Sept 10th - Edmonton Elks WR Austin Mack

0:00You're listening to Jason Greggershow presented by play Alberta dot C a remember if you gamble use your game sense Stay within your limits go to game sense dot a b dot C a as we are joined by the leading receiver on the green and gold Austin Mac joins us once again Austin welcome back to the show man. How you doing? What's up Jason? I'm great man. Please drive me. Hey, I appreciate it I'm on a game day Austin when you get to the to the stadium early You go through your routine like the other games are on earlier. It's quadruple Will you watch bits and pieces of the other games? I might watch the first one on the earliest one, but I probably won't be able to get to that second one I'm kind of you know by time I take my early afternoon nap It's it's locked in time in our game kind of not worried about anything else. Okay, that's totally valid Um, your team just continues to show no quit your offense was dominant in the in the fourth quarter I talked to Cody buddy says yeah, obviously everybody wants to score if you drive it's it's not gonna happen

1:01But you end up with 38 points without like a crazy statistical numbers from really anybody no receiver had like 150 yards There wasn't any running backs with massive numbers even the quarterback didn't have it yet You still put up 38 points how? Yeah, man, um, I think more than more than anything Um, you know, we were playing complimentary football as soon as that third quarter kind of kind of happened after they scored that last time with that field Well, I mean it was comping me in football. So we had great field position right we're getting balls of the midfield Right, so shorter fields, but we're putting once we got into the end zone we were four for four Right, and that was the biggest thing for us right and being able to score once we got into the red zone I mean, that was a big big test. I mean, I was being able to come back with touchdown So I'll say that now speaking of touchdowns You have eight receiving touchdowns already this season, you know crushing your previous career high by quite a bit and you still got you know a third of the season left to go What is it about the red zone? You know, where you're feeling confident Cody?

2:05Obviously trust you in that area what what has led to to you being You know only the two-month-rol guys are ahead of you as far as touchdown receptions go this year I Also, so I can you hear me somebody try to call me oh yeah, no problem Yeah, I can hear you. Yeah, um, sorry Question about red zone. Yeah, no just about you and your touchdowns. You got eight touchdown receptions this year You know you're killing it for a personal high third most in the league right now Is it just a chemistry factor? Obviously, I'm assuming there's some confidence of between you and Cody But when you get into that red zone to say okay, I can just beat guys now What's led to the success for you having so many receiving touchdowns so far? I mean, I got to really give it to Jordan. I think um, you know a big big A big reason to our success Cody success my success rings just the whole team You know is Jordan just put in this and in good positions great positions be able to execute at a high level You know, Cody's and I's relationship is always going to be what it is. It's going to be great And especially when we're out there being able to

3:06To throw the pixie in around but Jordan puts us into great positions and he's been calling it really really good good situations for us and it's been able to work out and Man just also just really blessed and thankful for for health and being able to be on the field You know, you know that stats come right and such just come as you continue to play the game with football But we're winning football games and that's all that matters, you know what I mean, so The uh the stadium at at McMahon It seems more crowned than some of the other fields Austin and you know You watch some of the passes and it looks like it's you know guys higher or lower Is it different for you as a receiver when you're running routes? There was a little it was actually a pretty significant so um, you know We actually didn't need to practice and run through a lot of out breaking routes um You know, I don't really notice it too much I think it was it's more on the quarterback because where they sit they sit higher than us, especially being a receiver. Oh wide. So

4:07You know for him, especially, you know, some things just kind of kept sailing and and also weather, but I'm not a quarterback at any day. I I don't care. I got to be in the right spot the right time. So, you know, any of that stuff. I try to, you know Block out don't use it as an excuse, you know, but um, I definitely think especially there there is a little slight a couple of inch difference high watch Going into the rematch having just played this secondary and the guys that you're going to go up against um, you know Obviously you watch film, but it's probably fresh in your mind. Oh, okay. I think I can beat this guy here This guy's susceptible is there an advantage? Do you feel as a receiver up against a DB in a rematch? Yeah, I mean 100% I mean they never know what's coming They they had the best surprise of playing us the first time really it's more of a surprise seeing a guy for the first time When you kind of know their tendencies, you got a good feel for them same thing when you see you see the guys You get to go against every day in practice. You kind of already know them right so now with things they haven't seen and now get to game

