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Michael Washington Interview · The Jake Wimberly Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, gentleman time and back to the afternoon
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  Speaker 1: Let them help you today. We're a Germantown. Today the
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  Speaker 1: high school football road Tour continues as it's Mavericksdale on
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  Speaker 1: your radio. Michael Washington. He is the defensive coordinator here
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  Speaker 1: for the mavericks This is year number six. He is
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  Speaker 1: sitting to my left. We appreciate his time today. Coach Washington,
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  Speaker 1: how are you.
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  Speaker 2: I'm good man, I'm glad to be here.
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  Speaker 1: Appreciate your time. You said you grew up a military guy,
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  Speaker 1: played some football or played a lot of football at
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  Speaker 1: West Lauderdale before some college football here in the state.
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you, you know that Lauderdale County area. And
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  Speaker 1: I've always said this, when you take the state of
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  Speaker 1: Mississippi and you break it up, you could do it
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  Speaker 1: about five different states, right, because the coast is different
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  Speaker 1: than Hattiesburg and the Pine Belt. The Lauderdale area is
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  Speaker 1: different than North Mississippi. But there's some good football over
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  Speaker 1: there Lauderdaleay, that is true.
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  Speaker 2: That is true.
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  Speaker 4: It's hard nose over there, right, So you know they're
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  Speaker 4: blue collar over there in Lauderdale County. And when growing up,
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  Speaker 4: it was just more of you get there and you
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  Speaker 4: grind every single day, right, Nothing flashy, nothing pretty.
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  Speaker 2: It was hard noseball.
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  Speaker 1: So speaking of hard noseball, you guys are doing it
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  Speaker 1: here at Germantown. I'm always blown away. The facility look amazing,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Germantown. It's hard to believe fifteen seasons is
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  Speaker 1: all that's played right here, and it feels like Germantown's
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  Speaker 1: been here forever. One of the better projects here. And
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  Speaker 1: when I say projects, I'm talking about bringing new school together,
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  Speaker 1: putting everything together. Administration talk a little bit about that.
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  Speaker 1: You've been here almost half that time now, right, six years,
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  Speaker 1: watching it grow and being a part of that.
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  Speaker 2: It's been outstanding.
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  Speaker 4: From Coach Perry who just retired, he did a great
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  Speaker 4: job of loving on our athletics and our coaches, and
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  Speaker 4: Coach Mitchell's just continuing that now he's the ad here
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  Speaker 4: and our booster club.
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  Speaker 2: They take really good care of us.
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  Speaker 4: We just got a new weight room and just the
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  Speaker 4: materials and the things that they give the kids. We're
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  Speaker 4: a seven A program, right, so we're gonna look like
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  Speaker 4: we're a seven A program.
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  Speaker 2: We want to be top notch.
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  Speaker 4: We want to be top tier and we tell the
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  Speaker 4: kids that all the time, like they're really really blessed.
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  Speaker 4: They take care of us here. And just watching everything
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  Speaker 4: develop and grow in the six years that I've been
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  Speaker 4: here has been phenomenal.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know Coach Mitchell, who will have on before
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  Speaker 1: we get to the end of the program. And when
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  Speaker 1: I say Coach Mitchell talking about the staff, come through
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  Speaker 1: the weight room earlier, a beautiful weight room. I believe
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  Speaker 1: you guys. I was told switch to Nike this year
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  Speaker 1: we did. Uh so, uh, you know the Nike apparel.
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  Speaker 1: Now the field, I mean it is a I mean
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  Speaker 1: you can go around the state. You're not going to
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  Speaker 1: find a better group of facilities. And what you guys
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  Speaker 1: are doing the right here.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely, absolutely when coach Mitchell toldas we were switching the Nike,
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  Speaker 4: you could have told the kids' face. Coaches were excited,
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  Speaker 4: everybody was excited. But we're just we're just excited for
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  Speaker 4: the kids and ready to see them play and ready
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  Speaker 4: to get some action.
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  Speaker 1: We're rising with the coach Michael Washington, he is the
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  Speaker 1: defensive coordinator. Here for the Germantown Mavericks Tuesday edition of
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  Speaker 1: the program. Right, let's talk a little football.
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  Speaker 2: You guys.
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  Speaker 1: You know, a good year last year playing what I
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  Speaker 1: consider you know, I've always said for the last ten years,
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  Speaker 1: prior to last year, two years Region three seven A
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  Speaker 1: formerly six A was the toughest. Now I think it's
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  Speaker 1: where you guys sit and reside with. Absolutely Oxford formerly
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  Speaker 1: two below. You know, Tuopelau moves to one seven A
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  Speaker 1: last year, but Oxford, you guys, Madison Central, Clinton Murra's
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  Speaker 1: back in seven A. It is a meat grinder, and
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  Speaker 1: you know, there's gonna be odds. Are a good team
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  Speaker 1: misses the playoffs out of this region.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
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  Speaker 4: You look in the past, you know, Startville, they kind
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  Speaker 4: of was at the bottom and then they wound up
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  Speaker 4: making a run to the state championship. And one of
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  Speaker 4: the things we tell the kids all the time is, hey,
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  Speaker 4: we're playing hard nose football against great teams every single
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  Speaker 4: Friday night, and you look up and anything could happen.
