things like that. I think
it was like nine touchdowns ten includingthe playoffs. And so there's always been

(03:20:41):
like, all right, guy,lets me show my talent shine a little
bit. Like even when I hadthe knee. So I had the knee,
right, A lot of people don'tknow, like I didn't get hurt
again. Whenever I got you know, got cleaned up. So I went
down in twenty one, right,had the injury, the knee injury,
and then came back later the nextyear, and I I played the first
few games and it just feel therewas a lot of scars issue in there

(03:21:03):
so I could get it cleaned up. I didn't get hurt again. I
could have played the whole year,but I got it cleaned up so I
can feel like me And so afterI got that cleaned up. The first
two games back from the injury,I had over one hundred and twenty yards
rushing right and then went on hadgreat, great ending of the year,
you know, one hundred total yardsin the playoff game we lost, which

(03:21:24):
I hate the most. Stays,don't marry me. I want to win.
But then come back the next yearhurt again like torn achilles. So
two really unfortunate injuries. But that'sjust God's plan, you know. And
I think that the storm is nowover, you know, And I do
think that I'll be able to shinemy light to the whole world. Are
you concerned that you have that labelyou gain? I could care less because

(03:21:50):
I do. I do. Iknow this out there because as as it
should be, it should be.I got hurt two major injuries back,
not back to back years. Butyou know, so I 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 theselittle little dinky injuries and sitting out.

(03:22:11):
It's something I can't control, literally, So that's why I'm not bothered by
it. Like, yeah, Iam injury polling. You could say that,
you know, But I do thinkthat the Chargers are getting a guy
that's gonna be healthy from now on, you know, God willing, and
it's gonna be great. And Ido think that it's gonna be It's gonna
be a great However, many yearshere when you've been I don't feel that

(03:22:33):
you've been highly adopted five pointy yearsfor very average for your career. Like
knowing that when you're out there oryou're very adopted, how much confidence does
that give you? That really allyou need is not all the confidence in
the world, you know, theway I work. I wouldn't say just
from the numbers, but just theway I work, my work ethic,
you know, and my relationship withJesus is like I have the most confidence

(03:22:58):
when I step out there because Ido know know, like if he grants
me the health, it's over withis I don't think I would be you
know, I think it will bea great year or whatever a couple of
years. However, many years hegrants me great 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

(03:23:20):
they might be higher after this year. You know what I'm saying, and
it's crazy to think about because Ihad six or six yards per carry,
you know, so we'll see you'relooking forward to the running behind this line
that they 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 allthe guys you know, and I'm excited.

(03:23:41):
I think it's like I said earlier, it's a talented group. You
know. We just got to putit together win some games, because that's
what I came here for a year, or I wouldn't. I wouldn't say
part of the recruitment, but likewhenever I decided I was going to sign,
it was great to have him inthe room. Yeah. We're great.

(03:24:01):
We're we have a great relationship.That's he's like my brother, So
I think compliment each other very well. You know, he can do a
lot of stuff too. You know, we got like a lot of people
think he's just power power power,but I think he has some other parts
of his game two, which it'llbe great because I feel like I could
do everything and when one get tired, we can roll it in. We

(03:24:24):
keep rolling win some games. Sowhen you the two of you get going,
well, how do you think that'sgonna look for? What would like?
What will be that partnership kind ofback there? I know that's a
hard question. How do I thinkI think it'll look beautiful. You know
a lot of people call this apassing league, but I think you gotta

(03:24:45):
run the ball to win the superBowl. You know, if you look
at the teams who win the SuperBowl, they can run the ball,
they can control the clock, andso if we're both good, it'll look
great, beautiful. How would youdescribe the Gregor running offense? I I
would describe it as, you know, a great offense. I think he

(03:25:05):
gives a quarter he's gonna give thequarterback a lot of options. He's gonna
give the running back a lot ofoptions. He's gonna give the receiver a
lot of options. You know,and I think it'll be I think it's
gonna be great. His offense isgonna be amazing. When we talked to
him, you know, I waslike, why are you being able to
build something good rushing offenses throughout yourcareer? You know everywhere you've been,
and you said that one part ofit is just you got a call place

