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The O-Zone Podcast | The Rise of Grant Udinski, His Role on Young Jaguars Staff · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, welcome into this week's Ozone podcast. And I've
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: been looking forward to this since he got hired because
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: this is an interesting guy that I know Jaguars fans
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: until the first game, are going to get used to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: liking a lot. And offensive coordinator Grant Yudinsky, thank you
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: very much for joining us.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you appreciate you for having me.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: And first time in this role. I kind of joked
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: at the start, they'll like you to your first game
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: because it's a pressure role. You know, how do you
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: feel going into this, you know, the excitement of the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: job versus raised expectations.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: I think that's something you embrace from an expectation standpoint,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: because that comes along with the excitement and that's the
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: reason we're here. So probably something I emphasized in that
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: press conference is the excitement that that's real and that's
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: something you feel, hopefully not just with me, but with
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: everybody you've come across on our coaching staff, and I
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: feel it with the players. So you appreciate the excitement
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: and you appreciate the raise xpation because that's what makes
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: this thing so fun and so exciting.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: How you know, And I'll get this out of the
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: way twenty nine years old. It's becoming a young person's game.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: NFL coaching is trending younger, it trends really wrong, really
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: young with you. But how ready do you feel for
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: this at your age or do you even think about that?
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: I don't know that I think about it in the
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: sense of age being ready, because people typically will ask
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: about the experiences and what makes you ready, and I
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: think that I've been unbelievably fortunate should be around really
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: good people and have different unique experiences, whether it's coaching
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: on defense or spending time with Kevin o'conllall Minnesota or
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: my time in Carolina. So I think it's more so
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: the experiences that I've had that have brought me to
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: this point, and I really can't control those things in
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: terms of the number of my age, So it's not
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: something that I concern myself a ton with, but I
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: would say I definitely try to make take every measure
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: possible to ensure that I'm doing everything I can to
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: be prepared for whatever responsibility is thrown my way.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I saw one story I was written on you when
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: You're in Minnesota, and you kind of mentioned the same
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: thing in that is that sort of a driving force.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Obviously great work ethic, But is there a thing of, hey,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I've got to be prepared to the nth degree so
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: that that's not questioned.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know that it's coming from the place
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: of not wanting to be questioned as much as it is.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: I genuinely enjoy and want to do those things and
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: want to prepare to the nth degree as you put it.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: So it's more so that this is what I love
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: to do.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: This is what I've always loved doing. So in the
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: off season or in the summer or late at night
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: when I'm spending time doing those things, it's not out
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: of a place of concern over whether people outside opinions
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: will judge me for my age necessarily. More so it's
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: that's what I want to be doing anyways, and that's
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: what I love doing. The added benefit of that is
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: that it kind of neutralizes some of those perfect quote
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: unquote lack of age or experience.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Better way to put it than the way I put it. So,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: how do you go from defensive end to sort of
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: quarterback I want to say whisper, but quarterback expert, offensive guy.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: How does that transition happen?
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I definitely wouldn't say whisper, that's for sure.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: But it's just like in coaching has been a unique background.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Playing was a unique background. My brother's played quarterback. I
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: played quarterback a little bit growing up and was terrible
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: at it, so naturally got got you played defense and
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: other positions, so I wasn't as good as those guys,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: so couldn't couldn't make the cut quite a quarterback at
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: the college level and all that stuff. So played defense.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: But the nice thing is playing defense, playing linebacker, playing
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: defensive end, playing tight end, playing a little bit of quarterback,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: playing in the backfield, Like all the different positions you
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: play throughout the course of your life, gives you that
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: perspective of those positions. Now it's not at the same
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: schematic level that you're handling things at the NFL or
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: even the collegiate level, but it does give you a
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: taste for the game at all the different levels of
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: defense or on both sides of the ball, even when
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: you're playing special teams.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: When did you know that you wanted to coach? Sounds
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: like probably at age six.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: It was very I would say I knew I wanted
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: to coach the moment I figured I wasn't good enough
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: to play in the NFL, so probably like most young
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: boys growing up, I wanted to play for as long
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: as possible, whether I was fortunate or unfortunate enough to
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: realize pretty early that that wasn't going to go beyond college.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: That was probably the moment I realized I was going
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: to go into coach in the NFL. So it was
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: very early that I was drawing plays up in notebooks
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: and stuff, but I.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Don't know that those were any good. But I may
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: have had some.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: Some ineligible receivers going downfield and whatnot. But we've only
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: improved from there, hopefully.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: So when Liam talks about he was doing the same
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: thing and his dad's office drawing up plays, you can
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: certainly relate to that.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, just the early passion, absolutely, yeah. And it's
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: cool here in the stories of him and his dad
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: and his background and the different coaches that he's worked
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: with throughout the Northeast. So I think that's something that
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: probably is one of the reasons why we connected so early.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: To your point, how did you get to know him?
