recording in progress. Let's start with Nick Carboni followed by josh Graham. Hey matt, good to see you. This is the first time that we're able to talk to you since the baker trade, I guess in your mind as the head coach, what made it so appealing to go out and get a guy like that at quarterback heading into training camp? Well, I always look at my job is to put as many good players and good coaches in the rooms and then give them the opportunity to uh to to battle it out. And um, I really like our quarterback room, you know, I don't know many teams that, you know, we have uh Sam Donald who's been our starter who had an excellent spring and talking to him this summer. Sam's had an excellent summer. So we have Sam we had in baker Mayfield, you know, who, who's took Cleveland to the playoffs, won a playoff game, set the rookie touchdown record, um, to add him, that's another starting caliber quarterback Matt Corral is a young guy that we drafted that we really like and have a lot of hope for and um I expect him to come compete. You know, I showed up to the stadium last night and Matt was in there working out back in charlotte, you know, getting ready and so that's another guy and then obviously P. J walker is a guy that, you know, we've asked him to start for us twice and twice PJ has, has has gone out in one. So not many teams have, you know, four quality players like that and uh it's gonna be a lot of great competition and to be quite honest with you, Nick, I think it'll be really good for our team, the competition, right? Hey matt, josh graham following up on that scott said that there was a time close to the draft, conversations had accelerated and he thought that it might get done sooner, baker being added to the team. When did you and Ben really start to imagine what this team might look like with baker and that makes it quarterback? Yeah, scott. Um, and I had that conversation before the draft and in the draft, you know, we were, we were talking about that, just the deal didn't happen. Um and so it was sort of an ongoing conversation until it, until it finally did, uh, you know, occur, there were times where it looked like it wasn't, you know, wasn't going to occur. Um, you know, in spring and O T A S, we really became really excited about what Sam was doing and when we got matt, obviously we're excited about matt. So, um, you know, there was a time that wasn't sure if it was gonna happen, but when the time came at the end of the day, we felt felt like it was the right thing for the team and we did it all right, let's go, Skylar Callahan, followed by Darren Gant. Hey man, good to see you. I hope you're well. Um I just want to get your your thoughts on how this is gonna look between baker and sam early on, is it gonna be 50 50? You're gonna work your way up to 50 50 with the reps. You know, I haven't had a chance to sit down and talk to those guys face to face all in the room. Um You know, they don't report till tomorrow so you know, respectfully, I'll talk to those guys first and kind of dictate, you know, explain how we plan on doing things um and then then we'll share that with you guys afterwards. So I want to make sure that they're not hearing, you know, sort of rep counts and things like that, you know over twitter, I'd I'd rather do it with them all in the same room so Well be direct, we have a really good plan. Um uh Ben, you know Ben is an excellent coach, Sean is an excellent coach. Um They'll they'll do a great job in that room and um but we'll share it with you when it's ready and then with matt corral to scott said that this wasn't necessarily going to be a redshirt year for him, is that kind of how you see it too? This is still an opportunity for him to get out there. Yeah, I mean at the end of the day uh those those guys are gonna those guys each they have opportunities every day in meetings, they have opportunities in practice to compete and be the best at what they are, uh to improve and you know, um I expect all four guys to go in there and battle and so that doesn't mean you get the same amount of opportunities, maybe sometimes as other guys, but you get an opportunity and I expect Matt corral to come in here fighting and swinging, you know, no one gives you anything in life, you gotta, you gotta go fight for what you want and matt corral is a fighter, so we'll play it out as it comes. Matt, you talked about the defense needing to go from good to great. What are the tangible steps they've got to do and how do you fix that over the next or how do you get to that point over the next month? Well, I really think it started in, in O. T A S and in spring, I think the first thing Darren is that we have to become a much better red zone defense, Year one, you know, I think the year before we got here we were 24th in defense. The first year Phil's defense, I think they were 16th in total defense last year we were second um but we were not good enough in red zone and scoring defense, which obviously is what matters. So we have to become a better red zone defense, specifically Red zone third downs. Um that would be the number one thing and the number two is we have to create more turnovers. Um, we have, you know, we want to lead the