The Turf: Powered by D1
The Turf: Powered by D1 is a new podcast from D1 Training, hosted by D1 founder/CEO Will Bartholomew. Filmed on location at D1 facilities, each episode dives into raw, unfiltered conversations with athletes, coaches, celebrities, and influencers who know what it takes to train, compete, and win — on and off the turf. From mindset and motivation to coaching and recovery, The Turf pulls back the curtain on elite performance and delivers inspiration for anyone chasing greatness.
The Turf: Powered by D1
Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed on Leadership, Recruiting & SEC Success
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Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed joins Will Bartholomew on The Turf: Powered By D1 to discuss his journey from Nashville standout to SEC starting quarterback.
Reed shares lessons learned from growing up as a coach's son, the recruiting process that led him from an Ole Miss commitment to Texas A&M, and why he believes multi-sport athletes have an edge in today's game. He also opens up about leadership, training under legendary strength coach Tommy Moffitt, preparing for the NFL, and the mindset required to compete at the highest level of college football.
In this episode:
🏈 Life as the son of a football coach
🏈 Why young athletes should play multiple sports
🏈 Texas A&M's training culture and SEC competition
🏈 Recruiting advice for high school athletes
🏈 Leadership lessons from the quarterback position
🏈 His NFL aspirations and quarterback influences
🏈 The importance of preparation and consistency
Whether you're an athlete, parent, coach, or college football fan, Marcel delivers valuable insight into what it takes to succeed on and off the field.
Outside of football, you you know, you but you talked about baseball, basketball. What's what's something that maybe people don't know about Marcel Reed?
SPEAKER_01If I played only basketball in high school, I would be in the NBA right now. I stand by that. I don't care what anybody says.
SPEAKER_00What's the best part of your game? I can shoot like lights out. I've I can attest to it. Welcome to the Turf Powered by D1. I'm Will Bartholomew, founder and CEO of D1, and we are fired up to talk all things training, coaching, and uh recruiting and all the things around becoming a great athlete. We're so excited to have Marcel Reed with us, Texas AM, star quarterback, a Nashville native, an NBA legend, multi-sport player, and we're fired up to talk all things training. Welcome to the turf, Marcel.
SPEAKER_01Appreciate it. Let's go.
SPEAKER_00Let's get it rolling. Uh, I wanna I want to start with your upbringing. You got a dad who is a football coach here locally. What qualities did he translate to you and what what things did you learn by having a football coach as a dad?
SPEAKER_01Uh I learned a lot. Um, I think just consistency, waking up early and, you know, getting what you need done to prepare yourself for the day, things like that. And then I think, you know, not him directly, you know, influenced me as much, but you know, seeing what he was doing with his players and uh how he would coach, you know, I'd be with him all the time. I used to leave school and go with him on away games, uh, travel days, you know, on Fridays. I'd ride the bus with him, doing the pregame meal, this, that, the third, all of it. Um, you know, just being around and seeing that, I think it prepared me a lot for where I am now, um, being in college football, understanding what it takes to prepare uh the day before a game, or really just the week uh leading up to a game. Um, yeah, I've learned a lot just watching him be a coach, but putting my shoes in the or putting my feet in the shoes of a player at that time, um, just learned how to be a collegiate athlete when I was young.
SPEAKER_00Man, that's a that's a great point. When you think about your dad and him putting you in that environment, what what are the were there were there any like players that pulled you aside and and talked to you? Did you ever get like inside the circles of the other players?
SPEAKER_01Uh I wouldn't say necessarily inside the circle. I don't think I needed to be inside of the circle that young, but um, you know, definitely knew all the players, talked to all the players, and uh I used to warm up with uh the quarterbacks uh before the games. Like I'd be on the field as early as the entire team was. So um sit down on the bench with my dad and does a little pregame thing. He sits down on the bench and just sits there and listens to his music or whatever. I'm just sitting there with him next to him. But um, yeah, I used to, you know, catch, warm up with the with the quarterbacks, uh kickers, punters coming out early. I'd be back there fielding the kicks and punts and throwing it back, um, all types of things. But yeah, never really wanted to involve myself in communications of a college student when I was eight or nine, ten years old. But um definitely around the football aspect of it, uh I I involved myself and they couldn't tell me no because I'm the head coach's son. Um but yeah, uh, you know, it was it was great. Um, and uh they they all tried to you know teach me I'd go to the camps all the time um and be involved in that and uh they'd give me tips and I think they saw um some some sparks and things and in me as a young kid, and uh I saw the talent that I had and I always had the confidence in myself and knew that you know I would be you know somewhere of this level because I remember telling my dad he asked me if I wanted to play for him. I said I want to be too good for you. So um yeah, but being around him, doing that, has been great. Uh, and he taught me a lot, his players taught me a lot.
