Marcus Freeman on Playoff Heartbreak, NFL Coaching Rumors + CJ Carr's Breakout Year | Bussin'

Summary

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Bussin' With The Boys Podcast

Episode: Marcus Freeman on Playoff Heartbreak, NFL Coaching Rumors + CJ Carr's Breakout Year
Date: April 14, 2026
Hosts: Will Compton & Taylor Lewan
Guests: Marcus Freeman (Notre Dame Head Football Coach), CJ Carr (Notre Dame QB)

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Episode Overview

This episode follows Will, Taylor, and their crew after a whirlwind tour across football programs, focusing on their time at Notre Dame. Main topics include behind-the-scenes experiences at Notre Dame, playful banter on college football rivalries, coaching insights, athlete leadership and mindset, playoff heartbreak, NFL coaching rumors, NIL's impact, and a deep dive into the evolving culture of college athletics. There's also plenty of trademark Bussin' humor, audience callbacks, and pop culture asides.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Spring Tour Recap & Notre Dame Vibes

Timestamp: 53:11 – 64:08

• The hosts discuss their immersive Notre Dame visit, shouting out staff and noting how schools “wine and dine” them like recruits.
• They compare perks from different programs, including Notre Dame’s culture and hospitality.
• Notre Dame’s hands-on approach—from jerseys to letting them referee and participate in practice—made a lasting impression.
• Memorable moment: Will receiving a (pity) Notre Dame scholarship offer and Taylor playfully lamenting never being recruited by the Irish.

"We have somehow manipulated the system into going on official visits, and school's just showing us the best of the best they have to offer."
—Taylor (53:30)

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2. Game of Thrones & Pop Culture Banter

Timestamp: 37:51 – 52:44

• Taylor updates the crew on his Game of Thrones journey, pouring out big reactions to arc-defining moments (the Red Wedding, Joffrey’s demise).
• The hosts wax on TV villainy, writing, and emotional impact, tying it to broader discussions on success and public image.

"Joffrey was so good at being a villain that...I didn't want his character to have any more career success."
—Will (41:24)

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3. Greatness vs. Off-Field Issues: GOAT Convos

Timestamp: 26:03 – 30:18

• Debates on whether off-field transgressions (Tiger Woods, Brett Favre, Michael Vick) should tarnish on-field legacies.
• The consensus: on-field performance stands apart, but winning “solves everything”—and people compartmentalize athletes’ lives.
• Discussion spins through other examples (Jon Jones, Conor McGregor) and the human tendency to excuse success.

"At the end of the day, like, we like all of them. ... Winning actually does solve everything, even at—even to a fault."
—Will (29:48, 30:00)

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4. Inside the Notre Dame Program: Coach Freeman & CJ Carr

Timestamp: 98:07 – 173:58

A. Leadership, Competitiveness & Locker Room Culture

• CJ Carr discusses growing up in a competitive football family, his instant drive to win, and how it translates to team leadership.
• Coach Freeman recalls an early practice where CJ’s moxie (“without being disrespectful…gave me the middle finger…”) made him see leadership material.
• Both describe Notre Dame’s tight-knit, “brotherhood” culture, bolstered by a small campus and shared experience.

"I remember telling the players, I don't know what to say right now. Usually, I do."
—Marcus Freeman on CFP heartbreak (114:52)

B. Playoff Snub & Team Response

Timestamp: 112:07 – 117:58

• Freeman and Carr relive the pain of being left out of the College Football Playoff despite strong on-field performance.
• Emphasis is placed on accountability, channeling disappointment into motivation (“leave no doubt” for next year).

C. NIL, Transfers & Modern Recruiting

• Freeman addresses realities of NIL: if it’s a tie, financial investment in a transfer QB affects starting decisions; otherwise, players have to earn it on the field.
• The program’s limited use of the transfer portal is noted, but they landed impact players who quickly meshed into the culture.

"Your incoming freshmen…no matter what you make, like, you gotta earn your opportunities. And guess what, if you do earn those things, you're gonna get paid more money."
—Marcus Freeman (111:50)

D. CJ Carr’s Development, Family Influence & Leadership Journey

• CJ walks through how his father (a former QB and coach) “drilled” mental toughness into him after years of on-field tears and emotional outbursts.
• His accountability now: “as a quarterback, it’s always your fault…whether that's good or bad.”

E. Coach Freeman on Evolving as a Coach

• Emphasizes tailoring coaching style to individual players (“If player X doesn’t respond to yelling…you’re crazy to keep yelling”).
• Coaching is about impact, not being liked.

"How do I find ways to impact—not to get this guy to like me—but to impact him in a way that he's better because I coached him."
—Marcus Freeman (142:56)

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5. NFL Coaching Rumors & Staying at Notre Dame

Timestamp: 124:17 – 126:20

• Freeman’s name has surfaced in NFL rumors (e.g., NY Giants); he frames this as a sign the program is succeeding.
• He used talks as a learning experience but affirms commitment to Notre Dame’s special culture and the impact he can make with young people.

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6. Social Media, Pressure & Modern Athlete Life

Timestamp: 128:23 – 130:23

• CJ Carr and Freeman discuss tuning out social media noise and focusing only on internal expectations and the locker room culture.
• Freeman jokes about staying out of headlines as a wrestling dad, preferring to cheer his sons on away from crowds.

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7. Fan Q&A – Locker Room, Recruiting Stories, Fashion, and More

Timestamp: 148:00 – 165:54

• The guests respond to fan-submitted questions:
  • Notre Dame’s locker room closeness: Promoted by campus size; guys live and hang out within a mile.
  • Recruiting tales: Freeman recalls dressing in full military gear to recruit a “Tank”…unsuccessfully.
  • Fashion & haircuts: Will pokes fun at Freeman’s “twice a week” haircut cadence (“High maintenance, coach?”). CJ’s suit mishap described.
  • Gift ideas: O-linemen gifts, from golf carts to katanas.

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8. Notre Dame Conference Independence

Timestamp: 166:11 – 167:15

• Freeman addresses why Notre Dame remains independent, weighing pros and cons; might change if administration feels there's a real competitive disadvantage.

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9. Concluding Thoughts & Action Items

Timestamp: 172:05 – 173:58

• Hosts praise Notre Dame and Coach Freeman as hosts, joke about their return, and plot action items—most notably, lobbying for better player gifts (and those cherished jerseys).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “You only get so much access to Augusta. …A lot of players just don't have that access, which is why people are getting mad also.”
  —Coach Freeman discusses golf's inner circle (22:14)
• “Do not read the effing Internet.”
  —Coach Freeman, addressing the need to block out outside noise (128:23)
• “We use it and we don’t pass blame…We left doubt. And we have to make sure we use this as motivation and reminders to leave no doubt as we continue to go forward.”
  —Coach Freeman on the playoff snub (115:56)
• "Coach, my supposed best friend's like, 'Oh, my best friend's a lia.'"
  —Taylor reacting to the lie detector test idea (13:00)
• On gifting O-Linemen: “It’s not about wanting something. It’s about how much effort did my guy put?”
  —Taylor (156:42)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Spring Tour & Notre Dame Behind-the-Scenes: 53:11 – 64:08
• Pop Culture Banter (Game of Thrones): 37:51 – 52:44
• GOAT Status & Legacy Debate: 26:03 – 30:18
• CJ Carr on Leadership and Mental Toughness: 99:31 – 101:57, 137:24 – 138:53
• CFP Heartbreak & Reaction: 112:07 – 117:58
• Coach Freeman: NFL Rumors and Commitment: 124:17 – 126:20
• Fan Questions on Culture, Recruiting, and Locker Room: 148:00 – 165:54
• Notre Dame’s Conference Independence: 166:11 – 167:15

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains Bussin’s trademark mix of humorous banter, nostalgia, and insightful athlete and coach perspective. Will and Taylor joke, riff, reminisce, and poke fun — but dig deep when it counts, surfacing real lessons about leadership, accountability, adversity, and what makes a football program’s culture truly special. Coach Freeman and CJ Carr mirror their authenticity, offering honest reflections and genuine appreciation for Notre Dame.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode captures what makes Bussin’ With The Boys special: a look behind the curtain with personal stories and laughs, but also real substance about team sports, high stakes, and the evolving world of college football—set against the iconic backdrop of Notre Dame.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Taylor]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into another episode of Bustle with the Boys. I know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking, my God Taylor, is that a hat that says uncle? And yes it does. We've been trying to get this hat for two years. It is now available on BWTB.com comes in this beautiful black and white. There's also a couple other flavors as well for you to look into. This episode today is a very special episode. Our vlog from Notre Dame has now come out. You can go watch that on our YouTube channel if you're checking in here. We're talking Game of Thrones. We're talking what happened at the Masters past weekend. Are we mad at Rory or not mad at Rory? Worry about him. Who is the goat? What happens when you do off the field all those types of things and obviously Marcus Freeman and C.J. carr. And for those of you wondering, we finally address the Mike Vrabel stuff. Let's get into this episode. Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi

[Will Compton]

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[Taylor]

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[Taylor]

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[Coach Freeman]

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[Taylor]

on a special episode of WebMD's Health Discovered podcast, we're taking a closer look at a common form of lung cancer that accounts for 85% of all cases. When I first heard the words you have lung cancer, I was in shock. It's a diagnosis that changes everything. So what does it really mean to advocate for yourself when you're living with

[CJ Carr]

non small cell lung cancer?

[Taylor]

Listen to Health discovered on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Coach Freeman]

Alright, we're good. Bussing with the.

[Taylor]

Singing with the fellas Betting on her game. No woman's gonna tell us what to do and I've been over here

[Coach Freeman]

just

[Taylor]

drinking beer and making that noise baby. I'm hanging with the fellas Bussing with the boys, bro. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Busting with the Boys. This is episode 376, one away from the Sevens. Before we get anything, I want to let you know Bust with the boys. Your number one podcast is presented by FanDuel, America's number one podcast. Now look fresh off college basketball tournament. Jared, who won the college basketball tournament?

[CJ Carr]

Michigan.

[Taylor]

That. Yep. Michigan one. We can say a little more enthusiasm next time. Michigan one.

[Coach Freeman]

Let's go.

[Taylor]

Let's go. We might just be basketball guys now. FanDuel is holding down for us throughout the NBA play and tournament. Just had the FanDuel sportsbook app because that's where you can claim a profit boost every day of the tournament. This way you'll score even bigger W's if you bet if your bet wins. And that's not all. You can also enter Fandos Playing Palooza for a chance to win a share of $2 million in bonus bets every day of the play in tournament. All you have to do is place your bet live using your Play and Palooza token. Then you'll automatically be entered for a Chance to win a share of $2,000,000 in bonus bets. So watch the NBA playing tournament from the sidelines. Visit FanDuel.com Busin to get in the action. That's FanDuel.com Bussin to claim your daily profit boost. And don't forget to enter Fanduel's play in Palooza for a chance to win a share of $2 million in bonus bets. Let's give a round of applause for Fanduel and Michigan.

[Will Compton]

Shout out Michigan.

[Taylor]

I mean, it's incredible. We just. This weekend just took place. We lost the final four. Frozen four in hockey.

[Will Compton]

I saw that.

[Taylor]

I know, I know. Double overtime to Denver, who inevitably they won the national championship. Double overtime.

[Will Compton]

So you guys were in the national championship?

[Taylor]

We were in the frozen four. We lost the frozen four and then Denver went to play Wisconsin in the national championship. In Denver.

[Will Compton]

In Wisconsin. Couldn't get it done.

[Taylor]

Couldn't get it done. Couldn't get it done. Something about those like hockey schools like Denver, Minnesota Duluth, they're just weird schools that are just like sneaky, Always great at hockey.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And then I saw this thing, it's like from like 2011 or 2005 even. It was like frozen four. Frozen four. National championship. Frozen for all these Michigan things. Like how far we've gotten. Bridesmaid, but never the bride type of situation for Michigan. Really?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

In the 10, since the tens. We have to look up that stat. Yeah, yeah, we'll have to look up that stat.

[Will Compton]

We got to pump some nil.

[Taylor]

We had to pump some nil. Yeah, yeah. Always the uncle, never the dead.

[Will Compton]

You know, by the way, the monkey hats, they look good on you.

[Taylor]

Nice on me.

[Will Compton]

BWTB.com for those uncles officially out.

[Taylor]

We've been wanting to pump these boys for a minute. Can we get a close up on.

[Will Compton]

Not for a minute. For years.

[Taylor]

For years, Jack, get. Just put your face as close as you can to that camera. Also, please comment if you'd like a UNC hat as well. Just the uncat. I think the, the city needs this, the country needs this, the world needs this more than ever right now. So. But these hats are fire and they fit great. They look fantastic. In our pre production meeting today, you sat down. I thought there was a unique aura about you. Glowing. He didn't see the hat. And then all of a sudden I think Jeremy Klump said, hey, unc hats are out. I go, whoa, what are we talking about, Jack? Hit that small turn towards me. A slow turn towards me.

[Will Compton]

I like to. I feel like Klump is always rocking the fly. The upside down flyhouse hats.

[Taylor]

How many.

[Will Compton]

How many colorways you got with the Flyhouse?

[Taylor]

He's got all I got, pretty much every. He has a personal deal with Flyhouse. Yeah, Shout out.

[Will Compton]

You know, he does. Because anytime we get to travel around and all you got to do is look at the list of. Jeremy Klump's name is on the list. You know, you're flying on a good

[Taylor]

plane, you're in a fal. Yeah. If Jeremy comes on the list, it says heavy jet. If we're not on the list, it says small mid jet.

[Will Compton]

Right. I agree.

[CJ Carr]

Yes. I'm with you guys.

[Taylor]

Jeremy Club has the same deal with Flyhouse as probably Roy McElroy does. The way he was flying back and forth.

[Will Compton]

You got another table deal with Flash? No, no, buddy.

[Taylor]

You know, he got something. It's on the table.

[Will Compton]

How active are you with jj? I talk to JJ every day, basically. Which. The JJ from Flyhouse.

[Taylor]

The ma'. Am. He's the man. Great. He commented on my birthday post and

[Will Compton]

said that I'm the best.

[Taylor]

I was like, man, that's my guy right there. Love JJ.

[Will Compton]

Little birthday. Little birthday. 33. Hey, happy birthday. Happy birthday.

[Taylor]

See, I got out of that.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Bringing it back to it. How fun was it flying to Notre Dame, Miami last week?

[Taylor]

Dude, incredible.

[CJ Carr]

Some good games on the plane.

[Taylor]

Yeah, Great games in the plane, dude. You want to talk about the games a little bit?

[Will Compton]

The games were everything.

[CJ Carr]

What was it?

[Taylor]

I know. Who am I?

[CJ Carr]

I know who I am. Basic premise. Just, you know who you are or what you are. An object or a person.

[Taylor]

No one else does.

[Will Compton]

It very much became. I know what I am because the. The detail that people were getting to. JP didn't even get to do his. He's just got been.

[Taylor]

I think club ended up doing his.

[CJ Carr]

I stole it. Yeah, I stole it.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

What were you.

[CJ Carr]

Receipt.

[Will Compton]

I was a receipt.

[Taylor]

Yeah. We end up getting.

[Will Compton]

That would have been a good one.

[Taylor]

It was a great.

[Will Compton]

That was a good one.

[Taylor]

It was a good one. Yeah, it was a great one. What else was Jack's tire Swing. Rope. Swing. Swing. Had you on a blender for a sec. Yeah, dude, we. Yeah, I think like landing, getting on the bus and halfway to Notre Dame. We were still trying to figure out that damn road.

[Will Compton]

Great game. Great, great game.

[Taylor]

Shout out Charl for the game.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, shout out. Charlton Charl got it from Donnie and I don't know where Donnie got it right.

[Taylor]

Because we were out in Arizona late night on some vitamins and we were like, what game should we play? And Charl brought that up. And it's. Well, I played that at breakfast at Proper Bagel yesterday with my kids. I bodied them. Bodied them. I didn't. With the bottle cap. They had no. I had no idea where they were going. Who'd you get that from?

[Will Compton]

Someone did that on the plane.

[Taylor]

I did. Oh, I just doubled down on one of my hitters.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, that was a good one.

[Taylor]

New audience you needed him with.

[Will Compton]

Ask Jeeves next time.

[Taylor]

Is that you?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

No, that was Will. That was a nice one. That was a nice one. Should we get some callbacks?

[Will Compton]

Dude, let's hit some call backs. So all the. All the tier. The tier ones, twos and threes. You want to engage and communicate with the boys, hear the audience. Featuring you guys. On our shows every week, there are a few different ways you can hit us. And you're watching this interview or this podcast right now. YouTube, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast, drop comments. We hit some callbacks from the latest episode. Latest episode being coach Jerry Maguire.

[Taylor]

Joey.

[Will Compton]

Joey. Sorry, sorry. Joey. Movie head coach Joey McGuire from Texas Tech. That was an unbelievable time.

[Taylor]

Incredible.

[Will Compton]

Texas Tech fans are awesome.

[Taylor]

Absolutely.

[Will Compton]

Then we have tear talk, where you can hashtag tear talk every Sunday, which comes topic, question, conversation. Anything that your little heart desires. Yeah, that'll be later in the intro. And then questions with our guests. So this week, we have on Coach Freeman, we had on CJ Carr. Fans chimed in, ask some questions to them. We asked those questions. Comfortable, uncomfortable, doesn't matter. We ask them because, hey, Coach, this is from the audience. This isn't from us.

[Taylor]

Yeah, exactly. And you'll see that mostly next week in Miami. Yeah, mostly next week in Miami. You will notice, I think half the interview, we really had to be like, hey, listen, these are not from us, but. Yeah, yeah, you have to answer them. You decided to. Come on.

[Will Compton]

This is a stupid question. I'm gonna ask it. Just know I think it's stupid, too.

[Taylor]

Right.

[Will Compton]

But we're gonna ask it anyway.

[Taylor]

Yeah, go ahead and get in there. This one comes from at Grant Gendrus. Dru. S C H 1466. If Will got to do a tag partner, he's going to need vita vay. I think that's a big call back by Grant there. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Is a good one.

[Taylor]

Outstanding.

[Will Compton]

The one that matters to me. And, boys, can you just. You said you were going to bring it up during the pod.

[Taylor]

Oh.

[Will Compton]

But the one that was the most. The most liked, the most popular. This one's from pet.owner215 on YouTube. Can we get a segment where the boys twice a year get a lie detector test on the show and can at. And can ask each other questions about things that happen during the year. Real questions to see if they actually support or believe in their teams at different times throughout the season. Want to see if the boys are for the boys or if some beefs aren't settled. Ask Josh Pate, who he secretly roots for. Ask Clay if he thinks he's the best talent on the pod, etc. I think it's a brilliant idea. Whatever the consistency is. I think it needs to be like, throughout, obviously football season. You do with Delaney, you do with Clay, you do with Paid, obviously us. But I think that's a. I think that's a banger idea. Who do you think would be the biggest liar?

[Taylor]

Park Clay.

[Will Compton]

Taylor. Taylor would be the liar. Clay would be a liar.

[Taylor]

Hold on.

[Will Compton]

We're just having fun on the show.

[Taylor]

This is a show.

[Will Compton]

We're having fun.

[Taylor]

Let's have fun explaining our answer.

[Will Compton]

Let's have fun explaining our answer. I need more time to think about it.

[Taylor]

Okay, but just Taylor. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Like you're asking questions. Just. Just get you. Just get you going. Get you going. Get you going. And be like, boom, got him. Just like you guys would do with me. That's the fun, the brilliance of the segment.

[Taylor]

I will never lie on that. You will never catch me in a lie on that. Clean take. Clean take, ever. And the fact that my supposed best friend's like, oh, my. My best friend's a lia.

[Will Compton]

Hang on. Time out, time out.

[Taylor]

But you know, I think would be awesome is I'm a guy that when I hear a good idea, I want to do it all the time. I think we have to do this way more than twice. I think this needs to be like a once a month and just.

[Will Compton]

Jp, I have to. I can't. I can't let us go away from what you're just saying. I just need you to know, buddy,

[Taylor]

I'm going to be a man about it. I'm going to take that, I'm going to bundle it up, I'm going to put my back pocket and I'm going to unleash it on some person that has no idea what's going on. Why is this guy so mad?

[Will Compton]

I see. I see you bottled it up in a different light that I was trying to express. The light. The light is the fun light.

[Taylor]

Okay, show me the fun light of how Taylor's a lia.

[Will Compton]

We won't know until we get into the season, right? But he's.

[Taylor]

Listen, we're trying to keep the vibes here. This is episode 376. I'm trying to keep the vibe guys to subscribe. I'm not trying to argue with my boy, but if someone asked a question, hey, Sher, who do you think the liar is out of these guys? And someone goes, I would say, hey, clean take. I don't think there's a liar amongst us, cuz. That was a clean take earlier. Kevin. Natural food. Wow.

[Will Compton]

Clean take.

[Taylor]

That's a clean take. Now ask me. Ask me. I'll be Will. Sherm. Ask me. I'll be Will. Oh, okay. Clean take. Do you think anybody on this bus is a liar? Oh, yeah. Taylor. See how that feels. Well, how did he get there? What do you got?

[Will Compton]

I'm taking a note right now. Don't ever joke about Taylor being a liar.

[CJ Carr]

Just.

[Will Compton]

I'm just chopping that.

[Taylor]

Okay. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

We don't want to have fun on the pod. We don't want to have fun.

[Taylor]

That's a great pivot to make everybody a little more uncomfortable than the discomfort feeling we got there. A real fun way that we could implement the lie detector test is when y' all do yalls predictions for Nebraska and Michigan for this upcoming season. That could be like a nice.

[Will Compton]

That could be a fun.

[Taylor]

That could be a fun. That'd be a taste test. That could be a fun one.

[Will Compton]

That could be a fun one.

[Taylor]

That would be.

[Will Compton]

That's a clean take. Because it started to get to where I'm like, I think we just need to scrap the light.

[Coach Freeman]

No, no.

[Taylor]

I think we need seem like it's

[Will Compton]

gonna be fun for everybody.

[Taylor]

Point to prove Now. Now. Yes. Taylor cheats. Taylor lies. Like, I gotta get these things off. I mean, the only way to do that is with a. A lie detector test. So strap me down.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

This is true, right?

[Will Compton]

What's the next

[Taylor]

callback?

[Will Compton]

What's the next callback? What's the next callback?

[Taylor]

There's a good call back here from TC Lawan 77. Why is Will. No, this one is. Let's see here. Colby Marvel had a good one. What's Kobe Marvel. Oh, Kobe Marvel. 471 says, thank you so much for showing love and support to West Texas and Texas Tech football program. TTU athletics revolves around a very connected and hard working community of people. The character and work ethic of West Texas is unmatched. I'm glad that the nation will get to experience Rackham followed by A comment by CBR9295. A lot of places are like that. You're not special.

[Will Compton]

Clean fun seeing.

[Taylor]

Just hard to have vibes in this bus today.

[Will Compton]

Texas Tech fans, Baylor fans, like TCU fans. Chime in, like when we're dropping stuff. Remember when the. The backers were talking to us about the horse and they were explaining. They were explaining that the horse's ass face Baylor, and they're breaking it down to me. But seeing those fan bases just go back and forth about, oh, when you guys become a rival. Had a good time reading those comments,

[Taylor]

and I think it's the literal interpretation of the horse's ass facing Waco when Baylor plays Texas Tech. That's called The Butt Bowl. BU vs. TT the Butt Bowl. So it's a literal interpretation of the butt Bowl. So it's got a lot of layers. This takes a lot of layers.

[Will Compton]

A lot of depth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of peeling back the onion.

[Taylor]

Yeah, yeah. Or a parfait has layers. Yeah, that's true. Tiramisu has layers. True. Seven layer dip has layers.

[Will Compton]

Seven layer dip is what I was trying to think in my head.

[Taylor]

I was like, was it safe, buddy? You go to a. You go to a nice summer cookout right there, and you see that in the plastic. I usually get to look at it right before everyone digs in. Incredible. That's clean take. Seven layer dip rips clean take. Shout out. Right? Shout out Kevin St for foods. Ooh, that is a clean take. All right, this one comes from Chase Daniel. Chase Daniel says, is Roy on the goat path?

