Adrian Rodriguez - Transfer Portal, Life in JUCO, Twitter

All right, welcome to the 16th episode of the Recruiting Game podcast. My name is Trent Lora, if you don't know by now, and I'm here with my guest, Adrian Rodriguez, who plays over at Idaho State. You know, why don't you introduce yourself, Adrian, man.

What's going on, everybody? I'm Adrian Rodriguez. I'm from Esperia, California. I play linebacker at Idaho State University, and I went to Victor Valley Community College, transferring here.

Awesome, man. Awesome. Yeah. Appreciate you coming on. And I mean, shoot, we finally just got to meet each other for the first time a couple minutes ago, and, you know, we've been texting a little bit, got to. Got to chat a little bit on Twitter. I mean, obviously we have a mutual friend with Jamal who I just met six months ago. Awesome guy, awesome player. And, you know, you're kind of bringing up like, oh, yeah, I played juco, too. Like, what juco you went to? So it's always good to have other juco guys and. And get to talk to them, because I think we all went through similar crazy experiences and all know the grind. So it's like you just always have that same mutual respect for. For juco guys.

Oh, yeah, for sure. No, thank you for having me. For sure. Yeah. So out of. I mean, out of high school, I went to New Mexico State University during the COVID year, so I was able to play there for six months, but then our coaching staff got fired, and I talked to the new staff, and it just didn't look like it was going in the right direction. So then from there, I decided to enter the transfer portal. Obviously, I didn't get picked up where I wanted to go to, so then I decided to go juco, and it was either between Riverside City College or Victor Valley Community College, where I'm local at. So then the end of the day, I decided to stay home, play for vbc and was there for a year and got out mid December with the new staff here at Idaho State. Shout out to coach Hawkins. And then, yeah, my boy Jamal Jones is over there with you.

That's awesome, dude. That's awesome. Coach Hawkins is a good guy. I've gotten him. Meet him once over at UC Davis camp. And no, he's a great guy. So I imagine he's doing some good stuff with the program over there.

Oh, yeah, for sure. It's always bigger than football with him. So he's trying to make sure we have something set up after sports because unfortunately for everybody, football ends, whether it's this year, four years, couple years in The NFL or whatever it is, but football ends eventually, so you have to have a plan for after.

Absolutely, man. Well, I didn't know you. So you went to New Mexico before you went to Juco, right? Yeah. So how did. How did that all go down? Because I feel like, you know, a lot of people, you know, I'm sure as you kind of were learning about. As you're going through that, like, you know, Covid happened, that was crazy. And then your whole staff gets fired. I mean, I don't know if you want to share about that and just kind of talk through that about, like, what that's like, and just, you know, things to be ready for. Because I think a lot of people, you know, you're. You're highly. You're recruited out of high school, you're like, oh, life's going great, and then you get hit with the reality of college football, and that's kind of a business. So why don't you just break down a lot, a little bit and tell people about it?

Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, my senior year, obviously, I think everybody who plans to play Division 1 football, you're going to be the best player on your team your senior year. And I think I was. But we also had a lot of great players. But. So I got my New Mexico State offer, thankfully, to my. My online coach in high school, Coach Monica. He knew the DC over at New Mexico State, Coach Sukup, who's now at Eastern New Mexico University. But, yeah, so I got recruited extremely late. I mean, I wasn't even able to take a visit out there due to, you know, Covid and it being so late. I think I got the offer in April because we played in the second semester of school my senior year. So, I mean, I committed out there, got out there straight into camp, and, I mean, it was tough. I went from being, you know, the main guy to the head coach, barely even knowing my name. I was running with the Fours. When I got to camp, there would be. I mean, there was like a solid week of practice, I think the last week of camp, where I didn't get team reps because they didn't rep the Fours at all. So, you know, it was like a big. It's like a big mental game for sure, to, you know, to keep working. But, you know, you just got to keep trusting yourself and, you know, you got to take advantage of every little opportunity you get, especially during camp, because I wasn't on the Travel Squad Week 0 when we played UTEP, but then when we got to San Diego State. Our starting mic got Covid, and I was three deep at the time because I worked up. So then starting my got Covid that Thursday before the game. The day before that, we left for the travel squad and then got Covid. Now I'm a two and I was on the travel squad. And then from there, you know, I was able to, you know, gain the DC's trust and then just work my way up from there. But, yeah, it's a big battle, man. You know, you just. You gotta realize that there's people that are gonna be a lot bigger, stronger, and faster than you, which I didn't really know, but I kind of had an idea. But once I got there, it was like, boom. Now. Now it's this like, we got O lineman throwing up 600 pound for squat. You know, our linebackers mentioned 225 for 35 reps. It's just crazy.