SPEAKER_00How did you know that? I love that point. You told your dad you're gonna be too good to play for him. How did you know that?
SPEAKER_01I mean, I always played, I always played a year or two up, and um we were actually just talking about it the other day. I was at my nephew's soccer game, same location that I used to play baseball at, but my dad put me in uh T-ball, and you know, there was just no structure to it. Two two days later, he took me out and put me up in like seven, eight-year-old, started playing travel ball early, and it was just I caught on to it really quickly. Um, I wasn't ever afraid of a challenge, and then growing up playing basketball, um, all my teammates were two years older than me. Um eighth grade year, I played um freshman basketball. Ninth grade year, I started on varsity as well as football. So um, but yeah, at a young age, I just always had that confidence. I always watched people on TV and tried to mimic them. Reggie Bush was my favorite player growing up, and I wore 25 in Pee-Wee football. So I always thought I was the fastest, always thought I was the quiz, quickest, and nobody could touch me. And I just told him, like, my dreams were to play in the SEC. And so I didn't want to be in the OVC, so I'm gonna be too good for you, Dad. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00What did your dad? I'm gonna I'm gonna I wanna dive deep here because I think it's really important. We have a lot of dads that listen to this podcast. And what did your dad teach you uh uh maybe outside or after the game or or or before the game? You talked about some of those habits. I don't know if you I'd love to love to hear maybe like what the car ride was like after a game.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, still to this day, the habits my dad always just tells me to prepare. Um prepare like you're gonna be the starter if you're even if you're not, and that's gonna carry on with me for the rest of my life. Um because at one point I wasn't the starter. I was a backup, but I was preparing like I was gonna be the starter, and then when my name was called, I was ready. Um But as far as car rides, oh my Lord, I I can't stand them, I'm not gonna lie. Like I used to tell, I used to tell my mom, because they would ride together the Friday night uh games. I used to tell my mom to take her car separately so that when we left the game, because I never drove to school on Fridays, always knew my parents were gonna be there, I'm gonna ride back with them. But I always tell my mom, drive a separate car, so when the game's over, I can ride home with you and not dad. Uh sometimes it would happen, sometimes it wouldn't. But um, no, yeah, he'd just sit in the car. No matter how good the game was, he'd always find something to ask me about. And, you know, still to this day, I'm like, dad, like I'll I'll tell him about it, and he'll probably drag the question for five more years. So he's still asking me about things that happened back in the day. Um, you know, we had a game mid-season this year, maybe he probably still asked me a question about that one. Uh, whether it's about a play call, what was the coach thinking on that? What were you thinking on that? What did you see? Um, he asked me all types of things, and I tried my best to break it down for him. Uh, because obviously, you know, he's he's a coach and he understands defenses. He's a defensive coordinator before he came a head coach, which really helped me growing up uh to be a quarterback. But yeah, um, I try to give him the the shortest answer possible because I want to be done with the conversation all the time.
SPEAKER_00Do you watch film with him?
SPEAKER_01No. No. I can oh my God, I cannot do that. I cannot do that. I think the last time we sat down and watched film was uh maybe my senior year high school uh in the spring before I went to AM in the summer. Uh we sat down and watched little tape, and then uh we drew up on the little white war whiteboard we have downstairs in the man cave. I remember taking a video and be like, I'm so done with this. Like it was about two or three hours in.
SPEAKER_00I got a front row seat of watching Marcel's parents in high school as you know, my my son played with you, and man, we had a you had an unbelievable season, undefeated season. And we could talk about all the wins, but I think a lot of athletes don't like to talk about the losses. And I'm gonna I'm gonna bring up one because I'd love I'd love for you to talk about the lesson you learned because when I was with your parents after the state championship loss. Um and I remember I remember that feeling. I remember um watching this amazing career, amazing season, uh, and you led the team and we had a last second loss. What did you learn most from that?