[Will Compton]

Ooh, I think I am the guy who can answer that.

[Taylor]

Possibly. Okay, tell me what needs to happen for him to become on the actual path.

[Will Compton]

Has anyone won back to back to back?

[Coach Freeman]

Yes.

[Taylor]

Who is that? Arnold Palmer?

[Coach Freeman]

No. No one's won back to back to back at the Masters.

[Will Compton]

So if he does that, would he be the goat? No. Okay. Mitch is a go. Look, look, look. Hand up. Sue me. Not a golf sicko.

[Taylor]

But you said you could answer that.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I can possibly. Yeah. There's then follow up with a question, right? If he seems pretty good, it seems like people like, I think he's good.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

I think he's. I think already he's a great golfer.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

I was looking at my timeline yesterday. People seem to be upset that he got some favorable things that went his way.

[Taylor]

I saw that. Can you expand on a little bit for the audience?

[Will Compton]

I will do my best. It seemed like the course was softer on the first couple days, and they firmed it Up Ferrari, maybe. I don't know.

[Taylor]

Why would they firm it up Ferrari?

[Will Compton]

I have no clue. That's where I'm out of my. That's out of my jurisdiction.

[Taylor]

So, okay, not the person that can answer that question.

[Will Compton]

Not that one.

[Taylor]

But maybe Chef can answer that question. His hand is raised.

[Coach Freeman]

I can answer that question.

[Taylor]

Actually fix my.

[Coach Freeman]

So on Thursday, Friday, the conditions were a little softer. And that plays into basically when you tee off. So if you tee off in the morning, the maintenance crew will usually water the grains and stuff. So you're expecting a little bit of softer, more wet conditions. Whereas if you have a late tee

[CJ Carr]

off, where you're going into the back

[Coach Freeman]

of the afternoon, the greens firm up, sun starts killing, and it can, you know, you're playing basically a different course. So usually Augusta is really good about keeping the course pretty similar throughout the week. And then there's been a lot of complaints about this week. They've been going through a drought, so

[CJ Carr]

a lot more emphasis on, like, how

[Coach Freeman]

they prep the course. And a lot of people are upset because Rory teed off late on Thursday, and then Friday they softened it up. Yeah, they're right. And I think he went at a favorable time.

[Taylor]

Sounds right.

[CJ Carr]

For the early tee time.

[Taylor]

And a lot of live guys. A lot of live guys had some non favorable tea times. People are just kind of putting those two and two together.

[Coach Freeman]

A lot of live guys weren't getting

[Taylor]

the good favorable tea times. Masters has always kind of had a take on the live stuff versus pga.

[Will Compton]

The game within the game.

[Taylor]

The game within the game. High level stuff going on right there.

[Will Compton]

Damn. That's crazy.

[Taylor]

Damn.

[Will Compton]

So. So, Chef, where are you at? You're a golf fan. You strongly said, no, he's not on the path.

[Coach Freeman]

Chef is a Rory hater, so just preface that. I am a Rory hater. Yesterday was a bad day for me. Yesterday was a hard day. After the first one last year, that was tough, but you're like, okay, he finally got the Grand Slam. And then last year, going in that second nine, which I got corrected on, there were seven guys that could have taken it yesterday. And it just felt like everyone.

[Taylor]

The.

[CJ Carr]

The belt tightened around the neck, so

[Coach Freeman]

to speak, as they say, and Rory just kept on pace. No one really gave him a good challenge. Scotty missed a couple putts. Rory is going to go down as one of the better golfers of all time in terms of goat. I think it's going to take a lot more. He has six majors. You really need to get above, like eight to nine. Where you get in that kind of stratosphere level with Nicholas Tiger and some of those cats, Hogan. But for the moment, if he wins three in a row at the Masters, that will change things. And that says a Rory hater. That would be something unprecedented and it would be very hard to deny even for someone that dislikes Rory McElroy a lot. A lot of people dislike Rory because he's kind of an arrogant prick.

[Will Compton]

Yep.

[Coach Freeman]

He said.

[Will Compton]

Yep.

[Coach Freeman]

So like, people don't really like him because he kind of carries himself a certain kind of way. But like he, he was one of the ones that was very like anti live golf and very pro pga, which you can understand and like respect, but he just has this like arrogance and around him and like a lot. Another reason why people really pissed off was because he was able to play Augusta for like two or three weeks before the Masters and people were saying that he were. He was kind of getting like special treatment being able to do that, because not everybody is able to do that. Like, he is golfs like, I don't know how you would describe. Yeah, he's like the golden child of the PGA golf. So he was kind of given special treatment. So therefore he had more practice on and like new and practice. All of these crazy different shots which then help, then ended up helping him

[Will Compton]

are all of the other. Because I saw that too, because people like, oh, I did. I. I never understood why people didn't like Rory, but now I can kind of get it and it's him talking about being able to play a couple weeks early. But I'm thinking, like, wouldn't you want to do that? Like, wouldn't you want to.

[Taylor]

If you have the access to practice, you probably would.

[Will Compton]

He's deciding not to play in these other tournamen because he's preparing for the biggest one. So he's like, the better use of my time is going up and preparing for the Masters or preparing for Augusta.

[Coach Freeman]

So to answer that, in order to play Augusta, you. I believe if you're a champion, you have a year where you can go play it. That might be wrong, but you have to play with a member. It's a very exclusive club. Getting a membership invite is second to impossible. You kind of just have to. I mean, there's only a couple hundred in the world. So basically, no matter what, even if you're a past champion, if you want to go play, you have to go play with a member. So a lot of players don't have that access to Augusta, which is why

[CJ Carr]

people are getting mad also.

[Coach Freeman]

There Were three tournaments, you know, coming

[CJ Carr]

up to Augusta, all in Texas. And he basically said, why play those

[Coach Freeman]

when I can just go fly to Augusta?

[CJ Carr]

And people are pissed because a lot

[Coach Freeman]

of players just don't have that access at all. He's like. He's basically saying, I'm better than those three tournaments. So they don't. I don't want to waste my time,

[Taylor]

but question if he is. We're talking about possibly being the goat position, which means he's had a lot

[Will Compton]

of success just playing the other side of the.

[Taylor]

We're just playing the other side of the argument because I'm not listening. I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I know the answers to all these things. I was. I'm not a golf guy. But if this guy has had this much success and he's made enough money, Tori has the ability to not only be a great girl, dad dropping his kid off at school and then getting on a jet and going to Augusta and playing and coming back, like, I feel like he's earned that ability to do that. Now.

[Coach Freeman]

I'm not against the whole, like, going to play practice rounds there.

[Taylor]

Like, at the end of the day,

[Coach Freeman]

if you had the opportunity, you probably should. I think a lot of players would, and I'm sure there's past champions that have done that. It's kind of the way he put it all about, like, getting on the private jet. And this goes back into, like, Rory's last, you know, his whole career, he's kind of had this big, like, kind of. You know, I hate saying snooty or, like, high nose kind of. Yeah. Kind of look about golf. And so when you throw it on there, like, just the way he's like, yeah, just drop my daughter off and then get on my G650 and five

[CJ Carr]

to Augusta for a day trip.

[Taylor]

Not a flyhouse jet. Yeah, just a flyhouse. Not a flyhouse jet.

[Coach Freeman]

Justin Rose is the flyhouse guy. We love Justin Rose.

[Taylor]

We love Justin Rose.

[Coach Freeman]

But, yeah, that just kind of compounds. But I'm not mad at the whole, like, go play practice rounds. Like, if you have a chance to go play Augusta, like, do it.

[CJ Carr]

But it just kind of adds in

[Coach Freeman]

where you're kind of like, yeah, if

[Taylor]

you already have this feeling about him.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

If you're seeing that, you're like, oh, that's not fair.

[Coach Freeman]

We got to get you guys watching the Ryder Cup. Because, you guys, he's a. He's a European, and you will start hating Europeans if you get into the Ryder Cup.

[Taylor]

Cup Rider cup is America versus Europe or the world?

[Coach Freeman]

Europe. We play the President's cup, which is rest of the world, instead of Europe. He's nowhere near the goat conversation because he is like, Chef. I think Chef said six majors like Jack Nicklaus and Tiger are in, like, the 14, 15, 16 range. Yeah. So he's got a long, long way to go. Palmer, too. He's like. Don't get me wrong. He's like. He's like top 10 golfer of all time, but nowhere near the goat.

[Taylor]

This is European golfer of all time.

[Coach Freeman]

Time. F. Sir Nick Fo would be. It's either him, one of those two, they're tied for.

[Will Compton]

He's the goat somewhere.

[Taylor]

He's the goat somewhere. He's a goat in some land. He is the goat offer of all time.

[Will Compton]

But he doesn't play under the Irish flag, which also bothers me.

[Taylor]

That is something I would piss me off. Yeah, I'm a big. I'm strong on the fact that if you're from somewhere, you should be proud of where you're from. Wait, what's the story on that?

[Coach Freeman]

I like Northern Ireland rather than just Ireland.

[Taylor]

I don't know. Now, hey, listen, I will say this. There's a lot of different pockets in that area of, like, London, Wales, this, that. Like, there's a. Everyone's kind of got a little sliver of something where they're not claiming a specific flag. They're more claiming, like, a little area that happens to be, like, a province of that spot. It's very weird. I don't know a whole lot about. It could be a lot of pride

[Will Compton]

in that ecosystem where it's like, I'm not. Yeah. I'm not claiming some claims and.

[Taylor]

Right.

[Will Compton]

Northern Ireland.

[Coach Freeman]

I think he's from Northern Ireland.

[Taylor]

Vikings, we're talking about. Yeah, yeah. Mob stuff. Maybe a little earlier than that. Wallace.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor]

Okay. Al Capone. We're just talking about stuff. Yeah, yeah. Territories.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah. Territories.

[Taylor]

I got a question for the entire group. If someone is in a goat category or a generational talent or has had an enormous amount of success on whatever field pitch, whatever we're talking about, and they have issues off the field, do you think that should take away from their greatness that they've achieved on the field? No, I'm not substituting anybody. The person that we brought up a lot, if you go status is Tiger Woods. Tiger's obviously been in the news quite a bit for, like, the DUIs. Like, he's kind of trending towards that great golfer, bad guy. I think A lot of people are getting to. But does the bad guy portion take away from the bad golfer? And this goes for anybody. Brett Favre is another one. Right. Been in the headlines a little bit in the past. Great football player, kind of getting towards it. We're just. I mean, I'm just saying. Michael Vick. What?

[Will Compton]

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[Taylor]

Right.

[Will Compton]

Let's leave Michael Vic out of this.

[Coach Freeman]

All right?

[Taylor]

He's generous. That's. That's a great example, though, because Michael Vick had the thing that happened, and then he went to prison, and then he got out.

[Will Compton]

He was never at any of the fights.

[Coach Freeman]

All right?

[Taylor]

But people are like, hey, we still love Michael Vick. Okay? So he served his time. He's good.

[Coach Freeman]

Yes.

[Will Compton]

Tiger has literally, I think, like, you still acknowledge the performance. Like, that is one of the greatest to ever do it, but you're just. You're probably just more inclined to say who the better guy was. Like, the better dude that has it all encompassing. That's right there. They're in the same tier. Who is it with Tiger Woods? Jack Nicholas.

[Coach Freeman]

Nicholas.

[CJ Carr]

Arnold Palmer.

[Taylor]

I still feel like there's a guy touching Tiger.

[Will Compton]

What's unique with Tiger, though, in our generation is all this stuff kind of happened. Like, he achieved everything in golf before

[CJ Carr]

he started going off the rails. And I feel like that kind of

[Will Compton]

plays into the fan psyche of, like,

[CJ Carr]

it's two different Tigers.

[Will Compton]

Tiger, the golfer existed up until 2015 or whatever. Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

And now.

[Will Compton]

Now Tiger, the man who's going through

[CJ Carr]

a whole bunch of stuff exists now, so it's, like, easier to compartmentalize his.

[Taylor]

But you'd still look at the Tiger and be like, yeah, Goat status.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

And before he fell off, like, he was just well on his way to being the greatest. He was going to be untouchable.

[Coach Freeman]

Up until 2008, when he had his, like, third spinal fusion surgery, Tiger woods was the greatest golfer, the greatest run ever. He's the only golfer to win all four majors in a consecutive year span. So he won all four in a row. That's. That will never be done again. He has 82 wins on the tour, just under Nicholas. But he also plays in a time where golf's a little more competitive.

[CJ Carr]

But, yeah, I mean, he's the best ever.

[Coach Freeman]

Dude then came back and did it in 2019 with the Masters off of, like, four back surgeries, and everyone counted them out. Like, people are saying, don't even get on the course anymore.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

The lore.

[Taylor]

Yes.

[Will Compton]

The golf pod right now.

[Taylor]

So we kind of feel like we're Separating on the field versus off the field.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

I love that.

[Will Compton]

Is there an example that you were thinking of?

[Taylor]

No. Tiger was. Tiger kind of was the example because he was brought up a handful of times, and I know that. That people love to hate on the individual as opposed to the athlete. I feel like it's like, hate as much as you want on what they do in their own personal life. That's like. We would all kind of look at me like, you probably shouldn't do that, but from an athletic standpoint, once you've achieved, it's like, it's hard to take away those things.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor]

You know? Yeah.

[Will Compton]

And the individuals.

[Taylor]

John Jones, Conor McGregor is another one. A guy that was on top of the world right, until, like, what, 14? And then he's kind of, like, made a lot of money. He's had a couple run inside, but you're like, it's. It's. I think it's perfect for Tiger and him is like Connor, who we saw in the Octagon then.

[Will Compton]

Right.

[Taylor]

And they're living two different lives. What he's doing now, it's like, those are not the same comments. Easier compartmentalize.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. It shows that, like, no matter what, your reputation plays into people's, like, everybody's influence.

[Taylor]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

At the end of the day, we're all just going to be arguing at the. At the table.

[Coach Freeman]

Right.

[Will Compton]

For guys that we think are the best. Ray Lewis for the rest of time, you know? Well, it also just shows, too, like, the importance of winning. Like, winning actually does solve everything, even at. Even to a fault.

[Coach Freeman]

Right.

[Will Compton]

It's like we shouldn't really be liking a lot of these guys, but it's like when they. When Tiger comes back and wins in

[Coach Freeman]

2019, you're like, man, he did it.

[Will Compton]

He proved everybody wrong. He did all these things, but it's

[CJ Carr]

like he was also the guy that cheated on his wife and, like, all

[Will Compton]

these things, but he was on substances. Yeah. But he wins, comes back around. Yeah.

[CJ Carr]

It's crazy.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

It's like you make all that money, like, get a driver.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Just have a guy that takes you places.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

I don't know.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, man. I don't know.

[Taylor]

I don't know. I did say a name, and it reminded me of. You did a little speech. We talked about the pod last week. Right. You did a little TED Talk out there at first for a little round of plus Real. Okay. Boy, got up there. I was seeing the Twitter, the Instagram, all the things, and I saw one specific individual that you Were so excited to meet Ray Lewis. How was it, man?

[Will Compton]

It was awesome. I got to introduce him. Yeah, yeah, I got the intro.

[Taylor]

Just give me a breakdown.

[Will Compton]

The experience with Ray.

[Taylor]

All of it.

[Will Compton]

All of it. So first form, you've been there. Unbelievable.

[Taylor]

Incredible.

[Will Compton]

Ben Newman, first form, hosted the event. Ben Newman put it on for the Unrequired. The whole theme is like, unrequired. The unrequired work that goes into everything. And there were about. About five or six keynote speakers. It was myself, Coach Rule, Coach Kleiman from Kansas State, who just retired Coach White, the Indiana Fever, Caitlin Clark's head coach, Sal Frisella. As you know, first form, the CEO of First form, and then Ray Lewis. Ben did a lot of speaking. They had some, like, some panels where it was like, me, Ben and Sal, they had a bus. Their whole setup. Chef, wouldn't you. Wouldn't you agree? Like, their whole setup was unreal with the theatrics, the boards behind it, the digital stuff going on. They had camera guys everywhere maneuvering the whole time. They're getting you mic'd up. But we're kind of sitting on that floor right there and there's a panel, Me, Sal and Ben. Then there was another panel where was a sit down for Ben's podcast, the Burn, where he's sitting with Coach Kleiman. So there's a multitude of things going on. They had. They fed you lunch. They had dinner for the VIPs, they took you on tours. They had a lot. A lot of sign memorabilia and stuff. There's. It was a cool experience. And it was essentially a crowd of like 200 to 250 people. Yeah, around there in that team room. That's at first forum. They were just filled in there. They were sold out. And it's basically what I, like, gathered. It was like all the people that were talking. Like, there's the networks that they have going on to where people were able to access of, like, high level thinkers, high level achievers that are just like joining and coming to listen everything, talk to people. They had a set up in the locker room where we had a name tag. We had our locker decked out. It come through for, like a fan meet and greet, and you got to engage with everybody that came. It was awesome, dude. It was a lot of fun.

[Taylor]

How long did you speak for?

[Will Compton]

30 minutes.

[Taylor]

30 minutes?

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Taylor]

At what point did the nerves kind of shake away?

[Will Compton]

I wouldn't say the nerves. There are moments where I'm like, flowing and on. But then there are spots where it's like, you know, I see people, they'll have, like, iPad or they had like a board going on, so they have, like their PowerPoint and things kind of going through. I didn't have none of that. So I was like, thinking, like, as people are going, I was like, I should have, like, sent them in something, so at least I would have what's on my notes app, like, sitting in front of me. So I'm trying to, like, remember everything that I had to remember the flow and everything else. Like, there was, like one point toward the end where I kind of stopped. I'm like, I kind of forget where I was gonna go next year. Then figured it out on the way through. But it was fun, man. It was a cool experience.

[Taylor]

It was.

[Will Compton]

And then the sit down with Ben and Sal, that was about 30 minutes long. And they're, you know, they're busting my balls for all the things you would love them busting my balls for not responding, like, texting back. I had one where I sat there and spoke, and it was like an 8 minute answer and Ben was busting my balls about. It was fun, man. It was a great time. We got some cool gifts too. Like some. Some PT Sickos were there, so some for the dads fans. Matter of fact, like, in my backpack, I have the jersey. One cat, I think, is it sucko? Suco. This isn't a dick joke, but Suco, he's a Nebraska fan, but he made me this Nebraska jersey. We're on the back name plate. It says for the dads, and it was number 25. I was like, why number 25? He's like, oh, because you started the pod in 2025. I was like, bro, that is badass.

[Taylor]

That's awesome.

[Will Compton]

Another dad came. His wife writes children's books, so he gifted me a couple children's books. It was cool, man. It was a lot of fun. And introducing Ray was. Was peak.

[Taylor]

Yeah. What was it behind the scenes with Ray? How was that? I'm sure you had a moment to speak to him a little bit.

[Will Compton]

Ray, I. I didn't wish I would have. That sucked. I did wish I could have kind of got him because afterwards, like, you're doing the photos, you're doing all the things with people, but I kind of just wanted to have some good old intimate time.

[Taylor]

You wanted to go, yeah, yeah.

[Will Compton]

But I feel like I got that out in my introduction because I'm sitting there. Ben wanted me to introduce him, and I'm like, how do I introduce, like, Ray Lewis the way he's, like, impacted my life, like, as a linebacker. And so I talked about all these different things of what he's done. Like, you guys know about the 17 years, the 13 Pro Bowls, 10, all pros, all this stuff, and raise about legacies. He talks. You see him everywhere. All the content he has, I've consumed. But the biggest thing that stands out to me and knowing what he cares about the most, it's impact. And then I looked directly at him and basically told him how much he affected my life as a linebacker.

[Taylor]

Did you get teared up?

[Will Compton]

No, I was just.

[Taylor]

Juice.

[Will Compton]

Did I get teared up?

[Coach Freeman]

No. But when Ben gave you back that game ball, that was.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, Ben gifted me back a game ball that I gave him. It was my very first game ball that I gifted Ben when I was in Washington. It was the. You like, that game I had gotten a game ball from, and I gifted it to Ben. Like, I basically, like, I got. He. He was coming out to watch a game, like, weeks later, and I figured I was, like, trying to get in his room. I was like, hey, can you. Do you have a key? Are you here? Like, can I get in your room before you go in there? And so then I just called somebody to, like, get in his room and set this ball down on his bed to, like, gift it to him for how much he's, like, helped me in my career and how much he worked with me, like, from a performance psychology standpoint point. So I gifted him that ball, and he was. He showed. He. When he got the ball, he's, like, in tears. He's crying. He's been's an emotional cat. And he told me. I forgot all about it, but he told me back then, he's like, whenever you have a family your own, like, I'm going to gift you this ball back. And that was kind of his moment of, like, gifting me the ball back. Because when I'm sitting there and I'm like. They were talking. I want to say Coach Rule and Sal were about to go on a tour. I was like, you guys go ahead. Like, I gotta. I gotta lock in and prepare for going out here for the speech, because it was getting closer, and Ben walks by me, and he's like, you have no clue what you're about to hear, what you're about to witness. And I, like, look at Jeff, and I'm like, all right, man. But he, like, did this whole presentation and essentially gave me the game ball back. It was. It was awesome, dude.

[Taylor]

That is awesome.

[Will Compton]

It was fun, man. I Had a great time and pop

[Taylor]

back to Nashville same day.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. We took off here at 7 in the morning and then landed close to 10. Gosh, what a time consuming. Consuming all of it. Your soul was fed.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Oh, yeah.

[Taylor]

Being in that building and being around Sal and Andy and stuff like that, just. There's people. You're. When you walk away from them, you're like, how do I have them more in my life? Yeah, Newman. Newman as well. I've only met Newman a handful of times, but it just seems like guys, you're like, if I have them around me, I got a good circle.

[Will Compton]

Absolutely. Yeah.

[Taylor]

So that's awesome. I love that.

[Will Compton]

It was fun, bro. It was a good time. Time.

[Taylor]

What else we got?

[Will Compton]

What else we got? Yeah, we got another name. What are we talking about?

[Taylor]

We do have. Hold on. We have a call back from underscore. Crazy Man, 64335. I hope one day I find someone who loves me as much as Taylor loves his pretzel gimmick quickly. It's not a gimmick. What gimmick? The pretzel thing where you take it and you. You put your finger in there.

[Will Compton]

Finger it.

[Taylor]

And you finger it and you scoop the cheese. But that ain't a gimmick gimmick. That's a way of life. That's a life hack. That's game like. You're welcome.

[Will Compton]

We'll put the lie detector test on you.

[CJ Carr]

We'll see if it's a gimmick.

[Taylor]

No, I've done it. So. Yeah, you're right. We'll put the lie detector test. I got. I got a lot to prove with that lie detector test. So I'll make sure you prove to

[CJ Carr]

this commenter that it's not a gimmick.

[Taylor]

I got a lot to prove in the lie detector test. I know that we have one last call back that there were a lot of comments on the Game of Thrones stuff with Taylor is rehashing Game of Thrones.

[Will Compton]

Then he got to witness the Red Wedding.

[Taylor]

I got to see the red one. I got to see the red warning.

[Will Compton]

Where are you at right now?

[Taylor]

Okay, let me think.

[Will Compton]

What season we in?

[Taylor]

We're on season four. We're halfway. I'm in season four episodes. I think I'm about to start episode seven. Okay, so right now, Tyrion is on trial for killing Joffrey and Joffrey's death, the whole thing. Like when Joffrey started choking during his wedding. I'm smiling the whole time like, thank God this little is finally getting his because he was clearly a monster. Like, there's no. There was nothing good. There's no character like Jaime Lannister. Yeah. Incest. Move that to the side. Incredible character arc that we have with him right now. Like the big. The big blonde girl. She's sworn to bring him over to back. Back home to King's Landing. And then the whole time you see their. Their development. He saves her. You can just tell they have a beautiful friendship that takes place. She's now gone on a horse and she's taken. Who's the big dick guy that was hanging out with Tyrion? He's like his right hand man.

