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00:00Ariante Urseri, I think is maybe the early leader in the clubhouse for best press conference among rookies so far, I would say.
00:08He was pretty good.
00:09Best press conference, and it wasn't just what he said.
00:11It was that he said at least three things that sent me to the internet to do some research on things and learn more about Ariante Urseri.
00:18So I like, he was like a teacher that you like in school that gives you fun assignments.
00:25Yes, yeah.
00:26Hey, Seth, you got to go out and watch draft day as your assignment.
00:30Yeah, that was me who assigned that to you.
00:32So what did he have you scrambling to the internet to go look up?
00:35The first was this Nekton mentality, which he just, honestly, I was a little bit disappointed that Urseri had this quote when asked were there any surprises in this draft process or in getting drafted by the Texans.
00:49He brought up this Nekton mentality, and none of the initial articles printed with the quote bothered to tell me exactly what a Nekton mentality is.
00:57So you didn't know either.
00:58Right, so here's Urseri kind of comparing it to the Swarm mentality.
01:03I mean, being a Houston Texan, honestly, I couldn't walk into a better situation.
01:06You know, we were a big cultural school at Minnesota, so, you know, Texans is the same as well.
01:10So we talked about Swarm mentality at Minnesota.
01:12We talked about Nekton mentality, always attacking and never fool.
01:16Yeah.
01:16Okay.
01:17Like a shark.
01:18So this is, so the Nekton mentality.
01:20Yeah.
01:21I thought it was an acronym for something.
01:23Here's P.J. Fleck on the Pat McAfee show.
01:25P.J. Fleck, his college coach.
01:27Uh.
01:28The Nekton is an organism that can flow through water without the water current dictating its behavior.
01:36So a great white shark is a Nekton.
01:37It always attacks, and it's never full.
01:39It's never satisfied.
01:41So whether that's academically, athletically, socially, spiritually, it's never satisfied.
01:45All right, this one's on Fleck.
01:47This one's on Fleck.
01:48Okay.
01:49This is, not Fleet.
01:52No.
01:52He's not on Fleet.
01:53This is on Fleck.
01:54Fleck.
01:54Okay?
01:54This is, no, this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, because I thought, okay, that's
02:00cool, but I go to search for what a Nekton is, and a Nekton is just basically any aquatic
02:07animal that can move through the water, like a fish, like pretty much any fish that's not
02:14plankton or anything.
02:15Okay.
02:15Or, or a shrimp, or a sea turtle, or an octopus.
02:21Okay.
02:21Those are all Nekton's.
02:23So I don't know why Fleck, I've got, I've got, I've got, I objected to this on the base
02:28of zoology.
02:30Yeah.
02:30I don't know.
02:31What the hell are you talking about, PJ Fleck?
02:33I would say that an octopus and a turtle have the potential to be somewhat badass.
02:38It's the flounder on your list here that, that is, that doesn't compute for me.
02:42Like you just, you've got a bunch of flounders on your team.
02:45What are we doing here?
02:45Or how does that, how about a shrimp or a squid?
02:48Right, right, right.
02:50Well, delicious.
02:51Or a really good human swimmer, I think, is a Nekton.
02:54Michael Phelps?
02:55If you can swim against an ocean current.
02:56Yeah.
02:57Michael Phelps.
02:58All right.
02:58So are you going to take this up with Ariante Urshory when we meet him at training camp someday?
03:02Are you going to tell him?
03:02I'm going to ask him.
03:03I'm going to, at some point, some player did definitely.
03:06I mean, they are at an institution of higher learning after a player at some point was like,
03:11coach, like, you know, this is, uh, yeah, the same way when they like, they like to use
03:17that old, uh, there's an old poem about how every day a lion wakes up and there, a gazelle
03:23wakes up and it knows it has to outrun the lion to, if he wants to survive that day.
03:28So just, you know, wake up and know what the challenge, and, you know, usually kids that
03:33have watched a certain amount of documentaries, they'll say like, actually, no, the gazelle
03:37only has to outrun the slowest gazelle.
