Bengals Booth Podcast: Let It Go

and coaches, and analysis from my broadcast partner Dave Lapham. Then, in this week's fun Fact segment, you'll hear from a Bengals rookie who grew up in a town a fewer than thirty people and started on Sunday in front of more than sixty five thousand. The Bengals Booth Podcast is

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you get your podcasts. It's the greatest thing since Bob Huggins being enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame. I suspect that one day in the future, hopefully the very distant future, there will be an asterisk on my tombstone. It will list the year of my passing, and then after that asterisk there will be a line explaining how I would have lived five years longer if not for

my friendship with Coach Huggins. When Huggs was at Cincinnati, there were many late nights after games and practices spent with him, our mutual friend Chuck Mayshock, and others where we would have a few beers, swap stories and laugh hysterically. Huggs is truly one of the great storytellers of all time, right up there with Dave Lapham, and despite being sleep deprived, it was a joy to be in his company. His basketball resume speaks for itself. Nine hundred sixteen wins and counting.

That's fourth most among Division One coaches, two trips to the Final four, and hundreds of former players who speak of him with love and reverence. You won't find a more loyal friend, and I'm thrilled that he is officially Hall of Famer Bob Huggins. Now, let's get to Sunday's season opener. The Bengals addressed their biggest weakness in the off season by signing three free agent offensive linemen, but the Bengals first offensive play of the season resulted in

a sack by five time Pro bowler Cameron Hayward. The Bengals second offensive play was even worse. Burrow and the gun mixing to his left. Joe is ready ted Karas snaps it back. Burrow back to throw fires toward the thirty where its inner set did. The Steelers are going to run it back for a touchdown. Joe Burrow hit after making the throw. There's a penalty flag down in the backfield. Mink the Fitzpatrick with a pick six. If it stands it did as the officials picked up the flag.

Pittsburgh led seven nothing less than two and a half minutes into the game. The Bengals second drive was much better. They marched to the Steelers thirty four, but a seven yard sack knocked them out of field goal range. Whoops, I forgot that the Bengals have a sydeboord kicker. With a bionic leg Evan McPherson from fifty nine yards away, and here comes the ring Clark Harris ready to snap it, back fires it back to Huber. The ball is down,

the kick is on its way. Becaus is not a problem? Yes, good Holy Cole fifty nine yards with ease on money Mack's first attempt of the season. You don't have to drive very far to get points from mc pherson, but you do have to hold onto the ball, and on the Bengals next three drives they didn't. Burrow back to Cloe, gets hit from behind, The ball comes out and the Steelers recover man Alex Highsmith with the strip sack and the ball floated right too. Teammate Cam Hayward or already

for the shotgun snap back at the forty four. He has the ball. He's back to throw short pass picked off at the forty by t J Watch. Jeez Watt jumped up, grabbed the ball and the Steelers have their third takeaway in the first seventeen minutes of the game. Burrow waits for the snap from Keras has the ball, drops back five steps steps up, flints it deep down the middle of the field and As intercepted again, Sutton runs it back and goes out of bounds around the

twenty five yard line. The Bengals turn the ball over on four of their first five possessions. The Steelers kicked the field goal after Joe Burrow's fumble and scored a touchdown after t J. Watt's interception to take a seventeen to three lead midway through the second quarter. With less than two minutes to go in the half, the Bengals had a fourth and one at the Pittsburgh thirty five and decided to go for it instead of attempting a

fifty three yard field goal. Burrow takes the snap, gives it to Turst up the middle of the fields to the twenty with an angle at the ten five, and taken out of bounds inside the five at the three yard line. It was first in goal with less than a minute to go in the half, but the Bengals couldn't punch it in. They settled for a chip shot field goal and trailed seventeen six at the half. In the third quarter, the Bengals finally found the end zone.

