Ti20 Off the Boards: Zay Cullens Interview

Tigers in 20: A Memphis Tigers Athletics podcast

In this episode of Off the Boards, senior Tiger linebacker Xavier "Zay" Cullens joins the show.

Zay has been with the program since 2017 and starts the show discussing his time at the University of Memphis and his love for the city of Memphis. He describes the relationships he's built with Memphis and how his love for the city and their love for him has fueled his desire to come back and finish out his career here at the University of Memphis. He described the relationship he's built specifically with Quindell Johnson, Coach Hankins, and Ryan Silverfield as huge motivations for him coming back instead of searching out other opportunities. Zay discusses his time at Memphis and how much he has grown. He describes how much he has grown in his mindset, maturity and in knowledge of how to physically prepare for a football season. Zay's diet and stretching regime has become a vital part of his active recovery as he has gotten older while at Memphis.

Zay discusses the 2021 season and broke down some of the positive and negatives that he took into the offseason this year. Zay shares that his goal for the defense this year is to communicate better, watch more film together and finish strong during each game and the season.

In the second segment, Zay shares his thoughts on new defensive coordinator, Matt Barnes, and the transition to a Barnes' led defense. Zay discusses his thoughts on whether or not the defense could possibly lag behind the offense at the beginning of the year. He shares that watching film and listening to Coach Barnes' teaching helps each individual player understand their role. Zay describes how he has assumed a leadership role and what his definition of "leadership" is. He believes that leadership is less about yelling and screaming but more so about holding others accountable and communicating clearly will help motivate younger guys to follow his example on and off the field.

About Off the Boards:

Off the Boards is a video/audio segment where GT247 sits down with local and national sports figures.

Typically, Off the Boards has been a video segment, but we are now turning it into an audio podcast as well to better meet the needs of all of our followers. This new format will allow all of GT247's content to be more accessible to listeners.

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