Eric Weddle on a Tuesday, you went happy Tuesday, man, How you doing doing?
Great?
Man?
Great to be on football seasons officially over, So now I can turn the page, you know, as the retired has been. My calendar year goes off to the Super Bowl. So I'm ready to move forward and get onto the next season. We are all ready to be champions. That goes for the utes, it goes for the RB Broncos, it goes for the future NFL Super Bowl winner.
How you liking the coaching thing now that you've been, Now you've got a little bit of a sample size, not just a couple of weeks.
How you liking the gig?
It's good. It's good and able to keep myself challenged per se, be still be around the game, still be around the kids. Able to get back and teach teach young young men to be real men in the in the real world. And that's something I try to pride myself on them instilling those traits and routines and what that looks like. So it's a daily, a daily challenge for myself to give back to these kids, and I enjoy it.
Is it what you expected? What are the things about coaching? Football that have kind of caught you a little bit off.
Card, Well, I appreciate coach as much more as a coach than I did as a player's first and foremost man. The high school, there's so much that goes on behind the scenes. Like you think of college coaches and NFL, and they do a lot, don't get me wrong, but nothing compares to being a head high school coach. And you're the trainer, you're the strength coach, you're the academic advisor,
you're the psychiatrist, you're the everything in between. And so there's a lot goes on outside of the actual football x's and o's, and so I didn't realize how much that that had been doing. But I do like having an impact on them outside of football because most of my kids are just going to go off to college or go in the rural world, and and I'm trying to prepare him for that.
Tell me about your boy, what kind of player is he?
And is there a chance we could see him playing college football here in Salt Lake City.
Gosh, he's he's he's got a chance to be a good one. You know. He played played this year as a freshman and started at safety all season and really worked hard to give him a chance over the spring in summer of last year, to give him a chance to compete, and he did it, took it and ran with it. And then the second half of the year started a quarterback for us and really took us to
the next level and then took that spot. And now it's exciting to know where we are as a program with the players and knowing we have a quarterback for the next three years and build around that. And uh yeah, I mean I I tell people he's got a chance to be a program builder, to take a program the next to New heights, because he has that in him. He has a factor. So I hope, I hope that, uh he'll be able to play college football. He has
all offty goals. Where that will be, I don't know him, just along for the ride and help them guide him along the way, you know.
Isn't that interesting?
I have a I have a son who's about to turn twenty three, and he has moved on uh and now is making his way through the world in the in in in the area of actually working full time after he finished school. He's living in New York and he's working full time and you know, it's funny, Eric, Like when they're born, as their parent, you feel like, Okay, they're going to be this, They're going to be that.
I'm going to send them this direction.
I'm an influence and then all you want to do is see them smile. You just want to see them happy, right, and like, it's so, so, what's the process been like watching this young man grow up and now seeing him becoming this prospect?
And how do you balance that?
Because you it's a tree, You're in a tricky spot, it's a tricky dance.
You're a coach, but you're his dad, Like, how do you balance that?
It's not easy, if I'm being honest, Last year was hard at times, never being able to show affirmation to your son because of the optics and people being negative towards it. So it was hard at times, not not gonna lie of coaching him harder than anybody else, being so hard on him, and then not being able to pat him on the butt when he does good because I wouldn't say I was worried about it, but just trying not to add extra pressure on him, which he
already has the world on his shoulders. And it's been like that since since he was a little kid because of whose dad was. So he's he's mentally tough for it, and he's he can handle it. I just wish she wouldn't have to and at this point of his life, but he's running with it, and you know, it's it is. It is a tough dynamic and and you know, I coach him and love him as much as I do every other kid. So I don't lose sleep at the end of the night of what people think or say
about him. He's going to get what he gets on what he does on the field and off and how he treats people, and how he leads and how he works. And at the end of the day, he when he's the hardest worker, he performs at a high level than everybody else. And that's what he's going to be judged on, not by who his coaches.
Yep.
No, Well said one more thing here, because I am genuinely curious. We talk often and we've had you on to talk about this quite a bit. With the changing landscape of college football and how NIL has changed recruiting, how it's changed the game, how it's changed the way you have to operate, how much of that Eric, if any at all has spilled over into your day to day with high school stuff, well.
It's the dynamics have definitely changed, and being a high school coach, I feel like high school kids are getting the short end of the stick on a lot of these cases, whether it's recruiting, whether it's transfer, portal, whether it's JC rule, if it sticks, how that's going to look. The bottom line when it comes back to it, is the high school kids are getting the short end of it all where I think they should get more opportunities.
I don't understand why we're enabling kids that weren't good enough out of high school giving them more opportunities to take scholarship or take chances away from high school kids that deserve it. And a portal kid, you know, most programs, I've got to believe that they still build and develop and culture means something, right, You're not trying to revamp your whole entire roster every year with transfer kids that need a plug and play. Hopefully you still rely on
those high school kids to build your roster. But I don't know, man, I just think that I'd rather have a kid that I've been building and developing over the last year or two than a kid that is leaving a program for reasons that I may not agree with. Whether it's money, whether it's more opportunities, et cetera, et cetera. I don't know. I'd rather pour into the kids that I have.
Do your do your kids? Do your you know the kids you coach?
Do they have any frame of reference for just how good you were? Or do you have to send them to YouTube and say read my article.
I try not to bring up my playing days because most of them could care less. And you know, a lot of my kids play. I think, I think in the grand scheme of things, a lot of these kids are not. They don't really love love, love the game like we love the game growing up, and they'd rather be doing a lot of this stuff. So I'm just trying to keep them in the program more or less than explaining what really it takes to get to the next level.
Fair enough, all right, moving over now to the super Bowl.
Here's what I wanted to ask you right out of the gates when I saw you on the rundown today.
How does your life change when you win that game?
Shoot? For me, it didn't change anything really, Uh, you know, my my personal life didn't didn't change at all. Who talked to me, who doesn't talk to me. The only thing really that change is on my resume, a super Bowl cham and uh you know that carries weight when you're when you're thinking of uh, you know, accolades and conversations of who's better and this and that. But at the end of the day, it's I am the same guy and just trying to be better each day and
help out along the way. But you become you're you know, you're in the fraternity. I'm not trying to, you know, lighten it. I'm I'm grateful that I was able to be a part of that and have an impact on it. But at the end of the day, it wasn't It's not going to change who I am per se.
So when it comes to Jalen Hurts, I found the narrative and conversation surrounding his play just a little hard to understand, quite frankly, Eric, because it felt like the Eagles had leaned in to this rushing attack because they have a generational back at a great offensive line, and when they were allowing Jalen to throw it all over the place, a couple of years ago Super Bowl, he went over three hundred yards passing, and you know it was clear that Steve Spagnola was going to take away
Saequon and so it really was on Jalen. I thought he really answered a lot of questions your takeaways from what was a very convincing Super Bowl win fifty nine with Philly taking care of Kansas City.
Yeah, I think you know, I mentioned this the week's prior you look at the you know, if you if you ranked the top twenty players in that game, I probably would say fifteen thirteen to fifteen or Eagles players. So when you take a side, put aside everything else from coaching to schematics to this, and that Philly had the better team and the more talented roster at most positions he could say outside of quarterback. And maybe you know, Chris Jones is probably the top five, you know ranked
player in that game, maybe top three. So when you see how the game unfolded, I said, it was either, in my opinion, it was either going to be a blowout victory for the Eagles or a close Chiefs win with the help of the refs and coaching and everything
else in the middle, and it worked. Out, which I had a huge smile on my face just seeing defense dominate, having the line of scrimmage, the importance and emphasis on the bigs, and really controlling the line of scrimmage, getting after the quarterback was really the difference in that game. And playing great defense in physical tackling the physical nature of what football is and what it needs to be
and not turning it into flag football. That's why the game was won, not all this other stuff that people may be talking about.
Was there something because prior to Sunday, e Ed Mahomes was eight and zero against Vic Fangio.
Was there something?
Was there something specific they did to confuse him or was it just kind of as you outline the way they went about their business or getting pressure and making sound tackles.
Well, I think it's it's a combination of some things. You know, as the great as Mames is, sometimes his greatest traits can be why you struggle at times, and I think Cam at times always trying to run around and make things happen and extend the play hurt them in this game because in this type of game, you need to understand what the defense is doing, understand those rules. Obviously,
play calling has an impact on those decisions. But in this type of game, you needed to get the ball out on time where it needs to go and exploit the weaknesses of the defense. And I bring that up because I know it could be done, because the Rams just you know, should have won that game. And it was The reason why is because Stafford dropped back, got the ball out and and killed that defense. And there
was no difference to what they were doing. They run the same stuff, but when you hold onto the football and your offensive line may be struggling to hold up and becomes a recipe for disaster.
So a couple of angles here from the game. Let's start with the Kansas City side of things. You know, it felt a little bit like the Tampa Bay Super Bowl loss where they couldn't protect Mahomes. So they're gonna have to go about their business of making sure the old line is dialed in. Maybe they have better health at the wide receiver position right out of the gates instead of having a wait and add pieces like new Hopkins.
But what are you expecting Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes bounce back next year?
