[Music] it's that time of year Pittsburgh sports now Zach Weiss in preparation as the Duane football team prepares to begin its football season with head coach Jerry Schmidt entering the 20th season coach just special time of year of course the weather stayed warm for seemingly months but the preparations have also been underway for months so just what's been like preparing for this group in hopes of special things happening well our guys have done a really good job through the off seon getting prepared for this camp and football season uh we had a good spring season uh did a good job in the weight room um you know we've got a quality medical team uh athletic trainers our doctors you know prepared our guys and some of the guys had some surgeries and they're they're ready to go uh our our weightlifting our strength conditioning team did a great job in the off season and our staff did a really good job through Spring ball getting our guys uh some reps and uh advancing their knowledge of the game and and what we do system wise and then we work through the summer the kids really prepared and conditioned and they're ready for this Camp when you kind of take them away obviously you're very have a lot of intentionality within this program within this group how when the quote unquote doctor's away do you give them the program or give them the internal tools to make sure they succeed and Conquer their day well we have some veteran guys and we understand that uh it's it's them on the field when when the ball's kicked off it's not us so we turn it over to our older guys and they do a really good job of uh acclimating the young guys into the program helping develop guys that have been here maybe a year uh to be prepared to go and play on the field and then uh welcoming in any transfers to be part of our program and so um we turn that over to our are leaders and uh they do a really good job and it's great coaching these guys on this team and it has been for the 19 years I've been here and um it keeps getting better when you look for a new addition whether it be a freshman or whether it be a transfer within this program how do you balance what fits Style versus what fits already there that you're projecting well there's there's a whole lot that goes into the recruiting process you know it's obviously ability and talent that's shown on tape or at camps and uh the academic part of it and and who they are as a person and their family and um there's so many aspects of it that we study and uh if it's a match then it works out and uh they're young men you know 18 19 years old coming into school and um we do our best to do what's in their best interest to help them get better and we try to help them on the field in the classroom and then in the community and and grow and mature as young men we've talked about so many times about taking things one day at a time you mentioned it to Jacob over to my right shoulder the other day just how have you developed that intentionality within your journey on the football field and also your journey in life I think it's sold by our coaching staff uh we all believe in that we've been doing it for years and uh we've seen that the success that we've had in developing young people and I just firmly believe if we help every young person to develop to be the best they can be then quantitatively as a as a group you know um that just helps us overall as a team when it comes to this training camp time of year how is this maybe the most important time of year just developing those behaviors understanding the expectations spoken and unspoken and just getting guys to buy in it's certainly the the most time that we spend together as a group you know we're here on campus for the most part by ourselves staying with everybody in the same dormatory and eating the meals at the same time and going to meetings at the same time and practicing um you know we don't have classes uh guys don't have jobs uh that they're going to and I've always said in football when you get to this you can put some of the outside distractions away and just focus on football cuz we're all here together and that's the team building aspect that comes com comes with Camp the first week of this Camp which you're obviously in in particular right now how important is it to make sure they're hungry and ready but maybe not necessarily get too over excited because it is a marathon it's not a Sprint yeah there's no doubt I think from years and years my experience is um we try to get him to focus like you said on every day and every play um if you do that and you do it well the the time's going to go and we're going to be on the field for that first kickoff and it'll be an exciting time um so we just really go into the work ethic part of it uh we enjoy what we do here at Camp uh we we enjoy each other um and we feel blessed that we're part of this we're we have the opportunity to be a part of it as a coaching staff and then as players because not everybody can be part of college football uh you know it's hard um Camp is hard um but that helps us gain in the future um become better players and better people in better STS with those veterans that we talked about last season that went down how much hungrier has that made them coming back and having this so-called La last chance and how has in turn a lot of those new guys that really stepped up has that experience given them an ability to be teachers as well yeah there's no doubt uh you know we had some guys injured some older guys and they're excited about being healthy practicing uh really excited about getting on the field and um it gave the younger guys a chance to get some experience that maybe they wouldn't know and um you know those guys are growing and becoming leaders also so it's kind of nice we've the older guys back but we have a group that's ready to step in right behind them or take over those leadership roles you know there's not an age requirement to be a leader I talk to the guys all the time you don't have to be the guy that yells the loudest and screams with people you can just walk up and whisper something to somebody's ear hole to get them to play at a higher level do things the right way and to do things the way we do it here and that's motivating in itself because they challenge each other there's pressure amongst each other to be as good as we can be you've been a coach of course you've been a teacher as well how much overlap in today's game do you find that that is sometimes do you feel that maybe that overlap is more than what it used to be yeah I think it's actually more so because we have to find ways to get across the young people as best that we can and there's a lot of different ways to do that um you know I know in the old days um when I played and early on when I coached uh there was a lot of similarities in all the staffs and uh all the players coming in and now uh it's such a diverse background that people come from and uh their ability to learn is different every individual learns differently and we focus on that as a staff and it's really important to find out how guys learned the best and what's going to help them once again be as good as they can be in turn how has that evolved you as a coach I continue to learn about it um as many years as I've been doing it teaching and coaching the great part about this sport is I continue to learn I learned from other coaches as you know you've seen me over at you know the pit and Steelers and you know I watch and I learn I observe how they teach and you find new ideas and then you bring it back and you see what fits you what fits your progam personality what fits your program uh that's all good stuff and that keeps you going that keeps you enthusiastic about it every single day how does player feedback play a role and that not necessarily with with their words maybe with their actions well I enjoy meeting with my older guys and I get a feel from them um you know and they understand that I value their opinions and I'll utilize it because I realize you know like there's some young guys 18 19 year years old that that their buttons are pushed different ways than I ever coached or taught or played in and so I rely on my older guys that tell me about those things and we come up with ideas on how to continually grow the program change it if we have to for what's in the best interest of the individuals but then ultimately what's in the best interest of the football team what's the favorite part of the job right now just being with these guys really enjoy working with young people uh it's great it's great to see them grow uh great to see them learn progress like when you see that light bulb go off on the field and they use their athletic ability to make a play like that's just really good stuff