Wake Forest WR AT Perry Interview

The six-man Atari old basketball VDOT, he's gonna be in studio in about 15 minutes.

You rep the triad like that guy. Our next guy I think qualifies as that as well at Wake Forest. But before we welcome in A.T. Perry, I need to recognize something that's going on behind the scenes. I need to highlight just how good our producer Will Dalton is.

This is a song called birthday by K.T. Perry as we welcome in A.T. Perry from Wake Forest on his birthday. It's pretty good on your part, W.D.

A.T., the time's appreciated. How are you celebrating your birthday today? Well, I'm supposed to go to a dinner later, but, you know, that's about it.

I mean, I had practice. I had class today, which is kind of a bummer, but, you know, I get to finish it off, you know, finish the day off with a dinner, so. Coach Claussen didn't do any singing for you today? No.

No, not today. Well, he did say happy birthday to me, which I really appreciate for him. That's good. That's good. That's high marks on Claussen because, you know, I never really liked it when people sing happy birthday. You can tell me happy birthday. That makes me feel pretty good.

I don't need any of the singing or anything like that. Paint this picture for me. When you arrived in Winston-Salem, it was 2018. That was the same year that I started working here and doing this show. And I remember the big sales pitch from Wake Forest.

And what they would tell recruits is, look at this is what they sold in terms of success. Look at this bull streak that we're putting together. We're going to bull after bull after bull.

And now it's been four years later. Of course, you redshirted your first year and then you really started to break out during the COVID year in 2020. And what's amazing to me now, A.T., is you guys beat Boston College, you're bull eligible, and your fellow wide receiver, Jamal Banks, is saying, yeah, it's an afterthought at this point given how much this program has grown and where our expectations are, where our standard is now. Have there been pinch me moments along the way where you look at your ranking last year, look at your ranking now, and just remember where this program was when you arrived?

Yeah. You know, when I first came in, I just learned about just the culture and everything like that. I was just learning from those older guys. And, you know, as the year has gone on and I'm in that same position, I see how much that really means to the team and just carry it on to the field. But really, it starts with practice, you know, our energy and practice, you know, Coach Boston waking up early, you know, him going at it, you know, just bringing everybody up. You know, that says a lot, you know, just as a coach for him and as a program for us, you know, we go in day in and day out, you know, we read these stuff, you know, about us, you know, being at the bottom of the list and not being able to go to this bowl or do this this year, but, you know, just us focusing up, you know, going in practice each week, working hard. I mean, it carries on on Saturdays, you know, we get that attention from others and, you know, just go out there and be great every Saturday.

You know, it's fun, you know, just being around these guys, you know, just being happy all the time, you know, just going out there, you know, being able to play with them and stuff like that. So, you know, having that culture, you know, that chemistry and stuff like that and carrying on to the field, you know, just progresses on and then we get our notice from everybody. So Dave, Dave Clausen, he has a saying that he says in the media quite a bit, and I bet you've heard it as well, is just make every single day great, every practice great, good practice after good practice leads to good games. So how about we focus on the every day at Perry when you're putting together a routine, when does your day start?

What does the routine look like on a normal Wednesday? You know, today we had to get up really early, you know, we got about 5 a.m., but when I wake up in the morning, I make sure I protect the first hour of my day, you know, just making sure I'm in the in the in focus, you know, in the zone, you know, ready to go to practice, making sure that I have everything just well, just really, you know, just making sure I'm focused, you know, just making sure that I'm happy, waking up, you know, going to play football or going to school, you know, just finish the day off right. So I make sure I protect that first hour when I wake up. Where did you learn that from? Where did you learn protecting that first hour of your day? So I actually, I actually watch a lot of motivational videos and stuff like that.

And I read quotes and stuff like that. So I heard somebody say, you know, you need to protect the first hour of the day, because, you know, well, it's a lot. I don't really want to put it, you know, I don't want to really go into details, but you really just said protect the first hour of the day, because, you know, that hour and that time is crucial, because you're in the process of waking up. So, you know, anything could happen, you know, somebody should say something wrong, and then your day is automatically bad. So like, it can protect that first hour, you know, just whether it's meditating, doing something, you know, to be able to lock into your day, make sure you have your routine down.