Yeah, yeah, it's. It's a lot. A lot different than high school. I mean, it just. It's a world of difference. Um, so the. The coaching staff changed after that. That first year that you played there. Is that what happened or.

Yeah. So, I mean, the coach was already on his last year of the contract, and obviously they didn't have a big winning history, so I think everybody knew that. But once we got to, like, I think middle of the season, and we were. I think at the time we were like one in five. I think we had one win under our belt. It was kind of known that he was out already. It just. I think the AD didn't want to fire him and bring an intermed coach, but everybody knew what was going to happen. And, you know, I was just. I kind of had an idea what was going on and stuff like that, but I was still trying to focus on season and getting some wins, you know. But, yeah, day after last game, he got fired. So we played UMass A Saturday, the week of Thanksgiving. Sunday, they brought in Coach Kill, who's the new coach from tcu. And then they just got rolling. And from there we had meetings and stuff. And that's when I had my exit meeting with Coach Kill. I just broke it down to him. We just talked and we ended on good terms, I think for the both of us. But, you know, it was a business decision.

Just like College football is 100, 100. And what. I mean, I think you're the first guy that I've had on, you know, going through the transfer portal. Obviously, it was a weird time, like you said, with COVID and everything. Like that. What was that experience? Like? Do you think there's anything. Any tips you can give to people that go through the transfer portal or thinking about going through the transfer portal? You know, just kind of thoughts on that, I guess.

Man. I think the biggest thing I would say is if you for sure don't know if you're gonna get picked up, I say I would definitely not enter unless you, you know, you want to go a lower level. Because it's almost. It's really rare to see somebody go from, you know, like, Division 1 FBS, you know, to a Power 5 or to a group of five, because we were independent at the time. But I think we had, like, out of that year, we had, like, 20 people leave, and I think only, like, three total got picked up. So, like, I would say the biggest thing is if you know, you want to leave, just know that you're good enough to get picked up at the level you want to be, and don't be disappointed with your backup plan. Because I honestly. Entering the portal, I knew I didn't have a lot of good film, you know, to get back to the D1 level. So I had a. I was pretty set on going juco out of the portal.

Gotcha. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. I mean, just what I've seen from the outside and what I've heard from other people, it's like. It's rare. It's hard to maintain that same level, or, like, so many people leave thinking, like, oh, I'm gonna go higher, or something like that, and just. It. I mean, it's definitely not that it's, like, not possible. It's just. It's difficult. It's hard. So. Yeah, I definitely agree with that.

Yeah. Just for, like, an example, like, if, you know you're gonna get bigger, we had a. I'm not gonna point our names, but we had a dude, one of my good friends out there. He was thinking about entering the portal, and before even, like, our last game, like, there was Power five and a group of five coaches following him on Twitter because I think they kind of knew. So they were already trying to follow him on Twitter and stuff like that. Just, he couldn't text until he entered the portal. And then once he entered the portal, all those schools that were following him on Twitter instantly offered. So it's like, you'll get hints.

Interesting. Interesting. I mean, that makes sense. But I've heard some stories of that, of. Of just guys getting poached and stuff like that from other schools. So it makes sense. That kind of stuff would. Would start to happen, Especially at a program like you said, where it's like writing's kind of on the wall. Things are going to change, you know. Probably can grab a couple guys from there. So. Yeah, that's. That's pretty interesting. And what was that like? Were you pretty set? You went to Victor Valley, so were you pretty set? Like, oh, hey, I. I have a pretty good idea. I'm gonna go to juco. Like, I'm gonna go to Victor Valley. Did you check out a bunch of Jucos? Like, talk about that a little bit?

Yeah. So once I entered the portal, Coach Pacheco from RCC instantly hit me up. And obviously they just came off the runner up in the state game in for California juco. So he was constantly hitting me up and I wanted to go there, but with my ride situation in my vehicle back in California, I just wasn't able to make the drive. But I was talking to, you know, I talked to a couple FCS schools, but none of them pulled the offer. But juco wise, you know, I was pretty set on Victor Valley because I already had ties with the head coach there. He used to coach in my high school. So that was really the biggest thing why I went there. And my d. My old high school head coach was a DC there at the time. So it was kind of set in stone. But, you know, I almost, I. I was debating on going to RCC at big, but, you know, staying home was big on me.

Gotcha. Plus, I mean, Victorville just beautiful place.

Oh yeah, for sure. Man.

