Everything From Georgia Tech OL Coach Allen Mogridge After Tuesday's Practice

Georgia Tech's new offensive line coach talked to the media for the first time this spring. Here is everything he had to say.

Opening Statement….

“Man, I'll tell you what, I'm a thousand miles an hour. Just wanna get better. Really just wanna attack the grass and get better every day. I'm humble and grateful. I love this place. I do. I love being with Coach Key. I like the standard that we have here. I like the way we play football. I like what's gonna go on in the future. If there's anybody you wanna go fight for, that's a guy I wanna fight for. I don't mince words, everybody in my family knows how I roll. You know what I mean? I told Coach Key, if I'm gonna do things the way I know how to do them, the way we were trained to do them, in the era we were in coming up with the people we worked for, there ain't nobody I wanna fight out of a corner more than him. I think he knows that, and the standards are high. When you love somebody and when you feel like you're working for family, sometimes it ain't even like working. You know what I mean? Sometimes that clock gets punched. When you're working for something and somebody that you really care about, and you know that our kids have spent time together, you know what I mean? Our families have spent so much time together, and I'm absolutely blessed and humbled and grateful and trying to pour as much as I can every single day back into our kids here and back into this place and just kind of keep stacking days, you know what I mean? Spring ball is awesome because we can just focus on being the best version of ourselves sometimes. A lot of times that battle is that battle, and in the room we're in, the O-line room, there's gonna be some new faces. You know what I mean? Like some of those old heads that have kind of played a lot of football here, they've kind of moved on. So you're gonna see some new faces and get to see guys and what they're gonna do with their new opportunity and helping them push past maybe some things, right? Because that's what we all do, right?

I say it all the time, I learned more about my marriage in the inside run, right? When I broke my wrist, and I was a fullback, and they handed me the ball six times, Greg Davis down on the goal line, right? At that place. And I learned more about being a father, right? In some of those shoot drills with Steve Marshall, you know what I mean? I learned more about being a dude and being told things you don't like to hear, but understanding you have to hear them.

Right, meeting somebody that you've never even seen that says, hey, by the way, grab your playbook and head on up to the GM's office because you're cut. You think you're good because you made it out of training camp, right? You're back on the home site. Next cuts the 53 and you're gone. Right. You know what I mean? So life goes on that this place provides an opportunity for the afterlife. Mean, you talk about what this place is. This place is a place for a Keylan Rutledge to come do what he did, but a Joe Fusile. How about that guy, man? Holding it down, engineer. You know what I mean? Like just killing it, December grads, both of them. One going this way, one going that way, both doing life, right? You know, so just there's a lot of opportunity here and um I'm just fired up to be able to do this with people that I know because I did have the opportunity to come back, right? And it happened fast. It was a thousand miles an hour. I think if anybody else had called, you know, like you get that call. You're thinking, okay, yeah, we'll talk about this in January or whatever goes on. He's like, no, no, not really. We're kind of going to talk about it like I need you here in a couple of days. I'm like, bro, okay, well, here we go. Right. So now all of a sudden that thing gets, you you figure out how to drop the clutch and grab a gear and keep on moving. You know what I mean? So things just kind of escalate and go faster.”

On Malachi Carney moving to right tackle…

“We talk about opportunity, and we talk about growth and development and the best thing I can say about offensive line play right. A lot of people don't know this. I mean, I did play o-line, but I played four other positions before o-line. Sometimes we're a little bit like bamboo. Like that's the equation I get. Like sometimes, man, these guys show up, and you just plant them in the dirt. What you'd love to do with every one of them when there is a red shirt, I'm like, feed them raw meat and gunpowder and put them in the weight room with some crazy people, right? Because eventually what's going to happen is that thing's going to sprout. You talk about it like a Jameson Riggs and a Malachi, like when bamboo grows, it grows and it just shoots up, right? You can do the research on it. I won't bore you with that. But like it grows. So like what we were able to see was that like this guy can probably do some things that he's better suited for in here. It takes a guy being able to push and be on the come. So I'm very excited about both of those kids. You know what I mean? Because of their growth and development. I mean, I can say that's the intentionality. Is that a word? It's like if it is, it's an SAT word. Right. It's one of those big ones. And I'm from Sevierville. Anyway, but Jameson Riggs. I'm gonna keep pressing him. I'm gonna keep going at him.

