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138. Greatness on the Other Side of Boring” with BYU Football’s Connor Pay
2 Plays2 months ago
In this episode, we sit down with BYU football standout Connor Pay just days before the NFL Draft as he prepares to begin his professional career. Connor shares powerful insights about the path to greatness—how it demands sacrifice, repetition, and a willingness to embrace the boredom of consistency. From mastering the art of snapping a football to leading the offensive line with precision, Connor opens up about the behind-the-scenes discipline it takes to perform at an elite level.
We also dive into his commitment to using his platform as a well-known athlete to positively influence others, especially young people, in their faith and personal development. This conversation is a reminder that true greatness often lies on the other side of mundane—where consistency becomes second nature and purpose fuels perseverance.
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Credits:
Hosted by Shad Martin
Produced by IMAGINATE STUDIO
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Transcript
Introduction & Welcome
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the especially for athletes podcast where we explore essential principles that empower athletes to learn life's most valuable lessons through sports.
00:00:16
Speaker
Hi, everybody.
00:00:16
Speaker
Welcome to today's episode of the Especially for Athletes Sportlight
Guest Introduction: Connor Paye
00:00:21
Speaker
podcast.
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm Dustin Smith.
00:00:22
Speaker
I'm here with Shad Martin and our guest today, Mr. Connor Paye, who is getting ready for the NFL draft here in a week and a half, right, Connor?
00:00:32
Speaker
Yep, week and a half.
00:00:33
Speaker
Well, thanks for joining us, man.
00:00:36
Speaker
Yeah, of course.
00:00:37
Speaker
Happy to be here.
00:00:38
Speaker
So we
Connor's Journey to BYU
00:00:39
Speaker
want to hop in right into some questions, Connor.
00:00:41
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about your last season.
00:00:44
Speaker
I know you were fighting the injury bug a little bit, but tell us a little bit about you, where you went to high school, where you played college, and kind of what you've been doing the last couple months in preparations for the NFL combine.
00:00:56
Speaker
Sure.
Training & Preparation for NFL Draft
00:00:57
Speaker
NFL draft.
00:00:58
Speaker
Yeah, sure.
00:00:59
Speaker
So, um, I, I grew up in Highland, Utah, went to Lone Peak High School, um, and, uh, played football, basketball, and baseball there.
00:01:09
Speaker
Um, and then served a mission in Washington, DC from 2018 to 2020.
00:01:14
Speaker
Then, uh, came back for the 2020 season.
00:01:18
Speaker
That was my, that was my red shirt year at, uh, uh, BYU was that COVID year in 2020.
00:01:24
Speaker
And, uh,
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah, then played on the BYU offensive line ever since then and just finished up with my last game in the Alamo Bowl against Colorado a couple months ago now.
00:01:38
Speaker
And right after that bowl game, I shipped out to a facility in Atlanta, Georgia.
00:01:43
Speaker
You know, the agent that I...
00:01:47
Speaker
had signed with, we had both, um, had velocity athlete development in Georgia reach out to us.
00:01:54
Speaker
And, um, I had worked with, uh, or I'd met with them before.
00:01:58
Speaker
And then when I told my agent that they are actually, Oh, we've sent a few O-linemen to them before we've had success with them.
00:02:05
Speaker
So, uh, we
Injury Recovery & Pro Day Preparation
00:02:07
Speaker
settled on that as a place to go train.
00:02:09
Speaker
So I spent January, February, and then, uh, a tiny bit of March out there, uh,
00:02:16
Speaker
getting ready for pro day.
00:02:18
Speaker
Um, and then had big 12 pro day in Frisco, Texas.
00:02:22
Speaker
Things went well.
00:02:24
Speaker
Um, interviews and position work went really well.
00:02:28
Speaker
Um, and then, you know, just, I was there to just check boxes and, you know, show everybody that I was healthy.
00:02:34
Speaker
All right.
00:02:35
Speaker
That was, that was the biggest thing, obviously with, uh, um, with this last season, you know, I had, I had never been injured in college.
00:02:43
Speaker
So it was kind of a new, uh,
00:02:45
Speaker
experience for me, but, you know, broke my foot in the middle of the season.
00:02:50
Speaker
And thankfully, the break I had, it was an easy fix.
00:02:53
Speaker
And so I was able to have a screw placed in it.
00:02:58
Speaker
And six weeks later, I was playing again.
00:03:00
Speaker
So it was pretty awesome to be able to get back that quick.
00:03:05
Speaker
But obviously, with mid-year injuries and stuff and
00:03:10
Speaker
you know, you come back and, you know, you're not quite the same as you were at the start of the season, of course, for those last four games.
00:03:17
Speaker
And so it was good to just get out in pro day, move around and, you know, show all the scouts that I had recovered fully and wasn't inhibited in any way.
00:03:25
Speaker
And so
The Center-Quarterback Relationship
00:03:26
Speaker
that just been training here at BYU with their NFL offseason group, just kind of in preparation for wherever I end up going here in a couple of weeks.
00:03:36
Speaker
Well, I want to hop into a question specifically to your position.
00:03:42
Speaker
As a coach myself in football and then training quarterbacks for 20 or so years, I talk often about the relationship that the center and the quarterback have to have.
00:03:55
Speaker
The center is the only guy on the field that touches the ball more or as much as the quarterback does, right?