SPEAKER_01Well, I learned that you gotta protect the ball for sure. Um but and you a lot of life lessons. I mean, just being on that team, being with those guys for so long, and you know, it coming to an end like that. Um it's kind of bittersweet um in a sense. Um, but uh I mean you learned so much growing throughout four years. And uh I remember till this day, we came back from Chattanooga that night, and we were sitting down on on the field at NBA until probably 1, 2 a.m. just talking, reflecting about, you know, what we've gone through, you know, how it's been. And we still were gonna see each other the next day and throughout the rest of the year, but it was just like it felt like we were all leaving each other after that day, just because we weren't gonna be in the locker room together again. We weren't gonna be on the field playing with each other again, and everybody's going off to different places. Um definitely, it definitely felt it felt bad, but it felt good at the same time because we knew how much we accomplished. And side note, we should have won that game.
SPEAKER_00Let's let's set the record straight.
SPEAKER_01We should have won that game. I I still have the pictures in the videos to this day. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna bring them up. When yeah, yeah, yeah. He fumbled the ball two yards before the touchdown line, the end zone, and it was still a touchdown, but it's that's what's sides of point. But no, yeah. Um, I mean it was a great season, played a great team, and it was a team that we had beat earlier that year. Um, we knew they were gonna be a great team. Um, and great offensive players had people going to play college as well, great defensive players, and uh it was a hard fight, but you know, those are the battles you want to be a part of with those guys.
SPEAKER_00I think I think uh one of the things that I came away from that that season and in particular that game is um you've always had a swagger about you, you've had a confidence about you. Uh I think one of the things that I've seen grow in you, and I'd I'd love for maybe to talk about how how this came about, but like you you're a leader. Quiet leader, like you're not you're not the guy uh in front of the, you know, jumping around, but you're a you're a leader and people want to follow you. Uh when did you when did that kind of spark in you?
SPEAKER_01Uh I think at a young age, like I said, I've always kind of played up, and uh I think I've always kind of been not the face but the face of all the teams that I've been on, because I've been quarterback, I've been point guard, um, I've been shortstop, pitcher, center field, all the above in different sports, but um I feel like I've I've always felt like I was the best player in every setting that I've been in. And I think when you are, um you have to prove yourself before you become vocal. And I think I did my best to try to prove myself to everybody. Um and I think now that I'm in college, I just earned uh the captain's badge in college this year. Let's go. Uh and I was a two-year captain the last two uh seasons of my high school career um for football, but um I've become a lot more vocal. Uh like you said, I was more of a quiet leader. I kind of lead by an example, and I think the way that I lead uh and the way that my dad kind of taught me is just kind of connecting with people. Um if we go into really the past, all every year I've been at AM, I could name every single person in the locker room, whether it's a walk-on, a scholarship player, um, I could name every single one just because I try to put a name to a face. I try to hang out with every single person on my team outside of football. Um just because, one, you never know what somebody's going through. Uh, two, I believe that the the golden rule is still the most important thing to this day. Treat everybody the way you want to be treated. And um everybody has to be led a different way because not everybody's from the same place when you get to college. Everybody's heard a different message, everybody's been around different parents and different backgrounds, so you have to connect with them and understand how to get them to go where you want to go and you want the team to go. So um just figuring that out, and now that I'm older, uh becoming more vocal because I kind of have to step into that role. Um, I've been getting on people's behinds in the in the spring, and it's gonna continue when we get in the fall because uh we have goals that we want to attain, and and you know, we were close last year, but um, you know, we've had some stepping stones. Elko's been there for his two years now. This is gonna be his third year, and uh, you know, as a program, we have a lot of guys who came in together in my class. We were gonna be seniors, and uh we're now stepping into that leadership role uh to bring all the young guys with us.
SPEAKER_00It's awesome. Talked about being a multi-sport athlete. If you had to talk to a kid out there right now, would you tell him to play a lot of sports or focus on one sport?
