Kobe talks to Central Washington DB, Pat Rogers, about going from a small school to the CFL!
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joining the show tonight it’s the first team All-American from The Evergreen State that’s a new nickname I figured that one out today uh this guy put up some wildly impressive numbers it’s pro day looking to take his play to the next level sounds like got some great news for us in the show here from the secondary at Central Washington It’s Pat Rogers what’s up fella how you doing I’m doing great nice to be on this on this show dude P to get you on here and and talking even you know we were gonna get to it later but kind of the next steps moving forward you know it sounds like you’ve got a great opportunity in front of you right off the gig go here man let me hear it yeah so um I was going through this whole process was a little anxious but um not exactly what I wanted but yeah ended up finding out that I would be going to a winning Pick for the Blue Bombers so pretty excited for that opportunity that’s big time dude and yeah like you said maybe not um the way in your brain you saw this playing out beforehand but there’s just so many one the percentage of dudes that you’re a part of now like that Elite percentage Everyone likes to talk about the percentage of D that go play college football in the first place and even play any lick of professional football I don’t even know what kind of fractions we’re looking at but they’re small right right and and you’re one of the guys one of the many guys that didn’t hear their name called this weekend and being at a smaller school is a huge part of that one D2 player drafted this year like I’m going into this that’s why I’m not a talent evaluator we’re going to talk a lot about a lot of guys that hopefully are going to you know make some next steps just like you are um but it’s a good thing I’m not a t evaluator I thought at least like five at least I thought that was like the bar like seeing these guys in their draft grades coming out the prod day numbers um and although you maybe didn’t expect to be a part of that draft class I know something after the draft you were certainly expecting to be in the conversation for a lot of those udfa deals and those things what was that experience like they had to be tough especially seeing some other guys at your level start to Ink those deals yeah um so the team or so there’s a draft class that I trained with and there was probably like eight guys and so seeing them all get signed I was like okay I might be next you know what I mean because I’m training with them put up just as good numbers um but then yeah when they all were you know signing those deals and stuff I was like dang I’m not getting that call and so I was like I kind of already had like a plan B and that was you know um go to that CFL that CFL route so when I didn’t get that call I was just like well I just got to make the best of it you know and so yeah it was it was a little anxious a little rough but I think God has a plan plan for me and so it might not be what I wanted but it’s G to be what’s best for me 100% like I was kind of saying earlier like that doesn’t have to be the the end for you right it certainly is not an end in the road it’s just taking a different path maybe to where you eventually want to end up and I think guys have to understand that too like that’s you know what I mean from an outsider perspective that might be this incredible drop off but there are so many guys that have made that exact Journey you’re not the first one to do it you won’t be the last um I think that’s a pretty comforting idea like whatever I go through in my life I’m like man there’s a good chance that I’m not the first dude that’s had to go through this and there’s a better chance that I won’t be the last one so um I think I think that’s big time but now you’re in a spot where you know you’ve earned that opportunity now you get to go out show the skill set off when did you make ultimately that decision was that conversation with uh you know your agent or whoever is representing you of hey maybe we should look at this other route of going to like a CFL UF whatever that kind of alternate option was when did that come about originally um it was so I had I was kind of late to signing with my agent um but we started talking more about it kind of when we first started talking um because he was saying you’re coming from a smaller school and the chances of you you know getting the undrafted free agency would be pretty slim and then on top of that going to rookie camp and then having to make the rookie camp and then you know go to the fall Camp so it’s such a long process and he had just called me two days ago what’s today Monday yeah so he had called me on Saturday Sunday um after the draft happened and he was just like these are you know the options that you’re going to that we could look forward into you know I mean have a higher possibility of still getting to the professional route and um yeah and so yeah we was talking about that and I was kind of talking to my girlfriend too um because she’s been a big role into like this whole process so I was talking to her and then yeah my agent the last two days and uh yeah that was kind of decision and for me it’s just it’s just all about opportunity and so I looked at it as yeah I can do these two years um get some film still develop my skills because I think that’s what a lot of NFL you know Scouts are looking at like yeah he played D2 and is you know the competition level isn’t necessarily there