First, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since your playing days?
I’m coaching now. Doing private training here in Fort Myers and coaching at D1 Training. I’ve been coaching since 2018 – at Florida Atlantic under Lane Kiffin, then at Tennessee under Coach Pruitt, then for Coach Flores in Miami in 2020-2021. I also coached at Boston College and helped with their recruiting.
Now I’m here in Fort Myers and will also do some high school coaching this year at Lee High Senior High school.
Anyone help influence your coaching style most- how so?
I’m passionate about coaching – it allows me to compete and help young men and women achieve their goals and navigate life. Hopefully they carry those lessons from sports into their family life and community to help lift up others.
I’d say my style was influenced by Urban Meyer – he taught me that everything matters – from warmups to stretching and cooling down. You have to have that mindset.
Coach Tomlin – he was great at communicating and relating to players and has a great football IQ. He could take complicated schemes and communicate them in a way that the Average Joe could understand and execute quickly.
Tee Martin and Darrell Wyatt – they were professionals who showed me how important it was to handle difficult situations well. Flores – he stressed attention to detail and demanded the best from you – to make sure you met your potential.
I was fortunate enough to be around a number of great coaches.
You were a very good track athlete in high school – why did you stick with football and how did track help you most as a football player?
Football is more of a team comradery concept. When you’re on a team you feel like you’re part of something greater than yourself. Track, even though you’re on a team, it still often feels like an individual sport. Your event is your event.
Football was unique because you had different people from different backgrounds that all needed to come together and hold each other accountable, no matter what those differences were.
Football also helped me understand and perfect form running. That allowed me to maximize my speed. Many people don’t realize how much faster proper running mechanics make you. A lot of kids go to college and don’t have the proper run mechanics.
What made you decide to sign with the Steelers in 2015?
They spent the most time with me pre-draft. They brought me in for a visit and Coach Tomlin, Randy Fichtner, Todd Haley – they all talked with me.
What did they talk to you about in the meeting?
It was a lot of getting to know me as a person – not so much pitching me on what they could do for me or what I could do for them. It was more about who I was as a person – my family dynamics, values, and my transition from the University of Florida to Boston College – how I handled that. They do a great job of figuring out the whole person and how you fit in the locker room. Will you help others maximize their potential as well as a teammate?
I did got to talk more about football with Randy Fichtner and Coach Mann. As a college quarterback, I was being looked at as a swing receiver-quarterback in the NFL. They picked my brain to see what I knew and what I didn’t know to see if they could develop me in those areas that I didn’t know.
I figured in the end, why not go to a place that had such great stability and great culture. I felt it was the right fit and opportunity for me.
How did their experience working with converted quarterbacks factor in to that?
They had a great track record with swing guys – that was definitely a factor. I truly wanted to play quarterback but figured if I started off at wide receiver and helped the team that way I could do that. I went with my gut and had a great time there.
How did you make that transition and actually get on the field as a receiver and get a reception your rookie season?
I started off at quarterback but then Coach Tomlin asked me if I would play receiver. Coach Mann is one of the best wide receiver coaches in football – he’s respected around the league. I learned from him – he was patient with me knowing it was a new position for me. It was definitely different when I was a quarterback yelling at receivers, telling them what to do, versus doing it as a receiver yourself! I realized how crazy some of the things I was asking them to do were after that!
Anyone take you under their wing and help you?
AB, Heyward-Bey, Martavis Bryant, Wheaton – they all took me in. I sat next to Heyward-Bey in meetings – he and the guys talked to me about how to start a foundation, open LLCs, and being more involved in the community. And how to take care of my body. I didn’t realize how unique that all was until I left and went to another team and saw how selfish those other cultures were. Some of those other teams’ vets sucked! The vets in Pittsburgh showed young guys the ropes, and when those guys became vets they passed it down. That’s how they sustain success. That stuff matters and as a coach now that’s what I try to instill in the culture of my teams.
What was it like getting on the field and contributing as a rookie learning a new position?
It was cool. Unique. Especially to do that in New England since I was from there. I was itching to get in the game sooner than I did. But when my number was called I was proud that I was prepared and ready. I approached it like I was expecting to play the entire game.
What helped you make that adjustment as a receiver so quickly?
For me, having that quarterback mindset and understanding the quarterback’s perspective helped. I knew what the quarterback would want now as a receiver – how to find the weak spot in the defense.
Coach Mann too – he was one of the best coaches around and did a great job of teaching me techniques in a simple way so I was good enough to contribute and help. He met me where I was at and got me ready. My technique wasn’t great – I looked back and thought it sucked at times! But it was good enough.
Any fun memories stand out most to you?
Time in the locker room always stands out – it was such a great group. We all got along and spent time together.
We all convinced Coach Mann once to eat dinner with us downtown. He was the O.G. – he would usually just go home after practice. But we convinced him to join us for dinner downtown. We got a good meal and just all hung out and laughed together. Times like that are the best.
And traveling together for games and hanging out at the hotels and talking and laughing. That comradery is something everyone yearns for and is the toughest adjustment for guys when they are done. You get close as a group – you allow yourself to be vulnerable with those guys. When it’s over you search for that.
One funny one was my rookie year. I was at St. Vincents walking to the cafeteria when James Harrison told me I needed to stand up and sing a song. The only one I could sing and knew the words to was “Weak,” by SWV. My parents used to sing that to me – it was an R&B song from the 90’s. My voice was terrible but I gave it a good effort and got a round of applause!
I really enjoyed Pittsburgh – the city and team. It’s a blue collar town. My dad was a Lieutenant firefighter and was a blue collar type of guy. I appreciated that same mindset in Pittsburgh. You never had a victim mentality. Even if things go wrong it’s up to you to make the best of a bad situation. Pittsburgh had that mindset and I liked that.
Read more by former Steelers via the book Steelers Takeaways: Player Memories Through the Decades. To order, just click on the book:
