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Speaker 1: J. P. Shattuck, joined by Mike Leach, the head coach

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Speaker 1: of the Washington State Cougars. Coach, how are you? Thank

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Speaker 1: you for your time, sir, Well, I'm doing good. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for having me on. I know you're in the middle

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Speaker 1: of Pack twelve meetings this week and the the schedule

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Speaker 1: is always busy this time of year. But NFL Draft

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Speaker 1: is over and the Jaguars picked up Gardnerman's shoes sixth

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Speaker 1: round pick. Overall, he was well traveled before he got

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Speaker 1: to Pullman, Washington. When did you first hear about Gardner

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Speaker 1: and when did you first make contact and how did

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Speaker 1: all that work to get him out to Washington State. Well?

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Speaker 1: I first heard about him, you know, they they I

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Speaker 1: don't know whether it's word of mouth or the computer

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Speaker 1: what comes first nowadays, but basically, um, he was one

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Speaker 1: of those, uh, those fifth year senior quarterbacks that was

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Speaker 1: transferring and uh and we were in the market for that,

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Speaker 1: and so we're keeping our eye out. And then as

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Speaker 1: uh we were sorting it out, um uh he commits

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Speaker 1: to Alabama, you know, as we're looking at the others

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Speaker 1: and well should we shouldn't we do we like him?

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Speaker 1: Let's watch the film and Uh, and we did like him,

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Speaker 1: and then he's committed to Alabama. But you know, I

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Speaker 1: guess we felt like Alabama was closer to having a

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Speaker 1: starting quarterback than we were, and um, we felt like

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Speaker 1: he'd ended up sitting on the bench down there. So

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Speaker 1: called him up. He visited the whole thing, and uh,

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Speaker 1: we told him, you you want to go holden clipboard

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Speaker 1: at Alabama, you want to leave the nation in passing

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Speaker 1: at Washington State. So he dropped the clipboard and he

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Speaker 1: came to Washington State and led the h led the

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Speaker 1: nation in passing U and was the Conference player of

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Speaker 1: the Year. The connection between you two was that pretty immediate.

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Speaker 1: Just as a person the person, we hit it off

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Speaker 1: right away. We had very similar personalities. He's very driven,

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Speaker 1: passionate about football. He's fearless. Um, you know, he's fearless

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Speaker 1: and just a very competitive guy. And I think, um,

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Speaker 1: the fact that he was so competitive rubbed off on

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Speaker 1: the rest of our team. I think it made them

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Speaker 1: excited to be there. I mean, knowing that it really

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Speaker 1: means a great deal to the guy besides you, I

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Speaker 1: think kind of helps elevate the enthusiasm and interest of others.

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Speaker 1: Coach Mike leach with US from Washington States. He went

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Speaker 1: from Troy to Northwest Mississippi Community College, one a JUCO

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Speaker 1: national title there, two years at the backup at East Carolina,

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Speaker 1: got his degree there nearly Alabama. As you said, does

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Speaker 1: moving around that much and having to learn different types

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Speaker 1: of offense and different approaches to the game, does that

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Speaker 1: help a guy learning yet another offense like he's going

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Speaker 1: to have to do here. I I think it probably

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Speaker 1: helps him be adaptable. I think it helps the adaptability

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Speaker 1: you know where. I think a lot of times when

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Speaker 1: guys go safe from high school to college, you know,

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Speaker 1: how quickly can they adapt will have a impact on

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Speaker 1: how quickly they can contribute. I think the same thing

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Speaker 1: from college to the NFL. So he has made plenty

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Speaker 1: of moves um which should help his adaptability. Overall. I

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Speaker 1: think you're better off to be able to get established

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Speaker 1: and really rooted into one place because you can really

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Speaker 1: build and develop on your game and what you do coach,

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Speaker 1: What do you do best? What's his best attribute as

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Speaker 1: a quarterback, and maybe something that he can work on

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Speaker 1: at the professional level. I think what he does best

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Speaker 1: is he leads the unit. He energizes the whole unit

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Speaker 1: and uh, it moves the ball downfield. The other thing

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Speaker 1: that he is an extremely good job of as he

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Speaker 1: never takes negative plays. And I mean there were something

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Speaker 1: that we're just you know, not his fault necessarily, but

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Speaker 1: it was a negative play wait and a half and

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Speaker 1: oh my god, here's a sack, you know, or here's

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Speaker 1: a tackle for loss. And I mean he would he

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Speaker 1: would literally carve away to not give up a negative

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Speaker 1: play and it was really quite impressive. And then um,

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Speaker 1: uh you know, I think, uh, things will work on

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Speaker 1: Oh I don't. I don't really have any specifically, I

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Speaker 1: mean progressively better at everything, which I think that's what

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Speaker 1: you're ideally looking for. Is the guy that, yeah, you know,

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Speaker 1: just incremental overall improvement. But um, you know, maybe sometimes

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Speaker 1: when he gets anxious, preconceived on things a little bit

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Speaker 1: and read it through more or relieve. But the thing

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Speaker 1: is is he what he does really well is, uh

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Speaker 1: is after he responds after a bad play and he's

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Speaker 1: ready to go the very next play and not faced

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Speaker 1: by the previous one, no matter how how great or

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Speaker 1: how bad it was. Mike Leech from Washington State with

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Speaker 1: US coach what now without him in Pulman what's next

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Speaker 1: in the quarterback room for you. Well, we've got two

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Speaker 1: guys that are both seniors that he beat out by

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Speaker 1: an eyelash, and I think they're both good and they've

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Speaker 1: gotten a year better and they had his example to follow.

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Speaker 1: And then we have a transfer from Eastern Washington who

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Speaker 1: does some good things and um uh, and then we've

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Speaker 1: got some young guys and the c F or they

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Speaker 1: can progress, you know, but a few months is a

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Speaker 1: long time as far as people's ability to improve on things. Coach,

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Speaker 1: final thought here about an opponent of yours a season ago.

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Speaker 1: You played Santa is A State in Week two and

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Speaker 1: shut out the Spartans. But Josh Oliver, the tight end

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Speaker 1: for San Jose State, had five catches for fifty one yards.

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Speaker 1: He's the Jaguars third round selection this year. What do

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Speaker 1: you remember about Oliver and planning for that offense. Well,

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Speaker 1: they were kind of they were kind of an explosive offense.

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Speaker 1: I know, we kept him out of the end zone,

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Speaker 1: but they did have some flashy, explosive guys and um

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Speaker 1: you know, he was just big, physical and athletic and

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Speaker 1: and you know, really one of the keys to their offense.

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Speaker 1: You know, one of the guys where I felt like

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Speaker 1: they had a mismatch uh in their favor and um.

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Speaker 1: And then as we're sitting there looking at him, thinking

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Speaker 1: about what a fine athlete he is, said, jeez, wouldn't

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Speaker 1: it be great to have him over here at tight end?

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Speaker 1: And then thinking, but also he'd be a pretty good

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Speaker 1: d n too, so um, but yeah, he maybe maybe

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Speaker 1: we might have taken him and letting me a two

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Speaker 1: a go guy, why not, it's been a while since

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Speaker 1: we've had those in college football. Well, we need all

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Speaker 1: the help we can get. We need to keep scratching

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Speaker 1: and clawn and but hecky escaped before we could get

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Speaker 1: our hands on him. Coach, great to visit with you.

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Speaker 1: We appreciate your time. All right, Well, thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for having me on