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157. Navy Linebacker Marcus Bleazard
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Resilience isn’t always forged in the big, dramatic moments. More often, it’s built quietly—hour by hour, decision by decision—when no one is watching. In Episode 157 of the Especially for Athletes podcast, Navy Midshipman linebacker Marcus Bleazard shares a powerful perspective on resilience that applies to every athlete, student, and leader navigating demanding seasons of life.
Marcus describes the relentless rhythm of life at the United States Naval Academy: early mornings, classes stacked back-to-back, meetings, practice, study, and doing it all again the next day. Like every athlete, he admits there are moments when motivation is thin—when the bed is warm, the weight feels heavy, or the books feel endless. What keeps him going isn’t waiting for a massive breakthrough, but learning to look for “flecks of gold” in the grind. Not every day produces a highlight-reel moment. Some days, resilience looks like finding one small win and choosing to show up anyway.
That mindset perfectly reflects one of our core principles at Especially for Athletes: Win the Hour. Marcus reminds us that resilience isn’t about loving every task—it’s about attacking the task in front of you with heart and focus. Study sessions may not feel inspiring. Practices may feel monotonous. But when athletes learn to search for small progress—one rep, one page, one assignment completed—they build momentum that compounds over time.
Throughout the episode, Marcus also reinforces the power of identity and self-talk. Injuries, setbacks, and doubt are inevitable. What matters is how we speak to ourselves in those moments. Resilience grows when we don’t negotiate with the voice that tells us to quit, but instead talk to ourselves—reminding ourselves who we are, what we’ve overcome, and why we belong. That’s resilience rooted not in hype, but in disciplined belief.
Episode 157 is a reminder that resilience isn’t flashy. It’s faithful. It’s choosing effort over excuses, love over contempt, and progress over perfection. If you’re in a season that feels repetitive, demanding, or discouraging, Marcus Bleazard’s message will help you reframe the grind and rediscover purpose in the process.
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Credits: Hosted by Dustin Smith & Shad Martin
Produced by Shad Martin and IMAGINATE STUDIO
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Presentation
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
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Especially for Athletes podcast. I'm Dustin Smith, here with Chad Martin from Especially for Athletes, and our special guest today is Marcus Blazard. Blazard, Blazard. You get called both, right, Marcus? Which one is it?
00:00:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's Blazard. Yeah, I knew it was Blazard. We knew your dad back in college. Chad and i actually were college teammates with Marcus's dad. Yeah. 26 years ago and have kind of kept our eye on Marcus, both just because we were friends with your dad and and we knew you were his son and kind of watching you, but especially through high school and then as you went on to college.
Life at the Naval Academy
00:00:54
Speaker
And I might even add to that, especially because of the college you went to, I had a little extra interest because I knew you were going to have a a extra unique situation and experience that
00:01:06
Speaker
you know Very few people understand being that you are are attending school and receiving training at the Naval Academy, not only as as a football player and as a student, but also as a, and what would I call you? a ah What would be the right word? Not soldier, because youre we're not an active soldier.
00:01:23
Speaker
battle right now. Is it cadet? What what's what what what should we refer to you as? Midshipman. Midshipman. There it is. Okay. That's for those guys up north. We don't we don't like those guys. Yeah. i was I knew if I said the wrong thing, I was going to tick you off, and I did. Midshipman. I knew that. All right. Awesome. Well, Marcus grew up in Georgia. He was born actually in Utah, not far from Salt Lake City, where his dad grew up in Grantsville, Utah.
00:01:46
Speaker
I moved out to Georgia, I believe, for your dad's work, right? Yes, sir. with that was was it Was that with Swire Coca-Cola? ocola Yeah. And then so Marcus grew up out in Kennesaw, Georgia, went to Harrison High School and is now at the Naval Academy playing football. he just finished his junior season. And so there's a lot that we want to get into, Marcus. I want to start by just asking you right out of the gate, what was the biggest thing, the biggest change from high school, school and sports?
00:02:17
Speaker
to being at the Naval Academy, not just the, and maybe start with the routine or the, what's it like at the Naval Academy? Because my guess is that was probably a little bit of an eye-opener for you because it's different than other colleges.
00:02:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And and the experience at the Naval Academy changes year to year with the freshman year being the hardest year, obviously. And you have, you know, so you graduate high school and you go to what they call plebe summer.
00:02:46
Speaker
which is basically a ah kind of a rundown version of of boot camp or military camp where, you know, you don't have your phone, you're not allowed to talk. Basically somebody else is in control of your life for about two months.
00:03:00
Speaker
And then from that time in the summer, you go into the academic year where, you know, you go to fall camp for football and then you go to classes and then the season starts and then have your other military training as well.
00:03:12
Speaker
Um, So yeah, freshman year was definitely definitely the the most challenging. Just kind of running through the day, you'd wake up around 6, 6.30. I need to go down to breakfast check by around 7.
00:03:26
Speaker
I got classes at some starting at 7.45. And then you're in classes basically all day until lunch. Get down on lunch, go down and get some lunch, then go over to the football facility for meetings. Most of the time you go back for a class in the afternoon, class or two, and then head back over to the training facility to get taped,
00:03:42
Speaker
go away from practice, and then have some more meetings. Then practice comes around, you practice for a couple hours, and you get done eating, done with practice, and get back to your room around 7, 7.30, 8 o'clock at night.
00:03:54
Speaker
Then you start homework from there, i go to bed, sign your sign the TAP sheet, sign the attendance sheet that you're at, the Naval Academy, and then go to sleep, wake up the next morning and do it again. what's the What's
Football and Resilience at Navy
00:04:04
Speaker
the TAP sheet? You sign that? That's not something that you would do at normal schools. What's that all about?
00:04:09
Speaker
No, so it's um we have different liberty policies where when you're allowed to leave the campus, when you're allowed to stay. And so the Liberty policy is during the week, nobody's really allowed to leave unless you have special privileges.
00:04:20
Speaker
So you're supposed to be on campus, you know, throughout the whole week until the weekend and then make you sign a sheet saying that, you know, hey I'm not going to leave. You know I'm checking in for the night. I'm here to stay. Wow. That's a, yeah, that would be a huge change of a scenery for a freshman.
00:04:39
Speaker
yeah especially i don't I don't come from a military family. like yeah So the military aspect of it you know wearing a uniform, they make us take tests our freshman year and and even sophomore and junior year about military knowledge.
00:04:55
Speaker
And so that stuff is completely brand new and I'm trying to learn it all. And it's ah it's a big shock coming in as freshman. That's that's ah military knowledge. Would that be, is that more historical? Like, I mean, understanding...
00:05:08
Speaker
you know, history of battles and things, or is that more current military strategy and things? think it's a little bit of both. um You don't have like the history of of certain things and, and you know, me and Shia were talking about the Marine Corps. So you' you'd know like, oh, the Marines started, you know, back when and and how they kind of formed.
00:05:29
Speaker
But yeah, you also learn a lot about what's going on now, what kind of operations and those types of things that they're responsible for doing. It's a, It's something I'll definitely specialize on a little bit later on once I finish up here, but it's a little bit of an introduction.
00:05:45
Speaker
Yeah. And then you studied... So you entered the summer. Yeah. You called it Plea Summer? Is that what it was called? lead Plea. Plea. Is that where you don't you can't talk to anybody and you didn't have your phone? Is that... Yeah, it's basically like a miniature boot camp. so Okay. Okay.
00:06:05
Speaker
Yeah. So you're just like crazy working out, going, like, tell us for those who don't know, like us, what that is. So you graduate high school end of May, June, and then when do you report to plebe summer? And then what do you do there until you report to school?
00:06:24
Speaker
Yeah. So, so I graduated, uh, end of May and then the end of June, you go into the plebe summer side, about a month off. Um, Yeah, plebe summer is is ah definitely a unique experience.
00:06:40
Speaker
It's something that everybody at the Naval Academy goes through, which is a really cool bonding thing as well. As much as it sucks, it's it's a cool bonding experience. But um yeah, you you work out first thing in the morning.
00:06:52
Speaker
You have no sense of time. There's no watches. Nobody has access to any sort of time. So, you know, they wake you up in the middle of the night and then you'll work out and then you do physical exercises.
00:07:04
Speaker
um other there sort of military stuff. And then, yeah, it's, it's a, it's basic training. Okay. And how did you do, how did, how did you handle that? Man, I survived. I was, on so there's a little bit of ah mixture at the Naval Academy. They have a preparatory school where kids who are working to get the grades to come to the Naval Academy.
00:07:26
Speaker
And so they mix us all together. You have the kids who came direct and the kids who went to the prep school
Mental Strategies for Athletes
00:07:31
Speaker
and they come together during slave summer and I mean, luckily, you know, I had a roommate who went to that preparatory school and I was just leaning on him. head the I was like, hey, now what do we do about this? What we about that?
00:07:41
Speaker
He taught me how to fold my clothes, how to do the bed. So it was, a yeah, it was a survival surviv aal time for me. Do they ever know you're a football player and does that play into how they treat you at all, either for good or for bad?
00:07:59
Speaker
Yeah, the the football guys definitely stand out a little bit. because we're, we're bigger than everybody else by, by a lot. Like, you know, it's not very common. You see, uh, uh, I'm only six foot two 25, but you know, a bunch of my teammates are six, three, two 50 plus. And there's very few people at the Naval Academy or, or even in the Navy who are like that. So we stand out.
00:08:24
Speaker
Um, just depends there. There are some people who like varsity athletes here and some people who think that we get special treatment and, and don't like us for that. But, I never experienced anything bad.
00:08:36
Speaker
I got ah before we jump into some athletic, more specific athlete questions, what's the girl situation like Marcus? I mean, you're, you're, you're 22 years old, right?
00:08:49
Speaker
Yup. Yeah. Like from 18 to two girls are usually a pretty important part of a young man's thought process during the day. How does that work at the Naval Academy?
00:09:03
Speaker
Yeah, so there there are girls at the Naval Academy. and know But are there girls you can date at the Naval Academy, Marcus? Come on now. There's girls. they're young of probablyaganda Look, Marcus, you don't worry about that at all. Dustin and I both have a daughter your age. We'll play rock, paper, scissors.
00:09:23
Speaker
and just i was a I started first, Shad. Stop cutting me off. I was working up. I'm cutting you off with the past, man. He was trying to beat me to the question, Marcus. I got i know somebody that you could date back now. i It's got to be hard, though, right? Because there's there's there's more more men than women on on campus, right? And so, I mean, it's hard. like I assume it's hard, right? you knowt I don't want to make fun of anybody or joke about that. That's got to be hard, right?
00:09:53
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. And yeah like, yeah, especially, you know, i as a member of the church, we
Competing with Respect and Lessons Learned
00:09:59
Speaker
live by by different standards. And it's hard sometimes to find even friends really who are living by those same standards. So, and but it's good. I've been, I'm still looking working on the girl part, but I've got a good group of friends.
00:10:12
Speaker
Cool. Can I ask a question, Dustin, before we jump in? Because it's unique, I think. two You went your first year to the Naval Academy right out of high school, and then you took a year or a two-year break to go on your LDS mission. Do I have that correctly? You went after your freshman year?
00:10:34
Speaker
Yes, sir. Yeah, and I had heard sometimes that's not even possible, so I'm glad to hear that that is possible, but... We ask this a lot. A lot of the people who listen to this podcast are members of the Church of Jesus Christ the Latter-day Saints who choose to forego their career for a little while, their football career and college to go on a mission. What difference has that made in your life and how has that helped you and in football and in the Naval Academy as you've returned?
00:11:04
Speaker
Yeah, going in, so I was recruited by Coach Kenny Amatololo. who was here when I was a freshman. And so I kind of told him, he's also a member of the church, Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints. And I told him coming in, that was what I wanted to do. and And I was blessed that he was allowing me to do that. Yeah, I kind of planned on to coming out of high school. And I'll tell you what, when I left the Naval Academy went on my mission, I mean, I was in Guatemala, so it was, you know, little bit of rubber situation, but it was relatively easy compared to All the things I went through at Cleve's summer and and all the tests and know all the time management and all that stuff, it was relatively easy considering that. But in terms of an athletic perspective, I think it just gave me a a chance to reset. And and more more than anything, mentally, it helped me to come back with, I guess, mentally refreshed and mentally rejuvenated to be able to put my shoulder to the wheel of football and and go all in on that.
00:12:02
Speaker
So let's let's talk football and and sports now. One of the questions that we we dive into a lot and that we're when we
Identity Beyond Athletics and Conclusion
00:12:10
Speaker
speak to athletes or teams, we talk about a lot.
00:12:13
Speaker
And I think your generation gets, in some cases, I think it's fair, but I think it's unfair at the same time or too hard on you as it relates to kids' mental toughness and resiliency.
00:12:25
Speaker
I say that meaning that i I've been a coach for a long, long time and I've been around athletes in my career. And there is a difference in resiliency in in young people now, in my opinion, than 20 years ago. That doesn't mean that there are they're not resilient. they just there're there's a it's It's different. You had to be a heck of resilient to go from Georgia you know up to the academy. So just going to a school away from home, first of all, is hard. Then to play sports and go to school is hard. And then to play sports and go to school and also be training
00:13:01
Speaker
to to possibly, you know, to be a soldier, to, you know, training as ah as a midshipman, that adds a whole other element to it. What have you learned or what what are your thoughts on that, the importance of being resilient and how did you learn how to be resilient? you have any, you know, examples or or lessons you can think about in your life when you were like, you know what, i I knew after this that I could do this. I was resilient. I had to dig deeper.
00:13:30
Speaker
Yeah, I think during my freshman year, especially, was a really, really important time in my life when I realized I could i could kind of do whatever I wanted to as long as I put my mind to it and worked hard.
00:13:44
Speaker
um And one of the ways that i learned that was was through my my schooling and especially the the mental side of the academy. though Those military tests that I was talking about and, um you know,
00:13:59
Speaker
taking 18-hour credits, you know, 18 credit hours during the school year, and then also doing football on top of that. And I think that, especially with regard to those military tests, that was something completely new that I had never done.
00:14:11
Speaker
You know, it's it's one thing with football. You know, I've played football. I've worked out before. But with those military tests, it was something that, man, I had no clue what kind of guns the ship had and where they were shooting and those types of things.
00:14:23
Speaker
As the semester went on, I slowly figured out that there were certain ways to study for these tests. And I slowly figured out that, you know, the right information to look at within the book to study. And I realized that as the semester went on, my grades continue to to increase and to improve a point where i wasn't unsat or I wasn't failing those classes anymore. I was actually doing really well on them.
00:14:46
Speaker
I think that was just ah a time when I realized that being resilient and continuing to show up and look for a way to progress, I helped me to build resilience in that way. Yeah. What about on the football field? you know that you just You just touched on something that coaches say a lot.
00:15:00
Speaker
yeah and you probably said it not will not knowingly, but but that that idea of continuing to show up is a huge, that's a huge thing right there, right? Just showing up is half the battle in most things in life. Sometimes it's just getting out of bed and and getting going when someone's really struggling with depression or with something. It's just it's just one hour at a time and and one one project at a time.
