 Speaking of tight end, we have Zac Coonsi is joining us, Old Dominion tight end. We're talking tight ends and draft fits. Listen, we are 15 days away from the NFL draft. Look at this, six, seven. Our next guest, one of the most athletic tight ends in this year's NFL draft. He's coming off a record setting performance at the NFL Combine, the pride of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania from Old Dominion, Zac Coons. Good morning. Good morning, how you doing? I'm good, Zac, where are you right now? I'm in Norfolk, Virginia right now, back at Old Dominion, just doing some football training, leading up to the draft. Talk to me about what goes into that. You're one of the most athletic guys in this draft. It's true. I mean, you're literally as tall as the ceiling fan behind you in Virginia and you're about to pop on the scene in the NFL. What goes into these days of training and getting yourself ready mentally, physically, with the draft starting 15 days from now? Yeah, I mean, just stay focused on the task at hand. I can't really look too far ahead. Everything that we've done is already done with now, so it's really just focusing on my training now, put myself in the best position, come rookie minicamp. Now, in researching you a little bit, Zac, we want to get some background as a team and you refer to yourself as a dog dad, which is great and we love it. Your dog has an Instagram account. Is Nala around? How is Nala doing? No, she's good. I saw her, first time I saw her for a little while during our local pro day here, but you know, she's been staying with my brother back in Pennsylvania. He's been taking good care of her, but yeah, she's doing well. We have some pictures. Now, she has her own Instagram, but the captions, we were literally crying. Can you read this to me? Duh. Oh, my daddy and I love taco Tuesday. Yeah, go for it. At the retreat, here's Nick displaying his scrumptious tacos too, but I think that I am most scrumptious. Then you have another one. So I went to Duh Salon. It did not go well. Swipe to see my reaction. This is Nala. I don't know who's writing this for you, but we were cracking up and then we have the last one, laying in bed. I miss my daddy so much. He said that we will reunite soon. And then you wrote, I miss you too, Nala. Zach, what is going on here? No, Nala's got a mind of her own, so she handles her own social, so I kind of love her, do what she does. Great, I have a great agent. So if you need someone to just get her into a commercial or do something, like get into a special event, if Nala needs Coachella tickets this weekend, you come talk to Aunt Kay and I can figure it out. We just wanted to have a little fun with you there. You stand at six foot seven, right? You, growing up, you played football. Were there any other sports that you considered? Lots of tight ends like the poops? No, yeah, I definitely kind of considered basketball. There was kind of a time in high school, or going to high school really, there was two spots that I kind of ended up going, could have ended up going. And I think if I went a different route, maybe you probably would have pursued basketball a little bit more, but you know, I always played football, basketball, rain track, and I always kind of stayed well-rounded. There was something, you know, I really liked to do. So yeah, I just tried to stay all around, you know, and anyone is B2 one-dimensional too early. I think it helped me a lot, kind of being well-rounded and kind of having that through high school, helping me obviously with football and college and so on. I love that. And then you started your college career at Penn State. You were there for three years before making the switch to Old Dominion. Explain to NFL fans why you decided to make that move, and maybe what did you learn about yourself having to transition to a new program? Yeah, you know, I was fortunate to earn my degree from Penn State. You know, it's something that I set my mind to. You know, I was going to complete that. And then, you know, I learned a lot. I was with, you know, a lot of great teammates, you know, both in my room, offensively, you know, and on the other side of the ball, you know, Iron Shepard and Charvin's iron with that. Had some great coaches, great role models that, you know, helped me learn a whole lot. And then, you know, making my transition to Old Dominion had great relationships with people there. Explain, you know, the opportunity for me there and, you know, Penned out well. Now during your time at Penn State where you started your career, you were teammates with Pat Friarbooth, who's now a stealer, tight end, does his thing for Pittsburgh, and he's a star. What did you learn from him when you're talking about Iron Sharpening Iron, spending time with him, even just on the field? Yeah, I mean, just, you know, just by, oh man. We got you, buddy. Coons, we got you figured out. That's a lot there. But no, yeah, we obviously, you know, we had a great relationship there. Yeah. Just going through, you know, workouts, training, you know, constantly pushing