Austin Price: Hello everybody, and welcome in for season two of Vol Club Confidential. I'm your host Austin Price. What an exciting time on Rocky Top Tennessee. Coming off in 11 and two season just one year ago, and an Orange Bowl win over Clemson. And man, they've got a season schedule set up this year where I think Tennessee can win easily double digit games again. Again, there'll be some big games in September, then October, and then a couple of huge ones in November. Let's bring in Spire, c e O, James Clawson, James the Vol Club has had remarkable growth of the off season, a lot of exciting things to talk about heading into this 2023 campaign, what are you most excited James Clawson: About? Well, I'm excited to be back for season two. Great to have you back, Austin. Austin Price: I'm glad they renewed us. James Clawson: Yeah, yeah. So no, but we're right on the heels of 3000 members. Our tailgates are going to be bigger than ever. We've got an awesome Florida watch party on the books, so if you haven't joined, there's not a better time to do it. Austin Price: Let's talk about that Florida Watch party. I mean, for those that can't make it to the swamp, to be able to come up to the party deck, watch the game on the jumbotron at Neland Stadium, it's got to be kind of cool, a unique experience. Again for those that can't make it to Gainesville James Clawson: Under the lights. I mean, I think it's just going to be an incredible environment if you can't be at the swamp. I mean, I don't think there's a better place to be than Neland Stadium, right? Anytime. Right. So it's a really cool experience and we're happy to work with Tennessee to make this happen for our members. Austin Price: We got Jerry Mack on the show tonight. Next week we got Jaylen Wright, but Jaylen's the guy who's been very involved with Second Harvest Food Bank. There's a lot of your players that are out there doing N I L deals here and there. You got Big Omar Thomas did something with Better Mattress. You've got several of them that are capitalizing on name, image, and likeness. How much have you seen that market grow? James Clawson: Yeah, I mean it is in the past year really since we were on the show last. I mean, there's been so many more local, regional, national brands come on board, the big O stuff, exterior Home solutions, lots of different examples and we can't obviously not think about Emerald Youth, east Hills Children's Hospital, second Harvest Food Bank. So we want to do our part to help in the community as well. Austin Price: All right. Let's get to the main attraction for tonight's season two episode one. That being Jerry Mack. Coach Mack? You're from Memphis, which I know for some tennesseeans that feels like an eternity away because Tennessee is such an odd shaped state, but when you were growing up, what Tennessee football mean to you? Man, it Jerry Mack: Meant the world to me personally. When you grow up in Memphis, you're right there on the board of Arkansas, Mississippi, and then I guess you're in Tennessee for the most part. But so it's kind of strange growing up. You go to a lot of other s e c games, probably more than you actually come to East Tennessee more anything else. But for me personally, man, I just remember always watching Peyton Manning. Heck, I was a Heath Schuler fan. I grew up in the mid nineties, so to speak. So watching Heath Schuler, watching Peyton Manning, I remember guys like Marcus Nash and Joey Kent playing the receiver position. So it meant a lot to me just to have an opportunity to come coach here and work here. I can remember when I was in high school at White Haven High School, some of the coaches from Tennessee would always come through the school. I remember Chief, it was good to see him come through the other day and speak to the team because I remember when he came through White Haven, I think Pat Washington was the receiver coach back then, so he would come through as well. And me, those guys were celebrities, to be honest with you in the state of Tennessee. So when they came through the school, everybody Austin Price: Knew there was an angle on the kick against Alabama last year and it shows you and there was just such joy on your face, and it was more so than we won a game where we beat Alabama. It was more pride of what you all had accomplished, pride in the state, pride in Tennessee. Is that fair to say? Jerry Mack: I think that's very fair to say. When we got here, nobody really gave us a chance. And just looking at Tennessee football, just being a big fan more than anything else from afar the last few years, you just knew what the program had been and then you had seen probably the last decade, just so many ups and downs. And then when we got here, like I said, nobody really gave us an opportunity, a chance to say, Hey, look, we could even go win a game like that. You know what? And then as the season progressed and we started to get better and better from week one to week two to week three, you just knew that I thought we was, I think we was going to have something special more than anything else. And to go out there in that game to hide all unraveled and transpired, that joy that you had, I could coach 20 more years and never have that feeling ever again. Austin Price: You brought up his Schuler a minute ago. You've got Navy on the team, so he's coming around. I mean, how surreal is that for you? Because mean, again, when you're a middle schooler or a high schooler and you look up to somebody and then all of a sudden that person comes around and can be a part of your life, even for just brief moments in time, it's got to be kind of unique. Jerry Mack: It is. I see Heath at practices and the games on the sideline, obviously it's kind of crazy because Navy, it's his son, so he's always going to have a presence in the building. But not just him, just even any game day, you see the legends of Tennessee football from the past always coming around, and that's pretty cool to see because those guys you looked up to growing up, you saw play on television every Saturday. Heck, I used to watch Phil Farmer show coming on television just laying up in my bed in Memphis. So just to see all those legendary stars always around the building. I mean, to have Peyton Manning to take a picture, to be so close to Peyton Manning, I mean, it's kind of a surreal experience. Like I said, seeing some of those coaches that coached back in the day in the nineties and early two thousands, even me sitting right here now as the running back coach at University of Tennessee, it's coming like a dream come true, to be honest with Austin Price: You. When you had the chance to come here from Rice, kind of take me through those discussions with Josh Heel. I mean obviously it's a unique experience from the state. When he reached out to you and had interest in bringing you here as the running backs coach, what's going through your mind? What were those discussions like? Jerry Mack: Well, the coaching profession is a very small circle. It seems big, but it's true. It's a small circle when you get into certain atmospheres and you get a certain levels. So the first person, one of the first people to reach out to me was Cody Burns. Cody Burns, the former receiver coach. He said, man, we've interviewed you. We talked to several running back candidates. I got your name. He was kind of the vetting person just to kind of see like, Hey look, is this guy even worth your time? Is he a good person, bad person? What kind of vibe did you get from 'em? So I guess I passed that test. Cody called me, it was actually Super Bowl Sunday. He gave me a call and we talked. He said, man, look, I'm finna watch this game, but Monday morning I'm going to give you a call back and I kind of want the OC to talk to you. So I got on the phone Monday morning with Alex Goldish and everything pretty much went well. He said, look, we're going to have an interview tonight with the staff. This was right around when we were still on covid restrictions, so to speak, and Austin Price: Those great times. Yeah, Jerry Mack: Man. So I got on the phone, I got on a Zoom call with Coach Heel and those guys, and they were teasing me a little bit because at that time I had one of those operator headsets on that you would have during Covid, like when you get on a Zoom call. And I was talking to those guys and I said, Hey, tell Coach Heel. I said Hello too. I see him back there and they were all shocked. I could see Coach heel's reflection in the mirror. Didn't even know. They didn't want anybody to know that he was actually in the room at that time. And so it was kind of funny. They said, Hey, hired, you're observant. You got the job. But we go through the process and we talk a little bit and it is really more of a get to know you. I heard a lot of good things about you. The staff talks well about you. Tell me a little bit about yourself, talked a little bit of football about your experiences and what you've been involved in and offensively scheme wise, but really just the person himself, you know what I mean? And obviously I think they did their research on me, talked to a lot of people within the state in the southeast regions of where I coached at. So get a little feel about what kind of person is he, what kind of recruiter is he, what kind of ball coach is he, things like that. So it was pretty cool to go through that whole process, but I knew when Josh Heel had the opportunity to come to Tennessee, everybody's ears just perked up in the state. And it was something that I said, man, if I could ever get an opportunity to get in contact with him, that'd be crazy. Austin Price: That takes us to present day, but let's take it all the way back. Growing up, when did you first fall in love with the game of football? Is there a moment in time? Was it just in PeeWee's or was it in high school? I mean, when did you know kind of football was going to be such a big part of your life? Jerry Mack: Honestly, my dad would not let me play any kind of organized football until I was about seventh or eighth grade. So eighth grade was really when I started to play football. But the reality is I started organized sports, basketball, baseball. I did a lot of that growing up. And it is funny, these kids don't see it a lot, but really, I got interested in football playing video games. Back in those days, we had a game called Tech mobo. Austin Price: There we go, baby going like this. Jerry Mack: Yeah, exactly. Austin Price: Bo Jackson, Marcus Allen. The Raiders were filthy in Temo Jerry Mack: Bowl, automatic touchdown, automatic every time they stepped on the field. But playing those games, I got a chance to know some of the players in the National Football League, and that kind sparked my interest. And from there, it just kind of took off. It was just something I really wanted to do. I just really fell in love with the game. The comradery, the atmosphere, got a chance to play at that time was junior high football and just the relationships and the coaching, and it was everything that my dad was a college football player, so it was everything he talked about. I could all kind of see coming to Fort and it was pretty cool. And that was kind of my first involvement in organized football more than anything else. So I would say that's when I really fell in love is the opportunity to play the video games, learn more about the sport, and then boom, really hop into junior high organized Austin Price: Football. We have the players in from time to time, and they're playing on, was it Twitch? I think it is playing Madden. I'd love to do that. But they play Tech Noble because I think one, they would struggle with it because it's so old school, they wouldn't understand how to succeed at it. But I think it would be fascinating to kind let them see what we saw when we were kids. Because I mean, that game was mean. It was fantastic. But before Madden was Madden, Temo Bowl, was it? Jerry Mack: Oh yeah. And his super Temo bowl came along. That's right. And that just blew everybody in mind. You could develop a roster, you could be all kinds of different things, Austin Price: All. So you play a White Haven, go and play wide receiver at Arkansas State. When did you know college coaching was going to kind of be part of your path? Jerry Mack: Well, initially I didn't. So it was probably my end of my junior year going into my senior year of college. I was riding around just talking to one of my coaches and he said, Jay Mack, you probably need to, I need to think about coaching. And I was like, coach, I really don't know if I really want a coach. I mean, I don't really understand to the extent of what you really do on a day-to-day basis besides when we go to practice. And he kind of sat down and kind of explained some of that. And I said, well, I was a management information systems major, so I knew I didn't really want to sit in an IT department for 25, 30 years. I knew that really wasn't what I wanted to do. So what I decided to do was take an aspect of look at some of my former mentors. And the reality was when I sat down and thought about it, the people that I knew growing up, they were all high school football coaches. They ended up going to administration and they had another side job on the side. And in my mind, that's what I was going to do. So I said, I'm thinking I'm going to try to become a graduate assistant at a, and then from there, I just kind of figured this deal out. So I sent out a ton of resumes and tried to talk to a ton of people, and one school hit me back, another school by the name of Delta State Division II in Mississippi. And the guy called me on, the head coach called me on the phone, and he kind of fell me out. He said, Jerry, we don't have any graduate assistant positions open right now, but if you stay in contact with me, we might have something available in the summertime. And sure enough that January I continued to talk to him and I said, you know what? I'm going to try to go up to Mississippi. I'm going to try to get some FaceTime with him. I graduated early, I graduated in December as opposed to May. So I hopped in my car, had a Nissan maximum, like a 92 maximum, and drove up to Delta State in Cleveland, Mississippi, the home of mosquitoes, and went up there and actually got FaceTimed with the head coach. And from then on, I knew I had a good opportunity, a good chance to get the job, and sure enough, he called me back a couple of months later. I started in July. But to go backwards a little bit, the reality was I really didn't know this is what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to be involved in sports. I just didn't understand to what magnitude I wanted to be involved in sports. And then when I got to Delta State, started coaching, started seeing really the impact that you could have on young people and how they can look to you as mentors and how they really respected you, and obviously you had to earn their respect. I knew it was something that I wanted to do for the long term. Austin Price: So when you talk about making your own path, going in there, getting in a car, driving down there, getting that face time, it's truly making your own path. I mean, it's being bold enough and I think that probably showed well with the coach that you had enough gumption and wherewithal and want to come down and make that drive with nothing promised, not even having time with him promised and you went and got it. Sometimes, especially this generation, I feel like they wanted handed to him. Sometimes you just got to go take it. Jerry Mack: Yeah, I don't really know any other way to do this deal. I grew up in a two parent household. Mom, dad worked every day. They worked hard, went to work, came home. Dad had a couple of jobs. And so the work ethic piece is something that I've always kind of come natural to me. So understanding how to go get it, guys, use the term, get it from the mud. That's really how I've always kind of done dig it out Austin Price: Of the dirt. Yeah, Jerry Mack: I don't really know any other, I know how to network. I know how to talk to people. I know how to communicate. I'm really big on relationships. I think that stuff goes a long way for whatever the reason I learned a long time in life. People hire people that they feel comfortable with, and if you have a situation where people feel comfortable with you and you're smart and you're intelligent, they can teach you to do anything in the world. Austin Price: My wife all the time is like, why do you go to the dentist in Morristown? That's where I'm