03:39That's a, it doesn't indeed, it doesn't really have to outrun the fastest lion.
03:43I love that.
03:44Yeah.
03:45Yeah.
03:45It's a tough because the coach is on a roll and you don't want to say anything, but inside
03:49you're like, okay, you don't, your whole understanding of the way wildlife works is way off, way off
03:54base here.
03:55Bob's going to get eaten way before I do.
03:57Yeah.
03:57Yeah.
03:57Uh, so, so, but I, but I appreciate that PJ Fleck does kind of encourage or demand that
04:04swarm mentality or that great white shark mentality.
04:08Necton is just a little bit misguided.
04:10I like that Ursary, at least coming into this new culture that he is, was listening when
04:16they were putting up those swarmy PowerPoints.
04:18He's like, you know, at least he's, he's dialed in on what the Texans are all about.
04:21Um, he is going to play tackle early on.
04:24D'Amico Ryans has said that D'Amico said that at the golf tournament last week.
04:27He was asked about Ariante Ursary because there's so many players as Nick Cassario and D'Amico
04:32have both pointed out.
04:33There's a lot of guys on this offensive line that can play multiple positions early on.
04:38Ursary is going to be a tackle, but he was asked on Friday about the possibility of moving
04:43to guard.
04:44I'm on whatever they, um, they asked me to do.
04:46That's what type of guy, you know, uh, I'm just getting ready each and every day.
04:51Um, we're going to look up and see where the sun is at, uh, when that time comes.
04:55Okay.
04:56Vessel.
04:56That's a CJ Stroud word right there.
04:58CJ's going to like this guy.
05:00There's a little bit of a, yeah, if you're a, you know, the biblical background to that
05:03and just be a, Hey, it's not about me.
05:05I'm just doing what I'm chosen to do, whether it be by God or D'Amico Ryans.
05:09Yeah, I'm just a vessel.
05:11All right.
05:11Yeah.
05:12Um, now this one I've not listened to yet on the recruiting camp where he got noticed
05:16by PJ Fleck.
05:17This was one of the ones that I had to do a little research on.
05:19So kudos to whoever asked him about this, because this is really interesting and it speaks
05:24to just, uh, the, the journey that Ursary had in his story as a football player, but where
05:31Minnesota first noticed him was at this satellite recruiting camp outside of Kansas city, um,
05:37either his junior or senior year in high school, this is Ursary about that camp.
05:41I think the biggest thing, it was super hot that it was way hotter than it was today.
05:44Um, the biggest thing was this, they was going to see who was going to tap out, like
05:48who was going to quit, uh, who was going to think like they were injured or, you know,
05:52they were looking for any type of tendencies and so, you know, so, uh, I think I didn't
05:56do that at all.
05:57Um, I just, whatever they asked me, they go, asked me to go over here, over here, over here.
06:00I was bouncing around, um, and I attacked it.
06:03So, um, I think that's why I stuck out and, uh, the offensive coordinator, when we had
06:07a conversation, that was some of the things that he mentioned.
06:09Okay.
06:09You're going to get put to the test, young man.
06:11Come July.
06:13Well, no.
06:14Yeah, no kidding.
06:15Um, well, so, so Ursary didn't play football until his freshman year.
06:21And it, he was noticed by a high school football coach.
06:25He was walking through the weight room and he saw Ursary in the weight room, I love how
06:31they try to point it out, like he's just some skinny kid or something.
06:34His freshman year in high school, he was only six foot one, 205 pounds.
06:38So like he was this big kid and pretty strong and he got after it in the weight room.
06:44So they talked him into playing football.
06:45But early in high school, people were looking at him possibly as a defensive end prospect.
06:51He was a kid that kept growing while he was in high school.
06:54So he was relatively under-recruited and hadn't gone noticed by many people.
06:58He was only recruited by a few teams, a bunch of FCS schools.
07:02And some of them were, the recruiting circles were kind of talking about him as a defensive
07:06lineman.