I remember we would. Because Victor Valley played a couple teams that we played like Glendale.

Yeah.

Trying to think through a couple others, but. And I remember we would. We would constantly be pausing the film and our coach would be like, man, look at that. Just look at the background over there. Just looks beautiful, huh, guys? And we're like, oh yeah. As we look at our practice film beach in the background.

Oh yeah.

It's crazy.

Yeah, because it sucks because they're getting a new field built this year. But last year we played at a high school and it was like one of the newer, you know, turf fields out there in my area. But like, it's an old, like. I mean, the high school is built in like 1950, so it's not outside of. It's not really renovated. But it's straight. Yeah, straight desert, man.

Yeah, no, the field does look pretty nice. You're right about that. Yeah. But yeah, just straight desert. Desert, yeah. A lot different than. Than other places in California.

Oh, yeah. For sure.

Yeah. So, I mean, talk a little bit about, I mean, obviously we went both, both when juco, so we kind of know the general gist. But I'm curious, like, how was things at Victor Valley? I mean, you guys are, you know, pretty, pretty solid program for the most part. Had some dudes for sure. At least from what I saw.

Yeah, I mean, we had, I think five guys. Four or five guys get out to Division 1 program. So we got Cam Stevens at University of Idaho, Matt Lowe, Morgan State, K.J. edwards, Colorado State, and then me, Idaho State. So that's four actually. My bad. And then we had a couple other goes to go, D2, Wasiah Stokes, our left tackle, did. But yeah, I mean, it was, you know, juco's not fun, you know, especially coming from a four year program where, you know, you're getting fed, you know, everything's really like, you have all the tools, like, but in juco you got to go. You got to go find a way to do everything you want. And then the biggest thing is we had a, you know, we had a coaching staff switch in the middle of season. So our whole defense of all of our defense coaches left in the middle, not middle of season, excuse me, in the summer. So they all left in July. So. Yeah, yeah, it was tough. I mean, I mean, juco's not for the week. I mean, you got to find your ride. You got to really want it. Um, it's just a tough process and obviously there's, there's levels to juco and like, obviously with the out of, out of California Jucos, there's scholarships. But you know, in California it's really tough. You know, you're paying for your own rent, your food, own transportation. You're not on. It's rare when you're on campus and stuff like that. So it's, it's a grind, man. Yeah, I wasn't, I was expecting it, but it was a lot more than what I was expecting.

Yeah, yeah, no, I definitely agree with that. You're like going into. You kind of get the idea and then you start going through it on the day of the day and you're like, dang, man, did not know I signed up for this. Yeah, yeah. What was, I mean, like, what was your guys's day to day like over at Victor Valley? Just to give some people an idea because I don't know if we've, we've covered that before.

Yeah. So during season, our day to day was we had a class in the morning, so we'd practice in the Afternoon. So it'd be. I believe what the schedule was was 2 o' clock we had special teams meetings. 2:30 was position meetings. 3 o' clock is pre practice. And then, well from 3 to like 6, 6:30, you know, we're practicing full pads and stuff like that. And that's. We did that Tuesday through Friday. Friday was kind of like a walkthrough day. And then Monday we would just lift run and watch film. And then obviously Saturday game day and then Sunday we had off.

Awesome. Yeah, our schedule was pretty much the same. You know, we'd actually, we'd actually have a practice on Monday. It was just shells, usually hour and a half. But yeah, same, same schedule. Like quarterbacks came in early. So we'd have meetings one to about three pre practice, 3:30, then get done around six, 6:15, somewhere around there. So yeah, same usual schedule. I think, I think that's what most street code guys do. Then you have classes in the morning. Maybe a couple guys have night classes, stuff like that. So plus with COVID a lot of guys, I mean, at least me, I was, I try to pick all the, the online asynchronous classes. Make life a lot easier.

Oh yeah, for sure.

But yeah, cool, man. I guess just kind of touching more on juco, you know. What do you think? I don't know. What are some things that you feel like made your life easier or you could have done to make your life easier in juco or at least succeed? I should say the biggest like couple.

Tips I have on to make juco easier is don't expect people to help you just because they say it. Like if you want to get recruited, you got to go do it yourself. You know, Twitter's you're going to be your biggest friend. I mean honestly, when we got to season and I had my film, I was, I was probably dming shoe. I would go through each conference, Division 1 FCS and Division 1 FBS. I would go through each conference and do like at least half of the conference a night. And I would sit there for like an hour before bed and just DM every single coach on the roster. And then hopefully, you know, in the morning I'd get maybe one say I DM like 40 coaches. I get maybe one to follow me back, two to follow me back. So, you know, I mean it sucked. But I'd say the biggest thing just, you know, if you want to go get recruited, you got to go do it yourself. Obviously, you know, there's going to be your coaches there to help you. But you know, juco's all on you, essentially. And obviously, it sucks to say it's a me, me, me, but, you know, if you want to get out, you got to get out. You got to do whatever you got to do on the field to do it, and you got to help your teammates, you know, to help you produce and just do big things to help each other.

