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Speaker 1: You lived in New Orleans how long now, I've been

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Speaker 1: back here for a year, okay, thirteen months, but you

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Speaker 1: knew it before, like you've been here before. So I

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Speaker 1: come down here today. Granted I don't have a lot

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Speaker 1: of time today, but if you needed to go tour guide, like,

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Speaker 1: could you could you effectively show me the entirety of

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Speaker 1: New Orleans?

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Speaker 2: Easy? Yeah, yeah, without question, We're we're going. It all

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Speaker 2: starts uptown where we sit right now.

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Speaker 3: Like I think you think New Orleans tourists think French Quarter,

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Speaker 3: Bourbon Street, right, that bar scene down there, maybe the casino.

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Speaker 3: I think uptown and then maybe to downtown. But then

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Speaker 3: there's so many different parts. I mean, you get the Mariny,

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Speaker 3: you got Bywater, you got Frenchman Street, like Frenchman streets,

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Speaker 3: the locals, Bourbon Street, it's where like you go for

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Speaker 3: the great music, the local music, authentic jazz, like little nightclubs.

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Speaker 2: I don't really go to the Court that often.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I'm there very rarely, but yeah, I

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Speaker 3: mean there's so many different parts in I think what

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Speaker 3: makes New Orleans unique and cool is that every neighborhood

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Speaker 3: or every part of town has its own flavor, its

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Speaker 3: own style or its own little you know twist where

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Speaker 3: you go some places, some bigger cities.

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Speaker 2: I'm not going to name them so I don't offend anyone.

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Speaker 3: But it's like concrete jungle where each little area still

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Speaker 3: kind of feels the same New Orleans. You go from

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Speaker 3: one little pocket of a neighborhood to another one totally

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Speaker 3: different vibes.

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Speaker 1: This is where I dropped the ball. When I moved

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Speaker 1: to Nashville in twenty twenty. Pandemic sets in immediately, so

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Speaker 1: no one's leaving their house. So I'm kind of introverted anyway,

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Speaker 1: Like I don't get out a whole lot anyway. So

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Speaker 1: then you kind of come out of it and everyone's

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Speaker 1: going back out, but I don't. I've been there four

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Speaker 1: years now, and yet when I got folks come in

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Speaker 1: town and they'll say, all right, man, I'm coming to Nashville.

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Speaker 1: What do I need to see? And I'll just text

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Speaker 1: someone else. I'll just third party it. Hey, you've lived

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Speaker 1: here a while, it's I've lived here every butdy as

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Speaker 1: long as you well, I need recommendations. Where do they

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Speaker 1: need to go? I can't do it. It cannot walk

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Speaker 1: people do it. Right now. If I needed to I'll

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Speaker 1: just give them the normal normal You go to the Ryelan,

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Speaker 1: you google what are fun things to do if you

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Speaker 1: visit that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, guess I'm there's got to be a book for this.

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Speaker 1: So as you and I are talking, we just came

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Speaker 1: out of what used to be like a national holiday.

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Speaker 1: Man that first Wednesday in February. That used to be

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Speaker 1: fake sick to get out of work. Make sure you

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Speaker 1: got enough absentee days built up you can get out

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Speaker 1: of school. Because National signing Days it that's like Christmas

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Speaker 1: for college football fans. And you still got to be

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Speaker 1: dialed in. But like the normal fan looks and says

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Speaker 1: it in ninety five percent of the hay in the barn,

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Speaker 1: especially for the major programs long before then. So how's

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Speaker 1: recruiting changed? And I'm not just talking about like the

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Speaker 1: tactics you have to use, but the feel of when

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Speaker 1: you sign a class, when you start to go after

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Speaker 1: those guys, the evaluation process. Then you got the whole

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Speaker 1: how many are we going to lose? In the portal thing?

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Speaker 1: But how different does it feel because you've been in

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Speaker 1: the game a while now?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, the calendar is definitely sped up, right, So, like

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Speaker 3: you said, the traditional.

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Speaker 2: Signed a February. When I came out of high school,

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Speaker 2: I signed the.