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  Speaker 4: Just play hard every night. And let's let's see what
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  Speaker 4: we follow at the end of this thing, you.
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  Speaker 2: Know what I mean.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Look, if you're starting with yellowjacket, I didn't leave
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  Speaker 1: you off list intentionally. I didn't even get through the list.
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  Speaker 1: I mean with coach Morgan now over at Startful, they're
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  Speaker 1: gonna be a handful as well. Take us through what
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  Speaker 1: you got coming back this year defensively and kind of
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  Speaker 1: you're you know, kind of through the lens of your
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  Speaker 1: eyes how you perceive defense. That's a defensive coordinator.
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  Speaker 4: So we are you're really young this year. We got
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  Speaker 4: some good athletes. We lost about I'm gonna say nine
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  Speaker 4: nine guys. We got a safety coming back and a
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  Speaker 4: cornerback that's Christian Mumford and Salomon Cameron great ball players.
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  Speaker 4: We're really excited that they're back. All of our other
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  Speaker 4: guys and all our other spots where seniors. So we're
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  Speaker 4: in the process now of just kind of we have
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  Speaker 4: the right pieces and putting everybody in the right seat
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  Speaker 4: so we can get that bus in the right direction.
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  Speaker 4: But man, it's simple for us. On defense, it's it
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  Speaker 4: is hard nose. And you hear me saying that a lot,
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  Speaker 4: because that's honestly what I believe when it comes from
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  Speaker 4: a defensive standpoint, it's hard nose tackling, playing with relentless pursuit.
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  Speaker 4: And that's what we teach our guys. It's not anything flashy,
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  Speaker 4: it's not anything complicated. Can we get lined up, can
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  Speaker 4: you do your job, and can you get there with
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  Speaker 4: vil the intentions when you get to the ball. It's
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  Speaker 4: simple for us and that's what we that's what we
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  Speaker 4: try to teach them. So that's kind of how I
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  Speaker 4: see that thing.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I hear a lot of defensive coordinators or
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  Speaker 1: you know, and I know theoretically in theory it would
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  Speaker 1: be great and a lot of a lot of coaches
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  Speaker 1: are doing it. You guys are probably doing some of
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  Speaker 1: this here is where you can line up pre snap,
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  Speaker 1: you move post snap. You do do something different in
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  Speaker 1: the secondary, your coverage is different. Maybe you're doing a twist,
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  Speaker 1: you're doing something fancy up front. But a lot of
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  Speaker 1: coaches are saying, hey, look, we just want our guys
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  Speaker 1: to line up and we don't want to make it
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  Speaker 1: too hard for them. We don't want them to overthink it.
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  Speaker 1: We want to we want to let them play ball.
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  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, absolutely, So that's the deal, right, you want
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  Speaker 4: you want to have a baseline, you want to set
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  Speaker 4: your foundation.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, this is who we are, this is what we do.
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  Speaker 4: Once the kids get really really comfortable with that and
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  Speaker 4: they're confident and they can do it until not. The
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  Speaker 4: way we think about it is it's not until you
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  Speaker 4: can do it right. It's till you can't do it
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  Speaker 4: wrong right. And when you get to that point, now
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  Speaker 4: we can start putting twists and games and disguising coverage
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  Speaker 4: and sending black backers from one side and bailing on
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  Speaker 4: the other side. So there's a foundation to it. So
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  Speaker 4: you have to start somewhere. If you start there, it's
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  Speaker 4: gonna be hard to really figure out where you're good at.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 4: But when you start with your foundation and know who
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  Speaker 4: you are, and then add the twist and the loops
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  Speaker 4: and all that stuff to the back end. That's when
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  Speaker 4: it starts to get really fun. And watching your kids
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  Speaker 4: just develop and understand what's going on in front of them,
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  Speaker 4: it's it's a beauty.
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  Speaker 1: How hard is it today in twenty twenty six to
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  Speaker 1: teach tackling? You know, because we know, I mean the
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  Speaker 1: National Football League, you know this, they don't take guys
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  Speaker 1: to the ground much. I mean they're not in full
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  Speaker 1: pads a whole lot. They are early in camp. You
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  Speaker 1: guys are in full pads, but it's not like it
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  Speaker 1: used to be. Probably when you played as well. There's
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  Speaker 1: probably a little more contact when you were coming through
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  Speaker 1: West Lauderdale today.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely, So one of the things that we try to
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  Speaker 4: do is we try to tell our kids all the time,
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  Speaker 4: you know, keep your head up, see what you're hitting right,
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  Speaker 4: hit what you see and number one, wrap up and
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  Speaker 4: just drive. It's hard because you, like you said, you
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  Speaker 4: have all these rules in the league about knee dropping
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  Speaker 4: and gator rolling and all this kind of stuff.