[Coach Freeman]

Braun.

[Taylor]

Not Braun. No, no, not Braun.

[Will Compton]

You're talking. What's his nickname?

[Taylor]

Dude. Yeah, because he's. He's his squire. Yeah, yeah, because they bring him into the whorehouse and then they, like, didn't charge him and they're like, we never. So then Braun and Tyrion sit him down. That's a few episodes ago. So Tyrion's sitting there now and bro, obviously, you know, the mom of. Of Joffrey. And a handful of people come up and they're just saying lies. They're saying half truths because they're saying comments that he's made. But during that, it's like, man, like, clearly Tyrion was looking out for the best of King's Landing and you guys are just little bitches trying to get him dead now.

[Will Compton]

And they just hate Tyrion for being a small guy.

[Taylor]

Yeah. But when they called a break, Jaime Lannister goes in and says, I'll take over Casterly Rock. Is that what it is? Casterly Rock? I will. I will give up being a King's Guard. I will be your next heir. I'll do all the things you want me to do. If you spare his life. Life. Tyrion or Tyron is like, yes, immediately. And he's gonna send him to the wall, essentially for the rest of his life. So they call it the Next Witness. And, bro, when it's Shay, you just hear the heels, you know, it's a woman walking. I'm like, God damn, I just got chills. I know. I literally go, God damn it. I know, man. This is before we even see her. And then she sits there and just lies and once again tells the half truth. Like, I'm your lie. He told me. Like, me. As if this is your last night on this earth. Like, all those things. It's like, yeah, that part. Those little snippets are true. However, like when she looks him in the eyes and says, I'm just a. And it's like, bro, he really loved you. I know he really loved you, but the Red Wedding, dude.

[Will Compton]

Hey, but also.

[Taylor]

No, no, I. I will talk about this.

[Will Compton]

One hour and a half. I wanted to just ask a question. Is Joffrey just not one of the greatest villains?

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

He's incredible by how much you hate him.

[Taylor]

And to go off of like what people do on the field is like, like from him from a cinema standpoint to what he's done now. Like he was so hated.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And he was so good at being a villain that I don't know if it was he couldn't get work or he was just like that typecast. He had typecast. So they didn't hire him. I think he just got his first acting job since Game of Thrones last year. Dude. Because you. The acting is so good. He does such an job.

[Will Compton]

My psyche was like that. Like he was so great at me hating him.

[Taylor]

Right.

[Will Compton]

I didn't want him to have any more career that I didn't want his character to have any more career success.

[Taylor]

And just think about doing those dialogues in front of all those people and being as sinister as he was just crazy.

[Will Compton]

And he's talking about on his face, man.

[Taylor]

When Robb Stark obviously gets killed in the Red Wedding and they find out via like this, this whatever, a raven. And he's like, I want to serve Robb Stark's head to who's the, who's the. Sansa. To Sansa. And I was thinking myself, this just won't stop. Like, Sansa's clearly bent the knee to you. She says all the right things. Like she, you know, she's in hell and you still want to do this. And then I'm doing a little bit of on. On Joffrey. But when Littlefinger says that he had a bad investment to somebody's like when somebody's a bad investment to me, I get rid of them. I find somebody that want to try new things. And then that red haired chick that came from the north goes down to King's Landing. And then it just shows her essentially crucified on his bed with an arrow. And he's just sitting there. You're like this little dude.

[Will Compton]

What are your thoughts on Littlefoot?

[Taylor]

Little Finger. Little finger right now. So, so great movie. First off, little foot rips. Dude, that is awesome. Littlefinger right now hated him when he basically turned on Ned Stark. But I love the kind of we were talking about on the bus is the manipulation game JP of just like this dude really like clearly not a good person. But his ability to manipulate the system is like, oh, this dude's really playing a different level of chess. So right now where he's at is at the same spot where Ned Stark's wife's sister's at, where they have that big hole, the Veil. They're at the Veil, and he is now set to marry her. He's gonna become the king of that place. He saves Sansa, kills that drunk fool that saved, like, Dotson's out of there, which I think smart guys are drunk, and brings her over. I don't know what's gonna happen with that right now. I. Littlefinger's kind of. I'm. I'm kind of mess with him.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

But I think he's gonna. He's. He clearly doesn't love this woman at the Veil. Clearly doesn't. He seems like more of, like, an asexual cat. Like, he's not really interested in making love.

[Will Compton]

He's interested in the throne.

[Taylor]

He's interested in the throne. Same with the dude. Not the unsolved, but he's like the. The chubbier guy. Mr. Clean Looking Guy.

[Will Compton]

The ball.

[Taylor]

The ball guy. When him and Oberon. Oberon were sitting there and they're like. He's like, I know you were into boys before your, you know, your genitals got taken away from you. And he's like, no. He's like, women. I would have been surprised. He's like, need either. He's like, well, you don't have desires. You. You have better focus. Like, what do you focus on? They. He just looks over at the throne, and that's the end of the scene.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And it's like, bro, everybody wants this. Meanwhile, Cleese is over there just taking over things and take stuff down. Takes this kingdom down. That kingdom gets to the third kingdom where everybody's hung up on the post and they've been all crucified. They've taken over. She's about to set sail to go across the narrow sea, realizes the two she took over are now taken over by worse people. So he's like, oh, I legit have to, like, reign this area right now. I have to be, like, queen for a little bit to, like, settle this area and make sure there's no tomfoolery taking place with the slaves. So all like, it is as advertised. It is as advertised. None. The Red Wedding. Clearly, I was, like, familiar with the Red Wedding. You've brought it up a bunch. Like, people, like, we'll just talk about, like, crazy happens it was like red wedding. Right? And then you kind of, like, sit back and you kind of, like, smile and laugh and be like. Yeah. But you don't really know. We did the pink wedding at Surviving Barstool. Everyone's talking about the red wedding. It's called the pink wedding. There's gonna be a lot of kills today. So you understand, like, something bad is going to happen. And when Robb Stark dips on old buddy to marry the girl and they go back and just the way the king that, like. Hey, he's got the coldest.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Scraggly hair.

[Taylor]

Yeah. And he's like. Brings the girl up that Robb Stark marry. And he's like. Just says some real inappropriate shit in front of everybody. But then he's like, let's go have a great time. It's like, you know, that's not okay.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

But the weird. The thing that threw me off the most was I know there's a red wedding. I know it happens in the middle of these seasons based on what everybody said. But there was Tyron, his wedding taking place in King's Landing, and this other wedding taking place. So I'm thinking maybe the red wedding is, like, people just get murdered at both. And I'm just not knowing. But watching the wedding go down, buddies. Robb Stark's uncle is happy because he's got an attractive woman. Everything seems all good. They're getting drunk and having a good time. And then they. Was it the mom? Ned Stark's wife walks over the doors and closes the doors. And the music changes, which I later find out is Castamere. Yeah. Which is the Lannisters, like, theme song. Correct. So she turns around. You see the. The nervousness on her face. And I'm like, oh, stuff's about to go down. So she walks over to another guy. I think he's a Baratheon. Bruce Bolton. Bruce Bolton walks in. By the way, his son crazy with Theon Greyjoy is. Is nuts. Kind of don't with Theon, though. So I'm kind of sitting back like, whatever. Yeah. When she pulls that sleeve back and sees chainmail and slaps him. I still don't know what's about to go down. And then. Then it just. Chaos ensues.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And the fact that Arya gets there with the Hound at the same time as shit's going down and the Hounds like, we got to get out of here. Because. Low key. I mess with the Hound.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Like, bad guy, good character arc taking place right now. Yeah. He wins on the field, wins on

[Will Compton]

the field, wins on the field.

[Taylor]

Yeah, he wins in the field. He's got one of the, the hardest quotes of the entire show. I'm not gonna say it on this because it's a. It's a little too tv, Ma. But he's got a hard ass quote when there's, when they're trying. When he's still a part of the Kingsguard. And Joffrey, the. Arya. Her last little part. The last thing I've seen with Arya was she was going to sleep and she's saying all the names of the men she's going to kill. And the Hound's like, why? What are you doing? She said, I can't go to sleep until I say them all. And they basically have a little. They bicker back and forth for a little bit. And he's like, we'll finish your list. She goes, it's almost done. I have one more. And she rolls over and says, the Hound. I'm like, oh, my God. Because a piece of me has Stockholm syndrome. For Arya, it's like, yo, this guy's kind of helping you out quite a bit. Got your sword back, Your little toothpick sword. You got. You've gotten killed. Those guys moved on from this. He's helping you get to wherever you need to go. And yet you're still thinking to yourself, this has to die. But the last thing I saw, the whole thing was Tyrion saying, I, I. He wants to confess not to murdering Joffrey, but for being an imp. All the things. Like, he goes off on everybody's. I wish I had poison all of you. I wish I could take pride in the fact that Joffrey, I killed Joffrey. But I didn't kill Joffrey. And the only way for me to get anything done here is I, I want a trial by battle, or whatever it's called. And that's when the, the episode ends. But you try to go to sleep after that.

[Coach Freeman]

What?

[Taylor]

No way hard. No way hard living. But that's where I'm at in the show right now. That's my breakdown. Shout out Barry. Underscore McCockiner.

[Will Compton]

It's unbelievable, right?

[Taylor]

It's unreal. And I think I have an idea of what goes down in the battle. But, you know, we don't have to talk about a show.

[Will Compton]

Did you have a massive, wow. Surprise factor when the Red. Winning Red Wedding took place?

[Taylor]

No, I think, I think that's a product of just years of it knowing. Yeah. Years of it seeing it essentially. Essentially unfolding in this process of elimination. Like two Big weddings are taking place right now. Like, this is probably when it happens.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

How you've talked people just referring to the red wedding.

[Will Compton]

To it.

[Taylor]

Yeah. So to me, it's like I kind of knew what was going to happen, but still. Like, when Ned Stark's wife, who I never liked in the show, and she's just looking off in the distance, and somebody just walks up and says, I know, yo, what are we doing?

[Will Compton]

And that was a show, too. It's like. It was a show where you start to realize you can't get connected to characters because they don't give a shit in this writing.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Like, imagine just watching in real time and nobody. There's no lore, there's no. It hadn't been talked about. No nothing. And you're just in the game of thrones and so many characters just got got. Just got offed.

[Taylor]

Yeah. Like, I know, like, Rob Stark, somebody I got. I was like, oh, this dude fights, like, with integrity. Mess with him a lot. Like, he's a dude that does. Does the right thing for the right reasons. He's not being king because he wants to. He has to be king because he has to type of vibes. And I loved him for it. I thought his mom sucked just getting rid of Jaime Lannister like that. And, like, in hopes that he would send her two daughters away.

[Will Compton]

But you still felt good because Baratheon was, like, still the guy, right?

[Taylor]

Stannis Baratheon, he's the guy with the. The witch.

[Will Compton]

No, the.

[Taylor]

The sun God.

[Will Compton]

Who am I thinking of? The one who ended up basically getting stabbed by the. Just a hog out in war. He was the king. King from first season. Robert first king. And then Rob or Ned Stark is still alive. You're like, you kind of hate that Baratheon goes down because you see all the inner workings going on around him of how they don't want him to be the king.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

And it's like, okay. At least he wrote on that note. Like, Ned Stark, he's still like, we still got everything.

[Taylor]

Everything's right on the note, though. There ain't no way they're gonna let that happen.

[Will Compton]

Right. And then he gets yapped, and you're like, damn, bro.

[Taylor]

In front of his daughter, too. Which I think is just so crazy, man. And that. So this cat that is torturing Theon Greyjoy basically calls himself Rick now. They just tried to save him.

[Will Compton]

Oh, bro.

[Taylor]

He's like, no. He's like, I'm not leaving. And he, like, rewarded him with a bath. And it's Just man, this guy, he's like a joker esque type of individual. Ramsey. Yes.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And then finding out he's a bastard as well.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Just crazy. Jon Snow's just up there. You know there's a massive war about to take place. I know that. That, that gif is about to happen any moment.

[Will Compton]

You still got two seasons before that.

[CJ Carr]

Oh, yeah.

[Will Compton]

Before you get that. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, if you're. If you're touching that now, I'm like, oh, my God, bro.

[Taylor]

Tyron Lannister. Oberon. Oberon's the guy from. He's like Bron. No, no, no, no. From Dorne. Right. And he, like, he hates Tyron.

[Will Compton]

This is the Mandalorian.

[Taylor]

Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I. With the last of us character, I mess with him. He's like a free thinking, free spirited. Like, just does things completely different than anybody else. Like, goes against the grain.

[Will Compton]

Athletic, too.

[Taylor]

And just the way they talk about him as a warrior like you. I saw a clip, so this is not my thought, but the fact that Tyran Lannister is like, if you help me, me, I'll give you your shot at the Mountain. And I saw the clip of Pedro Pascal and what he does to the Mountain, I can't wait for that. And I'm assuming. I'm assuming it's Tyrion. Oberon says, I'll fight for you.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And then what a. Tyrion says, okay, we'll give him. We'll give him the. What's his name? Yeah. Tywin Lannister gives him the mountain trial.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And they go at it. Am I correct in saying that, you guys.

[Will Compton]

Do you want to know? That's what I'm saying. You're starting to get into murky waters. You don't. You don't want to see facial expressions of anything, bro.

[Taylor]

But because. Because where I'm at in the show, we'll say this.

[Will Compton]

We'll say this. You're on the tip of the iceberg.

[Taylor]

But hold on. I've seen that clip. So this is not my. This is just process of elimination. And I. And Tyrion just said I want a trial by battle. Like, am I correct? And those are the two that get lined up. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's a safe assumption. Yes.

[Will Compton]

Clean take, clean take.

[Taylor]

Shout out Kevin.

[Will Compton]

Clean assumption. Yeah. Shout out Kevin's Natural foods, man. Inform energy for the spring tour.

[Taylor]

Yeah. Come on, man. Spring tour is complete. All teams treated us like five star recruits. We have somehow manipulated the system into going on official visits.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And school's just showing us the best of the best that they have to offer.

[Will Compton]

And even better than official visits because we're not playing anymore.

[Taylor]

No.

[Will Compton]

They don't, like, need us to commit to them.

[Taylor]

Right. There's no, like, awkward pressure of a coach, like, kissing your ass.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

It's literally just, hey, you guys want to show off our stuff? We'll let you show it off. Let me show you all the things we have. And you get to experience it right now.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And you get to go into these practices not thinking yourself, do I want to play for this coach? It's like, let me just immerse myself in the culture.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And it is all time.

[Will Compton]

And not only shout out Kevin's natural foods, but shout out Kevin. Shout out Kevin at Notre Dame.

[Taylor]

Shout out Kevin. Dude. Let's give a run of applause for Kevin.

[Will Compton]

Kevin was this show and you know,

[Taylor]

like, the fact that Notre Dame, who has, like, they have that brand that's just at the tops of the tops. And Kevin went through and watched Texas Tech has watched the podcast. Told me it was 29. That blew me away a little bit. Right, Jared? Blew you away a little bit. They was 29. Yeah, you said it, right? Yeah, I don't.

[CJ Carr]

I mean, I was close doors.

[Taylor]

You were the one.

[Will Compton]

Shout out Kevin. Shout out Kevin. I will say, like, this is how

[CJ Carr]

close we got with him. It was like by 8am he was already. We were already learning about his, like, relationships and stuff.

[Taylor]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Personal life.

[Taylor]

We finished the meetings. We finished the talk with the. The online. We walked in there, he's breaking down his favorite music. Girls.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

His girlfriends, his ex girlfriend, big wrestle, a WWE guy. All about it.

[CJ Carr]

We got really close with him in that room.

[Taylor]

Yeah. He is. He's a guy that I want to hang out with again.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

I want to be around him again. That's it. That's all I got. Full stop on that.

[Will Compton]

Their staff was gonna shout out Katie. Who else do we need to shout out?

[Taylor]

Yeah. Katie was great. That's incredible. In Notre Dame. God.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

So they did homework on Yalls Texas Tech visit and basically said, how do

[Will Compton]

we outdo Texas In Oregon, he even watched the. He was like, what did he say? Because when he was busting, he was like, hey, you're capped on your speech. I saw the organ. That was the organ one. I also saw the one that you gave at the Red White spring game. But we can't do, like, we can't make a situation to where it's like the Red White spring game. Like, I'm like, bro, you watched everything.

[Taylor]

Did his homework. The hard out for Will speech is hilarious.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[CJ Carr]

The special teams coach came in to.

[Will Compton]

What was it called? The. The gouge or what was it called?

[CJ Carr]

And he's like.

[Taylor]

Like, he went seven minutes.

[Will Compton]

He didn't go five.

[Taylor]

He times, dude, how about going to class?

[Will Compton]

Going to class.

[Taylor]

That was awesome. That class was awesome.

[Will Compton]

Quentin Nelson pop up on the screen too, right?

[Taylor]

Doing a big papa remake. That's it, dude. And I know there was a moment there where Will and I kind of got bullied. We kind of got mean girled a little bit. That's okay. What happened? What do you all even. It was. I was probably. Am I fair to say, like, it was probably more us than them. It kind of was y', all, because they're these three girls who have no idea what y' all do for a profession and asked, what do y' all do? Yo, we have a podcast. And they asked, what's it about? And your first word instead of saying we're ex NFL players was community. And that was. That was it. And so the girls were like, we weren't.

[Will Compton]

I was. I mean, I'll speak for myself. I was nervous.

[Taylor]

It was also the tone. It was tone. It was the tone in which the question was asked. Girls can be scary, too. Girls are always especially. They were. It was a group of three, and it almost felt like you're back in middle school. And it's like the cool girls ask you, why are you wearing those tennis shoes? You're like.

[Will Compton]

And it's a classroom full of, like, who even knows? Because obviously people want to take pictures afterwards, but you have no clue if anybody in there is even close to familiar with bus with the boys and the teachers, like, hey, will you guys stand up and say a few words?

[Taylor]

And we're like.

[Will Compton]

I mean, if you want to.

[Taylor]

Yeah, if you want us to. It wasn't. It would have been nice if someone asked for a photo before. So it's okay. They got to know who we are.

[Will Compton]

And it's not like an engaging classroom. Like, everybody's just quiet, sitting there, the entire class. And dude, like, it's us being like, hell, yeah. Whoever just did a presentation, I hope

[Taylor]

there's one to three of those kids in that class that watch this episode so we can just tell them, the teacher you have is incredible.

[Will Compton]

You gotta cherish him.

[Taylor]

You gotta cherish him. Because when you walk away from that, being 34, that's probably the uncomfortable part too. Like, these kids are 18 and 21. And we're sitting there like.

[Will Compton]

And when he's talking about Rocket By Baby. Or was it Rocket by Baby? The music?

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

He's talking about how much it matters for him because he's Daddy. He's like, I know nobody in here. He kind of feels like he's talking to himself. But I'm sitting there, I'm like, no, he's giving him some games. Don't know right now.

[Taylor]

That's serious game.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

So he's awesome. The mustard thing was incredible.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Who is it? The. The Shout Out Sharon.

[CJ Carr]

Is that the girl's name? Sharon is the girl who posed the question. Is mayonnaise an instrument?

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Shout Out Sharon. Gosh.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

She crushed it. Her performance, economic impact of it, what

[CJ Carr]

it means for the future, how important

[Will Compton]

it was to the past.

[CJ Carr]

Past. And how mayonnaise is the key to a great present.

[Will Compton]

And that class did not give the pop it deserve. No, it's.

[Taylor]

I think JP Just gave us. Me. I think that was what it was.

[CJ Carr]

Honestly, it just started coming, and I was like, I might as well keep going.

[Taylor]

Yeah. It was basically about the studies of, like. This question was asked, like, can a mayonnaise be a Right.

[Will Compton]

But the economic impact was real.

[CJ Carr]

She gave three impacts.

[Will Compton]

She gave the. The Hellman's mayonnaise thing. Every student that goes up, they're giving a presentation of their own. They can pick whatever they want over, like, a current event happening.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[CJ Carr]

Current events in music.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Current events.

[Taylor]

A lot of Kanye. Yeah.

[CJ Carr]

No, but she hits the man as an. As an instrument. And then the teacher, again, did not get the pop it deserved. He's like, I've never used mayonnaise, but I've used mustard. And then just plays this video of him using mustard as an instrument to not like us.

[Coach Freeman]

Right?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Yeah. It was awesome.

[CJ Carr]

No one cracked a smile.

[Will Compton]

We were laughing. We're, like, smiling in the back. But, yeah. You just feel the vibe of the room, and it's like, oh, man.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

If you were to clap or give him some juice, I feel like it would have come off as, like, class clownish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where you're just like, I guess I'm just gonna be a sheep right now. I'm enjoying this, but I'm gonna sit back and just let it kind of come to me.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Because that mustard went kind of hard. That breaks my heart. That guy deserved a standing O for that dude. Kev was like, we'll be in here for, like, 20 minutes. Whatever. We were there for the whole class, the entire Class.

[Will Compton]

Our group, like, our entire shop. We would love being in this guy's class and doing the presentations.

[Taylor]

Yes. He didn'.

[Will Compton]

The whole time.

[Taylor]

Yeah, it was an hour class, and they said, we're only probably gonna be here 30 minutes. He goes, oh, we'll probably only go 30 minutes anyways. Don't worry.

[CJ Carr]

He just cut his class short.

[Taylor]

He was awesome, dude. Yeah, we need Kevin ahead of marching band at Notre Dame. Yeah, he's like. He's involved. He's very into. He's like a big ball guy.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Yeah. What school was this in? Like, communications? The Gook.

[Will Compton]

By the Goo.

[Taylor]

By the Gook.

[Will Compton]

The Gig is not short for gig. And hi.

[Taylor]

It's by the Gook. The Gig. Is it called, like, music tech?

[Will Compton]

Is that what it's called? Oh, yeah, yeah. Something like that. Yeah.

[Taylor]

It might have been music Tech. Guys, let's not get to. It's by the Gook.

[Will Compton]

Music. Music Tech by the Goo.

[Taylor]

We had a guy come up. You had an old friend walk.

[Will Compton]

Oh, yeah, dude.

[Taylor]

We had two. One kid. One kid came up to me. He's like, I have to show you this. Photos from when I was, like, a freshman in college. When he was, like, a little kid. He's now, like, a freshman or he's at the university.

[Will Compton]

He's on the squad.

[Taylor]

He's on the. He's on the squad. Yeah. I think he was a player.

[Will Compton]

Say, the physique.

[Taylor]

Yeah, we. We redid the photo. That was awesome. But then we start walking, and some older guy walks up to me, and he's like, hey, have you seen. He, like, ra. Was like, have you seen David? So. And so. I had no idea what the name was. And I'm like, no, I haven't spoke to him a minute. And, like, vibes are high. He goes, not doing very well right now. You should reach out. He's not doing well. Yeah, like, oh, yeah, all right. Yeah, I'll for sure do that. We, like, three steps away. I'm like, jeez.

[Will Compton]

He's, like, shaking Taylor. We're, like, shaking his hand, thanking him for allowing us to be here and stuff like that. And I stay the question. He's like, you haven't. He's like, oh, yeah, he's in bad health. You should reach out to him soon.

[Taylor]

And then it walks off.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Like, oh, thanks. There's a little angel. They just came by to be like, make sure you reach out to the ones you love, but get out of here. Back to the guy who showed you the photo that he took when he Was a young kid with you at Michigan. It almost felt like we wanted to recreate that photo. He didn't want to.

[Will Compton]

He was more like my dad wanted

[Taylor]

to start with that too. We're like, we need to do as much as possible.

[Will Compton]

Taylor's like, you know, they both have their, like, awkward, like, smiles going on. I'm like, hey, let's recreate this photo. You guys get together.

[Taylor]

Yeah. Like, the conversation is kind of over. Hey, I appreciate you showing me that. And you guys are like, let's do more. Was this.

[Will Compton]

But how sick is that?

[Taylor]

Dude, that is awesome.

[Will Compton]

That is his old photo. Taylor. He's got his baby face. He's a freshman. This dude is like, he's small.

[Taylor]

I got like the young boy. It's like after like a scrimmage practice. Yeah, like that. Just like you massive.

