 Welcome to get in real with Grady Jarrett with me and my co-host Kelsey Conway, talk about things football, everything in between, whatever you can think of, we're going to try to cover on this show. Today, we are visiting with someone very, very special to me, two-time national championship coach, Davos Swinney of the Clemson Tigers, on the Clemson South Carolina, my alma mater. We got a good conversation lined up and I'm excited to hear what he got to say. So here's our conversation with the Davos Swinney. All right, coach. So when I talked to you earlier this year about Grady, you shared a story that I want every listener to know about. And it was the recruiting story of Grady Jarrett. He and his mom came up for a summer camp, Grady, you can let us in on how many summer camps you did that year, but Grady Jarrett wasn't necessarily on your radar. Is that right, coach? And then after a couple of days, he completely changed your mind. So can you tell us a little bit about how you found Grady Jarrett at that summer camp and basically how your relationship with him started? Yeah. Well, I mean, we knew of him down at Rockledge and all that. It's not like he was some bad player. I mean, how much he knew he called a Rockledge, Rockdale, man. Come on, coach. I mean Rockdale. I'm thinking of Rockledge, Florida, Rockdale. So we knew of him, you know, he led the state in sacks and, you know, but he wasn't really on our radar because he was undersized and, you know, we were looking for a bigger guy. Grady had another guy committed already named Deshaun Williams, who is already, he's still in the pros as well. Deshaun was with Denver this past year and he was already committed. And so we were looking for just, you know, a bigger, a bigger body. And, you know, he comes up to camp and Dan Brooks was our detackle coach. And Dan was, you know, he kind of whispered in my ear. And if I remember correctly, were you there just for a day? Yeah, I came for just that time. I came just for a day. He came just for a day and he did the morning practice and the afternoon practice, like went to lunch, then came back afternoon practice. And after that morning practice, Dan Brooks came over to me and Dan was like, you know, great improvement. Oh, coach. Oh, look at him. He's on the side, you know, he was, he was a little undersized and basically he was saying, look, there's this kid over there and look, he's undersized and, you know, but you ought to at least look at him. I mean, this guy's, you know, so I come over there and I'm like, well, let me go check him out. He's like, I know we probably don't. He goes, I know we probably don't have a spot for him. And our, the coordinator at the time, you know, we were, we definitely, we were looking for just a different body type and, and, and I, but I remember coming over there and I think he had just a white t-shirt on, you know, and he just had just an old t-shirt and I start watching him. So we're doing when we got to the OLDO and, and he was, he was undersized, but I'm just telling you, I sat there and even to this day, I hadn't seen anybody at our camp like that. And I watched him the whole session and I mean, absolutely dominate and destroy. I mean, I felt sorry for them kids that was out there. And, and, and not only would he win his rep, he wouldn't go wait in line, you know, because sometimes guys are bashful in those situations. And that's one of the things I always look at, you know, you kind of see like, you know, sometimes in guys, they'll start, they'll start counting the line. Like, yeah, man, you go in and they, they want to go against the right guy, you know, Grady didn't care. Yeah. Grady would get back, he'd just go cut right back in line because he was maximizing his time and he, and he, he knew we hadn't limited time. And I mean, he just went, he just kept going and kept going. And I'm just watching this kid and I, and he had a look in his eye that, uh, you know, you don't see all often, you know, he had a, the look in his eye was a look of purpose, a man on a mission. And so I watched this whole thing. And when it's over, I went over to Dan Brooks and I said, good Lord. I was like, tell me a little bit more about this guy. Mom and mom and right over there, mom and I'm watching his mom and his mom. I literally watched her a couple of times during the reps and his mom was like, you know, she's just like, it's like going through the drill with it. You know, and I mean, it should be, and she's like, you know, and I mean, it was like, she had as much intensity as he did. Yeah, she told me, she told me before he went up there because, you know, cause Rump was also recruiting me a little bit too. And, uh, she told him before we, he said, that's our last time coming up to Clemson and like, and like, I remember taking that ride there. And I just was like, I just, I just focused the whole time because it's like, you know, I, you know, I feel like I've done, you know, everything I could, you know, we'll come to games and a couple of camps years before. But, um, I was just like, man, I don't care. I'm just going to let do my best and let the rest take, let the rest take care of herself. And, um, that's what I did. But yeah, she, she said, look, that's the last time we're coming up here to Clemson, you