What do you think it looks like?
Oh, they're going to be a team that we reckon with every single year because they got Patrick Mahomes, they got Andy Reid, they still got one of the best coordinators obviously on both sides with the Spagnola. So they're going to reload. The reality is that they just wann't a dominant team this year. They have deficiencies. They can't run the football. Defensively, they're really young throughout the secondary and in sidelinebacker. So how they need to reload that.
They got to figure out the offensive line. In my opinion, with the Chiefs, You're always gonna have a chance with Mahomes, but let's show up that offensive line that you know, the right tackle is just just a guy, not disrespecting hum, but he's just a good he's a solid player. Let's get elite tackles to protect Mahomes. That's that's what I would do, and then and then figure out everyone else, because if you can protect Mahomes, you'll always have a chance.
If not, you look, you saw what happened.
And on the other side, you know, we talked about Mahomes at twenty nine and Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson at twenty eight.
Jalen's twenty six, you had in Saquan's twenty.
Eight, like AJ's twenty seven, Devonte Smith's twenty six.
Like yeah, it feels like Eric they have a chance to maybe go on.
Look, I'm never gonna say, like, we just saw how hard it is to have a dynasty in pro football. I don't know when the next time a team is gonna have a chance to win three straight, but it feels like the future in Philly should be very right.
I guess that's how I'll put that.
Yeah, I mean they've been in the playoffs three years in a row. They have an identity, they know who they are. They run the football, they play great defense, They're physical. I mean they had the biggest, most physical old lines, and they've built their team through the draft and through the interior old line the line, and look at all the draft picks that play on that offensive defensive line, which is really impressive. And then they've gone outside to get an Aj Brown, to get a Saquon.
You add pieces here to be dynamic to fill your roster in. But the identity of the team in the organization is the interior offense and offensive defensive line. And they hit a home run on Hurts in the second round and kept the belief and to build around him and not you know the negativity that surrounds Jalen Hurts. I mean, geez, all he does is win. He's a great leader, all thinks about his teammates, never makes excuses.
I mean, shoot, I'd play for that guy in a heartbeat, and some of these other guys can't say the same.
All right, before I say you lose a little Utah football, I mean, there's really not a lot going on right now, but of course you are Utah Football Royalty. And this is the time of year, Eric, where media schloves like us like to get into content of way too early top twenty five rankings and twelve teams CFP projections and you know what's crazy, man like people who do this for a living like I don't. I have no idea
what the Big twelve will look like next year. Tell me who you pick to finish last, and they'll probably win it, like Arizona State. But the way too early stuff, whether they're all leaning on the Utes again as the favorite to get this done. What are you hoping to see year two in the Big twelve to indicate that last year was a bit of an aberration.
I just want to cus be us, and that's discipline team football in all three phases. I don't want to see. I don't want to see not U tough football, and that means undisciplined, that means penalties, it's it's not running the football, it's not stopping and run, tackling like everything that we are in our core. I want to see
Jay regardless of how I mean wins or losses. That's just what I want to see because I felt like we're getting away from that and I can be totally wrong, like I'm not intimate in that sense, Like you know, it's only what I saw, and what I saw last year was not you tough football. So I want to see us get back to who we are playing our
style of football, our brand of football. We got new dynamics on offense with an offensive, new offensive coordinator, coach back, and then bringing in these new guys and new players. Let's see what they got. I'm not I'm not over zealous on anything until I see it, and that's that's just my personality. I hope for the best, prepare for the worst, and I'm not. I don't know what we have until a quarter of the season in and then we'll see what type of team we are. So I
know they're going to work hard. I know coach what's gonna lead them. I know we're gonna have a great defense to see what the offense is and can we beat dynamic on the perimeter? Can we make can we generate some big plays in the passing game not having to be just twelve and twenty two personnel and hard plash and shot plays. Can we just make a guy miss right and go run for sixty yards like that's what we've been missing. Can we get that? We'll see all.
Right, my friend, Well, I appreciate the time. I know you're a busy guy. We'll set you loose and love to get you back on soon.
Okay, you got any time, guys, Thanks for having me on, all right.
The great Eric Weddle one of the best to ever do it at the University of Utah, Super Bowl champ with the with the Rams, and spend a number of years in the NFL with the Chargers, the Ravens and finishing up with the Rams. Always appreciate his time. He's doing some high school coaching now where his boy is rising sophomore A safety and a quarterback. And I know that some of our in state schools have already been on his trail. According to his name is Gage Weddle.
According to Gage's social media, he actually has an offer in hand from Brigham Young. I'm not seeing anything as far as the utes go, but he is only a freshman, so only time will tell