Speaker 1: And now Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.
Speaker 2: What's up, everybody.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Move the Sticks DJ here as we bring
Speaker 3: you a best of episode today. We have had a
Speaker 3: chance throughout the calendar year to talk to some of
Speaker 3: the top college coaches in the country and wanted to
Speaker 3: give you a little flavor of each of those conversations
Speaker 3: in case you missed it. So the guys, you're going
Speaker 3: to be hearing from our Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson,
Speaker 3: playoff team, Indiana head coach Kurt Signetty. What a year
Speaker 3: for the Hoosiers as they were in the playoffs, Miami
Speaker 3: head coach Mario Christobal, big year there for the Hurricanes
Speaker 3: and the acc And just recently had a chance to
Speaker 3: visit with the new head coach of my alma mater
Speaker 3: at Appalachian State, that is Dwa Loggins, which is a
Speaker 3: fascinating conversation about the landscape of college football and where
Speaker 3: it's headed. So hope you guys enjoy this one. Let's
Speaker 3: start first of all with our conversation with Boise State
Speaker 3: head coach Spencer Danielson. Bucky and Rhet had a chance
Speaker 3: to visit with him in November, and I think you'll
Speaker 3: enjoy this conversation.
Speaker 4: Oh you're talking about learning and growing.
Speaker 5: You go from being the interim head coach to being
Speaker 5: the head coach. How much of a whirlwind has it
Speaker 5: been for you to deal with that promotion while putting
Speaker 5: your own stamp on the team and continuing what has
Speaker 5: been a really good tradition at Boise State.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it's I mean, guys, it's the grace
Speaker 6: of God. And I got a lot of really good
Speaker 6: mentors that I consistently picked their brain on when I
Speaker 6: got the interim head coaching job. You know, Coach Peterson's
Speaker 6: a huge mentor of mine and multiple others others that
Speaker 6: I mean, I'm I'm not that smart, I'm not that cool,
Speaker 6: and I tell people that like, this is not this
Speaker 6: is that I've done. I'm a product of having a
Speaker 6: lot of really good people around me. And so even
Speaker 6: when I got the interim job, to even weekly I'm
Speaker 6: talk with head coaches because I tell our players like,
Speaker 6: I'm relentless to make sure I grow every single day
Speaker 6: to be the best version of myself because that's what
Speaker 6: our players deserve. And so it's it's constantly learning and
Speaker 6: growing for myself to help lead these young men in
Speaker 6: all facets and developing in life.
Speaker 7: I mean, that's something that.
Speaker 6: I'm very open about with our team is you know,
Speaker 6: we build champions here first.
Speaker 7: I believe that. Then a byproduct of that is winning championships.
Speaker 6: But I feel cold to make sure and these young
Speaker 6: men are done here that they're gonna be better husbands
Speaker 6: and fathers and even some of our best players. Seeing
Speaker 6: how they lead, seeing who they are in the community,
Speaker 6: who they are as men of character. That's what really
Speaker 6: brings me so much fulfillment on a daily basis.
Speaker 7: And I'm just so blessed to be around man coach.
Speaker 8: That's such a powerful message, and it's one of development, right,
Speaker 8: It's one of development and growth.
Speaker 2: But there's so much in.
Speaker 8: College football these days that speaks to the opposite, right,
Speaker 8: that speaks to got to have it right now, whether
Speaker 8: that's from the team side, whether that's from the fans.
Speaker 2: Side or the player side.
Speaker 8: How do you kind of bring all of that together
Speaker 8: and try to maintain a developmental type of program with
Speaker 8: young men and with players in the changing landscape that
Speaker 8: we're sitting in here.
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely great, Quo us and you know, we talk
Speaker 6: a lot of Boise State about being built different, and
Speaker 6: I make sure people know that doesn't mean built perfect,
Speaker 6: and that we're doing something that's you know, so much better.
Speaker 7: It's just it's different here.
Speaker 6: And I've been here for this is year number eight
Speaker 6: at Boise State, and people would call me, you know,
Speaker 6: this is years ago eve when I'm an assistant, like when,
Speaker 6: what's what's it about Boise State?
Speaker 7: Is it the blue field?
Speaker 6: And You're like, well, you know, that's a part of it,
Speaker 6: but there's nothing magical about that. It's the work and
Speaker 6: what these guys do, and it is a very special
Speaker 6: place and it is different.
Speaker 7: Like and I tell our staff, like, we don't.
Speaker 6: Need to fit into the mold of what college football
Speaker 6: right now says that you need to do.
Speaker 7: We're not going to do that.
Speaker 6: Like, we want to be about transformation here, about building champions,
Speaker 6: not about just the transactions of well, coaches come here
Speaker 6: just to get another job, or players come here until
Speaker 6: someone else wants them to leave for more money than
Speaker 6: they leave, and that stuff happens, and that's not wrong, it's.
Speaker 7: Just the reality of college football, askat.
Speaker 6: But we want to be different here, and I want
Speaker 6: to find players and coaches that want to be a
Speaker 6: part of something different and leave a legacy. And that's
Speaker 6: I mean what Anshenty did last season, That's what an
Speaker 6: Ahmed Haasain did well. They could have gone anywhere. They
Speaker 6: want to be different, They want to leave a legacy.
Speaker 6: They want to be developed not only for the NFL,
Speaker 6: but for life. And they knew that the quickest way
Speaker 6: for that not to happen is to lose focus on
Speaker 6: things that don't directly impact that. They stayed a part
Speaker 6: of this team and that's why we're in the situation
Speaker 6: we are now because they know the best place for
Speaker 6: me to develop and become the best version of myself
Speaker 6: is right here in Boise, Idaho.
Speaker 5: Coach you mentioned you talked about the running back and
Speaker 5: his willingness to stay. What makes him such a special
Speaker 5: player because when I look at the tape, he does
Speaker 5: remarkable things with the ball in his hands.
Speaker 6: I mean, guys, we could be here all day talk
Speaker 6: about makes this beat and I mean that because he's
Speaker 6: He's touched my life, not only my life, just this team.
Speaker 7: Because before I even.
Speaker 6: Talk about the football side of Ashon Genty, I want
Speaker 6: to make sure people understand the personal side of him,
Speaker 6: the character off the field. I mean, he's a unanimous
Speaker 6: captain and at the end of last season, he's the
Speaker 6: Mountain West Player of the Year. Me his dad, I mean,
Speaker 6: we had one conversation about him staying and he wanted
Speaker 6: to be here. It wasn't like this sales pitch and
Speaker 6: all these different things, like he wanted to be here.