from originally. Well, I'm originally from Rogersville, but went to high school in Morristown. I like the person I'm dealing with. When you like someone and you feel comfortable with someone, I think that goes a long way with people. So you're right. I mean, understanding relationships goes a long way in recruiting, being able to build it from the ground up. It's not just snap a and the kid goes, oh yeah, I'll come. You got to kind of build it up. Jerry Mack: And things have changed so much with this new technology, social media kids, it's tougher. They don't really have to have real conversations. Austin Price: They just want Snapchat text, I mean tweet at you direct message. I mean, you're right. I mean the art of the phone call, or even in my case, the art of a handwritten letter. I mean, I'll have to fill out paperwork for my kids or something for school or at the doctor, and I'm writing and I'm like, I never write. It's like you did that when you were a kid, but now you just type everything out on your phone. I mean, you lose things. I think the generations lose things. So you've been a head coach at a small school in North Carolina. You've been an OC at Rice, obviously you're the running backs coach here. How have all of those opportunities prepared you for this Jerry Mack: Job? God goes back to what we talked about. There are so many relationships because I've worked in so many states in the southeast region, whether it's going in and out of high schools, whether it's high school coaches or administrators or even just former players that you coached and now they're in an administration or coaching role. And I think at the end of the day, God prepares you for certain or gives you certain situations when you're ready for. And at the end of the day, through my 18, 19, whatever, however many years now is the coaching, I've had an opportunity to come in contact with so many different people. And I think at the end of the day, being blessed with this opportunity to come to the University of Tennessee, it allowed me to get into certain doors throughout the southeast, really our footprint from a recruiting standpoint, to be honest with you, if I hadn't been here or if I hadn't coached at those places, if I was a guy coming from the West coast or the Midwest, probably wouldn't be able to get into certain circles and certain doors because everybody is six degrees of separation. So you meet a kid or you're talking to a kid, then as you're talking to 'em and develop a relationship, you realize, oh, you got people from Mississippi, you got people from Arkansas. Well, I got people from Mississippi, I got people from Arkansas. And then, oh yeah, this coach, yeah, I coached a kid by the name of X, Y, Z 15 years ago. Oh, yeah, that's our office coordinator now. So you just kind of stumble up on those things. The staff teases me all the time, especially Coach Halsey. He said, I bet you Jerry Mack knows his uncle or his cousin or somebody like that. Because a lot of people that we come across especially, and if they're our footprints in the southeast, I've probably kind of touched somebody that they know Austin Price: A hundred percent. And knowing one or two little bits of someone's life kind of opens a door for you. Whether that's knowing, as you said, a former player that you recruited who's now a high school coach at that kid's school, whether that's knowing the local kind of dive to go get a hamburger. I mean, little things can open doors where, oh, you know about that, and then all of a sudden boom, it means the world to a parent, a grandparent, or the prospect because you got to kind of win 'em all over in a lot of ways. So I mean, that goes a long way. As for this current team, how different does this feel? I mean, I feel like we're talking about that a lot with the staff in Fall camp from a standpoint of what did it look like two years ago? It was so different. But I mean, you look at your room two years ago, Eric Gray had left, Ty Chandler left, and you were left with Jabari Small and a couple other running backs. Now it feels like your room's pretty deep. Jerry Mack: It is. Just over time, coach Hype has done a really good job of allowing us to recruit your room so you can bring the personalities, you can build a room the way you see it within the vision of the program. And not only do we have good players now, we have good people now. And that's what I'm most excited about. It is different going to work now than it was two years ago. Heck, even a year ago, just for the standpoint, you got quality guys that they have a workman's mentality and they come to work to try to get better every day. Like you said, the first year it was very difficult just for the simple fact we was just coming off, you really didn't know these guys. You didn't really know that you still trying to learn the offense, trying to teach those guys, trying to deal with a lot of different personalities and things that occurred before you even got here that you had no relevance or you didn't know what was going on. So a lot of the tension or the relationships that had been built in the past, a lot of times people put that on the new staff and that's not, you had to talk to those guys and let 'em know that we're not going to be about that. We're not going to do this going forward. And the cream rises to the top. Some guys stayed around, some guys decided to move on for whatever the reason. But you can see after two years now, the room is starting to look more like what the University of