SPEAKER_01I would tell you to play a lot of sports. I don't like when I like when people focus on one sport, because nowadays, like I mean, if it's baseball, maybe, because baseball does like travel all year round, stuff like that. And um, if you want to get good, that's a very skilled sport. Maybe soccer too, if you want to do that. But um I think if you're playing basketball, you should be playing football. You might want to do wrestling if you're playing football or whatever, but I think baseball you should add in there. A lot of parents want to put their kids in soccer and in base t-ball early. I played tackle football when I was four years old, so um, I don't know when that went away. I guess when people started talking about CTE, but I think I'm perfectly fine. I think you're perfectly fine. I don't know when you started to play.
SPEAKER_00I don't know, I'm a fullback.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you gotta see. Um, but yeah, I think they should be playing all types of sports. There's different movements in each sport. Um you have to use different parts of your brain in each sport, different skills um that I think people need to learn. And um, there's different people in each sport too.
SPEAKER_00So, like outside of football, you you know, you but you talked about baseball, basketball. What's what's something that maybe people don't know about Marcel Reed?
SPEAKER_01If I did sport. If I did not, if I played only basketball in high school, I would be in the NBA right now. I stand by that. I don't care what anybody says.
SPEAKER_00What's the best part of your game? I can shoot like lights out. I've I can attest to it. I've seen it, I've seen it. Uh you talk about clutch wins. You had some big wins in high school. Yes, sir. Uh state champion in basketball.
SPEAKER_01Yep, against a rival Burrow Academy, where his daughter went to school and where my sister went to school.
SPEAKER_00Yes. All right, so let's talk. Uh we've talked sports, uh, let's talk training. Let's do it. So uh throughout throughout the years, you've you've um had different styles of training, right? Yeah. Oak Hill to MBA, Sean Brock, strength coach, uh, to Tommy Moffitt, uh legendary strength coach in the industry. How has your training changed throughout throughout time?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh you mentioned Oak Hill growing up. The training was mostly my dad. Um wouldn't do too many weights. Um, you know, you had push-ups here and there, but we definitely had hills to run. And we ran some hills for some speed training. Um, used to race my sister around the track. She was a really good track athlete. Um, but yeah, used to do all that. Once you get in high school, had Coach Brock, like you just said, and uh I think he's a very good strength coach for a high school strength coach. Um he he did a lot of things for us. Um, you know, we started barbell warm-ups to where um the whole team's doing it, brought the energy at the beginning of the lift, and uh we were lifting some good weights. Um and I had I had good metrics um in the in the weight room going into college. Um Tommy Moffitt, one of the greatest, is the greatest. Uh a lot of people are talking about it now because of the looks of you know our football players of the spring game. But um, I mean, he's awesome, Tennessee native, and uh he's coached some really good teams, teams who won national championships. And uh, you know, he's trying to bring that to college station. And you know, a lot of people love him. He he he pushes us and he has a great staff around him. Uh we're lifting weights like no other. Um he has us doing overhead lifts and at that quarterback.
SPEAKER_00Um what's what's that environment like? What's the Tommy Moffitt Weight Room Texas AN? Like, if I if I brought a high school student in the Texas AM weight room today, what what what are they gonna see?
SPEAKER_01Uh the high schooler might want to quit. Um he might want to quit, but we'll probably keep we told, we'll tell him not to quit. But no, yeah, he he he just brings that juice, he brings that juice, and you don't want to mess with Moffitt at all. Like he's I'm sure you know. You don't want to mess with Tommy Moffat. I mean, the guy is he has an intimidation about him, and you ought to be scared of him. Um, but he wants to bring the best out of you, and you know, if you're not doing right, then go back to the locker room. You're not gonna be in the weight room with us. So um everybody knows what the mindset is, what we're coming in to do. Uh we're coming in to work, and he tells us to be a pro. And you know, that's that's what it takes. Um, everybody's so focused on, you know, those last two, three months before the draft, why not do it now? That's what he always preaches to us. And uh we should be training for the draft the first day we step on a college campus and get in that weight room. So uh that's what we've been you know shooting for since we've been in college. Um, and uh he's done a great job with this program and trying to take it to the next level. We're happy that he came out of retirement for our school.
SPEAKER_00It's awesome. So, so uh your natural everybody knows how how fast you are, how uh shifty the gingerbread man is. Uh and so I love to hear like, do you do you train speed or is it just come natural? Are you working those juke moves?