[Will Compton]

Because he came up. He's like, my dad said I had the show. And I'm like, I'm thinking in my head. I'm like, I'm sure there's a part of you that thinks this is something sick too. Like, you're seeing Taylor again after all these years.

[Taylor]

Right?

[Will Compton]

Like, let's recre. We got to recreate the photo. You got to show your dad.

[Taylor]

That's the thing where he at in the moment. Didn't want to do that. But he's now sitting here and probably in that same class right now being like, I'm happy I did that today.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Taylor]

Sits back. Is that there? It is. I wish it was zoomed in. More zooming. Not there. Yeah. I wish we had the photo to go back to back.

[Will Compton]

Do you have a jack?

[Taylor]

No, I just have that original one. I mean, the. The recreation.

[Will Compton]

Oh, we don't have the OG well,

[Taylor]

because we took it on his phone and then. Then I got the airdrop. I thought he was going to airdrop me a bunch of them. He sent me one singular photo, and I guarantee he probably deleted most of them afterwards. It was a good time for not being a golf podcast. Pretty golf coated picture here with the

[Will Compton]

long sleeve, quarter zip.

[Taylor]

Thank you. And a golf cart in the background. Golf cart in the background. And that's a collar shirt you see on the back.

[Will Compton]

Polo underneath the Q. Zip.

[Taylor]

Yeah. Well, dude, at Notre Dame, like, did you guys. Not when we were at Notre Dame gsv. Like, I can't curse when I'm here.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor]

I said that to Kev.

[Will Compton]

He's like, no, you don't. Don't think like that. I felt that way the whole time.

[Taylor]

I felt like An F bomb would be like, too far. Like, you know, Father would come up to me and be like, we don't

[Will Compton]

do that at first. Then somebody just comes up to you and throws holy water on you.

[Taylor]

Right. Things a little bit, dude. And also, speaking of Father, like, when we're in the locker room, we're like about to go out, and he's like, take a knee here. And I'm thinking, all right, we're gonna. We're method playing right now. We're method acting. And then. Then a father comes out to do the thing with us.

[Will Compton]

Do the prayer.

[Taylor]

That was sick.

[Will Compton]

And then when they're playing the. The hype video on the big screen and. And Don's like, hey, whenever we hit the. Whenever we hit the goal line, we go. I'm like, all right. I'm like, hey, whenever we hit this line right here, we got to go. And I'm thinking, I guess we just got to fully embrace. So we just bought in, ran out, running out. Like, we're running out in front of a crowd.

[Taylor]

Yeah. Clump. And I got two one on ones.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Then we got to be carried off the field. I'm making the boys chant, Willie, how

[Taylor]

massive was that that we caught so fun? Because at the end. Oh, yeah, at the end of practice, Coach goes, hey, you guys catch a punt, like, we're gonna. One for one. Taylor, you catch a punt, defense is going to take you off the field. Like Rudy. Same thing for Will with the offense. That first one, he kicked that Aussie, what, a leg on the kid, too, by the way Jasper kicks that ball. I think it was on, like, the opposite 45 hits on the opposite 45. And I start running and I look over and see coach and he's like, not that one. Not that one. It starts yelling at the kid. I watch where it land. Bounces on the five. Perfect punt. It was an incredible punt. He hit the corner perfectly. Everything. The second one tracked that down. No problem, dude. That was nice pressure.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Then you caught it. I'm like, I have to catch this now. And then we both caught him. I'm looking over at the offense, who's

[Taylor]

going to, like, class the. The reaction. The teams all just stood there like,

[Will Compton]

we gotta pick these dudes up. I'm, like, looking around offense, who's gonna pick me up? I look at the offensive line. The offensive line's like, we got you. Get over here.

[Taylor]

Get over the way.

[Will Compton]

Will jumped on that guy, bro.

[Taylor]

I know.

[Will Compton]

I thought he.

[Taylor]

I thought I heard him. Guy who has back issues to Jump on another man. Like, that is crazy.

[Will Compton]

Crazy. That was crazy by me. There it is. Say Willie.

[Taylor]

Say Willie.

[Will Compton]

And I'm like, come on, guys.

[Taylor]

I need you. Willie. Willie.

[Will Compton]

I'm like, guys, guys, come on. Like, do the chant. A few. Like, two guys.

[CJ Carr]

Like, it was so awkward, like, when

[Will Compton]

y' all first caught it. The greatest to ever do.

[Taylor]

Hey, do we want to talk about Marcus Freeman cheating and shuffleboard?

[Will Compton]

This is a good time before we

[Taylor]

do that, to plug the vlog, which is out yesterday.

[Will Compton]

As you're listening to today, the Notre Dame vlog.

[Taylor]

Yeah, it's out.

[Will Compton]

It's out right now.

[CJ Carr]

There's a lot more detail to some of these stories.

[Taylor]

It was. It was an incredible time. It was an incredible time. They truly.

[Will Compton]

They just got.

[Taylor]

They went above and beyond, dude.

[Will Compton]

They just gotta fix the shuffleboard now. I did have a. I did kind of mess it up a little bit because I salt. I sanded it a little.

[Taylor]

You did, but. But you could say you did something wrong there. You're the only person that showed up between the two of us. Like, you're the only one that got.

[Will Compton]

Here's my thing. You watch the vlog. You're going to see in the vlog that, you know we can't make. You can't score on this shuffleboard. Like, you just can't. No matter how soft, no matter how hard. Doesn't matter. It's sliding off. It's lean in one side. And because I like us in shuffleboard, same. Always have, always will forever. But the fact that we're playing the five and it's the most competitive game because nobody can score four is preposterous.

[Taylor]

Yeah. And it's a game, too, that, like, goes back to the foundation of our friendship of when we first started. Like, it was shuffleboard every single day for a while. So the fact that we didn't have a big opportunity against Marcus Freeman, and

[Will Compton]

that was night one, so we're trying to feel like, can we bust his balls in his house? Like, this shuffleboard is.

[Taylor]

Yeah, yeah. And he got competitive, too. Got competitive. He was dialed. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

There's some good hedges locked in just

[Taylor]

watching the whole thing. Right, right.

[Will Compton]

Freeman was awesome.

[Taylor]

Talking a little too. He was fun. He was tell you talked a little with C.J. carr.

[CJ Carr]

C.J.

[Taylor]

carr's got something bump out at everything.

[Will Compton]

Yes, I know.

[Taylor]

That pisses me off, man.

[Will Compton]

He got you both out and in. Knockout. Yeah.

[Taylor]

Yeah. I got enough bodies to be happy with that, though, because who was. Who was the guy that got me out first? Do you remember his name?

[Will Compton]

Oh, you're Sneed.

[Taylor]

I don't know if it was the linebacker, right?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, he had the chain.

[Taylor]

Because we. When we first started, he's like, you go first. I can't really show. Shoot. We were around once, maybe twice. On the third time gets me up by draining a three, and I'm like, oh, okay. So you can shoot. He, like, starts laughing and giggling so that next time. Got his ass. Got a couple more of them, too.

[Will Compton]

Didn't Ryan almost get the entire team out, Bro, It.

[Taylor]

At one point, it was me, Will, Ryan, and, like, three others. It was like half bus and half Notre Dame. Guys were like, oh, we have a legit shot here.

[Will Compton]

We gotta take down this universe.

[Taylor]

And then I get sniped. Will gets sniped, and then it's like Nolan and two notre dame guys. McGon. No, we're done here.

[Will Compton]

Nolan can play better than the way he performed.

[Taylor]

Hey, run that.

[Will Compton]

It was frustrating me. I'm like, bro, you got a stroke.

[Taylor]

Run that back real quick. That's a heady bump out play I had there. Not. Not the stroke. That was impressive. Hit that back just a second. Camera.

[CJ Carr]

That was sick.

[Taylor]

This cat tried to get me out. He was about to get me out, and I hit through the net. Hit his ball out.

[Will Compton]

Yes.

[Taylor]

Dude, that was. Might be right here. Yeah, this is the cat that got me. Look at this. He's in. No, that's a N. That's Henny. Yeah, yeah.

[CJ Carr]

Eddie.

[Will Compton]

And talking to him. I, like, sneed, too. That's number three. That's that linebacker. Like, he's on a 100 the entire practice.

[Taylor]

See that photo, Jack? Dan Lanning.

[Will Compton]

Fun trip. Great trip.

[Taylor]

Great trip.

[Will Compton]

Love some. Notre Dame. Got me a jersey. Got me a scholarship offer.

[Taylor]

That's huge.

[Will Compton]

Huge, bro.

[Taylor]

And they didn't give Taylor one.

[Will Compton]

Did not give Taylor one. Did not.

[Taylor]

Oh, we're bringing that up.

[Will Compton]

It was. It would, like, at the end of the day. It was a pity offer.

[Taylor]

No, it wasn't, dude.

[Will Compton]

And hey, listen, trust me, I enjoy no matter what. I'm gonna cherish that.

[Taylor]

Tell you one thing, I feel a certain way right now, but it shouldn't take away from you at all that you finally got your offer for Notre Dame. I'm gonna feel my way. And you shouldn't feel any type of way about my disappointment, my upset, any of that. You got an offer.

[CJ Carr]

Offer.

[Taylor]

And you should hold.

[Will Compton]

Here's the thing.

[Taylor]

It's probably uncomfortable.

[Will Compton]

I got offered just as a fullback. Like, Notre Dame just did me wrong. In the recruiting process. So that's them, like, making it right. Yeah, I can say pity, but that's them trying to make right. Because I was a Notre Dame sicko growing up.

[Taylor]

Yeah. I never got offered by Notre Dame. Never got off. You hated Notre Dame, though. No, I didn't. I didn't dislike Notre Dame in high school. I. I didn't know much about football at all in high school. I was just, like, playing football and I was like, I want to go to the school that I believe is the coolest list. I end up going to Michigan, which ended up turning into. I don't like Notre Dame. Got you. But at the time, when I'm 17 years old. Yeah. I don't. I have no alliance, like, of Ohio State. I'm like, oh, this is sick. Ohio State. Now. I'm like, wouldn't go there, like, clump.

[Will Compton]

How. How much are you talking to the team and telling them how much I used to love Notre Dame?

[Taylor]

So that's what I'm saying. Kev probably watched content, too. Knowing that you don't really like Notre Dame right now and that you talk

[Will Compton]

highly that you wanted to go to Notre Dame is my thought. Yeah.

[Taylor]

Because that was, like, obviously planned early for. From them.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

But I did.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

I talked.

[CJ Carr]

They asked me that you.

[Taylor]

If you wanted to go to Notre Dame.

[Will Compton]

I said yes. Yeah.

[Taylor]

GM's name is Mike Martin, correct? That was his name.

[CJ Carr]

I believe so. Yes.

[Taylor]

Yeah. Okay.

[CJ Carr]

He was awesome.

[Taylor]

That was one of the more underrated parts of this entire thing. So sitting there watching fun with him and him. Whether he really cared about our opinion or not, to bring up the clips and be like, tell me what you think about this guy. And just, like, talking ball and knowing in the back of your head, like, everyone's kind of watching, you're kind of breaking down all the things. Like, let me get in my bag a little bit about the things I know and I've spent so many years doing, it was just awesome.

[Will Compton]

I'll tell you who's a dog. Who's. The players you're breaking down.

[Taylor]

Oh, you were. I don't remember. I'm disappointed.

[Will Compton]

I know he was a dog. Like, you could just see a pro in motion operating because what do you. He was a sophomore last year.

[Taylor]

I think he was a young. We gotta get his name because he was impressed. He. He was extremely impressive to watch. What number? I can't remember that. Is he 68? He played right guard. 78.

[Will Compton]

He was a right guard, black dude.

[Taylor]

I think he was on defense last

[Will Compton]

and they're putting him at tackle this year.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Is that what.

[Taylor]

I was right guard last year?

[Will Compton]

He's playing right tackle this year, but he's a monster dude. This Kingston cat, this linebacker that's coming off, he got into his acl. Like he. His range, his ability, his athleticism to be on the line of scrimmage. He can play off the ball.

[Taylor]

No, no, no, not him, not him.

[Coach Freeman]

I don't know why I thought he

[Taylor]

was saying sully kids more tan than that.

[Will Compton]

But this kinks and kids at cover blitz, off the ball, everything. And he. Yeah, and he seems smart as. As well. And he plays violent as. Yeah, he's going to be a dude this year, dude.

[Taylor]

The thing that's cool for me is like, obviously being around football, you're. For your entire adult life, you're learning things all the time. But listening to you, that first one when he's off the ball and there's the puller, he smacks that puller. I'm like, oh, Derby Gerby Lambert. That's Kirby Lambert. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stud dude. This kid's got the length, he's got the attitude, he's got the. He's got the feet. Stud. But when you're talking about this Kingston kid, how he kind of loot. He like bows in and then hits the guy. He's like, if he's a little bit sharper, that's a. That's a hit and a tfl. Like watching that, hearing that and learning that, I'm like, it's just amazing how much like how many layers of football to where you learn something new. Even at 34, playing the game for as long as.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, man, it is nuts, the detail that goes into all that. Because he like lights that puller up,

[Taylor]

lights his ass up to a guy to a point where like, if you have. If I had a counter in or if I'm a guard, I have to pull. I'm like, I'm really dreading if this play comes up and he's the backside linebacker that I'm pulling for. Yeah, I'm dreading the idea of having to go head to head with this guy on a pole.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Because he smacks motherfuckers and he just

[Will Compton]

put old buddy in the hole. And then when you're coaching that cat, it's like there's so much more like of that greatness that you can chase just by taking this angle. Like, you'll not only do this, but you're going to make the play in the backfield.

[Taylor]

Right.

[Will Compton]

Because That's a kid. It's like you're going to play for a long time. Like, he's going to get drafted high.

[Taylor]

And he's calm. The cool thing about the class we went to is the teacher was like, hey, we got cameras in here. We got people. And if you don't want to do yours, you can do it a different class. Every kid stood up. And Kingston, the linebacker, they watched on film, he got up too, and gave his. His whole, you know, speech presentation. Thank you. And dude, it's just awesome. He's just a kid. That quiet, humble. Couple things you could have pronounced better.

[Will Compton]

And an absolute killer.

[Taylor]

Killer.

[Will Compton]

He's going to take a soul this year. JP Is the economy part in the vlog. No, no, no, it's not this that. I know he did where he's at in his life.

[Taylor]

I know he's gonna hate that.

[Will Compton]

I know.

[Taylor]

Because it's truly. It's just a nervous up.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

But if he were to see that, his opinion about us would be changed for life.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, fair, fair, fair.

[CJ Carr]

It's probably best.

[Will Compton]

It's probably best. But as long as he'll know in time, like, this is great ball busting.

[Taylor]

You might need to get that clipped of him trying to pronounce it. And then when he sits down next to you and you just go, hey, by the way, it's economy. Like just that. And send it to him. Find a way to get to him personally. Didn't make it, but. Dude, bro, this is funny. Like, you don't know this right now, but that is hilarious.

[Will Compton]

I was like, oh, man, what happened? He said, I got some stage fragment, bro. Happens to the best of us.

[Taylor]

That's the most.

[Coach Freeman]

Dude.

[Taylor]

Everyone gets a little nervous, huh? How did he pronounce it? He went a bunch of different ways with it.

[Will Compton]

Every way you could think about me.

[Taylor]

Think about me reading an ad. That's kind of where that.

[Will Compton]

And you know, it's a word that Taylor knows. Just a moment in your brain is happening and you just can't put it together.

[Taylor]

Right. Right. Like some eonami kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[CJ Carr]

That was one of them.

[Taylor]

He threw a couple extra Cs in there a couple times. He was just. And it was true. Like 3 seconds of him just like fumbling over it and didn't find it, but, like, had the wherewithal to be like, I'm just gonna move on from this. Yeah, I'm gonna get out.

[Will Compton]

I was like, oh,

[Taylor]

well, we're kind of sitting the back kind of snickering a Little bit. A couple things.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. I was like, oh, hey, that student's got their phone out. You should raise your hand and tell on them. Excuse me? One of the phones in class. Are they allowed? I, I don't, I don't know. I just.

[Taylor]

But once again, dude, it's like that would have been awesome because I bet you that teacher would enjoy that. But then we would have came off as class clowns.

[Will Compton]

Yes.

[Taylor]

And just like I've got the polo on the quarter zip. Like I'm trying to be as Notre Dame as I can be.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

You know?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Set the tone. Who's gonna set it?

[Will Compton]

Should we get into some tear talk?

[Taylor]

We got some tear talk.

[Will Compton]

Did we shout out the spring tour by form and Kevin's Natural Foods?

[Taylor]

Dude, we, we didn't talk enough about form. Come on, come on, baby. If you think about do we had late night, Late night at Freeman's house. Got up at 5:30 in the morning. Got picked up at 5:45, freezing cold. Took the coldest car ride of our entire life.

[Will Compton]

Full day, shirt and shorts.

[Taylor]

Yeah, we're. We're dog tired. Go to a nice dinner. That was incredible, but still dog tired. Have to get up early the next day. If it wasn't for form, energy, I don't know if we were able to figure out those 48 hours.

[Will Compton]

And we got to leave some behind for the boys.

[Taylor]

Gotta hook the boys voice up.

[Will Compton]

Hey, thank God the Miami one wasn't the way the Notre Dame one was. As far as structure, as far as like the time we gotta run to everything.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

We gotta do a full workout.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

We're shaking. We gotta count the whole time. That was so underrated, bro. Just counting like.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

1, 2, 3. 3, 2, 1. And us saying the, the number.

[Taylor]

I know.

[Will Compton]

They was on our ass, bro. We got the full experience. It was fun.

[Taylor]

But I like to say one, one thing. They set us up for failure. If you watch the vlog, you're going to see the line, the standard line. It has busting with the boys. We're below the line.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

They said the workout started at 6. Correct. They picked us up at 5:45. Is this Notre Dame or Michigan? Notre Dame. Notre Dame. What did I say? Did I say Michigan? No, I was wondering Notre Dame. 545. Pickup. We get picked up at 5:45. We drive there, they tell us below the standard because if you're not 15 minutes early, you're late.

[Will Compton]

Correct.

[Taylor]

But they set the schedule.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

So they were there to pick us

[CJ Carr]

up 15 minutes early.

[Taylor]

Were they really. Yeah.

[CJ Carr]

Oh, yeah.

[Taylor]

Obviously.

[CJ Carr]

Kev was dialed.

[Taylor]

Kev was down.

[Will Compton]

Kev was dialed.

[Taylor]

Dude. Kev did not miss. Says he's in Nashville a lot. We gotta bring him.

[Will Compton]

He's gotta stop by.

[Taylor]

Dude.

[Will Compton]

Got him on an episode.

[Taylor]

Get him on the bottom. We gotta get him on the bus. Bus. Gotta have Kev on the bus, man. We tried to get him to come to Miami.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Just get on the plane with this. Right?

[CJ Carr]

Legitimately.

[Will Compton]

Do you want to come?

[Taylor]

That would be so funny. Just came to Miami.

[Will Compton]

Oh, you're going to Miami.

[Taylor]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

We got to stay. We got to stay unbiased.

[Taylor]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stay unbiased. But I think every single one, we got more bias. Yeah. Everyone was the best one. We went.

[Will Compton]

We.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

We love every team.

[Taylor]

Yeah. And we're so easily bought to any school out there watching anything. If you want to get in our good. Like, every school had a setup for the boys.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. You want to get our Good gracious. Give us a bag of clothes and a jersey. Every school gave us the whole time.

[Taylor]

Texas Tech didn't give us jersey. Notre Dame. Miami gave us a jersey. No one's given us a helmet yet.

[CJ Carr]

We did show the new helmet at Texas Tech, though.

[Taylor]

That is sick.

[Will Compton]

We could probably hit up Texas Tech now and be like, hey, we can get it Jersey. Oh, Notre Dame, Miami, both the next day.

[Taylor]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[CJ Carr]

Oh, yeah.

[Taylor]

Joey McGuire DM me three days ago about this kid, that right tackle. And Joey being like, his best attribute is being an. And it was just him answering the question, calling himself an. Laughing. He's like, I think you'll like this. Like, that's. That's Joey Maguire in a nutshell.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Tear talks.

[Will Compton]

All right, before we get back to. Before we get into the TED Talk, just Miami Hurricane fans. Anybody can him. What?

[Taylor]

Tear talk.

[Will Compton]

What did I say? TED talk.

[Taylor]

Hey, you crush it this weekend. Crush it this weekend, though.

[Will Compton]

You all know how that brain acts up every now and then.

[Taylor]

Come on, man.

[Will Compton]

All the Miami content will be coming out next week, so we'll be diving more into our visit there, our conversations there, everything else. So we're trying to structure to where we hit. Obviously, we hit Texas Tech. That was all last week. We did Notre Dame and Miami both this past week. All Notre Dame this week. Next week will be all Miami Hurricanes because that was an unbelievable. That was an unbelievable visit. I did see a lot of Miami Hurricane fans. They were unhappy that they let me on that premise. Unhappy? You were getting crushed, bro. I'm talking every Miami Hurricanes fan account. Not Every. No, no, no. There's some. There's one that let me know, like, hey, don't worry about all this. Like, we love you. And I'm like, I know y'.

[Taylor]

All. Do you.

[Will Compton]

One, one defended you and said, of course he's on tv.

[CJ Carr]

He has to have, like, an opposite

[Taylor]

take every now and then.

[CJ Carr]

And then the guy replied to him

[Taylor]

with, like, three different reasons on why that's not true.

[CJ Carr]

And that was your real take.

[Taylor]

Yeah, they were. They were.

[CJ Carr]

They were not happy because you were

[Will Compton]

throwing up the U. That's the picture. I know. Just dropping all the photos.

[Taylor]

They were. They were.

[Will Compton]

And I love the visit. I love being there also. I just saw the first form thing, bro. The amount of stuff that we had at the end of the week, like, when I got back, because I had a backpack full of stuff from first form. But sitting there with the bags of first form, Notre Dame, Miami, we got stuff from Texas Tech, like, all the gear that we've got, which is, like, the last thing that we like that. I'm like, I don't need all of this stuff now. I gotta find a place for it.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

But it fires me up, because now you can do some spring cleaning. You can throw some stuff out, replace it with some gear.

[Taylor]

I know. But when you get new stuff, you're like, I don't want to throw this out. But, like, in my brain, I'm like, what am I gonna wear from the Notre Dame stuff? Am I gonna wear the quarters? It's like, no, you'll find.

[Will Compton]

Not you. You.

[Taylor]

You. You'll.

[Will Compton]

You'll find times.

[Taylor]

I'll find times. I'll find times. I'll find something.

[Will Compton]

I can't wait to rock the Miami gear at some point this year, because

[Taylor]

the goes hard, hard.

[Will Compton]

And Texas Tech, Notre Dame as it is.

[Taylor]

And the bags are dope. This. The whole setup is nice, man.

[Will Compton]

A lot of duffel bags.

[Taylor]

A lot of duffel bags. A lot of duffel bags. My.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

I have officially hit the point of spring where I'm like, I feel overwhelmed because I have so many duffel bags. I have so many extra clothes. My closet's a little way more cluttered, and I'm like, there's really five shirts in here. I wear. Why do I have all this stuff? And it's time for a good purge. Yeah, a good purge. Take place. Might do a bus with the boys. Garage sale.

[Will Compton]

Oh, a little estate sale. Hey, that actually would be a lot of fun.

[Taylor]

Should we do a garage sale one day?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, dude.

[Taylor]

Clum.

[Will Compton]

I'm in.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

All right, I'm in.

[Taylor]

Get it done.

[Will Compton]

Just put the.

[Taylor]

Hey, we'll have one.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, Just stay tuned on the socials. You want to dive into some tear talk?

[Taylor]

I would love to.

[Will Compton]

Conversations. The topics that happened over the last week. We've talked about. We've talked about a lot of off field issues.

[Taylor]

And I.

[Will Compton]

Nothing's like jogging. Nothing's like pot sticking out to me. On things. Things. Did anything happen last week that we should be talking about? Because we were on the. We were on the move for like 48 hours. So you kind of miss. No.

