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00:00 What's the competition been like?
00:01 I mean, you come back and there's
00:03 a lot of guys that were here when you left,
00:05 and some new guys added in.
00:07 But it seems like it's been a pretty good competition.
00:09 Yes, it's been fun to see--
00:11 to leave and come back a year later
00:13 and see how they've matured more than anything.
00:15 We've all been good players.
00:17 You know, Ben Perrys and guys like that.
00:20 But they're like-- they're grown up now.
00:21 You know, they're the older guys in the class.
00:24 And they're taking the leadership role.
00:26 And it's fun to see those guys, how they've developed.
00:29 And now everybody else that's behind them at 2D
00:32 is crazy good, or fast.
00:34 It's fun to watch.
00:35 Your role, doing special teams and then helping defense,
00:39 how do you kind of mix that?
00:41 Or what did coach--
00:43 when he brought you back, how did you guys want to mix that?
00:47 So I've always worked with linebackers in some capacity
00:49 for the most part.
00:50 I played linebacker in college.
00:52 And so being able to help a linebacker has been good.
00:54 And I knew the system coming in from Purdue.
00:57 So I was able to help coach Ivy transition into that role.
01:01 And then still at the same time, he's in charge of it.
01:04 So I can go and still do special teams.
01:07 And have him focus on that that we need to have.
01:10 And it's been good.
01:11 The other part that's good with it
01:12 is when I was here the first time,
01:14 all I did was special teams.
01:15 And so I was a little bit out of touch with offense,
01:16 a little bit out of touch with defense.
01:18 So in order to be fully in touch with these guys
01:21 and know, all right, this guy's really good on defense.
01:24 He's valuable.
01:24 We might need to pull him off a couple of special teams.
01:27 And when you see guys, like, man, that guy's flying around
01:29 and just not quite ready on defense,
01:31 let's put him on special teams.
01:32 Because he gives great effort.
01:34 And he does play fast and all that stuff.
01:35 So being able to be on one side of the ball
01:38 has been good for that.
01:40 You left and then Stu left last year.
01:43 They had a mix of a lot of guys.
01:45 And how important is it to have a focus on that?
01:49 I think one voice is helpful.
01:51 Even before I left, I was here for that spring.
01:54 So Stu left and then we had a mix of voices in the room.
01:57 And I tried to manage the voices.
02:00 Because with my role, I wasn't really
02:02 able to give instruction.
02:03 I wasn't really able to do much.
02:05 So that was hard.
02:07 And when you have multiple people having
02:10 a voice in different terminologies and stuff
02:13 like that, it's hard.
02:15 And so when the kids get one voice,
02:18 kind of like offense-defense, right?
02:19 You have one guy that says, all right, this is what it is.
02:21 And then everybody else goes to coaches.
02:23 So to be able to give those guys that,
02:26 it gives them some consistency.
02:28 And then the other coaches can just
02:30 feed off of what I'm doing.
02:32 And then we all do a really good job
02:34 of coaching each position, which is as if it's offense
02:37 or defense.
02:37 In regards to special teams, you come in
02:39 and obviously you need to replace a kicker
02:40 or you need to replace a plumber.
02:41 How big of a challenge?
02:42 And how's that driving competition for you?
02:44 It's been fun.
02:45 Because I will say this.
02:46 Brock Travis then, when I left, was pushing to be the starter.
02:52 And he ended up having an injury that held him out.
02:56 So I don't know if he starts last season,
02:58 or if James Turner starts last season,
03:01 if Brock was healthy the whole time.
03:02 So we have great confidence in him.
03:05 And then we bring in Nick Lopez from Cal,
03:09 and he's pushed the room.
03:11 And then Nick Keller is local.
03:14 He's from up in northern Kentucky.
03:16 And he is, I think, one of the biggest legs I've ever seen.
03:18 So the competition's crazy.
03:20 And then across the river, we've got Colton Sum,
03:22 who's coming from Michigan.
03:24 And he's like the smartest kicker
03:26 I've ever been around as far as, if we do this, we can do that.
03:31 Or whatever.
03:31 And he's got ideas.
03:33 And he's been a real mature and grown voice in the room.
03:36 So we've got a really good mix of kickers.
03:38 And then at fronter, Brady has worked his butt off.
03:41 And to see how he developed after I left and came back,
03:45 it's been awesome to see.
03:47 He's done a really good job of driving the ball down the field
03:50 and having a good hang time and getting the ball off quick
03:52 is what you need.
03:53 And then Carter Schwartz, a local guy, a freshman,
03:57 he's got a big, big leg.
03:58 We've got to work on some stuff with him.
04:00 But like I said, we've got great competition in those positions
04:04 that we've got when he plays.
04:05 And then we've got what you really need
04:07 is that long snap with Shai Coulter coming back, who
04:11 he kind of keeps it all together.
