I mean, at some point, were you just like, did I walk in front of a black cat? Like, how did all of this bad luck happen to us at the most important position on the field?

Just timing.

I just don't question anything.

And it just helps you build relationships with everybody.

You better make sure your relationships are straight with everyone on the team, all the players, staff, everybody.

You need everybody to win.

And I think that winning is hard.

I'm curious, as you've gone through some of the ebbs and flows of what this season has offered so far, how different does this – does does it feel in the locker room how different is the the culture around the team and and and how much did you know winning that game do you feel like it was a necessary thing or was the thing that was inevitable because you helped create that culture

Talk to me about your community work and your purpose behind doing some of your community work.

You want to go first? No, that's up to you.

I mean, we're here to serve.

I mean, everything with me, honestly, my grandmother raised me when we was young and did different things.

So everything with me is faith-based.

Like we're here to serve.

You serve, you do things the right way, it comes back tenfold, right? Yeah.

and having that mutual respect and love and moving in the same direction because that that was um such a huge part of our discussion um But what would you say to young people out there trying to figure all of this out on how to be a family, how to be a couple, how to give to community, how to raise and love children? What is the advice that the both of you would give?

How do you think college sports has sort of adjusted to being able to play for multiple schools, multiple coaches? Do you think it's ultimately been a positive or a negative?

It depends on the fit for the kid, right, and what they were told during recruiting.

If what they told you during recruiting is what's happening and you can't accept that, you need to stay because that's the adversity that you need to become the man that you're supposed to become.

If there was lies and things of that nature, then it's like, boy, it's not.

You probably got something there.

But I think everybody should wait three years.

I think you should be on a fast track to get your degree.

Coach, do you feel like you rub certain players or certain other coaches the wrong way throughout your career? Does that bother you?

How do you think college sports has sort of adjusted to being able to play for multiple schools, multiple coaches? Do you think it's ultimately been a positive or a negative?

It depends on the fit for the kid, right, and what they were told during recruiting.

If what they told you during recruiting is what's happening and you can't accept that, you need to stay because that's the adversity that you need to become the man that you're supposed to become.

If there was lies and things of that nature, then it's like, boy, it's not.

You probably got something there.

But I think everybody should wait three years.

I think you should be on a fast track to get your degree.

Coach, do you feel like you rub certain players or certain other coaches the wrong way throughout your career? Does that bother you?

That's

what I said.

So it was like the game was done.

We won, but our team got hit all game.

We barely won the game.

We should have played different because they did a good job.

But it was like, you know what, get on the line.

They were ready to go see their family.

"We're gonna be in it for everybody." How much is that, a year and a half into it, or two years or two and a half years into it, how much does that resonate? When, when, when now when you make first contact with somebody and, and, and you say, "Okay, we want you to consider Syracuse," how much has the reception changed?

Well, they understand it.

They know that it's real.

Uh, first off, shout out to our recruiting staff.

They're doing an amazing job.

Uh, Aaron, Alex, Dash, all those guys in the room, Trent, E Mark, um, Anthony Averett, Bruce Eugene, uh, Tommy going, been in and out of there.

I was in there with him for a week straight just going through stuff.

Mm-hmm.

Who, who, who are we?

Yeah, man, Freeney's always here.

Freeney's, uh, he, he work with us.

Like Freeney's on the staff.

So Freeney's watching film every night.

He's up every other week, four weeks straight or whatever, but he's always here.

Keith Bullock is, um...

What- what- what's your opinion on where things are in college football on that front?

I know you do.

No, I think, I think he's really...

First of all, I love him.

Right? I genuinely love him.

Like, um, his mom, his family, he's a great person, right? Comes from a good family, um, and I think that he's, he...

Uh, I, I pray that he's going to play in the National Football League after college, right? Because, um, he was a kid that bust his butt in college for four years, and then his fifth year last year.He got a chance to really come on the scene and do things, right? We, we, we worked on his faith, we worked on him learning how to take care of his body and just do all the right things, so the kid knows how to do all the right things to go out and be successful.

So I'm extremely happy about that.

(laughs)

out.So what's the second act, and how difficult is taking last year's success, where you got the quarterback and Kyle McCord's getting ready for the draft now three weeks from now, and Rondae Gadson and Justin Barron and all those guys, Marlowe Wax, heading down to the next level? How difficult is it, in this NIL era, to do it again?

Uh, I think it's just more mature young men though, right? It's, uh...

It can't be the same way as last year.

The standard ra- has ro- has rose then, right? And I talk to the players about that all the time, 'cause everybody try to look at it like the coaches and everybody.

They'll say, "Hey, we, we're better than we were last February," or, "We were..." Like, you know, we just had a game in Sept- in December, so I'm not trying to be better than last year when we sucked.

I want to be better than our last time we played a football game, and just continue to do that and continue to make sure that the standard is our core values of DART.

But I do really believe that it's all the stuff off the field, like making sure the guys sitting in the first two rows, making sure that everybody's in class, right? They're paying attention.

That was the same thing we were last year.

He said, "Let's compete against another team." You raised your hand and said, "Let's go play."

Basketball has been doing it for years, right? And then other sports go do it, they all go other places and travel and do it.

And people even go and work out and train at other facilities.

It's just no one's ever thought about let's compete against them.

Everyone worries about getting hurt and I think nowadays they worry about the portal.

A lot of things that I'm not worrying about.

And, um, I think because of, uh, like guys always doing something, I had two practices after the spring game.

What's the sales pitch to the young men out there to, to get them to come up to Syracuse and, and play football for you and in the ACC?