go out here and do what you got to do. And, uh, we let, let the rest take, let the rest take care of herself. Yeah. So, so Dan comes up to me after I'm like, Oh my gosh. And I said, you know what? I said, Dan, and I don't know. I just had, it was just on my spirit of just sometimes you just know when you know, you know, and I mean, we didn't have a spot for him. I knew it was going to probably upset the coaches, you know, and, uh, but I told Dan, I said, Hey, I was like, man, we taking this kid. I said, I don't know if we're going to get him. I said, I'm going to offer him. And he didn't have a million offers or anything like that. You know, we didn't go, we didn't, they weren't lined up to get him. And I was like, but I said, I told Dan, I said, Hey, you tell him, I want to see him and his mom at my office. And, uh, so, so they got him and his mom coming over to the office. And in the meantime, we huddling up in there in the staff room, you know, because, because I'm telling them, I'm like, Hey, we're going to take this kid, you know, and as they're like, they think I'm jumping the gun, you know, it's like, you know, I, I'm like, no, guys, I've been to many camps and I've seen a lot of great players and I listen and some of these guys were recruiting and I know he's, you know, and, you know, we, one of the coaches in particular decor that he was, you know, he got, he was respectful, but he was mad. And he was like, coach, we, I'm begging you, please don't do this. We do not need another undersized player in this program. We have got to go and, you know, here's what we need. You know, blah, blah, blah. And I said, well, I said, here's what we're going to do. I listened for a little while and then I said, all right, here's what we're going to do. We're taking this guy and I said, he's on me. He's a, nobody's fault of mine. I'm not going to hold anybody accountable for this kid. If he ain't good enough, there's nobody's fault of mine. I'm not going to hold anybody accountable for it, you know, but we're taking this guy. And I mean, so there was a little pouting and you'll miss that. And then I walked right in, I'm like, Hey, great. And good to see you, this mom, you know, and so they had no idea, uh, the discussion that just went on. Yeah, he comes into office and I was able to offer him a scholarship and that was a super cool moment for him and his mom. You know, but he, he, he made it happen and he earned it. His mentality, his mindset, his, his grind, his vision, uh, his belief in himself, no matter what. And, and again, I start, I start what happens. I came in, I watched the tape real quick. I came back before I was like, man, I want to see this guy. I watched him. He dominated. I mean, he's a state of Georgia and sacks as a nose guard. He's a, he, he's a state wrestling champion. I mean, this guy, he just had a drive to him that's unique for a young person. So I didn't know how I was going to turn out, but I knew I wanted him on my team and I wanted that. What he had, I wanted on our team and not only did he come in, he came in with a great group, but Grady separated himself. And if you go back to that 2014 defense, we led the world. I mean, we were number one in everything you can think of. And I mean, you're talking about Grady, DJ reader, Carlos Watkins, Deshaun, Josh Watson. I mean, we had guys for days, uh, Pagano might have even been in that group. I can't remember Grady separated himself and, and he was, he was an undersized guy, but he set the tone for everybody on that defense. He set the tone for that D line. And, and to be honest with you, he set the tone. He came in here, he finished in 14. So he was here 11, 12, 13, 14. We won the league for the first time in 20 years and he became a starter that year as a, as a, as a rookie, as a freshman, and we led the league. We, we won the league first time in 20 years, 110 games for the first time in 20 years. And I don't think it's a coincidence that, that all that stuff that he brought, he brought in our program. And, and I've told people this many times and I mean it. If I could start over, my first team was in 09 all the way to this team of last of right now, and they said, okay, you can start your program over again and you get to draft from your players that you've had, Grady Jarrett being my top three picks, you know, to, to start the program all over again. And that's who he was and about his business and just handled everything. Grinder in the weight room. And I told, I told Dan Quinn and the GM, the same thing as when they were drafting Vic and, and got Grady in the fifth round, I said, you know what? I said, Grady's, y'all gonna love, y'all gonna love Vic. Vic's gonna, he's dynamic. He's explosive. He can go get that quarterback. He's got some unique talent. I said, but Grady's gonna change your community. Grady's gonna make y'all better as men. He's gonna, he's gonna be something you can build something around. And so it's been fun to watch him, you know, just be who he is, do the same thing that he's done. He did in high school, he did it in college, and now he's been done it as a pro. And, and his best is still out there. So it's good that people are starting to get a chance to know who Grady Jared is. I had a little fun the other day with Dexter Lawrence