Kordell Stewart, Former Colorado Buffaloes Quarterback

Cordell, appreciate the time as always. How you been? How you here brother? How's everything?

I'm doing fantastic. So there's so many things to tackle here with what Colorado did, but to get that performance in the first game of the season, how did you kind of react to it and just give me your thoughts on on what your school's doing right now? I mean one, I was excited after talking to Prime and spending some time with him when I went back for spring for the springtime, spent the week there with them and different, totally different team, totally different team, but some of the things that needed to get done, he spoke about, it got done, he has the kids that wants to be there and the kids that he was looking for to make something like what took place this past Saturday happen.

I'll say this and I sent this in a text message, he can tell you. I honestly said I wasn't shocked because the guys that I know that's still on the team from when I was there last, like Dylan Edwards, he touched it 11 times for 150 plus yards for a touchdown. I saw that action from him when I was there and also watching him, you know, over the springtime and watching him play, he was doing that type of stuff. Travis Henry, same exact way. Hunter, I'm sorry, Travis Hunter, same exact thing.

The same exact thing. And also Jimmy Horn Jr., the same exact thing. Those are the guys that I do remember seeing and the work that they put in this past weekend where four receivers had over 100 yards catching. You saw what Dylan Edwards had, he had 11 touches for over 150 yards.

And she broke the record in the first game with 500 yards, shattered nine by 101 yards. So the sky's the limit for this team. Defensively, they had a bend but don't break mentality, which was good to see considering with some of the big plays that took place against them. But when it mattered most, they stepped up to the plate, made the stop on fourth and nine and called him to turn the ball over. We got it back and kind of kneel down to end that game.

So the sky's the limit. Because if that was a game that caused you to be like, okay, they look really good with the mistakes that they've made. Just imagine once they clean those up, and how it will look as they move forward into a tougher schedule as you move forward playing against a good team in Nebraska to CSU to Oregon and USC and all that good stuff. So it's perfect.

It's a perfect time to be a buff. But most importantly, along with that, they did all that great work within a three month span because of the 50 sub-ball players that left to the 60 he brought in and to see them play on all cylinders the way they did. I enjoyed it.

I fell in love with it. When you say the sky's the limit, people hear that they go, okay, Cordell thinks they could go all the way this year. I'm not ready to go there yet. And I've been a believer in this program and I like Coach Prime a lot. But what are the expectations the rest of the way for this team? You're that optimistic after the one game? Well, the sky's the limit didn't say all the way. The sky's the limit says that each guy can play at their top level. But yet you'll have an opportunity to see what they can do once that happened is what I say. But make sure we're clear, because sometimes you throw a little buzz word to people to say, well, Cordell said, no, I did not say that. What I said was, the sky's the limit for the talent is concerned, them playing on all cylinders.

And just imagine if that happens. For me, you know, it's like anything else, you know, this is not a conventional way of looking at what's taking place right now. So you guys can't put your finger on it. You don't know what it is, you don't know how to add it up.

You don't know how to put it in words, you don't know how to put it in context or anything. Because one, Prime is not like any other coach that you've seen. Travis Hunter, he's doing the work that you've not seen any other player do other than maybe his coach that he has in Coast Prime. And maybe me having a chance to do something in Pittsburgh where I play receiver and quarterback put the ball in and play running back to as well. So you, you get a chance to see it now in college, to where it took a guy who did it actually before through his run throughout his career, to allow it to be identified as something that these scouts, as well as these owners in these organizations are going to have to have somebody in place to identify this the right way.

If not, they're going to go through the conventional way of thinking and screw it up. Because this is a this is a very far and few between where you can actually have a guy put up 100 and something March snaps, be as productive and be the difference maker in some capacity overall, which you know, they're going to be asking to do this throughout the season. So if I had to ask you, if you had to ask me the question, number one, we got to stay healthy. We have to stay healthy, we stay healthy. Again, the sky's the limit to where we can get to that place called there, which is what coach prime talked about in the very, very beginning.