league in takeaways, we have the guys to do it. We have covered guys to do it. We have linebackers who can run and hit and cover and then we have made a real investment over the last 34 years. You know, even proceeding me with brian Burns marquees, Haynes, we have defensive lineman who, who should affect the pastor. So I think the two key areas that we want to make improvements on in defense are the red zone defense and takeaways. Let's go to will Kunkle followed by joe person. Hey man, how you doing bud? Um, just kind of a housecleaning question. Start times kind of pushed back this year from, I think it was eight or 8 30 what was kind of the reasoning and it kind of jockeys a little bit too? Uh, it's a great question. Um, so because it's so hot here at Wofford, you know, the, the NFL allows us basically what they turned two practices a day of practice and a walk through. Um, we did the walk through in the afternoons last year, but because there's no indoor facility, it was just unbearable at times, you know guys are out here, it's just unsafe. So what we did was we just flipped it, we put the walkthrough first thing at eight o'clock in the morning, Then then players have to have 90 minutes between walkthrough and practice, we give them their 90 minutes and then we go right to practice. Um so it, it moved the start time back a little bit, which means practice is gonna be a little hotter, it's not necessarily exactly what I want, but it's still in that pre 12 30 window. And so we're trying to kind of, you know, the NFL also implemented new rules in terms of the first practice can only be 90 minutes. So there's a, there's some different timing that the NFL introduced, so that has affected a little bit of the start times and trying to keep some things on the back end consistent. So we felt like, you know, we're here for less time this year. Um I think it's two weeks to two weeks in a couple of days, you know, we would be able to battle the heat for for two weeks, but trying to get that walk through in as opposed to having to cancel it or go into a gym, Hey matt, how you doing? Hey joe, how you doing? Good to see you. I was gonna ask you, I know you try to establish this every year, but how do you sort of get the sense of urgency to the level you want and need that as, as started. Uh that's, you know, that's a great question, let me say that first. I think that's that's the, I think the biggest thing is getting guys who have that innate sense of urgency and when you have a young team sometimes, you know, young guys, uh they think they have forever in this league and they're just kind of happy to be here. Well, a lot of our young guys are older guys now, you know, Chin is going into his third year, you know, they they have a sense of urgency that they want to win and um I like our veteran players, I think we have a tremendous group of veterans that are gonna lead the way. And so to me, you know, we had this conversation in the spring about hey letting the players drive things more, I think the first two years of trying to figure everything out what, you know, what does this look like. We, we all kind of know now how we do things what the plan is, and I think the shock Thompson's, the christian Mccaffrey's uh they, they will establish and set the sense of urgency, the coaches, we have to obviously do it as well, but when it comes from the players, it's so much better and so much more real and so we have a lot of guys who know what to expect now we have a much better roster, to be quite honest, there's a lot of competition and that brings urgency as well. So I think the competition, the battles in camp, but the desire to win is what we'll do it. And then quick follow up, you had mentioned in the spring that Davian was a guy that may or may not be ready, will he or anyone else start on the buck? You know, I'll probably announce pup uh tomorrow after we've had the physicals, you know, I want to do that kind of all at once, but I do anticipate um Davian, we're expecting him to be full go. Uh we'll we'll do a good job in terms of limiting his volume early on. We're not gonna throw him out there and go right to, you know, Oklahoma drill, which is outlawed, but you know, we'll we'll we'll bring him along. Uh The only person that right now we foresee starting on pup before physical is Shaq Thompson shock. Uh We did a little clean out of his knee, he'll be back in a couple of weeks, but he'll probably start um he'll start on pup. Uh and then that's um you know that that's probably a really good thing for him. He'll he'll he'll he'll be really healthy this year. Alright, let's go to Ellis Williams followed by scott Fowler. Hey man, how you doing? Um I'm wondering how you as a coach and you're coaching staff have tried to expedite baker, Mayfield's um understanding of the offense obviously with him coming in a little late, he mentioned to some media and norman, he was upset that he couldn't get somewhere before Minicamp, which obviously would help him get a grasp of the offense sooner. Um Without with him not having O. T. A. S. In mini camp, is there a plan in place to help expedite that process of him grab grasping Ben McAdoo's offense? Yeah I think the first