04:13 He played in 13 games last year.
04:15 And he's really good.
04:18 And so to have that guy be consistent
04:20 really helps those other guys be consistent too.
04:23 I know you weren't gone long.
04:24 But what's it like being back personally this time around?
04:27 Personally, it's been different than I thought it would be.
04:31 So I walk in the office when I first get back.
04:33 And there's people in the offices
04:35 that I expect to be there.
04:36 I think the secretary's like Vicky and Robin.
04:38 They're where they're supposed to be.
04:39 And then I go around the corner.
04:40 I think I'm going to see somebody else that
04:42 used to be here.
04:43 And it's somebody completely different from Purdue.
04:44 And then I get to the next corner.
04:46 And my mind was all screwed up at first.
04:49 But it's been fun to get back with everybody.
04:51 And then we live on a different side of town.
04:54 So that's different.
04:55 And then my kids have had their-- not today,
04:57 but had their third first day of school in two years.
05:00 So--
05:00 [INAUDIBLE]
05:02 But so it's been good.
05:05 It's a nice transition for my family too.
05:07 We've got friends.
05:08 We had friends that would come up and visit us
05:10 when we were at West Lafayette.
05:11 And now they're closer.
05:12 They're closer to my wife's family
05:14 where my kids' cousins live.
05:16 So that's better.
05:17 You know what I mean?
05:18 So it's just-- it's comfortable.
05:19 And it's fun.
05:20 What was the relationship with Jeff before--
05:23 if you get to Purdue, did you have a relationship with him?
05:27 Not really.
05:29 I had a lot of friends that were on the staff, right?
05:32 Because there was a lot of Western Kentucky guys.
05:34 So I was at Western Kentucky before Bobby came in.
05:36 And I was a special teams coordinator.
05:37 And a lot of those guys that were off the field guys
05:41 with us got elevated throughout Jeff's time at Western Kentucky
05:45 and got brought over to Purdue.
05:46 So I met Jeff one time.
05:49 No way he remembers it.
05:51 We were at a camp.
05:51 And he said, oh, he was awesome.
05:53 He was super friendly and normal,
05:57 which is nice of a head coach, right?
05:59 And then that was it.
06:01 And then the opportunity came up.
06:03 And I was able to meet with him in person.
06:05 I think that's kind of what set myself apart
06:09 in the process from everybody else is that, A,
06:12 I had a little time.
06:13 And B, I think I was the only person in to do that in person.
06:16 So it gave me a really good advantage.
06:18 And we hit it off.
06:20 And it's been good since.
06:22 Going back to Brady, what have you seen out of him
06:24 this fall camp?
06:25 He mentioned that as it pertains to the punter competition,
06:28 it's going to be coming down to who's the most consistent.
06:30 And he admitted that in terms of his consistency,
06:33 he thought he's been a little bit iffy this camp.
06:35 He has.
06:35 But they're hard on themselves.
06:37 He says he's inconsistent.
06:39 Well, he'll hit four good punts, and the fifth one
06:42 will be a shame.
06:43 That happens.
06:44 But you only get one punt a game.
06:46 So he does a good job.
06:49 It's just we've got to make sure that when he hits a bad ball,
06:52 that it's not that bad.
06:54 And that's where his inconsistency really comes in.
06:57 But like I said, when I first got here,
06:59 he would hit the ball up in the air for 4 and 1/2 seconds.
07:02 It would go 35 yards.
07:03 Like, breaking that thing out a little bit.
07:07 And so he's done that.
07:09 He's done some really good things as far as training
07:11 himself to do that.
07:15 Just working on small fundamental things
07:17 that make him better.
07:17 And he has improved.
07:19 So he just has to keep improving his abilities.
07:21 And on Brock Travis, he said that his max range is probably
07:24 sitting around 60.
07:25 Is that something you can attest to?
07:26 Yeah, Brock's had a huge lead.
07:28 I mean, he had the nickname Legatron coming out
07:30 of high school.
07:31 It's real.
07:32 He hit 45 touchbacks last year.
07:35 And he's just stronger and stronger.
07:37 And he's overcome a lot of adversity.
07:39 In the big first half, he got hurt.
07:41 And then he was popularly the starter last season.
07:45 And he got hurt.
07:46 So he's overcome those things.
07:48 And he continues to be consistently hard working.
07:51 I think everybody on the team respects him.
07:53 Coaching staff and players.
07:54 As if he's a regular player, which is hard to do,
07:56 especially with these things.
07:58 When you all recruited, you were on the part of the staff.
08:01 He was more of a kicker than he was anything.
08:04 I mean, that's what you recruited him for.
08:05 Because of his leg.
08:07 Yes.
08:07 Yeah, well, he was good.
08:09 Like, we saw him kick in person.
08:12 And he made like 10 or 12 straight field goals
08:17 all over the field.