It's, it's really good advice on your part. A.T. Perry is with us here, not to name drop, but earlier this year, I remember I was on a rooftop bar in Winston-Salem with Ernie Johnson from the TNT crew on. He was in Winston-Salem, and I used to be a workout in the afternoon type of guy. I do the Peloton the entire deal, and that's what me and Ernie connected over. We talked a lot about Peloton and things like that. And he said, shift your schedule to try and do that in the morning.

Give yourself the first hour where you do that type of thing. And I've just, I've lost more weight. I feel a lot better.

And it's, it's great advice on your part, talking about protecting the first hour of your day. A.T. Perry is with us here. I am a political voter, and I pushed for you quite a bit last year when you ended up being a semifinalist and this wide receiver group, it's something. And what I continue to say as somebody who follows wide receivers very closely and wide receiver groups across the country, Ohio State has a lot of really good players, but those guys haven't stayed healthy.

You guys, I think might be the best collection of receivers that I've seen in America. But when did you get the feeling, along with Jamal Banks and Donovan Green, who's back in the mix and T. Sean Williams, when did you get the feeling that this wide receiver group was special or to put it a different way, that not every school had it the way that you guys did? I kind of figured out in 2020, when I realized how much young talent, younger talent that we have, you know, what they could do in the field, especially when during camp, you know, some of those guys will come in and practice with the twos or potentially practice with the ones and they'll go out there and do absolutely amazing.

And I knew that I knew then, you know, just from the two years from 2020, I knew that this group of guys was going to be special. Even after, you know, Coach Higgins does a great job with us each and every day, even with football, even outside of football, he does a great job with us. So you know, in that room, we're all close, you know, we bump heads, you know, we just move on to the next play, but as a team, you know, that chemistry is there with us. So after like that, that's what takes us a long way, even on the field. It must be pretty cool to see Greg Dorich scoring a winning touchdown last week and seeing even in Monday night football, to see your Taylor making the play that ended up deciding that game against the Denver Broncos. Get a chance to watch any of that? No, I didn't get to catch up with actually doing the homework. But yeah, I usually, you know, just try to watch the highlights and stuff like that.

But I catch up with those guys, you know, I talk to them every now and then, reach out and they'll see how they're doing and stuff like that. Given the way many of these prime time games in the NFL have gone, you're probably better suited just watching the highlights. Let's get to the important stuff though. A.T. Perry is joining us from Wake Forest. When you scored a touchdown in front of the Bridger Fieldhouse against Army, you did the pool swimming, Selly.

And against BC, it was a snow angel that you did. What else do you have in the bag? I don't know. I really don't know. Yeah, me and Coach Clausen had to talk about that, but yeah, I don't know. Oh, Coach Clausen didn't like the snow angels much? Oh, well, I guess the ref didn't like it, so, you know, he just told me to calm down for a little bit, you know what I'm saying, with the celebrations.

But really, just my celebrations are really just a hatchet, you know, never know what comes, so. All right, we'll keep an eye on it. I see you're a communications major. You're on a sports talk radio show right now. What interests you about the communications field, A.T.? You know, I found film studies in that field, and I fell in love with movies, you know, I watched a lot of movies, watched a lot of TV, so one day, you know, I have the idea of making movies, you know, direct produce, maybe apps, you know, I have a bunch of ideas.

I keep them in my notepad, so one day we have the opportunity. We have buried the lead, oh my goodness, WD, our producer here, has seen no movies, so every week we have a segment where we throw movies at him. He hadn't seen Anchorman. He hadn't seen The Shining. He hadn't seen Forest. No, you've seen Forest now.

I saw Forest now. You had not seen Shawshank Redemption. We made him watch Get Out last night.

He had never seen Get Out, so we made him watch that in the spirit of the Halloween season. What's the latest movie, the best movie you've seen lately that maybe you would recommend for our producer to watch next week? Hmm.

I really don't know. Anything good lately? I just, I was watching Top Gun last night, that was actually pretty cool to watch. Have you seen the original Top Gun? I have not.

He hasn't seen that, and I bet you haven't seen Maverick either. Of course not. Okay, so there it is right there.

There you go. Oh, I wanted to ask you this too, I never had a chance to ask you this. How many people call you a Torian? Hmm, probably my mom the most. Anybody other than your mom call you a Torian? Uh, no, not really, I guess everybody's calling me T. You can see it?

Okay. Yeah, I see my full name. A.T. Perry is joining us here on his birthday. Well, happy birthday, and thank you so much for making the time. Congratulations on the success you have already enjoyed, and we'll see you at a game sometime soon. A.T., thank you again. Thank you.