Joe Alt, Notre Dame Offensive Lineman

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Plan features and taxes and fees may vary. Alrighty, our number two of our radio program. That's right. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network and ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft. P&G and Meyer are teaming up to host players in Detroit at the P&G Draft House presented by Meyer where they'll be provided with essentials from trusted P&G brands like Ty to help them be ready for anything as they begin their pro careers. And tomorrow evening in Detroit, Joe Ault should be hearing his name very early in the NFL Draft out of Notre Dame and he's kind enough to join us right now on the Zach Gelb show. Joe, first off, I know this is an exciting time for you. Congratulations on all your past success and thanks so much for doing this. Yeah, thank you for having me.

I appreciate it. So here we are getting set day before the draft. Just kind of take me through your emotions as this is a long dream, right?

It's in the family, obviously, with who your father has been on the gridiron. But now you're going to start your NFL journey tomorrow. Take me through how you're feeling right now. Yeah, first and foremost, I'm very excited. You know, it's a great opportunity moving forward.

You know, it's my dream, like you said, to go on and play at the next level. I'm super fortunate to be put in this position and very grateful. But also, you know, it's a little bit of nerves. I really don't have a strong feeling of where I'm going tomorrow. So it's going to be really exciting when I sit down and get that phone call because I really don't know where I'm going to be headed.

So getting that phone call will be something really exciting and really exciting for my family. I keep on thinking you're going to land in Tennessee. I feel like every mock draft that I've seen has Joe Ault going to Tennessee at seven. I see a little smile that comes across your face when I say that.

I know you just said you don't know, but how does the meetings in the past go with Tennessee in their brass? Yeah, the reason for the smile is my mom. My mom's the one always watching the mock drafts and she keeps yelling out, Joe, everyone wants to go to Tennessee.

So that's why I give the smile. But my 30 visit with the Titans went really well. Got to sit down with both Coach Brian Callahan and Coach Bill Callahan. And Coach Brian Callahan kind of laid out the future for the team and what he sees and what the strengths are with any improvements and how he's going to go about doing that. And then with Coach Bill Callahan, he really gave me, you know, how he teaches his offensive line plan.

It's very black and white. And I think that's a great way to, you know, teach it for me. I have a better understanding of what the coach wants, how to improve, you know, from practice to practice. So it was a great experience for me and I was able to learn a lot and see the city afterwards.

So I had a great time. You know, through this process, everyone's going to make a case why one lineman should be the first lineman off the board compared to another. Since I have you here, let's just say, Joe Ault, that I'm an NFL GM and I'm looking to draft a lineman early in the draft tomorrow evening. Why should I take Joe Ault? What do you bring to my football team? Yeah, I think you get an ultimate competitor.

That's the first thing. I love football. I love the game. I love the idea of winning and, you know, playing and competing to be the best each and every day.

And through hard work, I think you accomplish that. You know, within my game, the things I hold to myself and think I'm very good at is I have the ability to be athletic at my size and mirror guys and pass pro with my feet, but also having the length to keep guys outside of my body, be the first guy to strike them. And then the run game, I have a very, the length, I have the ability to block single defenders and stay in front of them with my athletic ability.

So I think those are some of the things that I always, you know, try to touch on when I'm talking to teams and, you know, what I kind of sell myself on. Obviously being an offensive lineman is in your family, but I was reading when you were growing up and in high school, you played some quarterback, you played some linebacker and even some tight end too. Take me through your journey as a football player. We all know what you've done at Notre Dame and how you're viewed as an offensive lineman. But take me through, Joel, how you got from all those other positions to eventually the offensive line. Yeah, my dad always wanted me to play multiple positions. Growing up, we kind of had a feeling for my body that it would end up being offensive line. So you want to be understand the game at a different level, you know, at a quarterback, you have to understand an entire defense at linebacker. You have to know how to, you know, run the defense. So eventually it'll help out with offensive line play.