and Grady. Dexter is like three times the size of Grady. And Dexter was standing here and I said, and I looked at Dexter, I said, Dexter, when you grow up one day, you might have a chance to be like Grady. It was funny, man. Good, good. But yeah, I've made some wrong decisions as along the way, but that was a, that was a right one right there. Yeah, it's so good. And I don't want to add some to that. I don't know if you remember, you brought us into the office at the camp and so we in there and you, you offers a scholarship and you like ours will offer you a scholarship. And my mom, she's sitting there. She's just like, like saying, like, all right, now go ahead and tell him you coming. Don't you know what I'm saying? And I was like, and I, in my head, you know, I didn't want to be like, you know, what people say, like, too thirsty now. You know what I'm saying? I was like, I was like, all right, we're going to think about it. And we got back in the, I was like, I'm going to think about it. Blah, blah, blah, we finished the meeting. Man, we got back in that car boy and my mom was looking at me like, boy, you better call that man right now telling you coming. So I ended up calling like a day or two later, like committing this stuff. But that was, that's so funny. She, she tell that story and be like, that's why you should always be your mama, even to this day. Well, that's, that's what I was going to ask you coach in that meeting when you asked to see him and his mom. Who was more impressive? Oh, his mom, no question. There's no doubt about that. His mom is, she is, she is unbelievable. I mean, she's, I mean, I just wish I'd vote for her for president, to be honest with you, because she, she whips some things in shape quick. She is so smart. It's just such a, she has such a great heart and such a great communicator, but she's tough. I mean, she's no nonsense. There ain't no bull crap with her now. Yeah, especially when it comes to to Grady and her kids. I mean, she's, she's, you know, she's a lawyer. She's, she's, she's got a lot of, you know, experience in her life, but she's, she's somebody I can lean on because she's going to take you straight up and she's going and she's, she's not one of these codlers. She's not one of these mamas that, you know, everything's always great. No. I mean, I used to feel sorry for greater something, greater sometimes. She, she literally would come. So Wednesday nights, we do family night and on week, I mean, every Wednesday, his whole career, she would drive from Atlanta and she would watch practice every week and she did every week. And so, and I'd see her over there and I mean, and I mean, this is a D lineman's mama. So she knows what inside drill is. She knows what one on one pass rush is. She knows those things. She understands team, good on good, competitive stuff. And I mean, there'd be some days I'd walk over and I'd say, hey, Lisa, how you doing? And we're talking. And, and, and I'd be like, how about my man Gray? They had a good day. No, Coach. No, he, no, he's on the ground too much today. I didn't like that. He's on the ground too much today. I'm going to let him know, you know, or, you know, so she's, she's, she's that mama. You know, there was no, you don't have to worry about no, no coddling with her. She's about her business, but that, that drive, you know, that she instilled in him. And, you know, I think a lot of his passion comes from her. She's, she, she, she wanted, wanted it for him as much as, as he wanted it. But I think she saw the work that he put in every day. And, and she didn't want him to be discounted because he was short. He was this and that, you know, and you could cut Grady open and see his heart. He's six foot five. He's three 30. And that's, that's what's beautiful about the game of football. You know, football players come in all shapes and sizes. You know, I got, I've got a guy named Hunter Renfrow that showed up here, five, 10, 155 pounds. And he benched 135 one time. And now he's a starter for the Raiders, you know, and, and it's a, but it's, it's about become it's the best version of you and believe it in yourself and, and, and having a drive, you know, that's, that, that separates you from other people. And that's what, that's what Grady has. Coach, on that note. Sorry, Kelsey. You used to tell a quote to us and it always stuck with me. And I want you to kind of elaborate on it because for the listeners, you know, who are athletes or just, you know, whether, you know, working, working every day, whatever they want to do, whatever they want to do in life, you used to tell us, I want to do what I can, while I can. So when I cannot, I will not wish I would have when I could have. And to me, that always resonated like have no regrets. But I want you to go deeper into that. So because that's just something so powerful to me. And it'd be days where I'd be like down, not feel like doing something and, or whatever it may be. But that just always kind of get me over the hump or whatever it may be. Bad day or training camp or, you know, early morning workout, whatever it is. Just go in on that for me a little bit, Coach. Yeah, I'll give you an example. You want to look at. You know, you see that? Yep. What is that? So time, the time's right. That's a little