Tennessee running back room needs to really look Austin Price: Like. Jalen Wright, it feels like a guy that probably was a little bit hesitant when you got here maybe, and then soon thereafter kind of bought in and has just kind of went to work and put his head down and has steadily gotten better. Jerry Mack: We always talk about Jaylen's going to really be the poster boy for a guy that has shown true development within a program. When we first got here, Jalen basically walked in the door with us a couple of weeks Austin Price: Later, signed with a different staff, but then ends up with you guys. Yeah, Jerry Mack: So we were basically all he knew. So he was a little bit apprehensive and just by nature, Jaylen's a little standoffish and he needs to trust you before he really opens up and starts to get the most out of him, just like most kids, to be honest with you. But even more so for Jalen, he's changed. He's did a 180, to be honest with you, this kid, he came in still an introvert. We had a conversation that was funny when he first got to University of Tennessee and he go around the room, asked those guys, what do you want to do with your career? What you want to do when you grow up, so to speak? And he said, I want to be a commentator. I said, A commentator. You mean one of those people that talk on television? He said, yeah. I said, man, you might need to think twice about that role. And just for the simple fact he's just not, he doesn't Austin Price: Talk. Jerry Mack: Yeah, that's just not his Austin Price: Deal. Speaking of, he'll be the guest on next week's fall club Confidential. So I'm going to see if I can pull the old rabbit out of the hat and turn water into wine and get him to talk. Jerry Mack: And he's got so much better. He's gotten so much better just in the building, communicating. He walks around with a smile on his face now, and we talked about the energy that you give off is the energy you're going to get back. And I think he took that and he just ran and ran with him. And now what you see is a guy, he's still going to be a passionate player. He's still a very intense player, but to reality is it kind of carries over into his game. He runs with a chip on his shoulder, he runs somewhat violent, he runs aggressive, and that's what has benefited him. He always had the athletic ability, that never was the issue, but the way his running style with the maturity and the growth on and off the field is really what's helped him develop. Austin Price: And you got Jabari who if he can stay healthy, he's a kind of a jack of all trades. You can use him in just a little bit of everything on the offense, which is a nice thing to have. Jerry Mack: No question. Jabari, he's a pro. He doesn't make a whole lot of mistakes, if any, to be honest with you. You sit back and watch the film. We have a deal where we put some of the best performers of the day on the board every day during training camp, and I could put Jabari name up there every single day. But the challenge to him is do something out of your comfort zone. Do something that's explosive. Do something that's a little bit different so you can do something, get your name up there. And for the last few days, he's really been doing that and he will try to do anything that you tell him to do or ask him to do. He's a true, he's a coach pleaser. He wants to be good. He works at it. And I'm excited about him this year to see exactly what he does this year with his opportunities because he's been consistent as consistent of B for the last two years. Who's Austin Price: Influenced your coaching career the most? Jerry Mack: I think everything starts at home. For me, my mom and my dad, what they instilled in me watching them, you lead by example, and they were the best examples of the best role models that I could ever have growing up. Two people that really pour into me and my sister every single day went to work, gave us everything that we wanted within reason. And I think that's where our generation sometimes struggles a little bit. You want to give your kids what you didn't have, but at the same time, you want them to still have a work ethic and be able to work for things. But there's no doubt, my mom and dad, especially my dad, you know what I'm saying, as far as what he poured into me from an athletic standpoint, being a former college athlete, just understanding what it was going to take to get to this level, not only just from a standpoint of playing, but also coaching, driving me around to different camps when I was younger in high school. So that guy means the world to me. And from a coaching standpoint, just guys that have influenced me a ton, to be honest with you, Mike Blumer, my former head coach at Rice University, he was a guy who, I was his ga, that was the guy GA for at Delta State years and years ago. And for him to pour into me just not only from off the field, but also too in the classroom and just taking me through some things, giving me an opportunity to come to Rice, teaching me the West Coast offense and things like that. Those guys have been, that guy has been really influential in everything I've done in my career. Austin Price: How much do you try to keep up with the guys you've coached at different spots? Especially, I mean, some of them, their careers end in college, but some of them they don't. And so how much do you try to keep up with that? Jerry Mack: I do. I try to be intentional about everything I do. I think as a coach, obviously you're going to recruit, you're going to