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: This's obviously the McVeigh tree, O'Connell all sort of weaves together.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: How long have you known him, when did that relationships start?
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been following Liam for a long time, I guess,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: following his offenses, But in terms of actually knowing him
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: in reality, the first time I met him in person
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: was for the in person interview, because all of our
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: conversations over heres have been over the phone, okay, kind
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: of a mutual respect in the sense of two people
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: are enthusiastic about talking football and similar scheme, similar background,
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: so a similar way of viewing things philosophically maybe, but
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: different ideas and different innovations as the tree branches out
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: in different directions. But meeting in person the first time
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: was actually for that interview, which was cool because it's
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: like you feel like you know somebody and then you
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: meet him in person and then they're exactly like you
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: kind of picture or anticipated.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: So it didn't take long in the I mean, you
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: obviously had a feel form from the conversations, so there
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: was no trepidation of hey, I can connect with this guy,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: but I guess face to face he felt the same thing.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Okay, got you. What would you consider your biggest I'm
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: sure how to phrase it, but the biggest break in coaching?
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: So far. Obviously this is a huge deal, but what
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: kind of got you on the path quickly? Did you
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: look back on and say, hey, that's when it sort
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: of started.
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: That's a tough question because I feel like every sure,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: every move I made has felt like a big break
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: to me. I try not to take the advances that
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: I made for granted because it wasn't It's fresh in
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: my mind, still leaving Towson and looking for a job
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: and not knowing anybody. You know, It's not like I
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: had a great connection to get into the NFL in
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: terms of knowing guys when I graduated college, or coaches
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: that I worked with in college who were able to
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: just place me on a college staff, or I didn't
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: have it. My dad didn't coach in the NFL or college,
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: so I didn't have a lineage, direct connection like that.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: So I try to take.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: It, you know, be grateful for all those jumps that
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: I've made, certainly my first job at Baylor, But there's
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: too many people. If I went through it all, there'd
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: be one hundred people I would need to thank.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: But yeah, whether it's.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: Baylor, whether it's Carolina, whether it's Minnesota, they've all been
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: pretty significant.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Obviously your relationship with Kevin O'Connell very close. What has
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: he meant to you? And I guess how has he
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: influenced you aside from every way?
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's kind of the same answer I gave in
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: the press conference. It's a little bit of every way,
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: probably more ways than I even recognized. Okay, Like I said, so,
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: it was an absolute blessing to get to work with
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: Kevin and get to know his family and and really
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: everybody on the staff and kind of the culture that
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: he built there. There's a lot of special people in
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: Minnesota that I'll miss, certainly some incredibly thankful for the
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: opportunities that he gave me there. I wish I could
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: pinpoint and give you one or two things that sure
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: that significantly impacted me, but there's so many more than that.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: If I listed one, I'd be leaving out other ones.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: It's really in every way. But you spend so much
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: time with somebody, you learned about the way they view
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: things and the way they approach whether it's schematics or
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: culture or relationships of that impact. So you're taking stuff
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: from every element of it. Now that doesn't all directly
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: translate to me because I'm different than Kevin, and I
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: can't be Kevin, but there's certainly things you pick up
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: in every aspect of coaching or how he ran the organization,
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: how he let an offense, all those things.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Is there some symmetry whatever you call it in your
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: early conversations with Liam in terms of just approach philosophy
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: with how the Vikings? Yeah, yeah, it feels like it's
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: sort of the same. I sure vibe.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: I guess absolutely.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: I know what you're saying because you look at really
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: their time together in La Yeah, and you see kind
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: of the same roots and foundation of an organization and
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: the way they're building a culture and the way they're
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: building an offense. Things are always going to be different
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: because you have different people playing. We have different coaches here,
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: it's a different environment, but that kind of foundation and
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: the core pillars, essentially you can still.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Feel those Why aside from the opportunity to be an OCE,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: what made this make sense?
