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The Season with Peter Schrager is a production

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of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.

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What's Up, Everybody, Welcome to another episode

0:25

of the Season with Peter Scheger.

0:27

Beyond excited for this week's guest.

0:30

We're having Dave Canalis, who is

0:32

the new head coach of the Carolina Panthers. I've

0:34

gotten to know Dave a little bit over the last couple

0:36

of years, but I'd be lying if I said

0:38

I was tight with him back when he was a quality

0:41

control coach in Sea Adelie knew. I met

0:43

AZUSA Pacific kind

0:45

of got on my radar the last few years

0:48

when he took a bigger role with the Seahawks.

0:50

That was in Tampa Bay now is in Carolina.

0:52

I think this is a very different interview

0:55

than we've done in that Dave

0:57

really took the long road in the NFL

1:00

and wore a lot of hats and then

1:02

has had sudden success in the last couple of years.

1:04

Once given these opportunities, we're

1:06

gonna bring Dave on in a bit. He's taken

1:09

over the worst team in football, and

1:11

his job is to instill confidence into those

1:13

guys and to somehow build back up

1:15

a quarterback who was everybody'sa's

1:18

unanimous first overall pick, and Bryce Young

1:20

and then c J. Stroud had one of the greatest rookie

1:23

seasons ever. Well, Bryce had one of the worst rookie

1:25

seasons ever. And now it's Canalis's

1:27

job to come in and say, hey, almost

1:30

a Robin Williams to the Matt

1:32

Damon and Goodwill hunting like it's not

1:34

your fault, you know, like bringing him in. You

1:38

hear the laughter of Aaron wan Kaufman,

1:40

my producer, Aaron A

1:42

couple of things I wanted to hit on before we get to

1:45

Dave one. Can

1:47

I talk about JJ Reddick for a second.

1:50

Yes, yeah, Are you thinking you

1:52

know your next step is going to be a coach in

1:54

an LA team?

1:55

Now, I didn't. I didn't play

1:57

basketball, so I don't think it ever coached. I never

2:00

played, I never coached in my forties.

2:02

I don't think being a head coach of an

2:04

NFL team is ever in my future. I just talked

2:06

to a lot of coaches, but I

2:09

do kind of like JJ's

2:12

edge and JJ using

2:14

the.

2:15

F bomb of times

2:18

multiple drops.

2:19

Yeah, let me go back in time

2:21

a little bit here with JJ Reddick.

2:23

Obviously, played at Duke, that

2:26

you loved him or you hated him. Most people hated him because

2:29

he was the kid from Duke. And he

2:31

followed in a long line

2:33

of whether it be Christian Latner

2:36

or Wojahowski or

2:39

Cherokee Parks or Eric Meek. And then

2:42

here's JJ Reddick, the sharpshooter from

2:44

Virginia, plays for Duke, and he has this great career

2:46

at Duke and gets drafted in the first

2:48

round of the NBA, has a pretty

2:50

good year or two with the Orlando Magic,

2:52

then bounces around a bit and then like really establishes

2:55

himself as like a great NBA

2:57

veteran player to have on your team, but never the superstar.

3:00

Right, fifteen years in the league.

3:03

About four years

3:05

ago, I'm at the ferry

3:08

in Dumbo. If

3:10

you're not from Brooklyn, here's the deal. Brooklyn

3:13

has all these different parts and Dumbo

3:16

is down under the Manhattan

3:18

Bridge. Is what it's called overpass, I

3:20

guess that's what it is, Dumbo, right, And there's a

3:22

ferry pick up, and the ferry can

3:25

take you to anywhere from Wall

3:27

Street to East thirty fourth Street,

3:30

and it could take you the other way to bait Ridge

3:32

or you can go to Williamsburg, North South whatever,

3:35

and it's basically a boat ride.

3:37

It's two dollars and it's

3:40

beautiful. You're on the open sea

3:42

in New York and you're going place to place, and it's

3:44

a lot of people do that to go to different

3:46

parts of New York City. I

3:49

have a four year old son at a

3:51

time. It's early, it's

3:54

like a Saturday morning, and if you're a

3:56

father at home, you know,

3:58

like the energy from these kids is just,

4:01

you know, unlimited. I go to the ferry

4:04

to just do something with my son Mail

4:06

and we're going to ride a boat today. And

4:08

there's one other dad there with his son

4:10

who's the same age, and it's JJ

4:13

Reddick. And I go

4:15

up to him because here I am big time sports

4:17

personality. Maybe he knows who I am. He doesn't know who the hell

4:19

I am. That's fine. I introduced

4:21

myself. He introduced himself. We get on the

4:23

ferry, we talk a little bit. Our kids

4:25

are you know, mixing it or whatever? And I'm like, so,

4:28

Brooklyn, like you play for the Sixers. So he's

4:30

like, I love Brooklyn. I love raising

4:32

my family here. I love the culture.

4:35

I love the fact that it's different people intersecting

4:37

at any you know corner. I love the fact that I can raise my

4:39

kids in an area like this, and you

4:42

know, I'm like, Okay, that's that's an interesting

4:44

dude. Like that's a guy who is choosing

4:46

to live and raise kids in like New York City, and he's

4:48

talking about he just loves, you know, the

4:51

being anonymous here and being able to walk around.

4:53

But also they really dig

4:56

living in Brooklyn. And I'm like, that's cool. So do

4:58

I put that in the backshelf,

5:00

don't think about it. Whatever. A few

5:02

years later, my son is playing in

5:04

a like a rec basketball league as a si year

5:06

old, and I feel like my son's at a pretty

5:08

good level. And they're still

5:10

doing, you know, dribble the ball

5:13

around cones and here's a

5:15

spoon and an egg and let's try to like do

5:17

a race. It wasn't let's break

5:19

down the two three zone or the one three one press,

5:21

which is what I'm looking for already in my life.

5:24

And someone tells me that, hey, JJ

5:26

Reddick just started this thing called the

5:28

Brooklyn Basketball Academy, where

5:31

his kids are obviously playing, but

5:33

it's taking kids from all over

5:36

Tribeca Brooklyn and

5:39

all over New York City, and it's kids from

5:41

all backgrounds and he's put them in and he's

5:43

giving them real coaching at a young age.

5:45

And one of the interesting parts about it was a lot

5:47

of these coaches were Eastern

5:50

European and I'm like, this is really

5:52

interesting. I'm like, what is that, and like, well,

5:54

the way they coach basketball

5:56

in Eastern Europe and you're thinking about Luca

5:59

and Djoki, it's you don't just do

6:02

a set shot with two feet and look at

6:04

the basket. You're doing off balance or

6:07

you're coming off screens. And they're teaching these

6:09

kids this at five, six, seven

6:11

years old and they do the ginobilie,

6:13

the step and all this stuff. And I'm like, Okay,

6:16

this is innovative. This is innovative

6:18

because I've been to a lot of camps and all

6:20

this stuff, and it's the same stuff. We're gonna play

6:22

red Rover, we're gonna get

6:24

in layup lines, we're gonna teach you how to do a proper layup.

6:27

And JJ's

6:29

hired all these Eastern European coaches who are like very

6:31

good, and it's

6:34

him at the top, and it's all these other guys and you

6:36

come to practice and it's not we're

6:38

gonna play tag on a basketball court, or

6:40

instead it's we're gonna pass

6:43

the ball and screen away and then you're gonna come off

6:45

a screen, or you're gonna shoot the ball off one dribble

6:47

go. It was real coaching. Now

6:50

you're rolling your eyes at home and saying, are you seriously

6:52

talking about your seven year old son.

6:55

No, I'm talking about taking

6:58

a landscape youth basketball

7:01

in his neighborhood and saying this

7:03

is missing, and why don't we do

7:06

it this and do it in a more innovative

7:08

way. My son Melon has been in

7:10

this Brooklyn basketball academy for two years. He's

7:12

not going to play in the NBA, but I will

7:14

tell you he has just improved

7:17

so greatly over just two years. And

7:20

it hasn't been from JJ Reddick's coaching. He's not

7:22

there. It's his coach is that he's employed.

7:26

JJ did coach one of the teams one time

7:29

against my son. My son had a big shot and like kind

7:31

of like rubbed it in his face and I was like, Okay, see

7:33

it's chill with that, Mel, Like we don't need to do that. And JJ

7:36

was cool about it, but the

7:38

doubters, the haters, the critics,

7:41

like just knowing him a little bit, I

7:43

wasn't surprised that he came out guns

7:45

blazing, and I don't think he's going to be this like podcaster

7:48

coach that people think. I

7:50

think this is someone who wants to serve.

7:53

This is somebody who wants to do this.