thing is uh you know we're obviously we're able to make available to him, playbook ipad, all those things once it was official. So he was able to start on his own. I think when you have a guy like baker um you know he's had several different offensive coordinators in his time. So he's gone through this process, he knows what it takes to learn a new offense and so um he's kind of had that head start going back, watching the tapes, watching the installs, having the playbook in his hands. Uh And then um um has a he has a history with with coach camp and so a lot of the terminology a lot of times for quarterbacks I think that that's that's one of the biggest things is hey how do I adjust the protections? You know, and he he has some history with coach camp. So um but there's no doubt that's one of the you know he has to get here and he has to learn the offense and he has to go from You know level one, knowing the offense to level four mastery where you know it's your unconsciously competent and so um that's his journey as part of his journey when he gets here. And so Ben will do a great job having a plan for him scripting plays for him, you know, that that he can he can really, you know, grow in the offense as we get going. Thank you, matt, when you're talking about defensively and good to great, it makes me think of brian Burns a little bit, has made the Pro Bowl and has obviously had a really great start to his career, but certainly there's probably room for improvement there. Where where do you specifically want brian Burns to go from good to great this year? Yeah, I think brian's a tremendous example of of of of a guy that's you know, has to go from good to grade, you know, and I was really proud of how he showed up to O. T. A. S. Uh he had put on muscle and strength because he's such a great athlete, you know, the more that he can include the power rushing game into his game, it'll change everything for him because he's such a great speed rusher, he can change tempos on guys, He can change levels up and down on guys. But if he has the ability to put his foot on the ground and run you over to, that's what takes you from 9, 10, 11 sacks to 15, 16, 17 sacks. His his commitment, I talked about all spring to me, you know, that comes first, your commitment to being great and I've seen it and I'm excited about it. Um and I think the last thing is, you know, sacks in the fourth quarter, you know, uh sacks are a great number, but but sacks in the fourth quarter win games and so his as he comes to work, his conditioning level, it it's those, it's those sacks that affect seasons. And so I, you know, he's a leader on this team. I expect him to make that, make that jump this year. Thanks. Alright, let's go to David Newton, followed by varun Shakur. Hey man, good to see you. Uh wanted to ask you a couple questions here. One baker and Sam have been working out with a few teammates the last few days in the charlotte area. And what does that say to you about Sam's mentality, the fact that he's participated in that and not kind of felt like the outlier here. Yeah, I mean, Sam is Sam is an amazing person, he's an awesome person. First of all, he's also a competitor. Like, you know, he he's he's determined to play his best football this year. Um so I've I've seen nothing, but I've seen nothing but positive things from Sam since the end of last season to the way he showed up in the spring to what he did in the spring until now. And so, you know, when we let him know, I'm not gonna share a lot of my conversations with guys, but when we let him know that we were, we were making this move. He handled it like the ultimate team guy and the ultimate professional. And so, um, yeah, I think he's taken very much, hey, I'm gonna control what I can control and that's the way that I play. And so I look forward to seeing him play great football. Uh, this, this, uh, this camp, I understand you don't want to share the rep splits, but I think scott when, when baker was signed said they were probably gonna split pretty evenly between at least uh, sam and baker is that kind of the thought process right now, just between those two. Yeah. Like I said, I'm gonna talk to those guys tomorrow and then, you know, you guys will get me every day. So I'll be, I'm excited to talk to you and go through it in more detail. But I just, I just feel like for me, the best thing is to, to make sure I have that conversation with each one of those guys in terms of, hey, here's how we're going to start and I think things will be fluid as camp goes on. Um, but you know, I wanna make sure I show them that respect and one other thing that was, I guess back when you faced baker in college and I think the pregame, he was talking a little trash to your teammates and said, you forgot who your daddy is gonna have to spank you and um, you guys had a good showing that day. But that, that personality that you got from baker there, you saw from baker there and it's kind of maintained the last a few years in NFL to uh, is that something you want to continue that, that, that edginess of? Well, I have to tell you, David the story that I got to tell you the story, how it really happened. Uh, so I'm in the locker room and you know, we're not very good at the time. I think we're going three and four and they said, hey, there's a fight, the dbs and, and bigger almost just got into a fight and I came storming out. You know, I went after the officials and I'm like, I want, you know, I want 15 yards on him. Da da, da, da da and charlie brewer, my freshman quarterback at the time who was red shirted, wasn't even playing, who ended up being my starting quarterback, you know, later that year. And for two years, a great player went to Lake Travis and he, he actually walked over to me and said, hey, coach baker didn't start that fight. I did. So, so it's a little, it's a little late Travis uh thing that, you know, they breed competitors there, I can promise you that. So I want, I want every player on our team to be themselves. Um, I want every player on this team to, to be themselves, but to live up to the standards of our team and uh, you know, um, at the end of the day, winning comes first and winning always comes first. It's about winning. It's not about me, it's not about you. It's not personal battles, it's about winning. So as long as uh, what guys do, leads to winning and leads to performance and results, then I want them to be who they are. And so, um, that, that uh, for baker, I haven't, I haven't coach baker, I talked to Lincoln about baker and you know, he told me, hey, you're gonna love him. But I want like I want baker to be baker. I want sam to be sam, I want them all just to be themselves and you have in your mind, one a one B going into this thing. Or do you, do you really consider this wide open? Yeah, I think, I think at the end of the day, football players are the ultimate competitors. And I think, uh, I think, uh, the great ones love competition. And so in fact, in fact the best of the best create competition sometimes when it isn't there. So to me, my job is not to pick the starting quarterback, the players will do that with the way that they play. My job is to make sure that we have really good players in the room, which we now, you know, which we do in that room and make sure that they have opportunities and so, you know, it'll, it'll be a fun ride when we know we know, Hey Matt, um, wanted to ask second year now where you've got a 17 game schedule, three preseason games. What did you learn from last year's experience with that, that you're going to apply for this time around? That's a really good question. Um, I think, I think, you know, when we look back at it last year, especially the first time going to Wofford, you know, um, and, and the, the unique opportunity that, that, that this provides to get away to be sequestered. You know, we went from two joint practices last year, which I thought was appropriate for us in the time and space where we were as a team to, now we're just doing one joint practice. It's on the road. You know, it's, I think it's really unique to have a joint practice versus a team you played the previous year and you lost too. So we played the Patriots, we lost the Patriots. Um, I have so much respect, obviously for coach Belichick and that organization and those coaches and players to have a chance to go practice against them really is a chance for us to measure ourselves. So, uh, the other thing I would say is that week after the last game, um, is a unique week. Uh, it's, you know, you're kind of making that 53 cut and then there's some time and the time off, so really kind of going back and looking at how we handle it last year and what the best practices are heading into that first game. So, um, but I think the change of joint practices, probably the biggest thing, all we have time for a few more, Let's go to Brett Jensen followed by day, Sean Brown, Hey matt, hope you're well. Um real quick. I know people were talking a lot nationally about you last year towards the end of the season, about being on the proverbial hot seat and you know, and I don't know if that was the very first time in your career that you've actually been mentioned as such because obviously you didn't have a temple or Baylor, was that a difficult situation for you personally and your family going down the stretch last year? And you know, there is also a lot of talk about this is a year that you as a coach have to prove yourself and get more than the five wins. So, I mean, how much has that impacted you from a national standpoint, especially last year at the end of the season, you know, uh, last year's to me is over. You know, it's kind of like, uh it's kind of like golf, you know, you you play a bad round and you know, you sit there and you say, you know, you feel terrible about your game and then all of a sudden you show up the next day and you play golf again, you know, and it's like I, I could have a great round and so, um, I thought we did a lot of things well early in the year and then, you know, just down the stretch, we did, I didn't get it done, we didn't get it done. And so that's our job. It's a results oriented business and when, and I certainly don't want to be a part of an organization that tolerates, you know, mediocrity and lack of success. And so that's got to start with me. So, um, do you like that? No, but at the end of the