00:04:01
Speaker
So it all starts with him.
00:04:02
Speaker
In fact, just today, I told some quarterbacks that the most important part of every play is that your exchange with the center, you got to catch that snap.
00:04:12
Speaker
If that's goofed up, then the whole play is goofed up.
00:04:14
Speaker
So sometimes the center, usually the center only gets noticed when he screws up, right?
00:04:19
Speaker
Exactly.
00:04:20
Speaker
You make a thousand perfect snaps and everybody was like, well, yeah, of course.
00:04:25
Speaker
And then he has to step and block at the same time.
00:04:27
Speaker
It's not like that's easy.
00:04:29
Speaker
And then the one time he misses,
00:04:31
Speaker
That's when he'll hear about it.
00:04:33
Speaker
What kind of attention to detail do you put yourself through with your quarterbacks to make sure that they're comfortable with you and that you can make that snap and down block or pass set, whatever you have to do and still be accurate?
00:04:50
Speaker
Well, yeah, it definitely takes thousands and thousands of reps.
00:04:54
Speaker
Because while it is the responsibility of the quarterback to catch the snap, it's also my responsibility to put it in a place where he can catch it.
00:05:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:02
Speaker
Right.
00:05:03
Speaker
You know, I better, I better be putting it on his numbers, right.
00:05:06
Speaker
Or somewhere in that area, because the more consistent my snaps are, the less the quarterback has to worry about it.
00:05:13
Speaker
And the more he can be focused on other things.
00:05:15
Speaker
And, and, you know, thankfully I've been a really consistent snapper throughout my short four year career as a center.
00:05:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:24
Speaker
But, no, that relationship is really important, especially when, you know, you're working under center because when it comes to arm length and body type, kind of where that ball lands in an under center snap is a little bit different for every center.
00:05:43
Speaker
And so, you know, just banking a lot of reps with the quarterback on that over and over just so he knows my sweet spot and I know where he wants it.
00:05:52
Speaker
Then we know, hey, I can put it on there every time.
00:05:55
Speaker
And then it gets to the point where it's subconscious for both of us.
00:05:59
Speaker
I don't think about snapping when I'm out there.
00:06:02
Speaker
I've done it so many times, it just happens.
00:06:07
Speaker
And, but you can get really detailed in the sense that there was one off season I spent or Jaron Hall and I spent a lot of time together.
00:06:14
Speaker
And I got, I got my spin to the point where I could, I could most of the time wasn't a hundred percent, but a lot of the time I could get those laces to land on his right hand.
00:06:27
Speaker
And so he just had to move the ball a little less.
00:06:31
Speaker
which, you know, that was pretty nice to be able to do.
00:06:35
Speaker
I wish it happened more often because I felt cool doing it.
00:06:39
Speaker
But, you know, but no, to your point, right, that relationship has to be step number one or else the rest of the play doesn't work.
00:06:49
Speaker
And so, honestly, the biggest thing about it, I'd say, is just thousands of reps together, you know, so you're both really comfortable.
00:06:56
Speaker
He knows my pacing.
00:06:58
Speaker
He knows how hard the snaps coming.
00:07:01
Speaker
And we can both make adjustments based on what makes each other comfortable.
00:07:06
Speaker
Well,
Pass Protection & Offensive Role
00:07:07
Speaker
and also at the center for those that may not understand football super well, the center does more than just snap the ball.
00:07:15
Speaker
And in each offense, the center and the quarterback usually share the role of communicating with
00:07:24
Speaker
the pass blocking scheme for that week.
00:07:28
Speaker
Sometimes you'll see the lineman slide and other times they'll just go right into a guy and man him up right away.
00:07:34
Speaker
If there's a linebacker blitzing, the center and the quarterback are discussing what the protection is going to be.
00:07:40
Speaker
And sometimes it's the center's call.
00:07:43
Speaker
Other times the quarterback's calling it.
00:07:45
Speaker
But the center is always involved in pointing things out.
00:07:48
Speaker
He's obviously in the center, in the middle, communicating with the two guys to his right and to his left.
00:07:54
Speaker
Talk to us a little bit about your role as the center in specifically maybe in the pass protection and blitz pickup and things.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, so for me, it was pretty unique in the sense that BYU, where I did all of it, run and pass game.
00:08:10
Speaker
And so, you know, the quarterback knew what my options were, essentially based on what protection we were running, whether it was five,
00:08:20
Speaker
Six man, seven man protection, play action, whatever, full slide.
00:08:25
Speaker
He knew what my options were, but I was the one making the calls at the line of scrimmage.
00:08:29
Speaker
So I was the one reading the defense.
00:08:31
Speaker
And then the tight ends and the running back and the quarterback would be looking at me waiting for my...
00:08:37
Speaker
my point and my call.
00:08:40
Speaker
And so in our offense, it was, I did it all for, for the run and the pass, but I know there's plenty of offenses from friends and stuff where the quarterbacks handle the protections and then the center handles the run game a little more.
00:08:56
Speaker
And, and, you know, I think that works great too.
00:08:58
Speaker
That way the, it's a little more on the plate of the quarterback, but yeah,
00:09:03
Speaker
Just so he knows where the protection's going.
00:09:05
Speaker
Right.
00:09:06
Speaker
And he can kind of be in control of it.
00:09:08
Speaker
But we just have a set of rules for each protection that I would follow.
00:09:12
Speaker
And then, and then we had a series of hand signals if I decided to flip a protection in a different way or something like that.
00:09:22
Speaker
You know, they put a
Discipline & Sports Success
00:09:23
Speaker
lot on my plate.
00:09:24
Speaker
I was, I got to the point this year with this new O-line coach, Coach Woods, he put a lot on me on purpose.
00:09:32
Speaker
And I got to the point where I was starting to read coverage at the line of scrimmage, which is something I hadn't done previously.
00:09:40
Speaker
And so... Coverage outside of the box coverage?
00:09:45
Speaker
I mean, you're looking like the quarterback is.
00:09:48
Speaker
Outside of the box.
00:09:49
Speaker
So I was looking at the shell.
00:09:50
Speaker
Yeah, because I would know what formation we were in, whether it was three by one or two by two or if we were in unbalanced or any type of nub formation.
00:09:59
Speaker
And then I would say, OK, is it a one hires and two high shell?
00:10:03
Speaker
And then I go look at the spacing and the leverage of the corners to just give me a little.
00:10:08
Speaker
I'm not saying that I could do it every play.
00:10:10
Speaker
That was right.
00:10:11
Speaker
Teams are getting better at disguising coverages, especially in the NFL.
00:10:16
Speaker
And so, but it would at least give me hints on who could blitz.
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:20
Speaker
Where it's like, okay, I know I have a nickel Sam sitting here, safety in a corner, we're in three by one.
00:10:26
Speaker
No one else is over there.
00:10:27
Speaker
Nobody can blitz from that side.
00:10:30
Speaker
Or it's like, okay, and I have the free safety over here to the boundary with the stacked right over top of the wheel linebacker, but there's only one receiver over here.
00:10:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:39
Speaker
Like, okay, so now I know the only real threat on this play could be the will.
00:10:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:10:44
Speaker
And there are some teams like Dave Aranda's defensive bailer.
00:10:48
Speaker
They run what are called simulated pressures where they'll bail out somebody who you thought was going to be a blitzer and essentially switch responsibilities with someone either from the shell or from, you know, a nickel sand position or a will.
00:11:02
Speaker
But that's a...
00:11:05
Speaker
Against a receiving core as good as ours, that's kind of hard to run.
00:11:09
Speaker
You know, it's hard to do that.
00:11:11
Speaker
You get caught in that, you're going to be giving up a touchdown.
00:11:13
Speaker
Right.
00:11:14
Speaker
And they did it a lot in the first half and they got fried for it.
00:11:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:20
Speaker
But, and so that was kind of, I'd come up to the line of scrimmage, especially in the past game, because what I'm worried about, I don't care about base defense in the past game.
00:11:29
Speaker
I want to know where the blitz is coming from.
00:11:32
Speaker
Um, cause I know any, any protection we have is fine against base defense, as long as everyone just wins their one-on-ones.
00:11:39
Speaker
And so, yeah, I'd come up and I'd first look, I would go first level, second level, third level.
00:11:44
Speaker
So I know, okay, four man front.
00:11:47
Speaker
Okay.
00:11:48
Speaker
Awesome.
00:11:48
Speaker
So now I know I got to go find the other seven.
00:11:51
Speaker
Okay, where are the linebackers at?
00:11:54
Speaker
How are they spaced?
00:11:55
Speaker
Are they bossed or are they bowed to one side?
00:11:59
Speaker
You know, are they split right down the middle?
00:12:02
Speaker
Is it some form of banjo concept?
00:12:07
Speaker
And then I move back to the safeties.
00:12:10
Speaker
Okay, one high, two high.
00:12:11
Speaker
If it's one high, where's the free safety at?
00:12:13
Speaker
Why is he over there?
00:12:16
Speaker
And that would just give me kind of just keys where I could just be like, okay, you know what?
00:12:23
Speaker
I'm going to turn this protection the other way because I know there's no real threats over there.
00:12:27
Speaker
There can't be because of the personnel and the defense they're in.
00:12:30
Speaker
And so that was kind of my role.
00:12:32
Speaker
So it was, it was, it required a lot of film study, you know, and kind of having to think like a quarterback a lot.
00:12:40
Speaker
And now, obviously, because the quarterback is obviously the hardest job in football.
00:12:46
Speaker
But, you know, it was kind of really fun to learn a little more this year to get into the mind of a quarterback a little bit and to...
00:12:56
Speaker
to watch on film, watch coverages develop and see where the soft spots are and all that stuff, because it all correlates together on who they can bring into the box, who can be a threat versus who can't, depending on what coverage there is.
00:13:11
Speaker
And so it was fun to get into that world a little bit, but that was kind of my role, at least in the, in the protection game.
00:13:18
Speaker
Well, so for all you football people, this is the kind of, I could geek out on this stuff for another couple hours with Connor.
00:13:26
Speaker
But if you're not a football nerd, there was probably a lot of phrases and words and things there that you maybe hadn't heard before.
00:13:33
Speaker
But there's a lot more that goes into just snapping the ball and handing it to somebody or throwing it to somebody.
00:13:39
Speaker
A lot.
00:13:40
Speaker
And hours and hours and hours of film that goes in to throw that 10-yard curl route.
00:13:46
Speaker
It wasn't just...
00:13:47
Speaker
you know, something that just happens by accident.
00:13:50
Speaker
You have to do a lot of work to be able to give the quarterback the time to make the throw.
00:13:54
Speaker
And if it's when it's completed, it's because everybody did their job right.
00:13:58
Speaker
And that's what's so awesome about football is 11 guys.
00:14:02
Speaker
All it takes is one guy to mess up and the whole play gets ruined.
00:14:06
Speaker
And it starts with the center and that quarterback.
00:14:09
Speaker
So we could geek out on this stuff forever, Connor.
00:14:11
Speaker
But I know that's
00:14:13
Speaker
I know Shad and I want to jump into some other non-football specific stuff.
00:14:18
Speaker
So Shad, I need a question for Connor.
00:14:20
Speaker
Why don't you fire away?
00:14:22
Speaker
Yeah, and I think this relates to that.
00:14:24
Speaker
As I was hearing Connor talk about what is necessary to master the craft of a center,
00:14:31
Speaker
You know, the principles are the same no matter what we're talking about.
00:14:34
Speaker
Football, other sports, life, parenting, you know, it doesn't matter.
00:14:40
Speaker
And one of the things is I was imagining you
00:14:45
Speaker
hiking a football enough times to land the laces on Jaron Hall's hands.
00:14:51
Speaker
It reminded me of a quote, Justin Sua.
00:14:54
Speaker
He's the mental performance coach for Tampa Bay Rays, does a lot with BYU.
00:14:58
Speaker
You've probably met Justin.
00:14:59
Speaker
We love Justin.
00:15:01
Speaker
But he said something, to be great, one must embrace the boredom of consistency.
00:15:09
Speaker
And I think a lot of people are willing to work until they
00:15:14
Speaker
It gets boring, but greatness and that the level of detail that you've talked about, both in reading coverages and hiking the football, I'm sure that level of performance was on the other side of boring.
00:15:31
Speaker
Right.
00:15:32
Speaker
Would you talk to young athletes about that?
00:15:36
Speaker
Just if there's a young person out there that's saying we call it winning the hour, doing what you need to do to get the most out of every moment that you have and doing boring things is one of the prices to be great.
00:15:51
Speaker
I'm just wondering what you would say to young people, no matter what avenue of life it is, about why it's so important to do things incessantly, like to be crazy about it, resilient.
00:16:06
Speaker
Yeah, you kind of have to be obsessed a little bit.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, so tell us about that.
00:16:10
Speaker
Well, one of the, I don't know who this quote's from or who to attribute it to, but one of the quotes I love about greatness is that all greatness is is being consistently good.
00:16:20
Speaker
Right.
00:16:21
Speaker
Where or it's like we think we think about the greatest athletes of all time.
00:16:24
Speaker
And yes, they had some pretty amazing moments, but that was a fraction of a percent of their career.
00:16:31
Speaker
All right.
00:16:31
Speaker
The rest of the time was they were consistently good over a very long period of time.
00:16:38
Speaker
And that's what diving into the details.
00:16:40
Speaker
That's that's what it does.
00:16:43
Speaker
And another phrase that I like to use is even bringing it closer in from winning the hours.
00:16:48
Speaker
Like I like to win the second.
00:16:50
Speaker
Right.
00:16:50
Speaker
Like be be where your feet are.
00:16:53
Speaker
Right.
00:16:54
Speaker
And and it's like because oftentimes we can we can think so much.
00:16:58
Speaker
We get so results focused that we kind of lose track of the process.
00:17:05
Speaker
one of the things coach Woods, my online coach at BYU would always emphasize when you said, we are process driven, not results driven.
00:17:14
Speaker
He said, we do
Personal Philosophy on Discipline
00:17:15
Speaker
this because we love the process.
00:17:17
Speaker
We love the boredom, right?
00:17:18
Speaker
We love the grind.
00:17:20
Speaker
And then the results will naturally come if you focus on that.
00:17:24
Speaker
But if you do it the other way around, things aren't going to go very well.
00:17:29
Speaker
Um,
00:17:31
Speaker
And so that was something I was always trying to do because, honestly, it's fun to be able to sit up here and describe some of those protections and being able to read coverage and all this stuff.
00:17:41
Speaker
And, like, it's cool now, but it was not cool when I had no idea what those coverages were and I had to spend hours a day in the film room watching the same shell or the same defense over and over and over again to the point where I could describe it and understand it.
00:17:59
Speaker
Right.
00:17:59
Speaker
Or like you said, with those snaps, and if you ever, if Dustin, if you ever asked Jaron, Jaron would deny that to the end of time that I could ever snap that good.
00:18:07
Speaker
He'd never, but, uh, uh,
00:18:11
Speaker
You know, it was so many times in the summer, during PRPs, before and after practice, snapping over and over and over again.
00:18:22
Speaker
It's like, man, I don't want to bend over and do this again.
00:18:25
Speaker
I don't want to squat down and do this again.
00:18:27
Speaker
But you just have to keep doing it.
00:18:30
Speaker
And, you know, that's kind of the part of the game that I've fallen in love with.
00:18:36
Speaker
And I think that...
00:18:39
Speaker
But I think it's important to understand that I did not enjoy it at first.
00:18:44
Speaker
Right.