00:15:24
Speaker
you know When you got out there on the football team, as you know, high school football to college football is a huge jump. And a lot of kids don't survive their freshman year. Forget about schooling and and the difficulty difficulty of living away from home and taking college classes. They just can't survive the practices and the the routine of being an athlete, how much more intense the weightlifting is and the film study and and just how much faster the game is.
00:15:52
Speaker
First time you had to make a tackle at linebacker on a college athlete and and get used to that and the I don't know how the coaches are compared to your high school coaches, but was that ah a a difference in something that you had dig down? and and and Did you ever doubt yourself?
00:16:09
Speaker
Yeah, I doubted myself a lot. and To be honest, I feel like that jump from high school to college is a pretty big jump, as you mentioned. One thing that I guess at this past season, so I was going into the the fall camp competing for a starting spot and Ended up tearing my hamstring going into the second week of practice.
00:16:30
Speaker
And, you know, as what as with what happens with injuries, that you know, they got to find somebody to replace me. And what happened was, you know, they found somebody replace me on all the special teams, at linebacker while I was recovering. and And that was a really, really hard time in my life.
00:16:44
Speaker
Because, you know, to be honest, I i felt like, You know, I did everything within my control to you know, be healthy and stay healthy and and avoid injury. Was that something that you had to dig deep and and really check your resiliency or was that easy for you?
00:17:02
Speaker
Yeah, I would say physically and in terms of the game speed, one thing that I've relied a lot on is is the success I had in high school, right? And I think that coming into college, I kind of had this attitude where you know, that's, ah that's high school ball, you know, that's high school, Harry, that's the stuff as my, my coach would say. And I kind of just dismissed it as something that happened in the past. that That's, you know, not, not that important, but I think the one thing I've noticed, especially this season is that no matter what level of football, you know, I'm playing at, if that's in, you know, the biggest game in South bend and Notre Dame or, you know, back in my high school stadium, you know, it's the same, it's the same size field.
00:17:44
Speaker
It's a, the same ball, it's the same scheme, it's the same the same objective to tackle the guy with the ball and and to put the ball in the end zone. And I think that drawing on those experiences from the past of of knowing that, okay, in the past I have been a great linebacker and in the past I have been able to do that has just allowed me to continue to make that part of my identity as somebody who does those things at the college level.
00:18:09
Speaker
That's interesting, Shad. I'm going get your thoughts on that too. And but he just said making that part of his identity is when we're struggling with things, whether that's in sports or just in life, there's ah there's a quote that i I've shared before with you, Shad, um that we are in times of weakness or our fatigue, I think it was. I think it's in times of fatigue that we're werere haunted by thoughts that we conquered years ago.
00:18:37
Speaker
Right. So old things that we took care of years ago and we got over years ago creep back into our mind. And so, you know, you just said that you knew you could do it and you knew you it was going to be hard, but you'd done it before. So you knew you could do it. You know, Shad, there's there's something to that in just in life. Right.
00:18:55
Speaker
I think so. And I think that what Marcus is talking about, almost every athlete that makes a leap, and ah it could be from junior high to high school ball, right? Or it could be high school to college.
00:19:08
Speaker
All of a sudden, every level you go up, everyone was the man, the woman in high school, right? And And so there's this thing where you kind of get this imposter syndrome where you think I'm the only one here that really doesn't belong. Somehow I fooled people into having these opportunities. And as we've talked to a lot of athletes on here, Dustin and and Marcus, it's that inner talk and paying attention to the way you talk to yourself and what you say to yourself seems so important to elite athletes.
00:19:44
Speaker
And if your constant inner talk is, i don't belong, I don't belong, I don't belong, then eventually it's self-fulfilling prophecy. I don't think you are going to belong.
00:19:55
Speaker
But if we're intentional about what we how we talk to ourselves, And I think that's where drawing on the past is super helpful, right? Is, no, I know I belong. Like, I didn't fool anybody. I i earned my spot here. i got here. And now I just need to perform.
00:20:16
Speaker
And I just need to be my best self. And I just need to be resilient when I fail. I just need to come back from injury when that happens. And I belong here. I think that that's something that we should say over and over again in our head. And it's something important to think about and pay attention to. I wonder how many athletes even subconsciously realize that if they concentrate on it, they'll realize subconsciously they don't.
00:20:42
Speaker
They talk so badly about themselves to themselves. No one hears it, but it's all up here. And if we could switch that, and no, I belong. I could do this. I could keep going. Whatever that positive self-talk is, it's really important.
00:20:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, Marcus, you guys talk a lot about, i mean, I'm guessing you have some training or... or I hope you do something to how to handle the mental side of, of just how difficult it is to, to be doing what you're doing. do you get training in that? Or is that something that you just have to kind of figure out on the fly?
00:21:17
Speaker
i would say that we don't really have an official, official training. We have a a sports psychologist who comes and speaks to us and and definitely gives us some good pointers. But I think our coaching staff does a great job of helping us with that.
00:21:30
Speaker
You know, before, Every film session we have, we have a little thought of the day and where we talk about, you know, specific points that will that will help us improve our mental game.
00:21:41
Speaker
And I also think our our strength coach especially has done a great job in teaching us about how to attack challenges in the weight room and attack challenges in life. Like, um you know, sometimes he says that going along with the way you talk to yourself, he tells us a lot of the time that sometimes we don't need to listen to ourselves so much, but we need to talk to ourselves more.
00:22:01
Speaker
We need to tell ourselves, you know, that what we need to do and and the person we want to be. So, yeah. Can I ask a question here, Dustin? I'm always interested, Marcus, in the inner talk of an athlete. and And I want to get specific. I know we've been talking about that, but man, you went through that schedule, wake up at six or 630, you go eat. 45 minutes later, you're in class and then you're eating lunch and then you're in meetings and then you're in practice or an afternoon class, then practice and then back to study. I'm sure there's plenty of times where either you don't want to get out of bed or you get back to your apartment and you don't want to study or you're in the weight room and you don't want to keep pushing.
00:22:45
Speaker
You know, what happens in your mind that helps you those times when you push through and you actually do the thing that's going to make you the best version of yourself. We call that winning the hour. When you say, okay, I have practice now. I know I'm feeling a little bit fatigued or whatever, but I'm going to give it everything right now. I'm going to give it my heart, my mind, everything, or your studies. Can you tell us about what happens in your mind that allows you to push through those times when you don't want to do it?
00:23:19
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. There was a ah story I heard once about a gold miner and this gold miner, he lived on the East coast and he had heard about the the gold rush in California. And so he sold all this stuff and he went, traveled across the United States to California and and in search of gold. And as he's searching for gold, he had read about nuggets of gold and and read about how great the bounty of gold was in California.
00:23:45
Speaker
When he got there and when we actually started looking, he became really, really frustrated and couldn't find the supposed nuggets of gold or or this amount of gold that they had said in the newspapers. One day, he was becoming more frustrated, he noticed that there was another gold miner who walked by had a huge, you know, little pouch of, of big pouch of gold in his pocket. and The one gold miner just asked to see what was in the pouch because he had heard about these big nuggets and thought that the gold miner had a huge nugget of gold in his pocket. And upon further examination, he opened it up and realized that all the gold in the pouch were super tiny flecks.
00:24:21
Speaker
And I guess the the reason that I really like that story is because a lot of times, especially in the monotony of the day-to-day here at the Naval Academy, I need to just look for little specks of gold. Like not everything I do every single day is going to be a huge nugget, and I'm not just going to be you know super lucky and find this huge sense of of enjoyment, fulfillment from studying for a class for a couple hours. But just identifying and looking for little pieces of gold along the way, a little flecks of gold,
00:24:48
Speaker
has really helped me to attack every hour. As you guys say, when the hour we're attacking every tasks and just look for the little things, little ones. That's cool. Yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot to that. Just being a little bit better today than we were yesterday.
00:25:03
Speaker
Right. and And then over time we become a much better version of ourselves. So Marcus, as it relates to winning the hour, that's a principle that you just alluded to that we talk about it, especially for athletes. Time management, we we say go 16 and 0, and that's referring to the 16 hours that you're awake, that you approach each hour like it's the most important hour. And it's like you would a season, right? you're Whoever's on your schedule that week's the most important, and you win that.
00:25:30
Speaker
And then you move on to the next. And then at the end of the year, yeah maybe you went 16 and 0, maybe you went 10 and 6, 8 and whatever. but there's eight hours the day that have to be slept in order to go 16 and oh, at least eight hours of the day.
00:25:45
Speaker
What's sleep like for you, Marcus? And how is that with everything you got going on? you sleep like a baby because of that? Or is it hard to go to sleep? No, I think the sleep is something I ah definitely struggle with quite a bit, mostly because and there's a lot there's a lot to do. you know i think that growing up, you know if if you know if you slept in, it was kind of viewed as you know you're not really working that hard and those types of things. but I think that sleep is important. it's It's ah one thing ive I've been trying to do recently is commit to a time to go to sleep.
00:26:15
Speaker
Almost in the same way you you set your alarm for the morning, setting like an alarm for the evening. i think that's helped me a lot to get get better sleep, get more sleep. see That's ah that you've probably noticed with everything you have to do at the Naval Academy, if you didn't get enough sleep, I'm sure that impacts your day. ah Yeah, I can get off the rails pretty quick. Yeah.
00:26:37
Speaker
Yeah. I'll ask one more and then I'm going to kind of stop talking and let Shab fire some questions out at you. But again, on the win the hour in high school, looking back at high school, did you, were there hours that you wish you could go back and approach differently? And if you were talking to a high school team, what might you tell them about the importance of taking advantage of being where your feet are, being in the moment, you know, whether that's math class or English or practice or at home winning the the hour that you're in?
00:27:06
Speaker
Do you have any advice or things you could give to them? and do you have any experiences of where you look back and realize you maybe could have done better with that principle?
00:27:19
Speaker
Yeah, if I were to tell my younger self or or tell a high school athlete about, you know, winning the hour, i would definitely say to so get an app or get get something where you can plan out your day. I think as a missionary, I learned the importance of that and just the ability to look at your day and kind of look at what's going on.
00:27:38
Speaker
And maybe, you know, you have practice later on in the day, but you have all these free time in the morning. Well, what can I do in the morning, you know, to win the hour so that I'm prepared for practice in the evening?
00:27:49
Speaker
Well, what can I do in class or what should I be doing in class to win to set me up for success further along the road? So, yeah, I would just say get in a habit as soon as possible of looking at your day and planning out what all you should do.
00:28:04
Speaker
That goes to the word we say, Dustin, a lot to be intentional, right? Yeah. It's like so many people, they just let life happen to them instead of steering their time toward those things that matter most to them. And I think all of us have experiences in our life where, for me, it was my mission as well, where you start to realize you have to plan your day and you're trying to be productive and you're trying to do good things.
00:28:27
Speaker
And you start to find those things that really do make a difference in the work, whatever work it is you're doing. And as you could identify those things, I love what you're saying. It reminds me when we had Stephen Covey on, Dustin, and he was saying that one of the most important things for productivity is taking a look at your week, like picking a night and just looking at the landscape of your week and then identifying that discretionary time where you could then be intentional. Say, okay, I have two or three hours right here.
00:28:58
Speaker
I am going to steer those two or three hours toward this thing that I'm trying to accomplish. And then if you did that and laid out your week and then woke up and looked, okay, here, you know, I got a plan. I know what I'm going to do. Then all you have to do is be obedient to yourself.
00:29:13
Speaker
But so many people, I think, just wake up and find themselves in a moment of free time and think, OK, what am I going to do? And so often, like, this is what ends up, you know, winning the day.
00:29:26
Speaker
And then they lose the hour. And so, yeah, I love that thought, Marcus. Can I tell you something that I just heard last week on this Kobe Bryant conversation? video of, you know, I follow a lot of stuff about Kobe Bryant. I'd love this work ethic. But in one interview, he talked about planning his day out, what time he'd wake up, what he would do.
00:29:46
Speaker
And he said that he wouldn't negotiate with himself. And I love that because, and I took it as meaning this, Marcus, we've talked to before about the old Indian or or Native American chief sitting bowl who said that there's two dogs inside of every man and the one that that man becomes, the one that becomes the alpha dog, is the one that we feed the most.
00:30:10
Speaker
So there's the there's the ah version of ourselves that wants to sit down and be lazy all day and watch TV and listen to music and hang out. and then there's a version of us that wants to go and get stuff done and do stuff and and work, right?
00:30:22
Speaker
And the one that we become is the one that we give the most attention to. That becomes the alpha dog. And so in this case of Kobe Bryant, he said, I don't negotiate with myself. And I believe he means he doesn't negotiate with the other dog. Once he he said, once I decide I'm waking up at this time and I'm getting this many shots in and I'm doing this workout and I'm eating this diet today,
00:30:44
Speaker
end of story. Like I committed to it 100%. I don't negotiate with myself because we're pretty good at negotiating with ourselves and talking ourselves out of the new year's resolution, right? Ah, this one time, or I'll go back to it tomorrow, whatever. hit And, you know, Marcus in, in the military, you can't negotiate with yourself because that's, it's absolutely not I mean, it's not even, you can't, you you'd be kicked out, right? There's a level of intensity there and and of expectation to be on time to things and to be present, to be ready.
00:31:20
Speaker
Was that something that you can speak to or or something that you learned that you you feel like was worth some of the pain and sorrow you've gone through adjusting to being at the Naval Academy?
00:31:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'm definitely thankful for all the things I've learned and Yeah, I think it's football, along with the military, has taught me just the importance of being punctual with things. And also, one thing I notice is is, as you're talking about not negotiating with yourself or kind of listening to that inner voice that tells you what you should be doing, is is you learn to to trust yourself.
00:31:53
Speaker
And as much as you know you want other people to trust you in certain situations, it's really important that you trust yourself to to to do those things. I think the more often, but you know, when you follow your daily plan, when you show up to the meeting on time, and when you get the shots and you need to get in, that you start to build trust in yourself and and build momentum ah that leads over to to lots of success.
00:32:15
Speaker
Yeah. So I have a question about army people. now and what am i One of my favorite games of the year, Marcus, is the Army-Navy game.
00:32:26
Speaker
All the regular season is done. It's kind of that almost the introduction to bowl season of of college football. But this year I was especially moved as I watched everyone there, you know, all the all the cadets and all the midshipmen there dressed in their, their military uniforms and the national anthem is being some, and there's this like healthy hatred for one another, right? Where it's like, there's probably no one else in the world that you would rather beat or no other game that you would rather win than that army Navy game.
00:33:05
Speaker
Yet you fast forward a couple of months and And those crews are going to be working together to defend our country. And so it seems like we call it competing without contempt, competing without hatred. and And I just love that game because there's this unified cause, right, where we're going to work together in our lives to defend this country.
00:33:31
Speaker
But right now we're going to try to destroy one another on the field. And that's what we try to teach the compete part. We often put in capitals, like you compete, like you destroy people on the field, but it doesn't have to have, you don't have to have hate in your heart for those people. They are so much like you. And I don't know if there's another group of athletes more like the Naval Academy than the army.
00:33:56
Speaker
Right. And, um, Can you just teach us what you've learned from that dynamic, that very unique dynamic about that principle of competing like crazy, but without hatred for your opponent and realizing you have a lot in common with them?
00:34:17
Speaker
Yeah, here at the Naval Academy, you know, in our weight room, you see it everywhere. It's it's go Navy, beat Army. And I lot of times that message can can definitely be interpreted as as that as having hatred towards the opponent or, or you know, hatred toward those guys. But I think one thing that we can focus on as a team is having a love but for the people in the room, like like having a ah love for your teammate, right? and And playing not so much because you hate the other guy and and you don't like them, but because of the love you have for your brothers on your sideline.
00:34:48
Speaker
And I think that, you know, as you mentioned, after the Army-Navy game is over, We're going to work with those guys. And in essence, they become part of the same team and and we become part of the same team. And it's just um is a good principle to to play for love for your brothers and and for the ones that are with you rather than for hatred of somebody else or because you don't like something else.
00:35:11
Speaker
Yeah. Dustin's shaking his head. want to take that one, Chad? Yeah. Every presentation we do, we quote GK Chesterton. You've probably heard this quote, but... said this during one of the world wars. He's an English philosopher and he said, the true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what's behind him.
00:35:33
Speaker
And we often talk about how love is a way better fuel than hate. Hate, it just seems like it's a fast burning, but unsustainable fuel to try to motivate yourself with because If you always have to find some something to hate in order to get yourself up for a game or for a moment, that's a horrible way to look at life. You know, if you're just looking around trying to find something you hate enough to motivate yourself versus looking around and finding something that you love so much that that becomes your fuel. Whether in your case, it's your teammates, it's your the Naval Academy, it's your your and father and your mother and your family and your faith.
00:36:18
Speaker
That is so much more motivating to a person in life than having to look around and constantly find something they hate bad enough to work hard. So I love that.
00:36:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. well I mean, that you you mentioned it twice there. Did you know both about that quote or did you have you heard that before? or Did you just say that out of. Yes, I've heard it before.
00:36:41
Speaker
We have in the middle inside of make off all they have these things called boards where it's basically a ah bulletin board. And, you know, they decorate them with, you know, quotes and and those types of things. So I've seen, that's a pretty prevalent quote here the Naval Academy is, yeah, loving.
00:36:58
Speaker
Can I fire a couple of questions at you, Marcus? I just thought of, I want to, I'm going to throw a, ah and it might be kind of on the spot, so you don't have to have the perfect answer, but we've done this before, a version of this before with people. um I'm going to ask you four or five people, and I want you to tell me something that you feel like they've taught you to be better? An example or something, that lesson that they've taught you by watching them or or that you've learned from them or an experience. Okay. So i'm going to start with your your dad. We know your dad. What, what has your dad taught you that's helped you be who you are today?
00:37:37
Speaker
i think my dad has taught me a a lot about belief and believing in yourself. He loves to say that, you know, if you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right. And I think that that's something that I love that he's taught me.
00:37:50
Speaker
Yeah. Your dad was that way, by the way, as a player. he He wasn't always the biggest, but he was, he was really, he was probably the leader, I would say um on the year that we only played one year together. But I would look at Gary as probably the tip of the sword, your dad on on our team, his leadership qualities. And he was just always on. You didn't, you didn't, right, Chad? You didn't have many off days from Gary.
00:38:12
Speaker
Nope. Broke his leg. Remember last game of the season, Dustin? Yeah. Goes into the fence. slides and played center field for us and broke his leg and limps in finishes the game. It was last game of the season.
00:38:28
Speaker
Then we find out that he played a number of innings with the broken leg. yeah That's just, that kind of epitomizes Gary Blazer right there. But he was the leader of the leaders.
00:38:40
Speaker
And and then when you hear that his his offspring would be at the Naval Academy, it kind of makes sense. I know. Dustin and I are the most unshocked people in the world, Marcus, that you are where you are, knowing your dad.
00:38:53
Speaker
What about your mom, Marcus? What your mom taught you?
00:38:59
Speaker
i think my mom has taught me a lot about unselfless care and love. There were a lot of mornings, I think, that a So in Georgia, we had early morning seminary. And, you know, I don't know if I've ever had a morning where I didn't have breakfast made for me before I went to seminary.
00:39:14
Speaker
And so I think that that has just been a huge testament to the love that she showed me. And she started yeah she started doing this thing where, you know, every time I hug her before I say goodbye, I have to hug her for eight seconds because it's medically proven for some reason to help or something like that. yeah, I just learned from my mom how to be a unselfless and loving.
00:39:33
Speaker
How many times in the Naval Academy did you long for one of those? i just need an eight second hug from my mom right now during Glebe. I bet i just need a hug. yeah let her and to please so What about your high school coach?
00:39:49
Speaker
ah My high school coach, we had this coach, Matt Dickman. He was there for a while as I was growing up in the in the youth program through elementary school, middle school. And the the main thing that he taught me was being uncommon.
00:40:01
Speaker
We had a you know, a quote about being uncommon and doing the uncommon thing and in the face of adversity and, you know, doing extra reps being uncommon. That's good.
00:40:12
Speaker
um Your college coach. Position coach or head coach? You've had two head coaches. And how many position coaches since you've been there? Two and two. Okay. just just Just pick a coach that's really had an impact on you and what was that for? what What was it that he impacted you with?
