Latest / Boundary Corner Podcast / Opening Camp with Austin Cannon

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Opening Camp with Austin Cannon · Boundary Corner Podcast

0:44
Welcome back to the boundary Corner podcast with Brian Segal.
0:50
I'm Curtis Wilson. Tonight.
0:53
We have a very special guest, former hokey offensive lineman
0:58
and current Hanover Hawk assistant football coach, Austin
1:01
Cannon, Hey, Austin. How you doing tonight?
1:06
But pretty good man. Are you doing?
1:10
I'll can't complain. Thanks for jumping on with us
1:11
here. No problem.
1:15
Yeah man, we appreciate it. How's uh, how's your day been
1:20
has been long been up since 5:00 a.m. and, you know, just working
1:25
getting ready for the season now.
1:28
Have you already started Camp up in Hanover?
1:31
Where is this? There's a next week.
1:34
Now we start Monday. Day tomorrow.
1:36
We finish up our summer workouts with you know, big, squat Friday
1:42
and conditioning the tradition continues.
1:45
Oh yeah, for sure. Nice man.
1:50
What y'all first game are y'all playing Labor Day weekend as
1:52
well or y'all little later than that believe we got September
1:59
1st or 2nd. Okay.
2:01
And we're home against Monica. So okay.
2:05
It's it's going to be a great, great matchup, you know, that
2:11
they had some players last year, but you know, we'll see what
2:16
they got. You know, we have a lot of
2:18
momentum coming in from that spring season and you know, the
2:21
guys are excited, the staff is excited, so we're ready to go.
2:27
So you were coaching in the spring.
2:28
I know you know you got a big decision kind of as last season.
2:33
Wrapped up was Was getting into coaching kind of your plan in
2:37
college, or was that something to just kind of presented
2:39
yourself, as you were kind of taking those next steps?
2:42
I mean, I knew all along I was going to coach, you know, I kind
2:47
of figured it out when it was my senior year in high school.
2:52
I started coaching Hanover Warriors, like ten you.
2:57
And, you know, I really enjoyed it.
2:59
And, you know, that kind of gave me the ideals like, hey, I know
3:03
football is going to end one day.
3:05
You and two for me to continue to be involved in the game, you
3:12
know, coaching was definitely, you know, something in my
3:14
future. I do that man.
3:18
Love it. Love to hear that so that sounds
3:20
like you've probably thought about it even before that, which
3:23
is unbelievable. And now, you know, get a chance
3:26
to go out there, you know, shape from football here in the RV.
3:30
A, but let me ask you this, what is it like working for the head
3:35
coach? Of the Hanover Hawk Sam Rogers,
3:38
you know, guy you obviously probably played against in high
3:42
school and then played with up, jigna Tech.
3:46
Yeah, you know, I mean, Sam's a great guy, I mean, there's, you
3:50
know, Hanover High School, you know, they did a great job, you
3:54
know, hiring him and you know what, he's trying to do with
3:58
that program and You know, it it's unbelievable, you know,
4:04
and, you know, I trust what he's doing, you know, me and him have
4:09
the same mentality, you know, and kind of bringing that
4:12
Virginia Tech mentality to that program.
4:15
And, you know, we're wired the same way.
4:19
And so just that cohesiveness and that relationship, you know,
4:24
I think it's awesome. You know, I couldn't ask for a
4:27
better head coach, you know, to start on my coaching career.
4:31
So, are y'all doing some similar things that we're doing in
4:35
Blacksburg? Or is it kind of a mix of
4:37
different philosophies and schemes?
4:40
I mean, you know, it's very similar what we ran, you know,
4:45
at Tech, you know, in terms of like the spread offense and
4:50
things like that and, you know, he's brought like his own little
4:53
twist, you know, some things when you're, when he was in the
4:56
league for a little bit, but little bit of time, he was in
4:59
there. And you know it just his
5:02
football IQ is like it's impeccable, you know, and he's
5:08
such a smart football player and now football coach and you know,
5:15
I'm kind of like learning the ropes you know, in terms of the
5:18
whole grand scheme of things because you know for most of my
5:21
life I was just worried about that box that front seven, you
5:24
know, I didn't really have to worry about the defense like
5:27
that. But, you know, now I kind of
5:29
have to You know, pay attention to those things because, you
5:34
know, I recently got, you know, put on the role of the JV, you
5:40
know, offensive coordinator. So, you know, he's been working
5:44
with me the past, you know, two and a half months, you know, we
5:48
meet every Thursday and he's kind of teaching me all the
5:52
passing Concepts and, you know, we're talking about receivers,
5:55
and dbe's defense of coverages and all that kind of stuff.
5:58
I was like, Okay. We'll crash course, right?
6:04
Yeah, little crap. And so you know, I've been
6:07
starting up on it and I'm excited to take on that new role
6:11
instead of new challenge. And you know, I love new
6:13
challenges, it was going to make me grow and be a better football
6:17
coach. Well, man, I'm almost ready to
6:20
have you back in like five or six weeks.
6:22
After you've called some of those JV games, just to hear
6:26
what's going on with your some of your sheep.
6:33
Yeah, so obviously today was first day of fall camp for the
6:39
Virginia Tech Hokies. And you know, we're seeing the
6:42
pictures, we're seeing everybody seems happy today they want,
6:47
right? So me and Brian, we're talking.
6:50
We wanted to kind of ask you as a player.
6:53
What was the part of the camp? You look forward to the most but
6:56
then what was the kind of what was the dread day.
6:59
What was the day? You hit like day 7 and you know,
7:02
date is this - like got to get it over with but not looking
7:06
forward to it. So what was the favorite day,
7:08
first? Mmm.
7:11
Favorite favorite day was. Probably obviously, you gotta go
7:15
with first day of pads. There we go.
7:19
You know, we open it up. We always open it up.
7:22
First aid pads with Hoagie drill, you know, and it's a
7:28
competition, you know, between, right?
