UFL DC Defenders Shannon Harris Pre Championship Game!

We'd like to welcome DC Defenders head coach Shannon Harris. First question right here in the middle. Coach, congratulations making it here. Shannon Shannon Harris and this is Alan from Nail and Alpha Sports Show. Great to see you in person and you know you you're a man of faith. This is a huge game. What have you learned from faith that can help you in this game? Yeah, appreciate it again. Thanks for having me here and uh appreciate the question. Thank you. Uh you know the biggest thing is that like when you when you have faith like the way I have it man you come here with no worries uh you know we always talk about as a team of the staff you know the preparation is the separation so uh when you prepare the right way and you do everything the right way that you're supposed to do it you know you just come in you know uh with an ease mind and you know no worries uh guys are prepared uh they're confident and then uh you know we here for a reason, you know. So, uh that's the whole mindset for us when we come in here. Uh we're at peace and we just want to come out here and play the way we supposed to play. Appreciate it. Hey, over here to my left front row. Hi, Coach D. D loves sports. Just wanted to know, has your mind set changed? First of all, congratulations, coach of the year. Has your mindset changed from the last time you were sitting here? But as assistant coach, right? So, has your mindset changed and what's the difference? Yeah. Um, thanks for that. And then, uh, no, the mindset hadn't changed. It's just, you know, now you're in a different seat, right? So, uh, you know, we approach every game aggressively. Um, on all three phases, uh, we want to put pressure on our team that we're facing and, uh, not allow pressure to be put on us. And so, no, we we gonna come out the same way we've been coming out all year, uh, in this game. Um, we gonna keep the same routine that we always had. Uh, we're not going to do anything different to have gotten us to this point. So, uh, like I talked to the team before as well, like uh, you know, it's playoff football, then championship football. Uh, let's not press, you know, let's stay in routine. Let's continue to do the things that have gotten us here and, uh, you know, don't let the chips lay where they may. Okay, second row right here to my left. Hey, Coach Jacob Camer from USA Today. First of all, congratulations on making it to the championship game. Uh my question, you obviously won the XFL Conference Championship game here last week. Uh does that give you any extra level of comfort coming back into this stadium even though it's a neutral sight game, having just won a big uh game here? Yeah, I mean um again, we've uh had a lot of success in this building, you know, against St. Lewis, of course, and um but we know what the team we're facing in Michigan, what type of team they are. Um coach Nolan, you know, I don't think he know this, but and and I never mentioned it to him, but I'm a huge 49ers fan. So, you know, I'm been a fan of his for so long, even when he was the head coach for the 49ers. So, uh I know what type of coach he is and uh his staff and uh you know, what type of players they have. And so those guys, I mean, are well coached dudes and, uh, they they going to come in here and play, you know, to win a championship. And, uh, they took it to us the first game. They did. And so, uh, that chip is on our shoulder for that. And so, you know, yeah, we going to come in here and, uh, we've prepped all week, another physical week of practice. And so, uh, as we call this Audi West, so uh, we feel comfortable here. You know, Jordan has had some success here, uh, as a player here in St. Louis. and uh with us at DC. So um a lot of these guys uh are very comfortable coming in here. Next question to my far left, second row. James Larson, Pro Football Newsroom. Congratulations on coach of the year. Wanted to ask about Brian Brian Brazwell, your O line coach had to come in during training camp and his O line's been playing really really good football. It's gotten better each and each week. Can you talk a little bit about Brazwell's role and just him coming in like really late in training camp? Yeah, the good thing about with with coach Brazwell coming in to us late, you know, myself, coach Kais had already been knowing uh Brian for so long and uh he's been a long-term friend for me to me and uh you know, we were very fortunate to get him and uh didn't think that we were going to be able to get him, but you know, when this transition happened with uh uh coach uh Cody Krill leaving and going on to uh North Texas, he was available and we were praying and thanking God that he was. But, uh, I tell you, uh, what he's brought to that room, uh, with those guys. And, uh, the other part of it is, you know, you're only as good as your players, right? And, uh, you know, Von, our GM, has done an amazing job with, you know, getting that room back to where it was in year one in 2023. So, uh, we're appreciative of that as well. So, now he's just bringing his knowledge and what he can, uh, add to that room, uh, based off his years of coaching. third row to my left over here. Hey, Coach Harris, congratulations on getting to this point. Uh, two-part question. What would you tell your 10-year-old self about this moment kind of coming up tomorrow? And then more importantly, how would your 10-year-old self coach the game tomorrow? And can you use any of that creativity? Yeah, I tell you, man, that's a good question there. So, my 10-year-old self, man, would would approach this game uh with no regrets, you know what I mean? Uh a guy for me playing sports at a young age throughout my entire life. Not football, though. Uh I only played basketball and baseball. Football didn't come to me until I got to high school. So, uh but it'll be one of those things, man, to have no regrets. Approach everything like you always approached it and then go from there. And uh from a planning standpoint, you know, uh just go out, let it all loose, you know, and uh have fun fun with it, you know, embrace the moment and uh you know, go from there. Over here to Mike Little. Thank you. This Allen from the Allen office show for the conference championship. You mentioned that the game was pretty much won Wednesday and Thursday, the preparation. Do