SPEAKER_01Uh I definitely don't work the juke moves. Uh they're just natural. It's kind of just like a reaction thing. Um that's what the game of football is. It's pretty quick. Stop on a dime. But no, the speed training for sure. Uh you know, we do it, we we train uh for speed in the offseason like no other. And we have some of the fastest players in the country. Um, and that's where we want to be because you know that's that that's those are the type of skills that you need in the SEC. Um, you're gonna be going against, you know, first-round draft picks each and every week uh at receiver, at defensive end, at corner safety. And um, you know, you're not always gonna outmatch the person across from you, but you know, you got to try your best to get there. Um and so we we train speed a lot. Um we do a lot of you know plow metric stuff, um, whether it's uh jumping or um you know just quick twitch stuff. Uh we work, you know, the right muscle fibers in order to run at top speeds, and we always try to find our top speeds in the offseason. We do a lot of competing in the off-season. And um I wouldn't say I'm the fastest. I'm definitely not the fastest on the team, but I'm close. Get out of here. I know when I know when somebody's behind me that you're not gonna catch me. So um, but yeah, no, there's there's people running 23, 20, hang near 24 miles per hour at Taysano. So got some guys. How fast are you? 22. I'm 22. 22-2 is my top speed. That's rolling. You got called back though, so didn't count, but it's okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah what is what is uh what's a week look like training wise in the offseason for a D for a big time D1 athlete?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh I mean just you know waking up, eating.
SPEAKER_00What time are you waking up?
SPEAKER_01I wake up, I can't wake up after eight o'clock in the morning. Like it's just my body should train to wake up before eight o'clock. I've actually been a little bit better at sleeping in now while I'm home because um I don't have any windows in my room, so I don't see any daylight. But uh I try to wake myself up.
SPEAKER_00Like on a normal week, what time are you waking up? On a normal week.
SPEAKER_01On a Monday, I'm waking up at 6 45.
SPEAKER_00And then what time are you training?
SPEAKER_01Depends. Sometimes we'll do meetings before, but uh usually um, you know, 7 30 ish, um we train, and then um it's just a bunch of it's training, meetings, food, walkthrough, more meetings, and Then like school. School, sure. Yeah, school. School. School. You go back for more meetings individually if you need to. As a quarterback, I kind of have to get some extra work just to understand everything about the game. And um, you know, I go to I get home 7:30, 8 o'clock usually. And then it's kind of my window time. Um, eat some more food, maybe hop on the game. I don't play the game that much. Um and then what game? I'm actually like super in love with playing NHL. I play hockey like no.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, NHL game.
SPEAKER_01I'm really good at it for some reason. But uh yeah, I'll go play NHL for about 30, 40 minutes and then sit in my bed until I go to sleep.
SPEAKER_00I was a big FIFA guy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's like the other sport that kind of gets you guys.
SPEAKER_01FIFA, FIFA's fun. FIFA is fun. But yeah, after that, watch the office and go to sleep. So you're logging a 12-hour day. Yeah, yeah. I actually like had a conversation, like I had um, it was in the fall, and I had like two, three in-person classes, or like two in one day, and I'm like, obviously we have school, but I'm like, dang, bro, like do I don't have time for this. But I like I had time, it just wasn't the time that I wanted. Yeah. Um, and then I just I just had to talk with my academic um advisor, and it was like just big boy days, you know, you're getting older, you're gonna start big boy days. So I kind of just took that, you know, with the grain of salt and started to understand that I'm gonna have to wake, this is a job now. I'm gonna have to wake up, do everything I need to do, go to class, do extra, eat, and then go home and prepare for the next day. Um, you know, kind of just growing up, realizing I'm not really much of a kid anymore because of the landscape of college football nowadays.
SPEAKER_00Um, so let's talk about that. Yeah. Because I think recruiting is an interesting part of, you know, we have a lot of young athletes that come in here and they want to get recruited. They want to be in your spot, and they don't realize what it takes. So you're gonna be putting in 12, well, you're getting recruited to come through 12-hour days and really put it in. That comes with all the other uh, you know, playing front in front of, you know, 80, 90,000 people and 100,000 people being on ESPN and all those great things. But I think um when you look back to when when you were in high school, what what would you have told yourself about the recruiting process? Because I know you had some ups and downs.