Burrow standing at the seven waiting for the shotgun snap. Mixon lined up to his right, Burrow catches the ball, drops back from the nine throws. It is cock by Tyler Boyd, touchdown Bengals as he curled toward the forward right pylon and Burrow through a perfect strike through a narrow window to Tyler Boyd. That two yard passed to Tyler Boyd was followed by a two point conversion throw to Mike Thomas, who played much of the game after t Higgins suffered a concussion in the second quarter. The

Bengals were down by three heading to the fourth. Early in the final quarter, the Bengals had to punt, and on the return, long snapper Clark Harris suffered a right bicep injury that caused him to miss the rest of the game. It turned out to be a huge loss. A Pittsburgh field goal made it twenty to fourteen with

eleven minutes to go. The Bengals promptly drove to the Steelers thirty six, but on fourth and six, rather than attempting a long field goal with third string tight end Mitchell Wilcox serving as an emergency long snapper, the Bengals elected to go for it. Burrow drops back to throw, he fires and it is intercepted the fourth of the game for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Unbelievable. Joe Burrow intercepted four times for the first time in his NFL career. That

one goes to Akello Witherspoon. Four interceptions and a lost fumble for Burrow. That probably bothered him more than the ruptured appendix. But the Bengals QB didn't flinch. Obviously, you don't want to throw four picks, but I never panicked. We stayed even killed, and he came back and put us in position to win. He gave them multiple chances to win. With three minutes to go, Burrow hit Jamar Chase for what looked like a touchdown pass, but he was ruled out of bounds inches from the goal line.

Rather than challenged the ruling, the Bengals rushed to the line, try to running play and lost two yards. Here's Zach Taylor on electing not to challenge the spot. That's the hardest place for us to see in the entire field is that spot. So I didn't think there was a chance there was a touchdown there initially, so we got on the ball to it in quickly. It's hard with all the craziness that moment, all the communication to get

that hey stop, stop, let's evaluate this. We just couldn't get it done fast enough by the time we've seen a replay and realize, oh, shoot, he might have gotten in there. So I just gotta learn from those. You know, it's a fine line to get the ball in the end. You just want to punch it in real quick, and in hindsight, maybe he was in and we could have give ourselves a chance. The Bengals eventually had to go

for it on fourth and goal from the two. Burrow ready catches the shotgun, snap, he's back to throw, he's looking passes into the end zone. It is incomplete and the Steelers stopped. The Bengals. They had it first in goal inside the one, they go backward and fail to score. The Steelers got the ball back with one fifty one to go, but they weren't even able to run thirty seconds off the clock before giving the ball back to Burrow and the Bengals at their own forty with one

twenty seven left. Despite playing one of the worst games of his career to that point, Burrow drove the Bengals sixty yards for the tying score. The game comes down to this play. Four seconds on the clock, Cincinnati at the six yard line of Pittsburgh. Shotgun snap to Burrow. He fires toward the games caught by Jamar Chase, both feet down. Touchdown Bengals. No time left on the clock, and here comes Mitchell Wilcox, emergency long snapper to try to successfully fire it back to Kevin Huber for a

game winning pat Imagine the butterflies in Wilcox's stomach. They were probably more like Tera dactyls. As he took over at long snapper on a thirty three yard extra point try to win the game. Mitchell Wilcox ready, Huber catches the snap, puts it down, The kick is blocked and it flutters into the end zone. Will go to overtime, tied at twenty minca fitzpa Rick blocked it. The snap from Wilcox a little bit high, didn't have a lot of steam off as the key, and as a result,

the Steelers were able to block it. And that was the key. It had. It flooded back there and it disrupted all the timing a little bit and as a result they were able to come off the edge and maker Fitzpatrick who else. Wilcox would get another chance. On the Bengals first drive in overtime, they marched to the Pittsburgh eleven, and on third and eight, Zach Taylor called

on the field goal unit. Van McPherson had five walkoff game winners as a rookie, looking to begin his second season with another to twenty nine yard try from the right hash Wilcox, the emergency long snapper is ready. Huber, looking back at McPherson, turns his head, snap is high. Huber gets it down. The kick is a line drive and it's no good man. Knowing that the field goal was hardly a sure thing, why didn't the Bengals run

a play on third and eight from the eleven? Felt the right decision was to kick it on third down in case the snap was off from Kevin could just spike it and we could try to kick it again, And unfortunately, just didn't work out for us. Hubert caught the snap above his helmet and wasn't able to spin the laces, but McPherson says the miss was his fault. At the end of the day, I just couldn't get it done. I mean, twenty nine yards is twenty nine yards.