(03:25:28):
you got a call run place asa running back. You know, how
much confidence, how much second doesit give you when you know you have
to play caller that's gonna stick withit and allow you and the offensive line
to get your resident. Gives mea lot of excitement. You know,
it's gonna be Like I said,it's fun to play in his offense,
you know. And I think hedoes have some good things in the past
game too, But like you said, he sticks with the run, and

(03:25:52):
that's that's the identity you You wantan offense that has an identity, right,
you won't be looking everywhere else tofind your your identity you want,
you want to have it, andso I think his offense has that,
and the guys he builds and putsin there, it complements that identity.
So I think it's gonna be great. You're full go for training. Look,

(03:26:15):
I ain't gonna answer any of theif it's up to me. Yes,
Look, because I had this problemlike three two years three years ago.
I'm thinking I'm full go. Ithink I'm ready to go, and
the next thing you know, I'mon pup, like, hey, look
some stuff above my prey pay grade. So but I don't know. Hopefully
I can start. I think I'mready to start, you know, at

(03:26:39):
the beginning of training camp. Butthat's not up to me. As I've
learned, I tell you, Iwouldn't say that. I think I've been
I've been in some great organizations,and I think this this organization is a
great organization, and the training staffis great, and so they just want
what's best for me, you know, and they're they're taking care of me,

(03:27:01):
which that's what you want in anorganization, and so that's where that
comes from, which I appreciate it, Like I really appreciate that, you
know, because I'm the type ofguy, like I work really hard,
so maybe 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 to me, yeah, I'mout there. But you never know,

(03:27:22):
with any frustration for you during theheading into free agency, you know,
dealing with with rehab and not youknow, having on a full season of
tape or production to go out there, is there any part of that where
you're like, gosh, you know, I have hit the open market with
a different situation, you know.Nah, I like it. I like
how would I say this. Ilike it the hard way, but not

(03:27:50):
you know, I like it thehard way. I like it. I
like trial and tribulations. So Imean the dice that I was giving the
role was I was coming off ofAchilles, and that was that was the
Lord's plan. So it was beautyin that, Like I was comfortable.

(03:28:11):
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 think it'slike you know how to write, like
when you usually right hand, youknow how your handwriting should look. But
it's about taking the reps to makesure matches, I guess, you know,
So just taking the reps to getback to that. I think it's

(03:28:35):
all what it does. I meanobviously, 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. Oh a
lot. He helped me a lot, even from like the first day,

(03:28:56):
just trying to help me get usedto write tackle. He got my feet
used to write tackle, Like myfirst day of practicing, Like, dude,
I still feel you feel a littleoff. I don't feel as balanced
in my stands. And he showedme the small technique thing to do with
my feet, which I still doeven even though I left tackle, just
cause it's a part of my routine. That was part of my process and

(03:29:18):
getting to my stands. So juststuff like that that he taught me from
day one, and obviously in practicewas fun. Just compete and you know
it's just to meet at the backof the pocket and to dap each other
back to every rep like that wascompete, you know what I mean.
So that's my guy, as muchas you love him once your the West
side. How bittersweet is it asa certain matters because it would happened to

(03:29:39):
him. Yeah, that's the thing. That's not how it was definitely not
how I n in And that's nothow I thought about the transition would go.
You know, I thought it wouldbe you know, on homesoone timing
a cardinal his whole career. Youknow, you know you wanted to play
here forever, you know what Imean when I was talking about his plans,

(03:30:01):
so you know, you you wistransitions like one of those fairytale like
it's your time now. But butagain, either way, you know,
we talked about it. You knowthat that's that's the how it goes,
you know, but obviously you knowhe sees he's he's been one of my
bigges supporters. Again, I affecteverybody leads in their own way, you

(03:30:26):
know, not everybody's the guys comingaround like and that's not everybody, right,
Like I feel for me, that'sme specifically on game day with the
O line after we do one onone like that's my like, well Hump
did like that's my like big vocaltime. But I feel like I've talked
to Hum about this, you know, just recently talking about how what I