08:19 And it's a lot of pressure for a high school kid
08:21 to have a college coach come in and watch a kid.
08:23 He made them all.
08:24 And then he kicked all his kickoffs out of the end zone.
08:26 I'm like, wow.
08:27 It's hard to get better than that, right?
08:29 And he kicked in the All-American game.
08:30 And he hit a long field goal that ended up
08:33 getting called back.
08:34 But he showed those things.
08:37 And then now, he's starting to punt a little bit with us, too.
08:41 He could potentially be the starting punter or a reserve
08:44 punter.
08:44 But he's got that potential to do all three kicks, which
08:47 is super rare nowadays with everybody being
08:50 a specialized examiner.
08:52 Jeff has talked-- you've got a lot of options in return.
08:55 Jeff has talked about using a lot of the starters
08:58 and different things like that.
09:00 Kind of speak to the options you have in other different spots
09:03 that you're going to have to fill in.
09:05 Yeah, the returners are pretty awesome.
09:07 With the transfer pool, the guys that we brought in--
09:10 Kevin Coleman was a really, really good returner
09:13 at Jackson State.
09:14 Then you've got Jordan Thrash, who
09:18 was just dynamic with the ball if you watch [INAUDIBLE]
09:21 And then you've got Jimmy Callaway coming in
09:24 from Tennessee.
09:25 I watched his high school tape at quarterback.
09:27 And he's unbelievable breaking tackles.
09:29 And he's got good vision, stuff like that.
09:30 So those are just those guys.
09:33 Then you've got-- oh, I forgot about Isaac Garendo, too.
09:36 Isaac was an unbelievable returner at Wisconsin.
09:39 We had a career for them.
09:40 And being as big as he is and as fast as he is,
09:43 it's hard to deal with.
09:44 And then you've got Maurice Turner and Jordan.
09:48 Jordan scored two touchdowns here on kickoff return.
09:50 So what's hard now is making a decision on which one.
09:56 But what's nice is you don't get in a situation where you're
09:59 like, all right, he's really tired.
10:01 What are we going to do?
10:02 And you can say, all right, he's really tired.
10:04 Put the next guy in.
10:05 But we've got that capability.
10:07 So that's been good.
10:09 Other positions on the team, you just got a lot of guys.
10:11 With the depth that we have on offensive defense,
10:14 we are able to use more starters on special teams.
10:18 But you see that in the dog research that I've done.
10:21 Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Notre Dame,
10:26 these schools are all playing starters significantly
10:29 on special teams.
10:30 And we're able to do that right now.
10:33 Going into week one, we're able to do that.
10:35 And the backups are starters.
10:37 Usually the backups are your scout players,
10:40 your walk-on guys.
10:41 But now we have some of those too.
10:43 But we've got guys that are bought in
10:44 and do a great effort on this stuff.
10:46 It's really fun to be a part of it.
10:48 Carl, with you obviously have been
10:50 part of the last coaching staff here.
10:51 And now this coaching staff, obviously playbooks
10:54 seem added to differently.
10:55 But I guess procedurally or just day-to-day things,
10:57 what have you noticed to me the difference is?
11:00 Football is football when it comes down to it.
11:02 And I think both staffs had great people
11:04 that cared about the kids.
11:05 And it's just hard to put a finger on what's different.
11:10 It is different.
11:11 I don't know what to put my finger on.
11:16 Structurally, we run it very similarly,
11:19 where you're going to meet your practice, your lift weights,
11:21 and everything is taken seriously.
11:23 That's what it is at this level.
11:25 I don't know if it's because Jeff's background here
11:30 at the university that you got a different feel about it
11:33 a little bit.
11:34 But there is something different about ice skating.
11:36 It's football.
11:37 The linebackers, obviously, still very young,
11:42 but have a lot of promise.
11:43 What do we see from them and how big
11:45 has it been in just being that leader role?
11:49 It's been fun to watch these guys develop,
11:51 as far as TJ Quinn and Jalen Altman.
11:54 Jalen Altman had a pick six in his first game ever,
11:57 laid back against such 14 years ago,
11:59 and he didn't see the field much last year.
12:01 And now, he is in a leadership role.
12:04 He's kicking butt.
12:05 He understands the scheme.
12:07 And you think about the scheme, it's all brand new to these
12:10 guys.
12:10 They were in a totally different system,
12:12 a completely different system before.
12:14 And they've grabbed on to it.
12:17 And these are some of the smartest players
12:19 from the cornerbacks, the linebackers, the beeline.
12:23 They all get it.
12:23 They all understand their job and their role.
12:26 And so with the linebackers, you've
12:28 got five or six guys that are all
12:32 competing for that spot, for those two spots.
12:34 And they're playing their butts off.
12:37 And it helps me, because I can pass questions.
12:40 [BLANK_AUDIO]