Yeah, 100%. 100%. I think the cool thing is, though, that. I don't know, especially at Santa Barbara, like, this last year, we were really close, so I feel like everybody was helping each other. But you're right. Like, you still. You still got to do your own stuff. Like, it's not like nobody's holding your hand out there like you're a grown man. You got to do your own stuff.

But, yeah, and I think that's the biggest thing with juco is, like, they really. From my experience, I think they just expect, you know, like, obviously it sucks because, you know, obviously in football, it's a team game. And now here at Idaho state, you know, everybody's a family here. You know, we have a big culture. But in juco, I feel like it's really. It's extremely hard to build, like, that big culture, you know, of, like, wanting to help each other out when really your main goal is just to get out.

Yeah. Yeah, I know that. That's what I felt, too, especially that first year. Or I wouldn't even say that first year, that Covid year, because I was there during COVID Really, that was, like, the big thing. Yeah, and that was the big thing for sure is like, I felt like we were relatively close. Everybody was pretty chill, but we weren't playing games. So there was really no, like. Like, you know, we weren't really getting together that way. And so it just felt like everybody was kind of out for themselves a little bit and. And didn't really get along too well. But then once we started playing games, you feel that. That team.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Chemistry a little bit more. We started winning, but, yeah, I could imagine in, like, if you're not winning, you know, things aren't going well.

I mean, we weren't winning at all, and it was just so. It was a. It was a real roller coaster, and especially with our coaching staff switch in the middle of summer.

Yeah, I can only imagine. Yeah. I remember feeling sometimes where. Especially that. That first year, we. I think we lost back to back, and I was like, oh, this is where. This is where things could go downhill because you kind of just feel that momentum Shift. And just because juco is so unpredictable, sometimes you're like, you know, you don't really know how things are going to go. You feel guys getting down or saying certain things in the locker room and you're just like, oh, like, yeah, hopefully. Hopefully we can turn this around and kind of get some. Get some boosts in morale because yeah, things can. Can go south pretty quickly.

Oh, yeah, for sure. Especially if you're not winning. Like you said, that's a big thing.

Yeah, yeah. Which you would be like, I feel like is kind of surprising you would think that know juco. Oh, people think like, oh, wins and losses, doesn't matter. But it helps so much just for like attitudes around the team and everything. So.

Yeah, 100%.

But yeah. Why don't you, you know, kind of talk about Idaho State a little bit? I mean, how's. How's things going over there? How do you. How did you. Well, I guess how did you end up over there in the first place? Like, how did like you wrapped up juco? You're dming coaches. What happened with recruiting and then how did you end up at Idaho State?

Yeah, so I actually got my Idaho state offer like extremely late into the. The mid year, leaving because, you know, that was my goal. Get my a by December and then leave. But so I got, I think it was a total 5D1 offers coming out of juco and then obviously this is my fifth and I was set to take a visit to Georgetown University, I think like late January. And I had it all set up and everything. But then Idaho State, they hit me in early January. I mean, they text me on a Tuesday. I got on a visit. I was on a visit that Friday, so everything had been really quick. And then, you know, I got here on my visit. You know, the staff explained what they're trying to do here. They put up the numbers on what, what they'd done in the past with their previous staffs. And you know, I think the biggest thing here at Idaho State with the coaches is it's like they really make you feel like a family and you know, they want to make sure you're a good person before they just like, you know, give you an offer. Like I got here, I'm on my recruiting visit and I didn't get my offer until the last day I was here. So I got here on a Friday. I didn't get the offer until Sunday morning with my exit meeting with the coach. And then, so if I wanted to leave at mid year, I had to commit within like A week. So it was a pretty quick process, but I thought all the keys were there. Everything looked right with what's going on, and then. So I ended up committing, and it was a great decision so far. And then we got into winter. Workouts went well. You know, we have Coach Pitt here, used to coach at Auburn and Boise, and I think he's doing a great job with the program, strength and conditioning wise. He's getting us ready for season. You know, spring ball went really good. We were able to add a lot more depth, too, than what we were expecting because we had a decent amount of guys leave to the portal since the other coaching staff left. But, you know, it's been a great process. I love it here. The people are great. The town's great. It's a good. It's a good city to be in, and I'm just excited to get into camp and get rolling.