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Well, there's there's a ton of things that go into it.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: There's so much to consider. I think the people is
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: a huge part of it, because you're going to be
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: spending almost every second of every day, sure with these
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: people investing in these players and devoting yourself to this,
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: So you want to make sure that if you're doing that,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: it's with people you want to do it with, for
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: an organization you want to do it for, and with
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: players you want to do it with. So I think
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: that's one of the biggest pieces. Then there's of course
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: all the other elements of that you take into account
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: with you know, the opportunity aspect that you mentioned on,
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: but really the people is a big thing. People, the organization,
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: and then all the other factors that come into it.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: When you're in oc working for a guy who's, Yeah,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: where do you see yourself helping the most, making the
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: impact the most? Where do you fit when the head
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: coach is sort of an offensive guru, if you.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: Will, right, It's a little similar to my role in Minnesota,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: where it's my job to be an extension of Liam,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: because as much as I'm sure Liam would love to
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: be able to lock himself in the offensive staff room
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: or with the players for twelve hours a day, exactly,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: it's not a head coaching job. He's going to be
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: pulled in a million different directions, as he should be
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: because he's leading the entire organization. So it's my job
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: to be able to act as an extension of him
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: and keep our offensive staff, our offensive unit, players, coaches, himself,
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: and myself in complete alignment right. And when he's not
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: available to do things, then I got to make sure
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: that things are going in that same common vision and
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: we're still building appropriately in a way that not only
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: sets our team up for success or like our players
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: up for success, but for him for success as well
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: as the play caller.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: When did you know you were ready to be in
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: OC and why?
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: I would say that's kind of the same thing in
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: the sense they asked me earlier. Where the fortunate thing
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: about my position, and I guess football in general, is
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: it's not really my choice whether I'm ready to be
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: It's up to the people that you go an interview for.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you seem pretty self away. If you didn't feel
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: like you were ready, you probably said, hey, I need
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: another year, yeah to be ready. So something sort of
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: told you, hey, this is yeah, I can succeed here.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I see what you're saying.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: It's certainly something that I prepared for. And you spend
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: a lot of time in the off season making sure
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: you go back through things and do research and study
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: on your own because in season you're spending so much
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: time on that granular focus of this Sunday and what
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: can we do to maximize our chance of winning just
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: this Sunday, and how are we handling the problems that
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: we're facing today. So the off season is a great
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: time to take advantage of researching the league, researching processes
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: in different ways things are done. So I've done that
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: over the course of really my time in college, approaching
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: from a college standpoint, then you transition to the NFL
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: and you learn the NFL schedule and the off season
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: program and how you build those things.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Out, which is huge.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: So you get used to doing that, and over the
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: course of my years in the NFL, you're just something
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: you're constantly preparing for. I don't know that there's one
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: moment I can point to and say I know I'm ready.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: I would certainly say that my time in Minnesota, as
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: I increase in responsibility, probably built confidence, I guess in
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: approaching that role. But it's something that you're preparing for constantly.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Just like with players coaches, you have a growth mindset
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: and you always want to be learning and not just
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: learning from the people who are above you, but you're
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: learning from everybody. Naturally, you're going to spend time learning
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: from the different people you come across their ways of
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: doing things, and those will naturally build your approach for
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: when you have the opportunity to sit in this chair,
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: which I'm fortunate to have now. So it's a culmination
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: of kind of a lot of things coming together that
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: make me feel confident enough to take that step.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: And you'll be leading a staff for the first time.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: Thoughts on that, Yeah, Like I went back to talking
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: about the people. That's a big part of the reason
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: why I'm here, and I'm so excited about this job
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: because of the group of guys we have in the
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: offensive staff room. So it will be a transition in
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: terms of my title, but I don't see it as
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: too much of a transition in the sense of taking
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: a leadership role. Whether you're dealing with players or whether
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: you're dealing with other coaches. In my role in Minnesota,
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: it's still a collaborative process and we all still have
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: the same shared vision. So even though my title has changed,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: you're still working together with those guys.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: The hierarchy of kind of who who's got the final
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: say and who's leading the ship and said in the
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: direction has changed a little bit, right, But that doesn't
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: mean that I all of a sudden become a dictator
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: in that office staff from and the same thing with Liam.