That's where we kind of figure my body would go. But, you know, all the way up till 10th grade, I played quarterback and inside linebacker. That's what I always played and then ended up switching to tight end once I grew my junior year. And then my senior year I played tight end as well and one game of tackle. And then as I got to Notre Dame, I kind of put more and more weight on and eventually slid into tackle.

And that's where I've been playing since. Give me the scouting report. What was Joe Alt like as a quarterback? Joe Alt was a big quarterback. He's a heavy quarterback. We love the power sweep from Joe Alt quarterback. We run all peewee and just get up on the edge and use the stiff arm.

That was my go-to, but kind of started slowing up a little bit. I got heavier and it was kind of time to, you know, move to a different position, AKA tight end with the girls spurt. Quarterback slowly got eaten out of. Well, I heard you also say tight end too.

How are your hands? Because tackle eligible in the NFL. You know, my buddy Dion Dawkins, who I went to school with, he's caught a few touchdown passes. That'd be pretty neat if they run you on some of those tackle eligible plays. Yeah, the tackle eligible plays are obviously very fun and a tackle's dream. We had one at Notre Dame last year, didn't end up running it.

That's okay. But it's always like you're kind of waiting. You're like, is this the opportunity to get that one called? And, you know, I'd be super cool out of it. I'd love to catch a touchdown in the NFL.

What a great honor and cool thing to do. But, you know, my hands, I hope they're good. The other thing is I get worried when you start taping them and get sweaty and they're not as sticky. I'm like, I don't know if I really could catch as well with these leather slippery gloves, you know, shear gloves.

But only one way to find out. That's awesome. Hopefully they run a few of those plays for you in your rookie season. I want to ask you about your older brother, Mark Alt, who's played hockey professionally, obviously. Did you ever play any hockey growing up and how much of a resource was your brother? Yeah, I played hockey until second grade and we hung it up. Like I said, my body wasn't really a hockey body.

I was more on the thicker side, taller side. I ended up playing basketball. But my brother has been a huge resource for me and someone who really has allowed me to develop my mental side of the game. He playing hockey, you know, the physical traits, there's a little bit similarities with the physicality of the sports. But the mental side of the game is what I've learned from him the most. He had the ability to play three or four games a week, you know, travel from side to side to side playing some years, you know, 80 plus games in a season.

And being able to be mentally strong enough and tough enough to go out there and play at a high level every single night. Even when your body was sore, you didn't feel well, he went out there. It really taught me a large respect for the game of hockey and respect for him and how hard he worked and how hard he trained and what he was able to do in his career.

I have a lot of respect for him and what he was able to do. Obviously, you have such a unique background because your father played for the Kansas City Chiefs and he's in their Hall of Fame. Your brother played professionally in hockey. Just what kind of sports fan were you growing up as a kid, Joel? Oh, I watched all sports because I was a part of it. I was watching high school sports, watching my sister play basketball. Football was always adult.

That was the one that was like, all right, that's the special one and that's the one I want to do when I'm older. What do you take away from your time with Marcus Freeman? Just wondering the last two years at Notre Dame since he became the head coach. Yeah, there's a bright future at Notre Dame with Coach Freeman.

That's for sure. He has the ability to develop relationships with players where you want to play for them and you want to earn his respect on the field. But then you know he has your back off the field and wants the best for you as both a football player and a person. So I think it's only looking up at Notre Dame with him, you know, head coaching and I'm really appreciative of that friendship we've grown and how we've developed each other's relationships and best of luck. I love watching what he's going to have to do these next couple years.

Wrapping up with Joe Alt who's going to hear his name called tomorrow evening, probably very early. I know we talked about Tennessee earlier. Any meetings with the Giants and the Chargers? Because just like your mother, I watch a lot of these mock drafts and I follow them religiously.

And I start to see in the last 24 hours. Well, maybe it could be the Giants. Maybe it could be the Chargers who are right in front of Tennessee sitting there in five and six. Yeah, I actually had a 30 visit with the Jets and the Giants with no Chargers, but I was able to go and kind of see New York in two different realms.

