Austin Price: Hello everybody and welcome in for episode six of season two of All Club Confidential. I'm your host Austin Price. Exciting show tonight we've got two true freshmen coming out, that being Daevin Hobbs and Arion Carter, two young vols that have really found their way early on in this football season onto the field into some key snaps and we'll talk to them coming up. But before that, we bring in Will Watkins of Spyre and will you look at this tailgate coming up the Saturday night game seven 30, everybody's won revenge after that loss last year of South Carolina should be a phenomenal atmosphere and it all starts with the tailgate, which should be going pretty much all day. Will Watkins: Absolutely. We're going to be there all day. We're going to get there early. We're going to go hard and be loud. Cheer on the balls. It is a revenge game. We're excited. I can already feel the excitement, so we're going to be at the spot that we're always in right next to mcc Clung Tower on the lawn, so why don't you show up? We'll have all you can eat, drink the usual, so it's going to be a great time, a new twist, this tailgate. So we are going to choose one lucky participant at the tailgate who's going to get to throw a ball, 25 yards to hit a target and if you hit it, you get $25,000. So you definitely want to be there, get your tickets, make sure you're signed up at a checker board or higher level to get access to the tailgate and you don't want to miss this Austin Price: Man. The chance to win 25 grand, that's pretty spectacular right there. The memberships continue to go up. Absolutely. Did you feel like you just hit that broke through the ceiling a little bit. It was a little bit, little bit and then all of a sudden it was a little more steady? Yeah, Will Watkins: Absolutely. At certain points all the members are doing their part. They keep telling a friend that's telling a friend, and so the words out there and everybody wants to be a part of it, they don't want to miss out, so just keep doing that, keep telling everybody and we'll continue to climb. Austin Price: All right. Tonight's show two true freshmen Arion Carter, Daevin Hobbs. Let's bring them in. Joined by the pride of Shark North Carolina and the pride of Rutherford County. You guys have been on campus about eight, nine months here. What's that been like? Daevin Hobbs: I mean it's been crazy. I wouldn't say crazy, but now in the season, Washington it last year, you don't really expect it, but everything that goes into it, it is crazy from traveling. I've never been part of something like that before, but just regular living, I like it. I like living by myself. I'm used to it, but just always being around your friends, it's always around your boys. You live with them, Arion Carter: You really start to get a bond with each other on and off the field, the chemistry, and it just makes us comfortable with telling each other the truth. We're like, Hey, you need to be in this gap, or hey, me and him, we can converse and talk to each other without holding back, but for me it's been a great experience just being a hometown kid per se. You say home state kid, not being too far from home, family being able to come in and see me when they want to or if they want to see me or me being able to go home has been great, but just being on campus, it's been real good. Just meeting new faces, being able to just have that sense of independence has been real good. And then obviously the football aspect, you got to love it really. You breathing, sleeping, and eating football all day long with classes too. I've been able to adjust well, so it's been good. Austin Price: You are eat up by the game. I go back to your senior year. It is what you do. I mean you just kind of dive into it. How much have you felt like that's helped you get on the field early? Arion Carter: I feel like it's helped a lot. Just taking that same mindset is from high school of wanting to get my name out there with me being late on the scene and taking that same hunger that I had and putting it into where we are now. Being able to want to compete every day, being around the best, facing the best in the best conference in college football, it's just made me a better player overall. Playing alongside dudes like him, they making me better and obviously I'm making them better, so it's been good. It's been good. Austin Price: You guys were both late additions per se, because everybody commits in May and June, July. Yeah. You committed in November, was it November? Yeah. Yeah. And then you committed in December. We taped the thing in last year in November and then you committed right there after that. And of course we taped your thing in your bedroom, which was all together creepy, but it was what it was. You