7:30
Handbags linebackers and wide receivers dbe's o-line d-line
7:33
and you know, eventually you know, Fuente will get us all in
7:37
a circle, you know, and he'll have the two bags in the middle
7:41
and you know, he'll call out, you know, specific guy from each
7:46
side of the ball. And, you know, and we'll go at
7:48
it and, you know, we keep score, they run off an offensive line,
7:54
got got that winning record. So there we go.
7:57
A proud proud beyond the window. You got to keep the pride there.
8:01
Oh yeah, yeah, I'm a prideful guy.
8:05
So but yeah. And you know, with the days that
8:09
I dreaded it I would say more of towards the end of Camp, okay.
8:16
You know, when you're like so close to the season, you know,
8:20
like you can almost taste it and you're like, all right, like
8:23
I've been going up against the same dude, you know, twice a
8:27
day. Yep.
8:28
You know. However many weeks and I'm just
8:33
like, I want someone different. That's definitely, you know,
8:39
that part is what I dread the most but you know I mean it
8:43
flies by so fast. We have a question here for one
8:49
of our listeners tonight, hokey Farm on OU, pharmacist Jeremy,
8:54
shut up, maybe somebody that had to go up against Silas one time.
9:01
Who had who had to go up against Silas?
9:04
Yeah. And Hoagie drill in the hook
9:06
here? Oh my gosh.
9:11
I mean, you had a manual Belmar. You had Yeah, Justice Reed.
9:18
You got oh yeah. Jared Hewitt.
9:22
I mean, pretty much everybody that you've seen play on the
9:26
defensive line, you know, has had a piece of Silas and let me
9:30
tell you silas's thousand sighs. I mean, that being a big boy
9:36
Mount another man. I so, so I want to ask this and
9:40
if you don't want to talk about former teammates, don't who is
9:44
the person when for went they would call their Name that
9:47
you're sitting there like I don't really want to go against
9:51
him today and I know you as a football player.
9:54
Yall's mentality isn't like that but I'm sure sometimes you heard
9:56
a name and it was like I want to do this drill down but got to go
10:00
out there and fight it. Oh man.
10:03
I mean I'm I'm never you know scared of any man but he
10:08
answered the answer your question.
10:12
You know, I would I would definitely have to go with Tim
10:14
saddle. I mean, we're just talk about
10:18
big guys. Like this is big.
10:19
Yeah interview. So Tim was always fun to go up
10:25
against and you know it was always a challenge but you know
10:30
when you've gone and done maybe about three or four hokey
10:33
drills, you know and also you get called into the the big
10:37
circle and you gotta go up against Tim saddle.
10:41
It's like, come on man. You know, there's always one
10:47
dude that like you know, you don't back away from it, you're
10:50
not, you're not afraid of your. Like I know I'm gonna feel this
10:53
once I hit him, I know I am. I mean, that's just, you know, I
10:59
think he was what like 3:30. Yeah, it's you're so like, you
11:04
know, and he's obviously trimmed down a lot.
11:06
Since he's been in the league, such a low center of gravity to
11:09
like, you can't, you can't get underneath.
11:11
Neither like, no, and it's so hard.
11:13
And like, if you mess with your hands, you know, if your hands
11:17
go outside and I mean, you're just screwed all that power, the
11:23
low center of gravity, that strength.
11:25
I mean, you really have to have your Technique down to a tee,
11:31
you know, to compete with Tim. So, That's good to know and
11:35
obviously Tim really doing well for himself and you had quite a
11:39
few guys that were there during your time there.
11:42
So it's cool to hear those type of stories from you with this.
11:49
And and by the way, last year we had John McLaughlin on, again,
11:53
teammate of yours and it must be in the line thing could Brian,
11:56
if you don't recollect, it was he it was it was some sort of
12:00
drill. He didn't like, was like, what
12:01
do you look forward to first day of pads?
12:04
He was with you, it was near the end.
12:06
He's like, that's when you start dreading it, because did insane,
12:10
guys, but you're also hitting your teammates.
12:13
It's almost that feeling of. I want someone across from me,
12:18
that is not wearing maroon and orange, and I want to take it
12:22
out on them and love that mentality because y'all are all
12:26
Brothers day and it's finally, we practice we're ready to go.
12:30
But he kept saying, I can't wait for my game.
12:32
I can't wait for my game. That's what he kept saying, like
12:34
We're doing. What is my game?
12:36
Yeah, my game, you know, that's really fun.
12:40
And you know, we take it very, very seriously.
12:43
But in terms of like having a physical toll on your body, it's
12:48
like one of the easiest days out of the camp schedule, you know,
12:54
and it's but it's more mental than anything, you know.
12:58
It's basically like a dress rehearsal from the right before
13:03
we Get on the bus with the Friday walkthrough to, you know,
13:08
pretend, you know, we're getting on the bus to how we're going to
13:12
conduct Friday meetings and, you know, Saturday morning meal for
13:17
breakfast and, you know, kind of like the pregame meal and
13:21
pregame meetings, you know, kind of pick me up talks and stuff
13:26
like that. And so, you know, it, that's
13:29
what I love to how everything was so organized.
13:32
And, you know, how, Reyes, it was, you know, and, you know, I
13:38
think that's, you know, kudos to coach Fuente and his staff and
13:42
how they run things and you know, and it's freaking awesome.
13:48
Very nice to hear. Well before we get to more with
13:51
Austin, cannons night, we are going to take a quick 30 second
13:54
break from our digital sponsors. All right, Austin.
13:59
We're going to jump back in here.
14:01
You know, we talked a little bit about Camp opening up kind of
14:03
your favorite parts and of camp. But let's talk a little bit more
14:07
about some of the things from 2020 some of the unique
14:11
challenges that covid presented especially in regards to fall
14:15
Camp. What was the biggest difference
14:17
about fall camp in 2020 compared to your for previous camps with
14:21
Hokies? I mean, 2020 Camp was I was A
14:29
easy, I would say it was easier you know compared to the other
14:35
Camp simply because of the whole code stuff.
14:37
Like the way it was formatted and, you know, you couldn't
14:40
really, you know, do as much, you know, we were to limited,
14:46
you know, back-to-back days and then I got another day off stuff
14:50
like that. But when we got those two days
14:53
in a row like, I mean, don't get me wrong like we went after it.
14:57
Okay. you know and we competed and you know got ourselves
15:03
better but I mean if you want to compare to the previous four, I
15:08
mean definitely the easiest but also the longest like yeah so
15:15
long and you know you talk about you know you're getting kind of
15:18
towards the end of camp and you're dreading in you want to
15:20
go up against somebody else will like that was the ultimate test
15:24
right there you know? Because we were winding down
15:28
towards the enemy camp. You know, you had the
15:31
conference's contemplating whether to have a season or not
15:35
you know then you had the Pac-12 and Big Ten.
15:38
But then we knew that we were having a season.
15:41
All right, now that was a plus dip, but then NC State had a
15:47
breakout, right? They had to postpone right?
15:51
So we're getting up. We're gearing up getting ready
15:53
for NC State. You know, still going through
15:57
that camp schedule, but then I got postponed.
16:02
Then our, you know, our Focus shifted to UVA because I was
16:06
weak to They're all sudden outbreak happened on Artie.
16:12
You know him that we couldn't really control.
16:16
It was inevitable and so that got postponed now.
16:22
We're kind of doing some more Camp stuff, you know.
16:25
So like it kept on, getting delayed the season kept getting
16:27
delayed, so there we kind of kept with that cam schedule and
16:33
a kind of purgatory there for a while.
16:35
The yeah, I mean just it was Is terrible.
16:39
You know I was just like itching to get the season started and it
16:45
just felt like 2 months really, you know, it was like a month
16:49
and a half. I know something coach Fuente
16:54
mentioned in an interview with textile on about a couple weeks
16:59
ago. He was saying there were times
17:00
it Camp. There were no bodies there
17:03
because the protocols like you guys were You know, you would
17:08
have groups out like half of this group's gone, ten players
17:11
from this groups going, how difficult is that from your
17:15
perspective? Now, as a coach, you know the
17:18
saying, how do we do that last year when we couldn't do certain
17:23
drills because we don't have enough players on the field?
17:26
Yeah, I mean there was times where, you know, we had, you
17:30
know, portions of our practice kind of taken out because of the
17:35
lack of numbers and I'd like to give you an example you know of
17:41
kind of how the next man up you know philosophy was you know,
17:46
used like we had We have bra Kaufman and in Hawaii Zechariah
17:54
who eat, you know, they had to like Korn team for some reason,
17:59
right? And this is when quarantine was
18:01
longer than when you got infected or something.
18:04
Yeah, crazy. It was 10 days if you're
18:06
infected and 14 if you weren't. Yeah.
18:09
It is contactors. Yeah, I mean you can take what
18:12
you want about all that stuff but I think it's absolutely
18:14
ridiculous. I don't care if people disagree
18:16
or agree with me or not but You know, then I had to be put in
18:22
its inner and, you know, I've always snap during pre practice
18:27
and, you know, I knew how to play the position.
18:30
So you know it wasn't nothing surprising to me.
18:36
But, you know, I I was in there taking first team reps at Center
18:40
and, you know, Cornell send bias and Fuente.
18:45
You know, they're telling me how the offense didn't really skip a
18:48
beat, you know, when I was in there and, you know, that was
18:51
good to hear. But, you know, with me, I was
18:54
just doing my job, you know, doing the best I could for the
18:57
team for myself and, you know, so I mean, it's the best I can
19:04
do that. I mean, that's why I'm there,
19:06
you know, to be a great teammate, great football player,
19:09
and, you know, and just gave my best.
19:11
So, but like, yeah, in terms of lack of numbers like we were
19:15
missing, you know, our first to Sinners, you know, firsthand
19:19
second team centers, and you got guys jumping around different
19:24
positions. You know, we couldn't really do
19:27
like a full team, kind of like scrimmage period.
19:32
You know, sometimes and you know, it did hurt us a little
19:36
bit, but it wasn't like a major setback or anything.
19:38
We found ways. We worked around it and got the
19:43
most work. We could So, we had a little
19:46
question here from, from a listener here.
19:48
Was there a significant amount of like, cross-training like
19:51
offense to defense? Or was that more relegated to
19:55
the skill positions versus the line?
19:57
Or was there any of that or was it just next man up?
20:01
Even if that next man is a walk-on or anything like that.
20:04
I mean, you know, like you said, it doesn't matter who it was.
20:09
I mean, to, you know, have an example for that question.
20:13
You know, we had a Tyler Matheny, you know, come in for
20:18
Diablo, I believe ya versus Duke, you know, and he freaking
20:23
balled out and, you know, we were so happy for him when he
20:26
got that interception like that, sideline erupt, you know and so
20:33
does matter if you're, you know, a walk-on scholarship guy, you
20:38
know, you know 20-plus game starter, you know You know, I
20:45
got that rotates or barely played like if you're in that
20:48
depth chart like your name could be called at any moment.
20:53
So, you know, everybody, when they went to practice, you know,
20:57
they were, you know, knowing that my name could be called
21:00
like today or like in just like that.
21:04
Like an instant second. So, everybody kind of took their
21:07
job. Seriously, we came to practice
21:09
because you just never know when your numbers going to be called.
21:13
Okay, that makes sense. So just to covid landscape in
21:17
general, you know, what was the hardest part to navigate?
21:20
I mean you had I just sit here and think about you had
21:23
football, obviously super important.
21:25
You had your own health to worry about, you have friends, you had
21:28
class, you had family. What was it?
21:30
Like the piece that was the most difficult part for you.
21:33
Last year, going through just something, no one had ever done
21:37
in their entire lives. I mean, I think, you know, Early
21:44
on when, when they kind of shut everything down.
21:49
You know, we were just about to finish up winter workouts and,
21:54
you know, we got sent off for spring break and, you know,
21:58
we're in the middle of spring break and they were told and
22:00
like, hey, like we're, we're locked down now, like you guys
22:05
might as well, just stay where you're at or, you know, go home
22:09
and, you know, We were sending it and some workout videos and
22:14
you know, just trying to do what we could and I think that was
22:21
hard because I'm like, dang I like this could be my last
22:25
season you know, or I was thinking like this is my last
22:28
season not knowing about the extra year and all that stuff
22:34
and I'm like this is how it's going to go like there's no way.
22:37
And then eventually I think it was like July or so early.
22:43
June was when we got to come back and kind of be with the
22:47
team again and see everybody. And I think, you know, that kind
22:50
of picked everybody up, you know, in terms of morale and
22:54
things like that. But also the testing I mean,
23:02
we're talking about. Sometimes I think early on I was
23:05
like twice a week, you know, then eventually he got wrapped
23:08
up to three times a week and it's like I don't want A swab up
23:11
my new one more time, man. But yeah, that's gotta get old
23:18
quick. Yeah, I know it did it did.
23:22
So but, you know, we had to do what we had to do in order to
23:26
play a football season and, you know, that's what was important
23:29
to us, you know, is to have a season in play.
23:33
And so, we had to do whatever whatever we had to do to get it
23:36
done and, you know, but it sucked, you know.
23:41
Well, you know we're we're tough guys so you know we just had to
23:45
endure it and move on. So I you were talking earlier
23:50
about, you know, sending in the workout videos.
23:52
If I recall correctly weren't you did you send them one
23:54
pushing a truck? Yeah.
23:56
That yeah, that was my 98, Ford Expedition.
24:03
I mean that work out, you know, it's been something of mine that
24:08
I've done all throughout High School.
24:11
Me and Alec Everly. You know we used to push, you
24:15
know our trucks I used to have his Chevrolet Silverado that
24:18
wasn't my first vehicle and me and him will go at night time
24:22
and the parking lot at a lie and, you know, put it in neutral
24:26
and knew he would steer and I'll push and then we will switch.
24:30
And so like always love, pushing pushing the truck, it was a
24:35
great workout. And so, you know, I was like,
24:38
you know what, I'm almost hitting this in, and You know,
24:42
in our, you know, got some positive reviews.
24:47
Some of them, some good for jokes, but now, I love the
24:55
square bodies. But I mean right now I drop a
24:59
Ford Edge end up getting getting rid of the Expedition.
25:02
It was getting a little worn out but that's been all throughout
25:05
college so I'm not complaining. So my jump down here they want
25:10
to know how far you would push the truck in the in the parking
25:13
lot. So in the apartment like this
25:14
parking lot behind, the school is ginormous like easily over a
25:19
hundred yards and if you pushed it towards the varsity practice
25:24
field, it had a slight incline as Went farther and farther.
25:29
So I would say probably about almost close to about 200 yards
25:36
long. Oh, wow.
25:38
And so me and Alice would try to go, you know, three times, you
25:43
know, each so yeah, it was, it was a killer workout but, you
25:49
know, always loved it. Shout out, Jacob on that
25:52
question. I was a great question.
25:54
So, 600 yards of pushing the 98 for Expedition by Alston cannon
26:01
in the at leat parking lot and the r-va you mentioned it just a
26:07
few minutes ago. Austin, you didn't know about
26:10
the extra year of Eligibility, what kind of factors played into
26:15
your decision to kind of pass on that opportunity.
26:17
Because, you know, you could you could be sitting back at Camp
26:20
day one. But instead you're about to get
26:22
ready for your first. Task will go champ.
26:25
Yeah, so Like I want to say this right now, I mean it was the
26:29
hardest decision of my life, you know, to I wouldn't say to give
26:37
up because I didn't give up, I gave everything I had to be game
26:42
but to kind of close that chapter and to open up a new
26:47
one, I mean, it was kind of hard to, you know, close that chapter
26:52
but you know a few factors played in, you know, I just
26:56
turned 25. Ivan may, you know, easily would
27:00
have been the oldest guy in the room.
27:03
Fun fact, I'm actually older than Darrell Smith.
27:08
Yeah. Which is, you know, surprises
27:10
because he's going on near 77, you got the doctor it to them.
27:15
Yeah. So, you know, I kind of laid
27:18
that and, you know, I knew I had five years, you know, two kids,
27:23
everything that I had And you know, I came out with a
27:28
bachelor's degree and a master's.
27:30
So you know that was the most important thing to me, you know,
27:34
being a first-generation college student and college athlete to
27:40
kind of change the direction of, you know, my family's future.
27:46
You know, I take great pride in that.
27:51
And you know I also promised myself freshman year when I got
27:55
there in January of 2016 you know I said if I don't have that
28:01
burning passion you know when you know we're on that winter
28:05
break and you is getting close to get back to work.
28:09
You know, if I don't have that burning passion, then I know
28:12
it's time and you know, because if I were to do something, I
28:18
would give it 110%. I'm ten toes in and, you know,
28:25
it wouldn't be fair to me, or the coaches or my teammates the
28:29
program, everybody if I came back and I was kind of 50/50 or
28:34
I didn't give everything that I had.
28:37
So I was either going to do it or not, do it at all and when it
28:41
got closer you know the coaches they were recruiting me more
28:47
than I've ever been recruiting High School my life.
28:51
So it's kind of it was kind of neat and you know, just, you
28:57
know, listening to them. And you know I wanted to take
29:01
everybody's opinion. Everybody that was important to
29:04
me but ultimately at the end of the day it's what I decide.
29:08
And so it was a kind of, you know, heard the tone.
29:14
Hey like I'm good. I'm moving on.
