19 HOW TO EARN PLAYING TIME: Coach Rodo's Special Teams Rule

Coach Rodo travels to California to watch his nephew, USC Redshirt Freshman Jadyn Walker (#31, Portage Northern), play against Michigan State. Despite getting meaningful time on special teams, Jaydn was disappointed after being promised a lot more playing time in defensive packages all week.

Rodo uses this experience to deliver a critical message to all student-athletes facing disappointment: Sometimes, coaches intentionally play mental games to "break you down to build you up" and test how you handle being let down.

This episode gives athletes the strategic mindset needed to overcome bench time and earn a starting spot. Rodo advises the young Trojan on how to make himself indispensable, including his blunt advice on special teams: "Hit any f*cking body" until coaches can't ignore you. Finally, Rodo discusses the critical difference between being disappointed and being discouraged, and why the easy decision to enter the transfer portal may be a cop-out.

(00:47) - Introduction and traveling to USC to watch nephew, Jadyn Walker (#31).
(02:29) - Jadyn's disappointment: being hyped up all week for playing time that never came in the game.
(03:40) - Coach Rodo's advice: Coaches play mental games to break you down, build you up, and test your disappointment.
(05:32) - The new mentality: Hit every f*cking body on special teams to make yourself indispensable ("Make them look at you and be like, ooh, he just lit that motherf*@ker up").
(07:22) - Rodo's warning to juniors/seniors: When they give you a shot, "you better f*cking make it. Don't f*cking miss."
(08:50) - Reframing the mindset: Special teams means you are starting and on the field early in your college career.
(10:48) - Final lesson: Be disappointed in athletics, but **never be discouraged**.
(11:39) - Thoughts on the easy decision to transfer in college sports being a "cop out."


#USCFootball #PlayingTime #Mindset #CollegeFootball #WinningRegardless #Coaching #StudentAthlete