But this dude, you talk about purpose-driven days, right? He has something he wants and he's intentional when he meets. He's intentional when he speaks. He's intentional when he practices, right? Now it's just kind of keeping the level coming. And does that give you what you need right there? So I think we've got some young guys that we're all pretty excited about. Like I said at the beginning of this thing when I stood up here, man, there's going to be some new faces. It's time. You know what I mean? It's time for some guys that when I was here two years ago that we recruited to see these guys, kind of, okay, dude, here it is, man. Now these spots start opening up, and you can move some things around, and it's your time to go. Right? It's kind of like the same thing. Like I have a house full of athletes. Right? I mean, from a very early age, that's kind of what we said to our girls. Hey, you've got to press every day, right? Because the competition is not against him. Like this isn't Jameson versus Malachi. It's not. This is Malachi versus Malachi versus the stress on the other side. This is Jameson versus Jameson versus Moe and Azir and the defensive ends that are here and the D tag, whatever. Right? So it's you versus you and you've got to figure out how to manage those moments. We're not backing off, man. The install is going to be the install and we're going to keep pressing, and we're going to have days.”

“You got to learn how to manage those things, right? The best thing we could do for both those kids is teach them how to constantly be in a growth mindset. How can we have a better Thursday? Right? Mean, hey, Tuesday, there are some good things. Okay, how can we make Thursday better? How can you not be satisfied with it not being better? That's how growth and development happen. It's a mindset. And that's why this is an awesome place to work, because of the culture that's been established here. I mean, that's why you can go to another place and come back and feel. You can feel it, you know what I mean? I've been doing this a long time there, Flynn. You know what I mean? Like I, you kind of look up, and you're like, this is your 26 going into on this side of the grass. Plus all the times I played.”

On Joseph Ionata and Will Reed…

“We're training them, and we got to be in a growth mindset with everything we do, right? There's a brand new system. There's a brand new communication piece, brand new things that they're not used to. So everything's out of the comfort zone. If I'm not mistaken, I think Will was an edge player in his previous stops, and you know what, hats off to him for being a teen guy right and for being a guy that is willing to step outside his comfort zone and grow. Now that I'm not giving him a pass, trust me. No one's harder on those guys than me, right? I attack them all, but I'm not attacking a kid. I'm attacking the action, right? I mean, that's the hardest thing for young people. I mean, you come into a situation, you come into a place, and they don't understand that, bro. We do film everything. You can't hide from that. You can say a lot of things, but when we turn on that film, it's going to tell us the truth. Right? You can say you can, you can present it.

Whatever you want to present. Man, I'm the toughest guy in the room. Are you really, bro? Look at that. Right there. You know what I mean? So, so for Will, just to keep it again, we're trying to stack days. We're trying to just be better. We're trying to make a new mistake. I'm trying not to come in here and have to correct the same thing over and over and over. You know what I mean? A lot of that goes back to like, like, like how I was trained a million years ago. You know what I mean? Back when I was a dinosaur and the place I played and those guys, I mean, it was like every spring. Hey man, I need a tight end. Hey man, I need a D in. Hey man, you know what I mean? We're gonna move you to full back. Then eventually it's like, hey dude, do you want a shot at the next level? Yeah, okay, well, you need to gain about 50 more pounds because that's gonna get you, and plus, there was this dude named Algie Crumpler. I mean, he was pretty good. I think he still lives here in town.

“That answers the question on Joe. Like I'm excited about those guys, right? They continue to stack days and show up every day. You know, sometimes you've got to just do the Navy SEALs motto. Just sometimes it may not look the way you want it to look. You just embrace the suck and keep on moving. You know what I mean? Take the coaching and grow. I mean, that's what we're doing here. Make no mistake about it, man. I fight every day with myself. Right? We're building men, dude. We're the last line unless we send them to the military.

You know what I mean? Like at some point, that dude decides to leave Princeton as a tackle, come here and learn how to be a center, that's gonna make him a better husband and a father and all that stuff. At the end of the day, man, we're trying to build men. You know what I mean? And men have to do dirty things sometimes, man. It ain't pretty. Sometimes your hands get really dirty, and you get really tired, and you get really sore, and you get frustrated, and people can't see you break, right? I'm excited about those kids. I'm just humble and grateful that it's a shared experience because we were together two years ago. When I was able to come back, and I'm humble and grateful that I was able to get back and be able to be here and fight with someone that you believe in, in his process, right? The grind is the grind. Everybody knows, right? You can Google like, there was a coach at the NFL said, hey, know, I see my kid like how many days. The grind's the grind, it's what we do, right? It's a calling. It really is.

“I think Key and I were laughing the other day. We were just talking about, like, now we're both raising kids and thinking about how many kids we've actually raised. I mean, how many lives have we been able to be a part of over our journey together? Make no mistake about it, man. We've got to get better. We've got to get better. We will get better. We're going to keep fighting. We're gonna keep fighting average. We're gonna fight comfort every single day. You know what I mean? We're gonna fight, cause what the human body wants to do is, you know, like you want to go lie on your pillow and grab another five minutes. Right? You want to curl up in the fetal position, man, and get your nookie and maybe have something warm to drink. We're gonna fight complacency. We're gonna fight average. We're gonna just, we're gonna get better. We're gonna kick out of like, hey, Will, you know what, man? You ain't got time, bro. Last time I checked, this is your last year of eligibility. We're gonna get this done, man. I'm right here with you. Lock arms with me. I got your six. Let's go. You know what I mean?”