you feel the same with this week? Yeah, I do. I think these guys uh have worked extremely hard, you know, all week in uh in practice and it was a quick turnaround, right? So, we had to be smart and strategic on how we did everything through practice, but uh we still got after pretty good, you know, once we was able to get uh the airplane ride back out of us going back and, you know, guys were sore a little bit because it was a physical game. So, but we had to be smart about how we approached it and then uh you know once we got everybody uh back healthy and uh we got after a little bit again. So, because we know this game going to be physic playoff football, right? So, uh you got to make sure man you bring your hard hat, your lunch pail, your workbooks, especially against this team about to play tomorrow. Okay, right now we're going to take some questions from Zoom. Oscar, [Music] thank you very much. Bianca, hello coach. Congratulations from Mexico City. I have a couple of questions. The first one, how you fall in love with football? You are talking about the sport, but how you fall in love with football? And the second one, could you say some words to all the Mexican fans follow the UFFL? Thank you very much. Gracias. Appreciate the question. That's a great one, too. Uh, I tell you, football found me. I did not find football. uh you know, I just happened to uh be the water boy uh for our high school team, but I was just strictly basketball and uh baseball and just so happened I was throwing the football around and uh my first cousin was the quarterback uh quarterback and all he did was just run the ball, never throw the ball. So, uh, the coaches asked me one day to play and, uh, you know, I followed my game after Steve McNair and my my a lot of my brothers, uh, played football and some played with him. And so that's kind of how I started, you know, taking a liking to football. It just came naturally and, uh, it took a lot of fundamental work with me for sure. And so once I got it figured out, I fell in love with it at that point when I was in high school uh, in the ninth grade. And uh you know for everyone else that's out there, fans that you know watch us uh in the league is uh continue to watch us. We put a good brand of football out there. The league itself is amazing uh for what's going on with it and uh so much talent here. So continue to follow us, continue to cheer for us and uh we're looking forward for this league to stay around for a long time. Uh as you see um so many of these guys and are benefiting. I know the NFL itself are benefiting from it and so many of these guys are getting opportunity to go back into the NFL. So the league itself is amazing uh for that reason for sure. Okay, we'll continue on. Michael, hi coach Harris. Michael Bell, Alternative Football Network. Can you speak to a little bit about the growth of of the coaches and your team since the week six loss at um to Michigan as well as any mindset changes going into the second matchup? Yeah, I tell I mean the coaching staff and all of us, the players itself, I mean, we've been pretty consistent throughout since week one, all through camp, you know. So, uh uh during that game against Michigan, I mean, it was one of those ones to what what we learned from is that you never think you're as good as you think you are uh when you win some big games and not as bad as you think you are either. Uh the one thing about it is, you know, everyone stayed together. Uh coaches, staff, players, and and all of those things. And man, we just continued to go to work. You know, it wasn't one of those things to where, you know, we're trying to figure oursself out or anything. It was just that, you know, uh we realized that fundamentals beat us in that game. And so, we had to get back to that and uh you know, we had to approach things a little different that time. So, uh that was the biggest thing for us. to make sure our fundamentals are back intact and uh get us to where to where we are today. Do we have any other co Okay, we'll take the last two questions over here to our right. Hey, Coach Matty Fresh from uh Springball Boulevard. Y I know Reggie Barlo and Greg Williams were such a big part of this thing going all the way back to 2023. Uh what kind of conversations have you had with them leading up to this? Any advice from Coach Barlo? And do they plan on maybe being here at all? Yeah, to be honest, man, and coach, we talk all the time and coach Borlo and I, but you know, honestly, you know, we don't even talk about here, you know, we just talk about just personal things, you know what I mean? So, uh, you know, they don't get involved. Uh, they just sit back and watch, you know, and, uh, knowing that, you know, uh, they left here, the team in good hands with us. And so, uh, but yeah, we don't talk much about the whole the game itself. Uh if anything you know coach Burlau and I talk about is you know the terror right make sure be maintained. So that's it and uh keep the guys together keep the team together coaches together and uh keep doing things together the right way. Okay last question will be on our far right back. Hi Ryan Parker with Arts STL. I was here last week to watch the game. It was very impressive from a coaching standpoint. How do you feel like you have changed or if you've changed this season as a head coach and what do you think you've learned the most? You know um not much changed but uh you know the one thing for us is just you know continue to try to find ways to be more aggressive uh throughout the course of the season. Uh you know the biggest thing too is just game management. You know learning that as the year went on. Uh that has been the biggest difference from that standpoint. But you know outside of the football aspect of it uh nothing has really changed and uh just continue to have confidence within the game manage itself. So uh each game you know you have to manage it differently within itself uh and each game have its own type of way of going about it right so u but that's the biggest thing you know adjustment week to week that you have to make throughout the course of it and then um you know everything else just flow the way it need to flow. All right. Thank you so much, Coach Harris. Good luck tomorrow. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate you all. Appreciate you, too. Thank you.