And that place called there is a great place. And that has championship wrapped all the way around it. If we can stay healthy, again, you say it one more time.

You know, we like to break this thing up when I say it. If we can stay healthy, we will have an opportunity to play for something special. And that is a championship. Now, is this a championship caliber team?

I'm gonna tell you like this. If you call that a championship caliber team, and they're going to get better, what is it going to be later on down the road? Right? Because that was a team that went on the road in inclement weather. And what I mean by that, that weather is very humid.

It was over 100 plus degrees. That team you saw in the Colorado buffaloes didn't have anyone cramping up. And from what I understand, no injuries, but you saw TCU in their own climate, cramping up and guys having to do a lot of rotating and calling time out.

So, you know, it plays into it. I know you guys are going to question it and wonder to send third because you have to do your job and I respect it. But football is football guys. And when you see it, and you see there's four guys with breakaway speed on offense, all four of those receivers, and you have a defense that had a bend but don't break mentality that we know for sure is going to get better.

I like playing the rest of the games throughout the rest of the season. In every single game we play because coach prime is going to have them battle tested psychologically, emotionally, to where once they get out there, nothing will be. They won't be caught off guard at all. They'll be able to play fast and hard like we saw him play this past week. When you look at what your door did Cordell Stewart, it was sensational. He's going to be a first round pick when he declares for the draft. But the way that he spread out the football to me was was the most impressive part of that performance. Oh, no, I've seen him do it before. I watched him at Jackson State. I know everyone's question and wanted to question how he would play. And I think the impressive part, maybe for yourself, and it might be, I may be speaking for you, correct me if I'm wrong, is because he came from Jackson State and HBCU world that to do it against a powerhouse team that was a national championship contending team. It will cause you to say that it's a natural thing inside of the psyche and the mind and how you think not you, but just in general to say it had to be impressive.

No, this is what he's been doing. Somebody asked me the question. Do you think he'll do you think he would be able to make it in the PAC 12?

I asked this question. How many great quarterbacks or very good quarterbacks are in the PAC 12? You're telling me if we're playing from the bottom up, worst case scenario, he can't be in the middle of the pack. Worst case scenario, if you have an issue with him coming from HBCU football, and we don't respect that style of football, because it's not as good and then don't have as many, you know, top five guy or, you know, great players five stars, this, that and third, that's what people may say that that may cause you to question it. But for me, I've watched him be at the top of his game in every single level that he's played on Little League, high school, there at Jackson State. So now he comes in and do it at Colorado. And as he said, everybody get caught up into the hoop line, the hype and all this then the third to where you forget those guys are playing ball too. That ball was just as hard as the ball on this level. Now don't get me wrong. The third don't get me wrong, the talent may be better on other teams as we move forward.

And I'm sure they'll be prepared to step up to the level of play that they have to step up to in order to compete. But it doesn't shock me that should doors playing this way. If anything, I'm glad he did put it down the way he did to let the world know this is what they're gonna have to deal with with the leader at the helm. And number two, out there doing it the way he did this past weekend. Cordell Stewart here with us.

It's something I never got. And I said this to coach prime when he joined us two weeks ago, because I always thought he should get a big time job. I haven't said two weeks ago, I thought you should have been the SEC and Auburn should have hired you. Why do you think people were so hesitant to see prime get a big time job in college football?

Because not conventional. It's crazy. So I'm on a football team, coaching quarterbacks and wide receiver at the high school where I was. And I remember his name came up about the Florida State opportunity. Yeah. And I remember some of the guys like, why would he get a third? And the only reason I'm sure that it became hard for me to get it because I think had to get his degree.

I think at that time, I'm trying to get the timing right. Right. But it was all the questions about why shouldn't he or he's not qualified. I'm saying okay, so if he's who he is, what he's done in his career, you've seen what he's done everywhere he's gone. If he's not qualified, then what's your excuse? Because you've been doing this for a long time.

