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Speaker 1: Aaron being here at Sant Fancicollege and Latrobe. What does

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Speaker 1: this experience been like for you.

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Speaker 2: I'd say it's a bit of a throwback for me,

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Speaker 2: just because we did this same concept for fourteen years

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Speaker 2: in Green Bay. We stayed at Saint Norbert's Cross Town,

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Speaker 2: and it gives you the opportunity to actually really connect

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Speaker 2: with your teammates because there's nowhere to go, you know,

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Speaker 2: we're stuck here at the dorms. Just been really fun

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Speaker 2: where it's card playing or I'm not a gamer, but

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Speaker 2: you know, all these kids are are video gamer, so

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Speaker 2: just you know, getting to spend time with these guys

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Speaker 2: pretty cool.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything about a Stealers training camp, practice or

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Speaker 1: environment that surprises you?

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Speaker 2: Used to be harder than some of the camps I've

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Speaker 2: been in the past. Hadn't been a part of tackling

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Speaker 2: and practice for a long time, so that's been pretty cool.

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Speaker 2: I just like the professional environment, you know, it starts

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Speaker 2: with Mike and his expectations for the temple of practice

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Speaker 2: and professionalism. That's been really fun to see. It's been hot,

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Speaker 2: really hot, hotter than usual that I'm used to for

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Speaker 2: training camp, So that's a good you know, good stress

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Speaker 2: around our bodies. It's always fun to see kind of

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Speaker 2: how guys respond to that.

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Speaker 1: You talked about wanting to be an expert in this

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Speaker 1: Arthur Smith offense. How exactly is the process? Can you

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Speaker 1: break down how you go about doing that? And where

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Speaker 1: do you feel like you are right now?

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Speaker 2: I think I'm pretty close. For me, it's what images

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Speaker 2: come into my mind when I break the huddle. For me,

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Speaker 2: I have a lot of offenses in my mind. I

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Speaker 2: got the old school West Coast offense from two thousand

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Speaker 2: and five, I got Mike sideration of it from two

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Speaker 2: thousand and six to twenty eighteen. That I got the

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Speaker 2: floora offense in twenty nineteen, and then the kind of

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Speaker 2: the hybrid that we did in twenty twenty to twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty two, and then I have Nate Hackett's version of

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Speaker 2: that twenty three and twenty four. Now I got Arthur

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Speaker 2: Smith's version. So the pictures are starting to crystallize a

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Speaker 2: little bit better as we get into the third week here.

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Speaker 1: A lot of your new teammates have said that you're

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Speaker 1: very calm in the huddle. You can also crack a

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Speaker 1: joke at the same time, but you also have a

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Speaker 1: very high standard for the attention to detail. How do

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Speaker 1: you balance that and when did you become really good

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Speaker 1: at that?

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Speaker 2: I think it's a learned trait for sure. It starts

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Speaker 2: with a mastery of the system. Then you can know

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Speaker 2: what everybody's doing every play. The game is played with reactions,

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Speaker 2: and so I don't want guys thinking out there. I

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Speaker 2: want guys to have a mastery of the system and

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Speaker 2: then to go out and use their god given ability

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Speaker 2: to react to what they see. So I just always

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Speaker 2: want the guys to be locked in at the same time.

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Speaker 2: You know, this is a kid's game, so we should

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Speaker 2: be having fun out here. We should be able to

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Speaker 2: crack some jokes and rib each other and stuff like that.

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Speaker 2: So just that's part of the getting to know your

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Speaker 2: teammates sport. Which guys you can you can get on

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Speaker 2: and tease about certain things. You know, some guys are

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Speaker 2: wired super tight. Those are the easiest.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: Some guys are more loose, and so you got to

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Speaker 2: find find a way to connect to them and find

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Speaker 2: a way to have some sort of personal one on

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Speaker 2: one with every player in order to kind of build

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Speaker 2: that relationship.

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Speaker 1: Who's the easiest to get under their skins.

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Speaker 2: Oh, Zach, of course, Zach Frazer. I mean, Zach is

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Speaker 2: such a great player. I mean, he's going to have

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Speaker 2: a long career in the league. But he's wired real

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Speaker 2: type A and those are the easiest guys to get on.

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Speaker 2: But you know, the center has to be the mouthpiece

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Speaker 2: at the quarterback. I'm the mouthpiece of the coordinator, and

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Speaker 2: so we all got to be in sync. But we

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Speaker 2: also got to be enjoying ourselves and not taking everything

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Speaker 2: too seriously out there.

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Speaker 1: We'll have to check back on that. How you've done

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Speaker 1: in terms of breakin.

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Speaker 2: I'm breaking, I'm breaking.

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Speaker 1: Coach Arth had said that you prefer a paper playbook

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Speaker 1: in terms of a binder. Is that still the case.

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Speaker 1: Is anybody else following suit or are you getting any

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Speaker 1: comments or questions about that.

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Speaker 2: I'm from the analog days. The most of the younger players,

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Speaker 2: I won't say kids again, but younger players they grow

87
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Speaker 2: up on iPads, so it's second nature. And the iPads

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Speaker 2: are great. You can write notes in there and everything,

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Speaker 2: but I just always like having multiple ways to remember things,

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Speaker 2: so I can see it on the board. That's one.

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Speaker 2: I can see it on the paper in front of me.

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Speaker 2: That's two, and then I write it that's three. This

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Speaker 2: is kind of how I was raising the game. You know,

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Speaker 2: my notebooks always open. When Mike T's saying something in

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Speaker 2: a meeting, I'm writing writing down. You know, when Arthur's

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Speaker 2: saying something, I'm writing it down. You know when coach

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Speaker 2: Arthur is saying something, you know, I'm writing that down.

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Speaker 2: It's just this is how I was raised in the game.

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Speaker 1: In terms of Darius Slay, he said when he was

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Speaker 1: a young player, he started to gain confidence because of

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Speaker 1: his interactions with you after the Green Bay Lions games.

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Speaker 1: What do you remember about him then? What did you

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Speaker 1: see in him? And what is it like being his

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Speaker 1: teammate now?

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Speaker 2: I mean, Darius has always been an elite player. He's

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Speaker 2: always had elite ball skills and always a guy you

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Speaker 2: really had to be aware of where he was at.

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Speaker 2: And you know, when you when you bring in veteran

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Speaker 2: guys like this who are true professionals, you don't have

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Speaker 2: to worry about the standard being set. And we've you know,

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Speaker 2: brought in guys on offense, brought on even more guys

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Speaker 2: on defense, and when you have those veteran guys who

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Speaker 2: know what it's like to play and play at a

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Speaker 2: high level. They just set the standard for practice, set

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Speaker 2: the standard for the meeting room, set the standard for

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Speaker 2: the interactions, and makes my job as you know, want

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Speaker 2: to be team leader, you know that much easier