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Speaker 1: Fourteen from six ESPN fifteen thirty eight Wood. He comes

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Speaker 1: to the University of Cincinnati from Army. He was the

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Speaker 1: defensive coordinator at West Point. He's now the defensive coordinator

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Speaker 1: for Scott Sadderfield. I had a chance to interview him

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Speaker 1: at you Zee yesterday. Here is that conversation, so.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate you doing this. Let's first talk about the decision.

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Speaker 1: You were at Army and you know, had been there

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Speaker 1: for a while, made the leap to come to the

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Speaker 1: University of Cincinnati. And obviously there's a built in relationship

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Speaker 1: that you had with Scott Sadderfield, and we'll talk about that,

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Speaker 1: But what were some of the other factors that made

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Speaker 1: you want to take on this opportunity at the University

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Speaker 1: of Cincinnati.

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Speaker 3: I think we had some success an Army. But with

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Speaker 3: that success, you look around your staff and you see

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Speaker 3: that the staff grow and from a responsibility standpoint, guys

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Speaker 3: were just doing a really good job for you, and

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Speaker 3: you thought, you know, what if I did go somewhere

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Speaker 3: else and I did start over somewhere else, there's some

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Speaker 3: guys in here that that, uh, that could really take

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Speaker 3: care of these kids, you know, next year and uh,

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Speaker 3: and they would excel in their uh in that opportunity.

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Speaker 3: So uh, just looking around the staff, I saw some

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Speaker 3: guys that that I thought, uh, you know, we're ready

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Speaker 3: for that that opportunity, and this one came open for

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Speaker 3: me here at Cincinnati. So it was just an easy decision,

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Speaker 3: you know, coming back over here and working with uh

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Speaker 3: uh coach Sadderfield and uh and this this great city,

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Speaker 3: uh outstanding football tradition.

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Speaker 2: I remember Coach.

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Speaker 3: Minner years and years ago, uh, you know, visiting with him,

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Speaker 3: you know often.

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Speaker 2: Uh he probably wouldn't remember me, you know today.

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Speaker 3: But uh, but just uh I thought he was an

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Speaker 3: outstanding uh football coach and and uh uh you know

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Speaker 3: just uh I've always you know, had a uh I

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Speaker 3: thought that this would be a place that I'd like

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Speaker 3: to come.

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Speaker 1: You've worked with Scott Saderfield before. What about him made

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Speaker 1: you want to work for him again?

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Speaker 3: Everything I think? Uh, I think it does a great

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Speaker 3: job with time management.

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Speaker 1: Uh.

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Speaker 2: He does a great job of feeling making you feel wanted.

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Speaker 2: And we used to do this. Uh it's still on

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Speaker 2: Wednesday nights.

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Speaker 3: You know, the fireside chats and and and go out

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Speaker 3: and have speakers come in and talk to us. That

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Speaker 3: that just sort of helped us in our everyday life

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Speaker 3: and it just uh helped build the culture of of

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Speaker 3: the staff and the program. And uh so, uh I think, uh,

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Speaker 3: I think coach Saderfield uh really did a great job

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Speaker 3: with our you know, building our offense. You know when

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Speaker 3: when I was at Appalachian State to where those guys

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Speaker 3: were incredibly explosive and and uh uh scored a lot

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Speaker 3: of points and did a great job.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, uh it just.

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Speaker 3: Got a lot of uh I got a lot of

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Speaker 3: confidence and in his ability the lead.

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Speaker 1: So what's the acclimation process like when you get the job?

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Speaker 1: When you got it because you came here relatively speaking,

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Speaker 1: sort of.

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Speaker 2: Late, you know, in in mid January.

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Speaker 1: After the bowl season, and then in this era of

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Speaker 1: the transfer portal and players coming in, there's a lot

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Speaker 1: going on.

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Speaker 2: So walk me through the acclamation process.

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Speaker 1: When you're a defensive coordinator coming to a new school, the.

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Speaker 3: First thing has got to be culture. The first thing

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Speaker 3: has got to be learning your teammates and uh and

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Speaker 3: learning you know, not not just the first and last name,

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Speaker 3: but but where they come from and what they're all about.

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Speaker 3: And and then all of a sudden, you know when

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Speaker 3: when you start to feel uh, you know that friendship

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Speaker 3: with uh with the guys, that's that's going to be

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Speaker 3: something that that we're.

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Speaker 2: Really going to.