each other and, you know, learning ways that he prepares that works for him, the different ways that he finds success. And, you know, with him and, you know, other teammates as well, each of us kind of have a different process of what it is, you know, from Sunday up until Friday leading up to their Saturday games. So, you know, kind of finding different, you know, pieces that work for you and then implementing that to your process. What do you ask him? Do you ask him? If I were you, I'd say, how different is the NFL? Or like, what's your best pointer you can give me on the draft process? Like, what's the question that you've asked him? Yeah, I would say, you know, obviously, there's a big difference, you know, between college and professional. And then I know I kind of relate it to similarly, like you go from the high school jump to college, you know, there's obviously a difference in the pace of game and like different ways that you do those things. So, you know, there's been little pieces here and there, you know, some things, you know, whether it be how you go about practice or like go about workouts or like doing extra meetings, things like that. So kind of, kind of a logistics thing, if you will, of kind of just the process of how things work. Obviously in NFL season, a whole lot longer. So there's, you know, taking care of your body, doing treatment, things like that. So, you know, all those things are kind of important. Listen here, kiddo, whatever you're doing, whatever fire move's helping, whatever you're, you know, hanging out in Virginia, keeping your body right, it's working because this scouting combine, we gotta get into it. You run a 455 that was the fastest 40 by a player, six foot seven or taller since 2003. I don't even know if you were born in 2003. You became my friend, the tallest player in combine history with a 40 inch vertical, we're seeing your 40 here. What went so well this day? Yeah, I know, I felt really well, you know, training at the XS facility, and you know, they do a great job there with their athletes, you know, they have, and you know, you see it in their track record of, you know, all the people that kind of had come through there. So, you know, it's a matter of, you know, tapping into that potential of what you're able to do. And, you know, a lot of, you know, hard training, you know, long days leading up to that point. And then, you know, that week of the combine, really getting your body primed and feeling ready. We call it, you know, a taper, taper off kind of what you've been doing so that, you know, when you go out there, you know, you're running your best times, you're jumping higher than you ever did, you know, during training. So, you know, the taper worked well for me, you know, I trusted the process, and you know, it ended up going well. You know, I can't imagine, I've covered, you know, this league for a long time, that that didn't increase traffic, that that didn't increase the tension that you were getting from NFL teams since then. What has that been like? Yeah, I know, it definitely was an uptick, you know, after the combine, just getting a chance to, you know, talk to, you know, a bunch of different teams, a bunch of different position coaches, like tight-ass coaches from multiple different teams. So, you know, that's been a great process, obviously, being able to communicate with them and, you know, learn different ways that they kind of go about coaching, kind of getting the feel for them as a coach, you know, and as an organization and things that, you know, they kind of do. So, you know, when this time comes after the draft, you know, whoever I, you know, end up getting drafted by, we can kind of hit the ground running and, you know, get going. What's your draft plan? Where are you going to be? I'll be back home. Yeah, I'll be back home in Camp Hill, spending it with the family, got a bunch of siblings, some nieces and nephews, everybody, obviously the dogs. So, you know, they're all back up there. So, yeah, I'll be back up there here a little bit and then, you know, be, sometimes with time with the family. Nala will be the star of the show, I'm sure. I'm surprised. No NFL team brought up Nala to you in any of your interviews? No, believe it or not. No, they asked if you have a dog or something and, you know, I'd mention it, but nothing more than that. No, they didn't try to get you to read the captions like I did. That's why these NFL teams need me. I did the real research in this one. You're a very tall, tall tight end. You're going to be one of the tallest players in the NFL. Is there a guy that you like that you model your game after just a favorite guy that's played the position on the highest level? Yeah, for sure. You know, guys like, you got a guy like Mike Asik, Jared Waller, that are, you know, obviously, you know, big athletic guys that are able to, you know, go up there and, you know, make those plays in 50-50 balls. You know, I'm very familiar with Mike's game from Washington, Penn State, and then, you know, they're on after. So, you know, definitely elements