29:19
You know what? Point a and Coach Vice and
29:23
really that whole staff has done for me as a football player and
29:28
as a man like I'm in Forever, you know, in debt to them, you
29:33
know what Virginia Tech has done for me forever in debt to, you
29:36
know, the program, the university.
29:40
And, you know, I'm very blessed to have gone to the best
29:45
university in the freaking country and to get an education
29:49
of world-class. ation and to play for program that's, you
29:54
know, known all around the country is, you know, crazy
29:59
people, you know, jumping up and down Enter Sandman and having
30:03
the best interest in college football and just the
30:06
atmosphere, you know, it was kind of hard to believe that you
30:12
leave it on the Wayside and move on but you know I'm happy where
30:16
I'm at right now you know and kind of being Vol drowned,
30:21
football, you know, thing that's helped me a lot with coping with
30:26
me not playing. I think that's a lot of, you
30:29
know, football coaches and they get into coaching, you know,
30:33
because they just love the game of football and they don't know
30:35
what their life would be like if they didn't have it.
30:38
So Yeah, it's hard to get rid of that itch.
30:43
It's always there. Even, I mean, part of the reason
30:47
that I love doing this, as any kind of still, gives me an
30:49
opportunity to be, you know, a part of that world.
30:52
So, you know, you never really lose it once you once you get
30:56
it. So I definitely see that we had
30:58
a, we had another listener. He's got a question.
31:01
He's, you know, we talked about the your end time in Blacksburg.
31:04
Let's talk about kind of what led up to that.
31:07
What did you like about Fork Union?
31:09
The By the time you spent there. Yeah, I mean, we hear about Fork
31:13
Union, its military boarding school all, dudes, and you know,
31:17
you would think that would suck but you know, it wasn't bad.
31:21
I mean, it as long as you were, you know, behaved and you were
31:25
disciplined and things like that, you know, it was easy,
31:31
but, you know, coach human over there, you know, he's a legend,
31:38
you know, he He helped me get to where I need to get to and
31:43
without him, you know, I don't know if I was, you know, going
31:46
to be sitting here talking with you guys with all this hokey
31:50
stuff in the background, you know, and having the career that
31:53
I had attack. So you know it was it was a neat
31:57
experience, very humbling experience but you know I don't
32:03
know what my life would be. Like if I didn't kind of take
32:06
that little detour to get to my final destination.
32:09
Destination. So I shout out to coach
32:12
schuiteman, you know? He's a, he's a goat.
32:18
Yeah, a lot of some of the the tech grades have taken that path
32:22
through Fork Union. So, definitely kudos to coach
32:26
Schumann there. Let's, let's pivot a little bit
32:29
here and talk about last year's offensive line and kind of what
32:32
this year's offensive line is going to look like for the
32:34
Hokies, you know, you were part of arguably, definitely,
32:38
probably one of Better offensive lines in the last decade at
32:42
Virginia Tech, you know, few pieces have moved on, you know,
32:45
one way or other there. But kind of, what are your
32:48
expectations for that unit for 2021, man?
32:52
I mean, I don't think they'll skip a beat.
32:55
I mean, you got a lot of guys were turned in, you know, Brock
32:59
often arguably the best center in the ACC.
33:04
You know, top 10, top 15 in the country.
33:10
And you know you got lucita Smith and you know Luke 2 Nu du
33:15
he's come a long way and you know I'm glad those guys are
33:20
reaping the rewards, you know, Silas Jazzy to and of course,
33:26
old man juice you know, Jesus, you know, there there's a lot of
33:32
guys in there and that room that have experience and you know,
33:36
there's some veteran leadership in that room.
33:39
And they're going to bring those young guys along and they're
33:43
going to help those young guys develop and leave that off as a
33:47
lot of room better when they found it, you know?
33:51
So I'm very excited what they're going to do.
33:54
They're hard-working group, you know, they're gonna, they're
33:57
going to grind and they're going to put the team on their back.
34:01
You know, the team goes as the office of line goes.
34:04
And, you know, so there's no doubt in my mind that they're
34:07
going to you know Kira. Rolling on that vice squad train
34:11
for sure. Right now speaking of the vice
34:14
squad you know we've seen a lot of Coach bikes you know he's one
34:18
of those outspoken guys we saw the video this year you know
34:23
that pokévision did which was great as great insight to it but
34:28
we haven't seen as much interaction from coach
34:31
cornelison you know behind the scenes coaching to inspect of.
34:35
How do they compare to one another and you know what
34:37
something, maybe a little different about Corn compared to
34:40
coach device. I mean they're very smart
34:45
coaches you know I know some people have different opinions
34:49
about Coach cornelison but you know at the end of the day the
34:54
guy knows what he's doing like you wouldn't be in that position
34:58
you know, if he didn't know what he was doing, you know I kind of
35:02
you know, had a Zoom meeting with him not too long ago, you
35:06
know, kind of pick his brain. Since, you know, I got that JV
35:11
offensive coordinator role, you know, tired.
35:13
Just you know, see his you know way of seeing the game and, you
35:21
know, always trusted corn with everything he did with the
35:26
offense. And you know, but biases that
35:31
more outgoing you know, very well.
35:34
Vocal if you know what I mean you know funny as all get-out I
35:40
would say it's him and Coach. She best is like the funniest
35:45
coaches you know on that staff. But you know they really do care
35:51
about the, you know, the players and their development, you know,
35:55
on and off the field and I mean the whole staff does but you
35:59
know, in terms of these guys, you know, they're very smart
36:02
coaches, you know there they know.
36:04
They're doing core. Nelson is kind of, you know I
36:10
would say more like laid back at that makes sense.
36:16
What do you what do you like talks to the you know offensive
36:19
unit on like Sunday meetings? He was like all right men you
36:22
know we had a good game or bad game this week, you know, he
36:27
puts it on himself and like he'll take the bullets, you
36:31
know, like every coach should and But you know, they work so
36:36
hard and you know, I appreciate both of them a lot and but, you
36:43
know, when when coach corn gets mad like, he'll raise some hell
36:50
but you know, but vices, you know, that constant, you know,
36:55
fired up Mojo and he's got the haircut and the bad words,
36:59
having the sunglasses, he's fired up, whether he's yelling
37:03
at, you're joking with. Yeah, oh yeah.
37:07
You just want to talk about, you know, Vice off the Record, you
37:11
know about some I got some great stories but taking you up on
37:16
that by the way, great source of advice and but yeah like Corners
37:24
a little bit more Bill Belichick like in terms of like talking
37:28
town but then he'll also you know get after you chew you out,
37:33
you know if If you mess up but yeah they're both great coaches
37:37
and you know, they bring their, you know, own style and
37:41
personality, you know, and I think it's kind of good to have
37:45
different kinds of personality. You know, different ways of
37:48
coaching to the team. So yeah, I mean great coaches
37:55
but, you know, two different personalities in my opinion.
37:59
Gotcha, that makes sense to, I mean we kind of get that but you
38:03
know, not having quite seen as much of of Coach cornelison.
38:07
He's kind of good to you know, give fans and things like that.
38:10
So much some other perspectives there.
38:12
So that's why you wanted to touch on that a little bit.
38:15
Let's pivot a little bit too little bit more about you.
38:19
You know, you kind of came to. You came to Virginia Tech as a
38:22
preferred walk-on, but you earned a scholarship while you
38:24
were in Blacksburg. What was that feeling like when
38:28
coach? Let you know you were
38:29
Scholarship athlete. I mean, I mean it's probably the
38:35
most like achieving thing I've ever done in my athletic career.
38:41
You know, I was, you know, under recruited you know basically for
38:46
my height like I'm only 62. You know I never really
38:51
understood You know, why the height thing was a huge issue?
38:59
And when, when I was in the recruiting process, you know,
39:02
I'm looking at the depth charts of like every school that was
39:05
interested in. I saw Tech, you know, they had
39:09
killed fairs college and are Gallo where they're like, 6263
39:13
guys and I'm like, okay, like if text says I'm too short, then I
39:17
know that's complete bullshit, you know?
39:22
And so, you know, that's That's where I really what I got.
39:25
And, you know, I got a scholarship offer to JMU both in
39:31
that kind of blew up. And that's a whole different
39:34
story with itself. But then Shane Boomer Shane.
39:38
Beamer recruited me and you know, gave me the fur walk-on
39:41
spot. And you know, obviously I knew
39:43
that Tech had a good history with Walk-Ons and rewarding them
39:47
for hard work and you know, and being talented and getting out
39:51
there on the field and you know, heads again, you know, my boss
39:54
Sam Rogers. You know, it was an example of
39:57
that it wasn't on there very long but, you know, so I do
40:03
that. Like I had a shot, right?
40:06
But then I was at for Union and Beamer retires and then Here
40:12
Comes This coach for Memphis who I do nothing about, you know,
40:19
and so I was with one day since day one.
40:22
I mean, talking about like, January 2016.
40:25
Like I was wouldn't like day one and you know, Chicago on that
40:30
Journey with him and that staff. And you know, I gave everything
40:34
I had and I knew I was like if I do get it one day, like the
40:37
trains not going to stop like I'm not going to be satisfied.
40:41
Yeah. There's more things on my
40:43
checklist that I need to check off and but that was like the
40:47
number-one thing and you know, it was towards the end to camp.
40:54
I want to say 2019 and, you know, I'm kind of out of it, you
40:58
know, it was a long day and, you know, we're about to break out
41:03
of this team meeting and basically, kind of just close
41:08
camp and he said, I need is Shand, you know, Caleb Smith and
41:16
Austin, canon in my office. And initially, I'm thinking,
41:20
hold up. When you get Calling to the
41:24
coach's office. It's usually not a good thing,
41:28
you know, most of the time. It's not a good thing.
41:30
So I'm like, what did I do? I don't know what I did.
41:34
There was a kind of anxiety that kind of, you know, Panic for a
41:38
quick second and then he paused and then he said to sign your
41:42
scholarships and the whole team team meeting room erupted.
41:46
And you know, I'm getting swamped by a bunch of teammates
41:50
and hugs and high-fives and you know it took me a little bit to
41:54
kind of realize and process like what the hell is going on.
41:58
And you know, when I sat down in front of flint and his office to
42:02
sign a piece of paper, I mean the pain was just shaking my
42:07
hand because I'm like holy crap. I cannot believe I'm doing this
42:11
because when I had my little Signing Day you know his head
42:15
like a Word document saying like I was going to Virginia Tech and
42:18
like just signed it for the photo op and all that stuff but
42:22
to actually Lee, do it for real? I mean, I was like, pinch me, I
42:29
think I'm Dreaming right now and you know it was you know my
42:35
parents were on their 25th wedding anniversary vacation now
42:40
in St. Martin and somehow someway I got
42:44
a hold of them and you know I just broke down crying in my
42:47
car, you know? And they couldn't believe it and
42:53
you know, it just it was surreal it was a surreal moment.
42:57
And you know I'll never forget it.
42:59
Well I'm sitting here thinking about he says is Canon Caleb
43:03
going to be in my office like how long did he wait?
43:07
Like that's your the there was a pregnant pause.
43:11
Yeah. Like it was probably just solid
43:14
like close to like 10 seconds, you know.
43:19
Like it was like I mean it could have been shorter but when you
43:23
hear your name called you know that again like that.
43:27
Panic sets in and what did I do? Yeah, long pauses longer than
43:32
you think or, you know, then it actually was and and then he
43:36
said it and I mean, it was it was awesome like it was awesome.
43:43
That's all. Alright.
43:45
So we're going to do a couple little fun questions here.
43:48
The first one is real simple. Yes or no.
43:50
Answer two words. Tots rails.