So what's your excuse? So why aren't you in the conversation about having a chance to get a job anywhere on the collegiate level? Listen, the disrespect is so huge, guys, you know, and I'm not saying you guys but just enforce the question is concerned. This dude is a Hall of Famer. He's at the top of the food chain at the quarterback position.

He's arguably one of the most dynamic to ever play the game on the NFL level and collegiate level to the point where he takes these young kids whether it's in the little league, whether it's in the Under Armour, whether it's in high school, brothers in college, and before he got to Colorado, and he's going to championships over and over and all you have to think inside of that think tank that all of the things that he did when getting prepared to play all the coaching that he received to get ready to play. Don't you think he's pouring that into his kids are just like when raising your kids. If you had any success in your life as a businessman, a doctor, a lawyer, a politician of some sort, officer, military, if you had some form of success, what will you do to your kids that are coming up? You're going to give them that same flow of preparation and guidance.

And if you were at the top of the food chain, what do you think they're receiving from him? So that moment that we saw last week, it didn't seem like they were shocked. They didn't look surprised and it looked like they never did look like they've been there before.

And it makes them extremely frustrated and mad because everyone's questioning if they belong or not, as well as close crime. And people are going to become even more mad because they're not done. You know, I'm telling you, I've been there. I've seen it.

I've been around him. They're not done. They have the talent. And to move 50 plus kids, whether they wanted to leave or it was a conversation, for them to lead to then him bringing another 60 plus kids and his kids and he only had two to three months, maybe max four, to get prepared for week one and do it the way he did it on the road against the national contending teams. I mean, performing that championship, even though I mean, they may have five returning starters on offense and defense, loss offense, coordinator, defense, coordinator, all that good stuff.

Same head coach. For them to play that way, it makes you have to scratch your head to say, you know what, let me digress a little bit and pay attention a little bit more just to see, you know, what I can find. Because when you see that much talent performing the way they did, particularly the quarterback in Chidor, it's, it's, it's, it's Heisman Trophy conversation week one, if it was USC playing like this here on the road, it would be conversation is the same thing with Alabama, same thing with Florida State.

It would be the same type of stuff if it was a guy coming from another school performing that way. But it's not because it's all about coaching prime. And what no one wants to believe yet.

Because there's more you have to see. They got to play the rivalry. Look at the rivalry. And look, you know, Nebraska, you know, all of a sudden, it's the same state rival. Okay, then all of a sudden it's Oregon, the Ducks, they got to go on the road.

It's gonna be over. And all you're doing is, is you're awakening a sleeping giant, and coach crime and pulling more stuff out of bag of tricks to get these kids psychologically prepared to play in these moments. Because none of these moments are too big for him and his kids for sure. I'm talking his biological kids in Shiloh and Chidor. It's the other kids, which he has a few that come with him since Little League like Dylan Edwards.

He's been around him forever to a few other kids that he's tapped into and had for some time. But, you know, it's like, it's becoming very interesting and how things slipped over, you know, the last few days, but in all due respect to everybody's job, including mine, and even his, you got to have some perspective, right? And things happen. And I get it. But you have to be intrigued and excited about seeing what's next, the next time they come up, and that's gonna be against Nebraska on Fox at 12 o'clock Eastern time.

They're in Boulder, Colorado, baby. Well, Cordell, this is what I would say. And I was always a proponent of Coach Prime get a big time job.

It's like, how many times do I sit here? Let me preface it by saying what he did the other day was a coaching masterpiece. But how many times do I talk about coaches that go? Oh, they're more known for recruiting and their actual coaching isn't good, just based off the potential recruiting and excitement that he brings to a program.

That's why it was a no brainer to me to get this guy a shot. Yeah. And again, again, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's the conventional way of thinking that doesn't fit.

Yeah. In this, it just doesn't fit. He's an outlier. Like it doesn't, it doesn't add up on him. He's one of one.