SPEAKER_01Uh I mean, I just told myself, I think I took it pretty well. And uh my dad helped me a lot just because he was a coach and he understood. Um but I think just kind of you know, be true to yourself, find what you like in the school. It doesn't always have to be, you know, like just the greatest school. Find what you think fits you and where you think you'll succeed the most. Um, because I was committed to a school for a year, and when I signed, I didn't end up signing to that school. So um, you know, things may change along the way, and you're just gonna have to be open to that. I think the recruiting though now has changed a lot more because you know, kids are getting offers now, and they got agents reaching out to them because the NIE, the NIL stuff, um, you know, I really didn't have all the agents shooting at me trying to get my name a little bit because it wasn't as big as it is now. It's a little different, but um, it's still the same way. You know, you gotta find a place that you think is genuine. You gotta, you know, be able to communicate with the coaches and whoever's not talking to you, this is probably a reason they're not talking to you as much as they should be. Um, but the ones that are reaching out to you and communicating with you, um, you know, finding ways to check on you and your family, those are the ones that you gotta, you know, look for when you want to go to college because that's ultimately the same treatment you're gonna get when you get there. You know, obviously it's gonna change a little bit. You're not gonna be the greatest star like you are in high school anymore because once you get in college, everybody's the same. Yeah. Everybody's the same. Doesn't matter if you're four, five star, the greatest player in the world, if you're LeBron James coming in, you're not going to the NFL after year one of college football. So um you're gonna have to adjust and you know be open to that. But there's a bunch of other recruits that you're coming in with who are gonna be your boys forever until you know they decide if they want to transfer, but you still might be connected. Um but yeah, I mean, just just just find who you believe is genuine and wants a real relationship with you and your family, uh, because that'll be the person that'll take care of you when you get to college and who you want to play for.
SPEAKER_00You mentioned you mentioned the recruiting process, how you were committed to one school and then flipped. I mean, so you were committed to Ole Miss, and then you had you reopened your recruiting process. Talk talk to me a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, yeah, committed to Ole Miss Um going into my junior year. And um I I I really loved the place. It was it was cool, and there was a bunch of people I knew that already went there, uh a bunch of people who talk highly about Ole Miss, and they were a good football team at the time. Had some great players come out of there. Um, it wasn't too far from home, and I was up there a bunch of weekends watching games and loved the environment of you know what college football looked like in Oxford. But um, yeah, things change with um, you know, Lane Kiffin was going through, I guess, maybe transitioning to another school. And we were just trying to see if if you know things were gonna look the same if he were to leave and go to, I think it was Auburn at the time that was trying to offer him a job, and there was speculation that he was gonna go. Um, we weren't getting the answers that we really wanted. And then like there were a bunch of people. Um I had other coaches recruiting me at the time who uh once I decommitted, uh, were coming on home visits. And uh Lane didn't come on the home visit. I don't know if he had something to do, but there was there were coaches that came uh from Olmus, but the other schools had head coaches and uh they came and visited me. So um just with that, I thought it was a respect thing, and I thought it was um, I I really liked AM when I went. AM was a top school for me. They had a commit early on, and he decommitted, so that kind of opened up my opportunity to go visit the school. I went there and I thought it was amazing. I mean, when you go look at Calfield and it's empty, that place looks like it can fit 300,000 people. But um, only 108,000 is the what we've met. Um, but no, it was a great place. We had connections in Texas. My dad's whole side of the family is in Texas. My grandma, who's the the last grandparent standing, who I'm named after, she lives in Texas and she's able to come watch me play. So I thought things like that were really important when it came down to my decision at the end of the uh recruitment process. And uh I'm really happy with the decision I made. I've had a lot of success at the school I'm at and uh made a lot of great friends and teammates.
SPEAKER_00I think you got a hundred something thousand Aggies. Uh glad you made that decision. Uh, and it's worked out great for you, right? Yes, sir. So uh let's let's talk real quick about this coming season. You got a big one coming up. Yeah. I don't want to, I don't want to talk about records. I don't want to talk about what games you're looking forward to or all that. I want to talk about like what's your game gonna look like different this year?
SPEAKER_01I mean, we got it, we got a new OC, we got some great players around me. Um Mario Kravers are.
SPEAKER_00What about not what about you personally? I don't want the gets in the book.