(03:30:50):
want to do for the room isI want to bring that Hump energy that
he brought right so last year.Of course some trades been doing it for
years, but the year I spentwith him, he brought a lot of
the energy and excitement and the happinessin the room was just his natural energy
to where I only had to focuson me, you know, I didn't

(03:31:13):
have to make sure other other guysare you know, feel some type of
way when they came in here,because Hump brought that, but other Hump's
not here. But if I sawwhat he did for the room, I
want to be that guy to makesure everyone's amped to go to practice,
everybody's hype. Weren't taking the fieldteam one period. You know it's a
low day or something. You know, it's a it's a day, but

(03:31:35):
like, I want to make itfeel like parents the tripper right now.
I want to bring that because that'swhat me and Hump did to each other.
We will hpe each other up.Dudes like dude about to be walked
through. We're lit. So Iwant to do that. I want to
bring that energy. I want tomake bring more guys, you know,
to do that. You know,I wanted to do that from day one,
you know, I kind of Iwanted to do that from day one

(03:31:58):
from just talking to him, andobviously it's that time. I spend the
off season before OTA started just beingin myself, just thinking about what the
room needs, you know, becauseI know I knew new role as one
of the leaders, you know onthe offense, is that we need a

(03:32:18):
guy like that that's gonna make surethe old line is picked up ready to
go every day. I was heldaccountable. Little things are happened to practice,
people aren't saying anything, and howI may lead maybe different than somebody
else may lead. You know.I like to a practice at least like
the legal positivity, you know whatI mean. So, but he the

(03:32:39):
energy yet went beyond just the hypeof the deal line and start too.
So that's kind of how I wannabe goal mine literally my whole life.
I want to be a NFL teamcaptain, like specifically the NFL. I
wasn't a captain of high school.I wasn't a captain of college. But
I made a joke when I wasin high school. It's like there,
I feel like I'm not gonna bea captain til I get to the NFL.

(03:33:01):
Yeah, but that would be awesome, you know, but you know,
if it happens, i'd be great. But not either way. I
wanna assume a role as a captainfrom the respect of the guys on the
team, the dual award today andto get back from that way. Yeah,
I mean, I can't say that. I mean, I guess the

(03:33:24):
biggest thing is that I felt likeit has felt like how it you used
to in the past, but itdidn't take just the first day OTAs.
It took training left and right oncethe season ended, cause I didn't know
what it was gonna be sure,So it took a lot of yeah reps
just to get back to feeling likemyself for day one OTAs and then that

(03:33:48):
whole first week. But now liketoday, specifically just changing some small things
with my feet that I did todaytalking about a line coach about some things
I can do with my feet toget to that to sell at the traditional
angle that I w to set on. I felt even I thought I felt,
I thought I felt great already bymy kat I felt even back up.
It's not even more excited tomorrow.Now I'm getting my feedback to how

(03:34:09):
I liked it the right side andon the left side. So I'm excited.
I mean, obviously, I feellike in the league, whether I
left or right, you're still goingagainst premier guys. So obviously you have
high expectations for your left hand orright tackle. But there's definitely uh,
like the the level of energy andlike the expectations, definitely taking a human

(03:34:31):
spect because now connected to block side, that stuff, that's de tackle role,
you know. So so yeah,I would say in terms of communication
as far as just even outside offacility and just stuff like that, like
really creating that tackle quarterback bond evenmore off the field, I think has
been something that's even been cool.I got a text one day as a

(03:34:56):
Hey, like you play left,and I was like, yam, yeah,
I've been training both. I've beentraining both. You know. I
asked after the season. They're like, honestly, you know, we'll talk
to you still playing the season andI just gotta text me, like depending
on what happens with with the freeagency then. So I was like,
you know what, I had awhole season right tackle, So if I