I can't hit that on my left foot, so there's really no excuse for me to not make that one. It's certainly hard to fault Mitchell Wilcox. I talked to him after the game. You had to serve as the emergency long snapper. When was the last time, if ever, that you had to do that in a game? In a game? Probably maybe one time in college. You know, I did in high school and was a backup in college, but I was on the punch shield and I always

had that in my back pocket. And so I said on the broadcast, I can't imagine how big the butterflies must have been under those circumstances. You're trying to win the game for your team, doing something that you normally don't even practice. How nerve racking was it? You know, in the moment, I just was focused on snapping, and unfortunately, first the first one was a good snap, got blocked though, and then second one shade high. You know that's on me. I gotta give Kevin a better snap. But had a

whole sunday. Anything can happen. None of them were unplayable. I know that's probably not great consolation for you, but it wasn't like you bounced it back there and you gave Kevin Huber a chance. Yeah, I thought my my first one, I think was was solid. What didn't have great velocity on it, but it was placed. We just gotta, you know, protect up front. And then the second one, you know, could should have gave him a better one. How did you learn that Clark was not going to

be able to snap? I just heard people yelling to go get some snaps, and I didn't know what his status was. And then, you know, my heart's out to Clark. You know, he's had such a great, great long career here and done so much for this this team, in this program. And you know, but do you practice them much just in case? Or is I mean there's another long snapper on the team who's on the practice squad right now. It probably kind of negates the amount of

time you would even work on it. Yeah, you know, I'd say I work on the punt the punt snaps a bit more than the short ones, the place kicking snaps. So, like I said, I should have give Kevin a better one on the second one, and that's on me. Little Cox had to snap the ball one more time and this time it was a longer snap on a punt. With about a minute left, he snapped the ball to Kevin Hubert with thirteen seconds remaining on a running play clock,

preserving valuable time for Pittsburgh. We snapped her thirteen seconds. I understand that, trust me, it's we would rather do something different, but again just trying to make sure the operation ran smoothly. It turned out that we sacrificed some seconds just to make sure that we were all on the same page. There it proved costly. Starting at their own twenty with fifty six seconds to go, Mitchell Trubisky completed two big passes to tight end Pat Friarmouth, giving

Chris Boswell a chance to win it. A fifty three yard try to win the game. His kick is up, it is floating toward the goal post. It is good. As the clock hit zero and the Steelers win it in overtime twenty three two twenty. The Bengals outgained the Steelers by one hundred sixty five yards, burrowed through for three thirty eight and added a career high forty seven

rushing yards. Jamar Chase had ten catches for a buck twenty nine and Joe Mixon had one hundred forty five combined rushing and receiving yards, but a minus five turnover ratio, seven sacks allowed, and an injured long snapper ultimately killed them. Here's offensive lineman Ted Carres. You know, we did everything we could to lose basically, um you know, five turnovers, you know, giving up sacks, not finishing drives, and it

still had a chance to win. I think this team showed a lot of grit and we just didn't finished. We had the game in our hands three four separate times, so I got to finish that in close a division game. Out Obviously, very disappointed. I think it was one hundred and four plays. If you weren't in shape, now you are. You know, it's a week one thriller that we came out on the wrong end. So you know, we got

Dallas in a week. I'm gonna, you know, learn from this. Obviously, there's a lots of coach off of I thought we did a lot of good things too, but overall disappointed we lost. After the game, LAP spend a couple of minutes with Zach Taylor, coach talk about fighting adversity. You know, you have the turnovers obviously that that was an issue of the self destruction of the turnovers, the biggest story in the football game. That's really the simplest thing. To

boil it down to five to nothing. You know, we gave it away five times, didn't gain any had two poor operations on kicks, and and that's not recipe for winning football in this division. But with all of the all of the tough things you went through with giving the football away, they score a defensive touchdown, they get short fields, you still have a chance to win the football game. And like you mentioned, Clark Harris goes down, you're in a tough situation and miss kicks that could

have won a football game for you. Yeah, there's going to be positives we can take away from this game, but but the immediate negative is that we're all in one and lost a divisional game to start it off. So that that's the part that hurts. But these guys will rally the right way. They understand it's a long season. They understand that they were places to be made that would have won us the game. I mean, so we know that we're gonna be a good football team. We