and so I looked at as just opportunity just to continue just to build skill set my mindset um and yeah and just continue just to be an overall better person and so and I think that’s a big part of the conversations too and then you talked about right at the beginning is that like this wasn’t a oh moment like oh I didn’t get my name called we have to figure out like something else has this was something that you guys acknowledged that in the first place and like we’re going to have something prepared because for someone like you um not that you don’t have a backup plan outside of football and that you’re not prepared for Life After football but obviously you’re putting all your chips into this right now and you’re 100% invested in this so for you to not be prepared to have alternate rots to get to that end goal would be foolish because you’re putting so much into this like you said you’re training um at this level with all these guys who are you know have the same goals as you um and that’s I think that’s a really important part of of that conversation but let’s talk about you talk about the numbers let’s talk about your prod day a bit man because you put up some ridiculous numbers talk about that experience and maybe what you learned from there there you had to leave that pro day uh feeling pretty confident yeah I was pretty happy um so going into the pro day I was I didn’t have a pro day at all and so the place I was training at was fsp in Belleview of north of Seattle um so yeah I was training up there and I was just trying to like just build my connections and just use my resources to my best uh you know best advantage and so I ended up talking to one of the guys I at woo and I was like you know can you talk to your coach and maybe you know try to find out a way that I can you know get your guys Pro Day get into your guys pro day and he said so he ended up talking to him and then I ended up getting into the prod day but I needed a scout to invite me and so I ended up having to connect and you know getting my way into there and then wo they had they they was going to be doing the pro day outside and so they ended up doing a joint pro day with Idaho and so that’s why while doing Idaho ended up going into the yeah doing indoors because it was just they didn’t want no weather to factor in everybody’s numbers and stuff like that and so yeah just being there was probably like 25 athletes there so like about 10 and 10 each from you know wazo and Idaho but going in there it was pretty cool experience just being able to be in that position like I said before like nobody in my senior class even had the opportunity to go to a pro so for me to represent um all the small School guys and my team it was it was an honor to do that and to put up those numbers it was even cool I wish I would have ran a little bit faster and I’m G still know continue working on my speed but um overall yeah I was pretty impressed I had jumped to 40 and a half but they ended up scratching me so I was kind of bummed out about that man but still to get that 39.5 I think that really like gave me more confidence and for like the rest of the pro day kind of like set the tone like okay I’m going have a pretty solid day and yeah and the other thing that kind of like BM me out I did the shuttle by like four times and so I was like super tired you know like with the emotions going and stuff you get tired pretty quick and so after doing that four times I was like dang but I never really let those things kind of like deter or like kind of set the tone for you know set the rest of the day so I just trying to brush that off and just kept going about my business and had a pretty good uh fi day with the drills and stuff like that so yeah I was pretty I like overall I was really impressed and really just thankful for that whole opportunity yeah and that’s got to be any if anything just fuel for you moving forward because yeah um it’d be one thing if you went in there in your numbers where there was just this large disparity between the guys that are um getting those deals right now and you you know there’s this big gap then you’re like okay like that that’s kind of tough to overcome you train in those areas but the fact that you’re like the the cut off is is not here it’s here right and you’re very close um now everything at least at least again correct me if I’m wrong but from an outsider’s perspective everything is in your control and so now you control what happens next um assuming you get in there go into winipeg earn yourself a job earn yourself a spot and start making plays now you have things in front of you that are under your kind of your control which is uh I would imagine a much more comfortable part of the process because everything up to this has been giving away control you do everything you can control what you can but there are these all these variables and other things and trying to get people to believe in the player and person that you are so I’d imagine there’s a sense of comfort over these next couple steps and that’s all I ever told myself is just control the controllable and that’s your your emotions and the way you approach things and I always also told myself was just take advantage of all the opportunities as long as I’m given an opportunity then I’ll take care of the rest and so so far that’s what I’ve done and now I got another opportunity at the CFL and so I’m going just take advantage of that do what I have to do hell yeah dude that’ll be that’ll be awesome and I was telling you ear like man as an American too like it’s tough to I mean I shouldn’t assume like do you have like are you Canadian like do you have any like in there or I don’t cuz there’s some guys I know like there was a quarterback for uh Augustana Casey I think it was who uh went to the CFL draft and like had that kind of like really in there like back pocket because you know it’s a lot easier to get into the league if you’ve got that I don’t know if it’s like a dual citizenship thing whatever the hell’s got going on but um if you’re an American it’s tough because you’ve obviously got the limits on those rosters so not only are you just trying to make a pro roster you’re only one of what is it like 20 or less yeah is there somewhere around there right and it’s like you’re not only can you be in this position group might be tough but just as an American they might be at their limit so um you definitely you know got a lot of stuff ahead of you but let’s talk about that uh that Wildcat Squad in 23 man and you guys uh surprised a lot of people myself included but we start at the beginning of the Season Weber State FCS side Montana Tech an nii Squad that came out and I’m sure you guys took some Flack for that one but they panned out to be a really solid football team and now for me you know I I wasn’t really hip to you guys at the beginning of the season to be honest but heading into week three you got Angelo State number nine team in the country this kind of losing thing could have turned into a real slide at that point but you bounce back make some big plays defensively and turn that one around what did that do for your guys season man that had to be such a big Turning Point man I think it’s just a a testament to our resiliency like coming into Weber State for me I wasn’t able to play because I was going through ankle surgery and I had okay got little injury during the fall camp but um for the Weber State game we was tied up 14 14 at halftime and so we started getting like a little bigheaded we like okay we can hang with these guys they’re not as good as we as we thought they were but then you know the good teams always know how to finish and so that’s something we had to learn and then going into the Montana te game um they’re at ni so we kind of overlooked them we’re like not taking as serious but then when that I think it was good that we lost because it turned everything or turned our whole mindset around and we’re like man we can’t take the rest of the season light you know I mean we got to come into practice every day with the mindset of wanting to get better every single day and so um I think if it wasn’t for us losing to Montana T I think we would have got complacent and kind of like went into each week you know thinking we’re this good of a team and probably would have lost cuz we throughout the whole season we was winning a lot of the close games and that’s what it’s really it don’t matter how how you win um or how it looks as long as you get that du but so uh yeah going through this host after the Montana T game uh going to Angelo we’re like we knew we had to beat them because they’re the you know reigning conference Champs and it’s something that we had to get done and after beating them it was like okay let’s now let’s focus on going one and0 each week and so that’s kind of how it just turned out for the rest of the season and yeah it’s just we have that that chip on our shoulders that Underdog mentality and so cuz we’re not the biggest we’re not the fastest you know we don’t really pass the eye test when you look at as a team but knew how to play we just knew how to play together and how to finish that was the biggest thing I think from this year to the previous previous years of our uh teams is being able to finish especially the close games yeah and you went after that Angelo State game I believe it was uh was it Western Oregon you had two picks that game yeah oh yeah that was that probably felt nice too keep it keep it rolling there um but uh what’s nice about that I mean that you start 0 and2 but then you get into that Angelo State game and that’s start a conference play so in a sense that’s clean slate for you guys too moving forward and and all those goals that you talk about at the beginning of the season are still very much on the table the conference Championship being one of them and you guys were very close to accomplishing that one regular season doesn’t end the way you want it to a tough one against uh UTPB who just came out of nowhere um their offense just exploded out of nowhere but you guys turn into just the definition of Road Warriors in the playoffs go out and beat some teams once again surprising a lot of people myself the guys in this room we were talking about playoffs you surprised all of us um I mean you talk about beiji Western like those are games you won the close games before you did it in the playoffs it’s just a testament to this team man what where did that come from I think it was just continue to keep the ball rolling you know what I mean um even I and also when we had lost that conference Championship we’re like it’s kind of like a reset you know a reset button into the playoffs we’re like okay we got clean slate kind of just like with the Montana you know we had a clean slate with the conference um conference plays and so that was kind of just our mentality is just like we’re always going to be counted out no matter what some people don’t even believe we should be here because we lost to the Montana Tech and we’re like let’s just prove people wrong let’s prove ourselves right at the end of the day and it was crazy that