7:55

This is somebody who said in his press conference yesterday

7:57

that in the last few years of

8:01

the NBA career his greatest

8:03

thrills was just working with those young guys

8:05

and getting the best out of them and passing

8:08

on his wisdom. I'm excited for JJ

8:10

Reddick as an NBA head coach, Lebron or not. This is the

8:12

first time I've been mentioning Lebron's name, And is

8:14

he a puppet? I don't think

8:16

a guy who's played fifteen years in the NBA

8:18

who immediately jumped into the podcast

8:21

game and had a number one podcast and then also, oh,

8:23

by the way, climb the ladder and became the number

8:25

one analyst at ESPN in like

8:27

two years, I don't think that guy's

8:30

going somewhere to be like Lebron's running mate

8:32

and drinking wine. I

8:34

have great great expectations

8:36

and great hope, and I've got some confidence

8:39

just seeing how he goes about his business that this

8:41

guy can take on anything. And again,

8:43

not a friend, not someone I would consider

8:45

like a pal, but

8:48

somebody from Afar that I've been able to watch and a little closer

8:50

than others, that I think is going to be great success

8:52

in whatever he does. And I'm gonna

8:54

bet on Reddick in this one. And the fact that he hasn't

8:56

coached in the NBA for twenty years,

9:00

He's played in the NBA for fifteen years,

9:02

and he has been around all the best players

9:04

of this generation and has played with them and been

9:07

side by side with them and has suffered losses, that suffered

9:09

and enjoyed wins. Like I don't

9:11

know, maybe I'm overlooking something,

9:13

but like to hire another NBA retread,

9:16

retread coach. Okay,

9:18

they're taking a swing of the bat. They're hiring a guy

9:20

who, from firsthand experience, I

9:23

think, analyzes markets and says, here's what's

9:25

not being done and can pinpoint

9:27

those inefficiencies and get the most

9:29

of them. Aaron, we interview coaches

9:32

all the time on this show. That's

9:34

our primary deal. Like

9:37

for you to see that JJ

9:39

Redick, you know, hit our world a podcaster

9:42

and broadcaster who has no coaching

9:44

experience in the NBA. Did that? Did

9:46

that? How did you respond? Because I'm curious because

9:48

you live in both worlds, in the coaching world

9:51

and that we interview all these coaches and then podcasting,

9:53

which is the world he's leaving behind.

9:55

I mean, if you say JJ Reddick

9:58

is a podcaster, you're you're

10:00

throwing out his illustrious

10:02

career as a player, like a

10:04

player who had so much

10:07

public scrutiny directed towards him, like you

10:09

said, starting at Duke, like he I

10:11

don't think he's gonna he's

10:13

He's going to get a ton of attention. He's coaching the Lakers,

10:15

He's got Lebron potentially on the team. People

10:18

will hate him and they'll blame him,

10:20

and I think that's okay. Like he's dealt with all

10:23

that before. So if you just call it

10:25

like he's he did one podcast a

10:27

couple he's done a bunch of podcasts, I guess basketball

10:29

wise, but like that is the smallest part

10:31

of his experience with the game. I

10:35

think it's really interesting. I love when

10:37

teams hire sort

10:40

of like off the wall choices because

10:42

like you said, there's so you know, every

10:44

year there's a coach who

10:47

has made the rounds through everywhere in the

10:49

Eastern Conference and then the Western Conference is

10:51

like, oh, it's we're so excited we have you

10:53

know, we're hiring Bud. And it's

10:55

like, yeah, that's not going to do anything for you. I'm sorry.

10:58

Like with the Lakers roster, you gotta

11:00

do something outside of the box. And I think

11:03

I don't know. I think JJ's excited. I like, I

11:05

don't think they're gonna win the finals next year,

11:08

but I don't know if they need to.

11:09

I think that's yeah, and he

11:12

wanted to do it, Like yeah, who

11:14

wanted to do it? And that's it, and like they

11:16

were willing to fulfill that dream. I

11:19

now what happens to the Brooklyn Basketball

11:21

Academy. There's a lot of text going on. People

11:24

are very nervous. Does

11:26

the quality dip without JJ, or do we rise

11:28

above and say JJ, you can leave

11:30

the nest? Or is he still involved? I think

11:32

someone should have been planted from like the Brooklyn

11:35

Eagle, the local Brooklyn

11:37

newspaper that I get at my doorsteps

11:40

to ask a question about the Brooklyn Basketball Academy

11:42

yesterday, but good

11:44

luck to him. We'll see how it goes. I'm excited.

11:46

Like you said, it's something different. In the NFL,

11:49

they hire college coaches and people freak

11:51

out, Like I cannot imagine

11:53

if someone said, hey, we're hiring you know, we're

11:55

hiring a ex player does a

11:57

podcast to be an NFL head coach. But it's

12:00

also a different world NBA. I

12:02

think we've seen guys like Steve

12:04

Nash get into coaching. I remember Magic Johnson was hired

12:06

like fresh off playing, Like it seems

12:08

like it's a lot more common. All right, real quick, before

12:11

we get to Canalis, who I can't wait to speak with.

12:15

Two things happened over the weekend NFL

12:17

related that I did want to hit on with you and

12:19

say, have we crossed the rupicon? Like are

12:22

we now in an era where this stuff doesn't even

12:24

blow our hair back? Joe

12:27

Burrow and Justin Jefferson fully

12:30

featured in Vogue's Harris

12:32

Fashion Show. Not

12:34

ten years ago, there would have been a lot of commentary

12:37

and jokes like now it seems like only

12:39

Neanderthals have problems with this kind of stuff.

12:42

Your thoughts Burrow, Jefferson Vogue.

12:44

Go amazing, Like,

12:47

especially with those two, I

12:49

think, you know,

12:52

Burrow has kind of an iconic

12:54

look. I mean I just think back to like the photo of him

12:56

in college in the locker room, like with the

12:59

cigar.

13:00

Yeah yeah.

13:00

And Jefferson is like

13:03

the I don't know, one of the most decorated

13:06

players in the league, just like such

13:08

a quintessential number one receiver. He's

13:11

a newsworthy guy all the time,

13:13

and he's like he's doing

13:16

dances, he's dressing well for games

13:18

of course, get him there. I love it like

13:21

this is this is a natural evolution

13:23

of what these players do as

13:26

members of the NFL,

13:28

who also, like clearly have other interests.

13:30

So I love it good me too. And

13:33

then lastly, the

13:35

the moment that took the Internet by storm Sunday night,

13:38

Travis Kelcey in full get up

13:41

on stage at the Taylor Swift concert

13:43

after three nights of being there with her in London,

13:45

and then he is now a part of the show. We

13:48

fully crossed it where like that didn't even. It

13:51

wasn't even I was like, oh, yeah, how come that hasn't

13:53

happened sooner? Like he's fully a

13:55

part of it now as one of the dancers

13:57

your thoughts.

13:58

You know, I'm not really

14:00

a fan of nepotism, and

14:03

so to see a dancer get up on

14:05

one of the most celebrated he's

14:07

got no dance experience, get him off

14:09

the stage.

14:09

No, exactly, he should have a press conference. He liked

14:12

it, and I don't care.

14:14

Yeah,

14:17

No, it was cool, right, Yeah,

14:19

it was very fun to see him doing that. And

14:21

I love you

14:24

know, I love him embracing his

14:26

role with her in that relationship

14:28

and being like, yeah, my girlfriend is on this

14:31

amazing world tour here, I am

14:33

just like supporting her, like coming on stage real

14:35

quick and then I'm heading out, and like, I think

14:37

that was great.

14:38

I think the cool thing for me is that, like

14:41

he's not using it for clout, so it's

14:43

like and he's not, but he's

14:45

also not shying away, like they're not living

14:47

in Like they went to the Chiltern Firehouse,

14:49

a children tabln children firehouse, whatever

14:51

it was. I've been there in London, humble

14:54

brag. It's like a cool restaurant, think a Soho house,

14:56

ieal, It's like a cool restaurant that goes

14:58

into a club and like there was paparazzi

15:01

there and they posed for paparazzi photos

15:03

and said hello, And like, then what about there, Like they're not he's

15:06

not laying in the weeds here, like he's

15:08

out there, he's singing, he's doing all that, Like it's kind

15:10

of refreshing for one of these celebrity couples. And he's just

15:12

like, yeah, I'm Travis kelsey on, one of the biggest NFL superstars,

15:14

and she's Taylor Swiped, the biggest star in the world. Like we're

15:17

not going to hide. Yeah.

15:19

And I also like, okay,

15:21

I might have had something some of an issue

15:23

if like he came up on stage and

15:27

sang a couple songs or

15:29

something like. That's not That's not what people. He was a

15:31

service role there, right, he was there supporting

15:34

her, you know. So I think it's great.

15:38

Let's close here with the monologue and

15:40

get to our guest.

15:41

Uh.

15:42

I will say this next week is

15:44

the Michael Ruben White Party, and I still have not gotten

15:47

my invitation. I'm wearing a white T shirt

15:49

for the occasion today as we record this podcast

15:51

with Canalis. So

15:54

if that invitation does come, I will decline

15:56

it and say no thank you, because

15:58

I don't want to be a last second add on. So Aaron,

16:01

just let it be known. If I do get the Air

16:03

Force ones and the bottle of Don

16:06

Julia, whatever it is that comes with the invitation,

16:08

there will be a very polite RSVP, no

16:11

thank you, and we will go about our business

16:13

and I'll have a barbecue with my family and That'll

16:15

be that.

16:16

I think that's a that's a great You can get shoes

16:18

for your barbecue too. No fun,

16:21

just this fun.

16:21

No doubt, with no further ado,

16:23

Let's bring in our guests. Aaron Stave

16:26

Canal as head coach of the Carolina Painters.

16:35

So excited for today's guest, the guy I've gott to know the

16:37

last couple of years. And I kicked myself

16:39

because I feel like we would have been fast friends

16:41

ten years ago, but we had never been introduced. And

16:43

now we know each other and he is

16:45

going to be a household name this season for

16:47

sure, as the head coach of the Carolina

16:50

Panthers, joining us from beautiful Washington

16:53

State coach Dave Canal is,

16:55

Dave, what's going on? Man?

16:57

What's up? Peter? Thanks man, thanks for having me here.

17:00

You know, it's a I'm really excited.

