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Kurt Hinish's 'blue-collar mentality' comes from his upbringing | ND on NBC Podcast | NBC Sports - YouTube
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all right kirsten so just take me
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through this year what's this year been
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like as you change defensive
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coordinators and just watching this
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entire defense come together from your
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perspective it's cool man um you know we
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started out this season a little slow
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uh you know we our defense is a really
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aggressive defense we play fast and
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obviously when you play fast mistakes
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are going to happen
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um so
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you know when i you know i was telling
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everyone earlier in the year when you
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can find the blend to play fast and you
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know play a simon football at the same
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time and you can blend that you're going
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to be a really dangerous group and uh
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we you know we have some young guys in
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the defense of what as well you know
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stepping into their own and filling in
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um
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so you're starting to see the results of
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uh a lot of hard work and a lot of
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countless hours for you know
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fixing what was wrong and starting to
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play his time in football as well as
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playing fast
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when did you feel like it really clicked
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for this defense for the first time
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uh versus
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probably i mean
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probably versus the the probably
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i don't know i mean i think we we played
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all right all you know all year but i
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mean really the best game we played so
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far was against navy and obviously last
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week against virginia
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that navy game's always got something
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unique about it like what does that navy
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game represent for you
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i love playing against navy i mean those
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dudes are tough you know they're real
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hard those you know gritty guys and
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it's an honor to play against someone
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who's going to be serving your country
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in a couple years um
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you know it's great for me they run the
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ball every play so i love it
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i'm just thinking about the back to back
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of the navy game and then the virginia
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game
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inside of that room right now that's got
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to be pretty to two pretty impressive
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performances to go back to back with
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correct but we talk about all the time
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you know the job's not finished we're
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not where we want to be at the end of
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the day yet
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take me back to pittsburgh man growing
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up in pittsburgh what does it mean to
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you to be sort of pittsburgh tough and
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to grow up from that area
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you know it's uh you know i kind of
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click i kind of carry that blue color
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mentality on my shoulders every day and
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you know kind of incorporate it with
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everything i do um
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you know it's uh
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on your way to school in the morning in
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the morning you see you know dump trucks
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and guys going to the gas station and
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filling up their coffee and getting
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stuff for their lunch boxes it's kind of
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a blue-collar town you know a lot of a
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lot of construction workers in the area
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i grew up a lot of police officers a lot
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of school teachers you know
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um but yeah it's cool man it's cool town
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it's growing and it definitely you know
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molds you into
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a great young man hard working young men
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yeah your dad was so awesome too really
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become like a legendary figure in my
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mind your pops how does he motivate you
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how did he how was he raised you there
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in pittsburgh
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i was raised tough man i uh
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you know i he expected nothing else for
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me but to be tough and uh
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you know
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be kind of you know fall into you know
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his kind of blue collar work ethic
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between my mom and my dad
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they both work extremely hard and
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um you know i saw that growing up at a
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young age and you know i always admired
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that about both of them
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what sports did you play growing up
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i wrestled
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and i played football and i was that was
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the extent everyone plays baseball and
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soccer when they were a little kid but i
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didn't actually
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the only sports i was like serious about
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was wrestling and football
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how do wrestling and football blend
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i mean they're good they're great
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especially you know feeling uh for your
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balance you know kind of feeling
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somebody you know wrestling with someone
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you kind of um
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you kind of
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learn to counteract someone's balance
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and kind of learn to contact your
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balance with pushing out against one
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another and uh wrestling is great
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football because it helps with the
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fundamental tackling
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so for somebody who's never played nose
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tackle which is the vast majority of
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humanity explain some of the hand
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fighting what's the key to the hand
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fighting that goes on down there in the
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trenches
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you got to be fast you got to be low and
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you got to play nasty um
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you know that's what i always say and uh
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you get a lot of double teams uh
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you know when you get a one-on-one block
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you got to make the most of it
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um
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yeah i mean you gotta play your hand's
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gonna be fast immediately as soon as you
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as soon as the ball snaps you gotta be
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fast with your hands and uh you gotta be
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quick and you gotta be violent so
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when you start feeling the double team
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what's the key like what's the key when
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you're getting doubled
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just being low i'm just you know
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kind of having that mentality you're
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just i always it's kind of cliche but i
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always tell myself i'm
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one of the most dangerous guy out here
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you know if you want to do that to me go
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ahead let's do it
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yeah yeah so is the goal then to not
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move is that is that really the goal
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when you're getting double just stand
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your ground i mean for the majority of
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the people yeah but i like to like i
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like to make plays off a double team you
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know what i'm saying like it's one thing
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to get double team to not get moved it's
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another thing to get that team to make
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plays
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yeah well i mean that's what you do
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so well so how has your perspective on
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notre dame football evolved as you've
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gone through this program and now that
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you're towards the end of your notre
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dame career
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my perspective on the program itself
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yeah it's awesome man i mean there's a
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great culture here in this building and
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what coach kelly has uh has built here
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and all the support staff and everybody
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it's great culture in the building um on
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the field you know there it's you know a
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lot of no-nonsense hard-working
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individuals and the kind of what you see
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is what you get with coach kelly and uh
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you know he's a great guy a great role
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model and um
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it's been an honor to play under him and
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you know it's been an honor to play
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under coach lee and uh you know coach
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marcus freeman the time we've had this
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year and you know coach alliston and all
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the js i've had since i've been here and
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coach bayless you know he's out molded
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me he's had a big big part in my uh
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development here
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does the appreciation for the grind
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evolve as you grow up
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you no doubt no doubt and i find myself