00:18:44
Speaker
And then until you actually do that and you experience what it can do for you, sometimes it's hard to understand that.
00:18:51
Speaker
But, you know, those details, right, those details of having to go in, it's like, OK, I do not want to lift today at all.
00:18:59
Speaker
My body hurts, but it's on my schedule.
00:19:02
Speaker
Right.
00:19:03
Speaker
I know I need to.
00:19:04
Speaker
I committed to do it.
00:19:06
Speaker
I'm going to do it.
00:19:07
Speaker
And even I would say when you get to the college level, it's it becomes a lot more detailed than that, where it's like everyone everyone's required to do those things.
00:19:20
Speaker
Right.
00:19:20
Speaker
It's like if you if you go and you intentionally miss a day of training, they will cut you.
00:19:25
Speaker
Right.
00:19:26
Speaker
And so it's like, there's not guys missing workouts, like everybody's doing that.
00:19:30
Speaker
And so, okay, what's the differentiators now where it's like, okay, I need to go and take my recovery more seriously.
00:19:37
Speaker
I like I need to spend more time in the training room, I need to spend more time training my mind.
00:19:42
Speaker
Alright, just as much as I'm training my body.
00:19:47
Speaker
And so it's, it was those things, you know, that made such a big difference because, um, my personal, I guess, definition of discipline is doing what you're supposed to do when you don't feel like doing it.
00:20:04
Speaker
All right.
00:20:04
Speaker
That's, that's to me, that's what a disciplined person does.
00:20:08
Speaker
Anybody can be disciplined when they feel like being disciplined.
00:20:12
Speaker
All right.
00:20:12
Speaker
There's a difference between discipline and motivation.
00:20:17
Speaker
Everyone's motivated every once in a while.
00:20:19
Speaker
Very few people are truly disciplined to where it's like, it doesn't, your, your feelings are irrelevant to the situation.
00:20:27
Speaker
It's like, here's what I've committed to do.
00:20:29
Speaker
Here's my plan.
00:20:30
Speaker
Whether you're in little league or you're in high school and you want to play division one and you know, you need to train this amount of times a week and you know, you need to do recovery at this time, you know, well, guess what?
00:20:42
Speaker
It's going to require some sacrifices.
00:20:45
Speaker
You know, where it's like, look, I missed out on hanging out with friends a lot in high school because I knew I needed to go and sleep so that I could perform properly the next day or I wouldn't recover right.
00:20:57
Speaker
I wasn't going to go to parties and do things like that.
00:21:00
Speaker
Like, obviously, I'm not saying abandon your friends, like go spend time with your friends, but just keep the main thing the main thing.
00:21:08
Speaker
Right.
00:21:10
Speaker
And as long as you attack your process that way,
00:21:15
Speaker
and you stay disciplined or it's like, even when you don't feel like doing it, go and do it.
00:21:19
Speaker
That's a, that's an empowering thing.
00:21:21
Speaker
When you get to the point where, you know, regardless of how good or how bad your day is going, that you're going to do what's necessary to be great.
00:21:30
Speaker
You gain
Sacrifices & Effort in Sports
00:21:31
Speaker
a huge amount of confidence.
00:21:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:34
Speaker
You know, here's the good news, right?
00:21:36
Speaker
It takes discipline.
00:21:37
Speaker
The good news is there's few people who are willing to pay that price.
00:21:41
Speaker
Right.
00:21:42
Speaker
So if anyone listening to this is willing to be consistently good, to concentrate on that process, to be disciplined enough to do things where they don't feel like doing them, most people don't do that.
00:21:58
Speaker
And so you could really pick up ground on people and you could really excel if you will just concentrate on process and discipline over motivation.
00:22:11
Speaker
Everyone's motivated on that first Friday night, a high school football game running through, you know, no one's unmotivated at that time.
00:22:17
Speaker
But it was the discipline the four months before that's going to determine what that Friday night looks like.
00:22:23
Speaker
Right.
00:22:23
Speaker
And that's the good news about it.
00:22:26
Speaker
And that's, I tell people all the time that like those 11 games we won this last season, those wins were earned in January.
00:22:34
Speaker
right, January, February, because we were pissed off about going five and seven, and the team was very disciplined throughout the entire offseason.
00:22:44
Speaker
But because everybody was very motivated, because things had gone wrong, their new challenge for this year is to maintain that discipline after things have gone very right.
00:22:56
Speaker
Right.
00:22:56
Speaker
It's like it's easy to be motivated when everyone's telling you how much you suck.
00:22:59
Speaker
Right.
00:23:00
Speaker
But now everyone's telling them how good they are and they have to keep that same discipline.
00:23:04
Speaker
Right.
00:23:04
Speaker
The coach Woods uses another phrase.
00:23:07
Speaker
He says the environment changes.
00:23:09
Speaker
We don't.
00:23:11
Speaker
All right.
00:23:11
Speaker
Or it's like the environment changes, but we don't.
00:23:13
Speaker
We are doing our job all the time.
00:23:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:23:17
Speaker
They have to almost be like commandments to you that no matter what, I have to do this.
00:23:22
Speaker
And when you say sacrifice, you know, to athletes or parents of athletes that are listening to this, to say that, well, my son goes to every practice and he goes to every workout, that's great.
00:23:35
Speaker
He's doing what everybody does.
