Latest / The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network / Press Pass | Jaguars' New RB Chris Rodriguez Jr. on Liam Coen, Signing w/ Jax

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Press Pass | Jaguars' New RB Chris Rodriguez Jr. on Liam Coen, Signing w/ Jax · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We'll go ahead and start with Demetrius, followed by Mark, Hey, Chris, congrats,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and welcome to Jacksonville. Just how quickly did this all
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: come together for you guys and why Jacksonville?
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, how quickly it came about?
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Honestly, you know, I talked to my agent probably early
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: in the day. What was it two days ago, I
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: guess you would say, and he's like, yo, you know,
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: just stay by your phone at four o'clock, you know,
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: you never know.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, all right, that's cool. And then.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Four fifteen, I was actually bored in the plane we
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: were flying in Virginia, and man, my phone was blowing
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: up at I think four to ten, my phone's blowing up.
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: Agents calling me, Liam was calling me, and uh, you know,
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: it just like it happened. It all happened so fast,
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: you know, before I even touched down. My agent's like, hey,
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: we we just agreed the terms with Jacksonville Jaguars.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: So I'm like, all right, let's do it. Man, I'm
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: so excited.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: And uh, as far as to like why Jacksonville, I
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: think you know it's it's it's an opportunity. I feel
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: like it was gonna be the best opportunity for me.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: Uh you know, I know Liam and he knows me,
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: and I know the type of standard he expects, and
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: I feel like we can get that done.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Appreciate it, yes, sir, Hey Chris, how are you? Hey?
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I'm doing good. How are you, Martin?
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: What take me through your relationship with Liam? I know
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: you guys only spent the one year together, but what
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: did you learn about each other? And how excited are
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: you to be in his offense?
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, for sure.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Honestly, when Liam got to Kentucky, he had to be
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: one of my favorite coaches up until that point. You know,
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: obviously I have high school coaches who I'm like super
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: close with, but you know, when I got to with
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Liam and uh my running back coach at the time,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: and those guys were amazing, you know, and I.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Feel like that whole time.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: I guess you you could say it was only a year,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: but man, it felt like a lifetime knowing that guy.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: You know, got cool with.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Him and uh miss Ashley his wife, uh man, And honestly, man,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: they're good people and uh, you know what I learned
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: about Liam is a you know, he knows who you are,
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: he knows your best self. And once you show it
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: to him, he expects nothing, nothing less.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: And then he's he said previously about you can catch
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: the ball out of the backfield, they just didn't ask.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: You to do that.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Is that like kind of maybe a little bit of
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: a secret weapon that you've got that you haven't been
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: able to show in your knowledge and pro career.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: No, I wouldn't say it's like a secret weapon.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I mean, you got Hey, ask any of my coaches
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: that I've been around, they would tell you, like, I
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: can catch the ball. At Kentucky, it just we had
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: another running back who was maybe be a little better
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: at running routes or had a little more speech. So,
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: you know, they never asked me to actually do it.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: But you know, I feel like I can catch I
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: can run routes. Might not be as clean as some
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: of the other guys, but I definitely can run routes
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: and catch the ball.
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: Thank you, row D Rock and then Alessandra, Hey, Chris, congrats, Hey,
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: thank you what you said you really liked dealing with Liam.
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: What was your first moment with Liam, like and did
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: you kind of realize at that point this guy's a
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: little bit different.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, first moment with Limb well, I'll tell you so
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: at Kentucky, our offensive coordinator was actually the running backs coach,
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: So it was already different from that perspective. You know,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: we don't We had a coach who was coaching us
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: and you know, staying in the room, and then we
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: would go to offense and being and then we have
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: Liam who's coaching everybody.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: You know Liam Man. The first interaction, he honestly just
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: he seemed cool.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: It was easy to click with him. You didn't have
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: to force a conversation with him.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: And if he saw you like it was just like
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: a conversation. He'll stop, have a conversation with you, talked
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: to you, ask how everybody's going? Man, it was it
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: was I say, it was an experience man. And then uh,
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: I think he I think he only got like upset
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: with the Kentucky team like a few times. But you know,
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: you hate to see that side of him come out,
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: but that's just him, like, uh, coaching you hard.