of their game that, you know, I kind of see and obviously try to, you know, emulate in the mind. But, you know, you see the kind of transformation of the tight end position as it's kind of been, as of late. And, you know, I think it's an extremely exciting time to be at tight end. You know, obviously, we have, you know, we have a great tight end class. You know, I've got to meet a lot of those guys out of the combine. You know, all great guys. You know, I'm excited to see, you know, obviously myself, but, you know, kind of what, you know, we all kind of do and change the landscape in the next couple of years. It's so true. And I got to tell you, it's one of my favorite position groups. It might be my favorite position group in the NFL because the tight ends are so pun intended, they're tight. Like they have their tight end camps. They all talk to each other. Kittle gets them all together. And it really is a bunch of guys who are so for each other, even though they want to beat each other on the field. It's a very cool sort of party to be invited to. And you'll be invited there on the biggest stage in the NFL. We're so excited to see you. I'd love for you to tell people out there that maybe didn't get to watch you at Penn State or Old Dominion. Like, what's your super strength? Like if I had a superpower, it would be finding the pets of draft prospects and embarrassing them. What is your superpower out there? If I could choose a superpower, I would definitely control time. I think that would be the coolest, you know, ability to be able to do that, be able to manipulate time, go back in time or, you know, in the future. I think that'd probably be, probably the one I choose. Where would you go? That's a good question. I mean, honestly, I don't know. I'd probably go ahead in time, find out who's gonna win, you know, who's gonna win games and, you know, win the lottery or something like that. So simple. That's amazing. I was gonna say, I was gonna say, yeah. Yeah, don't go back to the past because like it wasn't, yeah, nothing that great happened. You're living in a great time and right now, the present is the best thing for you, my friend. We're excited about that. We wanna play a little game with you. There's a show on HBO. It's called The Last of You that's really popular. We're gonna ask you some rapid-fire questions. We're gonna put 60 seconds on the clock and I'm gonna ask you the last time you did stuff. When is the last time you dunked a basketball? Ooh, dunked a basketball three days ago. Really? When's the first time you dunked a basketball? In a game, seventh grade. Seventh grade, you were dunking? Yeah. Oh my God, that's insane. What is the last video game you played? Call of Duty. Call of Duty, okay, when did you do that? This morning already? Nah, that's it. I was playing yesterday when I was back at the house. When's the last time you had a haircut? Let me see that hair. No, yeah, it's getting too long, honestly. It was kind of stubborn on me when I came down to Old Dominion. I went and got a haircut and it was like 50 bucks and I was like, I'm not doing that again. So just from there on it, I didn't get a haircut. I got a trim when I went back home by a family friend and then I haven't done anything since then. Zach, are you gonna be the kind of guy that even when you make money in the NFL, you're not gonna wanna pay for a $50 haircut? Nah, I think I will. I'll definitely trim it up for my mom's sake. Clean it up a little bit, but it's all the same underneath the helmet, having the flow kind of hanging out. That was the goal, so yeah. You're a college kid, you get hungry. When is the last time you cooked a meal? Oh, I cook fairly often in my house. No, I cook breakfast every single morning. Lunch is kind of the same deal. Sometimes I'll eat out for lunch if I'm in between workouts and things like that, but no, I love going to the store and getting nice ribeye and a T-bone steak. That I cooked? Wow. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, the T-bone steak, and I went and got some Kraft mac and cheese, a little veggies on the side, kind of all around, you know, mixing in there, so. Like a true college kid, always with a mac and cheese. That's all I ate for four years. Last, let's see, what do I wanna ask you? I wanna ask you, the last time you cried while watching a movie? I might even have to say Good Will Hunting. Oh, such a good one. No, I like that movie. An oldie, but a goodie. It's well done. I'm gonna do a little trivia for the last one. The last time you scored a touchdown, the last team you scored a touchdown against was who? Arkansas State. Arkansas State, back in September 24th, and he's coming to an NFL team. Near you, we appreciate you, Zach Coons. Thank you for making time for us, letting NFL fans get to know you as we cheer you on. Have fun and tell Nala we say hi. I got you, Will, dude. Thanks for having me on. Appreciate you. Good luck at the draft. Enjoy. We got a six-seven tight end from Old Dominion, ready to wreck shop in the NFL, and he dunked when he was in seventh grade. What is that?