hourglass right there. Yeah. All right. And listen. We don't want to wait when the sand is gone, right? No, sir. What's that? And I don't know. I don't know who the who the person is. I can't remember who it was, what president or general, whatever they said. The time, the time to fix the leak in the roof is when the sun is shining, right? And it's too late once it starts pouring. And, you know, we don't want we don't want to get serious when the sand is out of the glass. Yeah. You know, you get one time to go to college. You get one time to be a professional football player. We get one life from the bigger picture of things. You know what? It's a no dress rehearsal, right? Yep. You get one time to be in your 20s. One time. And so I will do what I can while I can so that when I can out, I will not wish it. I would have when I could have, you know, how many times have you heard me say, listen, I it's great and I hear you. But you know, I care more about the 30 year old version of Grady Jarrett and I do this 19 year old version. Yes, right. And that 30 year old version of you is counting on me, right, to in this moment. And he's also counting on you. You know, I'm in the middle of exit meetings right now. I'm going through the whole team. And, you know, you know how it is. You talking to these young guys and and man, everybody, everybody wants everything right now. And and everybody's, you know, looking ahead and I'm like, listen, we got it. We got to do. Here's what we got to do right now. You know, let's don't wait till it's over. I can't tell you how many guys I've coached over the years that all of a sudden, man, their senior year and they're ready to be great now. Or it's seniors over now. It's like, all right, they, what do they do? They go train. They get elite with their nutrition. They get to train. Man, they go on. They go, they and they go spend their money to do that when they've had this here all along. So they want to go and I mean, I'm going to really train now. I'm going to really this. I'm like, well, what do you mean? You know, don't wait till then. It's too late then. Do what you can now. Don't have any regrets, you know, become, you know, buying to do in everything you can while you can. It's too late. And the same thing in our life, man, don't wait till you on your death bed, death bed to appreciate your family. Yeah, all right. Don't wait till you on your death bed to say, I'm sorry or to show some, some kindness. You know, don't wait until, you know, you, you, you have, you know, the means that you think you want to have to serve someone. All right. You know, don't wait. Do what you can while you can, all right, because you don't get that time back. And and that's how you have no regrets. And that's just kind of how I try to live my life. That's what I've tried to teach, as you know, every single day. Hey, listen, you get one chance to be a freshman. Yes, sir. You can't come back and be a freshman again. All right. So here's what you need to do, because when you get to be a senior, don't have any regrets about how you handled yourself in that power hour, you know, everything matters and you should be building upon year after year, moment after moment, doing what you can, you know, while you can, because there will come a time when you cannot. All right. And it's the same thing for you. I tell you the same thing now. This older version of you now. How old are you now? Twenty eight this month. Twenty eight. OK, so so, you know, the 30 year old version that you still counting on you to do the right things. Right now is when you need to be having a good financial plan. Right now is when you need to be, you know, maximizing the opportunity that you have as a professional athlete, the platform that you have, the podcast, speaking truth to people, serving people, you know, this is a platform that's a blessing. Don't wait till it's over to say, man, we should have done this this month. Take advantage of the opportunity you can right now while you can, you know, because right now the sun is shining. This is what makes it leak in the roof, right? Yeah, play pro football forever. Now is when you want to build those relationships and networking and all those things and just having some fun doing it. Don't wait till it's over to enjoy it. Enjoy it now. Enjoy camp now. Enjoy the training now. You know, enjoy the discipline that you have to apply to your nutrition now. You know, enjoy it. It's all part of it. And that's just a mentality that I think you got to have because it goes quick. Yeah. Coach, do you think you could give Grady Jared and I a recording of that to wake up to every day? Because you got me all fired up inside. But you can tell you can tell that all the players that come out of your program truly embody that. And I wanted to switch to more looking back at all that you have accomplished at Clemson. And you talked about how if you could, you know, redo your program and start over how Grady would be in your top three. There have been 49 players since 2012 that have been drafted in the NFL out of Clemson. And I know you're obviously looking forward always, but how much did having players like Grady reach the level that they have in the NFL? And, you know, a couple of the other Clemson stars in the NFL, how much