Yeah, 100%, man. I'm curious, like, you said that Idaho State came in late. Was it. Were you already in, like, talks with them a little bit, or was it just out of the blue, or how did it work?

Yeah, it was. It was really out of the blue. So, like, I believe. I believe it was like a Monday. I got a Colorado State University Pueblo offer, and they wanted me to take a visit, which is a D2. That was a Monday. Tuesday, Coach Hensley DM'd me, follow DM'd me, got it all set up from there, and then Friday, I was on a visit.

Yeah. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. I think that's one of the things that really surprised me is, like, nobody really talks about juco recruiting and how it works. Like, you know, maybe some of your coaches will kind of tell you, but they don't really explain to, like, the extent that, hey, man, like, you can just be. I remember there was times where I'd just be, like, I'd be sleeping. I'd wake up at, like, around 8, and then next thing you know, like, 8:03, I get a phone call out of the blue from a coach, and they'd be like, oh, yeah, hey, man, like, love your film. You've been on our board for a couple months now. We're gonna offer you. And I'm like, dude, dude, you weren't even following me on Twitter before. How'd you know who I am? Yeah, it's just crazy, crazy to see that. So the. The juco stuff, you got to be patient with because. Yeah, I mean, I've heard we had a receiver my freshman year that Same thing happened to him. Like he didn't really have much. He was just kind of waiting on things and then UTEP called him on like a Monday. Next thing you know, he was on a flight on like Wednesday, Thursday got an offer when he was on the visit and now he's at utep. So like just crazy stuff happens like that.

Yeah. And then my biggest goal was to leave at the mid year in December. So I mean I didn't, I didn't want to wait in the spring semester and wait it out and try and gamble that when I thought this was a great offer. You know, coaches have great, this play is great and the people are here great. So I, you know, I committed.

Yeah, yeah. No, I mean I was the same way. Like I wanted to go the mid year and it's just like, just each day, I mean it gets closer and closer and like some schools are earlier than others and some schools are later. The comparison between, I think here at Morningside we started the start date was January 11th, so super early. There was one school I was talking to and they were January 23rd or something like that. And it was just two weeks of difference and it's just crazy to have to make a decision so early. Season ended on December. I don't even know like December 1st or December 2nd or something like that. And then we were already, you know, right then right away you're prepping for, for, you know, the next month you're going to be at a next school or new school and you're trying to figure out where.

If you minus the Christmas week, you.

Got three weeks to prep. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You got Christmas in the middle there and New Year's. Like it's a hectic time of year to, to get recruited and try to figure everything out.

For sure.

Yeah. Cool, man. Well, why don't we talk a little bit more about Idaho State? Like you know, why don't you give us, I mean obviously you went through spring. I think not a lot of people kind of know about like spring ball, how that all works. What was like, you know, kind of what was your guys weekly schedule? You know, what did like a practice day look like? Why don't you just kind of give some insight to that?

For sure. So I think our weekly schedule once we got rolling was we practiced Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and then Monday, Wednesday, Friday would be our lift and run days and then obviously practice. Practice was in the afternoon. So we would practice I believe from 2 to 4:30. So we'll just start off with stretch stuff like that, and then we just get rolling as a team. But then Saturdays were our big days. You know, we'd scrimmage and stuff like that. It was in the morning. But the biggest days, you know, we had were Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you know, when we had a prep for. We had meetings those days. Lifting and conditioning. Obviously it was tough because, you know, it's 20 degrees outside in the morning, we're lifting and running. It's, you know, it gets to you, but. Yeah, I know. I mean, I would say the biggest thing to focus on, especially during spring ball, is just to keep up with your academics, because obviously if you don't stay eligible, you won't be. You won't be playing in the fall. And I think that was a big thing. Like our coach, if you had an F on your. If you had a current F in your grade book, you weren't able to practice. So that was a big thing with a lot of guys. You know, that forced us, you know, to heavily focus on academics and, you know, to make sure to make it a priority because, you know, you're not just here for football, you're here to get an education. But yeah, the spring, the spring was good. The schedule, it was. It was a lot more than, I think, what a lot of guys expected here. But, you know, we got into it rolling because obviously with a new staff, everybody's learning a new defense, not just the players, but the assistant coaches and everybody else. So it was. I mean, it was good. It was. It's very time consuming. So I would say to people out there looking to play college football, just make sure you know how to time manage really well, 100%.