[Taylor]

Bad Wi Fi on the planes.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, bad WI fi on the plane. You kind of can't see what people are talking about.

[Taylor]

Right. And then once you get off the plane, there's not a whole lot of time because we're one to the next thing. The next thing. So I don't think anything in our world really took place. Right.

[Will Compton]

Somebody. I do have a tear talk here, and this could help us out. Like, I put a tweet out, like, talking about tear talk, and this one comes from eat209.9. Why haven't you said about Variable yet?

[Taylor]

What about Vrabel? Hashtag to your talk.

[Will Compton]

I don't even know. I think something might have happened.

[Taylor]

Can we. Do. We want to look it up? We just want to.

[Will Compton]

We'll look into it. I did see that there were some headlines of raves and Rossini, some photos that got leaked. They're coming out. Apparently a private investigator, like, somebody's coming after one of them. Could be for apes. Yeah, because I saw one where it was like an unidentified female. But then everybody. Obviously, the Internet's been having a great time.

[Taylor]

How about this? How about this bus with the boys will launch an internal investigation on Variable and Racini and whatever's going on there. And we'll report back.

[Will Compton]

We'll look into it.

[Taylor]

We'll look into it. But as of right now, no comment.

[Will Compton]

As of right now, no comment.

[Taylor]

Okay. We feel good about that.

[Will Compton]

I think so.

[Taylor]

Official statement. Does anybody want to have any other statement other than the statement we just made?

[CJ Carr]

I think that's good.

[Taylor]

No further comments after this because, again,

[Will Compton]

if you guys stay quiet, you'll be completely implicit. Silence is violence. You're gonna be, hey, this is what you believe in. If you don't say, I pulled up his Wikipedia page.

[Taylor]

Everything looks the same.

[CJ Carr]

He's the head coach of the Patriots.

[Taylor]

Okay, that's good. I. I don't know. All I know is you don't see Robert Sala. In the headlines,

[Will Compton]

bro.

[Taylor]

I haven't seen anybody in the headlines because of the WI fi and the movement of what took place last week. And I was ripping packs last night. We're ripping.

[Will Compton]

So when I was doing. When we were doing the kind of the busing panel and it was me, Sal and Nick Newman, we're talking about the starter, busting with the boys and everything else. I get to the story of we do our first pod with Delaney iv, almost kills him. The next day, it's up in the team meeting variables, talking about the. To get you beat distractions off the field. And I just hold for a moment. I'm like, probably not the best time to be talking about this example. Everybody, you know, we're all like, laughing, busting balls and stuff like that, but fun.

[Taylor]

Can't have fun.

[Will Compton]

But as I'm talking to it, I'm like, yeah, you know what? Bust with the boys happened.

[Taylor]

But right now, no. No comment.

[Will Compton]

No comment.

[Taylor]

No statement will take place right now. As of right now. We could later.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

We reserve the right to make a comment at any point.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Obviously. Yes, yes. This. This hits us in more of a personal sphere because we know all the parties involved. So it's like he just.

[Taylor]

Right.

[Will Compton]

It's like, man, it's. It's like it's none of our business. And also, everybody's blowing up about it. Everybody else is going to have all this and that the other. And it's like, you just want the best for everybody. And people are like, oh, does that mean you think that you condone this? It's like, no, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, like, bro, there's no. I don't want to have an opinion on it.

[Taylor]

There's so many layers.

[Will Compton]

That's the beauty of our podcast, because

[Taylor]

the two direct people, we have relationships with both, and then the people outside of them, too, that are closest, then we have relationships with them as well.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And so you said it best. It's like, you want. Whatever the situation is, hopefully it's best case on all fronts.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Because at the end of the day, like, we like all of them.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

We care about all of them and

[Will Compton]

we know how it looks. We get it. We get all of that. And it's just like, this is one where, like, yeah, I'm just not going to have. We'll look into it.

[Taylor]

We're going to do internal investigation. We made a comment after. We said we make no comment. That's our comment after. That's our comment.

[Will Compton]

That's our comment.

[Taylor]

Rooting for everybody. End statement. If people are upset by this, they can sue y'. All. Right?

[Will Compton]

They can file suit, be upset with this.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

We talk about bringing the locker. We talk.

[Taylor]

You want to sue us, Sherman? If you want to sue us, sue Sherman Young. And we will. We'll go to bat for you. Any.

[Will Compton]

Any angry comments? Actually, just tweet at Sherm.

[Taylor]

Any angry comments for this? Yeah, Sherm.

[Will Compton]

Steve, any angry comments?

[Taylor]

Sherm will handle all. All comments on this moving forward. Yes.

[Will Compton]

There we go.

[Taylor]

That's a good.

[Will Compton]

Sherman Young will handle all comments on this topic moving forward.

[Taylor]

I think any negative comment. Any, like, negative suggestion should go to Sherm. Stu underscore, too. And then I'll just address it from there. And any soup filings, anything like that at sherm. Stew. Underscore 2. I would honestly love it if you change your bio to have something in there. Be like, complaint. Bad complaint about Buster with the boys. Complain. My tier. Okay. That. That would probably help us. We'll do that today. Kind of like customer service.

[Will Compton]

Hey. And we talk about bringing the locker room to life with our content. Like, if we were in the locker room right now, it'd just be, put your head down and work. Don't ask too many questions. Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor]

Like, you don't do it. The you get out. And then everyone would have an opinion. Like, that's how it works, right, Gossip girls? But we're not going to gossip Girl on this show.

[Will Compton]

No pillow talk.

[Taylor]

No pillow talk. Not right now.

[CJ Carr]

No comment.

[Will Compton]

Pillow talk.

[Taylor]

No comment.

[CJ Carr]

Tear talk.

[Taylor]

Let's go to no comment. It.

[Will Compton]

What else we got on the tear talk? I hope I handled that one for you. What was it? Stain 209? You guys don't talk about variable. You bunch of.

[CJ Carr]

Like we did.

[Will Compton]

We did do Chase Daniels tear talk

[Taylor]

earlier in the show. Okay, that was a tear talk. Gotcha. Zach Butler tagged us both and said, once Taylor finishes Game of Thrones, you guys need to do a special episode. Recapping your favorite moments would be so dope. Hashtag tear talk. Oh, rumors of a potential. Everyone dresses up. Rumors where we recap.

[Will Compton]

And I think it'd be fun if people dress up like we're involved with castles and kingdoms.

[Taylor]

Come as like that.

[Will Compton]

Has anybody done that?

[Coach Freeman]

That you embody?

[Taylor]

Can we go larping? Yeah. Would you guys be down to. I know you'd be down to go LARP. 100%.

[Will Compton]

Took me forever.

[Taylor]

Can we go Larry LARPing? Yeah. I mean, I'm in. I think that's Also an original idea. Dungeons and Dragons.

[Will Compton]

Dungeons and Dragons.

[Taylor]

And we can get a dude.

[Coach Freeman]

That's really good.

[Taylor]

What we need to do.

[CJ Carr]

I'm caught up now.

[Taylor]

I'm caught up. Play Catan. As a group. We gotta play. That's similar. I'm in on that. All right, all right, all right. But yeah, I'm down to do that. To recap our favorite parts of the

[Coach Freeman]

show, also Next Monday is 4:20.

[Taylor]

With that, as you will next Monday.

[Coach Freeman]

Happy anniversary.

[Taylor]

Yeah, Mitchell. Yeah. On Monday, a week from today, my wife and I will be married for 10 years. Didn't make it in the league. Made it with my wife. Dude, let's go.

[Coach Freeman]

Which one matters more?

[Taylor]

Dude, marriage for sure, right? Did I say that right? Yes. Okay, great answer. Hell yeah, dude. Hell yeah. 10 years.

[Will Compton]

I think it's funny. I think it's funny. You've been to answer that stupid question, right? Yeah.

[Taylor]

I'll say this about Mitch. He did on the heater of this podcast. I don't even know what you said. Sounded nasty the way. Show me.

[Will Compton]

I said awful. But it's also like. That's a bad joke. It's like a tie in to Sheffler. Scotty Scheffler. He was. It was a good call.

[Taylor]

Back to Scheffler. Was it?

[Will Compton]

Because we're a golf pod.

[Taylor]

We're a golf pod. Yeah, we're a golf pod now. Golf pod. Didn't watch Swing of the Stick this weekend.

[Will Compton]

Sheffler's like, oh, that's a bad question. Then sits on it. He's like, oh, that was awful, Scott.

[Taylor]

He says that. I thought that was a good question. I think you've been on a heater today.

[Coach Freeman]

Yes.

[Taylor]

The other Punchline is about 15 minutes later, he was asked the exact same

[Will Compton]

question, but by a female reporter, and

[Taylor]

answered it just so happen. No way. Oh, yeah. He just fully went. Was like, great question. Hey, real quick though. How sick is 10 years? That's a nice little milestone. That's a nice little milestone.

[Will Compton]

It's a great milestone.

[Taylor]

Tin or aluminum? That's the year. That's the thing. Name for the ten year. All right, get her a T of Lucy. Is what I'll get her. Put this in your lips, sweetheart. Shout out, shout out. Get her a couple breakers. Well, we got baby inside you. Go ahead.

[Will Compton]

Hey, I saw that.

[Taylor]

The suit that baby up. Sweet girl. Bad take. Bad no longer. Clean take.

[Will Compton]

Bad tick.

[Taylor]

Bad take. There's a joke. We can't have fun. Can't have fun. Can't have fun on the show anymore. Just tag me if that upset you. If that upset people. Tag. Sher.

[Will Compton]

Yes.

[Taylor]

Score two. Speaking of having fun, real quick. We've talked about this since Chris Long came on the episode. Episode three years ago. Are we ever gonna do a True to Nature 420 episode?

[Coach Freeman]

Sort of what I was getting at, but happy anniversary.

[Taylor]

We try to get on some vitamins right now. Just a thought. We've done that, though, with Jelly. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Going into the Miami episode.

[Taylor]

It's kind of awesome.

[Will Compton]

I mean, I don't know.

[Taylor]

Just a thought.

[Will Compton]

It's a thought.

[Taylor]

We're having fun. What it is, is a great thought. No bad ideas in a brainstorm. No bad ideas. And if you think it's a bad idea, you Sher. Ste. All. We feel good. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Hang on there. There might be another tear talk.

[Taylor]

Okay, get it in there. Get it in then. Gotta get that lie detector test going. Absolutely. I would love to do that.

[Will Compton]

Oh, here's a golf pod tier. Hashtag tear talk. Which golfer would you guys most want to bring in on the bus for an interview?

[Taylor]

Tiger Woods. We've had Max. That's an awful question. It's very obvious.

[Will Compton]

Scotty Scheffler. Oh, Scotty would not the. Taylor. I don't know. Taylor wants Tiger Woods.

[CJ Carr]

Tiger's a great one.

[Taylor]

Taylor. What about a John Daly? John Daley. Be great. John Daley. Be fun. Be awesome.

[Will Compton]

Is Jack Nicholas still with us?

[Taylor]

He is still with us.

[Will Compton]

Okay.

[Taylor]

He's still with us.

[Will Compton]

Eve. I mean, he'd be great goat, right?

[Taylor]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, man, I think. Still think Tiger would be great. Tiger would be great. Ty would be great. Will, what else do we have?

[Will Compton]

I believe we're good to rip Coach Freeman and CJ Carr.

[Taylor]

Let's do it then.

[Coach Freeman]

I'd be remiss if I didn't say shout out Sean and Joe for super cross. Oh, super cross.

[Taylor]

Hey, pull up that video. Let's break down Mitch's start real quick. Was that. You know, were you the closest one that kind of wheeled up a little bit?

[Will Compton]

Did.

[Coach Freeman]

Did it on purpose.

[Taylor]

Did it on purpose. You lied.

[Will Compton]

You knew the camera was on.

[Taylor]

Your weight wasn't forward enough.

[Will Compton]

No, at all.

[Coach Freeman]

My dad took that video.

[Taylor]

Kind of scared the out of you, didn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

It came back down. I'm like, oh, I'm chilling.

[Taylor]

Chilling.

[Will Compton]

How's it with Delaney?

[Coach Freeman]

Delaney's. Delaney was awesome. He was very into, like, the Supercross, which made it help. It was awesome. Like, we got to meet up with. There's a team that is Sponsored by First Form. Thank you, Sean. Thank you, Joe. You guys are the best. Appreciate y'. All.

[Taylor]

What are you rocking here? A little one, 125. Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Delaney is on one of their. His name's Devin Simonson. He's on his race bike. He's on, like, a legit thing.

[Taylor]

Which one's Delaney?

[Coach Freeman]

The far in. All white.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

You got to get your weight up a little bit. Weight forward a little bit. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Delaney's ready to go. Talk about weight forward.

[Taylor]

Yeah, he gets it. Yeah. Oh, that pop is tough.

[Will Compton]

No, it looked fun, dude.

[Taylor]

It was a lot. It is super cross rip.

[Will Compton]

So, so vlog coming with Delaney. Delaney, yes.

[Taylor]

Let's dive in. Coach Freeman, C.J. carr. I will say this. There's a couple of times CJ gave some. Gave some answers, and we just give him a big compliment on how well polished he is in handling the media.

[Will Compton]

We dive into some good stories.

[Taylor]

We dive into some good stuff. I think the first 15 minutes, you're like, all right, they're working through it. Working through it. Right at that 15 minute mark, you're gonna feel a punch through, like, okay, walls are coming down. We're having a good time here. That's how most things work with athletes.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. This interview will be easy to drink, easy to enjoy, because all of our our interviews are brought to us by Bud Light. Bud Light is brewed four simple ingredients for a clean, crisp taste. Anything for that clean, crisp taste of Bud Light. Bud Light is the official sponsor of the NFL, the NFL Draft UFC that is now on Paramount. Plus partners include Peyton Manning, George Kittle, to name a couple. You also got busting with the boys. Stock up now on Bud light. Head to www.bud light.com locator to find a store near you. Easy to drink, easy to enjoy this interview. Interview is very easy to enjoy. It's clean and crisp, just like Coach Freeman's hairline. Enjoy this interview with Coach Freeman and CJ Carr.

[Taylor]

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[Will Compton]

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[Coach Freeman]

Juice.

[Will Compton]

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[Taylor]

Lifting, chasing my kid, or heading on

[Will Compton]

a family road trip where I'm somehow both a snack guy and the dj.

[Taylor]

But no matter what's going on in

[Will Compton]

my schedule, one thing never changes.

[Taylor]

I make sure I stay hydrated.

[Will Compton]

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[Taylor]

Boom.

[Will Compton]

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[Taylor]

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[Will Compton]

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[Coach Freeman]

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[Taylor]

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[Will Compton]

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[Taylor]

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[Will Compton]

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[Taylor]

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[Will Compton]

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[Taylor]

Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That that's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this Mother's Day Celebrate all the women who

[Will Compton]

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[CJ Carr]

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[Taylor]

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[CJ Carr]

Because the best Mother's Day gift says

[Taylor]

more than I love you.

[CJ Carr]

It says I appreciate you.

[Taylor]

It says, I see you. Find the perfect Mother's Day gift at your local Pandora store or [e-mail] Amazon

[Will Compton]

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[Taylor]

Listen, ladies and gentlemen, we've had a fantastic day. Will Compton gets an offer by Notre Dame game last night. We're at your house, by the way. Incredible establishment you have there. You have multiple homes within a home. It's like a compound that takes place.

[Will Compton]

Kind of an imbalance going on with this floor.

[Taylor]

Yeah, the only knock I would give you on your home is your shuffleboard is insanely inaccurate.

[Coach Freeman]

You couldn't figure it out. This is fun. I mean at some point you got to realize it was leaning to the right, but you just kept throwing it to the right.

[Taylor]

You know, I at one point was facing the wall and it would do a little U turn and you just figured out this one little spot. And let's let's be real. Like you a hard time with it too.

[Coach Freeman]

I did, I did. But when it mattered the most.

[Taylor]

Yeah, you got it done. It. It was beautiful to see the thing that I would that struck me the most surprise is we're playing Bump out. There's a young man behind me. Knockout. Depends where you're from. Okay Depends where you're from. A young CJ car is behind me, and I'm thinking to myself, I got to figure out a way to get behind him to get this man out. So I'm talking a little bit of trash. I shoot. We'll go around a couple of times. And then finally CJ gets me out. And as we're jogging away, way CG's like, in my ear, like, talking all that, huh? Catch it. So the moxie is unbelievable. We see you at practice as well. You're pulling it, you're running, you're showing the ball. Like, what have you always been a guy with a chip on your shoulder, like, type of mentality. Because you see, like, the competitive nature. And it seems like I see you playing ping pong. That's one of your boys. And it's all. It's true. Like, you want to kill this individual in the most positive way possible. Bump out the same way we're at practice. This, like, there's a true leadership feeling about you. Is that something that is a learned thing or is that how you've always been since a kid?

[CJ Carr]

For the record, I got you both out. By the way, listen, I'm no good

[Will Compton]

at knockout, so you. I ain't a trumpet, but, yeah, it

[Taylor]

depends where you're from.

[CJ Carr]

Growing up, you know, we were in a house with three boys. My dad played football at Michigan, and there were never, like, toys around our house. It was just. Just, you know, balls. Whether it was football, basketball, baseball, tennis, volleyball, all we did growing up was compete, whatever, you know, so it's kind of just hardwired. And me and whatever game, you know, we're playing, I'm playing to win. And that's the way it's always been in my family.

[Will Compton]

You obviously pay for a hell of a head coach. What made you land on wanting to go to Notre Dame?

[CJ Carr]

It was the people. I remember visiting here three or four times before I committed. And every time I came back, it was. It was. It just felt like more and more like home. And I remember we were driving a golf cart around here, probably my third time visiting. And I started to, like, call the. The buildings by their nicknames. Like, hey, let's go to the Goog or, let's go to, you know, here and here. And at that point, it was like this. This feels like home. Every person I talk to, students, players, you know, I've never met somebody who doesn't love Notre Dame and doesn't want to be here. Everyone I talk to, to Notre Dame is the best place on earth and I wouldn't want any other way. So I think I picked a good, good spot.

[Taylor]

We were having a conversation last night about C.J. and his competitive nature and when he first came in and when you knew, like, oh, this guy's going to be a guy, he's going to be a dude. Do you want to share.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

A piece of that story at all.

[Coach Freeman]

So he was, he still should have been in high school. Little snotty nose senior. He came in for bowl practice and this might have been in his first, first second practice. I'll never forget he threw a ball to Charlie Sona and I don't know if he dropped. I can't remember if he dropped it, ran the wrong route or whatever.

[CJ Carr]

I'm yelling, no, no, he caught the touchdown and he spiked the ball.

[Taylor]

Ah, that's what happened.

[Coach Freeman]

I knew something happened. Right, right. So he caught the touchdown, spiked the ball, and I got a.

[Taylor]

Our little.

[Coach Freeman]

We have a roll handed body official. And I'll never forget yelling at him and CJ kind of just like without being disrespectful, like, gets in the way, like, hey, it's all right. Next time we'll do it, hey, great job, great job. And I'm never going like, that's his way of giving me the middle finger with, without giving me the middle finger. But I said, I like this dude. He's competitive, he's lifting up his teammates. I said, this dude's going to be different. And he is, he is.

[Will Compton]

Do you remember the story any differently?

[CJ Carr]

There was probably a little more language mixed in there on both sides. So it was a little different. But yeah, it was, was.

[Coach Freeman]

Did you do that on purpose though? Like, because you saw me yelling at him?

[CJ Carr]

Yeah, I was just so excited. Like, you don't, you don't catch many touchdowns against the, the one offense or one.

[Will Compton]

And this going to the national championship.

[CJ Carr]

This was the year before.

[Will Compton]

Okay, gotcha. Okay.

[CJ Carr]

And so I was just so excited to be there. You know, there's people flying all over. Jack Kaiser's pointing out, you know exactly what we're going to do. And I'm just like, oh, geez, what's going on here? And so we caught a touchdown. I was just pumped. And I remember I had to go get the next play, but I just wanted to pump Charlie up a little bit. You know, he hadn't caught a touchdown in a minute.

[Coach Freeman]

He didn't want his boy getting yelled at.

[Taylor]

That's fantastic.

[Will Compton]

He saw the spike, he saw the swag going on. The juice that the scout team was having against the starting defense. What was, what's your favorite? Do you guys have any, any recruiting stories you think back on?

[CJ Carr]

I got one.

[Taylor]

My.

[CJ Carr]

We banned my mom, mom from meeting with Free until like, I knew I was coming here because we knew, like the moment she meets Free and they're like in a meeting together and hears him kind of talk about Notre Dame, like, it's over and I'm not going anywhere. And like, then we visit. I know I'm, I'm committing. And my mom goes in and meets with him and he's got her in like tears within five minutes talking about how, you know, he just loves Notre Dame and, and the academics are so great.

[Coach Freeman]

Moms are always the key.

[CJ Carr]

It was always.

[Coach Freeman]

That's, that's how my son committed to Cornell. Like all these college coaches were calling me. I never talked to Cornell. One time they called mom over and over. Mom fell in love and next, you know, son's going to Cornell. Like, moms usually. Not always. Usually, moms are the keys.

[Taylor]

How long did it take you to learn that as from like a recruiting standpoint? Like, oh, moms truly hold the keys to the castle here. Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

You learn it through, through time. Like selling, it's. You're selling your place, but you're passionate. Like, you have to be authentic. You really have to care about what you're selling. And I do. But boys are, they're mama's boys, man. Like, they want to be tough and. But the end of the day, boys and moms, man, these guys are mama's boys. And so I learned that boy cj. Yeah.

[Taylor]

Oh, my God.

[Coach Freeman]

Now his mom is tough as crap. Crap. I mean, she's is tough. And you don't mess with mama bear. I remember one time he got hurt in practice. And I haven't told many people this story. The team knows this, but this is kind of an in house story. But he got hurt in practice. He was red shirt. And I remember calling his mom and telling her, and it was not a good conversation. She was not happy with me and rightfully so, right as the head coach, I got to protect our quarterbacks. And, and, but I remember getting off that phone and I said the next day we had a staff meeting. I said, not one of y' all have experienced what I just experienced talking to Tammy Carr yesterday. And so if you can't get your guys to do exactly what we want them to do, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. His mama, Tammy Carr, does not play.

[Taylor]

How long did it take your parents to Put on blue and gold.

[CJ Carr]

My mom was in right away. She was. She put it on the day I committed. And my dad said, when you get here, I'll start to transition to the process. And now his whole, you know, I bring home all my stuff, and half his. His wardrobe is Notre Dame, and they're fully bought into the culture and the family.

[Coach Freeman]

And then Tommy's at Michigan now.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah, Tommy's at Michigan.

[Taylor]

And we had this conversation on Zoom when you came on busting with the boys. We've got to figure out a way to get that rivalry back.

[Coach Freeman]

Back. Yeah.

[Taylor]

Because it is. I mean, it's historic. Yeah. When I walk around a place like this, there's so many similar parallels to Michigan and Notre Dame, the history, all that stuff. It's like, it's got to come back. That early season rivalry.

[Coach Freeman]

I agree. 100.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. We got to get it. How do you feel walking around Notre Dame's campus?

[Taylor]

I'll be. As a Michigan man, I wanted to not like it. I wanted to be like, you know, this place is all right. A little more uppity than I want it to be. Kind of like the stereotype that people gotta give Notre Dame a bad light of. These guys don't like to have fun. It's a bit more. It's like, too tight, unfortunately. Like, I've been very impressed.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. They got us jerseys, too, by the way. Do we get to.

[Taylor]

Do we. To keep those?

[Will Compton]

Do we get to keep our jerseys?

[Coach Freeman]

I don't know. He gave me jerseys. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. In the stadium.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. I wore mine, and I was ready to wear it out, but Kevin's like, hey, we kind of need the jersey back. I was like, well, I got to take this off.

[Coach Freeman]

We'll. We'll.

[Taylor]

We'll.

[Coach Freeman]

We'll check and see if it's up to me.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Yes, you.