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: So it's still that collaborative process. But having the guys
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: that we have here makes it so exciting and makes
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: it easy, so to speak, not necessarily easy, but it
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: makes it easier to be able to rely on those
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: guys and be collaborative.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Right. You can feel the relationships starting, and it makes sense.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I'd be REMISSI of any and ask you about Trevor. Yeah,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: on the podium, you talked about it. Just what about him?
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Is it beyond the clear talent?
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: What about him makes you excited for this? And what
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: will you emphasize first with him?
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: Aside from the talent, it's kind of the same things
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: I talked about.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: There on the podium.
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: Was the guy the guy he is, So whether you
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: talk about the humility, the fact that you know how
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: accountable he's been, the work ethic, the commitment to focus,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: all of those things make it exciting for me and
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: the rest of our staff to pour into that type
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: of person because those are the guys that improve and
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: those are the guys that have the opportunity to get
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: better and.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Lead your team.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: I asked you in the press or about the relationship,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: just how do you I guess how important is that?
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: And I guess the answer is it's the most important thing, right,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the relationship with him and neither trust you guys will build.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: That's everything at this point, right or yeah, just do it.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a little it's hard to parse out what's
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: most important because it's a little bit of everything is
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: the most important thing.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it makes sense.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: So there's no clear dividers in that sense. But that's
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: certainly a huge piece of it. Right at the end
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: of the day, he's the one with the ball in
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: his hands, right, so there needs to be a complete
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: trust that we're putting him in the best position.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: It's for success.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I got you, I've got to know about and you
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: probably know where I'm going at the end. I call
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: it the lost Grant story. When they couldn't find you
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: in Minnesota, And it's interesting if people haven't read the piece.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: When you work, you work, but when you disconnect, it
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: sounds like you disconnect and you like to travel. Yeah,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: so they couldn't find you in Minnesota for a couple
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: of days. Just hap you do that story if you will.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, there's a number of stories. Okay, so you
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: started with the football stuff and then you eased into
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: eased into the other stuff. But there's a couple of
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: different versions of stuff like that happening. That story, in particular,
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: I think is the first year in Minnesota I was
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: working with Kevin closely and kind of an assistant type
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: role to him, where I was still working with the
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: quarterbacks and doing very similar stuff that I'd done, but
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: I was also responsible for building out schedules and we
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: would work together on creating practice plans. You guys probably
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: communicated every day off season plans, what the lift schedule
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: for the guys is gonna be, what the weight room's
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: going to look like. So it was a great opportunity
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: for me because I got a real behind the scenes
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: of a minute to minute, day to day, week to week,
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: month to month of a head coach and how you
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: have to build things out from an organizational standpoint, right.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: But I was in that role and kind of responsible
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: for putting together the training camp plan with them. So
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: we leave for summer break and typically, like you said,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: once I'm off. I'm a hard guy to get a
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: hold of. So I did the same thing I did
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: every off season and packed my car up and immediately
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: drove out to Colorado and started hiking right and I
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: went on I think a three day hike is what
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: it might have been, three or four days. I forget
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: the exact details. But I get back to my car
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: after that hike, and I leave my phone in airplane
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: mode the whole time, because every once in a while
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: you might be able to get service, but for the
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: for the majority of it, you're probably not going to
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: get any service. So once I go to no service,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: the phone's in airplane mode, preserve the battery, and then
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: I get back to the car. Once I get back,
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: typically drive a little bit and get back in the
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: range of getting cell service.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: I turn it back on.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Well, typically when you turn it back on, you get
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: a number of texts, but this time it was like
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: rattling off like dings, like twenty five in a row,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: and then another twenty five is it's loading and it's
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: a bunch and I'm looking through the text and it's
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: funny because it starts off with Kevin. If you read
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: it now, I'm reading it backwards, but if you went
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: and read it chronologically, it would be like from Kevin
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: and it would be, hey, man, we need to get
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: together for a call, go through some training camp stuff.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: Then the next one's like, hey, not sure if you
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: got that, give me a shot whenever. Then it's like, hey,
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: we got to go through some training camp stuff.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Hit me up.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Then the next one's like having her back, is everything good?