write letters and you're going to text kids, but I also like to try to make sure I don't get where I came from. And those guys that have helped me along the way, like you said, they may not even be coaching anymore. So from a standpoint of them helping me within my career, they can't do anything for me from that standpoint. They may be got out the profession altogether, but I always like to give back. I like to let those guys know I'm thinking about 'em. If I can ever send those guys a shirt or a mug or anything like that, because some of 'em are universe, Tennessee fans, I always want to be able to do that because I think you pull one, you pull somebody up as you climb the ladder. Austin Price: When you're out recruiting and you have Memphis as one of your areas, how much do you like to get back in there and maybe see a coach or two that maybe you saw in high school or a coach that you've known for years and years and years? You roll into your alma mater. See Rodney Salisbury, he's always got that same track suit on, I feel like. And I just love listening to him talk, man. I mean, he's the unofficial mayor of Memphis. Jerry Mack: Yeah, it is funny. Salisbury and me and him, my last year was Salisbury's first year of high school coaching. So I've known Salisbury pretty much over half of my life now. And he's always been the same guy. And like you said, a lot of those guys that either played with me or they were underclassmen or guys that even coached in Memphis when I was there, they're at different high schools now. So there's not going to be too many high schools, if any, where I can't go into in the city of Memphis and know somebody, and it may just be a regular teacher, but I'm going to know somebody at every school just for the simple fact. White Haven is kind of one of those schools in the state or in the city that we have a lot of alumni and a lot of alumni teach at the high school. That's why through the years, they've been able to remain consistent and still be a really good program. Austin Price: When you get back to Memphis, I know you've been able to take some time, go see your parents, that type of thing, how much do you enjoy that, be able to get back down and see, just see some family? Jerry Mack: Well, my folks would tell you not as much as I need to because sometimes during this recruiting process, you kind of everyone out. Austin Price: You don't get a whole lot of time in your profession. Jerry Mack: Yeah, I might slide in and I might give 'em a call and never actually see 'em, but there has been a couple occasions I've been able to slide by the house and actually go spend some time with them and break bread and things like that. And I think that means the world to 'em, to be honest with you, because not only them, my sister, she's still there as well. So just for everybody to still be for that small moment in time, it feels like you're 14, 15 years old when we all lived in the same house together. Austin Price: Alright, we're going to do some rapid fire here. You ready? Oh Jerry Mack: God. Okay. What you got? Austin Price: Favorite sports movie of all time? Jerry Mack: Favorite sport? Oh, the program. Austin Price: Favorite non-football, sports movie. Jerry Mack: Ooh, field of Dreams. Austin Price: What is your favorite part of living in Knoxville? Non-football related? Jerry Mack: I love going to the lake. I live out there in Fairgate. I love going to the Austin Price: Lake. Favorite lake activity? Just skiing or something else? Jerry Mack: No, just literally feeding the ducks, hanging out, relaxing, and watching the water. Austin Price: One stadium in college that you've not coached in that you'd love to coach? A game in Jerry Mack: Michigan. University of Michigan. Austin Price: How come? Jerry Mack: Just growing up, my last name Mack Block him. Kind of always thought watching on television. Thought that was cool in University of Michigan. Austin Price: Do you like the song Return of the Mack? Jerry Mack: I love it. Austin Price: Is that your ringtone? Jerry Mack: That is my walk up song. If I was a baseball player. Austin Price: Favorite N F L football player growing up? Oh, Jerry Rice, Jerry Mag, Jerry Rice. Favorite N F L football team growing up. Jerry Mack: Probably the 49 ERs. Obvious reasons. Austin Price: You're a Roger Craig guy. Jerry Mack: I did. I did. He like Roger Craig? Austin Price: Yeah. A lot of those players on those 40 Outers team are pushing him for the Hall of fame. Does he deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? Jerry Mack: I don't know where he ranks statistically among all those guys, but when you talk about a guy that one of the first guys could catch the ball out the backfield, like a really true three down back. He probably was one of the first ones that I can remember. I know I'm probably probably missing somebody, but I remember him doing a lot out the backfield. Austin Price: If Jerry Mack is planning the family vacation and nobody else in the Mack family gets a say, what is the family doing? Jerry Mack: Oh, that's a good one. If I get a chance to plan it going nowhere. We're going to California and we're going to go to Hollywood and we're going the Stars, Hollywood stars, and we're going to go see celebrity houses and we're going to go do things like that. Austin Price: Big into that, huh? Jerry Mack: Your Austin Price: TV Buff. Movie Buff. I Jerry Mack: Like television. I like just streaming the new deal where you can stream everything. If they would've had that when I was in