00:23:38
Speaker
That's not extra.
00:23:39
Speaker
That's what everybody's doing.
00:23:42
Speaker
There has to be, that's not a sacrifice.
00:23:44
Speaker
The sacrifice is coming when you can go home now and the coach isn't there making you go hard or there's a punishment or, you know, watching.
00:23:53
Speaker
It's what you do in the dark when no one's watching.
00:23:55
Speaker
Do you go out and run at night when no one's watching you?
00:23:58
Speaker
And do you extra, you know, film study on your own when no one's watching you?
00:24:02
Speaker
Because you're a self-motivated person.
00:24:04
Speaker
You don't need a coach.
00:24:06
Speaker
or a trainer or somebody to motivate you for an hour to go work hard for an hour.
00:24:11
Speaker
You're a self-motivated person and you don't want to go to bed unless that tank is empty.
00:24:16
Speaker
And if there's still a little bit of gas in that tank, you got to burn it.
00:24:19
Speaker
You got to do something else so that you go to bed every day.
00:24:22
Speaker
Hey, I emptied my tank today.
00:24:24
Speaker
You wake up the next morning with a full tank and you got to go burn through it.
00:24:28
Speaker
It's the athletes who go to bed with half a tank still left.
00:24:32
Speaker
and convince themselves that, well, I did enough.
00:24:35
Speaker
I did what coach said.
00:24:36
Speaker
I was at practice and I lifted and, you know, I'm, but did you, did you watch film?
00:24:42
Speaker
Did you go to bed on time?
00:24:43
Speaker
Is your diet right?
00:24:44
Speaker
Are you, your recovery right?
00:24:46
Speaker
Are you icing?
00:24:47
Speaker
Are you drinking water or soda?
00:24:49
Speaker
Like all the little things that these little things add up
00:24:52
Speaker
to an extra one yard in a game, which in the game of football, that's the difference in most cases.
00:24:59
Speaker
Going, my guess, you know, the five and six year, I had a year two years ago as a high school coach where we went three and seven.
00:25:06
Speaker
Six of those seven games, we had a lead.
00:25:10
Speaker
halfway through the fourth quarter, and we ended up losing six of the seven.
00:25:14
Speaker
We were that close to having a year like we had this past fall where we went 11-3.
00:25:19
Speaker
And we had two or three games in that 11-3 season where we were in the same situation, but this time we held on and we won it at the end.
00:25:28
Speaker
That's the difference.
00:25:29
Speaker
That's one yard sometimes.
00:25:30
Speaker
That's one extra block.
00:25:32
Speaker
It's one guy catching a pass that was a little bit low that because he caught it 5,000 times,
00:25:38
Speaker
outside of practice or the center made that snap on time so the quarterback could get it out on time, you win the game.
00:25:45
Speaker
And it really is the process that the champions are separated from the participators.
00:25:51
Speaker
And participating in sports is easy.
00:25:54
Speaker
Grinding at it, really, really focusing on the details, that's hard.
00:26:00
Speaker
And Connor, you're not just a big guy.
00:26:02
Speaker
There's a lot of big guys.
00:26:04
Speaker
A lot of big linemen.
00:26:05
Speaker
Every single Division I football program in the country has a guy on the line as big as you are.
00:26:11
Speaker
You're getting a chance to play in the NFL because of all the extra, all the other things that you did.
00:26:16
Speaker
And that only comes to a small percentage of those big linemen.
00:26:20
Speaker
And so, you know, for those of you that have a child coming up who...
00:26:25
Speaker
you know, they're pretty good athlete.
00:26:27
Speaker
They're going to be carbon copies of your son or daughter athletically.
00:26:31
Speaker
Same height, same weight, same speed.
00:26:34
Speaker
It's the little things they do when no one's watching them that's going to separate them from the others.
00:26:40
Speaker
And that is sometimes putting down the phone.
00:26:43
Speaker
It's putting down the Xbox.
00:26:44
Speaker
It's turning off the TV.
00:26:45
Speaker
It's
00:26:46
Speaker
It's putting away the sugar or the soda and eating something a little bit better.
00:26:50
Speaker
And so, Connor, we, man, we appreciate you hopping on with us and talking to us a little bit.
00:26:56
Speaker
This is a perfect subject for us to share on discipline, on time management, on focus, all things that not only in the area of sports are applicable, but really in life are applicable.
00:27:11
Speaker
Any last words, Connor, you have for our athletes?
00:27:14
Speaker
Yeah, no, and I would just say to the athletes and to the parents too, it's just like don't, I think this also comes because if we're all being honest with ourselves, every new generation gets a little softer, right, right now.
00:27:29
Speaker
And it's, I would say don't expect praise or rewards for doing what's expected of you.
00:27:37
Speaker
Right.
00:27:37
Speaker
Like simply doing what you're asked is you don't expect some great reward for doing that.
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah, it's you know what?
00:27:45
Speaker
And just to use an example, it's like in high school, I made a commitment early on.
00:27:51
Speaker
I made a commitment that I wanted to start varsity as a sophomore.
00:27:55
Speaker
I knew I wanted to do that.
00:27:56
Speaker
And so I was there 45 minutes early to every practice doing my footwork drills and my bag drills and pushing the sleds.
00:28:05
Speaker
And I would stay 45 minutes afterwards every day.