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: We need to do training camp stuff. Then the next
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: one's like, what's going on? Did you change your number?
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Your phone break?
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Hit me up?
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: Then it's like, hey, starting to get worried, where are you?
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: And it's like do I need to contact somebody? We
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: can't find you. And then the next one's like what
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: the man, what's going on? Are you okay? The next
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: one are you alive? And then you're going to other
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: conversations you got like the GM and other people texting me,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: and other people very high up in the organization should
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: not be worried about me or texting me at that point.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: So now I'm like in complete panic as I'm driving back, like,
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: oh my gosh, all these people are like sending out
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: rescue tea, like rescue messages to try to figure.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: Out where I am. Yeah, now it's not funny.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: So now I'm like panics, and I'm calling him and
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: calling everyone instantly telling I'm like, I'm all right and everything.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: And he explained very clearly and politely to make sure
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: that I let him know if I'm going to go
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: off the grid anytimes after that.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: But yeah, but that's sort of you. I mean, great story,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: but that's sort of what you do in the off season, right,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Like my impression is you've traveled to a bunch of
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: different spots alone, kind of I guess, kind of deconnecting, right.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not necessarily purposely deconnected. I'm not purposely trying
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: to lose cell phone service necessarily, but that typically is
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: the case. It's usually pretty remote locations, whether it's hiking
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: in the US or going abroad. I've done a little
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: bit more broad travel these past couple of years. I
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: don't know what this offseason will look like in terms
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: of being able.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: To do that. I probably you'll get a few days.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: We'll get a few.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Days, for sure, but maybe not the big trips I've
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: done in the past. But yeah, if I'm not doing football,
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: typically I'm going to be traveling somewhere, trying to take
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: advantage of the time. I can you spend so much
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: time up here, and I love spending the time up here,
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: but it's going to be long days and long nights.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: So when you get away, when you get time off,
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: I try to take advantage of it by going out
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: and seeing as much as I can.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I got you in your or five year plan, ten
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: year plan. When do you see head coach?
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's not something that I that I think about, certainly,
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: not on.
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: A day to day basis.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: I would say, similar to how you approach the offensive
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: coordinator position, you are constantly learning all the.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Time at all roles. So I was not an.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: Offense coordinator before this, but I was constantly preparing and
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: learning and gathering information and thinking about those things and
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: deliberating on what are the best processes, what are the
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: best ways of doing things, what makes an optimal situation,
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: what makes things less than optimal. But from a day
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: to day standpoint, I'm purely focused on my role here
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: and maximizing the potential of our players here and our
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: team here, our unit here. So it's certainly something that
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: I learn and try to prepare for. Maybe in the
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: off season, but it's not my focus and not something
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: I put a number on.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Fair enough, the last thing we do. It's called the
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: ozone five. Five quick fun questions, and I know you've
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: been briefed on the first one. I don't know that
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I have last binge watch.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: Oh if they did tell me this, yeah, I toltdally.