On what a phone booth guy is….

“When you say put him in a phone booth, that just means limit the space. You know what I mean? Like every dude, and I was a dude that this happened to, every dude that's ever played tackle that moves inside, you're like, oh no, dog, I kind of like this because you got a dude over here, and then a dude over here and if you've got some ability right and you've played in space. Now you've learned to play out of space, so when you can eliminate the space, that's called playing in the phone booth, right. That’s where like like I think as you listen to people talk about Keylan (Rutledge) in the draft and that's one of the comments they make they say play so well on the phone booth that just means when he gets his hands on he's gonna rough you up right and it's gonna be a long day and and anytime you can eliminate that space right because the tackles do play out on an island sometimes, right? And you do play in space, but playing in the phone booth just means, yeah, hey, we're gonna eliminate some of that air. We're gonna take that air out, and we're gonna let you use your traits and your ability and the things God's gifted you with. We're gonna teach you how to play with them in a tighter space, if that makes sense. You know what I mean? He's a big, powerful man. That's a big guy. He's athletic too. I mean, he is. You guys who have seen Georgia Tech play. You see him out there on the right tackle. He's a big man. You know what I mean? We're managing that too. You know what I mean? When you talk about attacking, what needs to be attacked? Like for his ability. Now, the one thing I will say, things happen a lot faster in there. So there's a learning curve with that too, right? And as anybody that's played the position and got to move inside, yeah, some things get easier, but some things get more complex.

“That's all part of what we're doing right now. Right? We're growing, you know what I mean? And and believe it or not, it's a blessing in disguise to have a couple guys that aren't participating because that opens up more reps for some other guys that, you know, have high hopes as well and that need the development and need the reps. You think about those two twins that came. mean, them dudes, man, they're rolling. I mean, there ain't no slowing down for them. They might have thought they'd be here watching, holding their helmet. I can promise you they're not. So everybody's kind of getting work, and we're all pushing our level of play and we're pushing each other, and competition is a healthy thing, right? As long as we can stay on what matters, right? We don't want to get into comparison, we want to get into competition. Like, I want you to be the best version of yourself every single day. Sometimes you have to coach each one of these guys different and that goes back to the relationship, right? And everything about this thing is how good your relationship with your guy. When you can tear down the wall or if there is a wall and you can pull a few bricks back, right? They check the ego at the door; that's when you grow. You know what I mean? And this is a different world for athletes right now. It really is, right? I mean, you guys see it, it's probably a hot topic and all that conversation. We try to be relational, right? We try to get to know these guys, right? I mean, it fired me up when they launched the space shuttle the other day. Jameson Riggs is walking around with his phone. He's like, " Hey, coach, what's going on? Yes show me, dude. We watch the thing go off. Right, we ask the thing to go off. Because you know, that's his deal. You know what mean? It's his deal. Everybody's got their deal. Everybody's got their deal, right?

“That goes back to like you have to know because kids want to grow. Kids want coach. Kids want this environment. Kids want a standard. Believe it or not, I don't care. Like I want a standard. I want to be pushed. Let's not kid ourselves. Part of the reason I came back here was the growth and development that I could get. Like, we've got a great staff here. And we've got a great culture to work in. There's a standard around here. Sometimes we all need that, right? We used to call it catfishing each other. When you're going to be comfortable enough with your growth and development to catfish you. Hey, dog, I need one more from you.

Hey dog, you kind of dog, you know, over there. That set was dog. That was, we can do better. Now, now you're nipping at each other. Now you're catfishing each other and it's competitive. It's not you know, comparison. It's competitive. Hey man, I know you can be a better tackle than that. Hey, I know you can be a better guard than that. Come on, dog. It's the same frustrations anytime you do something new, right?

Like I'm sure like if I were in sales, and then I came over to do this, or if I left this and went over to do, I'm sure it would be frustrating. Sure, I wouldn't know what the hell I was doing at some point. You know what I mean? There's a growth development with that. But can you turn it into a learning experience? And can you have your relationship right, so that we want to grow so that we can stay hungry? Does that make sense? That's kind of what we're all trying to do, right? I'm just trying to be a better version of myself, like in the next 30 minutes than I am right now. I'm trying to find some way to do that. I need help a lot of times. need my peer group, I need my teammates, I need my staff, sometimes I just need somebody to be like, dog, we can be better. I want us to be better. Here's how I would do it, here's how you'll do it, let's find a way. Right, fair? Yeah, and that's kind of what we're trying to know, like this thing ain't rocket science. Everybody's got plays, everybody's got a system, everybody's got, dudes. Can we get the dudes to do the things we need to do to be successful?