were hiding out from the Alabama coaching staff. Have you all kind of bonded over the fact that y'all were kind of like the last guys in? Well, Arion Carter: I mean I didn't know that he had committed late per se until maybe a couple months ago and we both stepping on the scene so late. I really didn't know. We just kind of clicked when we got here Daevin Hobbs: The first time we really, it was the basketball game we went to when we first got here. That's really the first time I really talked to the AC for real. When did they play Kentucky? Maybe when we first got here. They played Texas. Yeah, Texas. Then we hung out that night. Then ever since then we just, whenever we're free, we always do something. Yeah. Austin Price: What is it you like about each other? Daevin Hobbs: Ac. He's more of your chill dude. So whenever he is with me, he brings more of his funnier, more active side out. But I know the real ac. Ac, cool dude. Chill dude. You can do anything. Talk about anything. He's always going to be there. Arion Carter: Yeah, just knowing the fact that we can just keep it real honestly, you can have any conversation from where it comes from. Basketball, football, just us. We really connected on that too. Just us being able to talk about sports and other than football, get away from that life and then just hoops in general. He used to play basketball. He's tough. So we was able to go and play pickup in the off season a couple of times and just us running together. It's a dynamic duo. Yeah. Daevin Hobbs: He's like the only dude I can listen to Drake around without someone trying to roast me or something. Everybody's always hating on Drake, Arion Carter: Hating on Drake, Daevin Hobbs: Man. Me and ac, he's always going to be in the playlist. We're always going to play him. Everybody else they just hate on Drake. Arion Carter: That's one thing we connect on too. Music style. Austin Price: You bring up basketball. He's one of the few people I know that literally most people, if they're graduating early, they just don't play their senior year. He played up until the last minute he could play kind. Take me through that, man. You just love basketball. I mean, I know that's really your first Daevin Hobbs: Love. Yeah, me coming into high school, I'd always go in the gym and work out when I was middle school and I always look at the wall. That was a point wall I I want to be on that one day. So before the season started I asked coach how many points would I have left to get it. So I was like, I forgot the number. He told me, I was like, I get that before I had to leave. So I literally played all the way up until the last week before I moved in up here. I got my a thousand points verse. Carmel Christian, they're number 25 in the country at the time, so that was a good game to get it. I got that and then next day I went to the All-American Bowl, hopped on the flight the next day and came back for a week and came down Austin Price: Here. So you got up on the board? Yep. Have you seen your name on the board? Not Daevin Hobbs: Yet. I'm hope I get to go sometime after the season to go look at it. Hopefully they have it up right now. Austin Price: I mean your dad's the principal. Yeah. I mean you can't just send me a picture. Daevin Hobbs: I haven't even thought about that. I got to text him after this. Arion Carter: No, for real. My dad's the principal. I'm asking, Austin Price: Have you showed off the basketball skills up here for any of your teammates? Daevin Hobbs: Yes, bro. I'm like team, I'm the LeBron on the team for about Austin Price: You mean you're the Jordan? Daevin Hobbs: I'm the LeBron. Austin Price: You mean you're the Jordan? Nah, Daevin Hobbs: Nah. LeBron's the goat, Arion Carter: LeBron or Jordan conversation. Daevin Hobbs: LeBron does everything. I'll go on during the off season when we go to Trac. When we get stopped of the court, we would run the court until we left. No, for real. Arion Carter: We wasn't getting off. Austin Price: If you weren't playing football, what's your sport? Arion Carter: If I wasn't playing football? Yeah. Austin Price: What other sport did you enjoy growing up? Arion Carter: I love running track. I like running track. I like basketball. One sport I wish I did play was baseball. I have a brother who plays baseball and just growing up and going to his games late nights I just wanted to play so bad but I couldn't. I was always a three sport athlete. I'll say if I wasn't playing basketball, if I wasn't playing football or basketball or ran track, I was good at wrestling. I used to wrestle in middle school all the way up to my sophomore year in high school. Austin Price: You look back exactly about this time a year ago is when you just blew up. Arion Carter: Yeah. Austin Price: When you