17:03

I'm here in my happy place, just trying to gather my

17:05

all my excitement, the dreams and the vision that

17:08

I have and just trying to make sure that you

17:10

know it fits this group and what we're

17:12

doing. But this has been unbelievable

17:14

roller coaster of a spring and

17:16

I'm excited to just catch up with

17:19

you here.

17:19

Yeah, the ride is so cool. We

17:21

always talk about it's not the destination, it's

17:23

the journey. But you're right. Everyone thinks,

17:26

oh, well, he came out of nowhere. He was the offensive coordinator

17:28

of the Bucks and now he's after one year doing that, he's

17:30

a coach. Dude, you have had

17:32

a journey. We can

17:35

we start way at the beginning

17:38

and getting to know Dave Canalis like way

17:40

in the beginning, a

17:42

ZUSA Pacific. Where are we starting? Where do

17:44

you want to start? Where do you find

17:46

yourself when you think of your football journey, like

17:49

day one and the big break of

17:51

okay, I can actually do this for a living.

17:55

Yeah. Shoot, if I started APU,

17:58

it's probably two years

18:00

of injuries back to back and like how

18:02

can I help? How can I serve? And

18:05

we had a bunch of Frishman and we had some transfers

18:08

and I said, okay, well, if I'm going to be out,

18:10

I can at least contribute. And that's kind of

18:12

where my coaching started.

18:14

And the coaching staff trusted me a lot

18:16

with the information. So I'm running around

18:18

just kind of helping out and

18:20

I really fell in love with it then, you

18:23

know. And then but

18:26

fast forward quickly to you

18:29

know, high school football. I really

18:31

was I really wanted to be a sports

18:34

trainer. I wanted to do the whole sports

18:39

performance facility, that

18:41

whole thing, bring bring skilled

18:43

players in, you know, football players in and

18:46

get them ready for their seasons. And so that's kind of

18:48

how it started. And five kids, five

18:51

kids, a bench press and a wooden

18:53

squad wreck. We went to Pasadena,

18:56

California to a twenty four hour fitness It's

18:59

one hundred and fifty bucks in a U haul. We

19:02

had a friend that were giving away all their plates,

19:04

bars, dumb all racks

19:07

for a tax rite off, you know, so I said, okay,

19:09

we'll take it. So we got a U haul, loaded it

19:11

up and and

19:13

uh just put it all in a in a back warehouse

19:15

at my dad's church. And it started off with about

19:17

five kids. Five became fifteen,

19:20

became thirty and you're.

19:22

Running these classes. You're you're the head

19:24

guy.

19:25

Yeah, and myself, my cousin,

19:28

my cousin in law Kevin Nickerson, who's

19:30

the chaplain actually for the Rams.

19:32

Okay, then and then my brother

19:35

Josh, who was the senior pastor at

19:37

my dad's church, he took over. So it's

19:39

the three of us with the dream. And we

19:42

had like a two, five, ten year plan

19:44

and we started training

19:46

kids. And then one of the one of the

19:49

kids we were training, their parents were like, Hey, the

19:51

JV head coaching jobs open at the high school

19:54

and they should check it out, you know, And so

19:57

the coach and I had a conversation. He

19:59

he lured me out there, and like I

20:01

just that was it, you know, I knew as soon as

20:03

I got out there any

20:06

practices, loving on the guys.

20:09

It kind of just brought it all together. So and then

20:11

from there, my wife just said, Hey, they're

20:14

really good at this. They really the players respond

20:16

to you, the coaches love working with

20:18

you. I can tell how much you love this. She

20:21

was like, just go for it. Let's just see what happens.

20:23

Let's give it five years and let's

20:26

see if we land a job. Somewhere, and so I

20:28

started to try to work my connections with college

20:30

and that's kind of how I ended

20:32

up at El Camino College and

20:34

then Steve Sarkesian's

20:37

connection there ended up getting

20:39

me to USC with PANA.

20:40

I think that's so Pete Carroll hires

20:43

you in O nine, but

20:45

you're not hired as a quarterbacks

20:47

coach or a wide receivers coach. You go back to

20:49

your roots and the training staff, right, is that where

20:51

you came in with the USC.

20:53

Yeah, I was a weight

20:56

room and then like

20:58

slash video assistant, so

21:01

you know, the weight room thing that my background

21:03

there was kind of got me, helped me get in

21:05

the door. And I'm just setting up cones, you know, wasn't

21:09

running, you know, I wasn't running in the programs.

21:11

I was putting bags out there, setting up cones,

21:13

you know, summer workouts.

21:16

And then and then the videos

21:18

systant thing was just like you know, the hours

21:20

the dark room, the hours and hours of film and

21:23

here as your reward, you get to sit in

21:25

the quarterback meetings. So it

21:27

was really cool and it just was one year

21:29

before Pete you know, took off in the

21:31

middle of the night, you know, to go to Seattle.

21:35

So so is it like that one year?

21:37

Is that Sanchez? Who's the quarterback?

21:40

When you're when you're there is a booty? Who are you working

21:42

with?

21:43

That was Barkley? That was Matt Barkley as

21:45

a freshman. Yeah,

21:48

amazing. Yeah,

21:51

still still the league.

21:52

Still in the league, by the way, Matt Barkley.

21:54

Yeah, I know. I get to run into him

21:56

in a different jersey every year. So just

22:00

like, what's up? Marks?

22:02

So good? All right, So Pete goes

22:04

to the Seahawks, he takes you with him or you stuck

22:06

at USC.

22:08

So I'm there, I'm there. I'm

22:10

stuck at SC for a couple of weeks.

22:12

I don't really know what's going to happen. And

22:14

then it was a couple

22:16

of weeks later that

22:19

I got the phone call and like the kind

22:21

of the the holy crap

22:23

microcosm moment was I was.

22:26

I was sitting in the

22:28

the war room, if you will, like the recruiting

22:31

room with

22:33

Lane Kiffin at Ojeron.

22:36

Yep.

22:37

We're watching junior college

22:39

film from a

22:42

year and a half ago. Okay, so

22:44

that's and it's Al Camedo College

22:46

against College of the Canyons.

22:48

We're watching a defensive linement from College at

22:50

the Canyons playoff game, and he

22:53

had like a two year highlight. So I'm

22:55

sitting there with them, We're watching

22:57

an Al Camedo play College of the Canyons. I can see

23:00

me on the sideline. You can see.

23:02

Yourself on the video at El Camino, Yes,

23:05

with.

23:05

The visor, you know, Khaki

23:07

shorts in a polo and like, which,

23:10

by the way, they should bring back into coaching, like

23:14

the look, it's

23:16

so comfortable and then anyway,

23:19

so then so I'm sitting there losing that and like

23:21

literally two days before I'd been offered to

23:24

go to the Seattle Seahawks's quality control.

23:27

So really it's just like this amazing.

23:29

You're watching yourself coaching community

23:31

or not community, but junior college at

23:33

a level that no one would ever watch on television.

23:35

And then the official Seattle

23:38

Seahawks phone line calls and you're

23:40

like, this has been two years or what

23:43

an amazing twenty four months?

23:45

Yes, you said that a lot better than I did, but just

23:47

kind of all it's just a microcosm.

23:50

And I'm sitting there just like wow, like just

23:52

really just humbled and floored with like

23:55

this is all just circumstantially,

23:57

you know. For me, of course, I'm a I'm a

24:00

man of faith, and I just was like, wow, look

24:02

what God did in this short

24:04

order. And I had like literally no thing

24:06

to do with it, Like there wasn't I was like the

24:09

best you know, junior

24:11

college quarterbacks coach, or like I

24:13

was killing it, you know, setting up cones and bags

24:15

and s see. You know, it's just it was

24:17

just being in the right place the right time, and

24:19

then just being responsible

24:22

with the moment and the opportunities

24:24

to work hard, to treat people well and to connect

24:27

and is like just you

24:29

know, it's just crazy.

24:30

So well, you're cutting your

24:32

own attribute short a little bit there. You're also

24:35

everyone who's ever worked with you says, just an

24:37

amazing guy to have in the room, juice,

24:40

energy, and obviously Pete identified that

24:42

in you because he could have taken thirty

24:45

people from his past and he chose you as one

24:47

of many. Now you get to Seattle and people forget

24:49

this. Those first

24:51

I think that first training camp in Seattle,

24:54

you guys had like two hundred people walk through

24:56

the door. It was like a tryout. I remember

24:58

covering it from my you know, for Fox sports

25:00

dot Com. And it being like there's

25:02

just bodies after bodies, and like

25:05

Pete Carroll is running this like it's almost like a high

25:07

school team, like who wants to make this? They've got their veterans,

25:09

but it was an open door And I

25:11

kind of love that approach to rebuilding

25:14

and starting a new era of an NFL

25:16

team.

25:17

Yeah, I love the I love the approach

25:19

that Pete brought of. Just like you

25:22

know, you're you're either competing or you're

25:24

not, you know, And he showed up to a roster

25:26

that he was not fired up about

25:28

and it's just like, okay, well

25:31

we know we have these guys. And

25:33

right after that it it, you know, the depth

25:35

chart falls off pretty quickly. We

25:38

might as well just see more people. We might

25:40

as well bring more guys in, you

25:42

know. And and that I think

25:44

it was like two hundred and fifty transactions,

25:46

like.

25:47

That's what it was. I think it was eighty eight bodies or something

25:49

came through like like new bodies

25:51

at top of the ninety.

