Joe Alt on his NFL-ready playing style & his Father's impact
Yahoo Sports’ Jason Fitz caught up with the former Notre Dame offensive lineman to discuss how his skills will transfer to the NFL, how his Dad impacted his career, the aspects of his game that resonate with fellow players, and much more. Joe Alt joined Yahoo Sports on behalf of USAA.
Video Transcript
JASON FITZ: Jason Fitz, with Yahoo Sports, hanging out with Joe Alt-- Joe joining us on behalf of USAA. We'll get to that in a minute.
The draft is almost here. So let's start with, obviously, what that experience is like. Has it set in yet that in a little over a week you're going to find out randomly, with no choice, where you're about to live?
JOE ALT: Yeah, it's definitely starting to set in. Being a week out, it's getting closer now. I'm really excited. For me, it's been this waiting period here in April a little bit, where the visits were over. So now, I'm just kind of getting excited.
JASON FITZ: Whenever I'm breaking down offensive lineman-- and what do I know-- like, I'm 5' 9" fiddle player-- so this is what I do. I reach out to as many former fat guys that I know that played in the league or played high-level college football. When I say your name, I'm telling you, eyes light up like I'm talking to a kid about Santa Claus. What is it about your game that translates so much, so well to guys that play it?
JOE ALT: Yeah, I think for me, I take a lot of pride in the technique part of the game. Something that I had the mindset is, if I put the work in, I have my technique down, if something ever goes bad, I can always just fall back on my training. And that's something that I hold myself to through my hard work. And then I think my ability-- with my size and my athleticism-- I think I have the ability to mirror guys in pass pro, but also use my size to my advantage, and my length.
So I think those are some of the strong attributes with myself.
JASON FITZ: How does the game translate for you, going from college and the offenses that you've been a part of to what you're anticipating at the NFL level?
JOE ALT: Yeah, at Notre Dame, we had definitely a pro-style offense. So I feel like I got a good feel for all the run schemes and the different kind of pass pros, five-, six-man, play action, stuff like that. So I feel I've been well prepared at Notre Dame for the next level. I had three great offensive line coaches there that all taught me different things that I was able to put into my game and use.
So I'm excited for this next step and to see where it ends up and how I can take those skills that I've learned and then just continue to elevate them at the next level.
JASON FITZ: Yeah. Your dad also played, too, right? So what sort of impact does that make on your process and how you prepared to get here?
JOE ALT: Yeah, my dad has been the biggest impact on me growing up and my football career both off and on the field. He's taught me the ins and outs of on-the-field technique, lifting and running and how to get into shape for the season and camp. But the biggest thing, as of recent for me, is just the mental side of things.
He's really taught me how to prepare and how to watch film and how to break down opponents and defenses, and then also just how to continue to have that mindset of-- the big thing we always talk about is to refuse to lose-- whatever you got to do to not let your guy hit the running back or guy hit the quarterback has been the biggest thing he's instilled in me. And he's been the biggest impact on me through my football career, for sure.
JASON FITZ: All right. So tell everybody what you do with USAA.
JOE ALT: Yeah. So I partnered with USAA here before the draft. I was able to fly out to Detroit, to the Selfridge Air National Air Base and was able to meet a whole bunch of military members and hear their stories. And the military has always been very important to me and my family. Both my grandfathers served in the Army. So just kind of listening and being able to see the traits that they have, and similar to my parents, was really cool for me. And I was able to tour the base. I was able to fly up in a Blackhawk helicopter with Bo Nix over Detroit and over the draft site.
It was a really great experience for me. And I always want to show my appreciation and my gratitude for those who served because I wouldn't be able to do what I do without them. So for me, it was overall a great experience, and I was very fortunate to be able to be a part of that.
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