(03:35:18):
get the word, I'm going I'mstanding right tackle. I don't need to
do what I did before. I'mbuilt on that bus. I was like,
I might as almost trained the lefttackle now as if I'm gonna be
left tackle, and I'd rather dothat than training on the right time and
get the ko Hey you're the lefttackle. I'm like, ooh, I
didn't even switch on my feet yet, you know what I mean. So
I'm like, let me just preparein the advance. I was like,
yeah, let's god. You know, I think occasionally on third down there'd

(03:35:41):
be a lot of twists. Iwould just know, like I'm automatically coming.
And I think that was my mindsetfor like the first half of the
season. But like I didn't haveto go into a gaming with surprise like
oh my gosh, they did that. I kind of figured like, okay,
like this is this is the typeof rushman again, like this is
how this guy usually rushes. IfI get the vibe, this is how
the end's like the rush you know, tackles that are you know, first

(03:36:05):
year guys who got the premiere patchon. I already knew what it was
gonna be. Already knew of everystunt and honestly just knowing that it's kind
of an advantage too. So you'renot you're not you're not old. They
brought the twisted my side. Again, it was never an Aaron Donald.
You know, they're coming out ofminds. Like three plays in a row
and two minutes I knew that itwas gonna win. That happened, So
you know what I mean, I'mwatching more than everybody else and he rarely

(03:36:28):
even goes out there on occasional thirddowns on the d end. I was
like, already know it's gonna behe's gonna pick me, you know what
I mean. So fact fact,it's kind of a it's also kind of
an advantage in the way, butit's also exciting. I'm like, okay,
I'm gonna get the hardest look.You know. So those are real,
real reps, you know the bank. So really, I I really

(03:36:50):
didn't kind of process that. Iwas like, hey, when they tell
me to let me know if I'mI'm just gonna train it. I was
training all left to Ta's. Iguess if I didn't hear anything about TAS,
I would have came in like soyou know what I mean, cause
just like I'm cool training both continuing. I would have been cool training both
continually. But I feel like anybody, any position will be like, okay,

(03:37:13):
like you wanna as soon as possiblegive your feet accountability at the time.
What I uh, what'd you seenthe guy counts? 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
his rout running, and you knowhe's just he's just a hard worker,

(03:37:33):
you know. You know there's someplays where he knows he's not getting the
ball and he's still still winning theroute. So you know, just to
have that player, uh A,a player like that give that much effort
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. I'm get. What'sit like working with uh some of

(03:37:54):
the tight uns that you guys happenedthen there, I know, a history
just talked about the versatility that alot of the guys have, especially in
that Yeah, I mean we havea different uh uh a lot of you
know, different guys in the tightend room. You know, Darnelly brings
sides to the room. Uh,Rodney Speed, Uh Connor he has a
great awareness in the field. Patof course he you know, he's a
great all around sight end. Andthen uh, you know, uh Crew

(03:38:18):
he's a he's a bat. He'ssmart, he knows what he's doing.
So, I mean, just allthe guys in the room, you know,
they're smart and attensive and they've if I feel like they've j are
justice the offense wild. So's it. What's been like working with Tom or
on? What's he been kind ofworking with you specially, Yeah, I
mean told was great. Uh,just his at tis attention to detail,

(03:38:41):
the way he comes you know,in each and every day. He comes
in the same guy every day anduh to be on side. And you
know, I don't think I've hadto coach that detailed as Tom. You
know, he's very detailed in termsof you know, practice, refuse sending
us, uh the info, breakingdown each and every play and really just
really just focused on the details tobe honest with you. I think,

(03:39:03):
uh that's the thing that sets himapart. And you know he's he pushed
us to be hard. I'm inour our indie periods or you know,
conditioning, So of course that's goodfor us. But I mean he's been
great so far. So excited touh, you know, allow that our
allow our relationship to grow, andexcited to work with him. And it's
what he's doing kind of compliment whatyou're doing individually, you know, when

(03:39:24):
you're away from the facility working withyou know, coaches one on one and
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. Soit's good getting that different work in different

(03:39:48):
drill work that I can you know, implement into my you know, off
season program and stuff like that.So it's good that I'm learned this stuff.
For sure. You're probably deep allof efficiency members in time that was
last you what what did what?What is smithing the offense talk about you
or trying to make make that incorporatethat into to being a big part of
this all of that. I mean, yeah, uh, I think we