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Speaker 3: First February of two thousand and one, first Wednesday, February

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Speaker 3: two thousand and one. Well, that was the only signing

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Speaker 3: period then now the December signing period, we signed every

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Speaker 3: one of our high school signings. Then, with the exception

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Speaker 3: of one kid, we signed Cooper Helmki, a local kid

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Speaker 3: who's a field goal kicker and a kickoff guy, went

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Speaker 3: to Saint Martin's here locally. He's the only guy we

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Speaker 3: signed on February signing. At one it was a kicker,

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Speaker 3: and I was really just trying to make sure that

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Speaker 3: the roster spots worked out for me to have open

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Speaker 3: scholarship for him.

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Speaker 2: So that it's definitely changed.

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Speaker 3: It's so sped up that almost it's still a little

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Speaker 3: goofy to kind of come to grips with we are

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Speaker 3: right now. This past January, when our coaches were on

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Speaker 3: the road and I was allowed to be on the road,

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Speaker 3: which has kind of gotten harder to figure out guys

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Speaker 3: are doing in home visits now in January, I'm now

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Speaker 3: allowed to.

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Speaker 2: See kids and speak to them in a school.

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Speaker 3: There's no bump rule that I can take pictures, sit down,

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Speaker 3: have a conversation. I can't do it in home. Visit

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Speaker 3: the staff camp, which is a little bit funky, but

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Speaker 3: we're talking to kids in January. They're twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 3: Is about setting up their summer official visit. Ninety percent

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Speaker 3: of our recruiting class will be committed by the summer,

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Speaker 3: okay and so. And you may lose a commitment, gain

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Speaker 3: a commitment here and there, but most of the work's

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Speaker 3: done by the time we start football season. I think

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Speaker 3: some of it has been built in to protect maybe

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Speaker 3: the high school guys from keeping spots, holding spots and

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Speaker 3: not losing out to the portal.

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Speaker 2: We're a program.

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Speaker 3: We're still gonna recruit and develop high school guys like

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Speaker 3: we're gonna sign north of fifteen every year, probably.

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Speaker 2: Closer to twenty. The portal.

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Speaker 3: When you replace guys in the portal, you don't go

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Speaker 3: out and go out even go sign a high school

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Speaker 3: guy to replace a junior that's a starter that's gonna

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Speaker 3: go to an SEC school.

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Speaker 2: I can't sign a high school.

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Speaker 3: Got to fix that problem for us to We fix

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Speaker 3: the portal losses with portal additions, and we still recruit

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Speaker 3: and develop the majority of our team in the normal

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Speaker 3: traditional model, but the timeline is so sped up. What

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Speaker 3: used to be covered on TV and social media that

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Speaker 3: February signing day now it's kind of like just another day.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's Groundhog Day, it's whatever. So it's lost

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Speaker 3: its luster for sure. It does not have the same

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Speaker 3: appeal as it used to because there's very little signing

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Speaker 3: going on on that day anymore.

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Speaker 1: So this whole portal thing, which you've probably been asked

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Speaker 1: about a million times this past cycle. I remember I

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Speaker 1: was sitting in my office up in Nashville and I

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Speaker 1: hear my phone ring, and I pick it up and like, dude,

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Speaker 1: telling me, hey, wait till you see what's about to

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Speaker 1: happen in the portal. So it ends up being Darien Mensa,

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Speaker 1: your quarterback, and he transfers to do Now, I have

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Speaker 1: nothing to do with this program. I've never worked for you,

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Speaker 1: I've never coached for you. This is the first time

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Speaker 1: you and I have ever sat down together. I was irate,

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Speaker 1: I felt I felt emotion about it. I'm not mad

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Speaker 1: that kids getting paid. I'm just mad, Like, wait, so

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Speaker 1: it's great for Duke, it's great for him.

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Speaker 2: What does Tulane do, and so I said, I gotta

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Speaker 2: go see what somewhere else saying about this.

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Speaker 1: So, you know, you do your press conferences and you

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Speaker 1: talk to local media, and you were like, kind of

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Speaker 1: is what it is? Man? We're respectfully not many people

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Speaker 1: nationally knew who he was last year. So we just

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Speaker 1: kind of got to go.

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Speaker 2: We got to go get the next.

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Speaker 1: Darien mental, we got to promote, we got to develop.

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Speaker 1: I am not a college football head coach, and I

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Speaker 1: think one of the reasons is because I don't know

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Speaker 1: that I can handle it that way. I don't know

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Speaker 1: I could. I don't know that I could.

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Speaker 2: You know, have you walk in.