00:40:38
Speaker
I think that my coach right now, Coach Volker, has just taught me a lot about enthusiasm for the game of football and enthusiasm for life. and I think a a lot of times, at least for me, sometimes they get fired up on the field and it's hard for me to express that same emotion off the field.
00:40:52
Speaker
I feel like my linebacker coach, Coach Volker, is great at doing that. he He's enthusiastic on the field, off the field, all the time, so I love that about Linebackers are crazy suckers, Marcus. There might not a position...
00:41:07
Speaker
might not be a position that I, as a head coach, am looking for more of the personality to dictate whether or not he can play that position.
00:41:20
Speaker
Quarterback, and and but the linebacker is, you might say you play linebacker, but I got to see a little bit of crazy in you. Like, you got to have 2% like crazy, crazy to play linebacker.
00:41:31
Speaker
Like, I got to like, you got to be a dude that if you got challenged to like, you know, light your eyebrows on fire, you'd be like, sure, why not? Like, I'm nuts, right? Like, let's do it. Like, you got have some crazy in you. So talking to you here, Marcus, you're all dressed up and you're you're so proper and you're, yes, sir. and you're But I know on the field, you got it you have a little bit of crazy in you, right?
00:41:53
Speaker
Yes, sir. Yeah, I can. I just let myself loose on the field. It's, you know. Yeah. That's awesome. yeah You keep your cards close to you. you You're this calm, quiet,
00:42:04
Speaker
You know, ah a humble dude off the field, but I know on the field you let crazy Marcus go and that dude's a wrecking machine, man. I've seen you play, so I know that's the case. So um what about, what did your mission teach you?
00:42:17
Speaker
I mean, being away for people who aren't members of of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they probably know that, you know, a lot of times the 18 or 19, when your your dad and and Chad and I were, we go on these two-year missions. And whether you believe in what we believe in or not, it's the fact that you do it. I have a son in Australia right now. Shad has a daughter in the Philippines. It's what they do is good, that they're trying to help people and do good things. And it's hard. It's difficult to leave your home for two years and and be trying to help other people every day. So what did that teach you? know there's a lot. There's a million things. But one thing that came out of being a missionary
00:43:00
Speaker
that you would say, man, that really, i really am better at this because I was a missionary.
00:43:08
Speaker
I'm just kind of going back to the identity part. We were talking about identity a little bit earlier. Yeah. I think that coming out of high school, I had kind of made that my identity, right? and Being a football player. And then being able to take a two-year break from it has allowed me to recenter my identity on Jesus Christ and the relationship I have with him.
00:43:27
Speaker
So, you know, rather than my identity being based off of a good practice or a bad practice. It's based on Jesus Christ and my relationship with Him. So that's that's probably the main thing I learned on my mission.
00:43:40
Speaker
That's awesome. that's that's That's great. And Marcus, you're from, seriously, from from a coach, from a dad, and also just as an American,
00:43:51
Speaker
Like, thank you for everything you do, man. We need more young men like you in our country to lead our country, to defend our country, to marry the daughters of of dads like Shad and me and and and just to see what I did there, Marcus. And...
00:44:08
Speaker
just to Just to be good. I tell my football players all the time to be a real man. And we talk about what a real man is. And, you know, you you seem like the type of kid that's that's a real man to me that that understands what that means. And we need more more dudes like you. So thank you for all you do. Chad, I'll give you the final word. But Marcus, sincerely for me, thank you. And thank you for joining in our podcast and giving us some some insights.
00:44:36
Speaker
Thank you, Dustin. You know, Dustin, my thoughts went the same. I've often thought and taught in this program, we try to teach athletes to use their sport light is what we call it, that extra attention that comes to them from being athletes, from being some of the biggest, strongest, fastest athletes.
00:44:53
Speaker
to to lift and help others. And those like yourself who use your strength, your abilities, everything that you've been given to make others feel safe instead of scared, to protect instead of persecute. It's super admirable and and you and all the midshipmen that are with you and all those that are like you. It's just always an honor for us to talk with you because you are the best of the best and we all owe a debt of gratitude for the freedoms that you maintain and provide.
00:45:29
Speaker
I just want to say thank you as well. And we love you. We love your dad. We feel like we've known you for a long, long time and watched your whole development. And it's fun to see you where you're at right now. And so congratulations. That has come by living the principles we've talked today. And we just hope that you'll you'll keep it up. And we just appreciate so much you taking, carving out this time and your busy schedule to be with us today. So thank you, Marcus. It's a pleasure to meet you.
00:46:00
Speaker
Well, thank you for having me on. and And, you know, what can we do to help you guys out with your with your program? What can do to help you all? Well, this is great. and And there might be some other things that will hit you up on, Marcus.
00:46:11
Speaker
In fact, we'll we'll maybe talk off air about that because there there might be some things that you can do to help us. But right now you got to go hit the weights because you guys got to beat Notre Dame next year. Dang it. Yep.
00:46:22
Speaker
Let's go. Yeah. You beat Army every year. You beat Army all the time. You got to beat Notre Dame now. Yeah. You got to. You got to get into CFP or something. There you go. There you go.
00:46:33
Speaker
Well, hey, everybody, thank you for joining the Especially for Athletes podcast. Keep your eyes up and do the work. Thank you for joining the Especially for Athletes podcast. 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.