has that helped you from a recruiting standpoint of building what you have now and how much of a role do people like Grady coming back or being on the field of the national championship games play a role in what you're building at Clemson? And do you ever just look around and you're like, yeah, I'm doing all right. We got NFLU over here. Yeah, well, you know, one of my favorite things to do every year is when we have pro day, I love giving a presentation to all the owners or GMs and the coaches that come. I love doing that. I put a presentation together because I want them to know they're coming from a unique place. You know, this is not a, this is an uncommon place. It's not the norm here. And I want to, and I have a moment to really kind of, you know, I can say that, but how do I quantify that? And so we talk about the things that quantify that. So you mentioned one little step. So since 2009, that was my first year. We've actually had, I think it's 108, 108 players either drafted or signed as a free agent. Okay, so since I've been the head coach 12 years, I'm second in draft picks and I'm second in first round picks. All right, so that's number one, but we've had 108 guys that have either been drafted or signed as a free agent and 80% of them have made the roster, 80%. Okay, and that's, now what does that mean? Well, first of all, 1.7% of college players play in the NFL, but 80% of the guys who've gotten a shot from our program over 12 years have made it. All right, and I'm talking about, we've had some phenomenal free agents like Deshaun Williams, they were talking about. Adam Humphries makes $9 million a year. He was a tryout, Geron Brown played eight, nine years. I mean, we've had Tyler Shatley is a starter. He's going on year eight for the Jacksonville Jaguars and the offensive line. I mean, we've had a bunch of free agents. So it's not just the drafted guys. And then we've had some guys, fifth rounders, like Grady that a lot of people passed up on. And we've had the first rounders. So we've been a developmental program. So in 12 years, I've not gone through the transfer market. I've not signed junior college players. We've signed high school kids and we've developed them. And so I've never had the number one recruiting class in 12 years, ever. Alabama in the past 12 years has had the number one recruiting class 11 out of 12 years. We've never had the number of my average recruiting ranking since I've been the head coach over 12 years. We're probably around nine or 10. So we've been good, but yet we've beaten Alabama in two out of three national championships. Okay, so it's not just about. It's not just about. How to let them know. How to let them know. And well, I mean, we won two years ago. We won 44 to 16. And guess what? They had Jaylen Hertz, Tua, Mack Jones, Devonte. Well, they had them all, coach. They had them all. Josh Jacobs, Dave. So it's not just about players. You got to have players, but it's more than that. And so we've won doing it in an uncommon way. And so the second winningest team in the country the last 10 years has been Clemson. Alabama's been first. They've been unbelievable. So, but us in Alabama been the two winningest programs on the field. But off the field, nine out of the last 10 years we've been top 10 academically. Clemson, Duke and Northwestern. So there's one program that's doing it at that level on and off the field the last decade. And that's Clemson. So we're unique. We're uncommon. And then, oh, by the way, second in draft picks, second in first rounder, since I've been a head coach in the country. So yes, it's important because they're young people and they all have dreams, right? They all want to go play in the NFL. That's great. That's great. And so you want to have a track record that you can say, hey, look, we've produced a lot of great players. But you know what? I love more than anything, a track record of producing great men, right? And I think that we've done, there's no perfect people and you deal with many young people you're always going to have some that don't turn out the way you want. But we've produced a lot of great men and that's what our program's all about. We want to win a bunch of games, but we want to have fun doing it and we want to equip men to go be great husbands, great fathers, great citizens for life through this game. And that's what we've done. We've kept the main thing the main thing for 12 years. I'm starting my 13th year as the head coach, my 19th year, and so consistency. That's what we want. We want to win the national championship every year, it'd be great. We just want to be consistent. We want to be one of those teams that's always got a shot and when we started this program in 09, we had not won 10 games in 20 years. We had not won a league championship. Now we've won, we're 10 plus win seasons in a row, which is the third best in the history of college football. All right, we had third winning this decade in the history of college football and Grady was a big reason for that, but you win with people. All right, you win with people. Too many people put too much focus on all the measurables. What I've learned in my career is how to evaluate the immeasurables. And at the end of the day, if you can get that right, you got a chance to be