25:52

Like it was nuts and it's

25:55

cool. And I think he was just challenging, challenging

25:57

the roster to see like okay, well we know

25:59

these other guys. What about some of you know,

26:02

let's just keep getting our eyes on him. So I

26:04

remember that was crazy.

26:05

Yeah, And the gig early on in Seattle was

26:07

on the strength side, or is this on the coaching side. You've now

26:09

become one of the quarterbacks coaches and you're already

26:12

in that role.

26:13

It was quality control and I really still

26:15

was not. It was more of a production type

26:17

of yeah, wearing a lot of hats.

26:20

Yeah, just playbook, video, calendar,

26:23

schedules, all that kind of stuff. You know, I

26:25

really was. I really was so

26:29

overwhelmed with all those things. I

26:31

didn't really have a lot of time to be coaching for

26:34

about the first year. Yeah,

26:36

you know. Yeah.

26:37

Now as you embark on this first

26:39

year as a head coach with the Carolina Panthers team

26:41

that finished with the worst record in the NFL,

26:43

do you try to tap into those memories from fifteen

26:46

years ago just getting to Seattle and maybe

26:48

how Pete established culture and said

26:50

here that the here are the ground rules, here's

26:53

what we're going to do because this is a new era and we're

26:55

going to build it this way. Yeah.

26:58

Absolutely, I think the heart,

27:01

the heart and the mindset that I come in that I take

27:03

from Pete and from those early years is

27:06

Number one is

27:09

I didn't get here because the roster

27:12

was established. I didn't get

27:14

here because of excellence

27:17

and all that typically are getting your first job, because there

27:19

were things that need attention and need to be addressed.

27:21

And so I think that the openness to

27:24

see who those players are going to be,

27:27

to see, you know, to really just be willing

27:30

to to try things,

27:32

to find our niche

27:35

as, find our personality as a team, but also

27:37

to find the players, you know, like we

27:39

need to be active, we need to have our eyes

27:42

and ears to the ground for players that

27:44

can help us. And

27:46

and so you know, I have an eagerness

27:48

to kind of see I'm I'm That's

27:50

one of my excitements about coming back is like I

27:53

wonder who it's going to be, Like, who are those guys?

27:55

Yeah, that we that we have in our building. If

27:58

we can just put a good football product

28:00

out there on a platform for them to perform,

28:03

the stars will show up. But then who are those other

28:05

guys? Because I just live

28:07

in the possibilities type

28:10

of world. My world is about possibilities.

28:12

And I know there

28:14

were late round draft pick, free agent, rookie

28:17

free agents, veteran free agents, who

28:19

were like, I'm now ready to

28:21

do this thing that made an impact further

28:24

than anything anyone could ever have imagined

28:26

for their careers in Seattle. I watched it happened

28:28

in Tampa last year too, and so I

28:30

get excited about the untold stories

28:33

going into this year.

28:35

Give me a Seattle guy that you know you

28:37

saw walk through the door, maybe not as heralded, and

28:39

took to coaching and made a career

28:42

for him, stuff that maybe walking in the door not everyone anticipated.

28:46

Yeah right off

28:48

the bat, you know Doug Baldwin,

28:50

Yeah, Jermaine Curse, who

28:53

really had he had a fantastic junior

28:56

year and then really had

28:58

some struggles to senior year, had some

29:00

drops and people were down on him, and

29:04

and I just see, like the guy, the

29:06

the competitor, he was, the determination

29:09

he had, and an environment

29:12

and I credit Pete for this, but an environment

29:14

that that said it didn't

29:16

say, hey, just take a number and get in line.

29:19

It said I'm not in your way.

29:21

Who wants to play, who wants who wants to make

29:24

for this exactly? And so that's just

29:26

kind of sometimes it's just that permission

29:28

that a player needs. I think

29:30

of David Moore, who we actually have

29:33

yeah, in in

29:35

in Charlotte. He was a

29:38

he was a seventh round pick, you know, and we

29:40

drafted a guy in the fourth round. But because

29:43

of our model of like, guys, just show us who

29:45

you are, we'll figure out who goes where and

29:47

who plays, there's

29:50

a bunch of them. Man, Gary Gilliam was a

29:52

tight end we turned into a tackle because it

29:55

was.

29:55

Very good, you know, George,

30:00

Right, that was one.

30:00

Where George George another

30:03

you know Western basketball

30:06

back round, you know, ends

30:08

up you still playing tackle, you know, in the league

30:11

and started last year some But

30:15

yeah, I can I can rattle up another

30:17

probably thirty or forty guys.

30:19

So yeah, so you spend time as

30:22

Yeah, then Russell Wilson gets dropped

30:24

in your laps as a third round pick. Take us

30:26

through that summer because I remember the late Trevares

30:28

Jackson was a great player and Matt

30:30

Flynn was the big free agent signing. And

30:32

it's not not common that a coach and

30:35

a GM would say, hey, man,

30:37

the best man win at quarterback, especially after the

30:39

GM penned, you know, Matt Flynn

30:41

to a one of the biggest deals a free

30:43

agent quarterback got that offseason.

30:45

Yeah, record. Let's go record straight. First,

30:47

John Schneider was the one most fired about Russell.

30:50

The rest of us were like the rest

30:52

of us. He grew on us through

30:55

throughout the process, the spring process,

30:57

leading up to the draft. But I gotta be honest,

31:00

when we drafted him in the third round, like

31:02

there wasn't this explosion of excitement

31:04

in the building. It was

31:06

like, oh, okay, yeah, well

31:09

remember him, I know him in college. Yeah, he's

31:11

pretty good. He's pretty good. And the guy's like he's

31:13

he competes his ass off, you know, like we knew, like

31:16

we knew he had all the makeup. But I think

31:19

I think John really had the vision for who

31:21

he was. And then Pete kind of warmed

31:23

up. And then because of who Pete

31:25

is what he believed the more he got

31:27

to know the guy, he's like, Okay, this is a special

31:30

guy.

31:30

Yeah.

31:31

And but

31:33

like the rest of us were like, oh okay, and

31:37

a cool draft story. So I so my

31:39

wife's nine months no, no, no,

31:41

not nine months. She was

31:43

she was she was twenty eight. She was twenty

31:45

eight.

31:48

Yeah, I'm trying to think, no, no, thirty five.

31:50

He's thirty five weeks pregnant. Okay, she's he's right, then,

31:53

yeah, she's but she's pretty early anyway. So

31:56

we have like an install that morning. You

31:58

know, it's the second day of the draft. So she

32:01

calls me from the gym. She's like, I don't feel right. So

32:03

I go home, take her to the hospital and

32:06

get her all checked in, settled in. They're like, hey, it's

32:08

gonna be a while. You're probably

32:11

not gonna have this this baby today, but you're

32:13

gonna have to be on bed rest. So I'm like, okay,

32:15

she's all settled in. I go back to the office. Of course,

32:19

rookie Dad, rookie dad. But so

32:22

I go back to the office. I'm sitting there and

32:24

then the rounds are going. We

32:26

draft Russell Wilson. It's like, oh,

32:28

okay, great, we got a quarterback. You know, see

32:30

what happens with this whole story. And then

32:33

and then I end up going back to the hospital just

32:35

hang out with her. And as I get

32:37

there, they're like, just kidding, your

32:39

babies showing up today. So it's so

32:43

so two men that will forever change

32:45

my life. April twenty seventh,

32:49

See what year was that, That would have been twenty twenty

32:52

twelve. Yeah, April twenty

32:54

seven, twenty twelve, Russell Wilson

32:56

Benjamin Kanal has two men who would like forever

32:58

changed my life. Love this who I love

33:01

just like all on one day. It's just unbelievable

33:03

and it's so good, dude, I love that. And

33:05

you'll for Yeah, you'll

33:08

forever be link You're in bed, will forever.

33:09

Be linked to Uh to Russell, I'm sure he's wearing

33:11

the jersey no matter what team he's on.

33:13

Oh loves and didn't know it at the time,

33:16

right like, but so to that

33:18

point in a nutshell,

33:20

Russell comes in and

33:23

I won't I'll never forget this. So Pete

33:25

tells a Tavars like, the

33:28

reps are going to go to Matt Flynn and Russell.

33:31

We've seen you, We've seen you for a

33:33

year, we've seen your career in

33:35

Minnesota. We know what you can

33:38

do, and he's under contract

33:40

and all that's like preseason, you're not going to play much

33:43

training camp. You're going to get the third

33:46

reps because we got to see Matt and

33:48

Russell kind of see

33:50

what they can do. And I'll and really

33:53

the thing that separated Russ from the beginning,

33:57

which guys kind of rolled their eyes at it first,

33:59

but he knew what he wanted to do, and then he would he

34:01

would talk to the guys like, you know, it wasn't

34:03

twenty two, you know, he was like twenty four or

34:05

twenty five something, and he'd be like, hey,

34:08

this backside of this route, Sydney Rice, you

34:10

know, be ready for this if they rotate away.

34:12

And he's like, I'm a five year veteran,

34:14

like bro, Like he tell me.

34:15

Yeah, and I'm like and there's

34:17

some eye rolling and like and

34:20

then he go out there and rip it and he meant it,

34:22

and he would be

34:24

he was driving himself. He's so hard

34:26

on himself. He's just out working people. He had

34:29

a mindset for where he was going and he

34:31

was telling us, I'm here and I'm serious

34:34

about this. I'm not going to just take a number. I'm

34:36

not going to just fall into where people think I should.