Transcript

0:47

Good afternoon and welcome to another edition of Coach Rodo's Podcast, Winning Regardless. Today, I wanna talk more about playing time and situational situations. So this weekend, the wife and I got to go to California to watch our nephew who plays at USC. And he's a red shirt freshman. Last year he had shoulder surgery and USC is a great school for medical. uh And so they cleaned out his shoulder and redshirted him. Tough kid, great kid, really, really nice, great kind heart. His football coach was there this weekend from high school and his wife was saying how great of a kid he was, how... When they first came over, he always used to speak to her because a lot of other, parents ever spoke to them because they were new. So you know how it is when it's a new person, you shy away, but he was always there to speak to her, she said. So we got a chance to go out and watch him play. it's Division I football. And it's big time Division I football. It's a... Reggie Bush, Matt Liner, Pete Carroll, Marcus Allen, Ronnie Lott. uh This is where he playing, he's a Trojan. And of course they're playing Michigan State to Spartans. Bah, I'm a U of fan, so boo. And I'm a USC fan, so yay. Fight on. So we get out there and watch. He's playing a lot as far as... because they're scoring on Michigan State a lot. So he's on all of the kickoffs and you know, Michigan State was doing a little bit of scoring and he's on all the kickoff return and he was in there on a couple of defensive packages. you know, again, this is on staying strong and having a good mentality to not let expectations not being met get you down. um So again, as I was saying, he was on the field a lot to me as a freshman being on the field, you know, that much. But after the game, I asked him how he was feeling, you know, and he was like, be honest with you, man, I wanted to be on the field a lot more. I said, well, nephew, you're a freshman and man, you're on every kickoff and every kickoff return, punt team and you play, you know, you played one series on a defensive package. He said, yeah, but, oh you know, in practice, All week we was running, you know, we were running packages and I'm in all the packages and the defensive coaches is like, yeah, Jay, you're going to play a lot. You're going to play a lot. You know, his name is Jaydn, Jaydn Walker, Portage Northern, number 31 for USC Trojans. If you get a chance to watch him, just remember that freshman number 31, Jaydn Walker. Anyway, you know, he's like, you know, they were hyping me up, telling me I'm going to play. I'm going to get a lot of playing time. And, you know, my packages is going to be out there because that's what we practice. But it didn't happen in the game, And I can see that it hurt him. And like I said, this kid is, he's such a great kid. You never know what hurts him because he, one, he doesn't tell you. Two, he always just has the greatest f*cking disposition. I mean, just a great, great kid. I could, from being around him for so long, I could tell that it hurt him just by the fact that we were having the conversation. So. um I had to talk to him and tell him, know, nephew, sometimes it's a mental thing. You're a freshman. You're going to be there a while. Sometimes coaches do things to not so much as build you up as they do to break you down to build you up. Sometimes coaches test you. Maybe all week. And then to get to today is a test to see I gave him all of this hope. I told him all of these things and I didn't do it. Let me watch the film and see how he did when he was doing what he was usually in the game for. And also let me see how he handles Disappointment. I had to explain that to my nephew. I said, you know, you're on a D1 level. Coaches play games. You know, they mess with you mentally. They break you down to build you back up. At least that's what they're supposed to do. And so I had to ask him, so, you know, like, how did that make you feel? And he said, I'm OK. I'm good. I just, you know, little disappointed and, you know, he wasn't hurt per se. Maybe feelings were a little bit, but he wasn't like mentally hurt as far as like, man, f*ck this. I'm, man, this sh*t pissed me off and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He, spirits were great, spirits were high. And I had this conversation with him. told him, you sometimes... When they do those things, you have to figure out and do other things. Like I told him, you know, when you on the go down on kickoff return, one thing that they know about you is you ain't scared to hit nobody. Hit any f*cking body. Hit anybody in your way. Make it so when they look on the film, they say, man, that motherf*@ker Jaydn is just hitting people. He ain't even supposed to hit that dude and he hit him. Because, you know, my nephews start processes to get tackles. But again, that's a... Freshman's mentality think that in order to get on the field that I have to get tackles or I have to get numbers Yes, you do have to get numbers but bodies count as numbers as well That's what I had to tell him. That's what I had to get through to him to understand that You're not gonna always get what you want, but make sure you give them what they want from you running down the field and just blasting people. That's what they want. That's what they want you to do. That's how you get on the field. Stick around the court, be in his hip pocket. And he say, I was in his hip pocket because he told me to stick next to him. And it's day and a third. And I said, well, nephew again. That's probably a mental game. So when you come into practice on Sunday, they do a little light little practice. I think they hit maybe twice a week. But he said, you know. I said, the next time that you practice, you you go on ahead and you just light motherf*@kers up. And then your thought process is, I'm gonna be next to you again. Or this next game too. Because eventually you're get frustrated with whoever the f*ck you put in my place. And I'm gonna be standing there and you're gonna be looking for somebody else, but I'm in your face and you're gonna snatch me and throw me out there. And I'm never coming off of the field. That's what I told him, that's the mentality. And so that's the mentality that I want athletes to take, period, when you're thinking about your position on a team. And it doesn't mean like linebacker or whatever. mean, when I say your position on a team, I mean where you fit in, in the scheme of things, on the team. Sometimes you can change the scheme yourself. Sometimes your actions can change the scheme. Sometimes by what you do. makes it so that the coach has nothing to do but to look at you. All of a sudden this becomes okay from looking at you to, let me get this motherf*@ker a shot. But here's the thing, it's like I told him. When they do take that chance and they do give you that shot, you better f*cking make it. Don't f*cking miss. It's like they say, when you come for the king, you better not f*cking miss. Because when you're young, him being a freshman, he'll have plenty of time to recover. But my juniors and seniors who may be listening to this, your time to recover is short. So you have to make that sh*t count and you have to be pretty much perfect. Again, if it doesn't work out the way that you were told, it could be just a simple test. You know, he, my nephew, after we had this conversation, he started to understand, you know, because again, he's a freshman and he doesn't, he's never had games played with him. I mean, guy's never, never sat the bench. He started, I mean, hell, technically if. You on the kickoffs and the kickoff returns, punts and punts returns, you starting. You just not starting at the position that, you know, you're recruited for, but hell, if you on the field, you're starting. But they don't see it that way. He doesn't see it that way because that's not what he was recruited to play. So it becomes me having to work with him on his mindset to get him to think. in another term of, damn, I'm on the field this early in my college career. I need to take it for what it's worth and then not spend it but put it in the bank and grow on it. You know, I told him a way to be seen again is when you are kickoff or kickoff return, you just smash people. The one thing that you want them to do is, and I'm telling you, he laid into somebody. You know, you want them to be in film session and not even be looking at the guy that's running the ball and the tackles that's made at them. You want them to look at you and be like, ooh, he just lit that motherf*@ker up and he wasn't even supposed to. Because football is a collision sport. Football is a violence sport. And the one thing that coaches like is violence in football. Get out there and be violent. He's a big kid, so, you know, I'm not worried about that aspect of him. When I saw him out there on the field, you know, of course as his uncle, you worry about it. But then when I saw him out there on the field and I'm like, damn, you know, Jay is bigger and just as big. mean, six, four, 250, you know, and I don't mean like a little 250. I mean a solid chiseled, you know, four, five, four, six, 40, you know, I mean, and a kid is a rocket ship. When he hits you, hear it and. I had to tell him about that. I had to tell him that, you know, being disappointed in athletics is part of growing in athletics. You should be disappointed but never discouraged. And to hear him have the attitude of not being discouraged but disappointed, it made me feel good. It made me understand that my nephew is gonna be okay. But a lot of you guys won't be okay, but you need to be okay. because you need to understand that I might not be where I want to be, but I'm where they need me to be at this time. But I also have the power to change where they need me to be because I can make them see that they need me somewhere else. where I can be more productive. You know, um you have to not get so the first thing that we want to do when we get discouraged is we want to, you know, man, f*ck this, you know, I'm transferring because it's so easy nowadays to transfer, you know, man, I'm not getting the time that I want. Blah, blah, blah. To me, that's, you know, that's a cop out and it may not be. It might be a better situation for you at another school, but. One thing I didn't want to hear from my nephew was him saying that, you know, he's discouraged to the point where he wants to transfer. I said, do you want to leave? That motherf*@ker said, leave Southern California? You know, and we both laughed when he said that because, you know, I was like, good job, nephew. I felt even more calm knowing that he still had it in him to crack jokes that he wasn't discouraged, that the coach didn't get to him. uh And I'm saying all of this to say to my athletes to please understand that Sometimes you're in a game without even being in the game You have to be strong enough mentally to be able to play both games And you have to be tough enough to take losing that comes with one of the games. Because sometimes you might find yourself on the sideline in life too. And just like in the game, you can also get off the bench in life. But what you have to understand is the game itself. So again, I would like to thank you for taking the time to listen to me. I hope you have a great day and you can find Coach Rodo's Winning Regardless anywhere that you listen to your Podcast. Yeah, because it was f*cking with him at first.