Eric Schmidt spoke about his new job as San Diego State defensive coordinator.
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00:00 a little bit. Did you know Lewis other than playing against him last year? I
00:03 didn't know. We hadn't had a prior relationship. We did. We had some mutual
00:07 colleagues that that we got in touch with, but but no, it kind of happened
00:12 fast and had an opportunity to, you know, obviously do some research on
00:16 Sean and great guy. You know, I mean, everybody speaks highly of him and and
00:20 yeah, it was just one of those things where kind of got on the phone and did
00:24 some zooms and things clicked. You know, there's some chemistry there and and
00:27 one thing led to another. So a little bit of mixed emotions because you're
00:30 getting promoted going on to something new and exciting it. You're still part
00:33 of this, which has been good for you. Yeah, no question. I think you know, you
00:38 look at this place and it's special. I mean, that's we've been able to have
00:41 some success here in all phases, and I think that's, you know, it's a credit
00:44 to the other coaches here. The players. I mean, you know, the whole
00:49 organization. You know, Caitlin's done a great job here and people, you know,
00:53 wanna want to be able to probably get in and crack the code a little bit of
00:57 Hey, man, why are they successful and things like that? And we've been able
00:59 to do that. And, um, you know, it leads to opportunities. So I'm just real
01:03 appreciative of all the other assistant coaches. The players here like it's,
01:07 you know, that success is what's led to other opportunities. Was there a
01:11 decision to be made about whether you'd leave right away or stay? Or was that
01:15 always something that you knew that you're gonna be here throughout the
01:18 CFP? Yeah, I mean, I just think you know, you got you got to do things for
01:22 for our players and for the guys around here and feel like, Hey, man, you, you
01:26 know, I just feel like you owe it to him to to finish the job, you know, and I
01:30 think that was something that was important to me and talked to coach
01:33 the board about it and grateful that he's allowing me to be able to do that.
01:37 And, uh, yeah, I just think, you know, we've been together. It's been It's
01:40 been a long time since August 1st. You know, I mean, we got out here and guys
01:43 have been out here battling and, you know, you get to this point now and you
01:45 want to make sure you finish it. You can have a connection with C. J.
01:52 Yeah, yeah, no, we obviously, you know, defensively, you want to be able to
01:56 really have some familiarity with the guys that you're working with. And C. J.
01:59 C. J. Has done a great job on our staff. There's a lot of guys, like I said,
02:02 that are, you know, it's more than just, you know, the 10 assistant coaches that
02:07 really help our football team and make this thing go so excited for him. You
02:11 know, obviously a guy that's that's worked really hard, um, been to a number
02:15 of spots and done a good job, hoping for an opportunity like this, and I'm
02:18 excited to be able to work with. It's hard. You know, you're leaving some
02:20 guys that you recruited. You're leaving some guys that you know you've spent a
02:24 lot of a lot of time with blood, sweat and tears. And, and, you know, I think
02:28 that's the neat part about our, you know, our whole organization. Like, you
02:31 don't take those things for granted. That's honestly the toughest part is
02:34 just leaving guys that you've, you know, you went to war with. You've solved
02:38 problems with each other together, and, you know, that's that that that bond
02:42 never, never goes away. So