Yeah, time management's big, for sure. I mean, we were talking about just the. I feel like it's so much easier in high school because you have, like a ton of energy. You're still young, hurting all the time, and then you get older and you're like, man, I need to sleep. I need to, like, just chill out sometimes. I. Plus, I got school now all the time to take care of, and a lot of it's kind of on you instead of being in high school, like seven hours a day. And a lot more of it's just like, hey, you gotta. You gotta get done. You gotta figure it out yourself rather than, you know, forced upon you.

Oh, yeah. 100.

Yeah. Cool, man. Well, I mean, that's kind of. I guess that's. That's a lot of, like, what you've done so far. You know, you're kind of similar to me how, you know, you went through the high school recruiting process, plus then you went through the transfer portal, then you went to Juco as well. So definitely have a lot of recruiting experience. I mean, what's some. What's some, like, lessons that you feel like you learned going through all that that would. You would think would help some people?

I would just say. I would say, like, the big. The three biggest things is to be patient. One, number two is anything you can achieve anything with hard work and dedication. I mean, I had numerous people tell me that I wasn't capable of playing division one football. I had numerous coaches tell me that. And, you know, as long as you put your. You put your mind to it, you have some hard work, you be able to put in the hard work, and you dedicate yourself to one goal and you keep your grades up, you know, anything's possible, really. The sky's the limit. And then I would just say number three is, you know, just stay focused. I mean, if you. If you really want to play college football and get your school paid for, you know, it's. It's possible for anybody. Don't let it. Don't let anybody tell you you're too small, you're. You're too short or anything like that, because we got dudes here that are, you know, five, eight, five nine receivers. Five, eight, five nine DBs that are ballin'. So, you know, and then the biggest thing is being professional. To carry on top of that, with Twitter, coaches can see what you like. So you just make sure you're watching what you're liking and stuff like that. And just Twitter, you gotta be very professional because you're basically marketing yourself on why you want to be at this school or why this coach should follow you and recruit you.

100, man. 100. Yeah. Twitter's. I mean, that's the new, new future, man. What were some, like. Is there anything you did on Twitter that you felt like was that helped you a ton or that. That you felt like not many people did that helped you get recruited a lot or.

Yeah, so I'll say the biggest thing is I would try and follow coaches at night, and then hopefully that was when they wake up first thing in the morning, you know, when they're getting ready for the day, they're just checking their phone through breakfast. The first thing they're seeing is my notification rather than in the middle of the day, you know, then when they're getting a multiple follows. So I would say follow coaches at night. So the first thing they see in the Morning is. Is your notification? Hopefully.

Yeah. That's a good tip for sure. Yeah. Time of day is always important. Same thing, I think, with, like, emails and anything that you're messaging them, they're hitting with, like, try to get. Try to be everybody else to it. So that way, first thing in the morning, they see you first.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Gives you a better chance. Yeah. I mean, kind of go on about, you know, hard work and dedication. Like, what do you feel like. And focus, too. Like, what were. What were some things that you felt like, helped you focused? Like, what were some things that you did that helped you stay focused? Because you went through a lot, like, from having to transfer back to juco and fight your way through juco and get recruited and, you know, ending up D1. I mean. I mean, there's not a lot of people that have been able to do that successfully.

So, yeah, I would say the biggest thing is, obviously, you have your bigger. The bigger picture and your biggest goal, but you got to take it day by day, because if you look past the days that you're stacking up, you're going to get mixed up, and, you know, it's a matter of just creating good habits and stuff like that. I mean, with the hard work and dedication, I mean, I think if you just. If you really put your mind to anything and, you know, you give it your all, 110 every time, and you're able to strain with every rep, you know, you're gonna get better, bigger, faster, stronger with everything you do, and then dedication. And you just got to be consistent. You know, that's. I feel like that's the biggest thing with athletes. Struggle. You know, they're gonna work out Monday through Thursday, but then Friday through Sunday, they're taking three days off. But you got to be consistent with everything you do.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely, man. Yeah. I think the funny thing is it's not like you're saying anything too crazy. It's not like there's a secret sauce or anything like that. It's not like, oh, you got to do X, Y, and Z. It's like, hey, just do. Do the things that you're, you know, that you probably already know what to do. Just do them consistently. Put in the effort when you do them. Like, focus on those things, and you'll get the results. I think people just like, you know, people try to get shiny object syndrome. Try to focus on some fancy thing. Yeah. Rather than just sticking with what actually works and dedicating themselves to that.

Yeah. I mean, I feel like a Lot of people try to sit here and false advertise a lot of stuff, you know, to get, you know, get better as an athlete, you know, with all this new equipment and technology. But I mean, if you just stick to the basics and, you know, you be consistent with it, you'll be perfectly fine.