Speaker 6: He was committed to this place. And since the second
Speaker 6: January workout started, you know, he was the first one
Speaker 6: here working his tailoff from then till now. And his
Speaker 6: teammates see that, and he's all about his teammates. We
Speaker 6: meet a ton, and every time we meet it's about
Speaker 6: the team. We're in fall camp this past you know, August,
Speaker 6: and we had a walk through, you know, later in
Speaker 6: the day and after our walkthrough, he's waiting for me
Speaker 6: at the end of practice, and I could see and
Speaker 6: I could tell that he's a little frustrated, and he's like, coach,
Speaker 6: I need you to set a player's only meeting because
Speaker 6: you know, I didn't feel like the urgency in practice
Speaker 6: was where it needs to be. And so we set
Speaker 6: a players only meeting and our players, you know, a
Speaker 6: bunch of our players called me after he said coach,
Speaker 6: we needed that. Like, Ashton said some things straight, like
Speaker 6: he's about the team. It's not coach. How many carrieres
Speaker 6: can I get? You know, what's what's out there in
Speaker 6: the media about me. It's team, team, team.
Speaker 7: That's how he practiced, that's how he works.
Speaker 6: I had the you know, monster blessing of being able
Speaker 6: to baptize him at church during fall camp this past season.
Speaker 6: I mean, that's just a testament to who he is
Speaker 6: a young man. That's not because I asked him. That's
Speaker 6: because he just he's a man of high character, loves
Speaker 6: the Lord, and he's on a mission. He's on a
Speaker 6: mission and not only be the best version of himself,
Speaker 6: but to continue to push our team to get to
Speaker 6: you to learn and grow as well. I mean, he's
Speaker 6: he's a ten out of ten human being. I meet
Speaker 6: with tons of scouts and gms about him.
Speaker 9: He's a ten out of ten man.
Speaker 2: That's super cool.
Speaker 8: And then you know, you come up kind of through
Speaker 8: the defensive side of the ball, right to your position
Speaker 8: now as the head coach, so you kind of had
Speaker 8: a unique view of what Ashton was able to do.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 8: Was there a moment because I go back to when
Speaker 8: I was playing in Indiana and we had a player
Speaker 8: Ben Jarvis green Ellis who went on and did great
Speaker 8: things in the NFL a couple of different franchises, And
Speaker 8: I remember we didn't know anything about this kid right
Speaker 8: coming in and then all of a sudden, he got
Speaker 8: like twenty carries in a scrimmage and had like two
Speaker 8: hundred and fifty yards right, Like, was there a moment
Speaker 8: for you and for you guys with Ashton where you
Speaker 8: were like, holy smokes.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, I have a great question. I will never forget.
Speaker 6: I'm the defensive coordinator. Ash is an early en rollie.
Speaker 6: He's seventeen years old. I mean he's only twenty right now.
Speaker 6: He's seventeen years old, and I mean, let's not get
Speaker 6: a twisted Ashton was big and strong as a seventeen
Speaker 6: year old too.
Speaker 7: So when he walked in, it was like, okay, here
Speaker 7: we go.
Speaker 6: Get your mind right, defense, and we are in our
Speaker 6: first spring ball scrimmage in March, and I'll never forget
Speaker 6: it's fourth and one in a scrimmage and it's our
Speaker 6: starting defense and ashes out there and he pops this
Speaker 6: run on like.
Speaker 7: A zero pressure.
Speaker 6: That's like they shouldn't be able to run the ball anywhere, right,
Speaker 6: He pops this run and goes for eighty And I
Speaker 6: remember sitting there obviously a little pissed off at first,
Speaker 6: and then I'm like, boys, we're about to see you know,
Speaker 6: greatness here here really quick. And it went on to
Speaker 6: be a nightmare defend because Ash just puts defenses in conflict.
Speaker 6: And this is what I relate to players, like, you
Speaker 6: don't know how to attack him, Like do you do
Speaker 6: you stop your feet? If you do, he's gonna run
Speaker 6: over you if you come in too high, like he'll
Speaker 6: cut back and you don't have the you don't know
Speaker 6: he has the top end speed to take in the distance.
Speaker 7: He can catch the ball to the backfield. He's an
Speaker 7: elite receiver.
Speaker 6: If you line him up at empty he just he
Speaker 6: continually puts not only defensive coordinators, but all the eleven
Speaker 6: players in conflict.
Speaker 8: You know, to to do this in your first year
Speaker 8: as the full time head coach is certainly special, but
Speaker 8: there's so much that goes into it. And we love
Speaker 8: roster construction here on Move the Sticks Coach. We talk
Speaker 8: about it all the time from the NFL level, but
Speaker 8: it's so it's almost mirrred now on the college level,
Speaker 8: and I'm sure you can attest to that. I feel
Speaker 8: like there's a couple of different ways you can look
Speaker 8: at this. You know, whether it's transfer portal or whether
Speaker 8: it's you know, whether it's you know, incoming high school,
Speaker 8: you know seniors, you have guys that you build connections with, right,
Speaker 8: you have guys that you think have great potential, or
Speaker 8: especially with the transfer portal, you have guys that have
Speaker 8: shown great production. How do you kind of waigh those
Speaker 8: factors as you try to bring the best guys in
Speaker 8: and build the best team and Blue there and boising.
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, I mean management obviously, roster's going to one
Speaker 6: oh five, and there's a lot of different moving parts
Speaker 6: with it, not only in talent acquisition, but job number
Speaker 6: one for me is keeping our players. And with the
Speaker 6: landscape of some of the illegal recruiting or call what
Speaker 6: it is, I mean that's happening. I'm not gonna sit
Speaker 6: here and complain that's happening. So job number one for
Speaker 6: me is keeping our talent. And then it's making sure
Speaker 6: we continually find players that are built different and wired
Speaker 6: the right way. Because I always say this to our staff,
Speaker 6: Like football starts the conversation how tall is the ol,
Speaker 6: fast is he? What's his skill set for each position?
Speaker 6: But after that, what makes him different? That's my quote,
Speaker 6: what makes him different? Coach, He's a captain, he doesn't
Speaker 6: come for much.
Speaker 7: He's the first one the building. Like that makes him different.
Speaker 6: Like, those are the guys that are special here, Like
Speaker 6: there's got to be some outlying trait that makes them
Speaker 6: different that then takes that skill set and puts them.
Speaker 7: In a whole different category.
Speaker 6: We are primarily a high school recruiting organization, and I'm
Speaker 6: open with our staff like we are a developmental program.
Speaker 6: I want to find freshmen and develop them. Yes, we
Speaker 6: look at the portal. Yes we recruit junior college. We
Speaker 6: need to find the best available to help our team.
Speaker 6: But we start first and foremost recruiting the high school
Speaker 6: young man because we want to make sure we bring
Speaker 6: them in in four or five years whatever it takes,
Speaker 6: can grow and develop them to be the best version themself.
Speaker 6: If you look at our team, you know ninety five
Speaker 6: percent of our best players came here as high school
Speaker 6: players and they developed grew. I mean, going to the season,
Speaker 6: I think ninety percent of all our starters returning were
Speaker 6: freshmen that came or not freshman now, but came as freshmen.
Speaker 6: And because we're a developmental program, you find the guys
Speaker 6: that are wired the right way, that love football, that
Speaker 6: love being a part of the team. And then the
Speaker 6: other part of it now is I want to know
Speaker 6: more and more about what is the structure of this
Speaker 6: young man's life, Like who is the champion?
Speaker 7: Is it mom?
Speaker 4: Is it dad?
Speaker 10: Is a coach?
Speaker 7: Is it on tea?
Speaker 6: Because not only are we going to need their support
Speaker 6: to help grow and develop them, they're going to be
Speaker 6: the ones that help us keep them focused when they
Speaker 6: are successful and everybody tries and get them to leave.
Speaker 6: And so it's a there's a lot of moving parts
Speaker 6: to it. Number one, keeping our talent here in Boise
Speaker 6: and focused on that developing to be the best version
Speaker 6: of themselves, venice, recruiting the best high school kill the
Speaker 6: kids that are built different. And then from there we
Speaker 6: look each each year to ck what are the transfer
Speaker 6: portal or junior college needs and is there a fits
Speaker 6: And that's right, like, we can't let's not fit a
Speaker 6: square pegging a round hole. Guys, Like we got to
Speaker 6: find the guys a fit. If they don't then and
Speaker 6: we got to play a true freshon We'll play a
Speaker 6: true fresher in eighty other week and if it we'll
Speaker 6: take our lumps with him because we know he's gonna
Speaker 6: be wired and he's going to grow, and so it's
Speaker 6: something that you're constantly working through and evaluating.
Speaker 3: Next up, we always love staying in touch with the
Speaker 3: coaches at our alma Maters and Rhett had the bragging
Speaker 3: rights this year on the pod his Indiana Hoosiers. What
Speaker 3: a year that they had, led by Kurt Signetti, someone
Speaker 3: who's got a lot of headlines and a lot of
Speaker 3: attention for being brashed for being bold, but more than
Speaker 3: anything else, for winning something that they had not done
Speaker 3: at Indiana. They finished eleven and two, eight and one
Speaker 3: in the Big Ten. Did the suffer that tough loss
Speaker 3: against Notre Dame in the first round of the College
Speaker 3: Football Playoffs, But what a year for Signetti and the Hoosiers.
Speaker 3: Bucky and Rhett had a chance to visit with him
Speaker 3: in November.
Speaker 8: The biggest thing that has struck me about your team
Speaker 8: is the team. Yeah, this to me is one of
Speaker 8: the most complete and complementary football minded teams that I
Speaker 8: have watched this year in all of college football. How
Speaker 8: do you cultivate that on a day to day basis,
Speaker 8: and especially going into the season knowing that you had
Speaker 8: so many new faces all coming together for one purpose.
Speaker 11: Well, to me, that's the key to the drill is
Speaker 11: getting everybody to think alike.
Speaker 10: And it all starts with people.
Speaker 11: You got to have the right people in place, the
Speaker 11: right people on the bus and you know they so
Speaker 11: and starts with your staff and players too, and then
Speaker 11: the messaging has to be such that has to be concise,
Speaker 11: clear and consistent. And we're processed driven. And we've got
Speaker 11: enough older guys on this football team that have played
Speaker 11: successful football in their college career, a lot of them
Speaker 11: at other places that were two three year starters, that
Speaker 11: have good character and team oriented guys have a little
Speaker 11: bit of a chip on their shoulder. Quite frankly, a
Speaker 11: lot of guys on this team have something to prove.
Speaker 11: And you know, and while you know they want to
Speaker 11: get their catches and their touches and all that good
Speaker 11: stuff TfL secks, you know that it's a tight team.
Speaker 11: We've got a lot of good leadership on this team,
Speaker 11: and there's no agendas. Everybody is focused on the same thing,
Speaker 11: and that's my job to make sure they are, you know,
Speaker 11: And that, to me, that's the weekly challenge you the
Speaker 11: intangibles you develop on your football team once you know
Speaker 11: the season begins, because the margin frayer is very slim, you.
Speaker 10: Know, coach.
Speaker 5: So often we hear coaches talking about a being process oriented,
Speaker 5: but for the novice, the amateur who don't doesn't really
Speaker 5: understand what that means. What does it mean when you
Speaker 5: say your process orient as opposed to being results driven?
Speaker 11: Yeah, okay, Well, you know, you got to have a
Speaker 11: blueprint and a plan, and you work your plan daily
Speaker 11: and the key to the drills, do improve every single day.
Speaker 10: And if you're doing that and you're preparing the.
Speaker 11: Right way, you know, there should be no self imposed
Speaker 11: limitations on what you can accomplish. But you've got to
Speaker 11: have high standards and expectations and accountability. You can never
Speaker 11: lower your standards because how you do something's how you
Speaker 11: do everything.
Speaker 10: So obviously you got.
Speaker 11: To have a plan for how you train in the
Speaker 11: off season, how you practice in game, strategy, you know,
Speaker 11: et cetera. But you know, we talk more about the
Speaker 11: things you have to do right now to be as
Speaker 11: good as you can be, and really never talk about
Speaker 11: the end result. We don't talk about championships. We really
Speaker 11: don't talk about winning the game. Every you know, all
Speaker 11: there is is to hearing out. Be where your feet are.
Speaker 11: Eliminate the noise, eliminate the clutter, have great focus, positive energy,
Speaker 11: get every bit.
Speaker 10: Out of the meeting that you keep, and.
Speaker 11: You know, execute as well as you can every practice
Speaker 11: because good days stack on top of good days. Really,
Speaker 11: tomorrow and Saturday are kind of a concept, and we
Speaker 11: play the game that way too. Only you know, want
Speaker 11: play the time six seconds of player. Every play's got
Speaker 11: a life in the history of its own nothing, nothing
Speaker 11: not affected by success, not affected by failure, fast, physical, relentless,
Speaker 11: smart discipline, poise on to the next play and from
Speaker 11: the first to the last, and there's going to be
Speaker 11: a high standard. And that standard doesn't deviate to the
Speaker 11: circumstances of the game. Meaning if you're up four touchdowns
Speaker 11: in the fourth quarter, you don't lower your standards just
Speaker 11: because you're up four touchdowns.
Speaker 10: Right, So that's why you see a lot of guys
Speaker 10: like me, you.
Speaker 11: Know, kind of limittates on the sideline and the fourth
Speaker 11: court leans because the standard is the standard, and great
Speaker 11: competitors really are never satisfied, right, You can't be satisfied
Speaker 11: in this business. You guys know that you play and
Speaker 11: if you're not striving, then you're not getting better because yeah,
Speaker 11: somebody else is and he's catching you. And that's just
Speaker 11: the nature of the business.