00:28:10
Speaker
As a young 14, 15 year old, that's all I could commit to do at that time.
00:28:14
Speaker
That's probably all like I understood that I should do.
00:28:18
Speaker
And as you develop and as you understand more, you'll start to learn more things you can do that can set you apart.
00:28:26
Speaker
Right.
00:28:26
Speaker
Because 99% of the people are perfectly content with being ordinary.
00:28:30
Speaker
Right.
00:28:31
Speaker
And you just have to find out whether or not you're willing to be that 1% that you were talking about earlier.
00:28:38
Speaker
And so, but I think, I think expectations have a lot to do with,
00:28:43
Speaker
with the mental block.
00:28:45
Speaker
Sometimes we have with some of that, especially in it, when, if you're from an area where you have really
Motivation for Starting a Podcast
00:28:51
Speaker
successful parents and, and kind of have a silver spoon attitude a little bit, which is, you know, pretty common where it's like, you have to take things in athletics.
00:29:02
Speaker
Nothing is handed to you.
00:29:04
Speaker
You have to go and you have to take it.
00:29:06
Speaker
Right.
00:29:06
Speaker
And so I would say,
00:29:08
Speaker
And I say that to both the athletes and the parents, though.
00:29:11
Speaker
Don't get mad at a coach if your kid isn't playing, if all he's done is done the team activities and gone to practice and he did nothing extra all offseason long.
00:29:21
Speaker
Because the chances are that whether or not you think that kid that's playing in front of them is quote unquote better or not, he probably worked harder.
00:29:30
Speaker
And there may be some scenarios where that's different.
00:29:32
Speaker
I'm not saying that's every scenario.
00:29:35
Speaker
But I would say, if you're not achieving the goals you want to achieve, the first place you need to look is in the mirror.
00:29:42
Speaker
And then that's when you can start actually taking the steps to change and improve.
00:29:48
Speaker
Because it does require a lot.
00:29:50
Speaker
But at the same time, while it does require a lot, it's also very attainable.
00:29:55
Speaker
That's kind of the last thing I'd want to say is like, don't listen to this and think that like, oh, I have to be the 1%.
00:30:01
Speaker
That means there's a 99% chance that I'm not.
00:30:03
Speaker
It's like, actually just go and start doing things and like watch, watch positive things happen in your life.
00:30:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:10
Speaker
Right.
00:30:11
Speaker
Just take, it'll happen for you.
00:30:13
Speaker
It will.
00:30:14
Speaker
Just, just, just get moving.
00:30:16
Speaker
Yes.
00:30:18
Speaker
Yeah, I actually do.
00:30:19
Speaker
Just to close out the podcast, maybe, Connor, I know you and a teammate do a podcast, and I've just recently discovered it, right, where you just sit down together and study scripture and share that with kids.
00:30:36
Speaker
You know that one of the cruxes of our program is seek to bless, not to impress, and to have your eyes up looking for people who you might be able to help and to do the work to help them.
00:30:51
Speaker
Obviously, your faith is important to you, but it seems to me this podcast and what you're doing comes out of that.
00:30:59
Speaker
I just want to use my position to
00:31:02
Speaker
to help and lift other people.
00:31:04
Speaker
I'm just wondering, one, if you'll tell us a little bit about that podcast and what you're doing, because some who listen to our podcast might be interested in it.
00:31:13
Speaker
It might be cool.
00:31:14
Speaker
But second, and maybe for this podcast, even more important,
00:31:19
Speaker
Why did you do that?
00:31:20
Speaker
Like, what was the driver that said, I'm going to sit down for a certain amount of time each week and just talk about my faith and put it out there for people?
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think it kind of came about last summer and probably even earlier than that.
00:31:38
Speaker
I had always thought, like, you know, it would be really fun.
00:31:41
Speaker
to do kind of a faith-based podcast or YouTube channel or something.
00:31:46
Speaker
I didn't know it was going to end up going through BYU and all that stuff and be produced by BYU Radio.
00:31:51
Speaker
I was just thinking just doing it by myself or...
00:31:55
Speaker
Doing it on our own.
00:31:56
Speaker
And I talked to Chase about it for a few months and he was kind of like at first just because of the time commitment.
00:32:02
Speaker
And but the kind of the core of the motivation was we just thought back on our youth in our high school years.
00:32:12
Speaker
And we're like, man, what an impact it probably would have made if some of our heroes that had played for BYU had done something like this.
00:32:21
Speaker
Because I know just in my teenage mind or preteen mind that having, you know, someone like Taysom Hill tell me to go and read my scriptures a little bit had a lot more of an effect on me than it did when my parents would tell me to do it.
00:32:39
Speaker
And that sucks.
00:32:39
Speaker
Everybody should listen to their parents all the time.
00:32:41
Speaker
But I'm just saying, just in your younger mind, like, your idols have a higher influence on you.
00:32:49
Speaker
And obviously, I play a line, like, I don't know if I'm anybody's idol, per se.
00:32:53
Speaker
That's not what I'm trying to say.
00:32:55
Speaker
But I know,
Two Point Conversion Podcast
00:32:56
Speaker
especially for Chase, there are hundreds of number two jerseys in those stands every single game.
00:33:04
Speaker
And that was one of the ways that I was able to kind of help convince him.
00:33:07
Speaker
I was like, think about all those kids who love watching on the field.