Yes, it's an outlier. So it's, it's, it's not a, it's not something you can put your finger again. What do we do? And then I've been, I've been in this seat to an ESPN and I'm a podcast that I've done before.

Um, and what do you do? You're trying to figure out what can you find that's familiar to what you know about what was done. And in this case, everybody's trying to press the right algorithm to determine what can come up on the screen and they don't have it on the, on the, on a freaking pad.

They don't have it on the, on the, on the, on a computer pad. There's nowhere to be found to figure it out because he's a one-off. He's not coming from a Bill Belichick, you know, a line of, of work or a Nick Saban or, you know, anything like that. He's not, he's coming from beyond. And so when he comes from that space, it makes it hard for people because you say he's got the antics thing, you know, he he's rash and he's flashy and woo. And it doesn't translate to football. Well, it does because he's given it to his kids and he's been doing it his whole life. That's right. And he wants his kids to have that swaggering competence and don't have to go through this thing of, well, you have to figure out what position you're going to play because traditionally in the national football league, they don't believe in that.

It happened with me back in, in Pittsburgh. It's like, figure out what it is you want to play. Uh, because we want to bring in this kid. We're going to bring in this guy because we don't think you're a real quarterback. We're going to bring in kick Graham and have it. And then all of a sudden he doesn't work.

They put me back in and it was still the same thing again. So it's like, he's not going to have to deal with that because I think right now it's being put on blast in a sense of how you need to look at these players in college football. There are more athletes out there that have that ability to play multiple positions.

This dude right here just have the factor. He was doing that here in Georgia in high school. It looked wrong. It didn't even look right.

It was like some video tech mobile type stuff, you know, stuff we used to play back in the day. So I don't know how he's not tired. He played over a hundred snaps elite level, both ways. Like Cordell.

I was tired walking from watching the game to go get in ribs. You guys played like this when you were playing, when you were young, think about this to your younger days, you know, it's like we play all the positions on the football field. Coach prime is just letting him do it and not questioning it because we need it.

And he's letting them do it. It's just, again, we going off of conventional thinking. You can't think that way with this.

And this dude can be a number one or first round draft pick in both positions that he's going to be playing. Where do they do that at? Well, you come up with that idea and that concept. It just doesn't happen based on what we've seen scouts and how they've gone about their business to owners and even cities and what they appreciate.

It just doesn't happen. We were one of those first teams in college, in the national football league that had that in Pittsburgh. No one appreciated it, but look at us now today, the highest paid players are who? Dalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson. What does that look like? And look at the first four picks in 2023. Who do you have out of this, out of three players out of four, what do you have?

You have young, Stroud, you have Richardson. It looks the same identical way. Times have changed fellas. And it's going in a different direction. You'd better jump on board quick before it's too late. And then all of a sudden you got to say, well, you know what guys, I got to eat crow.

You don't want to eat that. Leave it alone. Jump on board. But you don't have to be all the way on. Just, just ride your paddle boat behind the boat and follow it and just hang out for a little bit and give it a chance so that as you go about your business and watching this stuff, you can enjoy the game because after watching that game on Saturday, I promise you it was hard for me to watch anything else on television after that.

It was the best thing I saw in college football this past week. He is Cordell Stewart. Cordell, enjoy it.

Thanks so much for doing this. Thank you, James. You will fail. So what? Everybody does. But your gym, your watch, your yoga pants, they pretend you won't. So when you miss a day, eat the pancakes, give up on a workout, you failed. Seriously. What the hell? We're body.

We've been a part of that too, but not anymore. At body, we're rejecting perfection and embracing reality. Not in a pizza Monday kind of way, in a loving your whole life kind of way. In a, this workout is fun and it's okay if I take a week off kind of way. In an, I'm eating healthy and it's okay if I indulge kind of way.

In a, I like myself no matter what kind of way. Yeah, you will fail. We all will, but we're not going to let that be the end. You see that? We're already making progress.

So let's keep going. We are BODi. Start your free trial at BODi.com. That's B-O-D-I.com.