SPEAKER_01I'm just telling you, you got Mario Kraver around me, got Isaiah Horton, Astro Beth the Roman, uh Terry Bussey, Aaron Gregory. I mean, I have a bunch of guys to throw to, and I think this year is gonna be um just another step. You know, last year um, you know, stats jumped up a little bit and we won some games, but um I think this year for me, um, it's just gonna be, you know, taking that that next step to try to get to the the next level and where I want to be. Uh obviously I want to go to the NFL and uh clean up some situational things and uh protect the ball a little more. Uh I think that'll help out, you know, the win percentage, but it also helped out my resume. Um so yeah, looking forward to that. Uh I think it's gonna be a great season. We got a lot of great opponents that we're playing this year, home and away. Got Tennessee. Tennessee on the board, baby. Tennessee.
SPEAKER_00Tell me, tell me a little bit about you mentioned the pros. Like when you look look forward, and I know we as a player, we're taught in media, we don't ever want to talk about beyond the season. But I just more like when you look at the next level, whose game, whose game do you respect the most and who what player do you kind of relate to the most?
SPEAKER_01Uh I think you know, players that I respect the most. Um, I really like Aaron Rodgers, I really like Matt Stafford, Jalen Hurts, um, and and Jaden Daniels. Um, I think Jaden and Lamar are kind of the two that I most resemble. Um more on the Jaden Daniels side. Um both great players, but um yeah, I think just my ability to run the ball and throw the ball at the same time, create um extra time and and extend the play is really important. And then I think I have the IQ of really any quarterback in in the NFL. Um it's just you know, just experience is gonna let that grow and trying to raise my ceiling along with my floor while I'm going into this next season and beyond, uh, I think is really important for me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're here at D1 and doing some extra training when some guys are are off uh enjoying themselves, relaxing. You're you're putting in even more work. Sure. What are you focused on going on into this season? Are you are you looking to get bigger? Obviously, you're fast. Are you getting looking to get faster? What what are you focused on?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, um, well, I'm focused on getting bigger for sure. Uh adding a couple, you know, pounds of muscle and pounds of fat. Body fat percentage is not very large, but uh it's a good thing I can move pretty well because I can stay away from the big guys. But uh yeah, just you know, putting those extra pounds on uh help myself in the future and now um to stay protected a little bit. Uh Coach Moffitt wrote on our sheet avoid the made decay. And um that's what we're trying to do our best. So when we come back uh for you know workouts in the summer, we're all prepared. We won't we won't be any behind. Um and we hope that the other schools in the SEC are getting the made decay. They're not working as hard as we are, but everybody on our team is is getting that extra work in in May uh to try to come back as best as possible, uh whether it's you know on the field in the weight room or uh offseason film work or stuff like that. Uh we're we're doing our best to prepare because we know what it takes, and uh we're we're trying to we're trying to reach you know some bigger goals this year.
SPEAKER_00The May Decay. I'd I'd love for you to just, and this is more an ode to coaches, because your dad's a coach. Um one of the things we do here at D1 is we talk a lot about how coaches are servants, imparting knowledge to others so others can reach their goals. Sure. And would love for you to like uh who's who's the best coach in your life and why?
SPEAKER_01Uh dang I think the best coach, aside from my dad, is Joe Davis. Uh he passed away, um, but he was he was a coach that I had from first grade all the way up till like my sophomore year high school. And really good friends with his son, Eli Davis. But I mean Coach Joe just taught me so many things. He pushed me hard when I was in first grade. Like he had us doing suicides at six years old if we missed a left-handed layup and um all the above. And then I remember we would do these stretches before the games. Like his son could do the splits, and he wanted everybody else to be able to do the splits as well. Like he just he pushed us to be the greatest athletes on the court or on the field at all times. And um, and I just really appreciated him for everything he had done for me and all my teammates. I mean, all the guys that played for him ended up playing at NBA. We played uh basketball one, eighth grade, ninth grade, and a state championship in high school. So um a lot of respect for him and his family and uh rest in peace to him as well. It's awesome, sir. It's awesome.
SPEAKER_00Thanks so much for being here on the turf, man. We got to share a lot of things. Excited for this upcoming season, excited for your future. Uh, you know, you're just getting going, man. Sir. You're just getting going. Thanks so much for being here on the turf, powered by D1.