(03:40:09):
have fast guys, guys that canget down the field with speed, uh,
Guys like Quez, Calvin, Scottie, Van, you know, me
and Rust. You know, we'vewe've had a lot of deep ball success
and a lot of explosive plays inthe past. So you know that's just
uh, you know what, Iguess how our offense is built. To
be honest with you, but Imean our job is to create explosives and
you know, push the ball downthe field. So anytime we get those

(03:40:31):
ops, we definitely wanna capitalize onthose are you toasting any part of your
mechanics and any way that I mean, yeah, Uh, I think there's
always room to improve, uh,mechanic wise and stuff like that. So
I think you know Matt Baker,uh, he's a or a quarterback assistant.
He you know, usually stays onme the most about it. Okay,
So I appreciate the fact that hedoes that, and I usually,
you know, make sure he doesn'tmake sure. I just just stay on

(03:40:54):
top of it, you know,as a whole, and you know,
make sure, uh, my mechanicsare always clean. Can you talk about
one particular that they're stressing. It'sit'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 somethingthat you wanted to work on maybe get
better at when you got here atthis point of your career. I mean,
like like I said, there's youknow, no matter who you are,

(03:41:16):
you know, there's always stuff toget better at, always different areas.
Nobody's perfect in one area, soI think you can continue to prove
in all areas in my game,you know me personally, So I'm just
focused on getting better pai everyd Sowhen we talked at Russ yesterday, he
said that Rus said that he personallyfelt kind of revived you bring at another
staff in his career. Is thereany of that sense of maybe rejuvenation or

(03:41:37):
feeling revived? Obviously you haven't beenin the league for thirteen years, but
is there a new energy that youget being in a different organization, going
through mini camp in a different wayfor the first time. I think,
so, you know, just beingaround a new team, uh uh,
an organization that's you know, justjust with this culture, you know,
me being in in two different placesnow, you just I realize that,

(03:41:58):
you know, you don't get thisculture everywhere. I think Chicago, I
think they are, you know,kind of changing the narrative now. But
I mean, this has just beenthe culture here for so many years to
where I mean you can see it. It's just the way that you know,
we attack each every day and coach, you know, he stays honest
about it. So I think justhaving that and uh, you know,

(03:42:20):
reiterating that, you know each andevery day, that keeps guys in the
posing. Guys are ready to competeeach and every day. Is it easy
to step into an organization when therealready is such a culture that's been established
for a long term to kind ofknow where you fit and know what's expected
most most definitely, I think,you know, especially as a leader,
as a player on the team,you just don't have to thank you for

(03:42:45):
checking out this content from posts atsports. If you watch this on YouTube,
please like the video. Yeah,I mean, I think college football
is different, and uh, ideologiesand understandings and have changed. And I
think that, you know, theportal is a variable, and I would
say that, not him in particular, but I wouldn't say everyone doesn't really

(03:43:09):
know how to handle it properly.You see it currently. I mean,
it's just it's a variable that's newand how to handle it. There's not
a transcript on on how to handlethat variable. So you just guys just
trying to do what they think isright. That's all they're really trying to
do. And I'm not saying thatright or wrong. But he was trying
to do the same, and youknow, I think at the end of
the day he realized he made madethe wrong decision and we connected on it,

(03:43:33):
we talked about it, and youknow, it was a great opportunity
to to write or wrong and hobviously we're very glad he's here. I've
always believed in him. We believein him, and he believes in himself
and that's part of the just tryingto understand what's my path right. So,
uh, but yeah, it's beengreat. Steps have been made.
He's growing, but he's nowhere nearwhere he knows he's capable of being.