[Taylor]

You're the head coach, Kev.

[Will Compton]

It's on you now.

[Coach Freeman]

We got.

[Will Compton]

Hey, listen, just know this. It go up in my garage and go up in the weight room.

[Taylor]

I put mine at the bus. It would be sitting right there. All right, all right.

[Will Compton]

There we go.

[Taylor]

Fair enough. Fair enough. What was going back to last year in camp, you're in a quarterback battle, so it's kind of for both of you. But, like, at what point did you think, okay, I am definitely the guy for this job. Job? And at what point were you like, all right, CJ's gonna be the guy

[Coach Freeman]

you thought you would have got a whole time?

[Taylor]

Like, yeah, that's probably a bad question.

[Coach Freeman]

He did I remember when. When he walked into my office to have this conversation, you know, he had this walk like, I know I'm the guy, and, like, tell me I'm the guy. And I kind of, like, I didn't want to be overly excited. I wanted him to get a little bit nervous. And he did. Like, he got a little bit nervous. And I go back and I watch the video because it's on video, but he has that confidence in a body, like, from the day he got here, even when he commit. I've said this before, he's got a personality you want to follow even as a head coach. Like, you want to follow your quarterback, like, that guy's leading your program. And he has that. And he had to earn it, but there wasn't much doubt that he was going to earn it. And he did. He did. He earned it.

[Will Compton]

When you're in the middle of a quarterback battle and, you know, like, I'm the guy, the confidence you have feeling, like, all right, I feel like it's been put on tape enough. Is it frustrating for you not getting the answer? Because obviously, for Coach Freeman, like, you've been a player, we've all been a part of the. The battles that go on where it's like, is this really a battle? Or what are we doing? Or how much. How much are we going to live in this gray area of not knowing? Like, for both of you guys, like, for you, C.J. starting with you, like, was it frustrating for you at times?

[CJ Carr]

Times, yeah, for sure. I think it. There's. There's so many emotions that go through it. At times you have a bad practice and you, you know, it's. It's like the whole way the world's on. On your back, just like, damn, am

[Will Compton]

I going to be judged by this day? I just. Exactly.

[Coach Freeman]

But.

[CJ Carr]

But then, you know, I really appreciated the way they did it because, like Gino, our quarterback coach, it was never, like, one day is going to affect the decision. You know, it was. We're going to let you guys battle it out in the. In the fall. And one. One good day isn't going to affect it or decide it, and one bad day isn't going to decide it. And so just try to keep, you know, showing up and doing your job and sticking to your process. And so it was both. I think I appreciated the way they did it, and also at the same time, it was like.

[Coach Freeman]

Like, this is.

[CJ Carr]

This is. It wasn't the most fun, you know, thing you go through, but.

[Will Compton]

Because then you're overthinking too, at times it's like you might go for a scrimmage on Saturday and the other guy might be getting the one reps and you're like, I wonder if this means,

[Taylor]

no doubt, the mental warfare that takes place.

[Will Compton]

You know it too, as a player. Like, what is something that you've learned now as a head coach that you didn't really appreciate or felt like you respected at the time that coaches did for you as a player, but now you're like, ah, I get this.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, I think being intentional about trying to put your players in competition because I think it brings out the best in them. And I say that I think you're a better version of yourself now that you're a starter. But you, you have to try to create competition to see which guys will rise to the top. And so I think back to my college, we all can think back to different points where we are in competition. And sometimes we chose to believe we shouldn't be in competition. I think as we get older and we look back, we go, that dude I was competing with was really good. I mean, I remember, I remember starting as a sophomore and junior and in my senior year I'm, I'm kind of competing with a guy and, and he end up being a really good player. And so, you know, you always think at times like, man, a coach is doing me dirty. And at the end of the day like, we're going to pay, play the best players. Can we create competition in practice? If we can, let's do it. But at the end of the day, we're not going to screw our guys over. We got to play the best ones to give us a chance to win.

[Will Compton]

There's a method to the.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Taylor]

Is there any like in the NFL like with guys getting paid, when a guys get drafted in the first round, he's going to be kind of thrusted into a role. Have you seen any of that with college football and nil, like you bring a guy in, you pay him a lot of money. Is there like a certain like feeling or maybe some coaches are probably pushing for a guy that might not be, might not be ready, but because the, the pay amount.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah. I think as I look back to the two transfer quarterbacks that we had previously with Sam Hartman and, and Riley Leonard and, and I remember having a conversation like if it's a tie, you, you have to put the guy out there that, that is, you've invested the most money in because it's not fair to the guy that's starting right because the minute he throws an incomplete pass, they're going to boo him and say, get the other guy in. Right? And so that. That's the only time that's really mattered. The rest, like if you're an incoming freshman, freshman, no matter what you make, like, you gotta earn, you gotta earn your, your opportunities. And guess what? If you do earn those things, you're gonna get paid more money. Right? And so that's why I say it's a little bit different where first round picks in the draft, they're paid so much, like you have to go in there, you better start, or somebody in a personnel department is gonna probably be fired.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Right.

[Coach Freeman]

Whereas here your incoming freshmen are making, making the money that your dudes are making. And so they have to earn the right to make more money. And nobody, when they earn the right, like they've earned it on the field and then they're compensated for it.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Let's go back to last year. You guys start off 02 quality losses, go on 10 games, you know, lost

[Taylor]

one game by one play. That was a whole holding.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Trust me, you know, the A and M1, we could. I knew right when they bobbled the field goal or the extra point or something, I was tight because this is, this is beyond what we can talk about. I'm busting with the boys. But then you go on 10 straight, you're ranked where you're ranked in the College Football Playoff rankings. The year continues to go. You guys are blowing teams out. People are comparing what. What you did versus what Miami did and all these other teams, like how much they won by everything, common opponents, all of that stuff. And then you get the news that you guys aren't going to be in the College Football Playoff when you were assuming that you were going to be in that conversation based on where you were ranked. Instant reaction, instant emotions. What was the team meeting room like when you guys all got in the team meeting room for the first time when you see Duke win the ACC and it's like, okay, this could be. This could be an inside job. Those are my words. I won't say that for anybody else. This is Will Compton's words.

[Taylor]

And for the. If you guys haven't followed. Will was big on the. Notre Dame should be in train big on it when this all. All went down.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, we were doing a sideline pass SEC championship game.

[Taylor]

Was I?

[Coach Freeman]

You. You were not.

[Taylor]

I thought when it came. He was not. I don't. I think, I think inevitably the committee got it correct. I think inevitably the Committee got it correct. I think the, the fault is the G5S. No disrespect to the G5S, but we see what happens every single time the G5S are in it. But when he goes to the head to head with Miami, I'm very uncomfortable right now, by the way, saying my truth. It's like, that's something you just can't ignore.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

And I clearly, you guys, like, you guys are a completely different team from Week 1 to Week 14 or whenever the last game of the season is. And I think head to head, it might be a different story.

[Will Compton]

C.J. carr's first start versus C.J. car start.

[Taylor]

I'm with you.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. How did. How did that go down? What went into the decision to opt out of the bowl game? Like, what was. What was that next week like for you guys? Even as a player too, Once he.

[Coach Freeman]

This is. This is what we call bloody wound. You know, the scab is. You're starting to heal. And then we just rip that scab right off. Right.

[Taylor]

Let's go back to it.

[Coach Freeman]

And we. We have to do this sometimes in our program, right. When we. We forget about those moments. But here's what I'll say. In the moment when it was announced, like, I didn't have the words to say. Right. Because you were shocked, surprised, disappointed. I remember telling the players, I don't know what to say right now. Usually I do. I remember telling them, like, don't let this decision steal the joy of what you guys accomplished this season. Where we started to where we finished. Be proud of that journey.

[Will Compton]

And.

[Coach Freeman]

And then the next day, I remember going back into the team meeting and saying, you know, one, apologizing to the seniors that this is their last year and the ones that this was their last season. But to the guys that were coming back, like, we have to use this. Don't lose the loss. Like, use it. Use it as a reminder that we left doubt. Right. There was doubt. There is an argument that we should have been in the playoffs. We shouldn't. And it doesn't matter how you feel about the decision. We left doubt. And we have to make sure we use this as motivation and reminders to leave no doubt as we continue to. To go forward. And so that's what we do now. We use it and we don't pass blame. We don't blame the committee. We don't blame Miami, anybody. We look at ourselves and say, we fell short. So how can we make sure we start this season faster? That's more important than anything. We start off season 0 and 2. We didn't start. I don't care who the opponent was. We didn't start to the level we needed to start. So we have to make sure that we're evaluating everything we do from January till August and say, is there a better way to do it? And that's what we're trying to do, and that's what we're doing.

[Will Compton]

If you blame anybody, it's Virginia for not being Duke in the ACC championship.

[Coach Freeman]

I let you do that, you know.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. C.J. how about for you? What was that next week like for you, for the locker room?

[CJ Carr]

Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't fun. You know, you. You work so hard with that team and, you know, we thought, you know, we're a top team in the country that can really do some damage in the playoffs. And I think the worst part was seeing the seniors kind of leave us. The guys that, you know, you'd worked day in and day out for, for the last however many months. The Billy Shrouds, the Will Paulings, the Malky Fields, the Jeremiah loves, the JD's, like, those guys that really, you know, were a huge part of that team, you know, that you didn't know it was your last game with them was Stanford. And under the lights, like, that was the last time you were going to be on a field, field with some of your best friends. And so I think that, like, from a player's perspective, from the locker room perspective, like, that was a really hard way to kind of see the season go. And, and like, like Free said, like, we're hopefully we can use that and, you know, we get the results. We're looking for this next year because we got, we got some really good, good players.

[Coach Freeman]

I mean, it's just as I listen to CJ, it's like, how old are you now?

[Will Compton]

36.

[Coach Freeman]

36. Like, no matter if you're 36, 34, 40, 20, like, blows every. As you continue. Like, things like this happen and you might not think they're fair. Usually they are fair. At some point you realize that, like, but these are things that happen in life. You're gonna lose games, you're gonna get disappointments. My son's gonna lose RIN wrestling. Like, and we have to use these experience to make us better. Like, is we. There's more coming for all of us. There are. There are more disappointments and things we don't think is fair. But it's going to happen and we got to use it and we got to continue to be better because of it. And that's what I, that's the mindset I take when I think about the future and I think about some of the things that has happened and will

[Taylor]

happen as we sit here in April, halfway through spring ball. Like when I go and I listen to, you know, the super fans of Notre Dame and they talk about this roster, the only thing they really talk about is like, how do you replace Jeremy? I love. Which is clear. But from top to bottom, now, you guys only take seven transfers, but you're a top 10 portal class. Like you guys have been the top eight, top 10 for recruiting in general. Like when you evaluate your team now, where you're at compared to where you were last year, how do you feel about the team? And same question for you, C.J. when you're just evaluating as a second

[Coach Freeman]

year starter, you want to start?

[CJ Carr]

Sure. I'm, I'm excited for this, this squad and this team. And like you said, like the transfers that come in have immediately meshed in the locker room and, and are already part of, of the family of Notre Dame. And seeing them come out here every day and step into roles that, you know, need, need guys to, to step up in has been exciting and I'm just excited to continue on the, the path with those guys. Like I said, like, the best memories you have are of last season are, are playing with the guys who aren't here. And, and it's a whole new set of guys in there. Some, some the same. But I'm just excited to continue to, to work throughout spring, summer, fall and then into the season.

[Will Compton]

CJ saying they're coming for it all. That's what he's saying.

[Taylor]

That was a, that was. He's doing a great job. The microphones are on right now. But truly wants to say is like, yeah, we're taking everything. That's, that's what he wants.

[Will Compton]

He sits in his car every day. He closes the door, he looks at, he looks at himself in the rearview mirror. He's like, we're coming for everything. And then he turns up whatever music

[Taylor]

he's probably the Rudy theme track. Eminem, Lose Yourself takes place every white boy anthem ever.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Or like NBA Young Boy.

[Taylor]

Yeah, yeah. Young Boy.

[CJ Carr]

No, my brother loves NBA Young Boy.

[Taylor]

What is your genre of music you're into?

[CJ Carr]

I'm all over the place. My. One of our, our quarterback GA has kind of put me on to like some of the house music stuff. Some, some reggae in there. And so we're all over the place in the quarterback room. About what are you guys?

[Will Compton]

I'm just whatever most. Mostly kids music like whatever my daughter likes. We'll be rocking Taylor Swift, Gracie's Corner. Corner. Whatever she wants on is pretty much what I'm listening to if I'm by myself. It's mainly like podcasts.

[Taylor]

Yeah. Yeah. My daughters, they're. They're big into with that K pop Demon Hunters movie. Big into Golden. They love it. My youngest, she'll get on the top of the kitchen counter and she'll just belt it out all. Every song knows them all. For me, I'm stuck in 1997-2005. Like Blink182 to me is the greatest band of all time. Can't beat them. Most influential band of all time. Time. But that good Charlotte some 41 taking back Sunday. That's. That's my vibe. Alternative punk. Yes.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

So my wife sent me a real the other day that was. I think it was like dad or mom. What were you like in the 90s?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

And they played the Google. Google doll song.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Iris or whatever. And I've been hook on those. Like the. What were you like in the 90s? Makes me feel like an old guy looking back. But that's what you made me think of when you sing.

[Will Compton]

And did you see it might have

[Taylor]

been the best era of music.

[Coach Freeman]

It was pretty good.

[Will Compton]

The rocks got a good video.

[Coach Freeman]

Oh yeah.

[Will Compton]

I saw that good one. You got some tears in my eyes. I got. Yeah. As well. Yeah. There's one out there. Didn't you make it, Jack?

[Taylor]

I'm very proud of it. But what. What is the evaluation that you look at right now, like where you guys are doing better? What do you think you need to improve on in certain areas at this point? Spring.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

You learn through experience. Right. I remember in like 24 we had a really, really good, talented team and I was overly excited. Like this the most talented roster we've ever had and we lose an oil Illinois and you get humbled really fast. And the like the roster, the. The ceiling's high. We got a high ceiling. We just. We got to keep doing the work, man. Like we consider and daydream about how high our ceiling is or just go to work and work and find ways to improve and just keep chasing that full potential. And we have to become a more consistent football team.

[Will Compton]

Team.

[Coach Freeman]

Today we finished practice seven and. And there's areas improvement like how do we get consistent and doing our jobs right every single play and. And those are the ways that we got to challenge our players and the Standards that we have to. To set. And so I'm excited though, like, because we got a bunch of. We got leaders that are workers. Right. And when I always believe you're led by the strong and when you're strong or your best workers, the other guys just follow because they don't know anything better. And we got some strong leaders, so we're keeping pushing them to keep working and challenging those guys below them.

[Will Compton]

That Northern Illinois game, I was like, what the.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Right after a. M. Yeah.

[Taylor]

Yeah. I mean, it was Shane. Immediate text to Shane.

[Will Compton]

Right.

[Coach Freeman]

This game will humble you.

[Taylor]

Yeah. You know, one thing that like, I feel like you can evaluate, like what's a well coached team is like the amount of like preseason pre snap and post snap penalties. You dubbed us referee today. Very limited penalties across the board. And I was trying my best to throw the laundry all over the yard.

[Will Compton]

I was kind of caught because obviously I'm a defense.

[Taylor]

Seemed like you were kind of zoned out a few times. Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Your hands were in your pocket. And I'm like, look at Will back there. He's just watching practice after every play.

[Will Compton]

I'm looking at the big screen, watching the snap. Yeah, you kind of just get caught. And I'm like, there ain't much going on out here.

[Taylor]

There's a couple. There was a couple I was trying to keep. I was trying to.

[Will Compton]

In the secondary.

[Taylor]

I was trying to hold the standard.

[Coach Freeman]

Well, you missed the, the most obvious when the play clock was at zero for about three seconds. And yeah, I just kept looking at you like you're gonna throw. You're just making checks and checks and checks.

[CJ Carr]

I didn't realize that there was a playcock going. To be honest with you.

[Taylor]

I had no idea.

[Coach Freeman]

I'm gonna look bad as a head coach.

[CJ Carr]

And I'm just telling you, you don't

[Coach Freeman]

know what you just, you don't know from now on. Now you gonna know from now on.

[Taylor]

You guys, you seem like a well coached. Like your, your team understands the rules. Like your offensive linemen know when they get out the framework, they let go of the jersey or they give a shot. Guys are really good intentional with their hands. Like how much goes into that from a coaching standpoint of making sure these guys understand the rules and use the rules to their advantage.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah. It's important. Right. Is that like, don't beat Notre Dame is something we talk about all the time. And pre snap, post snap penalties, playing with bad fundamentals, that beats Notre Dame. Aggressive penalties will take every day. Right. If we're the Least penalized team, then we're not the team that I want to coach. But we can't have stupid, undisciplined penalties. Those are the ones that will kill you. And so we have to show them. We'll watch the mistakes of others. We do that all the time. We watch other people make mistakes so we don't repeat them. And we just got to keep educating our guys on how to play the game properly, but with the violence and the intentionality that we demand.

[Will Compton]

Your name flirted around a lot when the New York Giants head job was up. How real were those? Obviously you, you know, you came out, you said what you said about staying in Notre Dame and everything else, but I feel like your name's gonna continue to come up year in and year out with the NFL. NFL. Not knowing if you have aspirations for it. But how real do those conversations get and what is the thought process that goes into if you even were to make a decision like that between going to the NFL or staying where you're at?

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, I don't want to give a cliche answer, but I believe this strongly. Like, with team success comes individual opportunities. And so I hope conversations like this continue to happen because that means our team is doing really, really good. And they're gonna, you know, people, they want to give credit to one, they're going to give it to the quarterback when we win. They give to the head coach. They're going to fire, fire me when we lose, and they want me to replace you when we lose. But we know it takes people and that's, that's why I was in that situation in an off season. You know, I used it as an opportunity. I don't know. I've never coached the NFL. I was in the NFL for one year. I use an opportunity to figure out, like, what is being a head coach in the NFL entail? What's the differences? How do you work with GMs and the salary cap and all these different things? It was, it was good for me to learn. But I finished the statements like, I'm as happy at this place with these group of young people, this coaching staff, staff, this support I have in this universe, like, this is special and I hope you guys are feeling it right now. Like it's, it's a special place with special people that you get to impact their lives. Like, and that's what, what I love about coaching 18 to 22 year olds. Like, you can pour in and impact 120 guys or 105 guys. And, and, and that's why not just the starters, not just the ones that play. And I love that. That's my why. Right. Why you go to work every day is to try to impact these young people. And so. So I'm happy, man.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Good. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

How is it for you when. When you see your head coach? So for an example, like, I remember when Coach Bo. I wanted to say there was. There would be rumors about him potentially going to Miami or wanting to go to the NFL. And you, as an innocent player, you're not think. You. You just don't. You're. You're just in the box, you're like, oh, this is my head coach. These are my guys. Like everything else. Then when you see it or you see that it's rumored or something else, like, I know for me, I. I'm like, I need to hit Coach Bo up or I need to go to his office. Like, hey, what's going on? What is it like for you as a player in that situation when you see, when you see your head coach in headlines like that?

[CJ Carr]

Yeah, it's not hitting free up making sure. But, yeah, I think, like, looking back at the recruiting process, I think people told me, like, growing up, not to commit to a coach. And I think just nowadays, it's such a hard thing to navigate. Navigate because, you know, Free is such a huge part of why I picked Notre Dame. And, and, you know, his job is to bring in the best coaches in America to, To make sure our team, you know, achieves success. And so you hear those rumors and it's. It's. There's a little bit of anxiety of like, is this. Is this real? Is this not just because, you know, you don't want. You don't want Free to leave. He's the best coach in America, and, And you trust him and you've built this relationship with him, but also you trust them.

[Will Compton]

I hope you all are enjoying the Notre Dame interview, but we got to take a second.

[Taylor]

Notre Dame, they don't cut corners.

[Will Compton]

They never have. The Fighting Irish have never cut corners and they never will. The Fighting Irish do things the right way. Always have.

[Taylor]

And that's how we move, too. No shortcuts.

[Will Compton]

That's why we eat Kevin's clean ingredients. No fillers, no nonsense.

[Taylor]

And it actually tastes good. Loaded with protein. That's doing things the right way.

[Will Compton]

That's championship level fuel. Just like Notre Dame.

[Taylor]

We're very locked in right now.

[Will Compton]

Extremely locked in right now.

[Coach Freeman]

Stop reading the effing Internet. Don't read that media.

[Taylor]

You know, hey, is it hard not to read the Internet. No, that, though when you're in the position you are, we talked about earlier about you, because being a. You know, everyone's saying, this guy's going to be the Heisman. There's a lot of noise. And with noise, like, comes expectation. And when you have a bad game, you. I mean, everyone, one way or another, sees it or hears about it. Like people. Passionate fans are passionate on both sides of the ball when you guys win and lose. Like, how. How is it for you in this. The way social media is now, the way everyone has their opinions. Everyone, every dumb ex athlete has a podcast to, like, judge you and how you guys handle things. Like, how is it for you with all this excess noise around?

[CJ Carr]

It's. It's not crazy. You'd think it'd be at least for. For me. It's like, I think when we win and lose in that locker room, the opinion and the expectations are so high that that's kind of all you hear is. Is I'm not on a bunch of social media all the time and reading everything because the. The opinions in the locker room are. Are so high. And the opinions and expectations I have for my. Myself and this. This team are so high that nothing else kind of really matters. And I think. I think, you know, that that speaks for most of that locker room too. Like, we're so invested in what goes on in there, and everything else is noise and kind of in the way and just distracts from, you know, getting better today and, you know, reaching, you know, the goals that, you know, we want to reach.

[Will Compton]

I love that. Yeah. Yeah. You can't read into social media, too.

[Taylor]

There's nothing worse than sitting there. I tell you what, your name and the search bar. We've all. We've all done it.

[Will Compton]

I've been there. You'll have a game, and I'll be

[Taylor]

like, playing

[Coach Freeman]

maybe once.

[Taylor]

Yeah, you put it in there. You just kind of scroll. I feel like we. We had a pretty good game. Everybody's a victim to that dude. It's like, you'll see 10 comments and, like, let's just say you had a great game. Nine of them are like, this dude's the man. And then you see one that's like, this guy kind of sucks. And you're like, something about that one just suffocates my soul a little bit.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Like, oh, I had a pretty good game today. Let me see what they're saying about a Willie boy. Oh, they still think I suck.

[Taylor]

Exactly.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Yeah. You got to be careful. Reading on social media, which does. I do want to ask, like, how are you as a wrestling dad?

[Coach Freeman]

Like in. What do you mean?

[Will Compton]

I don't know. I, I don't know if this is subconsciously like something I saw on social media, but it seems like you're, you're a very intentional bought in as a wrestler dad. Like going to watch your boy wrestle.

[Taylor]

He's talking about the passion.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

The passion that you have.

[Coach Freeman]

I went to one wrestling match this year in January. Yeah, it wasn't good, you know, and so it reminded me why I don't go to wrestling matches. And, and, you know, another reason is because, you know, people look at you. Right. And sometimes I want to be a parent. Right. And. And if I'm there in person, I know people are looking at me. So I kind of sit there and don't move and just act like I'm non emotional. But in my office, when I watch on my iPad, I can be a. I can move and get out. I can be a father. And so I, I enjoy it way better in my office and I stay out of headlines when I'm watching in my office.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Wrestling's intense now. It's fandom and wrestling. You're bought in. Like you said, you're like moving,

[Taylor]

grooving.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I wrestle, I wrestle, but I felt more like I didn't like wrestling. My parents kind of made me wrestle because it benefited football. But my brother Cody, he was really good and I felt like I was just as invested in watching Cody out there wrestle because he was like, ranked in the country and you know, when he had a prime time match or when he got to state, when he was going to wrestle the dudes at state, and you're kind of just, you're sweating, you're up there, you kind of have anxiety. You want him to win so badly. I love the wrestling culture, bro. Yeah, they're traveling around the Triple Crown, Reno, Tulsa.