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Speaker 3: Use throughout the whole season and hopefully for the rest

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Speaker 3: of their lives. And uh, when guys care about one another,

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Speaker 3: they're gonna play hard for one another, They're going to

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Speaker 3: take care of one another, and uh it's gonna be

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Speaker 3: fun at practice because you know, they like each other.

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Speaker 3: So that, uh, that's the first thing that's got to

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Speaker 3: be the most important thing. And then uh, you know,

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Speaker 3: next is is is going to be you know, how

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Speaker 3: do you teach fundamentals of the game. I remember one

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Speaker 3: of the greatest NFL coaches ever, you know, I was

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Speaker 3: coaching Lombardi. You know, I thought and and and sometimes

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Speaker 3: guys would would just sort of, yeah, not take them

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Speaker 3: seriously because all they were doing were you know, so

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Speaker 3: many calisthenics and and and and all these things.

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Speaker 1: And uh.

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Speaker 3: I got to to uh really study him a lot.

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Speaker 3: He was he had he had been an army you know,

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Speaker 3: many many years ago, and uh the house city was

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Speaker 3: in was one that that that I got to stay

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Speaker 3: in while I was there, So I really started going

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Speaker 3: back and looking at all the things in and the

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Speaker 3: thing that that came up so much was uh in

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Speaker 3: fundamentals and uh, and that's something that my previous head

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Speaker 3: coach uh always wanted to us to coach. And that's

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Speaker 3: something that that sometimes coordinators like to dream up all

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Speaker 3: these these wonderful blitzes. But uh, but if if you're

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Speaker 3: not good at at the the the basic principles of

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Speaker 3: defensive play, then there's not any schemes that you can

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Speaker 3: draw up to where you're gonna win. So culture fundamentals

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Speaker 3: and then uh, now you want to get into the

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Speaker 3: evaluation process and give guys opportunities to show you what

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Speaker 3: they can what is their skill set and they might

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Speaker 3: be really good at one thing and not so good.

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Speaker 2: At something else.

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Speaker 3: So so again, if you're if you're going straight to

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Speaker 3: scheme and and and so forth, you're probably gonna miss

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Speaker 3: out on some of the better skill sets the guys

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Speaker 3: might have.

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Speaker 2: If you're trying to.

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Speaker 3: Fit that uh, you know that that that square peg

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Speaker 3: in a round hole.

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Speaker 1: So you talk about evaluation, and you'll be better equipped

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Speaker 1: to answer this question by mid summer. But you are

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Speaker 1: doing some evaluating, what do you expect for this year's team?

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Speaker 1: Twenty twenty six. The strength of your defense to be

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Speaker 1: just based on what you.

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Speaker 2: Know right now.

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Speaker 3: I think that we're going to uh, we're going to

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Speaker 3: get lined up and we're going to come off the

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Speaker 3: come off the ball hard.

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Speaker 2: We're going to get off blocks somehow.

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Speaker 3: Block destruction is going to be you know, at the

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Speaker 3: at the top and uh, and then we're going to

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Speaker 3: chase the football really well. And if we can chase

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Speaker 3: the football and get get an opportunity to uh to

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Speaker 3: knock it loose or get our hands on it, then

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Speaker 3: the turnovers have been maybe the single greatest indicator of

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Speaker 3: of the winners and uh and every level of of play,

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Speaker 3: whether it's a high school, college or or pro. So

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Speaker 3: I think those are the things that that we want

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Speaker 3: to be really really good at. We want to be

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Speaker 3: able to match numbers so that we don't get outnumbered

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Speaker 3: to one side or the other of the of the

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Speaker 3: the point of attack. UH, we want to be able

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Speaker 3: to stay on top of uh you know, the deep

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Speaker 3: balls and uh you know, not give up the cheap

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Speaker 3: scores and uh, you know, stop the run and uh.

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Speaker 3: If we can do those things, then then we'll give

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Speaker 3: our an offense. I think a great opportunity to uh

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Speaker 3: to to win the game. And uh uh and from

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Speaker 3: what I've seen, I think uh you know, uh, I

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Speaker 3: think that that that we're going to have a great

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Speaker 3: group of guys to work with.

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Speaker 1: You're going to implement your scheme with coaches that you

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Speaker 1: have some familiarity with.

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Speaker 2: You were talking earlier about Courtney bras Well.

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Speaker 1: How much easier does it become when you have people

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Speaker 1: like that who you have a working and personal relationship with.