college, I don't know if I ever would've went to class. Austin Price: What do you like to watch? Jerry Mack: Everything like Netflix. I'm big into gangster movies, roro coms, romantic comedies. I like everything. Austin Price: So when Hippo was in last year, we learned here on Oke Confidential. He's big into the J F K assassination. In fact, afterwards I texted him and I said, Hey, I found that so interesting. Who do you think did it? And he texted me back, he write me right away. Boom. He had his theory. Boom. Are you beginning to real life stuff? So I could watch J F K documentaries. I could watch OJ documentaries on Loop and be content. Yeah, Jerry Mack: I love documentaries. I love learning. I think in a form of life, I probably was a history buff because I like to learn about people's journeys. I like to learn how people got to where they got and then what happened in between. So I like to hear about the Austin Price: Stories. You think that's, you've kind of dug it out of the dirt yourself, so to speak? Jerry Mack: I definitely think so. I've always been like that. I like to know the background and where people came from and what happened. My wife hates that. What are you doing? Why are you Googling that person? I just want to know. See, Austin Price: I sit around and watch TV shows or movies and I'm like, okay, how old is this person? Boom. Yeah, boom. Wikipedia that movie. My wife's like, let's watch this movie 80 for Brady. I'm like, okay. So it's got Jane Fond in it and Lily Tomlin. I'm like, let's see how old these people are. Jane Fonda in there. She's like 87 or whatever, you know what I mean? I'm always fascinated to see the ages of people. So I mean, I totally get that. If anybody could play Jerry Mack in a movie, who would it be? Jerry Mack: You know what? I would say Chadwick Boesman, but he's passed away, man, I really don't know. That's a good one. A young Denzel. A young Denzel or I would say a Will Smith, like Will Smith would probably be better. Austin Price: I'll go with the jazz from the Press Prince of Bel Air. That's more your speed. Were you a fresh Prince guy growing up? I did. Jerry Mack: I watched a new season of Bel Air too. They got a new episode Austin Price: Too. Saved by the Bell growing up. Jerry Mack: Yes, Zach, man. Zach was my guy. Austin Price: Kelly was my girl. I mean, seriously, biggest crush of all time on Kelly capacity. Kelly Ka, Tiffany Amon, she was phenomenal. If she, Jerry m now could tell younger Jerry one thing that you've learned to maybe speed up the process of things, what would it be? Or do you just keep everything the same? A Jerry Mack: Younger Jerry m would've, the older Jerry Mack would've told a younger Jerry Mack, you do not have to move around as much as you've moved around in your career. Sometimes it's best to just stay still and enjoy where you're at and the people that you with. Enjoy the people and value those relationships that you build at those universities, those people in the job that you work Austin Price: At. Is that kind of where you're at right now with things? I feel like BJ's kind of that way. I mean, he's bounced around a lot, but I feel like he's, he may leave after the season, I don't know, but he feels like he's very happy here. Jerry Mack: Yeah, I really think so. When you find, somebody told me a long time ago, don't mess up happy, and right now we got a good thing going. Austin Price: Don't broke. If it's not broke, don't fix it. Jerry Mack: No doubt. Good people in the building, great people in the building, from everybody that you deal with and interact with, coaching staff, recruiting department, scouting department. It feels really good to go to work to every day. And also too, the players that you deal with, you're recruiting the right people in the building talent wise and people wise, Austin Price: Best advice you've been given. Jerry Mack: Enjoy the process. Just enjoy the process. Inky talked to us the other day. He said something about that as well. But really to be honest with you, enjoying the process. Be where your feet are. All those things kind of go hand in hand to be honest with you. I think when you're younger, you're chasing a lot of things. You're chasing the prestige, you're chasing money, you're chasing a lot. As you get older, you just value the time more. You understand? I'm getting older. You see a lot of people, whether that's celebrities or whether they're people that you know, going and passing on and moving on and they're not necessarily sick. It could be anything. And I think right now you're just at a point in your life where you want to enjoy the journey, enjoy the people every day, get a chance to go in that building and see those guys and work with those guys. It just means a lot. And you don't take any of that stuff for granted because everybody can't do that. And some people will never get an opportunity to even experience a piece of that. Austin Price: Well, Jerry Mack, we appreciate the time. A great look at your journey throughout the process, and we know you guys are hopeful for having another big year in this 2023 campaign. Appreciate you. Thank you. If you're a Vault Club member, make sure you watch out for the newsletter. That's a wrap on episode one of season two. We'll have an exciting season ahead, including next week. This guy's protege, Jalen Wright, who hopes for a big season as well. If Tennessee's going to do well on the field, number zero, that's new. We'll need to have a big, big year. We'll see you next week everybody.