43:56
Yes. Yeah, there we go.
44:00
Now, man. Yes.
44:01
But for, for my rookies out there, to all my young Hoagies,
44:07
we were just turning 21, you have two things to do, all
44:11
right? When you turn 21 the first
44:13
place, you go to his tights. The first thing you order is a
44:18
rail and I should say, three third thing, don't get too many
44:23
of those. Oh no.
44:25
Oh no! No, no, no.
44:28
You know, I love me some Jack Daniels.
44:33
But, you know, hey, nice toss rail.
44:36
Would, you know, would be nice right now, too.
44:40
So yeah. Yes, to Todd's rails be smart.
44:43
And that's the first thing you go.
44:45
To when you turn 21, Todd's rails will sneak up on you.
44:49
It will, you do me like, this isn't bad in like I'm doing
44:53
great and all of a sudden boom and Oh okay.
44:59
All right. Well I was drinking this in
45:01
downtown. I got a little sponge leg going
45:03
on. I'm Braun.
45:07
You got a question for ya. So I mean you got well
45:11
acquainted with the restaurants in Blacksburg.
45:13
I'm sure while you were there. What was the go-to spots for
45:17
like the linemen lunches or like the victory, Beals after a big
45:20
win? You know, my senior Year, you
45:26
know me and you know, couple guys, you know, we went to know
45:31
certain places. I know Bull and Bones was one of
45:35
them we had Blacksburg Tavern, that's really good.
45:41
If you haven't been there go there they have some really
45:44
great food. Check that out.
45:46
I've been there yet but It's not but this place though is like
45:54
the holy Mecca. All right, and it's not even in
45:57
Blacksburg, it's like right outside, you know, Home Place.
46:05
RP Homeplace, you know, sucks that they had to close because
46:08
covid but as 0 line, you know, the entire office line we will
46:13
go there, you know, Late July Kylie, right before camp.
46:18
And, you know, it's kind of like, you know, southern comfort
46:22
food Fried Chicken, you know, turkey and mashed potatoes,
46:25
green beans and the roles but it was like endless amount like
46:30
they just kept coming, you know, until you're like okay I'm done.
46:35
And you could just see this the servers and the Cubs and all
46:39
that stuff and like when they know that office of line and
46:41
showed up if they start you know sweating you know it's like all
46:45
gonna be a long next hour and a half.
46:48
Yeah we would actually get the Freshman.
46:52
Oh I'm and it's kind of like a little initiation.
46:55
It will get the bowl of gravy that you important your mashed
46:59
potatoes and each one would have to take like a humongous gulp of
47:03
it, you know, out of them. All so it, you know, our chicken
47:08
gravy like in Super Troopers, they were treated maple syrup.
47:12
Yeah. Yeah.
47:14
So yeah. You know, that that's a, you
47:17
know, a thing that offensive line has done for a long time
47:20
and you know, it's unfortunate that, you know, that police had
47:24
to shut down, you know, because of certain circumstances.
47:28
But yeah, I'm sure they're going to find somewhere else to kind
47:32
of hold that tradition and But yeah, that one for sure is like
47:38
Top Notch. All right, I'm off.
47:41
I don't know if you know about this place you ever been to
47:44
Tanglewood ordinary out and Goochland.
47:46
Hmm, you need to go there because it's almost exactly like
47:50
Homeplace its Southern southern, cooking food?
47:55
Family-style biscuits fried chicken, pork roast green and
48:00
they continuously bring it out to you.
48:04
And they don't stop. So if you need to take your
48:06
often Sublime and I know it might be a hike from
48:08
Mechanicsville angle ordinary, I'm good.
48:13
I recommend it. I've been there several times.
48:16
Um also I want to kind of hit kind of hit some with you here,
48:21
you know, you've been very, very open about, you know, Your
48:27
battles with anxiety depression, end.
48:31
We've seen, you know, Simone biles last week, Naomi Osaka and
48:35
other folks as well, but those two are really brought to life.
48:38
Ton, you know what message do you have for athletes out there
48:42
listening? You know, about who are
48:45
experiencing these mental health issues from your perspective and
48:48
you know what sort of advice would you like to get him?
48:51
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's okay not to be okay.
48:57
You know, there's like this stigma, you know, especially
49:01
with football players, you know, you're you're tough, you showed,
49:04
no, emotion things like that. And I think that's, you know,
49:09
kind of been pushed for as long as football has been around.
49:14
And you know there's been guys that have battled anxiety and
49:17
depression but never really talked about it because they
49:21
were scared or you know they fear that they will be viewed as
49:25
soft. And you know, I always believed
49:29
that, you know, when God made us, you know, he gave us a
49:34
motion, right? He gives the emotion to love to
49:38
grieve to be happy to be sad and if we didn't have those
49:41
emotions, then we would be robots, you know, we're not
49:44
robots. So it's, you know, it's okay not
49:49
to be okay. But, you know, most importantly
49:53
you have to speak up about what you're going through.
49:57
Through, you know, you can't bottle everything up.
49:59
And that's the mistake that I made.
50:02
You know, I had all these huge events kind of happen in such a
50:06
short amount of time that, you know, I just felt like, I
50:11
couldn't handle it, any longer, and I didn't really talk about
50:14
it. And, you know, I try to, you
50:19
know, in my own life and, you know, I think a couple days here
50:22
I think will be the five-year anniversary of that moment, you
50:26
know? I still got the scar on my thigh
50:29
and, you know, it's kind of like a daily reminder of where I've
50:33
been, you know, the lowest point in my life to where I am right
50:38
now. And, you know, I'm very blessed
50:40
to be sitting here with you guys right now because five years
50:44
ago, you know what, if I didn't make it out?
50:50
And so to all those athletes that, you know, have a lot on
50:54
their mind and on their plate, you know, find somebody talk to,
50:59
you know, whether it's your friends, your family, you know,
51:04
they're not going to view you as soft or anything different.
