Caleb Downs Dallas Cowboys newest star on his first NFL Training Camp, facing Ceedee & George Pickens, high expectations, bond with Christian Parker, Nick Saban influence, psychology of sports, how his college wins and losses prep a championship mindset

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
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**Channing Crowder** (0:29)
Caleb Downs has never been your average athlete. A relentless hunger to learn, a burning drive to be the best, and a competitive edge that extends far beyond the football field have always set him apart. He's not just different, he's exceptional, and he plays like it. A five-star high school safety, freshman All-American at Bama, a two-time All-American at Ohio State, his resume already reads like a vet. So it's only right that he now steps into the spotlight as the newest star of America's team. The standout from a family of high achievers, grounded in faith and built on expectation, now finds himself on the biggest stage, drafted by the Dallas Cowboys. So his journey raises one question, what is Caleb going to do when the path doesn't go exactly as planned? We dive into the highs and the lows of his Ohio State career, revisiting one of their brightest talents and measuring how that talent stacks up alongside names like CeeDee and George Pickens. I'm guessing you know who this young wide receiver is. He opens up about slipping further in the draft than he hoped, but landing exactly where he belongs and the optimism that now fuels him in Oxnard. This is a new era for the Cowboys defense with defensive coordinator Christian Parker, new expectations, new pressures and a young star safety ready to set the tone. And for Caleb, it's all about goals for this year, what he wants to prove, how he wants to lead and the standard he's chasing every single day. So Caleb Downs now joins me, Chan and Freddie T on the Pivot Training Camp Tour coming to you from Oxnard, California.
Caleb Downs, man, welcome to the show. This is Channing Crowder. This is Fred Taylor, Ryan Clark, Pivot fan. Thank y'all for pivoting with us.
I'm actually upset with you.

**Caleb Downs** (2:34)
Upset with me? Yeah.

**Channing Crowder** (2:35)
You can do something I was never able to accomplish.

**Caleb Downs** (2:39)
What is that?

**Channing Crowder** (2:39)
Actually complete the Rubik's Cube.

**Caleb Downs** (2:43)
I beat you at that when I was in sixth grade then. You behind, way behind.

**Channing Crowder** (2:46)
Well, I stopped trying in the sixth grade though. Like once I could figure it out, it just wasn't that important to me to do.

**Caleb Downs** (2:54)
That's just never been who I am, so.
I don't know, it was honestly all the little kids in my class could do it. And I was just like, man, I'm not going to be the odd one out. So I took like a couple of weeks to learn how to do it. My parents would watch me. I'd be at the dinner table every night trying to do it. And then once you get the codes memorized, it kind of just comes to you as you're doing it. So then, yeah, it's pretty simple now.

**Ryan Clark** (3:28)
You're an intellectual, and you play a barbaric sport.

**Caleb Downs** (3:32)
Yeah.

**Ryan Clark** (3:33)
Is there a switch? There's something turned over? Because you bang.

**Caleb Downs** (3:36)
Yeah, but there's a... I was saying to somebody a couple of minutes ago, I was like, when you play, there could be no thought. You can't think about anything. There's no fear. There's no hesitation.
There's no doubt. Just see ball get ball at some point.

**Fred Taylor** (3:49)
So I'm glad we have you here, because you can probably help us with this question. SEC or Big Ten?

**Caleb Downs** (3:56)
Oh, you can't argue with the Big Ten in the past couple of years. You cannot argue with that. I would say in totality, I'll probably say since I was growing up and everything, the SEC is probably a better place, better, they have a better culmination of teams.
But the Big Ten is catching up with the NIL. So in terms of like Indiana's now, schools like Purdue are taking guys from SEC schools now. So I would say like in terms of that, the Big Ten is getting closer. But the top of the Big Ten, they beat the SEC in the past couple of years.

**Channing Crowder** (4:31)
I think the thing that's different is when we played or before NIL and the transfer portal, the depth in the SEC would stay at the school.