The Jets are a little further outside of New York City where the Giants are a little closer. I was able to see how they run their teams and learn from the offensive line coaches and head coaches what they had to offer and what they saw for their team. So, you know, I had great meetings with both those teams, learned a lot.

And like I said, just excited to see what happens tomorrow night where I'm heading. Have you thought about maybe a quarterback or two that you think would be pretty damn cool if you were entering into their huddle coming up in the fall and who would that be? Yeah, I was obviously blessed with a great, handsome quarterback last year in Sam Hartman.

You know, I was obviously a lot of fun to protect for him. But now obviously the next level in the NFL, you know, any quarterback is a dream come true because I'm being able to participate in the thing that was my dream as a kid. So there's a lot of quarterbacks out there, you know, you can name any of them and I'd say I couldn't be more excited to protect for them. So I'm just excited to play at the next level. I know that you said there's going to be a big surprise element to this as you truly don't have an idea where you're going to go when you get that phone call tomorrow night. But what do you think is going to be going through your head when through all this speculation and people trying to pretend like they know where you're going to actually go when you finally find out who that team is? And okay, it's dream accomplished of being an NFL player. Just how do you kind of process those emotions probably have to look at a day ahead? Yeah, it starts with a split second of excitement.

Obviously, that's what I dreamed I was a kid my entire life. But then I think the biggest thing I want to switch it to is gratitude. I have these people around me, my family, my close friends who have supported me, taught me what it is to be a man and to be a football player on and off the field. I just want to show my sincere gratitude to all of them and I wouldn't be in the spotlight without them and how appreciative I am of their time and their support for me. You got a good fit for tomorrow?

You're just going with something classy? Call from mom. Answer it.

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Stay in the know with your favorite teams right here on the Odyssey app. First of all, something classy, nothing crazy. It'll be nice and simple, but I'll be comfortable and ready to look good, I guess. Yeah, I want my offensive linemen comfortable. I don't need them all slagged out. We need them ready to go to work, right?

Yeah, exactly. Alrighty, Joe, tell me what you're doing today on behalf of Tide, P&G and Meyer. Yeah, I was able to partner with P&G and Meyer here. They have all the essentials I need going forward.

Moving into a new bigger city, you know, a new team, all of that. They're really ready for anything. More specifically with Tide, I was always growing up a Tide kid, my mom. I was always going to laundry with Tide at the top of the laundry room and walk in there and see it and try to pour it in myself and put way too much in. Who knows? Maybe I could damage the floor one time or not.

Who knows? That may have happened, but you know, Tide was always there to tackle any of my smelly football jerseys, basketball jerseys. More recently with Meyer, going another day and having Meyer in South Bend, I was able to grow respect for there and being able to attend there. That was where I did my shopping at South Bend, so I got a little perks thing for any Meyer shoppers out there. They can use mPerks to save $15 on purchases of $50 or more P&G products through April 27th. That's what I'm doing here today and it's something that I really hold close to my heart and things that I've had throughout my life.

That's what I'm doing. Let's say you could have a cheat meal and then you got to use some of that Tide because maybe you stay in your shirt because you get too much food on the shirt and you got to wash it. What is the offensive lineman, Joe Ault cheat meal if you're going out and having a big boy dinner?

Oh, you know, I'm a true American simple guy. I love a good cheeseburger, a brat, some french fries. That's kind of my go-to. You can get a nice mixture of that. Ketchup, mustard, mayo.

You can make them all taste a little bit different and just kind of go to town. That's always been my cheat meal. When you eat wings, you go ranch or blue cheese because that's been a big debate that I had. Oh, ranch. It's got to be ranch.

Oh my God! I'm Midwest. I am ranch. Yes, ranch. Always.

Well, Joe, I won't hold that against you. I really do appreciate your time and good luck. Thanks for doing this. Thank you. I appreciate your time. Thank you. I appreciate your time. Thank you.