07:06So when Fleck and the Minnesota coaches noticed him at this camp, Fleck said something along
07:12the lines of like, we were just, boy, we just, we hovered around him and kind of, we're
07:16hoping nobody else was going to notice him.
07:18Yeah, yeah.
07:19So they got him and, and he ended up, you know, you wonder, okay, well, how does a guy this
07:23size not ended up a place like Alabama or what have you?
07:26It's because he was a late bloomer that wasn't really identified early on as a five-star
07:32recruit.
07:33And that's, that's something I know Casario likes guys that showed development throughout
07:37college.
07:38And it's, it's the exact opposite of being a five-star high school recruit who doesn't
07:43end up producing.
07:43This is more along like of a, of a JJ Watt type of story where the guy just wasn't noticed
07:48for whatever reason, but then really went on to perform well in college.
07:51I would love to know too, Seth, in this day and age, you know, he obviously, by the time
07:55he was a upperclassman had proven himself to be a very viable college football player.
08:01I do wonder having gone through all that development and obviously Minnesota has done a much better
08:05job of developing football players with PJ Fleck there, but Georgia, I wonder how much behind
08:12the scenes tampering that we know goes on with players.
08:16You know, if anybody was reaching out to Ursary, like to keep him at, to train, well, to transfer.
08:21Like, I wonder if there were, I wonder if there were SEC schools that were, you know, that, that,
08:27that were, you know, trying to put feelers out to him to see if he wanted to, you know,
08:31for the last year or two that you got eligibility, get into that, oh, you know, the Alabama car wash.
08:37Yeah.
08:37Which honestly, that's, I'm glad you brought that up because somebody, I think Sarge asked
08:42him about the adversity of his earlier life and how much it meant to be where he is now.
08:48This is what Ursary said about that.
08:49Yeah, man.
08:50I wear that stuff on my sleeve, man.
08:51That's my story.
08:53That's, that's, that's my field and my fire.
08:55You know, that's the gumbo to the pot.
08:57And, you know, my family, man, that's my motivation, man.
09:00We've been through a lot and being able to overcome that and being in this position right
09:05now, it's just nothing but a blessing and my family's happy.
09:07You know, everybody's around me happy back at home.
09:09So I can't thank him enough for that.
09:12So this is a nice story from Mother's Day yesterday.
09:15I read this story about Takeda Charles, who is the mother of Ariante Ursary.
09:20Okay.
09:21Who at various times, we ask what was the adversity in Ursary's childhood.
09:25Takeda Charles had Ursary when she was 18 and then had some more kids.
09:30And at various times when Ursary was growing up, they spent some time in a homeless shelter.
09:36But then, like, Takeda, you know, got them out of the homeless shelter and got housing.
09:43And, but she was working during the day at fast food restaurants.
09:49And then she's going to go work at a warehouse overnight and return at 7 in the morning for
09:55a couple hours before she would go out to her daytime job.
09:58Wow.
09:58So, like, her mom, Takeda Charles was working three jobs often while he was growing up and
10:04while she was supporting a kid.
10:06So I'll tell you, honestly, if he turned down extra NIL money or something, especially coming
10:11from circumstances like that, that's a, I wouldn't blame him for going off and getting more money
10:16elsewhere if it was, no, I'm sure he was making good money at Minnesota.
10:20Probably.
10:20Yeah, probably.
10:21But yeah, he, like, you almost get an image kind of like the blind side of, like, this kid
10:26wasn't playing football at all his freshman year in high school.
10:31And then ends up, you know, getting a chance as a football player.
10:35His mom's working three, three jobs to try to support her family.
10:39And it was a really nice Mother's Day for her yesterday.
10:42That's cool, man.
10:42I would imagine.
10:43Yeah, I would imagine so, too.
10:44I would imagine.
10:45That's great.
10:45That's, yeah, that's awesome.
10:46He seems like a great kid.
10:48All right.
10:48Looks like he gave a scouting report, Seth, for one of the other undrafted guys here for
10:52you.