just got a rally and refocus for next week. What are some of the positives that come to mind right now before you actually take a look at analyzed tape. Yeah, holding them to thirteen points there until the last field goal. On defense, you know, you just look at the total yards they had going into the final drives. I thought our defense played really well. I thought there was some opportunities we got the ball out or had our hands

on the ball. We can take that away that those are things that we got to do better in the future. And then offensive, I thought we moved the ball really well in the second half. We just didn't always finish with points. There was a fourth down play we didn't end up leaving seven and three points on the field at the end, miss the field got the end. On

another drive, we were in the little red zone. So um, there was there was some positives to takeaway, but overall we'll want to know, Yeah, that's a division a division loss, like you talked about at home, that's a that is a tough, tough way to start. You look at last year, Dallas led the league with interceptions, led the league in takeaways. I mean, they're a team that thrives on that kind of thing. So I got to take care of the ball security thing pretty quickly, don't you. Yeah, we'll get

into them. We know that we've got to be plus plus one to plus two in the turnover battle to give ourselves the best chance to be minus five and still have a chance to win the football game. What's that say about your football team? Overall? We got a good team. They handled aversity the right way. There's no panic in these because they know that if there's still time on the clock, we had a chance to win. Oftentimes fall like we put ourselves in position to do that.

Today we just didn't get it done. Appreciate your time, coach, so thank you. The Bengals were the only team in the AFC North to lose in Week one. Baltimore beat the Jets twenty four to nine, and the Browns top the Panthers twenty six twenty four, winning the game on a fifty eight yard field goal by rookie kde York with eight seconds remaining. York was the only kicker taken

in this year's draft. Now time for postgame analysis. In this week's Radio Guys Recap lap, when you commit five turnovers and your defense does not come up with any takeaways, I imagine the winning percentage for NFL teams under those

circumstances is like point ooo three or something crazy. The fact that the Bengals almost pulled out this game really was kind of a remarkable performance by the defense and some clutch late played by Joe Burrow and Jamar ches I mean, I think this football team has a lot of heart, you know, I do think that. You know, they're not going to stop playing football until the final gun. Then they're never gonna concede anything. They didn't play well.

They made mistakes. They're all correctable mistakes. They do have to correct them and move on. Joe Burrow through it fifty three times thirty three or fifty three three hundred and thirty eight yards, two touchdowns with four interceptions and also lost a fumble. Jamar Chase ten catches one hundred

and twenty nine yards and big touchdown. It's but like you said, you go minus five, you're gonna lose ninety nine point nine percent of the time at any level of football, and particularly the better the level of competition, the tougher It is. The fact that they went minus five and could have won it multiple times at the end of regulation in and overtime, you know, speaks to it's a good's it's a good football team. But it proves in the National Football League you can't put yourself

on your schedule. If you do, you're gonna lose football games. And that's what happened today. You know, I think the better team lost the football game because they had to. They beat themselves and the opponent beat him as well. As a result. I feel badly for Mitchell Wilcox. Those are tough circumstances. The Bengals have another long snapper on the practice squad, so it's not like they have Mitchell Wilcox doing a lot of practicing just in case he

does some. But to go into the game under those circumstances, as Logan Wilson put it is a big ask. It is a big ask. And you know, I think about Ted Carross. I thought, all right, what about Ted Carriss? Can he snap maybe for an extra point? And if he hasn't been doing it, it's that's that's a brutally

tough ask. The fact that Mitchell Wilcox had been doing it during the course of practices and he's had his reps and and all that sort of thing to you know, Carris, if he hadn't been doing any deep snapping at all during the course of training camp, that's that's a monumental ask. And I remember when I did have to play center because of the knee injury to Blair Bush. It's it's a different animal deep snap in the football, it really is.

I never had to do it in a game. Fortunately we brought Bob Johnson back out of retirement to deep snap, but it was It's not an easy task. And you don't realize how valuable or solid deep snapper is until you don't have him anymore. What did you think of

burrows performance? Obviously the numbers aren't great for interceptions as a new career high he also fumbled, as you mentioned, but down the stretch sure enough, when they absolutely had to have it, he takes him down the field sixty yards for what, under normal circumstances would have been a game winning touchdown. You know, as a as a teammate, as a former lineman, I look at him with nothing but admiration because, you know, like he said he would he'd like to have had more time to get ready

for the opener. He felt like he was going to be ready, but in a perfect world, you'd like to have more time. Plus the fact that he had an appendected me. You know, his appendix ruptured and they had to make sure he didn't get toxic. And when he first came back, he was definitely weakened, you know, he was he had trouble walking around without you know, hitching over a little bit because of the pulling that was

going on after the surgery. And he lost fifteen pounds and that's not easy to get yourself back and then back to play your first competition is against the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. It's you know, it's remarkable that he righted himself as quickly as he did. I mean, obviously his second half was much better than his first half, and

that's that's understandable. But to do what he did and looking at how basically abnormal it was for him from preparations standpoint, I got nothing but admiration for the guy. I'd get in the huddle and they'll play football with that guy anytime, anywhere, against anybody. So after addressing the offensive line in the offseason, the very first snap of this season was a sack. Second staff was that second

snap was a pick six, not a great start. Did you feel like the offensive line got better as the day went along? Yeah, I think they did. I think they did get better. But I know they're they're not going to be very satisfied at all with the overall performance. I'm sure they're going to be harder on themselves than anybody is. And they'll study that tape as a group and individually and as a group and you know, be real with yourself and with each other and make the

necessary adjustments and improvements. And there has to be an improvement in ball security though before they played Dallas, because Dallas led the NFL in interceptions last year and led the NFL and takeaways. That's their whole deal, is their opportunistic defensively, and that's their defense coordinators mentality. So you know, you got to take care of the football. And you know, because look at Pittsburgh, basically they won that football game

because they didn't turn the ball over. I mean, they were not prolific offensively binding stretch of the imagination. They just did nothing wrong. And they basically said defense, we're relying on you and eventually special teams. The third phase one it form. So the talk shows and TV debate

shows are going to focus on this debate. Did the Steelers approach in the preseason playing starters, tackling in camp win the game against the Bengals team that did not play starters in the preseason and barely tackled in camp.

What do you think? Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think the tempo of practice, physicality and you know, timing and rhythm and all that is much different than game, even in the preseason game because I always felt like, you go through that progression of playing the preseason, that's one speed of the game. You get to the regular season it's another. But having to go and skip that first phase of it, it was a little bit more of

an adjustment. Um So, I you know, and I know I'm old school that way, but one thing that uh that that that Mike Tomlins said that kind of rang true to me. It's like, before you box, you have to spar, so you can't box until you spar a little bit. And you know that that that kind of

rings true to me a little bit. Now, if the Bengals had won the game in any stretch down the stretcher, in overtime or whatever it would have been, you know, less of a you know, I guess maybe less of a question, but now now it's a it is it is more of a question because they didn't win a football game that they were favored to win by about

a touchdown. Um so, But bottom line to me, as as a form alignment, I would like to see stunts and twists for speed with linebackers, you know, coming downhill and filling and just just to get the repetition of it, the rhythm, the timing, you know, anchoring your pads and all the things that go along with it in a perfect world. But they you know, all hands were on deck and they almost won the football game. I thought you did your job well as a ruler of the jungle.

You got everybody fired up before kickoff. For whatever reason, the Bengals, even as a super Bowl team last year, have not been dominant at home five and four in the regular season. Last year they did win in the playoffs, but they lose their first home game this year. That's true, And then you look at the other side of it. You know, last year Pittsburgh only finished at half a game behind the Bengals at nine to seven and one.

You know, but they they're obviously a different team. The Ben's not there and Trubisky is, but they want they want seven one and one in close games. Last year games decided by seven points or less, and they're one and all this year in games decided by seven points or less. So it says something about Mike Omlin, his coaching staff. You know, as players, their belief in their system, and that's a powerful thing. I mean, you've been there,

done that, and done it successfully. I'm sure they've felt like, you know, we just this is business as usual. We're going to get this done. The journey begins, unfortunately with an l. See if the Bengals can bounce back in Dallas next week. The journey begins and got down to face the twelve and five last year, twelve and five Dallas Cowboys that were that reason last year damn, because they were plus fourteen. The Bengals were minus five after Week one. They've got a ways to go to dig

out of that, you know. I mean during the regular season last year they finished even zero in the turnover ratio, when in the postseason they were plus seven. Got to get back to that up next the tough road game against the Cowboys. The Bengals have an all time record of one and six in Dallas. Now time for this week's facts interview, where we get to know the person under the pads. Time for some fun facts. The Bengals offensive lineman Cordelle Wolson from Baal four, North Dakota, a

small town in the middle part of the state. I am from a small town in upstate New York. We had about three and a half acres. But tell me a little bit about where you grew up. Yeah, I grew up a really rural area. Um. I grew up grew up in the country between belfour and Drake. Um. I was about three miles east of Belfour. Um there. You know, it wasn't a whole lot there. Um. You know,