special. Awesome, awesome. Well, coaching all that time in my time, I don't know if you can remember back, is there any one particular play or game that I had like during my time at Clinton that you just kind of could remember or if you want to cut something on for the guys to let them see a little bit of G.J. go to work, what you're cutting on, Coach? Oh, I've put some Grady Jarrett clips on for the fellas along the way, man. You know, I remember that first ACC championship game, you know, you were awesome in that game. I remember the Russell Athletic Bowl, you know, we weren't supposed to win, remember that? We were supposed to get blown out, we won 40 to six. I remember that performance by you, but you know what I remember more than anything, my favorite Grady Jarrett moment ever is right over here in my office. And that is, you know, he made a big play, we got a huge stop and he's coming off the field and man, I just jumped up and he almost flipped me over. Yeah, that might have been in South Carolina. I don't know, seeing you, we got to go back in June. 2014, you know, we had lost to South Carolina, we had a bad run. Yeah. And we had all those great seasons, but we just, we had not beaten those guys. Yeah. 2014, man, we got it done. And I remember just, remember, I came in there and I told y'all before and I was like, hey man, it's the freaky, y'all want to change it? Then go do something about it. And I mean, y'all's been touting that game, we dominated the game, but I remember that moment and man, you were coming off the field and it was just like, you know, that was a big deal to win that state championship. And I just jumped up, man, Grady had me like, Kelsey, I'm gonna get you that picture too. Yeah, I need to see this picture. Yeah, man, it's awesome. Grab that picture right there, it's right there. It's a great one. And, you know, he gave me a hand wedgie too. He had me all jacked up. So there it is right there, look at that. Oh, that is amazing. That's awesome, that's awesome. You will know one moment, that was that moment right there because, you know, that's two grinders that, you know, he believed in me, I believed in him. And, you know, we did something together. It was pretty awesome. And, you know, again, Grady didn't get to win a national championship, but he's been a captain, because we don't win a national championship if it wasn't for the Grady Jarrett's of this program. Man, seeing y'all win them netties, man, he's been one of the most powerful things, you know, being a former tagger, man. So I just, I'm just a part of it. He ain't going away. He ain't going away. Yes, sir. I love it. We keep going, keep going. We keep starting over every year. Keep starting over every year. You know, resetting the tone, learning, growing, getting better, we don't ever arrive, man. Gotta keep starting, gotta prove it every year, right? Like you, your job is to prove that you deserve to be the starting de-tackle for the Falcons. You shouldn't, you ain't entitled to that. You gotta go prove that. And if you ever lose that mindset, you get passed by. Yep. It don't matter what you did. Well, we talk, we talk about what? Windshield mentality, right? Yep. Who cares what happened? Nobody cares. Scratch that. Right? Nobody cares. We beat Alabama 44, 16, two years ago. Guess what? Nobody cares. Yep. It's all about what's next. They people forget that real quick. All right? Y'all was in the Super Bowl. Guess what? How'd that work out the next year? Nobody cares. Yep. All right? You gotta start over. You gotta recommit, reinvest, refocus, every single year, every single day. All the stacks you had, they don't carry over. Guess what? Them bad plays you had don't carry over either. Yep. You know? You get a chance to go learn and grow every single time. And that's just a mentality. You know, to me, that's what drives a Tom Brady. Yeah. You know? Like just falling in love with the journey, you know? And just what it takes. You know, that's what you gotta love. Absolutely. And then the games are great. And those are moments. But it's what it took to get there. That's what we're built for. We're built for the climb. That's what we're built for. Yes, sir. And you gotta love that. I love it. I'm like ready to go run through a wall right now, coach. But we just wanted to say. Look what else I got in my office. This is the coach. Oh, we just got it. This is a Clemson Falcons combined helmet. Tigerpaw Falcons. Look at that. Look at that. 5097. Let's go him in my office right here. Oh, yeah. How cool is this? Yeah, that's sweet. That's sweet. We just brought that up to him this past weekend. Oh, yeah. Is that not awesome? Grady, AJ, yeah. We got some good Clemson Tigers here. Well, coach, we appreciate you. AJ's pretty good, isn't he? Don't like AJ? He doing, they ain't good for it. He gonna be real good for it. Let me say it. I told Grady, I said, you know, I told Demetroff, he actually called me like a couple of days before, like I knew they were gonna take him if he was here. And I told Grady, I said, hey, you gonna like this guy now? I said, he's like you, he's about his business. He's like, he's about his crap. He wants to win. He don't like to lose. He's about his business. Yeah. Yes, sir. Yeah, we know he's got a good person to follow after and Grady. Well, coach, thank you so much for joining us on the Getting Real with Grady Jarrett podcast. We definitely got to learn a little bit more about Grady with what this podcast is all about. So best of luck to you as you guys continue to be on that climb. We'll be cheering for you and the rest of the Tigers. Hey, well, y'all, listen, y'all have me back on sometime. Yes, sir, we'll do. Absolutely. Thanks so much, coach. Thank you, love you, man. Thanks for helping us. Love you, man. I'll see y'all soon. Yes, sir. Well, like I asked Dabo, I kind of wish that I had my phone recorder out so I could have recorded about half of what he said to set it as like my alarm clock every morning to wake me up because, holy cow, how do you not want to like run through a brick wall when that guy talks? I mean, obviously I've heard many interviews with Dabo. I've gotten a chance to interview him, but listening to him talk to you in the way that he did as, you know, actually a coach in the words of wisdom, I totally get it. And I mean, if I am kids and they play football, I'd want them to go play for Dabo Sweeney. Yeah, absolutely. So I think the thing that stood out to me most in that conversation with Dabo that I want to ask you about is he said that when you came up for that camp, that you were not only, you know, just undersized, but you know, you were on his radar, but you weren't really, but what really caught his eye was when he was watching the D-Line drills that not only would you completely dominate your rep, you finished your rep and then you got right back in line to do it again. And, you know, I watch you at practice every day and I see the way you attack those position drills. And I just wondered, were you always that way in terms of just like a relentless motor and just like, I am gonna outwork you? Or was it like, this is my one shot to impress Dabo so I better go all out here? Or is that just like, that's who you are? That's really who I am. And to be honest, I didn't even realize that I was doing that until he brought it to my attention. I just was so locked in on the zone and I didn't know who was watching me. He came after the fact, you know, we had already started one-on-one drills and stuff like that. Obviously the coaches are there, but you know, I'm really at a spot where I was just kind of controlled by control. And, you know, I was just in the zone. Like guys are lined up, they just ain't stand a chance. They really didn't stand a chance. I knew who was the ones that was committed to Clemson already. I knew who like was some, you know, top ranked guy. I'm talking about, I wanted them all. Like, I knew at the end of the day that I was gonna put my best foot forward. And like, even if I got stopped, kind of stopped me a little bit, tried to, I was gonna finish that thing, push it all the way to the end. Cause I, you know, my mind was made up. This is all my, like gonna be my last time coming up here. Like, I feel like, you know, at a time, you know, Clemson, they were flirting with you. You know, you got a coach here, like you hear coach, I want you. So it was kind of like, they, they, they, they keep you close, but, you know, not really committing to you. And it was just like, you know what, I'm gonna just do what I gotta do. Let the rest take care of it still. And so yeah, you know, but in, when I'm in that moment, in that mode, like, I just, I just was just locked in, you know, it wasn't even a thing. To be honest, it wasn't even a thing. Like, let me see if he looking to go to, no, it was just me focusing on who was in front of me at that moment and beating him and beating him. And, you know, it's just nobody's to the chance, nobody's to the chance. Well, you know, for anyone that's listening, that's a current athlete, you know, trying to make it in the league or, you know, at the college level, obviously my, my experience is different. Right? I didn't play football, but I did play lacrosse in college. And I remember I used to hate the teammates that would, when we would do like a walkthrough and coaches because of they can only be with you for a certain amount of hours, right? We would do a throw around just for extra work. And I used to hate the girls on my team that would just slack off because our head coach wasn't there. Like their level of play when the coach was there was so much better. It just used to irk me to my core. So to listen to you just kind of say like, you didn't even know if someone was watching. Like, I think people don't realize when you're an athlete and you're trying to impress your coaches, like they see you all the time. Even when you think that they're not watching. And they gonna know the difference. Like the work you put in with nobody watching, it's gonna show us up when it's time to go on game day. You know, you can't, especially the professional level as you continue to, you know, rise up and then we are telling you, just don't get you there no more. It's gonna take you putting in that work with nobody looking. And at the end of the day, you're not gonna be able to, do you try to fool anybody or you wanna do? Like, but you gotta put that work in, especially when nobody looking. And all, you know, you could ask anybody about you, right? We've heard from Ray Lewis, your mentor to