10:52You're still trying to figure out which one you're going to adopt this training camp.
10:55Yeah.
10:55Yeah, Daniel Jackson, the wide receiver out of Minnesota, who is obviously a teammate
10:58of Ariante Urseries.
11:01Ariante was asked about Daniel Jackson.
11:03Oh, man, Daniel Jackson.
11:04You're going to see him.
11:05I'm pretty sure you saw him out there today.
11:06Twitchy can catch the ball.
11:08I never really seen him drop anything ever, especially in practice, man.
11:12He's a leader.
11:13He's going to get after guys.
11:14So I can't wait till, you know, till we get going more and more and more, you know,
11:19kind of just shaking our shoulders off right now.
11:22But when we get going, man, you're going to hear a priority that game a lot.
11:24Hmm.
11:25Okay.
11:26So he's 5'11", 193.
11:30Twitchy is not as twitchy as the guys who got drafted, obviously.
11:33He's got a tough row to hoe to make this team, but he does a lot of the more intangible stuff
11:39as a route runner and is understanding, like, where he fits, where the soft spots are in
11:44coverage and all of that.
11:46So I think the Texans very much saw all of that.
11:49Doesn't have a lot of special teams experience, though.
11:51So he's obviously going to have to make a name for himself on special teams, and he's
11:56going to be somewhat new to it because he was too busy being a really productive receiver.
12:00Right, right.
12:00He was their best guy.
12:01Yeah.
12:02Right.
12:02Yeah.
12:03He's one of the all-time leaders at Minnesota in receiving yards.
12:06So, yeah, I think that he's going to – I totally see him, especially if he has sure hands
12:11of being a guy that flashes on the third teamwork during training camp, but then ends up on the
12:15practice squad.
12:16Yeah, I think best case for him is practice squad.
12:18But then if you look at this team the last couple of years, the Texans, they've been – that
12:22wide receiver room has gotten hit with a bunch of injuries.
12:25He's like, you know – if you're on the practice squad, you're going to – there's
12:29a decent chance you're going to get a call-up at some point.
12:31We'll see.
12:32Maybe this version of the wide receiver room is better at avoiding injuries this year.
12:36But we know Nico went out for five games.
12:38We know Christian Kirk has missed a bunch of time.
12:41We don't yet know if Jalen Knoll and Jaden Higgins can stand up to the rigors of a full
12:46NFL season.
12:47You make the practice squad for the Texans as a receiver, you may have a chance to get called
12:52up a couple of Sundays during the season.
12:54We'll see.
12:54I wonder if kids will start requesting to get put on special teams in college, you
13:03know, to put that out there.
13:04Like a guy like Daniel Jackson, like in retrospect, he might have been better served if he actually
13:10got out.
13:10I'm not saying he would have been drafted in the sixth round or something, but at least
13:14he's – you know, he's got – it's not completely foreign territory.
13:17I mean, it's not – it's not something that college coaches don't try to use as a carrot
13:21on a stick, you know.
13:22Like that college coaches a lot of times.
13:24But it's tough if you're at a school – if you're at a school where a guy is one of your
13:28premier players and you're trying to win football games also, you don't – it's not like you're
13:32running a, you know, little Miss Marmot's school for NFL player development all the
13:37time.
13:38You want to win football games.
13:39You do.
13:39But, yeah.
13:40You do.
13:40I just think of Belichick at North Carolina, like his big sales pitch to recruits was our
13:46main thing is going to be getting you ready for the NFL.
13:48You know, like that's – you know, so I just wonder if that's going to be something.
13:52Is it – gets more competitive.
13:52Yeah, if you're a guy that's not – yeah, if you're a guy that's definitely – maybe
13:55you're a bona fide starter on your team in college, but that you also – I mean, this
14:00isn't a new dynamic.
14:01I guess when you say our guy's going to start agitating for this, I think it's been a dynamic
14:05forever in the NFL.
14:06Yeah.
14:06Yeah.
14:06Special teams matters.
14:08Yep.