(03:43:56):
He's just probably a priceless Careamiah.I love, uh the way he lives.
I love the way he approaches things. I love the way the questions
he asks. I love the wayhe makes mistakes and then correct mistakes.
It's very veteran, like, Imean, there's so much ball he has
to learn. Like he literally doesthings that are good. I'm like,

(03:44:18):
do you know what that worked?He goes coach, I have no freaking
idea, So like, I'm tryingto teach him all of that why it
worked, so then you know theconsistency at which it works just goes to
the roof. And so but I'mvery you know, excited and proud of
the conversations we're currently having and I'mexciting it for them to keep going by
what power for you working with Tell. I love working with Chip Chip Is.

(03:44:43):
I love talking ball, I lovethe viewpoints, I love I love
the veteran that he has, youknow, and I love like, I
love all of it. I thinkthat, but you know, early on
the biggest impact, you know,just you know, feeling perspective. I

(03:45:07):
think in the run game has beenawesome, you know, and then you
know, off of the run game, some of the actions or relief throws
or all that kind of stuff.I love where it's at. I love
working with them, and I wouldsay that I sleep a little better,

(03:45:31):
all right. No, it's it'sreally a great combo because, like you
know, we're obviously we're doing alot as a group. It's not just
Chip and I so but you know, obviously Chip has an image and a
view on things that I never had, So to have that experience and have
that viewpoint, I'm just trying toabsorb as much as i can, but

(03:45:52):
then also highlight some things that we'vereally done a good job of and make
sure those you know, nothing's reallychanging. We're just trying to enhance.
We're not angel were enhancing. Sowhere the things fit is perfect, you
know, I think, uh,you know the rest of the dynamics of
search chip can talk about. Butit's been it's been awesome, so I'm
excited about it. We talked toa Mecca and you're talking about moving from

(03:46:16):
slot to the house side. Youknow how good we've been in the slot.
Is that a difficult move for youguys just coaches to know how good
a guy is on one spot,but know that maybe for his long term
future and the no. I wouldn'tsay it's anything on his future, because
he's capable of doing whatever you wantto get done. But I'd say that
it says more about the room.I think it's it's the growth of you

(03:46:39):
know, Brandon and the growth growof Bryson. That's really you know,
allowing my mind to say, hey, Mech, be prepared. You're gonna
move around a lot. You're gonnacome out of that slot, You're gonna
be outside. We'reing create mismatches outthere. I mean, his ability to
move around is critical. But Iwould say between Mech and between Carnell TAS's
ability to move around a lot,it's gonna provide a lot of flexibility for

(03:47:01):
our room and uh and those topyou know, six seven guys that are
really doing a good job. Rightnow, progress looks like this spring for
a Mecca because there's no times thinksone of those things I'm true where you
has balanced how much work does aneed versus too much? Yeah, heavy,
heavy emphasis on what work he needs, you know, versus anything else.
Uh, I rely on him.We have great dialogue back and forth.

(03:47:24):
It's a two way to it's atwo way conversation. And frankly,
there's gonna be times we're like,hey, Mac, what do you want
to do today? You wanna gooutside? You and go inside and I
don't care. So, uh,we're not there yet. We will be
there, but it's just more about, you know, when the room is
ready to start mixing things up,I would say, there's God. I

(03:47:54):
mean, I make sure I bringin guys that are able to do all,
but I haven't ask them to yet. So the only guys that in
our room currently I've asked to dothat has been Mecca and Carnell, And
those are probably the two guys thatI would, you know, think heavily
on doing moving around a lot.I'm not putting that on anybody else right
now, not saying they can't,but at this point, having two guys

(03:48:16):
being able to swing, you probablydon't need much more than that. I
need guys being experts at what they'regood at. So it it helps the
offense still be great at everything andbe an expert at something and we can
use that to our advantage. Thisyear is different, like maybe you guys
who were more situational. All theroom's always different, frankly, I mean
from twenty eighteen and then nineteen andthrough COVID and and those guys, and

(03:48:43):
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 rooms and your last
room, especially you know, backto be forards. I'm curious dB,
as a leader just like you,you know, play at Ohio hasn't in

(03:49:05):
how experience. I'm curious about howyou've seen Tim kind of build different matter
backs and especially on the recruits allthe amount of successfully hasn't maybe kind of
the effective you're recruiting, how that'skind of enhanced. Yeah, he would
probably know more of that