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Speaker 3: Always always thought that you need somebody else to uh

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Speaker 3: to be with you, that that that understands your scheme,

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Speaker 3: because teaching at every level will take sometimes takes a

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Speaker 3: little bit, a little bit longer than than the time

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Speaker 3: that you have And uh, I think coach Braswell is

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Speaker 3: is is somebody that that understands you know, you know,

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Speaker 3: the type of defense that that I've been teaching for

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Speaker 3: for a long time. He's a great communicator. Uh, he's

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Speaker 3: outstanding football coach, incredibly bright and uh you know, uh,

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Speaker 3: he's a he's a tremendous help.

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Speaker 1: You know that.

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Speaker 2: Uh. I'll lean on him, you know, quite quite often.

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Speaker 3: But he's he's not the only one, you know, Uh,

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Speaker 3: you know, like I said, Robert Nunnis is a guy

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Speaker 3: that that coached nineteen years in the in the NFL,

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Speaker 3: and he's got tremendous experiences.

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Speaker 2: He's got a Super Bowl ring.

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Speaker 3: You know, he's uh he's coached some of the best

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Speaker 3: uh you know past rushers ever. You know, he worked

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Speaker 3: with one of the guys that that that I learned

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Speaker 3: an awful lot of of of what we do, Kevin Green,

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Speaker 3: you know, work worked with him for for a while.

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Speaker 3: Kevin Green was was an outside linebacker for uh for

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Speaker 3: the on the Panthers when I met him, and uh,

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Speaker 3: an awful lot of of of what we do defensively. Uh,

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Speaker 3: I may have learned from from some of that that

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Speaker 3: group you know from uh from back in those years

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Speaker 3: with the Panthers, Sam Mills and uh uh Dom Capers

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Speaker 3: was was the head coach.

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Speaker 2: So it was uh uh uh you.

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Speaker 3: Know a three four flavor you know from the Steelers

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Speaker 3: that that was on that that Panthers team. And uh

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Speaker 3: and again I think, uh, yeah, I think Robert coach

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Speaker 3: Nan does uh uh can can help tremendously and and

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Speaker 3: uh helping that uh you know that teaching curve.

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Speaker 2: You know, spring ball will be here very soon.

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Speaker 1: Do you have, you know, a to do list of

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Speaker 1: things that you go, Okay, during all of those practices,

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Speaker 1: here are the things we have to get done that

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Speaker 1: will make you feel better about what you're gonna do

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Speaker 1: when you go into fall camp later on.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I got to get that that TV set up

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Speaker 3: and uh in my house, I got a yeah, I

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Speaker 3: was trying to get that thing done before the super

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Speaker 3: Bowl didn't didn't quite work out. Now, seriously, that there's

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Speaker 3: a there's a lot of things that that you gotta

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Speaker 3: you gotta, you gotta adopt the eyes across the t's.

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Speaker 2: And get and get done.

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Speaker 3: But uh, just keep the the big things, you know,

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Speaker 3: keep the big things, you know out in front the culture.

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Speaker 2: You know, the the the.

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Speaker 3: You know the fundamentals and you know the scheme will

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Speaker 3: will will will come.

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Speaker 2: The evaluation processes is uh.

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Speaker 3: During during springball, they just want to make sure that

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Speaker 3: I give everybody the opportunity to to show me what

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Speaker 3: what they can do and uh uh and then the

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Speaker 3: scheme takes over from there. So uh, that's that's That's

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Speaker 3: what I'm looking to do and do a good job

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Speaker 3: of it. And uh I spend some times where uh

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Speaker 3: maybe once when when I when I moved from from

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Speaker 3: from one place to the other. But I'm not sure

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Speaker 3: that I communicated the right things quickly enough or well enough.

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Speaker 2: And so you learn from the experiences and.

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Speaker 3: Hopefully uh uh you know that that that last move

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Speaker 3: I made from from missign to army, you know, we

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Speaker 3: ended up number one in the country and defense, so

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Speaker 3: uh a better job of involving a lot of the

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Speaker 3: staff and getting them to where they they uh uh,

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Speaker 3: they took a very strong foot forward and and and

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Speaker 3: teaching the things that that they were very good at

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Speaker 3: teaching at.

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Speaker 2: So uh same thing here.

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Speaker 3: Let's let these guys, you know, do the things that

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Speaker 3: they're really really good at and uh and just sort

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Speaker 3: of tie that in