think back about it, just the whirlwind year you had, is that pretty crazy? Arion Carter: Yeah, it is. It's one of those crazy stories that it felt like a movie that happens just every so often and if rarely in case it's my situation. Senior year I thought I was going to be playing football in Memphis and then just getting an offer from Vandy and then getting an offered from Wake Forest and then Austin Price: Boom. I mean it was Arion Carter: Auburn, Alabama and then boom, it just from there it just took off. I couldn't even send out posts fast enough of getting offer schools was offering left and right. It was crazy. Austin Price: It was crazy. You had 40 in a week in, then you were tweeting, like appreciate their offer from Army. I'm like, why are you tweeting this offer from Army? And it wasn't Army, it was just a school equivalent of that. You were like, Arion Carter: Yeah, because it is a blessing just to be in that situation. Just looking back on everything. I didn't have the opportunities that I did at that time, so I just was grateful for everything because at the same way that it could be given to me, same way, it could be taken away in the instance. So be appreciative of it and be blessed that you even got it. So that's why I did it. Austin Price: These two are two of my favorites as far as they're just well-spoken. You can have a conversation with 'em because I would call you guys. I mean how many times did we do interview? Not very many. We did it at the end, but a lot of times it's just shooting the bull and just talking through things. Yeah. What was the recruiting process? We know it was hectic late, but I mean from that standpoint, did you enjoy all that? Daevin Hobbs: I mean at the beginning, going to schools, photo shoots, talking to the reporter after the game the first couple of times I was like, oh, it was fun. It was something new. You always dreamed of being in situation, but I'm not going to lie towards the middle. I used to Austin Price: Hate you were done with it. I used Daevin Hobbs: To hate calling people, texting people. They'd always be like, can we do an interview? I'm like, can we do over text or something? Sometimes I wouldn't get it just got so repetitive. Arion Carter: What was the middle for you? What was Daevin Hobbs: That timeline? The middle for me. So I would say the summer going into right before I took most of my OVS that summer I got a lot of 'em that spring going into right in the middle, the beginning of summer. So then right before the season started Arion Carter: Your senior year? Daevin Hobbs: Yeah. Yeah. Was Austin Price: You had no medal, it was just kind of like start, end, boom. Arion Carter: Yeah. I had mean as far as Power five offers. Austin Price: Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, Arion Carter: Right, right, right. Yeah. I mean I would take visits on. It was cool a couple of times I would go to Vanderbilt before they offered me and just hoping to get offered. But as far as going to other schools after getting offered from them, going to Alabama, going Ohio State, going to different other schools, it was crazy. I enjoyed every bit of it just because I'm putting on a uniform of schools I've dreamed of going to. It was crazy. And then coming up here was one of the craziest things, seeing the orange and white checkerboard stadium. When I first got here, I thought that was just the way the stadium was painted. I didn't realize that was actual people. I was like, wow, this is crazy. And funny story, I didn't even plan on going to the Florida game last year and somehow my dad convinced me. He was like, let's just go. Let's just go see. So we ended up going and it was last minute and I'm texting coach BJ like, Hey, I'm on the way. We're in traffic. Traffic's terrible. Anyways, we get down there and we get the last bus that's taken for the recruits to get down to kneeling and the bus is so we Ms. Ball walk and it was like nothing but people crowding in the streets, orange and white. I'm seeing people in overalls and cowboy hats and I'm like, whoa, this is crazy. It was like a culture shock for me just because I've never seen nor been around that type of environment. And then just to see it from a bird's eye view, just like everything and the crowd stadium, how loud it was. It was crazy. It was crazy. Daevin Hobbs: That was my OV game. That's when I first met Sison. Arion Carter: Yeah, I'm surprised I didn't meet you there. Well, Daevin Hobbs: Yeah, I was there, but that weekend it was crazy when college game day came and so I went to that and after Coach High was on there, we walked the back of the buses and said, what's up? Then I thought that was the craziest thing ever out. Everybody just standing. They did on the hill. It was Arion Carter: Crazy. But back to what I was saying, that was good. But then I say going to schools was fun. Seeing different people, meeting coaches, seeing the players and picking their brains was good. It was just the interview for me being a hot topic so to speak, you have, I'm talking about I got on Twitter 50 to a hundred unread text messages right now, just still if not more from so many interviewers trying to interview me and I couldn't do it. It was just so stressful because you be in the middle of school and math class I remember and I'm going to luncheon. I'm just saying like, Hey, do you have any free time When you do, can we please interview you and dah Austin Price: Dah and you're such a good kid. Arion Carter: I don't want to say no. I Austin Price: Know I remember this. I don't want to say no. You struggle to say no to them. Arion Carter: Yeah, I struggled to say no and then I had to talk with a couple of people and they were like, you don't have to say yes every time. You have a life to live too. So I learned quick to say no and no could be my best friend. So it got old quick on that part. And then I say towards the end December, when I started narrowing narrowing schools down, I just didn't want to go on no more visits. I said, Hey, I'm going with these three schools and I'm going to pick the squad I want to go to. Austin Price: Best part of your first three games, four games is what I Daevin Hobbs: Would just say. Experiencing the travel to the game. I remember went to Nashville the first game and we pulled the buses, we got off the exit. There was just people just parking their cars side of the road, getting out the cars, recording and waving. I've never seen anything from North Carolina. The basketball state. We have so many schools down there. Nobody really just cheers. For one school. There's U N C, duke, NC State, Austin Price: Lake Forest, lake Daevin Hobbs: Forest, there's just so many schools under everybody Cheers for. But Tennessee, everybody's volunteer fan. Just seeing that, even just walking in the hotel, just people just standing downstairs, Arion Carter: Video, Daevin Hobbs: Video, they're coming. And then literally my mom wanted to come to the ball walk for the first home game. She's like, we went to go get food. It was probably like 11 o'clock. They said people already standing out there for them. See the ball walk. I'm just like, that part to me was crazy. There's all that. Also, the hotels we stay in and all the food. There's just, I've never seen last hotels like that before growing up. So all that just crazy. Yeah, Arion Carter: For me the best part was first game, going back to Nashville, being from that area, having the whole city behind me going into that game and just, it is funny, going into the stadium on game day, I'm literally seeing all my friends walking into the stadium, going to where the interest of ball walk is and you just get so excited because you like, wow, you living out your dream and your first game ever stepping on a college football field is going to be in your home state and hometown. It is crazy. So that was one of my favorites. And then Awa was one of my favorites because like I said, I missed it last time so I never got to experience it. So seeing everybody around you cheering you and just getting that whole, how loud it was, it was crazy. Austin Price: Can you feel like the energy from all that kind transforming into you? Yeah. You know what I mean? You just get so amped up. Daevin Hobbs: It Arion Carter: Is crazy. Daevin Hobbs: I remember the first time I went into Game v Virginia just running out into the field and just before the play even started, before I even looked at the call, just standing out there. I've never felt anything like that before. Running through the, it was the craziest thing ever. Arion Carter: Yeah, running through the tee and then just seeing the fireworks and just seeing everybody so loud running through the tee and then you take a second and you just look around and it's like all these people, you got a hundred and something thousand people just screaming for this one moment in a game. It's crazy. Austin Price: A portion of your class is really pushing you. Ricky played down at Florida, both of you, but guys obviously played Caleb, had Tyree not hurt the hip. I think he was going to be a factor and play and then some other guys too. I mean how close is y'all's class? Arion Carter: Real Daevin Hobbs: Close World class is like, Austin Price: It's a big freshman Daevin Hobbs: Class I would say. There's definitely little cliques, but I'll find myself hanging out with everybody. We always see a lot of us played basketball, so we bond over arguing about sports. Just goofy stuff. Always at dinner, I was living at Stokely, my room, we got the big TV in my room. One of our roommates has a couch in there. Everybody be in my room. We just all chilling there sometimes whenever we get bored, just I'd probably say me being in high school team, I was always close to everybody, but I just feel like there's so many people here that I'm actually close with. I'm like, oh, I call somebody always who get food just like that Austin Price: Is the number one clique or tandem. John Slaughter and Ricky Gibson because those two dudes are always with each other. John and they look alike too. Ricky Daevin Hobbs: See two, Jordan, if you see one of them, you see all three of 'em. Arion Carter: All four of 'em. Yeah, the corners. The Corners Corner, safety DB Core, first of all, they live together and when we got a chance to actually move once we got out of spring and went in the summer, you was able to pick your roommates and they instantly got together. Him, John, Ricky Christian, Jordan Matthews, they all together. So if you see one, you bound to see 'em all together. That's the one click. But even then, I feel like with me personally, I can go and hang out with them anytime and then bounce and be with, be with Daevin and Deshaun and Tyree or I can go and hang off with Caleb or anybody I feel like, and we can all do it together. I know we can go out and all have a good time together, go out and team bond. It is not just one side versus the other. Austin Price: You can't name each other. Most impressive freshmen is who? Daevin Hobbs: Me personally, I would say AC because Austin Price: I said you can't name each other. Daevin Hobbs: Oh, first freshman. I would say probably Caleb Herring, honestly because just his love for the game. And I remember after fall camp, even spring ball at studio practice over with, he's on Thundercloud already watching film. He's just always talking football. He knows what he's talking about. Me still. My football IQ is not all the way there. I'm just really now starting to really get into it. But Caleb, his love for the game is crazy. He put so much of effort into it and him fighting his little injuries, him grinding in the training room, I would say it is inspirational to a point. He just does so much Arion Carter: With me. It is hard. It's hard. You got talent. I feel like our class is just loaded with talent. I'm going to sound biased, but I'm around these guys every day. So if I just had to say one, I can't really say one. I feel like Daevin Hobbs: It's Arion Carter: Hard. It's hard. It's hard. I feel like as a whole Jeremiah t Lander and Jaylen Smith, especially with me being with t and Jeremiah every day, that man, he loves football, he loves football and with his dad being a coach, he's a student of the game. So just being able to pick his brain and him playing linebacker for a long time. And with me just kind of stepping on the scene at the middle linebacker position, I'm kind of asking him a couple questions while he's asking me questions and we able to piggyback off each other. And with Jalen Jalen, he's has just a natural guy given ability to get to the football. When you look at his highlights, it stands out. He's getting to the quarterback, qb rushes sacks, tackle T. It's crazy. So those two, I feel like those are one of the two guys that are real impressive to me just because I see them every day and seeing the growth in where they came from spring to summer now, it's been really good. Austin Price: You talk about how you're getting there as far as being a student of the game. Do you find yourself falling in love with the game of football more and more every day? I mean football was kind of like this thing you did when basketball wasn't going on and now all of a sudden it's your sport. Daevin Hobbs: Yeah, I would say more than I'm around it just, there's definitely times when I'm just like man tired. But just seeing the environment on Saturdays, that really just motivates me to be better and better each day at practice. Coach G, coach Chopp and Coach Ays while I got here, I didn't even know really how to use my hands at all. And now I'm starting to pick it up and getting better at it. I didn't, I played football but I really didn't. I didn't work out. It is just something I did. But now I'm actually starting to understand stuff, how to play a cutoff block or reach block, all that stuff. So the more I am learning, the easier it gets. So the easier it gets, the more confidence you have, the more fun it is. So I would definitely say as time goes on, the more and more I love the sport of football, Austin Price: The nutrition staff, the strength staff, and they've changed your all's bodies. A lot of me, you've put on a bunch of weight muscle actually. But Caleb actually put on weight. He went from Bean pulled to legit edge guy, right? I