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challenging myself more as i grow up and
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as i'm working out by myself
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how so
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uh
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so
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lauren quarantine uh
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i i worked out at my high school gym
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and uh i didn't have a training partner
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but like i i've like
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you know the days where you go in and
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then you probably work out so you know
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something some of the days you go in
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and you're not feeling well right
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you know those are the days that you
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kind of define who you are you know what
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i'm saying you can either choose to you
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know go through the motions or you can
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get better that day and work harder than
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you did the day before when you were
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feeling good
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um you know that i you know i give
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myself a lot of positive reinforcement
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self-talk while i was in there too and
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um but yeah
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yeah i mean you're viewed as one of the
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truest and purest leaders on this team
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so who was the leader you grew up
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learning from when you got to notre dame
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who was the best leader that you were
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around
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um
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probably uh
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i don't i don't want to say this because
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it's going to get into his head and i'm
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always knocking on him and stuff but
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uh
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audio gandaiji was a great leader worked
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extremely hard
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um
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was a lot was a lot of no-nonsense work
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extremely hard and we got to talk to
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everybody
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um robert hainesy was a great leader
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um
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you know ian booker was a great leader
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quentin nelson was a great leader
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michael mcglinchey was a great leader we
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had a ton of great leaders um
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but the two i can really think of in my
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head are robert haynesy and audio
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conditioning they're both dudes that
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work extremely hard like myself and our
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blue collar and um show up and sit and
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be the same guy every day
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what's it been like from your
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perspective to watch this offensive line
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come together this year and do so
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playing some young guys
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it's awesome it's awesome you know they
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balanced you know they had a little bit
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of trouble at first and now they're
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coming into fruition and and they're
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they're playing really well um
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you know
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a lot of people don't you know don't see
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it every play but i see it every play
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you know guys like kane madden and jared
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patterson and christopher you know
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they're actually laying dudes out on the
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field where they're they're pulling or
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they're coming down the line and cocaine
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someone and it's really cool to see it
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how about for joe all when did you first
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realize joe alt may be different as a
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true freshman george beast you know joe
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joe and blake fisher and rocket spring
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though they're all going to be great
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offensive lineman here um joe joel is
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going to be three and out uh blake
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fisher's going to be three and out uh
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rocco spindler has the potential to be
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three and out um but they're both i mean
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all three of them are really good but
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joel i knew draw was different when he
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was uh
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during the the summer conditioning i
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think joel was around 310 but during
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summer conditioning he was up towards
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the front of the pack
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uh you know right next to isaiah foskey
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when we were doing conditioning
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wait running sprints you're saying he's
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310 pounds but running sprints he was at
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the front of the pack yeah
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next to foskey next to foskey yeah
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oh my gosh this dude hooper or what like
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where's that athleticism come from i
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think yeah i don't know if he was a
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hooper or not i mean he was recruiting
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here to be a tight end
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um
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so i i think that has something to do
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with it but yeah i mean he's he's a
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freak he's a beast he one of the things
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he did during camp was we were doing
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one-on-ones and uh
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he
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he slipped but when he slipped he did
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like a spin move on the ground and like
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didn't hit the ground and like kept his
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feet and like continued to block the guy
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he was going against him he's he's a
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freak
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he is a freak so when you talk to these
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young guys especially these young guys
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who are having to play now
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what advice do you give them about what
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it means to represent this program or
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really what it means in terms of just
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making sure that this team can go as far
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as humanly possible potentially even a
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trip to the playoffs or a championship
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yeah i mean you know i i tell them
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they're stepping into a role that's
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bigger than themselves and um
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you know you kind of carry on the torch
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of the tradition that has been
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given to you by guys that have been here
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in the past and you know you're in a
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pass torch for guys
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here in the future um
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the i like joel
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before every game you know
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you know if there's a good of a
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defensive line and he's going against i
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always kind of get up in his grill and
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i'm always kind of like you know like
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you know come on gel like and he's
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always like cool cold face stone face
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like
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like yes sir like and he goes out there
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and he delivers
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that that's got to be pretty awesome for
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you at this point in your career to be
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able to have those conversations how
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does that resonate with you being able
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to be that older guy now
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it's command like i always looked up to
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those guys and and you know i'm finally
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in a position where i get to be one of
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those guys
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when you go back to pittsburgh how did
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all your friends growing up view the
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success and the career that you built at
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notre dame
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uh i mean that'd be something you'd have
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to ask them i mean
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i mean to my face i mean they'd probably
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you know
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you know
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mess around and
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my friends are they're like uh you know
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me and my friends we have a funny
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relationship they only bring up the bad
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things that have happened
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like me getting pancakes when i was a
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junior in high school by you know
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getting triple teamed or something
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they'll send in a video of that then
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they'll never have you know they'll
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never commemorate me on my highlights of
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my career you know they're always they
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always keep me humble and stuff and i
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really appreciate about them but i mean
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they tell you the same thing i've always
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been a leader and i've always been a
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lead by example kind of guy and um
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a hard working type of person
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i'm glad you got friends just like mine
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man kurt we really appreciate you taking
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some time it's been so awesome watching
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your career and what you've meant just
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as forget about football what you've
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meant to that building what you meant to
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notre dame so thanks for coming on man
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and appreciate it
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no doubt sounds good take care all right
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see you pal
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hi i'm mike tarico and thanks for
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watching make sure to hit subscribe for
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the latest news and highlights from nbc
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