I think population was was in the twenties. Um. And then I grew up five miles west of Drake, and Drake is where I went to went to high school. You know that was that was kind of town. Um growing up. You know, had a grocery store and in a convenience store and um, you know some other businesses, bar and stuff. Um. So I was kind of I was kind of my hometown. Um. You know, like I said, grew up really rural area. Um. You know, everyone was everyone was involved in everything. Um, you know my parents

they owned and operate a excavating company. Um. You know, so ever since I was little, I was I was part of that, helping out and it was a great way to be brought up, that's for sure. It sounds like your folks are quite a success story. They started that business that you referred to, they built it up into a nice family business. What did you learn about

work ethic from them? Exactly what you said. You know they started off um, you know, just just them too and uh, you know, built into something that you know, does does really well. Um. Very fortunate to have been brought up that way, just you know, learning how to work. And you know, if you set your mind to something that that you know, you can accomplish it. And you know, I think one of the biggest things is, you know, you don't stop until the work is done. My dad

was an upholsterer. I worked for him. The worst job was removing car seats from cars, which stunk. What was the worst thing that you had to do when you work for your dad? Oh, you know, probably the worst thing that you know, the thing that people would think would be the worst is you know, repairing sewers. Um. You know, because you know you're you're down in there. You know, whether they're they're jammed up or you know,

broken pipes or septic tanks collapse, whatever it is. Um. You know, so you're down there and not quite the best work environment. Will say, um, but yeah, I mean it definitely definitely builds character and it makes you learn how to work efficiently because you don't want to be in that in that for very long. So you know, you plan ahead and you and you know how to how to do it quickly so you can get out

of that condition quickly. The first time we met after the draft, I shook your hand and you nearly broke mine. I think it's one of the two most firm handshakes that a Bengals player has given me over the years. Kevin Zeitler would be the other. In case you're interested. But where did that come from? I think you can tell tell a lot about a man by their hands shake. Um. You know it's I think if you got a firm, firm handshake that you know your words good. Um. So

just um. I think that was that's a big part of you know, making a good first impression. I'm intrigued by the fact that you played nine man football in high school. You're from a small school, it didn't have a ton of players to try out for the football team. What's nine man football like? Is the field smaller? What positions are removed? In North Dakota, the fields the same. Um. You know, it's fifty three and a third and uh, you know, one hundred, one hundred yards um. But offensively,

you get rid of your two tackles. Um. You know, at times there will be you know, some teams will have you know, bigger tight ends. It will virtually be a tackle. UM. But a lot of it just depends on how you want to how you want to scheme things up. Um. And then defensively, you know, we uh we didn't we got rid of we only played one safety and we only played with one corner um. You know. So just depends on how you want to you know,

scheme things up that way. Um. But at the end of the day, it was it was playing football, you know, and that's the most important thing. It sounds like a fun brand of football. I guess it goes without saying that you play on offense and defense. You also kicked and punted, did you kick field goals. We did a few times. You know, I was our our place kicker when we did kick. UM. You know, it is more of you know, nine men, a lot a lot more teams goal for two just because of the less players

and you know, more space. UM. You know, so to get two yards um, you know, should be should be UM pretty easy. But yeah, so once in a while we would kick some but you know, for the most part, not too much. We're doing fun facts with Cordell Vols. And you attended North Dakota State, where your older brother went and had a great college career as well. There's no major professional sports team in North Dakota. Is North Dakota State kind of the equivalent. Yeah, North Dakota State

is UM. You know what everyone in the state watches. UM. You know what you grew up wanting to be a part of. And it's just, uh, it's a great university to have in our state. UM. You know, the winning and you know that all speaks for itself, but just the type of you know, support that North Dakota State gets from the state itself and the community surrounding UM far Ago, but you know, the things that North Dakota State does and gives back to you know, the state