Absolutely, man. Absolutely. What was, I mean, are you like, what, what kind of lift stuff did you guys do? What do you guys do at Idaho State? I'm kind of curious, like what lifting stuff do you guys do over there and running stuff?

I would say the biggest thing we focus on, you know, is cleaning. I feel like that's a big thing. If you're a young athlete watching this, you know, make sure you focus on cleaning and you're doing it. Not only are you cleaning, but you're doing it with the right technique. Technique's the biggest thing. You're gonna doing the weight room because you could sit here and push, you know, 500 pound squat, but you're not. If you're not getting parallel deb, it's not going to work, you know, and just make sure you're doing. We do a lot of, we try to focus on a lot of stuff that's going to translate to the field, you know, so we're not just out here doing a bunch of lifts that are just making us bodybuilders, you know, we're athletes. So we're training like athletes, you know, pylometrics, cleaning a lot of stuff to force, like get faster and stuff like that. Um, but I would say overall our biggest thing is, you know, hang cleans, power cleans, how fast we could do it, our velocity and stuff like that.

That's awesome, dude. Yeah, no, I totally agree. Cleans is like, I mean, it just makes sense to do them when you talk about explosion and, and they translate to biometrics like you said. And it's just, it's a good lift to, to generate more power. Way more than, you know, some of the other lifts. I mean, obviously squat bench is good too, but you know, basically cling gets everything in there and plus you get to be super explosive, which is what you're going to be on the football field. So.

For sure.

Cool, man. What about, I mean, what about. Do you guys have a conditioning test coming up at all for fall camp or.

Yeah, so I believe our conditioning test will be 300 yard shuttles and we got, I believe it's either three or four of them in under. Well, obviously each position group makes their times, but you know, power skills will have to make them in 55 seconds.

Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. We. We're lucky enough that if we have like certain amount of attendance for our summer workouts, then we don't have to do the, the conditioning test. But it's the same thing. Like three. I think it's three 300 yard shuttles is what it is. Same thing as, as you guys. I haven't done those in a minute. I think I did them like we did them going in my junior year of high school. Really? And yeah, I remember I went on like a. A week cruise like the week or that week before and didn't really work out too much. And then we. I was like, I'll be fine. And I was like huffing and puffing afterwards. I got them done. But yeah, those are no joke. That's a lot of running.

Those are definitely the, the biggest thing of the hardest conditioning I've experienced in my life is 300 yard.

Yeah. Are you guys doing like, is it 25 and back or is it 50 and back? Or what are you guys doing for those back? 15 back?

Yeah, you guys do 25 and back.

I think it's 25 and back for us, which is just. That's. That's brutal. Cause you're talking about. I don't even. Yeah, a lot, A lot of change of direction. I think that's what, like six or maybe something like that? I don't even know.

Yeah, that adds up for sure.

Yeah. Yeah, big time. Cause that's what's gets you, is the, the burst in between. It's not really like the striding part isn't that bad. Like if you're just staying in a straight line striding, that's not that bad. But when you have to like cut and then touch the line and get down and that's where it's the worst.

Oh yeah, for sure. 100%.

Yeah. Yeah, man. I mean, what is, what are you guys usually doing for running right now? I mean, because you guys are in summer workouts right now.

Oh yeah, for sure. So we have. Mondays are. Is our speed day. So, you know, we're focusing on a lot of speed techniques. We do a lot of band work, broad jumps, stuff like that. Tuesday we have conditioning where we usually hit either 300s, 100 and tens, or fifths. And then whatever we do on that day, we'll do on Thursday and Friday along with like, you know, circuit workouts, which is like agility bags, shuttles, like five, ten fives, stuff like that. Grid work, half line work, run, run the hoop Work and stuff like that.

Awesome. That's some good stuff, man. Any. Any brutal days out there so far or, like, guys are just dying afterwards, just passed out in the locker room or.

I would say the biggest. That was the first week we got back. I mean, I think that's just like, for everybody, you know, because obviously you can't replicate what we're doing here at home when you're on vacation or stuff like that. So usually it's like the first couple days we get back, it's the brutal days. But after that, I think usually everybody gets back into it, gets their win back and ready to go.

Awesome. Yeah. I mean, how. Like, what's the. What's the weather like over there in. At Idaho State? Is it pretty warm right now or is it not too bad?

Right now it's like low, low 90s, high 80s. So it's not too bad. So it's starting to warm up. But in the winter, it was brutal during winter workouts. I mean, second week I got here when winter workouts touched negative 17 degrees that I've never seen before.