Speaker 8: And look, Coach, I think there's been, you know, plenty
Speaker 8: of times during games where broadcasts have pointed out the
Speaker 8: fact that you know, your face stays pret you know,
Speaker 8: even keeled throughout. And but you know what, it's not
Speaker 8: just us and the viewers that are seeing that's your
Speaker 8: players that are seeing that too. It's likely, you know,
Speaker 8: Coach doesn't think the game's over here just because we
Speaker 8: scored a touchdown, Like your face tells the story of
Speaker 8: every day, every play, continuing to meet that standard. So
Speaker 8: I think all that, all that goes into what we're
Speaker 8: talking about and building one cohesive team. But building a
Speaker 8: team is something we talk about a lot here on
Speaker 8: Move the Sticks podcast, Roster construction, developing the right people,
Speaker 8: the right players that you're talking about there. Obviously a
Speaker 8: transfer portal has played a big role in the construction
Speaker 8: of this team. How do you view that from a
Speaker 8: sustainability standpoint, because everybody can talk about still wanting to
Speaker 8: build through high school and we get how important that is.
Speaker 9: But I'm curious as to how you view the.
Speaker 8: Transfer portal in your ultimate plan for the future of
Speaker 8: this program.
Speaker 11: Right, Well, we had to go heavy portal just to
Speaker 11: be able to line up and play our games because
Speaker 11: my first Dawn Rob we had ten offensive starters and
Speaker 11: a transfer portal and half the defense.
Speaker 10: I didn't know that when I took this job.
Speaker 4: It was a very quick process.
Speaker 11: So like I think our roster was down to forty
Speaker 11: thirty eight or forty scholarship guys at one point, but
Speaker 11: you know, we brought twenty two guys in in three weeks.
Speaker 11: They were all two three year starters at the schools
Speaker 11: that they had been at and had consistent production year in,
Speaker 11: year out, which tells me a lot about a guy.
Speaker 11: That's a guy that can stay on the practice field.
Speaker 11: He can handle success, failure, he can overcome adversity obstacles.
Speaker 11: You know, he's got some perseverance and some grid about him.
Speaker 11: And so to me, production means a lot and it's
Speaker 11: a reflection of character.
Speaker 10: Consistent production. So in answer to your question, you know.
Speaker 11: I'll probably have to go fairly heavy again here in
Speaker 11: a couple of weeks, just because we have so many
Speaker 11: seniors on our team. All those guys we brought in
Speaker 11: over one or two year guys. I think every year, regardless,
Speaker 11: you're going to sign fifteen to twenty high school guys.
Speaker 11: That's the foundation of the house, and hopefully you can
Speaker 11: retain the guys that turn out.
Speaker 10: To be really good players.
Speaker 11: You're always going to have some needs here and there
Speaker 11: in the portal, like a you know at JMU where
Speaker 11: we were rolling. I mean we won five championships in
Speaker 11: five years, you know, two to four a year. We
Speaker 11: were taking maybe a few more, but so out of
Speaker 11: necessity last year, probably necessity this year as well. And
Speaker 11: now we just got to back up last year's class
Speaker 11: with not a good class. But eventually you wean yourself
Speaker 11: down numbers wise. Yeah, and so you know, but to
Speaker 11: be honest with you, in this business anymore, you can't
Speaker 11: think two, three, four years now. I mean, this isn't
Speaker 11: like the old days where they'd hire a coach and
Speaker 11: give him six years and by year four or five,
Speaker 11: you know, he wanted to have a good football team
Speaker 11: back in the seventies, eighties, nineties. You know, people want
Speaker 11: it now. Man, this is social media age, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 11: that's right, and then once you start getting it to them,
Speaker 11: it's got to look pretty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, that's right, you know.
Speaker 10: Coach.
Speaker 5: One thing that struck me is when you took the job,
Speaker 5: your confidence and knowing that you would be able to
Speaker 5: turn this around it fairly quickly. I know you'd have
Speaker 5: some other jobs, you have success at James Madison, those things. Well,
Speaker 5: why were you so confident that your playing your process
Speaker 5: will work at Indiana in the Big Ten?
Speaker 11: Well, I had a lot of confidence in myself because
Speaker 11: of how much Wind won, and I had some turnaround
Speaker 11: jobs that we turned around real quickly. And it was
Speaker 11: year fourteen and year forty two as a coach, and
Speaker 11: you know, grew up coach's son and been around some
Speaker 11: great people and learned a lot from Coach Saban obviously,
Speaker 11: so I felt like.
Speaker 10: I knew it I was doing.
Speaker 11: And then you know, I got I went out on
Speaker 11: a limb here early on with some statements publicly, and
Speaker 11: it was more so because of what I felt the
Speaker 11: first down job here sort of a hopelessness and despair
Speaker 11: around the program. People had sort of given up on it,
Speaker 11: and people outside the program sort of looked down on us.
Speaker 11: And it was like two worlds clashing clashing. You know,
Speaker 11: my world, which is used to winning all the time,
Speaker 11: and their world. I wasn't going to lower my expectations,
Speaker 11: so I had to create some excitement and set an
Speaker 11: expectation level. I really felt good about what we got
Speaker 11: done those first three weeks with those twenty two transfers.
Speaker 11: That's signing date December twenty first, whenever it was, and
Speaker 11: I knew.
Speaker 10: The schedule and what did we have to sell?
Speaker 11: Okay, here's what we had to sell, Like if you're
Speaker 11: a quarterback or last four quarterback's been player of a
Speaker 11: year of the league in offense, you know, and the
Speaker 11: previous two were one year G five transfers, just like
Speaker 11: we have now with Curtis work. You know, we had
Speaker 11: two thousand yards receives in the same season two the
Speaker 11: last three years defensively weren't a top five. Every year
Speaker 11: gets to run TFLs and sacks. And we had won.
Speaker 11: This staff had won, and most of the staff had
Speaker 11: come with me. And then the schedule, I mean, the
Speaker 11: schedule was what it was, and I'd go down that
Speaker 11: schedule with each one of these guys because, look, they
Speaker 11: want to come in here to play and contribute, they
Speaker 11: want to start right, but they want to win too,
Speaker 11: And so this division of what could happen. And quite frankly,
Speaker 11: I've had big one year turnarounds there every job I took,
Speaker 11: you know, because I got this magic wand in my
Speaker 11: back pocket.
Speaker 10: Yeah, and I thought I thought.
Speaker 11: That confidence I needed to portray that in this particular
Speaker 11: situation at this place a little more outwardly than in
Speaker 11: the other places.
Speaker 5: Quicky coach, because you talked about the transfer portal and
Speaker 5: mixing high school players in those things, and you talked
Speaker 5: about it being a year leader existence. When it comes
Speaker 5: to team building, how QUI can you get a team
Speaker 5: up to speed in terms of there's so many individual agendas?
Speaker 5: How do you get your players to put that to
Speaker 5: decide to really focus on the team first and everything else?
Speaker 4: That played well.
Speaker 11: I think what really helped us in this particular situation
Speaker 11: is we brought thirteen guys from JMU, thirteen guys from
Speaker 11: a championship culture that were really tight with one another,
Speaker 11: knew how the program was one run. I'm sorry and
Speaker 11: had a little bit of a chip on their shoulder.