[Coach Freeman]

That wrestling community is small, but it's, it's. They're. They're nuts, man. In a good way.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, it's.

[Coach Freeman]

It's a.

[Will Compton]

You got four of them.

[Coach Freeman]

Four now, four wrestlers. The, the three other boys, they're, they're like, what you just said, like, there's no option. They have to wrestle.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Vinny's to the point now he gets to choose to wrestle. But those three boys are going to keep them in there because think that builds character. It's really good fundamentals and stuff, but like, you have to learn how to lose and Football's the greatest team sport. Right. And, and I often say this. When we have success, you point it's because C.J. carr, it's because you.

[Taylor]

It's because of you.

[Coach Freeman]

It's because of you. But when we have failure, when we lose, I say, this is wrestling. I want everybody to say it's my fault, because in wrestling, you lose who you going?

[Taylor]

You.

[Coach Freeman]

But we have to be able to do that. We have to be able to say, it is my fault. It's not your fault. Because outside of here, they blame somebody else and it's easy to follow that. But we need to look at ourselves when we have failure and point to other people when we have success.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

How difficult is that as a coach? When you have players that are clearly making a lot of money? They. Everybody who's coming to Notre Dame was the man in their hometown, four star, five star guy guys. And so they're so used to everybody kind of patting them on the ass all the time. Yeah. Now they come in, things are faster, they're making a lot of mistakes. It's. I one thing I noticed, like, with football players, it's very difficult to instill accountability. And have you, have you noticed that be an issue with like kind of this new era of nil at all?

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, I think, I mean, a lot depends on how you're raised.

[CJ Carr]

Right.

[Coach Freeman]

And, and are you raised to take accountability? Are you raised to. To look at yourself and not blame others? Others. But it's an everyday message in our program.

[CJ Carr]

Right.

[Coach Freeman]

And, and I think there's parallels between making the choice to put Notre Dame in front of yourself, which we all have to do if we want to achieve the goals we want. Right. And then saying, okay, if I choose to be selfless and put Notre Dame in front of myself, I can blame myself when we don't have success.

[CJ Carr]

Right.

[Coach Freeman]

And it's my job to get them to understand why that's so important. Important. No matter if your role was the scout team linebacker or offensive lineman or you're the starting quarterback, when we have failure, what do I have to do? Where did I fail as the head coach? Where did I fail? And when we have success, to be able to say, you know what, quarterback, good job, but I'm going to tell the scout team offensive lineman, great job, too. We've gotten away from players of the game. We've gotten away from game balls. Because. Because it kind of was mixed messaging with what I believe in. Your role doesn't determine your value in our program. Well, why am I going to Give the game ball to C.J. carr because he threw three touchdowns, but the scout team DB, that did exactly what he was supposed to do every single day all week long, that gave him that look. Why doesn't he deserve a game ball? Right? And so I've kind of like, we have to put Notre Dame in front of our help ourself, right? And I think there's parallels between that and having an account. Accountability dude.

[Will Compton]

CJ how about for you, like, when he's sitting there talking about accountability or those moments when you realize, like, it's about patting your old line on the ass, like, learning about that leadership, like, at what age do you feel like you started to figure out that there was more to the game than just your overall performance? And that the way you carry your body language, the way when you say things to your coaches, like how guys kind of feed off of that to where you really realize, oh, I'm influencing everybody around me, not just myself. When do you feel like you were. You started learning that and picking that up?

[CJ Carr]

Yeah, the. Growing up, my dad, you know, he played quarterback at a really high level. And I'm from a coach's family. He coached. My grandpa coached. And so I've kind of heard the message, like, as a quarterback, it's always your fault and whether that's good or bad.

[Coach Freeman]

And.

[CJ Carr]

And so, you know, for me, when I. I don't achieve success with the team out there, like, I feel like I'm. I'm very hard on myself. And I think the. The locker room is too. Like, there isn't a bunch of pointing fingers when we're down there. It's. It's. It's usually, you know, hey, this was on me.

[Taylor]

And.

[CJ Carr]

And here's why. And. And let's go out there and fix it. And, you know, we're so close as a. As a unit that we can get on one another when it is like, hey, this is. This is your fault or your fault. It's. It's. You just don't see a of lot of that in this offense and on this team. Excuse me, on this team. And it's fun to be a part of. Just, you know, everyone is playing for each other.

[Will Compton]

Do you feel like there was an age that it ever started to click, though? Because it's always like, you know, if your dad's saying it, your dad could be the greatest player of all time, but it's still your dad. So a lot of the things can go through one ear out the other, but do you feel like there was an age to where that started to click for you. Because all of us growing up, like, I was an offensive player. Like, growing up, you want to score touchdowns, you think, like, you. Yo, I'm. I'm the man. I'm doing my job. I'm playing the best to where, you know, whether it was in high school or whenever it be, to where it clicked for me that, like, okay, I can kind of see what. Either whether it's coach, whether it's dad, whether it's whoever's kind of talking about the way I kind of carry myself or taking the extra step to, like, go, you know, cheer on or encourage somebody else around you. Like, at what age do you feel like that started to click for you from when you went, yo, I'm cj, Carl. I'm the man. I'm doing all this stuff, too. This involves a lot more around me

[CJ Carr]

than just me growing up, I had the message. My dad always, you know, I was. We. I played baseball a bunch growing up, and every time I struck out or wasn't pitching or made an error in the field, I would cry immediately from, like, ages, you know, age 12. You what? I was in tears, bawling my eyes out, and it would just piss my dad off so much, and. And he hated being out there with me crying. And so no crying in baseball. No. And so body language was, like, a huge thing that was kind of, you know, drilled into me from a young age. And, you know, I just ignored him for four years because I was still crying throughout those. Those ages. But he had, like, this poster outside of his door, and it was, like, the definition of mental toughness. And it was developing a mindset where you will not make or accept an excuse for your lack of success. And every time I made an excuse or cried in baseball, he would just, like, door next now, like, have me just recite it over and over and over again. And so body language was. Was a big thing for me. And him saying, you know, if you want to be the quarterback, you can't be out here in tears looking like a baby on the mound like this. You want to. You want. You say you want to go, you know, play quarterback, and all the eyes are on you, and you're crying right now, like, you can't. You can't be a quarterback like that. And so that was the. The stuff that was kind of instilled in me at a young age, and I still remember.

[Coach Freeman]

It's good to hear it because, like, I just got done raving about his mom, Tammy, car, mama, Bear. Like, I didn't. Your dad's the most quiet, soft spoken guy. Yeah, but in the house, he's.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah, they don't. You don't see. No, no, you don't see.

[Will Compton]

I mess with that. So, so, so follow up. Like, how old were you before you stopped crying?

[CJ Carr]

So it was like my parents were, weren't. I didn't play tackle football till seventh grade, so I don't know what age that is. But the year before that, I'm still crying. I'm in sixth grade, like, crying over striking out in baseball. And my dad was like, all right, you're gonna play this year of baseball, and if you cry one time, you're not playing football. And I never cried again.

[Coach Freeman]

Listen, we play wiffle ball on Fridays before the game, and I strike him out all the time. Right, but you don't cry anymore. It's good.

[Taylor]

I'm sorry about you.

[Coach Freeman]

You've never striked me out, ever.

[CJ Carr]

Free.

[Taylor]

That's a lie.

[Coach Freeman]

You are such a lie. You're right now, like, you're right.

[CJ Carr]

My fault.

[Taylor]

So what is it? Who. Who strikes?

[Coach Freeman]

Do you strike? He's awful. He's awful.

[Taylor]

You're going to lie on the podcast?

[Coach Freeman]

You don't even look like you're telling the truth. Stop it right now.

[CJ Carr]

That's. That's the sound that he's been so, you know, nice. And that's the sound of someone lying.

[Coach Freeman]

He's awful.

[Taylor]

That's the sound of somebody lying. He's yesterday in shuffle boy. So I'm kind of taking your side a little bit.

[Coach Freeman]

Like, I'm not good a knockout or what do you call it?

[Taylor]

Bump out.

[Coach Freeman]

Bump out. Like, I. I can't. I'm not a basketball player.

[Will Compton]

So you're telling me you're a good tell. Like wrestlers trying to shoot the best, but in.

[Coach Freeman]

In Wiffle ball.

[CJ Carr]

You're telling me you're a good wiffle ball player? You're saying that on podcast, on record.

[Coach Freeman]

Home runs off me every Friday.

[Taylor]

Is there any. Is there any film with this that we could use?

[CJ Carr]

No, there's no problem with this.

[Will Compton]

You need to shoot it to us.

[Coach Freeman]

I'll get you some this year, you know, but that's our thing Friday with a little wiffle ball. They were mad I kept hitting home runs. So now they. They brought out a little strike zone and. And like, they throw crazy pitches now,

[CJ Carr]

you see, I mean, now we've changed the. The sound changes. You know, I used to hit a bunch of home runs until they brought out this. This strike, you know, What I'm saying, that's mental toughness. That's a excuse of go to the door.

[Taylor]

For you as a head coach. Ev, like evaluating how to coach different players. Like, one thing I've noticed with great coaches, they understand how to coach certain guys based on their personal personality. How long did it take you to realize, like, okay, I can kind of get after this guy a little bit as opposed to this guy who I've kind of massage into it?

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, it took some time, but at the end of the day, it's understanding that you want to get the players that you coach to play at their highest level. And if player X doesn't respond to the way you're coaching or yelling at him and playing at a better level then this, then you're crazy just to keep yelling and screaming at him or, or being really nice. Now if. If player Y responds better to you yelling and challenging them, then, then you got to figure out what each player needs to ultimately go out there and perform at their highest level. And I think that it, it takes time, it takes investment, but it's. It's understanding. Put your ego aside as a coach and understand what your player needs, needs to perform better, and we're going to correct you no matter what. How does this correction need to take place? How do you handle correction? You know, for me, my father's military. Right. 26 years in the Air Force, like, it was black and white and there wasn't not much of discussion. So that's how I was raised. So if you yelled at me and yes, sir. Okay. Yeah, certain players don't respond like that. And so coach them in ways that are going to get them to perform, perform at their highest level.

[Will Compton]

What were some off of that? Like, what were some bad habits that you look back on that you used to have as a head coach? Because when I was with Washington, we had. Sean McVeigh was the OC I remember asking him, like, what do you feel like the hardest thing is? Like when he was about to go into the head coaching search and everything else. And his response was like, coaching players that aren't. That wasn't the way I was like on this. Connecting with different guys, like, now that you are where you are, are, what do you look back on where you had some. Where you see old habits that you're like, man, why did I do it like that with some of these players?

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, you know, I started coaching when I was 24 and you know, now being 40, I think you mature with time. You coach players differently. You don't you're not trying to beat her, buddy, but you're ultimately trying to impact them. Right? And I think that's what I've learned more than anything is like, how do I find ways to impact not. Not to get this guy to like, like me, but to impact him in a way that he's better because I coached him in. And I think that's a great point that Coach McVeigh made. Like, not everybody responds to coaching the way you do. And you have to understand this isn't about you. It's about impacting those people you coach. And. And I think it just. But it takes time and investment. It takes true, intentional time to figure out what this person needs as a coach.

[Taylor]

Did you ever, like, have a hard time with having. Having being a coach, 24 year old coach and trying to like not get the guys to like you or not being okay with them not liking you in certain ways?

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, I mean, I think it was laid out to me very clear when I started being a graduate assistant that, hey, you played with a lot of these guys and they're not your buddies.

[Taylor]

Right?

[Coach Freeman]

You have a job to do. And, and I'll tell you this real quick. I got into coaching because I wanted to stay around football, right? At one year in NFL, I was like, man, I want to stay around football. I want to coach. And very quickly I learned like, what gives a coach the greatest gratification is when you help someone have success. I helped this kid, gave him a tip defense end to help me get a sack. And I remember he came over and chest bumped me and. And it was like, that's it. That's what coaching is. It's not. I could be doing. I just happen to know football. It could be. Be any sport, it could be anything. It'd be a teacher. But investing in somebody and seeing them have success, that's for me. What is it? What's it. It's all about.

[Taylor]

I love that. Yeah. We got a couple fans.

[Coach Freeman]

Oh, man.

[Taylor]

This comes from Alex D. Michelle, tier one. Alex D. Michelle. Would you recruit this guy to play a fullback for the Fighting Irish? I believe this question is for you, coach. This is the individual in question. Would you recruit that?

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, he's got thick neck.

[Will Compton]

I mean, it looks like, bro, it's 19 inches at one point.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, I could tell, man.

[Will Compton]

You see the note?

[Coach Freeman]

I do.

[Will Compton]

It was like a rival seminar. I do got my phone. You should have been it, bro. I'm telling you, I should have.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Love the Huskers though. Like, that is that's number one forever.

[Taylor]

Number one forever. But you've.

[Will Compton]

There was a love.

[Taylor]

There's a lot going on. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

There was a love in my heart that's being a little, like, recaptured. And I'm remembering those old vibes and the great feelings I did have. When I think of the Irish, when you. Because I was very salty.

[Taylor]

When you think about that individually, looking at playing fullback, what do you think about this guy? Meeting him in the hole right here?

[Coach Freeman]

I already see this. I'm winning, you know, 31 national.

[CJ Carr]

I don't think I knew that.

[Taylor]

You look way scarier in that photo than.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, let me see the photo.

[Coach Freeman]

That was the.

[CJ Carr]

The free photos that get through the way different, bro.

[Coach Freeman]

That's, like, when I can't. Like, what's the guy that played linebacker at Miami? Not Velma. DJ Williams. Remember that name?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

So he had a baldy. And, like, I remember that was the thing. Like, we played linebacker. Maybe it was the black thing. I don't know.

[Will Compton]

But, like, you got the earrings we had. Did you wear the neck roll?

[Coach Freeman]

I got rid of it my senior year.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

But my junior year I did. And, like, we chose to go bald. And then we're even in college, there was a couple times me and Laurinitis and some of our guys who chose to go bald. And then you go, all right, I don't want to go bald, man.

[Will Compton]

Now, look, you got a barbershop in your house. Yeah, look at that fade, both of you. You guys got some nice fades here.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah, Leo,

[Coach Freeman]

I'm like, man, get a fade, man. Your quarterback at Notre Dame, why don't

[Taylor]

you grow it out a little bit? Something about the lettuce in the back of the helmet.

[CJ Carr]

If I could, if my buddies wouldn't just constantly make fun of me, I would go. I would go ball, too. It's just easy. It's consistent. You wake up every day, it's the same. I don't got to worry about.

[Taylor]

About it.

[CJ Carr]

That's what I like.

[Will Compton]

How about. How about this gentleman right here?

[Coach Freeman]

He should have been at Notre Dame.

[Will Compton]

That's a good.

[Taylor]

See what that patch says in the middle, right?

[Coach Freeman]

Under Armour. All American, esp. What does that say?

[Taylor]

That was Under Armor.

[Will Compton]

All American.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Didn't have any offers till my senior year. Three games got me.

[Will Compton]

Really?

[Taylor]

Three games?

[Coach Freeman]

Were you skinny? I mean, you're skinny.

[Taylor]

I was literally the same weight I am right now, 254. That was, like, what I was going into my freshman year at Michigan, but I only played offensive line. My Senior year.

[Coach Freeman]

So I get to Notre Dame, you know, he remind me of Joe Al tied in, I mean, tight end in high school, came into Notre Dame. We came at the same time. He's, I mean, 260, right. And he became a dude.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Like you. It's good.

[Taylor]

Thanks, man.

[Coach Freeman]

I would recruited you though.

[Taylor]

Would you have?

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, yeah. All right.

[Taylor]

Bloomer, late bloomer.

[Will Compton]

I think you would have gave Notre Dame look.

[Taylor]

Oh, yeah, I would have. I would have took a visit, no doubt. Coach free, seeing that with the fade, went to his house. I would have drink the coolest. Yeah. Oh my God. We're playing bump out and he correct me, but I guess it's. I guess it's knockout now.

[Will Compton]

All right, we have some, we have some fan questions here

[Taylor]

also. We have fan questions. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

What?

[Taylor]

Go ahead.

[Will Compton]

Okay, this one comes from Caleb P. Matthew, what separates Notre Dame's locker room culture compared to. To other schools that you've been at?

[Coach Freeman]

I just think these guys are really close and we say the brotherhood, but it organically happens. Because this is a small school, right? 9,000 students. It's not a big campus. So they're organically close to each other. They hang out in the locker room a lot. There are always guys here. And so I think that helps promote that closeness. I'm remember I used to drive 15 minutes from campus.

[CJ Carr]

Right.

[Coach Freeman]

There's been places when you're in a big city, a lot of guys live a drive away. These guys all live within a mile from here, so they hang out a lot in city.

[Will Compton]

Way too many things to do. Like South Bend. I mean, not, not like a shop, but not like a whole lot. As a small town guy. Not a whole lot to do to where the main thing can be the main thing. That makes sense.

[Coach Freeman]

That's a nice way to put it.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah,

[Taylor]

yeah. They got the linebacker. We've been once been once.

[Coach Freeman]

I've never been.

[Taylor]

It was great. You never been?

[Coach Freeman]

No.

[Taylor]

We'll take you sometime.

[Coach Freeman]

Shane. Shane Gill said, because I told him, I was like, I've never been a linebacker. He said, if you win a national championship, we're going to lineback.

[Taylor]

I said, deal.

[Will Compton]

Shane Gillis took us to Taco Bell.

[Taylor]

Of all the fans that you guys that are fans of Notre Dame, that you guys have met, who's the number one, like, fanboy?

[CJ Carr]

Oh, I feel like Shane St. Gillis is up there.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

It has to be.

[Coach Freeman]

Love Notre Dame.

[Will Compton]

He loves Notre Dame.

[Taylor]

Hey, how cool is it meeting Vince Vaughn?

[CJ Carr]

It's crazy.

[Taylor]

Is he not the goat?

[CJ Carr]

The Goat God.

[Taylor]

We met him here.

[Coach Freeman]

No.

[Taylor]

What happened?

[Coach Freeman]

You don't know any Vince Vaughn movies?

[Taylor]

You never seen Wedding Crashers?

[Will Compton]

Wait, what?

[CJ Carr]

I've seen Wedding Crashers.

[Taylor]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor]

All right, then you're solid.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

You seen Couples Retreat?

[Coach Freeman]

No.

[Taylor]

You seen Four Christmases?

[CJ Carr]

No.

[Taylor]

You've seen Swingers?

[CJ Carr]

No.

[Will Compton]

You seen the Breakup?

[Taylor]

Yeah. What a film.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Taylor]

That's a great film.

[Will Compton]

You seen Jurassic World?

[CJ Carr]

Yeah, yeah, Jurassic World.

[Will Compton]

Not the new one.

[Coach Freeman]

He's like, stop.

[Taylor]

You need to dive into that.

[Coach Freeman]

Okay.

[Taylor]

All right.

[Will Compton]

Vince was the man, bro.

[Taylor]

Vince is the man.

[Will Compton]

He was here during that game.

[Taylor]

It was the one against Ohio State.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we first drove down. Or not.

[Taylor]

We.

[Will Compton]

Notre Dame first drove down, and I was like, we got to take the three here. And they went for it. They did. I didn't get it. I'm like, you gotta take the three.

[Taylor]

Fourth and one. Take 10 guys on the field.

[Coach Freeman]

Nah, stop that. That wasn't fourth.

[Will Compton]

That was late.

[Coach Freeman]

Was that fourth out?

[Taylor]

Yeah, that's the last. Let's play the game.

[Coach Freeman]

Right. We were talking about the QB Sneak on 4th and 1, and you want to bring up that?

[Taylor]

Well, I'm just saying we look at places, ways to get better.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, that's right. Keep the pain.

[Taylor]

You have 11 guys in the field consistently challenge ourselves. Right. Here's another one from at Taylor Lawan 77. Your time at Ohio State, did you ever get a tattoo and did you pay for it?

[Will Compton]

Great question.

[Coach Freeman]

Did you ask if I ever lost in Michigan? No, I didn't. No. I didn't know if that was that way.

[Taylor]

You never lost in Michigan?

[Coach Freeman]

Never.

[Taylor]

I went one in three. I beat Haas. Actually, let me rephrase that. I beat Ohio State once. So. So did you get any tattoos when that stuff happened?

[Will Compton]

What was that, 20?

[Taylor]

It was like 2,000.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, but that happened now. This is decade, like, decades. This is almost two decades ago.

[Taylor]

Right. They can't get you now.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, it's over now. But when that. When that came out, were you kind of like, laughing?

[CJ Carr]

What are we talking.

[Taylor]

You don't know?

[Will Compton]

Sorry, cj.

[CJ Carr]

My fault, Coach.

[Coach Freeman]

We'll tell you later.

[Taylor]

Right?

[Coach Freeman]

Your grandfather would know and your dad would know.

[Will Compton]

All right, but when that came out, were you kind of like, oh, man, we were doing X, Y, and Z with memorabilia or tattoos.

[Coach Freeman]

Oh, I didn't do any of that stuff.

[Will Compton]

You.

[Taylor]

You don't have any tattoos?

[Will Compton]

Like, hey, it's over.

[Coach Freeman]

I got a wedding ring.

[Taylor]

That. That's it? Yes, but there were guys. You were friends with the head tattoos I don't know.

[Coach Freeman]

I don't know.

[Taylor]

You don't know.

[Will Compton]

And I don't know if they paid.

[Coach Freeman]

I don't know if they. They exchange. I don't know.

[Taylor]

You didn't hang out with your teammates?

[Coach Freeman]

I did, but I don't know. Can we move on to the next question? All right, can we move on to the next question?

[Will Compton]

It's over.

[Taylor]

How about the shot about Michigan? Yeah, that's crazy.

[Will Compton]

That was back to the time, like, he never lost in Michigan. That's a. To flex. He's got to give as the.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

As big as the rivalry is.

[Taylor]

Damn.

[Will Compton]

I got one here from. In Meyer, 68, who were your most influential coaches in your high school career at Wayne or college career at Ohio State that inspired you to become a coach yourself? Sending love from Fairborn, Ohio.

[Coach Freeman]

Oh, that's. I've had a lot of influential coaches. Head coach in high school, my linebackers coach. Coach who was a complete a hole. But like you, you appreciate it now. He used to. He's an older guy. His name was Pat Woody. Yell, scream, headbutt you. Punch you. But I appreciate it now. He cared. He really did. I appreciate it. You smoke cigarettes all the time and blow it in my face. I mean, I'm scarred. But I love him. Like, I love him. And, you know, obviously, Coach Trestle, who was my college coach. Luke Fickle was my linebackers coach. And. And. But I never wanted to coach, ever. I wanted to be an ad, actually, my fifth year in college, I ga'd for Gene Smith, who was our athletic director at the time, because I thought I wanted to be an ad. And. And then after that year in the NFL, I was like, I want to get into coaching. And. And kind of the journey has got me here. But there's a lot of influential people that, from my dad to all these different people that I've mentioned, that you feel like they have a little part of you, right. There's a piece of you. Of them in you and how you lead and who you are as a father and a husband and. And all those things about.

[Will Compton]

For ucj, most influential people that have been in your life. Take it. What a great opportunity to really talk highly. Your mom and dad.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah, for sure. It's. It's.

[Taylor]

I'm.

[CJ Carr]

I'm so young. Like, if you ask me this in 10 years, it's probably gonna be. Be Marcus Freeman and Gino Gaduli and a bunch of these people that are here. But in. In the. You know, growing up, and it was definitely my parents And. And my family and the people who. My brother, who have, you know, been with me throughout my whole life and pushed me to be the best version of myself and. And sacrificed so much for me. And. Yeah, so my parents are, for sure are the. The biggest two people in my life.

[Taylor]

Do you. Do you take media classes at Notre Dame?

[CJ Carr]

Ms. Katie's kind of the media specialist.

[Taylor]

Yeah. I'll be honest with you, brother. You are well polished. Like, everything you're saying, I'm like. I feel like I'm a gm evaluating this cat right now. I'm seeing no flaws. He wants to have fun a little bit, but he's also like, keep the main thing. The main thing. That's. Good job, Katie. That's great work.