34:39

There's no should here. I got

34:41

a plan. I'm going this way he wants to come. And so

34:43

it was pretty clear the

34:45

person, you know, that of

34:48

how he was driven. And then it all kind of came together

34:51

preseason going

34:53

to the Uh going to the Chiefs

34:56

and Matt had like elbow

34:59

tendonitis Okay, So we

35:01

started rust that day and

35:03

the ball moved. We scored points again.

35:07

It was like the you know, it

35:09

was like the third third week in a row

35:11

that that happened, and he just kept every time

35:13

he go in, the ball would move. We put points

35:15

up on the board and it was like is this couldn't this be real?

35:18

So but it was really

35:20

fun. It was a really it was a real challenge.

35:22

We dove full, We took all the notes and the

35:24

stats and it was a really cool time.

35:27

Yeah, in an amazing era with Russell Wilson,

35:29

obviously, all the Pro Bowls, the All Pros, the playoff

35:31

appearances. You guys win a Super Bowl, Yeah,

35:34

compete in another, and then Russell

35:36

leaves and here's Geno

35:38

Smith as a

35:40

quarterback, a guy who's been around the league, like you were

35:43

talking about Tavares Jackson. We kind of know what Geno

35:45

Smith is, and yet he joins

35:47

the Seattle Seahawks and has this incredible

35:51

backup run and then amazing,

35:54

amazing year under you as a starter. What do you remember

35:56

of the Geno Smith? You know time

35:58

where he gets the torch and

36:00

it's it's his time to take it.

36:02

Yeah, it was cool. It was a It

36:05

was a celebration of a couple of years of conversations,

36:08

work study. Brian

36:11

Schottenheimer really kind

36:13

of starting that that deal with Gino and

36:16

like really cleaning Gino

36:18

up fundamentally. We

36:21

just for fun before we left, we watched

36:23

training camp, you know, coming into

36:25

training camp, and like there were some little

36:27

things that he cleaned up from

36:30

a technical standpoint, but like, I

36:32

mean, the guy was like seventy eight percent

36:35

completion in his first camp with the Seahawks,

36:37

you know, backup, you know there

36:40

there, like it's so

36:42

so he yeah, and he so he clearly

36:45

was a veteran. He knew where the ball was supposed

36:47

to go. No one throws a prettier ball than

36:49

Gino Smith. Just it spins

36:51

tight, he's accurate, like he's

36:54

got the right amount of zip, but he's got touch,

36:56

like he's so all those things

36:58

were there and it

37:01

was just but we had Russ right, So

37:03

so you won't even you don't even take your brain

37:05

there immediately. But so

37:09

then just just the celebration

37:11

of a couple of years of work, of

37:13

conversations of Geno saying

37:16

I know I still got it once

37:19

I get a chance. This is how I'm gonna do

37:21

it, you know, like he he was like forward thinking

37:23

with his with his words. He

37:25

was super He had

37:27

a lot of beliefs still in his own ability and his

37:29

talent, and so so as I come along,

37:32

you know, really it was just about like for

37:35

me, I I was there kind

37:38

of through the whole process and then once once

37:40

I get you know, I'm just there to just like

37:43

maintain and reinforce you're you're

37:45

a you're a badass. You're

37:47

a bad Yeah, you

37:50

belong here, you know,

37:52

like keep your head up. Things

37:54

bad things are going to happen. But look,

37:56

look you're leading everybody. They're looking to

37:59

you. Now, let's you know, just for me,

38:01

it was just from a personal personal

38:03

standpoint, like big big

38:06

picture life philosophy, How does football

38:08

fit into this? How do I fit in as a leader, as

38:11

a veteran guy, you know a lot of

38:13

those things, and then just polishing the stuff

38:15

that he was already working on those last

38:17

two years. So just given Shoddy a lot of credit

38:20

for for really helping

38:22

Gino, helping me to just kind of get a plan together,

38:24

and then for us to just be there

38:26

to celebrate it together. It was really cool.

38:36

I mean, how rare is it that anybody in this coaching life

38:38

can see their kids go to the same schools, have

38:41

the friends, and not have to uproot their lives every

38:43

other year. But you had that opportunity,

38:45

and you were there in Seattle and you were doing that,

38:47

and then Tampa calls and you left, obviously

38:51

for an amazing opportunity. Can you take us

38:53

through that part of your life.

38:55

Yeah? Absolutely, just you

38:57

know they

39:00

the coolest part about the whole thing was it

39:04

didn't come along by really

39:06

reaching out and striving for trying

39:09

to like create a job. You know, it

39:11

was really just and

39:14

thankfully for Pete and for a bunch of great players,

39:17

it was really a natural process. You

39:20

know. Just I bounced around. I coached

39:22

receivers, I coached quarterbacks. I was past game

39:24

coordinator, so I got to step out of the position

39:26

room and kind of look at watch

39:28

the offensive coordinator do his thing.

39:31

And so I'm just collecting all these lessons

39:33

watching Pete, you know, like in those

39:36

years where I was past game coordinator. When

39:38

you're not coaching a position directly, you

39:41

get to help a lot if

39:43

you can take that kind of mindset, just like help

39:45

serve make extra cutups so how can I help?

39:47

How can I do these things? But then I can also take a step

39:50

back and say, look at Pete and the decisions he makes.

39:52

Look out he schedules his day. Look how the coordinator

39:55

does these different rhythms. So like,

39:57

I don't think there could have been a guy more ready for

40:01

his first offensive coordinator job than

40:03

me.

40:03

And and last year you've been in and that was

40:05

almost not one of these guys that maybe

40:08

you are saying, well, why not me? Why have I not

40:10

been? Were you one of those? Did you start wondering

40:12

after five, seven, six or whatever it is? Yeah?

40:16

I did, Actually I did, and I

40:18

realized it didn't get me anywhere, you know,

40:20

And so I was either gonna like, agent

40:23

up, let's push this thing. Let's just

40:25

go get a job, you know, or I

40:28

can say, man, I've got this sweet opportunity

40:30

here, let's raise our kids, let's be here kind

40:32

of see the NFL evolve over the

40:35

thirteen years from one spot, you know, with

40:37

one lens, with Pete Carroll when

40:39

forever philosophy lens, you know, like, so

40:43

that was that was really special, you know, But I just I

40:45

try to go there, and I just felt like it was

40:48

really like contrived, and I was trying to force something,

40:50

and I was like, Okay, hold on, let's just let's

40:53

just be here, and like even just to the

40:55

even the summer before I got the Tampa job,

40:58

we're actually right up here where I'm at right now

41:00

in uh In uh White

41:02

Salmon, Washington, and we're we're

41:04

we're sitting we actually hiked Mount Adams,

41:06

the beautiful, beautiful hike here, snow

41:09

capped year round, and we're at the top and my wife and I

41:11

were sitting up there and we're like, Okay, we're home. We're

41:13

never going anywhere.

41:15

This is a content feeling

41:17

of like, hey, this is the lot and

41:19

guess what. We're blessed. It's amazing

41:22

and we're happy here. And then within twelve

41:25

months the call from Tampa comes.

41:27

Who makes that call? Is it? Is it Jason

41:30

Light? Is it Todd Bowles? How's it all go down?

41:32

Yeah? It was, it was Todd.

41:35

And then it started off as a zoom

41:37

and then it turned into an in person interview

41:40

and I spent probably

41:44

four or five hours with Todd just kind of going

41:46

through all

41:48

the different things that you would need to organize

41:51

and talk about from an offensive standpoint, I

41:54

was like his I

41:56

want to say I was his thirteenth or fourteenth offensive

41:58

coordinator, but

42:01

the interview interview, for real, I

42:03

was like interview number thirteen or fourteen. So

42:06

there's a good and a bad to that, right. The good

42:08

part is hopefully like he's kind

42:11

of like worn out. Maybe I can like bang,

42:13

you.

42:13

Know, just yeah, especially with your juice.

42:14

Yeah, just trying to wake him up a little bit here

42:17

and then. And then the downside

42:19

of it was like I could tell he was

42:21

like completely gassed with

42:24

the whole process and just like man

42:26

like pick out, how many more of these do we have?

42:28

You know? But what if thorough process to

42:31

just like you know, talk to everybody

42:33

and just accumulate it. But so

42:36

anyway, it was we had a great time. The

42:40

philosophies. I think what I learned now,

42:43

you know, just over the last couple of years talking to a

42:45

couple of different coaches is just the

42:48

person the personalities are different, what

42:50

they're after is the same.

42:53

What a great phrase, the personality

42:56

that what they're all after is the same, Like we

42:58

all want to win.

42:59

They're after the same thing. It's like the principles

43:01

of take care of the ball minimize

43:04

explosives on defense, play

43:07

hard toughness, like all the

43:09

same principles, just how you how

43:11

you bring it about and what you know, what

43:14

environment you create to get those principles

43:16

across. I guess just a different but

43:19

but I could tell coming out of the interview that the

43:22

principles aligned, and

43:24

hopefully I was able to show him like this

43:26

may be my first job that I'm interviewing for, but

43:29

I've been I've been

43:31

waiting for this for a long time. And

43:33

so and then that's,

43:35

you know, kind of how this whole thing has gone pretty

43:38

quickly.

43:38

I think, yeah, and I got

43:40

to say you got You probably joined in January.