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Speaker 1: My office and there not be holes in the wall

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Speaker 1: after stuff like that happened? So mentally, how did you

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Speaker 1: process all that? You know?

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Speaker 3: I think I've I've probably evolved some to get to

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Speaker 3: that point. Uh, three or four or five years ago,

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Speaker 3: something that would have happened to me, I probably would

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Speaker 3: have punched a hole in the wall. I've learned there's

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Speaker 3: gonna be things happening or outside of your control.

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Speaker 2: Do I want to lose our starters to other schools

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Speaker 2: and now I want to keep them all?

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Speaker 1: All right, we've confirmed that I want to keep your

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Speaker 1: like to keep all my starters here if possible, that

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Speaker 1: would be preferred.

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Speaker 2: That'd make you know, having a good team next year

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Speaker 2: be a lot of right. But I think you know.

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Speaker 2: We have three team rules here.

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Speaker 3: They're really simple, and one of them is no energy vampires,

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Speaker 3: which means no whining, no complaining, no excuses. I can

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Speaker 3: sit here and whine and complain and make excuses about

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Speaker 3: losing Darien or losing our tight end Alex Bowman to Miami,

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Speaker 3: or losing our running back McKay Hughes the Oregon, or

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Speaker 3: losing a backup defensive line last year Parker Peterson to Wisconsin.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we lost guys everywhere, okay, but it's not

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Speaker 3: gonna do me any good or do them any good.

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Speaker 3: And Darien and I had the day he called me

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Speaker 3: to tell me he's going, and I said, hey, man,

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Speaker 3: good luck to you. I hope it goes well and

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Speaker 3: does it like I'm not gonna it's not gonna do

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Speaker 3: any good to get mad at it. It didn't help me,

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Speaker 3: It doesn't help him.

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Speaker 2: Do I like it? No, But it doesn't matter if

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Speaker 2: I like it.

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Speaker 3: And I've tweeted out a couple of times the you

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Speaker 3: know the Moneyball adapt or Die with Billy Bean or

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Speaker 3: Brad Pitt as a character that Jiff or gift, whatever

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Speaker 3: it's called. Because I could sit here and whine and

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Speaker 3: complain about it all day, it doesn't help me.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't help too Lane and help our staff and

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Speaker 2: help our players.

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Speaker 3: What I really try to spend most of my time

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Speaker 3: is focusing on how do I continue to build the

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Speaker 3: best roster we can Then how do we develop the

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Speaker 3: guys that are here to be the best they can be?

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Speaker 2: And we create value for people in a lot of

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Speaker 2: different ways. Someone we're gonna go get drafted.

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Speaker 3: If a guy doesn't see the draft coming from here

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Speaker 3: and they go to the portal, that's their decision.

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Speaker 2: Doesn't mean that's what I want them to do.

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Speaker 3: But for me, I'm so micro focused on the guys

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Speaker 3: in this building that it doesn't really like. I don't

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Speaker 3: waste a whole lot of time worrying about what is

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Speaker 3: happening with guys leaving.

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Speaker 2: We have meetings with guys in the front and to

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Speaker 2: try to retain them.

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Speaker 3: Like I met with Darien well before the transfer, a

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Speaker 3: portal window opened to try to let him understand, Hey,

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Speaker 3: there's value for you here, you're creating value for your

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Speaker 3: for yourself here, you know, but guys have decisions to

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Speaker 3: make and going back to it, there's there's movement with athletes,

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Speaker 3: and I'm not against it. There there there's payment of players.

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Speaker 3: I love it, Like I'm for players getting taken care of,

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Speaker 3: like I don't.

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Speaker 2: I want them to be able to make money. It's great.

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Speaker 2: I don't think any coach who is against.

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Speaker 3: Nil really is for their players, because I think it's

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Speaker 3: great for our guys to be able to be compensated.

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Speaker 3: I do think there should be some different restrictions maybe

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Speaker 3: on the movement.

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Speaker 2: Just like if a coach wants to leave a job,

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Speaker 2: there's a buyout involved.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, how about we have maybe a buyout on

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Speaker 3: a player if he decides to leave, So if he

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Speaker 3: wants to transfer up, then they have to monetarily pay

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Speaker 3: us to get him out of the deal.

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Speaker 1: I mean, look, I was talking to someone the other

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Speaker 1: day and they presented that concept. I've never talked about

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Speaker 1: it on the show, but like that concept. If you're

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Speaker 1: coaching at Tulane right now, you go through the process

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Speaker 1: of evaluating, recruiting, landing, and developing a guy, and then

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Speaker 1: someone else reaped the benefit. All right, that sucks, but

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Speaker 1: it is what it is. But then this guy pitches

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Speaker 1: to me, Hey, what about this concept. What if what

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Speaker 1: if Tulane loses a guy to the University of Oregon

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Speaker 1: or loses a guy to Penn State, and then there

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Speaker 1: is a fee that comes down in exchange for that

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Speaker 1: talent going up? And I sat there with my jaw

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Speaker 1: on the ground, and I said, it sounds illegal given

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Speaker 1: the current legal structure. However, however, as we just get

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Speaker 1: all rights out of the root, for wow, that makes

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Speaker 1: a lot of sense. So I don't know what kind

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Speaker 1: of lobby you have to hit up to make that happen.

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Speaker 3: I think to get there, you're probably gonna have to

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Speaker 3: We're going to cross the path of employments, yea at

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Speaker 3: some point, right, Like I think, who knows what the

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Speaker 3: next year, three years, five years holds uh. But the

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Speaker 3: employment status conversation being out there and all those different

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Speaker 3: things that could be coming, it'll be interesting to see

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Speaker 3: where it goes.

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Speaker 1: Are you like me where you always get nervous when

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Speaker 1: the conversation starts going that way. Not because you're scared

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Speaker 1: of what your opinion is. You're scared you'll piss someone off.

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Speaker 1: But you know that there are like legal understandings of

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Speaker 1: things you don't have. I don't have a lot of

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Speaker 1: agree You don't have a lot of agree almost.

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Speaker 2: Like well, fortunately for me. So the three guys that

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Speaker 2: started our collective were lawyers. That's good, okay.

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Speaker 3: One of them had left to go to work at

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Speaker 3: another university, and I hired him back to be on

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Speaker 3: my staff. His name's Kelly Kamarta. He played baseball here

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Speaker 3: in the nineties. Kelly's a lawyer. Kelly was one of

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Speaker 3: the founders of our collective. He had left to go

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Speaker 3: to a different university and then I just hired him back.

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Speaker 2: He's on my staff. He handles all of the stuff

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Speaker 2: we do financially here.

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Speaker 3: So I'm not involved, maybe to the degree that it

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Speaker 3: kind of protects me and I get to be a

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Speaker 3: football coach. Hey, I'm not the guy going, hey, here's

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Speaker 3: the deal.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And so where I get enough good advice? When I

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Speaker 3: don't know something, I'll ask somebody that probably should or could,

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Speaker 3: And Kelly and some legal guys I trust I reach

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Speaker 3: out to and go, hey, where do you think this

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Speaker 3: could go? To try to be educated. I think now

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Speaker 3: the role of ahead football coach. Yeah, I have to

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Speaker 3: be able to go in our defensive staff room and

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Speaker 3: understand we're playing match cover three, what that.

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Speaker 2: Looks like holistically.

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Speaker 3: And I have to understand offensively, like when we run

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Speaker 3: split zone, who we're working to on combination blocks and

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Speaker 3: different things, especially if I got to understand what our

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Speaker 3: pump protection is when our punk coverage is right. As

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Speaker 3: the head coach, I think you have to understand a

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Speaker 3: lot more than just that. Now you have to really

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Speaker 3: be able to navigate nil. I've shared the legal implications,

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Speaker 3: roster management stuff that's coming with going down to one

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Speaker 3: oh five, Like there's so many different things that have

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Speaker 3: nothing to do with running a football play. Yeah, that

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Speaker 3: you have to educate yourself on or get people around

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Speaker 3: you that can help you learn.

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Speaker 2: And I'm not a legal guy.

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Speaker 3: I'm not an expert in that field, but I think

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Speaker 3: I know enough now to be dangerous because I think

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Speaker 3: we've studied it all to where we can at least

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Speaker 3: be educated and forming our opinions.