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  Speaker 2: I'm gonna be honest with you. From a defensive.
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  Speaker 4: Perspective, I want you to close the space. I want
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  Speaker 4: you to get your head across to protect yourself. I
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  Speaker 4: want you to wrap up with your head up, and
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  Speaker 4: I want you to run your feet. If you do
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  Speaker 4: all those things, you can keep yourself safe along with
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  Speaker 4: everybody else around you that's playing. If you come in
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  Speaker 4: there flying with your head down, you gonna get hurt
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  Speaker 4: and you can run the risk of hurting some of
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  Speaker 4: your players or anybody else that's on the field. And
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  Speaker 4: we want to play football with violent physical intentions, but
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  Speaker 4: as safe as possible.
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  Speaker 1: What's the hardest position defensively to coach today?
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  Speaker 4: Ooh, that's a tough one from my perspective, I'm gonna
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  Speaker 4: have to say, DB's when it comes to you know
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  Speaker 4: what you're asking from your right. So we run a
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  Speaker 4: lot of stuff where we're wanting to get the safeties
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  Speaker 4: in the run support, but we're also telling them what
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  Speaker 4: they got to play pass first, right, so and they
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  Speaker 4: sometimes they get it mixed up. They think they're run
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  Speaker 4: support first and they can play the past second, where
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  Speaker 4: then they're getting beat behind their head and it's like, well, coach,
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  Speaker 4: you know you told me this and this. Well, at
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  Speaker 4: the end of the day, I think when it comes
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  Speaker 4: to playing dB. You just got to be able to
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  Speaker 4: You got to be able to read and react.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 4: We give our guys two steps and you got to
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  Speaker 4: make a decision. If it's past go, if it's run, go,
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  Speaker 4: but don't go to you know, so when you tell
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  Speaker 4: them all that, they kind of get it all mixed
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  Speaker 4: up sometime. But it just comes from repetition for those guys, right,
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  Speaker 4: Once they do it over and over and over again,
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  Speaker 4: it's natural for them.
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  Speaker 1: And I would assume high school level as well. We
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  Speaker 1: see it in college on Saturdays. We see in the
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  Speaker 1: NFL on Sundays. The rules are governed. And I gotta
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: be careful saying this because I'm not talking negatively about
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  Speaker 1: officials at all or they mhs say or anything to
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  Speaker 1: that nature. I think it's across the board. The game
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  Speaker 1: is geared to the offense, right, so absolutely they sit
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  Speaker 1: tough on a guy when knowing when to grab and
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  Speaker 1: to chuck and to move and all that stuff.
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  Speaker 4: We get on the all the time and we're sitting
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  Speaker 4: there talking myself, Coach Mitchell, the rest of our coaches.
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  Speaker 4: We're just talking on the board and Coach Mitchell tells
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  Speaker 4: me all the time, you chose the wrong side of
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  Speaker 4: the ball to coach and I'm the first time he
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  Speaker 4: told me that, I'm like, what are you talking about?
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  Speaker 4: He was like, well, I hold the pen last for everything,
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  Speaker 4: and I was like, you know what, you got a point.
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  Speaker 2: But you're absolutely right.
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  Speaker 4: It's all kind of geared to protect the offense and
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  Speaker 4: it makes sense to a certain extent.
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  Speaker 2: But at some times, you know.
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  Speaker 4: The stuff that the defense does, whether it's you know,
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  Speaker 4: passing adference or if it's rough in the passer, you
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  Speaker 4: can tell the difference between it being intentional to hurt
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  Speaker 4: and it's just not intentional, Like we're just playing so fast,
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  Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And I think it's getting
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: better at determining what's what. But another thing, like with targeting,
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  Speaker 4: targeting is very in my opinion, it's very easy to
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  Speaker 4: tell you come with your head down, you're targeting, and
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  Speaker 4: that's simple. And whether you do it intentionally or unintentionally.
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  Speaker 4: If you're doing it intentionally, well that's a that's a problem.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 4: If you're doing it unintentionally, now you're putting yourself at
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  Speaker 4: a risk of being injured along with whoever it is
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  Speaker 4: that you're tackling.
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  Speaker 2: So you're right, I mean it's geared to the offense.
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  Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, we sign up
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  Speaker 4: to coach defense, so we're gonna do what we gotta.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Do and still got to win play defensive win championship.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Here. There you go. Defense wins your championships for sure.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: He is Michael Washington, defensive coordinator here at Germantown. Coach Washington. Hey,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: look man, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: for jumping in with us.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Today, no problem, Thank you for having me really excited
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: that you're here.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you so much. We're brought to you
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