43:42

I would imagine early February that Tampa

43:45

job. They they're

43:47

in the post Brady mode where it's like this, like wait and

43:49

see what's Brady gonna do. No one

43:51

expected anything from the Buccaneers

43:53

a year ago, especially on the offensive side of the

43:55

ball, and you get another cool

43:57

project. He talked about Geno Smith, but here

44:00

comes a Heisman Trophy winner who has taken

44:03

the league by storm. Was one of the featured guys in

44:05

the NFL one hundred camp and

44:07

what many thought was his last stop. Baker Mayfield

44:09

walks in the door, talk

44:12

about that union and have the two of you

44:14

guys jailed.

44:16

Yeah, I mean, so two years in

44:18

a row. It's a full on quarterback competition.

44:20

So it was Jane and Drew Locke

44:23

and then it was Baker and Kyle

44:25

Trask, and I

44:28

knew it was going to be so important for

44:31

Baker to earn

44:33

that job, to win that job,

44:37

and I think immediately what

44:39

I noticed about him coming in was

44:42

this like humility, and

44:44

it was I didn't know him from

44:46

before, I had never met him, and

44:50

you know, I just saw some of the ups

44:53

and downs of his career in the NFL

44:55

and college and kind of saw this

44:57

this personality, you know, and I didn't really know what

44:59

to expect, you know, And

45:03

so as we started talking, I just felt this like

45:05

huge hunger and this humility

45:07

of like like I'll

45:10

do whatever I need to do, I'll learn

45:13

whatever I need to learn for this

45:15

opportunity. And it was this really high regard

45:18

for the opportunity to

45:21

be there. And so it

45:23

was really cool for he and I to just kind of sit down

45:25

early in the process and just go, yeah,

45:27

me too, Like we just kind of like, isn't

45:30

this great? Isn't this great what we get to

45:32

do here? Like we just shoot, man, let's

45:34

just let's let's get let's get the basics

45:36

down to good football. Let's just have a blast doing

45:38

it. And that's really what happened.

45:41

I love that. And you guys have this incredible run,

45:44

you win a playoff game. Head

45:47

coaching opportunity? Was that

45:49

in your I mean even when you're with Pete

45:52

and you're watching him and even when you take this

45:54

up it's a coordinator job, and you're like, look if we have a good seat

45:57

Panthers. They also interviewed

45:59

about fourteen people for this head coaching job,

46:01

and hey, what you do

46:04

with Zoom, with David Tepper and whoever

46:06

else? And what's your thoughts when you get

46:08

that call?

46:10

Yeah, I mean floored, you know, like

46:12

but but also like I

46:15

wasn't surprised. I thought, look at

46:17

the opportunity, you know, with especially

46:20

with Baker and especially with Gino. Was

46:22

it was like I could

46:25

that wasn't my what was driving me, but I could

46:27

see how the contrast

46:29

of the expectation and then the

46:31

performance. Yeah, I knew, like nobody

46:34

expected anything out of Gina. Well,

46:36

when we get him playing well, that's going

46:38

to create some noise. And then Baker

46:41

Baker comes in here and everyone's like, ah,

46:43

yeah, yeah, you know it's Baker Mayfield whatever.

46:45

We've seen it, and it's like right. And

46:47

then when when the when the product

46:50

exceeds expectation, I knew that's just

46:52

gonna naturally grab attention. Tampa

46:55

Post, Tom Brady all that,

46:57

like low expectation, three

46:59

to five wins, people are just like throwing

47:01

stuff out there like nobody expects anything from

47:03

them. So I just knew, like this is

47:05

a set up up that

47:08

when we do have success, it's going

47:10

to create it's going to cost some some noise,

47:12

it's going to create some attention. Just be

47:14

ready, you know, be ready and make sure

47:16

I have my ducks in a row and

47:19

so that if I do get those phone calls at

47:21

some point, I'm ready. I have my stuff

47:23

organized and so like

47:26

super like not taken, not

47:29

taken by surprise on the situation, but also

47:31

just like I wasn't just focusing

47:34

on that because it's not like you know, you're on a you're

47:37

on a championship team, and it's like people

47:39

are after you as a coordinator, is like nobody

47:41

knows who I am Yeah pretty.

47:43

Much, you know sou.

47:46

But that was and that was fun too, because just here

47:48

we go, just another challenge, you know. Here's

47:51

so it's like Gino's story,

47:53

Baker story, Panther story. It's like,

47:55

here's just another great opportunity for

47:58

a group of guys and

48:00

women to come together and say,

48:03

why not us, you know, let's just let's

48:06

just play good football. Let's just see what happens

48:08

and see where it takes us.

48:10

So now you're what is it. It's June

48:12

right now, you're about five months into this thing.

48:15

Why not the Panthers take us through the Panthers

48:17

and what you've seen so far and how the

48:20

Dave canal is there has begun.

48:22

Yeah, a great core group

48:24

of veteran players with

48:28

a super high football character.

48:32

I don't know them all really closely

48:34

on a personal level, but I say football character

48:36

because they're the types of guys that

48:38

you want when they're in the building. They

48:41

treat each other with respect, with love

48:44

and respect, they treat they treat everyone

48:46

in the building well. They work their tails

48:48

off in the weight room, like

48:50

they really go for it on the football field.

48:52

Like, so there's you know, it's Shaq Thompson. You

48:55

know, it's Derek Brown, who's still pretty young, but he's got

48:57

some years, Chuba Hubbard, Adam

48:59

Felen, Andy Dalton, Taylor,

49:02

moten Our right tackle, Josie

49:06

Jewel we got from Denver, Jordan

49:08

Fuller, Nick Scott, Xavier

49:11

Woods.

49:13

Like there's there when around

49:15

the league.

49:16

Yes, there's so many veteran

49:19

players with high high

49:21

football character that that's the

49:24

locker room culture is

49:26

fantastic. Great, it's

49:28

that part is established. And then you combine

49:31

that with young talent, some

49:34

veteran talent. You bring in guys like Jadavion

49:36

Clowney, Robert Hunt,

49:39

Damian Lewis, Dane

49:42

Jackson, you know, some of the safeties that talked

49:45

about. So and then the draft, a

49:47

couple of the early draft picks, you know, Xavier

49:50

Legete, Jonathan Brooks,

49:53

Trevin Wallace, you know, jade Jatavian

49:56

Sanders. So I

49:58

see a great combination of some experience,

50:02

high football character, some

50:04

talent in spots. Now there's

50:07

a reason, there's a reason that we

50:09

were two and fifteen and we

50:11

have to continue to like bring more

50:13

talent into our roster. So you fill

50:15

out the depth of it, you know, and

50:18

the great teams that I've been on in Seattle over

50:20

the years, up and down, the

50:22

great ones you had depth, you

50:25

know, and so I think that's that's

50:27

really where we are is can we establish can

50:29

we establish our starters? Can we develop depth?

50:32

And we

50:34

got ways to go?

50:35

You know, Yeah,

50:37

what's your message to them? Because like Sean

50:40

Payton last year, whether

50:42

you love him or not, you know, I worked with him at Fox,

50:44

so I have a relationship with him. He came in there and he dropped

50:46

a couple bombs in the media to try to inspire

50:49

his guys, you know, talking about the previous

50:51

coaching staff that was a downtrodden

50:53

group when he got there, and he was trying to light

50:55

a fire. What do you do to a

50:57

squad that was two and fifteens looking at the locker room

50:59

and saying are we?

51:02

What are we?

51:03

What do you do as a new coach? How do you inspire

51:05

them with words?

51:07

Yeah? I think to put it simply, I just

51:09

said, we just need to get our football right. And

51:13

the comment there was what

51:16

I was trying to do. What I'm still trying

51:18

to do with that is like, forget about

51:20

the side stories, guys,

51:23

Like if we can just play good football.

51:26

The side stories, the headlines

51:29

will right themselves, but can

51:31

we just get our football right? And that really was

51:33

just a reflection on like, it

51:36

wasn't the greatest brand of offensive

51:38

football it was. There

51:41

were things up front, there were

51:43

things schematically that we needed

51:45

to work on, and that

51:48

wasn't to NFL standard and certainly

51:51

not to Carolina Panthers

51:53

twenty twenty four standard. The

51:55

defensive side of the football was excellent,

51:59

and there was still things to

52:01

improve on. There's still nuances to grow

52:03

through special

52:05

teams with solid So it's just like, if

52:08

we can just get all three phases

52:10

up to snuff and get them get us all the same

52:13

playing field, then we will compete

52:15

and we will be able to and our talent

52:18

will be able to be showcased better and

52:20

we can just have a foundation. And so and

52:22

I was like, can we do that? Can we take care of the football?

52:25

Yes?

52:25

Can we try to take can we try to take it away on defense?

52:28

And can we just execute the fun

52:30

most fundamental part of our technique and

52:33

our scheme. If we can do that, guys,

52:36

one game at a time, then

52:38

we give ourselves a chance.

52:40

Are you excited? I mean, are you loving this.

52:42

I'm so excited. And I'm

52:44

excited because I can see the challenge

52:47

to your point of I

52:49

can see the challenge of going through the hard

52:51

times and saying we're going to be

52:53

consistent on our messaging. Guys, We're

52:56

going somewhere. Let's trust it. Let's

52:58

fix this, Let's fix these simple things. I'll

53:00

show it to you. I'm excited about

53:02

just giving that, giving them that consistency

53:05

in messaging and and really

53:07

pairing that with the character the team that we have

53:10

to go. Okay, everyone, let's

53:12

take a deep breath, let's exhale here, let's

53:14

just take the next step. So I'm

53:17

really excited for that.

53:19

And you've done all this work with these great quarterbacks

53:21

and I wouldn't say that reclamation projects

53:23

because you were saying yourself, do you know what's ready? And Baker

53:26

had it. What's the message with Bryce

53:28

Young who had a very

53:31

look.

53:35

Yeah. I think you know. The biggest part

53:37

with Bryce is for

53:39

me, at least, this

53:42

is my first year with Bryce Young. I

53:44

get him after having sixteen

53:46

games under his belt. So

53:50

I think that's the coolest part for me is rarely

53:52

do you ever get your young quarterback

53:55

with and a little experience,

53:58

you know what I mean. So so for me, I

54:00

know he's not a rookie. I know that

54:02

he's a rookie to me, Like, we're

54:05

both here together for the first

54:07

time. So we start this whole system over,

54:09

we put in this offense together for

54:11

the first time. And he's got he's

54:14

he's had some live reps, he's had

54:16

a bunch of live experiences that I can

54:18

draw from, and

54:21

like, I'm just excited about the talent. It's

54:23

it's everything that we saw from

54:25

you know, over a year ago when we're doing

54:27

the draft evaluation. It's all

54:29

there. It's all still there. So

54:31

it's just like, wait, the guy's

54:34

athletic, he can get the ball out quickly,

54:36

he's a leader, he communicates

54:38

well, it's like, oh, he's got everything we need.

54:40

Okay, Bryce, just do your part,

54:43

do your one eleventh, Just do your

54:45

quarterback part. You're the point guard, okay,

54:48

and then we'll let everybody else do all theirs and

54:50

we can dissolve the

54:53

pressure of like you got

54:55

to leave, you got to do this and all that. Totally

54:57

you're the one now. It's just not true.

54:59

I just I just I have not seen that

55:01

model of football work and win in

55:04

Seattle. We didn't put it all in Russell's plate. So

55:06

so that's not the model that we're going to try

55:08

to create in Carolina. It's like, no, just

55:10

do your part. It takes a whole team.

55:12

So my my, you

55:14

know, armchair quarterback

55:16

outside. Looking in free

55:19

agency, you guys built up that line. You

55:21

got great protection inside, which I thought was

55:23

important. And then the draft with

55:25

with Legette and Brooks and Sanders

55:28

who you mentioned, it's got some more skill position

55:30

player, Like the offense should be significantly

55:32

better just based on that.

55:33

Alone, Yeah, I

55:35

would agree, you know, and it all starts with the run game,

55:37

and so the having having Robert

55:39

and Damien in there because I love

55:41

our backfield, and then adding Jonathan Brooks

55:43

just you know, an opportunity came to us

55:46

with a really talented guy. And

55:49

and then uh just again depth,

55:53

you know, talent, just keep adding adding

55:56

key pieces, challenger roster. You know.

55:58

So that was this, that was what this, uh, this

56:01

draft and this offseason was all about. But I

56:03

feel confident that we'll be able to, you

56:06

know, to have a successful run game,

56:08

which for me opens everything else up and helps their

56:10

down and it helps move the ball and give

56:13

you more opportunities.

56:14

You know, it's dangerous asking about ownership

56:17

with coaches because of whatever. But like I have gotten

56:19

to know David Tepper. I know he's super

56:21

excited about you. What's that

56:23

dynamic so far have been Like with David and Nicole,

56:25

who plays a big role as.

56:27

Well, That's that's

56:29

been fantastic. I see

56:32

a couple who is really passionate about

56:34

their team, you know, and sometimes

56:37

Nicole more than David. She just like absolutely

56:39

loves Panthers football and the

56:41

whole thing, the community. Like she's

56:44

like so fired up to like served

56:47

and find like who can we like, who can we

56:49

bless? Who can we go and like spread this?

56:52

You know, And so that's kind of like her

56:54

deals. Like I just want to come out to practice and

56:56

and enjoy the energy of what

56:58

I'm seeing and hopefully that's what they've seen. And

57:01

with David, you know, just you know, to

57:03

be able to be with him and pick his brain

57:05

and like lean on on the successes

57:07

that he's had. You know, he's unbelievably

57:11

successful in terms of like when we think

57:13

of leadership and you

57:15

know, all those things, and I just like I'm able to

57:17

kind of sit with him and watch him just like courageously

57:21

bring us together. Okay, let's evaluate

57:24

free agency, Let's evaluate

57:26

the draft process. How did that go? Guys?

57:28

How was it?

57:29

Like?

57:29

What went well? What didn't go well?

57:31

Why not? And just like there's

57:34

no blame, there's none of that. It's just like, can

57:36

we speak the truth? Can we go

57:38

into things with our eyes open and

57:41

courageously say, Okay, this didn't work. Bang,

57:43

let's fix it, let's move forward. You know, his

57:45

encouragement to us has been like when you can really

57:47

see, when you can really look at the things

57:50

that you don't do well and the things

57:52

that you do well and you can grow quickly,

57:54

then that's how we find success. And so it's

57:57

been really cool to just kind of learn that whole

57:59

side of it from him.

58:01

Yeah, and you know, I've done a lot of research

58:03

and talk to him about you know, his Wall Street sesses,

58:07

and he's not this guy

58:09

doesn't lose and he bets on himself.

58:11

And that's what people say, like what's going on

58:13

with the Panthers. I'm like, I wouldn't bet against

58:15

Tepper and I wouldn't bet against Canalis. These

58:18

are two guys who seem to

58:21

be on the same page right now, and I

58:23

wouldn't bet against Bryce Young either.

58:27

Yeah. I mean, I mean I think, uh, I

58:30

guess one of the things for me when when

58:33

when he hired me, was I

58:36

go, here's a guy who makes

58:38

a living projecting and

58:40

probably taking things and getting

58:43

them right before they're at their full

58:45

value. And I just kind of looked

58:47

at that and I was like, Okay, so he's

58:49

got confidence in me that I have a chance

58:52

to do this. Now. I know, I'm his third

58:54

coach in a pretty short time,

58:57

and there's been you know, and especially the

58:59

last the last staff that was

59:01

a quick decision, you know. But

59:04

but I come into this thing and I go, Okay,

59:07

but he's he sees something

59:09

in me. He's really excited, and so I

59:11

think that's just an encouragement for me to go, all

59:14

right, thank you for recognizing,

59:16

thank you for seeing me, thank you for seeing this

59:20

work and this the stuff that's happening

59:22

here, and for believing

59:24

and giving me a chance to do it.

59:26

So I don't know if that makes

59:29

sense, but I just like it does.

59:31

You're the housing crisis

59:33

or your COVID, you know, all the things

59:35

that he been on before everyone else

59:37

did. You might be that and it

59:41

works out for everybody. Okay, quick questions, we're

59:43

going to wrap. I know you're giving me a lot of your time here.

59:46

You openly talk about your faith and

59:48

your father and what you

59:51

know religion and church

59:53

means to you. How has that helped you along

59:55

the way in moments where there might be doubt

59:58

or there might be questions about what the

1:00:00

future you know lays out for

1:00:02

you.

1:00:03

Yeah, super critical. And

1:00:06

and this is where this

1:00:09

is where I'm able to come into difficult

1:00:12

situations. And number

1:00:15

one, because my

1:00:17

identity isn't football. My

1:00:19

identity football is not first

1:00:22

and foremost of my life. And like, this is where I make

1:00:24

all my decisions about this

1:00:27

is this is what you know really

1:00:29

makes me. So I'm able to come into

1:00:32

challenging situations with

1:00:34

a little better understanding of like, yeah,

1:00:36

this is scary, but this is also not like

1:00:39

this, it's not going to make or break me as

1:00:41

a human in my

1:00:43

identity in Christ and my identity

1:00:45

with the Lord is so so I'm able

1:00:47

to courageously just say, yeah, let's go for it. Okay,

1:00:50

another great opportunity. Yeah, let's go for

1:00:52

it. The possibilities are endless, you know, And just

1:00:55

and then in those in those

1:00:57

situations, I think the part that that

1:01:00

I've had to lean on the most, especially

1:01:02

over the last year. You know,

1:01:04

in Tampa we lost six out of seven games right

1:01:06

in the middle of the season. Yeah, so we lost, we

1:01:08

lost four straight, six out of seven.

1:01:11

And to be able to just show up and be the

1:01:13

same guy every day, because

1:01:16

what's most important to me as I come into

1:01:18

this building is that I love and

1:01:20

respect the people I work with, that

1:01:22

I'm honorable, that I do my best

1:01:25

work, that I that I honor God

1:01:27

Colossians three twenty three. Whatever you do,

1:01:30

do it as if I'm to the Lord. And so for me, it's

1:01:32

just I look at the situation

1:01:35

and I go okay. But

1:01:37

I get to lead by example by just pouring

1:01:40

into my work regardless of the circumstance, regardless

1:01:42

of what headline was just written about us in

1:01:44

low expectations, I don't care, come

1:01:47

in here, love people, work

1:01:50

hard, and then just leave the rest

1:01:52

up to the Lord. And that's

1:01:55

that's been such a huge,

1:01:58

such a huge thing for me, especially when

1:02:00

we were losing, and like I

1:02:03

wanted to make it about me. How do I fix

1:02:05

this, How do I control

1:02:07

this? How do I help this part, how do I

1:02:09

do this, I do this, I do that, and it's just like,

1:02:12

it's not about me. It's not about

1:02:14

me, and I don't control all the outcomes.