Speaker 11: And the other guys we brought in had high character too,
Speaker 11: and the ones who stayed were the right kind of guys.
Speaker 11: So that culture really started in January with the off
Speaker 11: season program the JM. You guys facilitated it. But bottom
Speaker 11: line is this, you still have to get the results
Speaker 11: on the field. Yeah, Like you win the first one,
Speaker 11: that builds some belief and confidence. You win the second
Speaker 11: you go out to UCLA and win. Now, all of
Speaker 11: a sudden, you see a lot of things starting to
Speaker 11: come together. And this team's just built on every success.
Speaker 11: And you know, we played fairly consistently. It's not perfect
Speaker 11: every game. We've got some improvements to make corrections, but
Speaker 11: we've been fairly steady.
Speaker 10: But winning helps everything.
Speaker 3: Love those conversations, those first two interviews. Hope you guys
Speaker 3: enjoyed them. We've got a couple more coming your way
Speaker 3: right after this. All right, Next up, speaking of Alma Matersnbill,
Speaker 3: our producer. He's a Miami Hurricane. That is not the
Speaker 3: reason why we wanted this next head coach on. It
Speaker 3: was because of the success he's had throughout his career
Speaker 3: as a position coach as someone who's known as one
Speaker 3: of the best offensive line coaches for a long period
Speaker 3: of time, then distinguished himself as a head coach throughout
Speaker 3: a couple stops, including a very successful stint at Oregon,
Speaker 3: before returning to his alma mater, Miami to take over
Speaker 3: a Hurricane program that he led to a ten and
Speaker 3: two record this year, including six and two in the ACC.
Speaker 3: You'll see them play against Iowa State and the Pop
Speaker 3: Charts Bowl that's going to be on Saturday. Bucky myself,
Speaker 3: we both had a chance to sit down and chat
Speaker 3: with Mario Christobal back in October.
Speaker 5: You know, Coach, you played in the Miami doing the
Speaker 5: Heyday and bringing it back. Your guys come to Miami
Speaker 5: to play in these kinds of games, right, They come
Speaker 5: to play in big games. How do you sell that
Speaker 5: when you're recruiting players about Look, you come to Miami
Speaker 5: to play in the biggest games, to be on the
Speaker 5: biggest and brightest stages.
Speaker 1: I think the first thing we had to do was
Speaker 1: just get right to work and start putting together a
Speaker 1: roster and a coaching staff and infrastructure that screams Miami.
Speaker 1: And when I say that, I'm talking about the standard
Speaker 1: that we all know Miami was and should always be.
Speaker 1: So I think we've done a lot of work and
Speaker 1: we've made a lot of progress, and that kind of
Speaker 1: sells itself. But we have a lot of alumni in
Speaker 1: the building, a lot of guys that actually bled it
Speaker 1: orange and green all day every day, and so it's
Speaker 1: more of just telling the story than actually selling because
Speaker 1: of is strong and you know how that is.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 1: You can tell you when someone's bs and when someone's
Speaker 1: being honest and genuine, and.
Speaker 4: You can feel it and see it.
Speaker 1: When our people talk about the University of Miami and
Speaker 1: then you guys have been down there a few times,
Speaker 1: it kind of starts a little bit too, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not bad. It's not a bad environment down there.
Speaker 3: Coach, you talk about the roster building, I want to
Speaker 3: get to that, because, yeah, I want to talk about
Speaker 3: the offense line.
Speaker 2: Specifically, which has been your baby.
Speaker 3: It's been your calling card everywhere you've been at your
Speaker 3: background and you've always had good offensive lines. How much
Speaker 3: of it is the acquiring of the players versus then
Speaker 3: developing the players once you get them on campus.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's that's a great question, man, It's it's both
Speaker 1: you know, and and our offensive line coach, coach Alex
Speaker 1: Mirrabald does not get enough credit. That guy is the
Speaker 1: elite of the elite. We actually went to high school together,
Speaker 1: played on the same offensive line to watch tape and say, man,
Speaker 1: if we ever get our chance to be coaches, we're
Speaker 1: going to build o line.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: It is the fact, I mean the bigs, you know,
Speaker 1: the bigs take longer develop. So if you have to,
Speaker 1: if you have to restart a program, rebuild a program,
Speaker 1: you better go in all in on the bigs early,
Speaker 1: right away and get more hits than not because typically
Speaker 1: are gonna take two and three years to develop. You
Speaker 1: might hit on one or two Pina schools, you know,
Speaker 1: just my noise. You might hit on those guys, but
Speaker 1: the other ones are going to take some time because
Speaker 1: we haven't really done much of the portal in terms
Speaker 1: of the old line one or two you know, here
Speaker 1: and there. But yeah, we're all in on the trenches
Speaker 1: on both sides because then that becomes an iron sharpened,
Speaker 1: iron type of arena out there every single day.
Speaker 4: And and you know what, when Miami was.
Speaker 1: Really good despite all the fame and fortune that goes
Speaker 1: to the wide receivers and skill guys.
Speaker 4: We always had great trenches.
Speaker 1: Man, the guys up front were always just elite and
Speaker 1: made it, you know, impossible for other teams to beat us.
Speaker 5: You know, coach, I'm so curious about like the approach
Speaker 5: in this area. You hear some coaches complain about like
Speaker 5: nil and the transfer portal and the transient nature football,
Speaker 5: But you've always struck me.
Speaker 4: As an old school coach.
Speaker 5: How does old school work with new school players?
Speaker 1: It just works, you know. I think it's if old
Speaker 1: school and I think of old school, I think I
Speaker 1: like the right stuff. I think I'm a high school
Speaker 1: coach who is the best mentor and teacher I ever had.
Speaker 1: I mean, the guy looks and acts like Sunsey Crease
Speaker 1: from and the principles and values of that man are
Speaker 1: identical to Jimmy Johnson and Nick Saban, guys that I
Speaker 1: worked for and played for.
Speaker 4: And so I don't think that ever changes.
Speaker 1: And I don't think any one of us would want
Speaker 1: our own son to go to a program that caters
Speaker 1: to you know, having a you know, guys doing things
Speaker 1: and having a disregard for doing things the right way.
Speaker 1: So old school is hard, intense and passionate coaching, but
Speaker 1: it's about the right things. It's not just to make
Speaker 1: noise and whatnot. So I think it works awesome. I
Speaker 1: think it's still the best approach. And so that you're
Speaker 1: don't find yourself in a hostage situation, a hostage crisis.
Speaker 1: You recruit your tail off to make sure that if
Speaker 1: a guy's kind of going sideways on it, that you
Speaker 1: invest a lot in have another one ready to come in.
Speaker 1: That's better, right, so that you are never compromising the culture.
Speaker 1: And so the whole organization sees that, hey, no matter
Speaker 1: the talent level, no matter what the situation is, we're
Speaker 1: going to do things a certain way as it relates
Speaker 1: to the entire team.
Speaker 4: And that is really.