5:07Playing again. I'm excited. Can't wait. It's gonna be a drier day We biggest thing is that team runs through their defensive line I mean they got two of the best rushers and edge rushers in the game That's the problem right so as long as we can keep Cody up keep Cody being able to hit his fifth step his seventh step confidently step into the pocket and rip the ball I feel extremely confident right with art with our ability At the receiver positioning is their DB's right so I think they're obviously their matchups up front so Austin Mac joins us lead and receiver for the eminence and elks. I just shy of a thousand yards already has eight touchdown receptions and they look to a clinch of playoff spot Saturday with a victory over the Calgary stamp eaters and Austin you know the offense Every now and then you're going to need a spark and it seemed that your spark came in Powell on that one series You just kind of got the running game going and everything kind of went after that and I don't know how much you knew about the guy But for a small dude man he was pretty hard to take down Um like I was I was pretty impressive just how often he was bouncing off guys

6:12How much did his injection kind of really just kickstart you guys in that game? Man, I mean Sunday had a great great first name. I mean Obviously we got to clean up you know the punts and kickoffs and catch an evolve but That guy is a freak athlete you get the ball on his hands man And we've seen it you guys haven't seen it but we saw it all through camp right all through preseason Um and that's the product of the CFL There's really really talented players that have to stay on practice water right because you got guys like just a rink in ahead of them or javon leak and then Somebody gets hurt in the CFL season then you get your opportunity and he got his opportunity that guys are really Really dynamic player and you got to see it. There's a couple um, especially in the return game Broke a couple of tackers was able to get us to the midfield towards any of the game. I mean Huge huge absolutely huge plays right and especially on that on that one time We're you're mentioning he came in and off obviously got our run game going I mean the guy is electric and it's all about man. How can we just get the ball on his hands? Right? So

7:12I'm excited for him to keep building, you know And for any of the you know, you got his first touch out to him cfo Which is awesome as a professional So it's just it's super exciting to see guys like that just come in you know Graphs those moments be ready for the moment and and be able to shine a little bit So um side of size of the limit for that kid for sure What about his block on the one play now when you guys are in film where we like this are the coaches highlighting that like you know The little guy there with a massive block massive buck. I think it was the number eight or something came yeah crashing through the aircraft and he yeah It was um Yeah, man. I mean, that's hard. That's this team though. There's no Eagles right when you think about the type of people that are gonna put their their bodies out for each other It's for each other and that is but that's championship DNA, you know, and we all want to buy up, you know Well, I'll care about each other. We're all want to play for each other and when you have that cross the board I mean, it's just so good to see it's so good to see we're all bought in The guy that just came in for the first time has watched Devon and and ranked do it all year come in and be ready for that Well, I mean, it's just great to see right like that's who this team is and so we just got to keep keep obviously stacking it up right that you know for us. It's it's

8:21First quarter for us is obviously first down efficiency Right, you know if we can get to second and medium and stop freaking getting penalties and being a second and 20 second and 16 second and 11 We're being a lot a lot better situation when those four defense alignment can strap their chin straps and they're like Oh, this is past let's go right it puts us in a hard position. So I think obviously we clean that up I'm ready for the striker rematch days. I don't know about you dude. I'm freaking ready. You can be hyped up talking about this stuff man. I like it Well, I know that you guys were actually six for six when you were on second and medium um second you guys were second and long 16 times and 11 of them were ten yards or more right and that's just it's a tough situation Right, so when you look at you know, you talked about the penalties early on and then just first down efficiency is as one of the leaders Where do you feel how do you guys get there on a more consistent basis right like every team and tell your perfect That's what you want to prove and that maybe is the small areas. It's not costing you points

9:23You're still scored 38, but how do you feel or what has to happen for your group to be better on first down efficiency? Yeah, and I'll give you the message that came from the top down right Jordan Jordan said to himself number one Well, he has to put us in better positions. He mentioned it himself right and that starts with us just doing our job We don't got to be Superman. We just got to do our job Get to second and medium get the first down whatever it takes but ultimately being in right there's a few things They give us a few raincos this week. We weren't ready now. We're ready for it. I think it's thing is Obviously put us in a better position and two we just got to execute at a high level do our job Just do your job and it shouldn't take a whole half to stop for us to start doing our jobs You know how to mean Jason we should be able to to play four quarters of football We've probably only played three quarters and a half maybe three and a half you know three and a half of full Offensive football where you could play four quarters. They said we'd be blowing people out 50 get 50 points 50 plus points And like that's how good we are All right, so the one thing I've noticed this year that's a little different and maybe it's because there's more scoring but