[Coach Freeman]

Avoids social life.

[Taylor]

Like, avoids the social life life. Doesn't want to talk about the love life. There may be. There may not be. Who really knows?

[Coach Freeman]

I love it.

[Taylor]

Keep them guessing. A little bit of mystique. Exactly.

[CJ Carr]

That's how we like it.

[Will Compton]

How often do you get a haircut?

[Coach Freeman]

How. As often as I need.

[Will Compton]

So how. What's the ca. What's the weekly. What's the weekly cadence?

[Coach Freeman]

It would be once a week, but if I got a couple obligations during the week, then it might be twice a week or. No, twice a week, not often. It's like, how often do I need. If I'm gonna. Like, I had a haircut two days ago, so for today, I was like, I don't need to get a haircut, but if this was tomorrow, I might get a haircut, you know?

[Will Compton]

Gotta maintain that skin, you know?

[Coach Freeman]

It is, man. Keep it nice, you know?

[CJ Carr]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

I got my guy Julio on speed dial, you know Julio?

[Taylor]

That's your guy.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

You guys gotta. Next time you come back.

[CJ Carr]

That's kind of part of the Notre Dame experience. Like that.

[Coach Freeman]

You have to.

[Will Compton]

Oh, that's part of it, yeah.

[Taylor]

I'm just not a fade guy.

[Will Compton]

He can do anything. You could have got a haircut.

[Taylor]

My hair out until it's time to get it.

[Coach Freeman]

You can do this type. Like.

[Taylor]

Yeah, yeah. Just. Just keep it a little shorter. Something on top to play with. Call it a day.

[Coach Freeman]

It used to be really long, didn't it?

[Taylor]

I. I went through a stint. Something about a guy that's 315, though, with long hair. It's tough look, but it really goes back to the. The helmet. Get a little. That flutter in the back. It makes you feel good. Start running real fast, and you're gonna fly away. Like, that's kind of what you want, you know? I don't what you need. Who's your best friend on the team?

[CJ Carr]

Cj Jack Larson and Sean Sevillano are my two.

[Will Compton]

If you had to pick one, who would it be? Not doing that.

[Taylor]

Gotta pick one.

[Will Compton]

No, you have to pick. No, if you don't pick one, they both go, they're both gone.

[CJ Carr]

They both go, oh, I can't pick one.

[Taylor]

Who's your favorite offensive lineman on the team?

[CJ Carr]

I. I don't want to answer that either. They're all my favorite. I. I love them all.

[Will Compton]

If you don't pick one, they all. They're all gone.

[CJ Carr]

Max Anderson.

[Will Compton]

Okay.

[Taylor]

Okay, fair enough.

[Will Compton]

There we go.

[Taylor]

Do you, do you give gifts, like end of the year Christmas gifts to your office?

[CJ Carr]

Okay, you're an offensive lineman. What would you want? Like that's a. Yeah.

[Taylor]

It's not about wanting something. It's about like how much effort did my guy put?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[CJ Carr]

Okay.

[Taylor]

Like I look at like Joe Burrow got his boys katanas.

[CJ Carr]

Those were crazy. Those were sick. Like swords.

[Taylor]

It's a like a samurai sword. Yeah. Cultural.

[Will Compton]

Do guys on the team have a golf cart to get around like their own?

[CJ Carr]

No, I have a golf cart.

[Coach Freeman]

You do.

[Will Compton]

Do your own.

[CJ Carr]

We don't drive to, to class. It's more like when my parents are. Are in town, they get. Drive up and pick us up and

[Will Compton]

right there is a gift idea.

[Taylor]

Perfect gift.

[Will Compton]

Hook up the people come and visit.

[Taylor]

Let's play this game. If someone got you a gift and you could paint the gift, what gift would you want?

[CJ Carr]

Just quality time with my friends. Probably.

[Taylor]

Probably.

[Will Compton]

Oh, that's your love language.

[CJ Carr]

Qt.

[Taylor]

You like qt? He's qt.

[Will Compton]

That's so awful right now. Yeah, No, I don't.

[Taylor]

Is that your love language?

[CJ Carr]

Yeah, with my, with my offensive lineman for sure.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

You're unbelievable. You know, I think be a nice gift mopeds.

[CJ Carr]

My dad, we can't have them on camp.

[Taylor]

Get him two seater bikes.

[Coach Freeman]

Oh that's right.

[Taylor]

Buddy him up. Get some like industrial like some allterrain tires.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Could you imagine just a couple hogs.

[CJ Carr]

That would be awesome right now. That would be awesome.

[Taylor]

A couple of crazy bikes in the summertime.

[Coach Freeman]

That would be awesome.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, just bring the vibes up.

[Taylor]

Well yeah, I had a two seater bike in college. I just did that solo sometime. Yeah.

[CJ Carr]

Who, who would you have on the back most of the time?

[Taylor]

Graham Glasgow.

[CJ Carr]

Okay.

[Taylor]

Yeah. He was always my. My guy. I'd be. I'd shop at Target. I'd have the five and a half inseam shorts with the tank top. And if a door on up there. See you later.

[Will Compton]

This one comes from Boolies. When is Notre Dame releasing the Freeman collection? He will know what that means.

[CJ Carr]

I'd like to know that.

[Coach Freeman]

No, I don't. Listen, I don't have input on.

[Will Compton]

Hang on. Time out, though. When Boolio is asking this and says he will know what that means, what does he mean by saying.

[Taylor]

And you can just tell by coach's body language, like he clearly knows what that means.

[Will Compton]

Is there some lure out there of a Freeman collection?

[Coach Freeman]

Listen, I wear what they put in my locker. Sometimes what they put in my locker is not out in stores. Stores. But that doesn't determine if I'm gonna wear it or not. And so we just got to encourage them to put more things in my locker that are going to be in stores. That's. That's the way to answer that.

[Taylor]

What Notre Dame should do is drops like you have something that's not in stores, you wear for game day and it's dropped for that week. Freeman Collection. Each week goes by.

[Coach Freeman]

I was like, oh, we're a couple steps ahead, but.

[Taylor]

Oh, you're a couple steps ahead.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Oh, so you didn't know what he was talking about? About. Okay.

[Will Compton]

He likes the exclusive clothing haircut. Twice a week.

[Taylor]

Twice a week is nuts.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

On Tuesdays got some maintenance. You high maintenance, coach?

[Coach Freeman]

No, I gotta put the barbershop to use, you know, before.

[Taylor]

Before you ask the next question. Who's the most stylish guy on the team?

[CJ Carr]

Don's up there, I'd say.

[Taylor]

Who else? Of

[CJ Carr]

Kingston. Kingston's got some Leonard Moore. Leonard, for sure.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

What about you? What are you rocking on game day? Do you have, like. Do you lay out the fits?

[CJ Carr]

No, I was bad my freshman year. I kept forgetting my suits at home because I just like.

[Taylor]

Oh, yeah, you have to wear suit

[CJ Carr]

at Notre Dame for the player walks. Here we usually wear suits. If not, it's. It's just. It's just like a sweatsuit.

[Taylor]

Now. Does Notre Dame supply.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Okay.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

What would happen if guys are forgetting their suit?

[Coach Freeman]

Sports go. Yeah. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

What would happen if guys are forgetting their suit for the walks?

[Coach Freeman]

What?

[CJ Carr]

I just wore my, like the travel suit pants with a. Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

He didn't have his pants. Yeah. Oh, you didn't even have a jacket.

[CJ Carr]

I had the jacket, so I put the jacket.

[Coach Freeman]

Listen, we. I shouldn't even say this, but we bring. We make them turn their jackets in and so we bring them to the hotel in case they forget them. But he didn't have pants. So I said, just wear your. Your travel sweatpants. Like, you're gonna look like an idiot. But that's what you get for forgetting your suit. Yeah. And so that's what he had to do.

[Taylor]

You're just focused on bald man.

[CJ Carr]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

You're not worried about what you look like. You're worried about Deliverance.

[Coach Freeman]

It was. The area was red shirt. Anyway, he wasn't even worried.

[Taylor]

Oh, yeah, you weren't. Okay.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

At the linebacker.

[Will Compton]

I got some good ones here from Parker Hockey. Worst recruiting story in your career. Career.

[Coach Freeman]

O. I remember I was at Cincinnati when we were recruiting this kid named Tank something. I can't remember his last name. And the. The head of our recruiting had this great idea, like, hey, you should dress up in military fatigues. A big, like, military hat. Like a. A big hard hat. And. And I did. It was a vest. And I was like, all right, man. And so I'm sitting in his military outfit. I'm sure there's pictures of it. And this kid, Tank, walks out. What's up, Tank?

[Will Compton]

And he's like, what are you wearing?

[Coach Freeman]

And I'm like, this is for you. He ends up. He ends up going to. I think he's going to Maryland. He went somewhere. He didn't come to Cincinnati. And I'm like, never again am I ever, ever.

[Taylor]

Did you think you. That was you. Is that outfit that did it?

[Coach Freeman]

No. Yeah, I probably. He probably thought I was like, this weird dude, like, I'm not coming to play for him and. Right. But that was the last time I dressed up.

[Taylor]

Cg, did you ever have a. A coach try to recruit you and

[Will Compton]

do something crazy without saying names or teams?

[Taylor]

You can say names or teams if you want, but you don't have to.

[CJ Carr]

No, I. I had a pretty normal recruiting process. People really didn't recruit me a bunch. I think a lot of people just thought I was going to go to Michigan. And so I didn't have many crazy recruiting stories like that. And these guys recruited me really hard. But. But yeah, it was pretty. Pretty boring.

[Taylor]

Pretty boring. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Any team or staff member do something like, above and beyond that made you kind of, like, chuckle about, think, like, this could be a little od. I do love and appreciate you guys.

[CJ Carr]

When Tommy Reese was. Was here, he recruited me. He was my main recruiter. And when I committed, this definitely didn't. He texted me a video of the fire alarm going off in the goog and, like, made it sound like they pulled it when I committed. And it was like the Car alarm there. And at the, at the time I was like, oh that's the coolest thing ever. But like looking back, that definitely wasn't. He definitely just like it just happened. So that was, that was pretty cool that that, that happened. I thought that was special.

[Will Compton]

Love the game of recruiting, man.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, yeah.

[Will Compton]

Whatever it takes.

[Taylor]

Whatever it takes. You have to put a GI Joe outfit on. Exactly right. What else you got in there, buddy?

[Will Compton]

If they were to make a Marcus Freeman movie, what actor would play you?

[Taylor]

Vince Vaughn.

[Coach Freeman]

I've always said the Rock. Like the Rock?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

Because I mean you light skinned dude. But he's like, you know what I mean? Like that's.

[Taylor]

Tell us more.

[Coach Freeman]

That's why.

[Will Compton]

Cuz you're kind of, he's like, you

[Taylor]

know, he's probably the most fit coach. Would you think you're the most in shape head coach in college football?

[Coach Freeman]

No, I don't know, I don't know. The, the new coach at Michigan. I said like he, he's 65, amazing. They say he's strong now. I heard, I heard some stories.

[Taylor]

I heard the same thing.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Yeah, he's a really strong man.

[Coach Freeman]

I don't know, man.

[Will Compton]

Who'd play you in a movie?

[Taylor]

It's fun.

[CJ Carr]

I've heard the guy from Outer Banks, Rafe Cameron. I don't know his, his real name, but they say I look like seen that.

[Will Compton]

Is that a good, is that a good comparison?

[Coach Freeman]

Who could do me?

[Taylor]

Who?

[Coach Freeman]

You didn't, you didn't give me any input. Who could play me like the Rock? He's too dark.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, but I'm trying to think of the Rock with that haircut.

[Taylor]

You're like svelte.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, I'm not like back when I played I was bigger, but.

[Taylor]

Oh yeah, I saw the neck in that photo.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, like you. I'll take.

[CJ Carr]

That's a good one.

[Coach Freeman]

Oscar. I'll take it. I'll take it. Shout out. Michael B. Jordan.

[Will Compton]

Jason Statham. Well you can see that, right?

[Taylor]

Yeah, but isn't Jason Statham like 56?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, but still like movie stars. Movie star.

[Taylor]

I'm with that.

[Will Compton]

Let's see here.

[Coach Freeman]

Is this the last part? That's, this is it.

[Taylor]

We can go as long as you want.

[Will Compton]

Is there, you wrestled growing up?

[Coach Freeman]

I do.

[Will Compton]

Is there a coach in the country you think would be able to step on the mat with you

[Coach Freeman]

wrestling? Yeah, yeah. There's Luke. Figure one night he won three, four state championships and he even wrestled in college. I know he can wrestle. You know what I mean?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

I didn't wrestle at that level. And so I'm. I've learned.

[Will Compton]

You guys had. You guys have had a couple wrestling

[Coach Freeman]

matches, late nights maybe, you know, But I've learned, even with my son, like, you gotta be smart. Like, I. I refuse to lose. I'm gonna pick and choose the right battles. I don't want to wrestle my son, but I'll hand fight with him a little bit and do stuff like that, you know.

[Will Compton]

So you're just in a hallway or something. No, it's not going to go anything farther than.

[Coach Freeman]

Because I'll get light.

[Will Compton]

Scrap.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

If he takes me down, like, I'm gonna really get mad. We don't want that to happen at the Freeman house. That might be why the. The little.

[Taylor]

That shuffleboard.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, that's my.

[Taylor]

Why.

[Coach Freeman]

It's a little.

[Taylor]

It's a little.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

I was really the foundation of your home when we were playing. Is everyone safe in here? Is what I was worried about. Why hasn't Notre Dame entered a conference? And has there been a conversation about that?

[Coach Freeman]

Really?

[Will Compton]

I. Listen, that is a whole, kid. That's.

[Taylor]

That's a whole.

[Coach Freeman]

That's why.

[Taylor]

Here's what I. Here's why I bring it up. One, it's a great question. Question. But two, the haters, they're. One of their big remarks about not making the playoffs. Like, well, if you guys were in a conference, X, Y and Z would happen.

[Coach Freeman]

Yep.

[Taylor]

You'd have the opportunity because you'd be in a power four conference.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah. I think there's. There's advantages to being in conference and there's advantages not being in a conference. There's a lot of. Of positive things that, trust me, nobody was complaining about when we made the playoffs the year before. Before. Right. And. And the independence we. We look at as a positive. Right. And if there's. Listen, we lost two games and didn't make playoffs. And so if our administration ever feels like we are truly at a competitive disadvantage by not being in a conference, I'm sure that we'll join a conference. But we're. We're just. You shouldn't lost two games.

[Taylor]

It's a great answer.

[Coach Freeman]

Simple as that.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, he did.

[Taylor]

He did everything about it. The whole time he's answering the question. I can just feel like Katie being like, we're gonna cut this.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Taylor]

We're not. We're not doing that question.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

Who's the tall guy? What's his name again? Yeah. Make sure he can't come back.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Flow.

[Taylor]

Thank you.

[Will Compton]

We ask everybody this question on the podcast and that question is cj, we'll start with you boys.

[Taylor]

We all know we do anything for an ice cold Bud Light. We're about to ask Marcus Freeman what he would do anything for.

[Will Compton]

What would you do anything for?

[Taylor]

Family.

[Will Compton]

Can't say family.

[Taylor]

I know, right?

[Will Compton]

Family can be an ambition.

[Taylor]

We had a guy on who was the tight end that said he wanted a nice steak dinner. Brock Bowers. Nice, nice day. Luke combined said five below the sandwich. So what's something you would do anything for? Can't say. Family.

[Coach Freeman]

Win a national championship.

[Taylor]

Yeah. That's the answer, right?

[Will Compton]

Would you do anything for that?

[Coach Freeman]

Anything?

[Taylor]

Anything.

[Will Compton]

I bet you would.

[Coach Freeman]

Anything?

[Will Compton]

Anything.

[Taylor]

You would literally do anything for a national champion championship.

[Coach Freeman]

Like, other than hurt my family.

[Taylor]

But other than hurt your family.

[Coach Freeman]

I mean, anything's like a.

[Taylor]

But I'm saying, like, hey, like, we see the banners, those dates go like, you guys have been there a few times. We just can't get over the hump. Like, Marcus Freeman, would you do anything besides hurt your family? Anything for a national championship. Same for ucj.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Hell yeah. All right. You would. I. I don't think feel like you would anything.

[Taylor]

How bad? Yeah. All right.

[Will Compton]

Do you guys.

[Taylor]

What do you got? Clump? All right, boys, real quick break in the show. Just want to let you know that these hats, uncle hats are now [e-mail] comes in this black and white and a multitude of other colors. Let's get back to this episode. So Clump just asked you, you mentioned the moms, but you have so many guys on the team that are sons of NFL players. How do you handle all that?

[Coach Freeman]

Well, it's just because their dad's playing the NFL don't mean the moms don't help make the decision. I'll start with that. But it started with the couple guys that their dads played at Notre Dame that played in the NFL, the Bettises, Flanagan, Bryant Young, his son Bryce, and. And I remember having a meeting saying, if I can't convince you three to choose Notre Dame Dame, when your dads, your fathers are the greatest example of what Notre Dame represents in terms of in football and beyond, then I said, we're going to struggle with Notre Dame and I can't recruit if we can't convention. Those three started it. And then, you know, Jordan Clark, Ryan Clark's son, came. And then you got the Elijah Burris, whose dad is Plaxco Burris, and. And then this year we got Kaden Finley, we got Devin Fitzgerald, and I'm missing one Thomas Davis. I already got Bettis.

[Will Compton]

You say Burris.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah, so I say that because now I think there's, there might be some parallels, right?

[Taylor]

They.

[Coach Freeman]

They say, okay, haters, guys that have grown up like me that, that are at Notre Dame. But here's the other thing I think they see every day with their fathers, that the game of football ends. And that's a big thing we sell here. Like we're gonna get you to as high as your God given ability can take you, right? I know you guys have aspirations being Pro Football hall of Famers. If that's how good your talent is, we're going to develop you. And you got as great as opportunity to do it here as anywhere else but Notre Dame. The education prepares you for life after football too. And you see it with your own eyes, with your fathers. Like the game ends. And so I think they understand that because they see, see the life after the game of football ends with their fathers.

[Taylor]

I love it.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, same fellas.

[Taylor]

Anything else?

[Will Compton]

Kev, you got a questions? You've been an incredible, by the way, incredible host. He should get a raise. And so is the same with the ladies sitting back there too.

[Taylor]

Everybody, you guys have been incredible. We've been with Kev the whole time. Kev probably needs a race. Talking about a guy's guy. He's a dude, you know, know, really bought into Notre Dame. You know, his grandfather went, got his what, masters here. Both NBA, huh? Undergrad grad so as long as I've known.

[Coach Freeman]

You never told me that.

[Will Compton]

That's okay. First day we met, interview. I told you that we'll cut that.

[Taylor]

We'll cut that guy's guy. Guy's guy. All right, let's talk about action items. Cj, we need get real gifts for the boys this year. All right. I think the first thing on the listings would be a two seater bike.

[CJ Carr]

I agree.

[Will Compton]

I still like the golf carts for the families that come.

[Taylor]

The golf carts are great. Something funny about a two seater though.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, there's.

[Taylor]

You got to think about the social aspect.

[CJ Carr]

Do you have to get everyone a two seater? Do you think you split it in half and everyone or like there's a two seater for two guys.

[Taylor]

I love that. I think you get two seaters for like each two guys. One bite and then you embroider on the seats. Their last name or just their number. Okay, I know whose front season who's back.

[Coach Freeman]

Yeah.

[Taylor]

All right. Anything else? That's my one action item.

[Will Compton]

No, dude, thank you for hosting us. It is truly. It's been amazing. Like Kev, you all, you guys putting us through the ringer. Waking up at 5,45. Workouts, meetings, class, finally getting some, you know, some grub. That's.

[Taylor]

That's.

[Will Compton]

That's. They take care of you. They take care of you. That was more. Listen, it has been an inside joke.

[Taylor]

Little shuffle. A little shuffle board inviting us over to your house. Little knockout sl. Bump out.

[Coach Freeman]

Bump out.

[Taylor]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

And getting to interact with the players, too. Like coming over your house and you having all the guys over. And then you just felt like. You just felt all the relationships, like, while we're on the field, like, interacting. You wanted us to be referees and everything else. Like, dude, it was a great trip and we really appreciate it.

[Coach Freeman]

I appreciate you guys. Man, this has been good. It's been more than what I expected. I don't know how high I. I set the bar, but.

[Taylor]

Right. That's the key to happiness in life, though, is low expectations. If it's low, it actually went way better than we thought. We will be back. You kind of like, open the door for us. So at this point, it's like we're just gonna keep coming back.

[Will Compton]

And a couple people said, hey, anything you need. So we will.

[Taylor]

That's right. You know, one thing we need is the jerseys.

[Will Compton]

Oh, yeah.

[Taylor]

But it sounds like he's already signed off.

[Will Compton]

Kevin made it seem like it was his call. He made it seem like, hey, if it was my call, my call.

[Taylor]

We're good, right?

[Coach Freeman]

Got him.

[Taylor]

So we're good.

[Will Compton]

Kev, we'll talk.

[Taylor]

We'll talk after. We'll wrap it up. We'll talk after. We'll see you guys in the fall, man. That's good luck.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Coach Freeman]

This year.

[Will Compton]

Good luck this year.

[Coach Freeman]

Appreciate you guys.

[Will Compton]

Big hug.

[Taylor]

Go Irish. I'm kidding. Go Irish. Well, come on, guys. Can't raz. Can't raz around, you know, you see his face? He had a flashback.

[Will Compton]

Wait for a second, though. Really?

[Taylor]

Yeah. Do you still have your. You still have your gold pants?

[Coach Freeman]

I thought we said rap. That's awesome.

[Taylor]

Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with

[Coach Freeman]

Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. first online real money wager only.

[Will Compton]

5$.

[Coach Freeman]

First deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply.

[Will Compton]

See [e-mail] gambling problem. Call 1-800-Gambler or visit fanduel.com rg call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chatincut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

[Coach Freeman]

Hope is here.

[Will Compton]

Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24.

[Taylor]

7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or or text hopeny in New York. This Mother's Day celebrate all the women

[Will Compton]

who make life brighter with a gift from Pandora Jewelry.

[CJ Carr]

Choose jewelry that reflects what she means to you, and the moments you share. Make it even more meaningful by personalizing your piece with an engraving in your own handwriting, something no one else has,

[Taylor]

either a date, a name, or something unique to you.

[CJ Carr]

Because the best Mother's Day gift says

[Will Compton]

more than I love you.

[CJ Carr]

It says I appreciate you.

[Taylor]

It says I says I see you. Find the perfect Mother's Day gift at your local Pandora store or [e-mail] if

[Will Compton]

you're a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility and your machinery isn't working right,

[Taylor]

Grainger knows you need to understand what's wrong as soon as possible. So when a conveyor motor falters, Grainger

[Will Compton]

offers diagnostic tools like calibration kits and multimeters to help you identify and fix the problem.

[Taylor]

With Grainger, you can be confident you

[Will Compton]

have everything you need to keep your facility running smoothly. Call 1-800-Grainger clickgrainger.com or just stop by grainger for the ones who get it done.

[CJ Carr]

It's tax season, and by now we're

[Will Compton]

all a bit tired of numbers.

[CJ Carr]

But here's an important one you need to $16 billion.

[Taylor]

That's how much money in refunds the

[Will Compton]

IRS flagged for possible identity fraud. But it's not all grim news.

[Taylor]

LifeLock monitors millions of data points per

[Will Compton]

second and alerts you to threats you

[Taylor]

could easily miss on your own.

[Will Compton]

If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed.

[CJ Carr]

Save up to 40% your first year.

[Taylor]

Visit lifelock.com iheart Terms apply for those with type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure. You may be missing a hidden signal from your kidneys, an SOS for an increased risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack or stroke.

[Will Compton]

THE mission Detect the SOS.

[Taylor]

[e-mail] Learn how a simple UACR urine test can help identify kidney damage early. Talk to your doctor about getting screened. Go to detectthesos.com to learn more about UACR urine testing today, brought to you by Baringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.