Speaker 1: As spoken and has held strong in our organization.
Speaker 2: Coach.
Speaker 3: When you look at the teams and you mentioned Nick
Speaker 3: Saban and being a part of that organization, there the
Speaker 3: teams that have had this long sustained success that have
Speaker 3: been you know, college football playoff contenders every single year.
Speaker 3: I go back to conversation I had with Stacy Sterles
Speaker 3: at Georgia when he I asked him before they played
Speaker 3: TCU in the championship game. I said, coach, I was
Speaker 3: practiced this week. He said O Tuesday was a bloodbath.
Speaker 3: He said, it was ones versus ones, and that's that's
Speaker 3: how they do it. And you've you've experienced that and
Speaker 3: built it the same way. How much good on good
Speaker 3: can you afford to do?
Speaker 4: Guys?
Speaker 3: You don't want to lose guys. You want guys to
Speaker 3: go down. But man, you talk about iron Sharpen's iron.
Speaker 3: When you get those heavyweights going against each other in practice.
Speaker 4: It's every day.
Speaker 1: You have to do it every day, and you might
Speaker 1: have to limit a guy here and there. But if
Speaker 1: you don't build a callus football team, you're no good
Speaker 1: in November. I'm just you know, if you start catering
Speaker 1: and if you start getting the mentality, oh let's just
Speaker 1: get them to the game, what are you actually getting
Speaker 1: to the game someone that maybe couldn't fight through the
Speaker 1: bumps and bruises that come with football. Now, if a
Speaker 1: guy's truly injured, you have to I mean, you do
Speaker 1: the right thing. But the pains and the riggers and
Speaker 1: the demands of football, the things that come with it,
Speaker 1: you've got to it's your responsibility. If you want guys
Speaker 1: to play in the NFL, they've got to understand and realize, brother,
Speaker 1: when you're at that next level. I mean, you see
Speaker 1: guys playing with torn biceps, right, I mean the nature
Speaker 1: of the shoulder, the knee, some of the things that
Speaker 1: come with it. So it's our due an obligation to
Speaker 1: protect them but also push some of the things that
Speaker 1: are again healthy. You don't get risk. I know that
Speaker 1: answers a question, but no, good on good you got
Speaker 1: to do it, man. Yeah, the amount of juice that
Speaker 1: it brings to practice, the way guys get better.
Speaker 4: You just you know, you say, hey, man, don't don't
Speaker 4: die for a ball. Man.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a little bit out of hand, and
Speaker 1: sometimes like the w W it's like, you know, macho man,
Speaker 1: and then studying. I don't think you could have it
Speaker 1: any other way. And I think all the guys that
Speaker 1: you mentioned they always had enough.
Speaker 5: You know, Coach, you've been fortunate to be around really
Speaker 5: good quarterbacks, like franchise quarterback up in Oregon and justin
Speaker 5: Herbert you have a really good winning cam ward before
Speaker 5: we talk about them specifically, for you, when you're recruiting,
Speaker 5: what are some of the traits that you look for
Speaker 5: in an elite or a franchise quarterback at your level.
Speaker 4: He's got to have the mindset of an elite linebacker.
Speaker 1: He's got to be a real tough, smart, diligent alpha.
Speaker 4: Is what we're looking for. I mean that the best
Speaker 4: you know cam Ward is is he's one of a kind.
Speaker 1: He really isn't You watch his ability and some of
Speaker 1: the things that he does as talent level is it's
Speaker 1: just unique.
Speaker 4: But people don't get to see this guy behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: And when they do, when they get a chance to
Speaker 1: actually feel it and see it, they're going to see
Speaker 1: that this guy is truly one.
Speaker 4: Of a kind with all the intangibles as well.
Speaker 1: This guy man, he demands it of himself, but there's
Speaker 1: no flinch and no hesitation when he's got a demand
Speaker 1: it from his teammates. And it started early the moment
Speaker 1: he got to campus. He didn't wait long, but he
Speaker 1: proved it with his performance in practice.
Speaker 4: So we look for that.
Speaker 1: Obviously all the other stuff everybody else looks for, But
Speaker 1: the guy's got to be a dog man. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't think you could treat that guy like a
Speaker 1: China doll, like Bill Bellich, you know, Coach Belichick, excuse
Speaker 1: me speak about all the time you don't. There's no
Speaker 1: what do they call that called the golden what he
Speaker 1: called it a China doll. He didn't have any.
Speaker 2: There's no golden spoon there either.
Speaker 4: Exactly.
Speaker 3: Coach, when when we were trying to get guys, we're
Speaker 3: talking to players go to the draft.
Speaker 4: No sacred cous he said, no.
Speaker 2: No sacred cous there sacred counts there we go.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: That's it, Yeah, it came. It came to you.
Speaker 3: The one of the last things I want to hit
Speaker 3: you on coaches when you when you look at teams
Speaker 3: and how they're built, and you think about the you know,
Speaker 3: the guys that love football, and we talk about that
Speaker 3: in the draft every year we're looking at guys. We're
Speaker 3: trying to do our homework and going back to our
Speaker 3: scouting days when you're going on visits and you're talking
Speaker 3: with everybody in the building, and it's a challenge for
Speaker 3: us at the NFL level to find out how these
Speaker 3: guys are wired and how much they are passionate about it.
Speaker 3: How the heck are you guys able to figure that
Speaker 3: out with a high school kid.
Speaker 1: It's in the words of my O line coach, here
Speaker 1: are key who actually visiting this week and we flew
Speaker 1: them in complete maniac. You said, all recruiting the most
Speaker 1: imperfect science in the world. And I think as coaches
Speaker 1: when we're on the road, we fail to seek out
Speaker 1: trusted resources, coaches, people in the community that have been
Speaker 1: around some of these players and savement knee high and
Speaker 1: can tell you everything about them. Because this is when
Speaker 1: the streets talk certain parts of history. They can give
Speaker 1: you the four one one on just about everybody, and
Speaker 1: you better listen to them because they really do know.
Speaker 1: And then that grants the opportunity to expand your you know,
Speaker 1: your research and some of the recon you do on guys.
Speaker 1: But whether that part of it, I mean, it's you've
Speaker 1: got to dig deep and it has become like the
Speaker 1: biggest hit or misfactor as it relates to the guys
Speaker 1: that you signed, as it relates to recruiting, you've got
Speaker 1: to find the guy that's knocking out the park on
Speaker 1: intangibles because it's getting harder and more competitive.
Speaker 4: There's money involved. Now there's there's it's not.
Speaker 1: Even third parties, it's third, fourth, and fifth parties that
Speaker 1: evolved and so you better have someone that either has
Speaker 1: a great you know circle of people and support system
Speaker 1: and that is really locked in and wired the right way.
Speaker 3: Right great here from Coach Crystoball, you can tell just
Speaker 3: a very smart, very planned, very organized, very disciplined man
Speaker 3: at the helm there for Miami. This next one is
Speaker 3: a fun one for me because it's the man who's
Speaker 3: going to take over my alma mater at Appalachian State.