we had to go travel back to back to back weeks and it was kind of tough but it was it was well worth the experience and man I was just proud of our guys for being able to accomplish that traveling ain’t nothing new to you guys I mean yeah pretty isolated out over there when the hell are we G to get some more teams out that way man the fact that you guys every away game is a damn near cross-continental trip like the bus trips the traveling so we got a fly commercial so that’s five hour trip and on top of that we got to take the bus when we do arrive to Texas and that’s like another depending on how far the you know the airport is so that’s like another 2 three hours of the bus ride so it’s the experiences is pretty fun because you get the bomb with your teammates yeah but the to it takes on your body because I had some times where like I come off the bus my joints is aching I’m like man we gotta get ready for this game tomorrow yeah I’m no stranger to bus trips our typical away trip up here at Northern is like anywhere between 6 and N hours so like I I get it there but that’s even to a lesser extent than what you guys are kind of dealing with man I the the lack of smaller School football on that West Coast is uh is definitely a frustrating one it’s a it’s a weird deal but uh talk about uh the dynamic of that defensive backfield bringing Tanner back for that Squad is obviously going to be a huge piece what was the dynamic like with YouTube out there uh at first so we had like a different safety position cuz um previous year before that we had a strong safety his name was Jalil um he he did really good for our cuz our strong safety he’s in the box so he’s you know like the more of the Run stopping safety yeah and he ended up leaving so that was kind of like a big piece to like our boundary like our defensive backside and so when he left we had ended up adding um a different safety but it didn’t end up like working out how we wanted to so we had to move Tanner from free safety to strong safety and you know the rest of History ended up like working out really good for him because yeah ended up getting a crazy 13 interceptions and I ain’t never seen like just being a part of that was just crazy to see like how are you just always in the right position to get the ball like man but it really helped our team and that’s what led us to I think the playoffs too it’s not like a oneman thing but yeah um turnovers is really big and he always found a way to get the job done when it really counted and so and that had to do with everybody just doing their job you know the dline getting to the quarterback and you know the corners or the Nickels you know everybody just doing their job and so um with the defensive backfield it was experience we had the most experienced out of all the positions um but I was the only senior so they’re gonna be coming with more experience more you know other guys so it be I don’t know that’s good and I don’t know if they’re gonna plan on moving Tanner back to free safety or safety just it just depends we’ll leave that we’ll let the other teams figure that out week zero or week one or whatever they got a week zero this year uh I believe so I think do they okay I know a lot a lot of teams have have toyed with that which is awesome I love that we’re adding that to D2 Ball but uh what’s uh next steps for you when do you uh when do you get up there and start working have any of those dates been finalized yet or you’re still like very early process as far as winter Peg goes I believe uh the Camp starts May 6 so that’s next Sunday yeah super early damn okay turn over and so I think I’ll probably I have to talk to the people um from Winnipeg but I should be leaving around Sunday okay and get down there and then yeah get get the ball rolling and so uh plan on doing that and I think the camp is three weeks long y so that’ll be from May all way up until end of yeah end of May and then I’m not sure when the CFL season starts I think it’s like mid June yeah so things you figure out real quick yeah you’ll figure out real quick I’m over here watching you know CFL stuff and trying to learn the rules and understand the game a little bit more so when I do get there it’s nothing new to me and so it would be like an easier transition but yeah I’m not I’m not new to like all the you know tough situations that I’ll be put in so I think I’ll be just fine I just go to you know just ask questions and bond with the guy so you’ll make the most of it dude it’s going to be exciting gonna be exciting next what couple weeks month for you man I’m excited to to follow along and and see where it takes you dude like you said just the first step you don’t know what uh step two looks like but all you can control is is what you got in front front of you man keep that mindset you go a long way brother real sweet well Pat I appreciate it man that’s all I have for you tonight appreciate you for letting me be you know be on this this podcast it was an honor especially like just seeing that like I was saying earlier um previously just seeing that you had made a video and then had my name mentioned I’m like man that’s pretty cool because hell yeah my whole life is just me being an underdog and trying to get my name out there it was just somehow I just couldn’t but slowly but surely you know having pro day is allowing me to get myself out there so hey I might have been the first I ain’t goingon to be the last right you know what I’m saying sweet sweet brother well have a good night I’ll talk to you man appreciate you thank you see you [Music]