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: What is it about the way he calls plays or
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: the way he runs the offense that sets him apart?
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Do you think? Yeah?
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Uh, man, he just he he wants to see everybody shine.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: You know, it's not all one sided. You know, when
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: I was at Kentucky like crazy story. Uh, we were
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: playing some some like you know.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Low level school or whatever it is.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: You know, you do those little games that the get
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: another year. And you know, we had our quarterback who
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: had one hundred and something. We had a receiver who
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: and we had two receivers that went for one hundred
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: and I had like ninety yards or something like that.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: And Liam comes up to me. He's like, Hey, you're
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: gonna go inside. You're gonna go in and you're gonna
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: get a hundred yards, Like you better go do it.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: On two plays or that's all. That's all you got.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: So first play, I think I only had one yard,
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: but the second play, you know, I end up getting
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: I think probably like a twenty yard game.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: I think it's New Mexico State maybe it was.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: But man, after that, he's like, it's like, damn appreciate that, man,
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. Uh So, yeah, I feel
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: like his offense is kind of is well rounded.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: You know, he wants he uh he.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: Expects efficiency, and you know he wants everybody showing at
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: the end of the day.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Awesome, thank you, thank you.
• 5:57
  Speaker 6: It's welcome. To Jacksonville.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: I'm wondering are do you Are you friendly with any
• 6:02
  Speaker 6: of the Jaguars players? Have you talked to them since?
• 6:05
  Speaker 6: I know it seems like you just gotten into town
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: this morning.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Yes, I just got.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: Here today or I guess last night. You would say,
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: talk to him. Uh, No, I haven't really talked to
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: I haven't talked to any of them yet. I would say,
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: you know, I played at Kentucky with Josh for one year.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: I haven't text him yet. And then there's uh one
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: of the tight ends who actually trains where I train
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: at in.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Georgia, Uh Man, I forget his name. Britain, Yeah, Britain.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: So he trains in Georgia where I'm at. And you know,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: I've talked to him a few times, just you know,
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: out catching whatever we were doing.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: But other than that, I haven't really talked to anybody else.
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: But then after seeing you know, the Jaguars this past season,
• 7:05
  Speaker 6: with William going into a second year and you know
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: the rest of the team, you know, how do you
• 7:11
  Speaker 6: what opportunity do you look at as as the team
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: tries to progress and add to their success from this
• 7:17
  Speaker 6: past season.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean just clicking with those running backs, I
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: would say, you know, figuring out what it is that
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: can help make us more efficient or not even just
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: as a running back, but as an offensive standpoint. You know,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: that's a conversation that we have with the guys and
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: going into the season, we'll figure out what we need
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: and how can we improve. You know, it's gonna be
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: a it's gonna be a competition every day with those guys.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: You know, that's one thing I like to do. We
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: like to compete.
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: So you know, I feel like it's gonna be a
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: fun process.
• 7:54
  Speaker 6: And if I could just get one more. You have
• 7:56
  Speaker 6: two we're ironing backs, are going to their second year
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: that had quite a bit production this past season. So
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: as an older guy in the room, even though you're
• 8:05
  Speaker 6: so young, but how do you see your role especially
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: with those two younger guys?
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, just I guess just being one of
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: those dudes that they can they can call upon, you know,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: if they have any questions about anything, now I'm here
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: to answer them. You know, I know these guys were
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: in great hands before with another veteran in in the
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: locker room or in the room actually, and uh, you know,
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: now going into Liam's second season. You know, I know
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: he's he's done well with them as well.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: All right, we'll end with John Shipley.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for doing this, Chris, congratulations again. You know,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: obviously you know you have your time and experience with
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Liam a Kentucky. Are you excited now to kind of
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: see him from the head coach linehich is kind of
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: seeing how he commands the entire locker room, entire team.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I actually am, you know, And I was just
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: talking to him about it being at Kentucky. He was
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: for one year, then he left my last year and
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: I told him, Man, I told him I.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Had beef for him.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: But now that's my guy. Man, I'm I'm excited for him,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: especially going in his second year. I mean, he was Kentucky,
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: then he went to the Rams and back to Kentucky
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: and now to being uh A head coach going into
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: his second year. Man, great guy, he deserves it all man.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Thanks Christen, Yeah, thank you