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: This was gonna be a bad answer because I don't
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: know that I've had a binge watch.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna make you not say films. I know you
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: want to say film No, that would be that would
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: be a little over the topotball, that would be.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: A little too football coach of an answer. I'm not
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: gonna give you that. I gotta be a little bit
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: of a person.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know that I've watched. I'm not a binge
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: watch guy. I get I mean.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Favorite series of all time.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: See this is I'm gonna I'm gonna fail. I'm gonna
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: fail this whole What is this called the fives? I'm
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: gonna I'm gonna fail this entire ozone five. I'll give
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: you this instead of answering the question. I actually don't
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: have cable. I don't have a TV. The only TV
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: I have is I plugged my computer. Kevin gave me.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: Kevin O'Connell gave me his old TV when he when
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: we moved to Minnesota. So I used that to plug
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: my canter and when I go home and put the
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: film up on.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: There, so screen it's an old flat screen. Yeah. Now,
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: maybe I'll get.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: A TV now, but but yeah, that is Ah, maybe
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: that's more interesting than the fact that I don't have
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: a good binge show or makes me seem more insane.
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: So hopefully not totally insane, but yeah, I do not
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: have a TV.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: When you're a coordinator twenty nine, you're supposed to be insane. So, uh,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the last song you heard this morning on the way in.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: I told you I was going to fail these five questions.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: I'm an audiobook guy, audiobook, audiobook and podcast. I'm an
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: audio track guy, so I mean, I'll have music on
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: in the background in my office.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: But I couldn't even tell you what's gotcha. I have
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: no idea you'll get this one. Uh, the best vacation
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: spot you've ever gone to.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: It's like choosing your favorite child.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: You can't do that all right, Well, recentcy bias, the
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: recency bias, I would say Norway right now, but that's
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: because that was last summer.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: So I'll go with Norway.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Top three because it sounds like that's interesting stuff for.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: You, all right, or the last three, well, Norway.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: The last three.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: If I'm going backwards, yeah, I'll just lump kind of
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: Scandinavia together.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: Then then i'll go the Alps.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: It would be before that, specifically the Austrian Alps, and
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: then before that would have been.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: I'll go favorite three because I love well, it's hard
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: to pick. I got to pick something in the US,
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: but but I'll pick the Rocky Mountains just generally.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: I'll take the whole range and could you've been.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: There quite a bit?
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I spent a lot of time there.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Best football memory.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: I'm I mean, I'm gonna go zero for five on
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: these I can't think of. That's the thing is you're picking.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: You can't pick a favorite. You can't pick a favorite.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of really good ones. There's a lot
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: of really good ones. I mean some of the wins
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: in Minnesota, some of the the last Secon field goal. Yeah,
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: some of the good wins last year, even two years ago,
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: I mean three years ago. We had some big time
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: game winning field goals and close games at the end
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: that were really exciting. Two years ago, we still had
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: some really cool wins, like Josh Dobbs going in on
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: three days of preparation and beating Atlanta, where I would
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: love to take credit for it, but he's the one
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: that really put in the work, like some late nights
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: that week and long study hours to get him ready
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: to play that game, like unbelievable. It wasn't a playoff win,
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: and it's not a win that led us to get
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: in the playoffs, but those are really really special moments. Really,
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: those moments where you see guys fulfill the potential and
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: achieve something that they've worked so hard to earn. Those
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: are some of the most fulfilling moments.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Person or people most responsible for you being here.
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a long list. That's a really really long list.
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: I would say, just for the sake of time, I'll
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: probably just focus on my family right now. Probably the
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: family and the coaches that I've worked with. There's a
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: lot of coaches that I've worked with where if I
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: start naming one or two, then I'm leaving out a couple.
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: But there's a lot of coaches that I've worked with
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: who deserve credit. And then my family, my parents, my brothers.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Well, you said you were going to fail the ozone five,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: I'd say you passed it. I'd say you probably got
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: an A.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: So I don't know.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: I appreciate the leniency on the grading. I think I
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: think two for five.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: What was that?
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: What?
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: I go two for five actually giving you real answers.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: So I think you had three for five.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: And sixty percent.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: In my academic world, that's passing.
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: All right, I'll take it. I'll take it. I appreciate it, Grant,
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you for doing the ozone podcast. Look forward to
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: working with you, and I know fans looking forward to
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: watching you and getting to know you.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you, buddy,