Yeah, I mean, how. Like, what's the. What's the weather like over there in. At Idaho State? Is it pretty warm right now or is it.

Right now it's like low, low 90s, high 80s, so it's not too bad. So starting to warm up. But in the winter, it was brutal during winter workouts. I mean, second week I got here when winter workouts touched negative 17 degrees that I've never seen before. Yeah. So I went, I mean, with the biggest. I mean, another tip. If you want to play college football and you want to play wherever you want and you want to play the Division 1 level, just be ready to go, you know, in a change of climate. Because I went from seeing snow once a year to seeing snow for four months in a row.

Yeah. Yeah, same here, man. I've never been. Never been in the snow as long as I have here. And we were. It was our. One of our spring practices. I think it was full. The first full day of full pads. It was April, April 1st. And that night it had snowed. And I was like, what the heck? Like, we walked out in the field, there's snow on the field. It's like, it's just April and there's snow. I was like, this is so. My brain wasn't ready for this because going from going from Fresno, where it's like, you know, lowest it's going to get is high 30s, to Santa Barbara, where it's always 70 degrees all the time. Oh, yeah. And then now to Iowa, where it's like, oh, yeah, sometimes it gets to negative four and snowing all the time is just a little bit different. And our spring game, yeah, it was like mid-30s, you know, something like that. So, yeah, he's got to be ready. Yeah, seriously, you do got to be ready. But I think it's good to experience those things a little bit. Get. Get. Get a little different change of scenery and get to try out new things, so.

Oh, yeah, 100%. I mean, you only live once. You got to experience a lot of stuff.

Yeah, big time. Cool, man. Yeah, that's some good stuff. Well, yeah, I mean, I don't really have too much. Much else to talk about. Just kind of want to dive into recruiting. I mean, is there anything, anything else with recruiting? Because obviously the podcast is heavy recruiting centric stuff, and anything else that you feel like would help, you know, other guys, younger guys that want to get recruited, you know, anything that you've done, anything that you've gone through, any stories that have made you, you know, kind of realize some things or anything like that.

Yeah. I mean, back on the Twitter thing, I would say the biggest thing is to never burn a bridge and always treat whatever level of coaches with respect and how you would treat the highest level of coach with. So, I mean, for example, on my juco, we had a guy getting recruited by an AIA school and his first year, and, you know, he would. He. He had big dreams of going D1, and he just blew off the NAIA coaches. But then, you know, the following year, that NAI coach was an assistant coach at a Group of Five school. So just the biggest thing is to never burn bridges because you never know where a coach will be in two years, three years. Yeah, for. I mean, another example is at a high school, I was getting recruited by this D3 coach, actually, and I kept it very professional with him. And obviously I couldn't afford, you know, to go D3 tuition wise, so I just told him how it was, but kept it really respectful and, you know, we left on good bridges and then through the. Out of Juco. I mean, three years later or two years later, out of Juco, you know, he's at a FCS school. So I was able to get back in touch with him. And obviously he evaluated my film, stuff like that. But yeah, just never burn bridges with any coaches and keep it very respectful with him.

100%. 100%. Yeah. I had the same thing happen with the D3 coach. We had a Good relationship throughout it. And now he's coaching at Colorado State, like, with Dion and stuff like that. So, I mean, yeah, you just never know, like, where guys will end up. It's always. I mean, it's never made sense to me to blow a coach off. Like, you just. You don't really get anything out of it when you think of, like, just that, you know, you might as well be respectful to them and let them know what's going on. And, you know, hey, it might benefit you later or it might not. It doesn't really. You never really know at the end, so.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

100% for sure, man. Yeah, man. So I think we're pretty much wrapped up here. Is anything. Any last thoughts you want to give? Any. Anything you want to wrap up with?

Nothing. Nothing as of right now. But if anybody has any question, questions about the recruiting game, you can also text me or contact me. Have any questions if you need help.

Awesome, man. Yeah, definitely. I'll tag you. I mean, this will get posted on Twitter, so I'll be sure to tag your at and give guys, give them a follow if you want and hit them up. But yeah, I really appreciate you coming on, man. It was good to get the chat and get to know you a little bit better, you know, Appreciate coming on. I'm sure we'll. We'll have to have you on in the future later down the road.

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. And, you know, good luck this season. Tell my boy Jabon Said what's going on. Hope everything's well.

Yeah, for sure, man. Well do. All right, well, appreciate you guys watching. See you next time on the recruiting a podcast. Peace.