day, I can promise you, like my life is about winning and losing and so I don't like losing. So that that affected me as much as anything else. Um, you know, things with my family, you know, there's, there's my son's here working as an equipment manager, you know, he's gonna go play ping pong with christian Mccaffrey today, there's, you know, you get amazing opportunities like that, some bad stuff will come along the way, but I want to make sure I say this, people in charlotte have been amazing to my family, absolutely amazing. Uh, like, you know, I'm a regular guy, like, you know, I, I, you, you see me at the park, you'll see me out to eat with my wife. Like I'm not, you know, I'm, I'm nothing special, like I'm a regular guy and so people when I see them on the street have been amazing. So this year I expect to win, you know, I want to win. I've never had, uh, going, going into a season and said, I hope I can only win this many games and keep my, I'm not doing that man. I wanna, I wanna win at the highest level. Just like christian does just like Shaq does just like everybody in this organization does. And that's why, you know, I woke up today ready to go excited to go excited to be here and I like where we're at, well, speaking of christian real quick in terms of that, do you plan on handing, handling him differently this training camp? Um, or like maybe even potentially see a preseason game. Like how do you plan on handling that, considering what's happened the last two years? You know, I think our biggest thoughts as we look back to christian, you know, just maybe some tweaks in season. Um, you know, I think, I think I liked what we did with him. Like I liked a lot of things we did last year in training camp. I mean, we got off to a pretty good start and then I always had a bunch of injuries in that Texans game and then just, we just didn't play well enough after that. But I think a lot of things we did in training camp last year were right and so um, yeah, I don't, I don't see many changes to what we're gonna do with christian. Um you know, I think each year to you kind of look at your team, what does our team need? What does our offense need? And that affects what does our defense need, That affects how much you play different guys in preseason. So um well we'll see how practice goes and we'll make a lot of those decisions. I have some clear thoughts in my mind obviously, but some more finite decisions on different guys as we get closer to those games. We have time for one more really quick one day, Sean. All right coach. Good afternoon and thank you for the time you mentioned some of the veteran leadership you expect as far as the players on the team. But where have you seen the benefit or perhaps even the difference in preparation heading into camp with some of the veteran additions to the coaching staff? Um That's a great question. You know, I, well, I think I think Ben um, I'll start with Ben, you know, as the offensive coordinator. Um you know, he he's he's truly a coordinator, he's not just a play caller, he's a coordinator. He he um, he handles every detail of everything on offense. He works really well with that group and I'll tell you that takes a lot off your plate as a head coach. You know, when you have two guys like Phil Snow and Ben McAdoo who really handle their areas um Chris Tabor, same thing. Um you know, these are guys who have done it and done it at a high level and so it it it takes a lot off your plate as a coach, you know, uh knowing that you're going to just get end result, product, work, product um James Campen and and and paul Pasqualoni, two veteran coaches. Because at the end of, at the end of the day, in my mind in this league, you win up front on the offensive and defensive lines and you know, we spent two years investing in the defensive line. Uh we have good players in that room. I think coach Pasqualoni is gonna do a great job of elevating that room and we were able to really go out and invest this year in the offensive line to go along with what we've done the previous years and I think coach camping will affect that. And then, you know, to hire a guy like steve Wilks, uh just just a guy who, you know, I have two guys on my staff now who have been head coaches and coach Pasqualoni, but I had coaching college for a long time, highly successful, uh you know, you can't pick up the phone in this league and call another head coach and say, hey, what would you do? I'm lucky. You know, I have some have some, you know, coach Vermeule called me the other day, I have some great guys I can go to and look for advice, but now I have them on my staff as well who, who sat in that seat, so I'm really happy with the staff where we are as a staff. I remember some really veteran NFL coaches told me when I came into this league because of the hiring rules, they said, you know what, matt, Sometimes it takes you to your second or third year to really get the staff the way you want it. You know, sometimes you have to wait till the guys contract comes up or do I have the staff right now where I really want it. I like them. I trust them. I'm excited actually to go see them. Alright, thanks coach, thanks guys, appreciate it. Matt.