mean when he got here he was like 2 0 6 and now he's up over two 30. That's crazy. Arion Carter: He was 2 0 5 when he got here. Daevin Hobbs: His dedication, like I said earlier, two crazy, crazy every day, every time you see him, protein shake, protein shake, he's carries background bag full of protein shakes. Arion Carter: He comes Daevin Hobbs: To lunch, he goes to start to eat dinner. Oh, going to go get more food just to keep his calories up Arion Carter: And then he leave, bring two things of food in his room and eats it all. It's, it's crazy. I Austin Price: Don't see how So he can throw it away. He can put it away. Arion Carter: He Austin Price: Can. What's the most impressive thing you've seen him eat as far as amount? I Daevin Hobbs: Remember when he was first Arion Carter: Trying to gain weight, Daevin Hobbs: He would drink two protein shakes before and after every meal. Before and after every meal. And he'd always be complaining, oh my stomach. I'm like, dude, you just drank 20 protein shakes in an hour, you exp. That was the craziest thing. He's dedicated to bettering himself to the max. Arion Carter: Yeah, I seen him put down two ribeye steaks and some, he had some ribeye steak broccoli and some fries and he ate it all in 30 minutes and then he drunk the protein shake, the Gatorade chocolate milk protein shake. Austin Price: That sounds like when you go to one of those restaurants and if you eat the 7,000 ounce burger, you get to have your picture on the wall. That Arion Carter: Sounds like, yeah, no, he's doing that every day. He does that every day willingly. I Austin Price: Said all last year when he wasn't putting on that weight, he will do it once he gets back around Elijah, I think that was almost like he was kind of missing that link and now he kind of has Elijah beside him and I think that's a big thing for Caleb. Arion Carter: Yeah, I wouldn't even say just him being around his brother a lot. I mean obviously I say with the work ethic and just knowing that he's along his brother and working, obviously that plays a part, but I feel like him having the resources, I feel like he didn't have the resources. Yeah, I agree with that. I didn't either. In high school we come from the same county, you getting fed twice a day, the meals aren't Austin Price: Which isn't that bad though too. Arion Carter: Yeah, they not the best, but even at times sometimes you're not hungry and it's not mandatory to go get lunch or go get breakfast, so we didn't have to. Whereas now it's mandatory so he's putting the responsibility on himself to go actually do it. He knows he has the resources. Like me, I think like that too. I'm pretty sure he could say the same thing. What's Austin Price: Your goals? I want goals for the rest of this year and then I want goals long-term Daevin Hobbs: Man for the rest of this year really to be just to keep on my growth, to keep just understanding game of football, getting better on the field, just getting used to being more physical with these big dudes, these grown men just like that. And I'll probably say keep striving to be for a freshman, all American awards like that. And then the long term, I would say just pushing myself to be the best defensive tackle on college football. Like D Lyman. I want to just get to the point to how people viewed Jordan and Daevin Jaylen and Carter, you know what I mean? Oh yeah, that's that guy. That's what I'm trying to strive for to be that guy. But that's really that Arion Carter: With me. It's short term this year. Really just ball show everybody. I want Arianne Carter to be a household name. That's one of the biggest things just to know. I want people to know me for being fast physical and getting to the football and this goal being freshman, all American, S e c, freshman of the year. Any freshman, any freshman award you can think of. I'm going for it obviously as I felt like any freshman should. And then I just want people to, I want Arian Carter to be a household name first and then at the end of the day and my career is over with, I want people to say he's one of the best they ever do it, if not the best. So that's my goal and it's always great if you can get that gold jacket on your back and say you got that Austin Price: It big time now. There we go. Arion Carter: If you can can, I mean long as you put the work in, why not? Austin Price: No, a hundred percent. There's got to be a belief system there and you're playing early and these two will be out there and kneeling the stadium. Saturday night, seven 30, Tennessee and South Carolina. Big game, cool uniforms. These two freshmen will have a big say in how Tennessee does on the defensive side of the ball coming up Saturday night. We appreciate you guys for joining us. Arion Carter: Thank you.