Local Legend and Maryland LB Ruben Hyppolite II sits down with Tobin at Big 10 media day to preview his upcoming season. Hyppolite reveals what its like to converse with Ray Lewis. We get his take on the new NCAA College Football game. Surprisingly Ruben details his connection with Tua's brother Taulia Tagovailoa.
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00:00And we're live here from Big Ten Media Days. Final day here. They saved the best for last,
00:07man. The Capital One Orange Bowl Media Tour presented by Duffy's Sports Grill.
00:10And we got one of South Florida's own here. Ruben Hippolyte joining us here on the program.
00:14MacArthur High School zone, man. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate you. No doubt. Appreciate
00:18y'all for having me. What are the things from what, like what point during the Maryland winters,
00:25how much do you miss South Florida when those are going on? Or have you fully dove into your
00:29senior now? Or like you're completely used to that by now? I mean, I miss it every time the
00:33winter rolls around. I mean, I don't like snow still. I've been up here for what, four years?
00:37So, you know, I can never get used to it. But I just, you know, adjust and adapt. And when I get
00:42to go home, I, you know, waste no time. I get right back to Florida. When you were a freshman,
00:46like what, the first time, was that the first time you saw snow when Maryland happened? Or
00:50have you seen it, were you prepped for it when you went up there? So it was my second year that
00:54I saw snow for the first time. And then, you know, I got to touch and everything. And I was
00:58like very, I was just surprised. It was very cold. Didn't like it. But, you know, it was fun
01:04while it lasted. But by that second day of snow, I was like, yeah, I'm ready to get out of here.
01:07It's good. So you have a, you have an interesting tie, South Florida and with Maryland. You,
01:12you had a, you've built a little bit of a rapport with the Haynes legend, Ray Lewis,
01:17obviously Baltimore Ravens legend. You tell us a little bit about that. How did that relationship
01:20come to be? Yeah. So I went to his Ray Lewis camp in IMG, up in IMG. Went there two years in a row,
01:27won defensive MVP my second year up there. Just got to meet him, talk with him, just talk about
01:32ball, talk about life. It was very, it was very cool experience. Very, you know, great experience,
01:36humbling experience. And it was just all great all around, you know, just being able to be in
01:40the same room with him. Are there any, are there any like just normal conversations with Ray Lewis?
01:45Are they always life intense lessons? I think it's a life intense lessons all the time just
01:51because he's a passionate individual. And, you know, sometimes, you know, especially in this
01:55generation nowadays, you know, young, young people like us, we need to hear those. We need
01:59to hear those talks more often than not. So definitely, you know, appreciate them. So going
02:03into this season, I mean, you named a captain last year, you know, one of the leading tacklers
02:08on your team. What are the things that you're trying to impact? You know, this, this wave of
02:12this team of, of what's going to be effective. It's obviously a big year. You guys are welcoming
02:15a lot of new teams into this conference. Yeah. Just a consistency and discipline. I think that's
02:19the biggest thing for myself, for our team being consistent in our approach and then staying
02:24disciplined, you know, upholding our standard, doing things the right way, doing things the
02:28Terp way, and, you know, getting wins and putting our best product and our best foot forward every
02:35Saturday that we step on the field. You guys just released this thing. I just saw it on Instagram.
02:39The, the, the wire recreation. How many takes did that take? You nailed, I feel like you nailed
02:44the, the shock phase. Yeah. So it took me two takes actually. And I'm bragging, you know,
02:49that that's bragging rights for me. It took me two takes in and out. And I actually had to do
02:53the second take because our camera guy, shout out Jack Cohen, he messed up on the first take. So
02:58I blame Jack. So really you're a one-take wonder. One-take wonder. One, you're, you're, you're
03:01prepared for the, for the Hollywood life. Always. Is that like, it's, it's must, is that must watch
03:05if you go to Maryland of having your, your wire up or is it, is it too old of a show for you to
03:10know? It's too much, it's too old of a show for me to, to know. You know, I'm not really a big
03:14TV guy. I know people might hit me over the head for that. I'm not really a big movie guy either,
03:18but I'm a video gamer. So yeah, I'm big on that. Are you, are you excited about the new EA? Like,
03:24did you go immediately to go out, play, play with the Terps on that? Yeah. Highest, highest rate
03:28player on my team. So that's bragging rights right there again. I talk a lot of crap online
03:33to my teammates, so I like, I like to compete. So, you know, I keep it fun always. How much,
03:38like how much has that been a team bonding experience since it came out? Cause like the,
03:42the hype on that game was like nothing I've ever seen. Yeah. So, I mean, we bonded,
03:46we're already a close-knit team, but that game has brought us even closer. Like we go in the
03:50locker rooms, workouts, whatever. We like, Hey, like your speed is too low, man. They need to,
03:54or like, Hey, like your speed is too high and you don't run this fast. Like they need to change
03:59that. And we, we just go back and forth. You know, we talk crap to each other. Um, but it's all fun
04:03at the end of the day. Yeah. I'm very much looking forward to, uh, to season this year in the, in the
04:07words of the great Hassan White said of getting your 2k rating up. Like I, I, I cannot wait to,
04:12to, to see this because the, the, the love, I feel like this is brought to college football.