Speaker 3: Dal Loggins comes with a long career in the NFL
Speaker 3: on the coaching side before making the transition to college,
Speaker 3: both at Arkansas, his alma mater, as well as a
Speaker 3: very successful two year run as the officeive coordinator at
Speaker 3: South Carolina where they really got things rolling this past
Speaker 3: year that led to the opportunity for him to be
Speaker 3: named the new head coach at app State. Bucky and
Speaker 3: I had a chance to visit with him very recently. Coach,
Speaker 3: how are we doing doing great?
Speaker 9: Wonderful to be sitting this office right now, and so
Speaker 9: much respect for the people that have come before me
Speaker 9: like you that every day I walk down the all
Speaker 9: and I see your face on the wall. So unbelievable opportunity.
Speaker 9: I'm so excited to be on with you guys.
Speaker 10: Today.
Speaker 3: We're going to get We're gonna get through the whole
Speaker 3: background and what's got you to this point. But I
Speaker 3: do have to ask you what was the what was
Speaker 3: the biggest surprise for you so far since you've been there.
Speaker 10: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 9: So I had an opportunity to meet with all the players,
Speaker 9: the previous staff, a bunch of donors, a bunch of supporters,
Speaker 9: But just the biggest surprise is how much pride that
Speaker 9: the people have in this place and whether the community,
Speaker 9: the region that it is a place that is loved.
Speaker 9: There's a very high standard here and the expectation is
Speaker 9: to win. And you just you walk by and it's
Speaker 9: all these pictures of rings and conference championships and all
Speaker 9: these great alumni. It's been You just feel it's really
Speaker 9: hard to be in a place that they don't understand
Speaker 9: what winning looks like. It's just it's hard to create
Speaker 9: it and you can sell a vision. But intrigue me
Speaker 9: about this place is they know how to win, and
Speaker 9: winning is really important around here, and they do it
Speaker 9: the right way.
Speaker 5: You know, coaching and thinking about that, doing it the
Speaker 5: right way, and really a different frontier that you're stepping
Speaker 5: into college landscape, Like you hear everyone talk about how
Speaker 5: crazy it is with the portal and the different timelines
Speaker 5: and those things. So how challenging has it been to
Speaker 5: manage all of the portal stuff while also trying to
Speaker 5: assemble the staff and put together all of the other
Speaker 5: things that you have to do as a new head coach.
Speaker 9: Yeah, it is a challenge. And I don't know if
Speaker 9: the calendar is the way it should be, but it
Speaker 9: is what it is. So right now, this is what
Speaker 9: we're worried about our own players, keeping them retain the
Speaker 9: ones we want to retain. You're dealing with in ile,
Speaker 9: which is NFL free AC with no salary cap. You're
Speaker 9: trying to assess what's in the portal doesn't make you better.
Speaker 9: But here's where you can make mistakes. If you don't
Speaker 9: research a kid, if you don't talk to the trainer
Speaker 9: of the place he's coming from, you don't talk to
Speaker 9: the strength coach, if you don't talk to the high
Speaker 9: school coach, you're not being thorough. So you got to
Speaker 9: be thorough and go through the process of evaluation to
Speaker 9: make sure you're doing all those things right. And because
Speaker 9: you're so limited and everything, it's speed dating on top
Speaker 9: of trying to figure out is there people on the
Speaker 9: staff you want to keep or trying to get people
Speaker 9: at other programs that you want to come be part
Speaker 9: of your staff. Some people are still playing, some people
Speaker 9: in a college football playoff. So it's it's a challenging
Speaker 9: time as a college coach, but it's why we sign
Speaker 9: up for these opportunities to figure it out, and it's
Speaker 9: get the calendar is what it is. You'd love to
Speaker 9: make some edits to it, but you make the most
Speaker 9: of the situation. And there is definitely a lot going on.
Speaker 3: After a decade plus in the NFL, you go back
Speaker 3: to Arkansas, get a couple of years coaching there, then
Speaker 3: a very successful stint as oc there at South Carolina.
Speaker 3: How beneficial was having that little buffer college experience before
Speaker 3: you step into this role as a head coach at
Speaker 3: the collegiate level versus maybe just coming straight from the
Speaker 3: NFL and jumping right into that gig.
Speaker 9: You know, it was beneficial. There was also between the
Speaker 9: Jets when they let the head coach go for about
Speaker 9: a four month, the cup of coffee with coach Franklin
Speaker 9: Penn State, Okay, And so when we we had an
Speaker 9: unbelievable general manager at the new York Jets. I learned
Speaker 9: a ton from Joe Douglas obviously about the evaluation process,
Speaker 9: and he is a bright evaluator. He is a very
Speaker 9: talented person, a stud of a human being. Learned a
Speaker 9: ton from him, so it was fortunate to be around him.
Speaker 9: And then, you know, we're trying to make the transition
Speaker 9: into the NFL, and you go to places and you see,
Speaker 9: you know, the structure between the ownership, the general manager,
Speaker 9: the head coach, and you know, got really intrigued with
Speaker 9: college football. And so coach frankl had an opportunity and
Speaker 9: I wasn't sure. I didn't want to take the job.
Speaker 9: It's kind of like, hey, I'm still getting paid by
Speaker 9: the Jets. A couple of NFL opportunities, but I never
Speaker 9: coached in college. I had an interest in the pageantry,
Speaker 9: the tradition, the history of college football. So I went
Speaker 9: to with coach Franklin for about four months. Learned about
Speaker 9: this guy's created a consistency at a program for a
Speaker 9: long period of time, and he's really bright and he's
Speaker 9: a forward thinker. And I watched how he grinded recruiting,
Speaker 9: and this guy's Freddy Krueger recruiting it's talked about every day.
Speaker 9: And I mean I remember walking to the staff meetings
Speaker 9: every morning at seven fifteen and he's asking He's going
Speaker 9: around the Hey, who what who'd you talk to last night?
Speaker 9: Who'd you talk to? This is who I talked to?
Speaker 9: And when the head coach recruits the way he recruits,
Speaker 9: it's no secret why they've built longevity over a long
Speaker 9: period of time. And then Sam Pittman calls me. He's
Speaker 9: the head coach of Arksas and I'm an alum and
Speaker 9: played there and I've never met him in my life
Speaker 9: and he's telling me, hey, come come to Arkansas and
Speaker 9: helped me out. And I said, Coach, I don't want
Speaker 9: to if if it doesn't work out, I don't if
Speaker 9: I if I stayed for a year, I don't want
Speaker 9: to be mad at me. He's like, you're doing your
Speaker 9: university of favor if you come back. So I was
Speaker 9: a guys, if y'all need me, I'm gonna I'll come
Speaker 9: for one year, that's all I'm promising. And so I
Speaker 9: go to Arkansas and Coach Franklin was great through the process.