51:08
Right? Because you know, their true
51:10
friend, they're going to care for you.
51:12
No matter what your family is going to support you and love
51:15
you, no matter what. And so you to kind of get this
51:22
snowball going terms of talking about mental health, you know,
51:27
it's a two-way street, you know, the athletes or anybody has to
51:31
go out there and be open about it.
51:34
Be willing to be open about it. And, you know, on the other
51:38
side, you know, if you're a friend or family member and use
51:42
kind of notice, you know, something is kind of off about
51:45
your friend or your family Or, you know, build them like hey,
51:50
are you doing okay, like I'm here for you.
51:55
You know, just be a listening ear, you know, you might not
51:58
have all the answers and the best advice in the world and
52:02
that's totally. Okay, but just be a listening
52:05
ear and, you know, just be, you know, create an environment
52:10
where these people that are struggling mentally, you know,
52:15
have their voices be heard So that's my advice to anyone that
52:21
who's, you know, secretly time, battling mental issues.
52:28
You know, I encourage them to go talk to a family member or
52:32
friend, or even, you know, a counselor therapist and it's,
52:39
you know, for me personally, I think it's a lot better when I
52:43
go and I talk about what I'm feeling.
52:46
What I'm Being in kind of get it off my chest rather than yeah.
52:52
You know what, this, not a big deal to anybody.
52:54
Like, you know, I just keep it to myself because, you know,
52:58
life was going to be hard. You know, the real world is is
53:03
hard. It's cruel.
53:04
It will beat you down to your knees, but you know what's
53:09
worse, is, you know, battling yourself, you know, you versus
53:13
you and, you know, you're going to need that support system.
53:17
Them and that support system is there, you know, but you just
53:21
got to go out there and be willing to you know, use that
53:26
support system. Yeah and I feel like football
53:29
even more so than probably some other sports you know when we
53:32
talk about you know not being okay.
53:35
Like that has always seemed like to be focus on, okay.
53:39
Well you know you need some time because you have an injury, your
53:43
concussed, but you let the mental health aspect.
53:47
Never Really gets talked about the way it should, and I feel
53:50
like that's, that's an unfortunate situation because it
53:52
does kind of condition people to either try to deal with it
53:56
themselves and bottle it up like you were talking about there,
53:59
Mmm. Yeah, you know?
54:04
I think it was just it was hard for me because, you know, I was
54:13
always viewed as that, you know, that tough guy, you know, on the
54:17
field, you know, and, you know, all to feel, you know, I'm a guy
54:22
that can talk to anybody, you know.
54:25
And hang out and you've laid back kind of guy, but, you know,
54:30
I never really talked about my personal issues.
54:34
And, you know, and I regretted that, you know, looking back on,
54:38
I regretted it because then I wouldn't have had that that
54:43
event happened, you know, five years ago and but you know, you
54:48
live and you learn. But you know, I'm glad that
54:54
mental health is being He talked more and more now and you know,
54:58
it it goes beyond, you know, being you know, this stereotype
55:07
of being a tough guy and all that kind of stuff.
55:09
Like your mental health comes first.
55:12
So, you know, I'm glad that this discussion of mental health is
55:17
being brought into the spotlight especially, you know, with all
55:20
that Olympic stuff happening with biles.
55:25
Also, you just said some in. And if that doesn't happen to
55:29
you, five years ago, you want an advocate now, and for someone
55:35
like you who's going into coaching, it's going to be
55:37
around a lot of young people, man.
55:40
I think you're going to have kids, just feel so comfortable
55:43
coming up to you knowing he went through it, he speaks out about
55:47
it. He constantly tells us hey
55:49
something's going on. Come to me.
55:51
I'm your person in dude. It takes a man.
55:58
To talk about the stuff you've talked about and to be so open
56:01
with it and I applaud you too because there's a lot of us not
56:06
strong and I think your influence and you know I'm going
56:10
to say for the whole RBA your coaching up in Hanover but I
56:13
think your story is going to get to other parts of the r-va and
56:17
I'm going to you know I just applaud you man.
56:21
That's a blank. Thank you.
56:23
All right now before we close up here tonight you have some guys
56:27
you want to kind of Shoutout to real quick.
56:29
Yeah, football camps. Yeah, south of Hanover High
56:33
School, man. We're about to get ready to go.
56:37
We're excited to play some football in the fall, not in the
56:40
spring. And here we go back.
56:43
Where it's supposed to be? Yeah.
56:46
And, you know, shout out to my boys, alligator, Burly and Nick
56:49
Clark. You know, they run their own
56:52
sports was Sports Performance. Jim Siege performance in
56:56
Mechanicsville. Right off the 301 behind the
57:00
Wawa and also their Hogs Academy, you know, if you're
57:06
young offensive lineman and you want to get better, go to them,
57:11
you know, they're doing a great job with that and, you know,
57:16
they're the best place for, for then, in our VA.
57:20
So, shout out to them, go to them, get better.
57:26
Awesome, man. Well Austin, we appreciate you
57:30
joining us tonight and that is going to wrap up this episode of
57:34
The Boundary Corner podcast. I'm Curtis Wilson.
57:37
I'm Brian Sigler. Visit our website at boundary
57:41
corner, be t.com and listen to all of our episodes while you're
57:44
there. Don't forget to follow us on
57:45
Twitter, Facebook, subscribe on YouTube to our account.
57:50
Also, so, Props your favorite podcast Spotify, Amazon Apple,
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we are on all of them. If you're looking to join, the
57:58
Hokie club and achieves the reach for excellent campaign.
58:02
Please visit boundary corner be t.com forward slash giving to
58:05
get started is always we let our buddy Jason long down in the nrb
58:10
play as out this weekend Saturday he will be at The
58:13
Grandin Village farmers market. So go check our boys out.
58:18
Catch him on Spotify and apple music as well.
58:22
We thank you all for listening and watching tonight and as
58:25
always let's go Hokies