Dabo Sweeney to, you know, your former coach, Dan Quinn and you know, coordinators, all they say is, you know, your work ethic. But I wanted to ask you, you seem like the kind of guy who, you know, you talked about how if a fan sees you, come up, say, hey, we see what you do in the community. We follow you on Instagram, you're dancing, you're cooking, you know, you're a very outgoing type of guy. But when you are on the football field, you don't do a lot of talking and you know, you mean business. So is there a switch that goes on in your head when you take the field for practice or a game or just kind of let us in on a little bit of what Grady Jarrett's mindset is like when he takes the football field? Yeah, like it really is a switching. And I tell, you know, I tell people close to me all the time. It's kind of like, it's almost like a, like scary a little bit because you go, you know, I am a very personable person, a family person. I know how to interact with people very well. I like to do, you know, regular things, you know, chill, hang out, have a good time. Like you say, you see me cooking, traveling, whatever it may be. And I always try to have a good time, you know, and I like to have fun, you know, but we know when it comes to, you know, me putting in work and especially doing what I got to do to take care of my family and playing football, something that I love and wanting to compete and be the best, be the best at what I do, period. It takes me going to that place, you know, going to that place of extreme focus, like competitive, like you, like my, my sisters and brother, they teach me all the time. So you're like, if I got to move something around the house, it just feels so heavy or like bump my toe on the wall. It's just, I put me on the ground. But it's like, man, how you do all this on the field, but you can't even do, but man, man, I get on that field. I feel like, like, even like, you know, whether it's playing through injuries, getting bumped here and there, I'm like, I just, it's like a, it's like a mode where you just don't, not even don't feel nothing, but it's just like, it's just, it's like super strange. Like everything that you train for is built for this moment. So I have a good way of channeling when it's time to go and saving that for, for when it's time to go. And for them, you know, for them four quarters who have a longer take for the, to finish the, to finish the game, you know, I mean, I'm locked in. I'm locked in. And to be honest, to be sometimes, I don't even know how I do certain things or go through certain, but it all comes through my preparation, whether it's in the weight room, film room, you know, just getting the body back healthy doing rehab or for doing a little surgery at the season or something. Like just that all, it all leads to, to, to that, you know, and so I've been, I think I have a good balance of knowing like when to turn it off. So I can be present, you know, with, with my family and friends as close to me and be able to interact with people on a personal level. And, you know, just an everyday, everyday life, you know, and I, and I'm, I'm, I'm thankful that I know how to separate the two. But when it's go time, it's go time, you know, and it ain't no love, you know? I love that. I love, I love the whole attitude that, you know, you have been, you know, listening to Coach Sweeney talk about why that's important and why that can separate players was really enlightening to hear and I thought it was, I thought it was just an incredible interview that we had with Coach Sweeney. But before I let you go, I gotta ask you something since we're on the topic of it. Okay. We're getting real here. That's the name of the podcast. Does, does, do you feel like you're still underrated a little bit in the NFL? No, without a doubt, without a doubt goes what I'm saying. But at the end of the day, it's always the, the, the truth, like it always come through, you know, in the light, like a in due time, in due time, I'm gonna receive what I'm supposed to receive, you know, and I'm gonna just keep grinding. But the thing about it is I never needed anybody, you know, validation or something like that. You know, you know, people will respect me. I know people around me respect me, but as far as being whatever underrated over, whatever it is, I notice, I know where I am. I'll say that. That's all that matters. And I'm only gonna continue to get better and increase in every, every way, you know, as a player and get better on the field, off the field, you know, whatever it may be. And I know what I am, my team, whether it's representatives, family, whatever it is, they know who we are. And the thing about me, I never settle for anything in my life and I won't. So let time, you know, things go up, you know, in due time, they go how they go. And so I'm excited for what the future holds. I'll say that. I kind of feel like I should just disable this mic because that is the definition of a mic drop. All right, move. All right, Grady. Well, this was another great episode of the Getting Real with Grady Jarrett podcast. We had on Clemson head coach, Dabo Sweeney, got to learn a little bit more about how he recruited Grady and what makes Grady the great person and player he is. So appreciate y'all tuning in.