and the community as well. You were there for six years. You played in sixty five games. I don't know what the record is for a college football player for games played. That might be up there, but it's a school record. If you could have stayed for a seventh year, would you have? I I mean, I love my time there. It was. It was great. Um, you know I think that. Um,

it's I'm very fortunate to be where I'm at. Um. You know, if this opportunity wouldn't have been presented to me, definitely, um, but um, you know, for me, it was I was excited for the next chapter of my life as well. The Bengal selected you in the fourth round with a one hundred and thirty six to pick in this year's draft. Where were you when you got the call and describe that feeling. We had a little little gathering in our shop,

my parents shop. Um, you know, so sitting there, I'm actually when when coach Taylor called, I was playing playing catch with my with my little cousin. Um. So the call came in and it was you know, it was a dream come true. You know, everyone everyone their whole life grows up wanting to want to get that phone call someday. So when it came in, I was extremely excited and very fortunate to have people that meant a lot to me there with me. Where do you get

your size? I get asked that a lot. Um. You know, both both my parents, Um, you know, they have a lot of relatives that are that are bigger. Um you know, like, um, you know six six, Um, there's a couple that on both sides that are that tall. Um. But um, you know, I think just fortunate. Um you know where it came from. M I couldn't exactly tell you, but very fortunate to have received it. All right. A few wildcard topics for Bengals rookie Cordell Volson. Fargo is the home of North

Dakota State. Fargo is a movie nominated for seven Academy Awards. Were you amused by the accents in Fargo or were you offended that they seemed to poke fun at the way folks speak. I'll tell you the truth. I've never seen it. Yeah, I've never seen it. I'm surprised. It's a great movie, but I guess, I mean, you're much obviously much younger than I am. That has been out for a while. Yeah. Yeah, Coach Paulock always tells me

that I need to watch it. I guess haven't quite gotten around to it yet, but you know, hopefully I can get to it this offseason and see what I think about it. All right, do you have any hidden talents? No? We had to do the Talent show, you know, the Rookie Talent Show, and it took me a long time to think of something to do. And it wasn't very talented. I'll tell you that. Do you want to share what you did? I just did a little singing. Um, it wasn't good. It was more of a more of a parody.

Was trying to be funny. What are you terrible at? There's a lot of things. Um, I'm not very good with technology, to be honest. Um, so that's something that I need to improve on, especially in today's world. But yeah, I guess there's nothing that really jumps out to me. Um, when I know there are things, but yeah, technology is the one thing that you know, I'd definitely like to improve on. You made an appearance on my broadcast partner

Dave Lapham's podcast. It was very entertaining. One of the things you told lap was that you try to read at least part of a book every day ten to fifteen minutes. What kind of books do you enjoy reading. Yeah, I read a lot of a lot of self help stuff. Um, you know a lot of I don't want to say like motivation stuff, but just kind of mental how to how to you know, be in a good mental place and and you know, how to achieve the goals that you have. U. So yeah, right now I'm reading Can't

Hurt Me by David Goggins. Um. You know, I just just books similar to that, just you know, try to better myself. And it sounds like the bookmark you use when you are reading has personal meaning as well. Yeah, I just you know, write down the goals that I have that way, you know, every day when I when I opened the book up. But it's just a reminder, Um, you know why I do what I do, and you know, to continue to pursue those things. Final fun fact for

cord Elvols, And this is kind of deep. If you could meet anybody in history, athlete, entertainer, statesman, religious figure, whoever that person might be, who would it be? You know, I think that's a great question. Um, you know, I'd really like to meet my dad's dad. Um. You know, fortunately never got the opportunity to meet him. Um. You know a lot of people say that him and uh, you know, my dad were very similar, and then a lot of people say that my dad and I are

very similar, you know. So, so I think you'd be cool to kind of learn where it all came from. Great answer, Appreciate your time, best of luck this season.

Thanks so much. Thank you. Appreciate you having me. That's going to do it for this episode of The Bengals Booth Podcast presented by Alta Fiber future Proof Fiber Internet elevate your connection with Alta Fiber by Cattering Health, the official healthcare provider of the Bengals, by Bengals Picks and Ultimate Bengals Free to Play with tickets and sign merchandise up for grabs, and by pay Corps, the official HR

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