Speaker 9: He's like, hey, look, if you want to do this,
Speaker 9: you need to go prove you and recruit the SEC.
Speaker 10: We know you can coach.
Speaker 9: You've been a coordinator in the NFL Ford Difmert team,
Speaker 9: blah blah blah blah. You got to go reprove you
Speaker 9: recruit in the SEC. So we go to Arkansas as
Speaker 9: a tight end coach, and for about nine weeks, I
Speaker 9: think I was the twenty four to seven, like number
Speaker 9: one recruiter of the year, whatever that means over there,
Speaker 9: and I'm I had a chip on my shoulder because
Speaker 9: there are people that, hey, in this guy recruit, He's
Speaker 9: only coach in the NFL, And I just watched Freddy
Speaker 9: Krueger for four months recruit and I'm like, hey, we
Speaker 9: can just outwork people and signed players like we're willing
Speaker 9: to do more than the next guy. So go there,
Speaker 9: and it was signed a great class and I liked it.
Speaker 9: So I stayed a second year at Arkansas and I
Speaker 9: enjoyed the players, I enjoyed the atmosphere college football. And
Speaker 9: then the opportunity came to South Carolina and it was
Speaker 9: a coordinator job, and it took me a little bit
Speaker 9: of time to make a decision. I was talking to
Speaker 9: two or three different SEC schools. By the coordinator job,
Speaker 9: but there was something about South Carolina and Spencer Ratler.
Speaker 9: They didn't really intrigue me because of Spence. So I
Speaker 9: go there and Spence has a good year every thing,
Speaker 9: with third in the conference in passing, and we developed this.
Speaker 9: I remember I was telling him recruit this today. Probably
Speaker 9: about this time two years ago. This big six two
Speaker 9: two hundred and fifteen pound guy walks in my office
Speaker 9: and I'm like, hey, what's up. And he's like, hey, Paul,
Speaker 9: I mean maybe I was just transfer. He just balls
Speaker 9: that and found me. It's an unbelievable country kid. I said,
Speaker 9: give me till the night. I said, because I think
Speaker 9: I might see something in you that you don't see yourself.
Speaker 9: And he gives us till May and I'll watch him.
Speaker 9: He's the hardest worker on the team. He's out there
Speaker 9: NonStop competing, bought into everything we asked him. And he'd
Speaker 9: only had one hundred and seven yards for his career.
Speaker 9: And his name is exaber L again and he won
Speaker 9: the first round. But he's this extremely talented kid that
Speaker 9: bought into everything we asked him to do. And a
Speaker 9: great story about X were. Uh, We're sitting down draft
Speaker 9: day and it's the NFL draft first round, and he's
Speaker 9: he's projected the ever late first, early second. And on
Speaker 9: draft day he's out on the I'm watching looking at
Speaker 9: my window and I'm watching him and Leonor Sellers run
Speaker 9: routes on draft Day, and I just it was who
Speaker 9: the kid is? He earned everything he got and just
Speaker 9: had a great time at the South Carolina And the
Speaker 9: second year, we have a quarterback that no one knows
Speaker 9: and everyone's picking us to win four games. And when
Speaker 9: I got there South Carolina, they weren't recruiting him. He
Speaker 9: was committed to Syracuse. And I watched his tape and
Speaker 9: Daniel appreciate this about the recruiting process and evaluation process.
Speaker 9: He'd won everywhere. He'd been great soccer players, scored like
Speaker 9: twenty nine goals in high school, which great. Yeah, great feet,
Speaker 9: which obviously there's a comparison to quarterback play. I think
Speaker 9: boxers people at the boxers because they always have a base.
Speaker 9: Soccer players great feet move in the pocket. And he
Speaker 9: had a pedigree of winning, and he'd overcome hard, he'd
Speaker 9: tore a cl overcame hard things, and he was just
Speaker 9: this rall raw kid. And I'm likealk In I'm like, hey,
Speaker 9: why have we not offered this kind of like, well,
Speaker 9: do you like him?
Speaker 10: I'm like yeah.
Speaker 9: So we go on and we got about ten days
Speaker 9: to sign him. He's committed to Syracuse. And this kid,
Speaker 9: he's not asked about nil, he's not asking about recruiting trips.
Speaker 9: He's asked about protections, can you change protections? What's the
Speaker 9: passing game look like? How are you going to develop me?
Speaker 9: What's your year round process for developing quarterbacks? And we
Speaker 9: get him and no one knows about him. Struggles for
Speaker 9: about three games this year.
Speaker 10: It was choppy. The first three or four game of
Speaker 10: season he played.
Speaker 9: Batting its old dominion. But then the last six weeks
Speaker 9: of season he gets as hot as any quarterback and
Speaker 9: in the in the conference, in the country. I think
Speaker 9: he's the best quarterback in the country right now. And
Speaker 9: just an unbelievable time getting coach little more sellers. I mean,
Speaker 9: I'm unbelievable. I tell in the interview process, so I
Speaker 9: don't know if I've told DJ this or not, but
Speaker 9: they're like, hey, what would hold you off from taking
Speaker 9: this job? It's a have state, like all the wins
Speaker 9: and tradition and the brand like there's one thing. I
Speaker 9: got to call the North Sellers and tell them I'm leaving, oh,
Speaker 9: and that that was hard. And it's like you talked about,
Speaker 9: the only thing that you struggle with me have an unbelievable,
Speaker 9: unbelievable opportunity to sit in a chair like this and
Speaker 9: represent the people that have come before me at this place.
Speaker 9: But to make that phone call, but what I would
Speaker 9: it's a blessing to have him in our lives and
Speaker 9: text with him twenty minutes ago about the two minute
Speaker 9: drill practice yesterday, because obviously I can't be there and
Speaker 9: I'm here working and recruiting, but just so so fortunate
Speaker 9: to have the people in my life that I've had,
Speaker 9: the mentors I've had, and so blessed to be right
Speaker 9: here right now.
Speaker 2: Well, there you go.
Speaker 3: I hope you guys enjoyed this best of a chance
Speaker 3: to hear some of the comments from some of the
Speaker 3: top coaches and some of our interesting guys in college football.
Speaker 3: Speaking of football, want to encourage you to check out
Speaker 3: the Saturday triple header as the Chargers take on the
Speaker 3: Patriots at one pm Eastern the Broncos they will take
Speaker 3: on the Bengals at four thirty PM Eastern followed and
Speaker 3: finished up with the Cardinals taking on the Rams. That
Speaker 3: is an eight to fifty team PM Eastern, all on
Speaker 3: NFL Network this Saturday. Well, I hope you guys all
Speaker 3: had a wonderful Christmas, a happy holiday, and hope you
Speaker 3: are enjoying this little break, a little time off to
Speaker 3: enjoy family as we march towards the new year and
Speaker 3: some tremendous football on the horizon. We appreciate you, we're
Speaker 3: thankful for you, and we'll see you next time.
Speaker 2: Right here on, Move the sticks.