04:17I feel like it's going to make, I mean, it's pretty hard to make college football even more
04:20popular, but I feel like it's going to do that. Yeah, no doubt. And you know, like I was, I was
04:24talking to a couple of teammates, you know, later Pat this past week, like this game brings everybody
04:28together. Like you have, you know, guys who are working nine to five. It's like, you have,
04:32you know, young, younger, you know, women even playing the college football game. Um,
04:37my parents are playing the game, like my dad and his, his friends. So all ages, all groups,
04:43all variety of people playing this one game. And you know, some people don't like games,
04:47but I mean, this game bringing everybody closer. So, I mean, Hey, you know, I gotta listen. I'm
04:52like, I'm kind of the opposite of you. Like I'm a big TV guy, but I've never been a year, but it's,
04:56it's become so Bob is kind of one of those. It's like kind of bigger because my son's a huge,
05:00he's, he's getting very much into video games. So it might be time. It might be time to hop in
05:04on that. Like Roman him, but he hasn't played a game in six years, seven years. He went and
05:08bought a system for this game. So it was like, you know, it's bringing people out of retirement,
05:11which is crazy. So it was good. Did you, uh, as a Broward guy, were you at all into the
05:16Florida Panthers championship run? Did you, did you connect with that at all? I was,
05:20I was more of a heat fan. I was more invested in the heat, especially when LeBron and D Wade
05:24and Chris Bosch and Ray Allen and all those guys were there. So I was more on the basketball side.
05:28I grew up wanting to play basketball. They said I was supposed to be six, four didn't, you know,
05:32obviously didn't, you know, get that, but you know, it's all good. I'm here now playing a sport
05:37that I love. So, but I grew up a basketball fan. Did you, uh, did you still follow them this year?
05:41Like, uh, or did you, when you got to college, it fell off a little bit? No, I still followed
05:45them. Uh, Jimmy Butler, that's my favorite player in NBA right now. Um, especially the runner they
05:49had last year when they lost the nuggets in the finals. He put down a man. I don't like it. I
05:54don't like, I don't like that. Everybody's falling off on, uh, on Jimmy just cause he got one injury
05:57year. Hey man, Jimmy is the greatest basketball player in this era right now. He's the most
06:02consistent. He's the most dominant. Um, and he, he's the, he's probably the highest competitor
06:07in the league right now. You know, granted you got, you know, Jalen Brown, Celtics and all that
06:11stuff, but you know, I don't like the Celtics. So not even going to talk about them, but you know,
06:15it's all about the heat music to my ears, music to my ears. So you play with, uh, to his brother,
06:22Talia. Uh, what was that experience like? I mean, he leaves a big 10 all-time passer. Um,
06:28I thought that he was going to get an NFL shot and that could still obviously happen if, you know,
06:32he succeeds with a Canada, but what was the experience like playing with, to his brother?
06:35That's my guy. Um, you know, him and I, me and Talia, we, we talked every day. Um, I've been
06:41to dolphins games with him. I know his family, um, and his family friends and whatnot. So our
06:45relationship is very close. Um, he, um, you know, he knows my mother and he knows my family. Um,
06:51you know, we're very, you know, connected. Um, and we talk, we talk every day just about football,
06:56about life, about, you know, our goals and aspirations. Um, when he was here playing
07:01at Maryland, how we wanted our, our team to look, um, how we wanted our goals for the season and
07:05whatnot. So definitely a down to earth guy. Um, and you know, somebody I'll definitely have at
07:10my wedding when that time comes around. That's awesome. And that is, that's, that's,
07:13that's a real woman. Absolutely. Are you surprised that dolphins haven't paid to it
07:17yet? You surprised that that's still kind of a lingering thing.
07:20Man, that'll come to it. I haven't met Tua and I'm kind of upset that I haven't met Tua. Come
07:24on Leo. I haven't met your bigger brother. That's kind of, you know, that's kind of bad and I'm
07:29local too. So I'm like, Hey, come on. But, uh, his time will come. Um, you know, he's a great
07:34player obviously, um, you know, has a high ceiling and his time will come. His time will come.
07:39Is that a, if, if it would like playing for home, be a dream for you, like after the season,
07:43you go into the draft, like, is it, is that the number one place you would love to play?
07:47Yeah, definitely. I always, I tell everybody that if I had to, cause everybody asked me,
07:51they think that the NFL, you can just pick what team you want to go play for. But I'm like,
07:54that doesn't work like that. But if I wanted to pick a team, I'd definitely go back home
07:58to Miami. Yeah, that'd be awesome. That'd be a hell of a story. No doubt. Hey man, uh,
08:02enjoy the rest of your day here at a, at a big 10 media day. We appreciate the time. We'll be
08:05rooting for you this season. I appreciate you. Thank you. Ruben Hippolyte. Appreciate the time
08:08from him. We go to follow him this year. We'll go to, uh, you guys got a reason to watch the Terps.
08:12We'll be back with more after this. No doubt. Appreciate y'all.