00:33:10
Speaker
If they find out about this, every single one of them will listen.
00:33:13
Speaker
Right.
00:33:13
Speaker
And we can just share our experiences with with our testimonies, because being, you know, for us, sons of God and disciples of Christ, that's who we are.
00:33:24
Speaker
football is what we do, right?
00:33:26
Speaker
And we wanted to share with the world a little bit more about who we actually were, because our occupation is kind of the only thing they're exposed to.
00:33:34
Speaker
And so that was kind of the motivation behind it was, you know, we really thought that, you know, maybe it might be able to affect some of
00:33:42
Speaker
some of the younger people and maybe give them a perspective or a motivation to get into the scriptures and try to develop a relationship with God than maybe they otherwise would have.
00:33:55
Speaker
Because that's my foundation for being a great athlete is my relationship with God.
00:34:02
Speaker
And he's elevated every aspect of my life, including my athletics.
00:34:09
Speaker
And so it's another, it's just another tool in the toolbox, right?
00:34:13
Speaker
From the athlete's perspective.
00:34:15
Speaker
And then from an eternal perspective, it's something that's far more important than athletics anyways.
00:34:22
Speaker
And so, I don't know, does that answer your question, Chad?
00:34:26
Speaker
So awesome.
00:34:26
Speaker
And just, you know, it's not always this, but if every athlete would think, I do have that sport light on me.
00:34:33
Speaker
There are all those jerseys in the stands.
00:34:36
Speaker
There are kids, whether you believe it or not, that want to meet Connor Paye, that feel cool because they got to shake his hand.
00:34:44
Speaker
And when athletes use their position to do more than just attract attention to themselves, more than just impress people, but to use that light that comes to them to bless people.
00:34:57
Speaker
We did a podcast a few weeks ago on a quote from Dabo Sweeney.
00:35:01
Speaker
I might not get it perfect, but he said, let the light that shines from you be brighter than the light that shines on you.
00:35:10
Speaker
And I think this is a great example of that, Connor.
00:35:13
Speaker
What is the name of the podcast, just in case someone wanted to go and look that up and give it a listen?
00:35:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's called Two Point Conversion.
00:35:23
Speaker
Right, we tried to find a way to merge some football and gospel phrase.
00:35:28
Speaker
And unfortunately, a lot of them were trademarked.
00:35:32
Speaker
So we had to go through a few ideas, but two-point conversions is what we ended up settling on.
00:35:37
Speaker
Awesome.
00:35:38
Speaker
That's great.
00:35:38
Speaker
Thanks for doing what you do.
00:35:39
Speaker
It's great.
00:35:40
Speaker
And Connor, that's the definition.
00:35:43
Speaker
That's why our program is called Especially for Athletes.
00:35:46
Speaker
You just summed it up in that last story.
00:35:48
Speaker
It's use your position, what we call the sport light,
00:35:52
Speaker
Whatever that is, if you have, and even if it's something that we might disagree with, man, I just feel like people need to talk and we need to express our views and you can have a totally different opinion on something.
00:36:05
Speaker
That's great.
00:36:05
Speaker
Talk about it.
00:36:06
Speaker
Explain.
00:36:07
Speaker
That's how we get to know each other.
00:36:08
Speaker
That's how the world...
00:36:09
Speaker
can fix some of the problems, but we've got to be willing to look from somebody else's perspective.
00:36:15
Speaker
So you don't have to be a member of the same faith that you're a member of, Connor, to, well, check this out.
00:36:21
Speaker
You're trying to do good with it.
00:36:22
Speaker
You're trying to teach kids about God and about doing the right thing, and you're using your position to do that.
00:36:28
Speaker
If it's something else that somebody feels about, speak up.
00:36:31
Speaker
Let's have a discussion on it.
00:36:32
Speaker
But, you know, let's use these
00:36:35
Speaker
this spotlight that we have on us because of sports and outside of just scoring touchdowns and making baskets and, and you know, hitting home runs, use it to actually make the world better.
00:36:46
Speaker
And that's the goal of, especially for athletes.
00:36:49
Speaker
That's what eyes up do the work means.
00:36:51
Speaker
And that's why having people like you Connor on our podcast is, is just awesome.
00:36:55
Speaker
So we appreciate you hopping on man.
00:36:57
Speaker
And we'll be following you closely this next little bit and see where you end up.
00:37:02
Speaker
Uh,
00:37:03
Speaker
Hopefully watching you play a lot of ball in the NFL, man.
00:37:06
Speaker
Thank you.
00:37:07
Speaker
Really appreciate it.
00:37:08
Speaker
And just know that your guys' mission is kind of the reason why I agreed to come on the podcast in the first place, because I appreciate it and I love what you guys are doing.
00:37:17
Speaker
So thanks for having me on.
00:37:19
Speaker
Yeah, we appreciate that, man.
00:37:20
Speaker
All right, guys.
00:37:21
Speaker
Appreciate it.
00:37:23
Speaker
Eyes up.
00:37:23
Speaker
Do the work.
00:37:24
Speaker
Thank you for joining the Especially for Athletes podcast.
00:37:27
Speaker
To learn more about Especially for Athletes organization, get a copy of our book, The Sportlight, or to bring our program to your team, school, business, or organization, visit us at especiallyforathletes.org.