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Speaker 1: What what's it like to be back in Pittsburgh.

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Speaker 2: It is fabulous. It's been a long time, only occasional

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Speaker 2: visits for games and scattering visits, but it is great

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Speaker 2: to be back in this fabulous city. I missed it.

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Speaker 1: Your relationship or connection to coach McCarthy's a little bit different.

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Speaker 1: You were the player at pitt he was a GA.

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Speaker 1: What was that like and how often have you guys

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Speaker 1: kept in touch?

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Speaker 2: You know, we had small interactions, but it was an

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Speaker 2: amazing staff when you look at the graduate assistants that

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Speaker 2: were there when I was there, you know, with Mike

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Speaker 2: and John Harbaugh, a couple of super successful head coaches

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Speaker 2: in National Football League along with the full time coaches.

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Speaker 2: But you know, fortunately, you know, we played against them

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Speaker 2: twice a year when I was in Carolina and he

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Speaker 2: was with the Saints, and then when I was with

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Speaker 2: the Lions and he was with the Packers. We see

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Speaker 2: each other twice a year. I'm not a big phone guy,

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Speaker 2: so we would have those interactions. We see each other

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Speaker 2: at the Combine and the Senior Bowl. But always been

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Speaker 2: very very you know, excited about what Mike's done and

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Speaker 2: how successful he's been everywhere He's been, so it was

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Speaker 2: an honor to get to finally get together on the

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Speaker 2: same staff.

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Speaker 1: So what was it like when he called you?

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Speaker 2: It was exciting, you know, it was you know, this

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Speaker 2: time of year, there's always questions and what are you

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Speaker 2: looking for? You know, I've been in it long enough

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Speaker 2: where I know there were certain things that I was

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Speaker 2: hoping for. I was hoping to get with an established

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Speaker 2: head coach, a guy that had a history and making

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Speaker 2: those hard decisions, a defensive coordinator, and Patrick Graham who

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Speaker 2: I had worked with before. So when you look at

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Speaker 2: the alignment of the structure, it fell perfectly into some

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Speaker 2: of the things that I was looking for. And then

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Speaker 2: you know the bonus obviously being in the city of

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Speaker 2: Pittsburgh and more importantly with one of the iconic franchises

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Speaker 2: in the National Football League and really sports in general.

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Speaker 1: Other than coach McCarthy, you kind of the guy they're like, hey,

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Speaker 1: where should we go to eat? What part of the

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Speaker 1: you know, town should we live in? Type of thing.

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Speaker 2: Not really, because Darian, it's been a long time since

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Speaker 2: I've been here, so everybody sort of we know we're

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Speaker 2: so I don't say far behind, but you know, as

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Speaker 2: you come in as an entirely new staff with you know,

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Speaker 2: evaluating your own players, you know, evaluating the free agency,

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Speaker 2: evaluating the draft, and putting your packages and schemes together.

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Speaker 2: There's really not a lot of time to be bsing

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Speaker 2: about anything. Everybody's just you know, hold on and getting

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Speaker 2: everything done as quick as they can.

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Speaker 1: In terms of Danny Smith, I'm sure you knew Danny

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Speaker 1: rather well as everybody feels like in the special teams

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Speaker 1: world has we know him as the loving guy.

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Speaker 2: He was also really.

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Speaker 1: Loud, shoot a lot of gum. What's your takeaway of

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Speaker 1: just you know, knowing Danny a little bit?

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Speaker 2: The bazooka budget's gonna go way down. They're not gonna

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Speaker 2: be wait to leave you any I don't need any

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Speaker 2: that's that's that's not my bag. That's Danny's thing. That

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Speaker 2: was his shticks and he can have it so you can.

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Speaker 2: Mo went on to Tampa. Danny. You know, I have

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Speaker 2: standing coach and a great guy. You know, I've I've followed,

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Speaker 2: you know, when I took over in Carolina, took over

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Speaker 2: a guy named Scott O'Brien, who, you know, in my opinion,

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Speaker 2: probably the best special teams coaches ever. Coached in the league.

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Speaker 2: When I took over, Miami had taken over for a

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Speaker 2: guy that had been there for a long stretch. So

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Speaker 2: following a guy that's you know, had a niche and

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Speaker 2: been very successful in a place that he's been, it's

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Speaker 2: nothing new. I'm excited to carry on with you know,

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Speaker 2: the positives and the good things that they've done here

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Speaker 2: in the kicking game.

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Speaker 1: How would you describe your coaching style when it comes

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Speaker 1: to special teams.

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Speaker 2: You know, my style is whatever the player needs. You know,

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Speaker 2: we're going to be sound, We're going to work on

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Speaker 2: fundamentals techniques. I want to be as aggressive as we can.

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Speaker 2: You know that comes from from top down. But we're

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Speaker 2: going to try and put stress on the opposition and

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Speaker 2: most importantly, get players to enjoy playing. And we're looking

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Speaker 2: to have fun.

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Speaker 1: Your roster obviously Chris Boswell, Christian Kuon's Corlis Weightman, Ben's Gronik,

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Speaker 1: a pro bowler last year. What do you make of

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Speaker 1: those guys that are kind of the core.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of talent, and if you're going

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Speaker 2: to be good in this league, you need to have

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Speaker 2: a good court group, you need to have good specialists,

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Speaker 2: and it starts with those guys, and then you need

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Speaker 2: to have position guys that fill that role and accept

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Speaker 2: that role and then most importantly, excel in the role

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Speaker 2: that they're given. Sometimes that role changes. Guys go from

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Speaker 2: you know, part time special teams player and a lot

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Speaker 2: more offensive defense, and then it goes the other way.

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Speaker 2: You guys that are full time special teams guys and

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Speaker 2: develop into you know, top end defensive and offensive players.

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Speaker 2: So whatever your role is defined as as once we

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Speaker 2: get this team together, as long as guys work to

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Speaker 2: excel in that role you know, offensive DEFENSI vegu kicking game.

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Speaker 2: Alls we're trying to do is win the game. So however,

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Speaker 2: however it has to work, and however it has to look.

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Speaker 2: We don't care. Nobody asks you how you won. They

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Speaker 2: just ask you how many did you win? So that's

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Speaker 2: all we care about, all right, perfect, Thank you, coach,

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Speaker 2: Thank you