10:26I've noticed teams on the coin flip when they win They used to always defer a lot of your games. They're taking the ball early on in yeah, and I want that Bro, I want that boy. Yeah, so and that's and I like that because everyone's oh you differ you get in the second half I'm like, yeah, but whatever I want to get up on him early right is so if you guys win the toss Are you taking the ball now two more? Yeah, we're taking a bit. Yeah, we're trying to take the ball the biggest thing I mean, it's attitude is mentality. I mean um You know, I think we started that off weeks is sweet three of the season we're in Winnipeg We won the toss we took it went down a score and I think ever since we did that We're just like no, it's time we get the wall We get the opportunity to take the ball We're taking it and we want to go out and really our first 12 plays our intro like our opening plays our script That should be hey, we're gonna go put this in the end zone and that's how it's been So I think I think we're gonna get back into the string of things this week I think George's gonna have us in a really really good position here To start this game off fast Austin Mac joins us and you guys had some great starts obviously the last two not where you want

11:28But the finishes were unbelievable and you get the wins and now you're in a position To I know at the start of the year you your team. I think it was the first or second day training camp Coach kill him outline what your goals were as a team and one of those goals was to make the playoffs Well, you get a win on Saturday and that's step one right is is to qualify for the postseason You're into the The final third of the season You know, it's a best year in eminence in a long time And I know it's your first year. She's you're like hey, this should be this way all the time But I really sense that your group believes you're good Yet you're not satisfied and you still feel there's more to give as your team. How do you reach that next level? I think it's it's it's on the leaders not to take some of these young guys and we're on the arm You know and and really help them Get to that next level, right? I think there's just little details That a vet might be able to do unconsciously, but we're not gonna be doing consciously if we're a younger player

12:28Um, I think that's the thing that we just need to do starts with leadership and I think Um as we get into this last bit of the season, I think more more time spent in this this building here more time of us being around each other um and us we've gone through situations where we've got adversity. We've been down 20 points. We're looking at like easy way we could get to just turn down Put our tails between our legs walk to home. All right fire of the bless boys like you know we could easily have done that But I'm out of resilience that we've shown Now it's just about okay, we'll start that from the beginning and just keep that same mentality throughout the rest of the rest of the game And I think it's just on our leadership and and we're starting to make sure that we do that have that mentality across the board and Man, I just hope more than anything that You know the city's excited, you know like for me. I'll have known his playoff football in the CFL You know, this is my four-year. I've been to two great cuffs in three So I'm expecting nothing other than a great cup, right? So I'm hoping I'm hoping you know we have another big big crowd out this weekend

13:29And we just continue to keep taking that one step. We know we haven't played perfect, right? So that's always the goal It's never it's never always perfection, right? But that's always what we want to strive for. How can we continue to keep taking that step and You know, we're actively doing that right? Nobody's asking us about red zone lately. So that's been good You know, I mean Jason Like when you were in Montreal, Austin as a rookie He was like that's the first time the guy played football really It's a wild story man like you're a receiver like to see what this guy did in that short period of time You know 26 years of age to to go play div two college. He had a half a semester left

14:34What do you make of that and what do you think robo stellie is going to add to your receiving cord nowadays healthy? I think his story is amazing. I keep telling him all the time do tell your story more often did You know, I mean, but that's the it's the greatest thing about football. It doesn't matter where you come who you are You know, if you if you're good football player, they're gonna find you and and that's exactly what happened with Joe now Joseph that Joe's played in big games. He knows The CFO game. He knows the nuances. He's a physical bigger receiver. He's gonna help our run game like crazy He's gonna make big plays. Yeah, he might have had a couple of knock-owns last game. This is first game He's gonna walk he's gonna clean that shit up y'all He's gonna be a freaking menace this guy is really really good Super excited that he's been able to get into the lineup now. It's just about him being a pro. Stay healthy man You're gonna feel shitty all right. All right. Let's get this workout in. Let's get back to it. We've got another week And not about him to continue still building right? Have what five-ish games to finish the season get with us to the playoff run here excited for him He's a hell of a player man. We really needed them when TJ went down and I know he's gonna step up and and be even better so

15:40It's good to have you on the show man. We appreciate it and Continued success enjoy the the rematch on Saturday. It's trending like it's gonna be a crowd above 30,000 again Maybe even higher so we look forward to that man as always great to have you on the show Appreciate you Jason. Thank you for having me. God bless