1:02:17

So just work hard and treat people

1:02:19

well and love people, and the

1:02:21

right outcome will happen. Yes, do on

1:02:24

our ability to teach it, our

1:02:26

talent level of our players. That

1:02:29

will take care of all these things if

1:02:31

I just continue to just honor it, and so

1:02:34

it keeps it from making it really personal, you

1:02:37

know, towards others or towards

1:02:39

myself, and just allows

1:02:41

me to just stay steady and consistent

1:02:44

throughout it. I'm gonna need that for sure this year,

1:02:46

and you will.

1:02:47

You will. My last question, let's go back

1:02:49

to that that kid coming out of college

1:02:52

who's got the weights and a few

1:02:54

plates and it was a tax right off for somebody

1:02:56

else, and you're like, let's run a little gym over here, let's

1:02:58

do our own thing. Put

1:03:00

yourself in that guy's shoes and

1:03:03

have him look at the life that you've lived,

1:03:05

in the career that you've had. What

1:03:08

would you say your one piece of advice to

1:03:11

that kid, now, knowing

1:03:13

what you know, what would you tell that kid back

1:03:15

then? If he said to you, Hey,

1:03:18

someday I'd like to get involved in coaching,

1:03:20

what would be your guidance?

1:03:26

I would say, you're doing great.

1:03:31

So you're doing great, because it just it

1:03:34

started with loving people, and it just

1:03:36

started with going back to a community that needed

1:03:40

something. They needed what I learned in college,

1:03:42

and they needed that encouragement,

1:03:45

and they needed some place to be that

1:03:48

wasn't out on the streets doing

1:03:50

crazy stuff. And so I think it was just I

1:03:53

would just encourage that guy to like to

1:03:56

just keep loving people and just meet needs

1:03:59

and like that's that's kind of

1:04:01

been the roadmap to getting here, is just building

1:04:05

boyds and meeting needs along the way

1:04:07

and not being afraid to step into

1:04:09

roles I might not have been completely equipped

1:04:12

for, but to say, I'll learn what I need to learn.

1:04:15

So just I think just the courageous

1:04:17

I would just encourage that guy just and then and

1:04:19

then I would probably smack him around and

1:04:21

tell him to like, really pay more attention

1:04:23

to your wife too, by the way, because she's

1:04:26

she's amazing, and uh,

1:04:28

I wouldn't want to lose all

1:04:30

those years. That's probably more of the

1:04:33

stuff that I would spend time.

1:04:35

The personal life the being with the family and

1:04:37

not not not living in the office, that kind of

1:04:39

stuff.

1:04:40

Yeah, not living in the office, and just not making

1:04:42

stupid decisions like in my marriage

1:04:45

and stuff, the stuff that my wife

1:04:47

and I went through that I

1:04:49

my decisions took us through that

1:04:53

could have been avoided just by taking myself out

1:04:55

of certain situations. And so I think I would

1:04:57

probably just I

1:04:59

would have I would probably spend most of my time there

1:05:03

talking to that guy.

1:05:05

Yeah, I yeah. Tell you,

1:05:07

we have a lot of coaches on on you like there's

1:05:10

so much toxicity in our world,

1:05:12

and I turn on you know,

1:05:14

some of the television channels, even we're

1:05:17

talking about sports, it's this guy sucks,

1:05:19

this guy can't win the big one. Dave,

1:05:22

I talked to you. I feel like there's a light, Like

1:05:24

I feel lifted. I'm not trying to blow tires

1:05:26

into your your your your blow air into

1:05:28

your tires here, but like you have a very

1:05:30

soothing and encouraging

1:05:33

way about you that I think is very contagious.

1:05:37

I appreciate it. Peter. I feel the same way. You

1:05:39

know, whenever you send me a text or give

1:05:41

me a call or whatever it's, it always starts

1:05:44

off with something super uplifting, and it's like it's

1:05:47

just a reminder like, Yeah, life is really good, isn't

1:05:49

it. Even when it's hard, it's like still

1:05:52

good, you know. And so

1:05:54

I really appreciate that about you too. It's really

1:05:56

encouraging.

1:05:58

Okay, So go enjoy Mount Adams. Did I get that right?

1:06:00

Mount Adams? Yep, yep, Go enjoy

1:06:02

Mount Adams, the beautiful Washington country. You're

1:06:04

talking to a city slicker right here, you talking about

1:06:07

hikes and all these things. I'm like, I

1:06:09

don't know about all that, but you seem to be able

1:06:11

to unplug and get to the mountains

1:06:13

and gosh, you're up right now. And

1:06:15

for the listeners who are listening to this, it's

1:06:18

seven point thirty Pacific, and Dave said,

1:06:21

sure, let's do it, and let's start the way that way.

1:06:23

And I so appreciate you for getting up early.

1:06:26

Go enjoy the rest of your week, Go enjoy the

1:06:28

rest of your off season, and then let's

1:06:30

get after it. I'm excited to watch the Panthers

1:06:32

this year. Man.

1:06:33

Awesome, man, I appreciate you. Thanks for the opportunity

1:06:36

to just share about what we're doing and some

1:06:39

of the things in my life too. Just it's

1:06:41

really cool to just remember where I came

1:06:43

from. So bad and you enjoy some

1:06:45

time off too, Man, get all the microphone, get

1:06:47

your headphones off, and.

1:06:49

I know, I know,

1:06:51

all right, Dave Canalis. Awesome stuff

1:06:54

is always the season with Peter Schreger

1:06:56

bringing you another great one, coach, good luck this

1:06:58

season.

1:06:58

Man, Hey, thanks a lot talk.

1:07:00

So

1:07:09

I gotta say, uh, there's

1:07:12

a certain calmness and like

1:07:16

confidence that he's

1:07:18

got aaron that like I am, I'm

1:07:21

all in on Dave.

1:07:21

Kaz That was Yeah.

1:07:24

I mean, it's a good resume

1:07:26

to say. I came from working

1:07:29

with the Seahawks with Gino, who

1:07:32

was nobody's top choice for quarterback and outperformed

1:07:35

everyone's expectations. And then I went to

1:07:37

Tampa with Baker and saw the fire

1:07:39

and Baker like wanting to succeed, and I

1:07:41

saw how important it was for him to win the job.

1:07:44

And now he's going to Bryce and I

1:07:46

liked, I really loved his quote about like you

1:07:49

focus on being the quarterback, You're not doing

1:07:51

everything. We're going to get the offensive

1:07:53

line to do their part, the receivers to do

1:07:56

their part, and that will let you succeed. And

1:07:58

that's a nice way of looking at this, So I really

1:08:00

enjoyed that.

1:08:01

I also like the temper part at the end. I was a little

1:08:04

nervous that I was going to mention the owner, and then you get like,

1:08:06

you know, it's like he was very open about it.

1:08:08

He's a interesting dynamic

1:08:11

force in the NFL right now, and it's been through

1:08:13

three head coaches in three years

1:08:15

or whatever it is. But here's

1:08:17

a guy who's had a ton of Wall Street success,

1:08:20

gambles and risks some things before everyone else

1:08:22

isn't on it, and has hit the jackpots several

1:08:24

times, and it's like, okay. And I remember

1:08:27

Kevin Demoff came on this podcast and talked about McVeigh

1:08:29

and was like, he's thirty years old, but if

1:08:31

we don't hire him now, someone else will next year

1:08:33

and we'll be like, well, we didn' hire him because he was thirty. That was the wrong

1:08:35

reason. With Canalis, obviously,

1:08:38

Tepper sees something that

1:08:40

he sees as an emerging you

1:08:43

know, blue chipper, and

1:08:45

it's like, let's get him in the building now. Whether or not he's

1:08:47

had a ton of offensive coordinator experience,

1:08:49

whether or not he's a household dame, whether or not he's ever been a

1:08:51

head coach before, and Canalis

1:08:53

knows that and views himself that way. That's very self

1:08:55

aware and I really thought that was cool.

1:08:58

And like I think you said, it

1:09:00

wasn't this is the only guy who got the interview.

1:09:02

There were yeah, fourteen, over a dozen guys

1:09:05

that they interviewed, and this is who

1:09:07

Tepera was like, yes, this is of these,

1:09:10

like you said, stocks, this is the one I'm picking

1:09:12

is Canalis. So that's promising.

1:09:15

I really enjoy talking to him. They're gonna be better this year.

1:09:17

I don't know how good they're gonna be, but that's not for

1:09:19

here or for now. I just want everyone to get to know Dave Canalis.

1:09:23

Great great juice to start

1:09:25

the off season with the

1:09:27

Carolina Panthers and then training camps right around the

1:09:29

corner. Aaron, thank you.

1:09:31

I want to thank our intern at. iHeart

1:09:34

Tyler Grosso. Am I saying it right? Grosso?

1:09:36

Tyler, get on the mic. What do you got here? Do we

1:09:38

did? I? Grosso junior

1:09:42

at Penn State killing it right now at

1:09:44

iHeart in an internship with the podcast

1:09:46

group, which I think is so cool. I wish I could do done

1:09:48

something like that in College. Good

1:09:51

luck to you, Tyler, You're gonna kick butt. And then

1:09:53

for all the listeners, thanks for hanging in here and listening during

1:09:55

the off season. Some of my favorite episodes. We'll

1:09:59

be back next week, The Season with

1:10:01

Peter Schrigan. The

1:10:09

Season with Peter Schrager is a production

1:10:11

of the NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio.

1:10:14

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio

1:10:17

app, Apple Podcasts, wherever

1:10:19

you get your podcasts.