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Speaker 1: But that's what I think about a lot. I think

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Speaker 1: about someone in your position, the head coaches chair any

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Speaker 1: major level of football right now, I think about the

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Speaker 1: guy in the head coaches chair, and you came up

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Speaker 1: specializing on one side of the ball, most likely, and

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Speaker 1: so you get in the head coach's chair because you

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Speaker 1: were so good in that position. And normally when people

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Speaker 1: say you were so good in that position, they're talking tactical,

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Speaker 1: they're talking x's and o's, they're talking game planning, strategy, implementation,

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Speaker 1: play calling. Then you get in the head coach's chair

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Speaker 1: and there are these million different things buzzing around your head,

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Speaker 1: sometimes the last of which is football. And I sit

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Speaker 1: there from afar and I think, how do you find

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Speaker 1: time to keep sharpening from the football perspective? And I

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Speaker 1: ask a lot of guys that, and they say, kind

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Speaker 1: of have to bite the bullet on that a little

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Speaker 1: bit it And then other guys say what you just said,

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Speaker 1: which is I've got to fill the building with so

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Speaker 1: many people that I trust them to be able to

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Speaker 1: hand it off to because like if I walk in

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Speaker 1: your office right over here, and I walk in that

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Speaker 1: back room on that grease board, they're ex's and o's

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Speaker 1: on that grease board. Oh yeah, right now, I mean

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Speaker 1: like that that's where your mind's got to be.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, my mind's everywhere, and so in my day to day.

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Speaker 3: I think what part of the year am I in

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Speaker 3: could probably tell you a little bit more about where

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Speaker 3: my mind is at. You know, I think you have

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Speaker 3: to hire great people and let them do their job.

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Speaker 3: That's coaches that support staff, that's the whole deal. But

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Speaker 3: as the head coach, I kid around our football coaches

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Speaker 3: all the time like I'm a football expert that does operations.

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Speaker 2: In roster management, you know, like I know a lot.

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Speaker 3: I know way more about x's and o's than a

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Speaker 3: normal operations or roster management person would. But I think

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Speaker 3: you have to be able to kind of embrace all

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Speaker 3: areas of the job. You can get consumed with maybe

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Speaker 3: trying to control everything and that gets a little Hey

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Speaker 3: why I think I feel like what we've got here

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Speaker 3: that's specials man. I've got a great staff, like a

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Speaker 3: phenomenal staff. I get a ton of credit when things

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Speaker 3: go well and get blame when it goes bad. And

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Speaker 3: I'm comfortable with whatever comes my way. But my staff here,

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Speaker 3: like football support staff, the job they do to really

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Speaker 3: allow me to do my job really well and kind

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Speaker 3: of plug in for a few minutes and kind of

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Speaker 3: maybe getting the weeds and then get out and get

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Speaker 3: the weeds.

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Speaker 2: On something else, and then get out.

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Speaker 3: I walk into a lot of meetings and throw my

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Speaker 3: insight in and say, hey, I want you all look

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Speaker 3: at this, this, and this, and I may watch a

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Speaker 3: little bit with them, and then I walk out and

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Speaker 3: let people do their jobs really well, because I hire

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Speaker 3: all those people to do a job. And so I

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Speaker 3: do think you have to be educated there, Like I

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Speaker 3: think it's not okay.

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Speaker 2: We talk a lot in our program.

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Speaker 3: I define character is the b no Dow model, which

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Speaker 3: know as knowledge or competence do is actions and behaviors.

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Speaker 2: A combination of what you know and what you do.

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Speaker 2: That's who you are.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's not okay to say, well, I don't know

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Speaker 3: you're a Division one had football continue to find out.

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Speaker 2: You need to know, so you have to know what's

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Speaker 2: going on in the real world. You also have to

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Speaker 2: do the right things.

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Speaker 3: You got to make good decisions that take care of

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Speaker 3: your players and your staff and the people in the

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Speaker 3: program the right way. And that's what character is. But

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Speaker 3: I think you have to be educated. It's not okay

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Speaker 3: to be incompetent. You have to learn, and it's okay

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Speaker 3: to say I don't know about this now but then

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Speaker 3: you better dive in the weeds and go find out.

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Speaker 1: I've noticed a lot of guys when they get their

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Speaker 1: first head coaching job, but this could be applied just

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Speaker 1: as much to the regular business world or whatnot. You'll

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Speaker 1: read autobiographies of these guys thirty years down the road,

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Speaker 1: and they'll say, when I first got the job, man,

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Speaker 1: I felt such imposter syndrome. I felt like I've been

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Speaker 1: given the job head coach, and everyone's calling me sir,

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Speaker 1: and I get to sit in the head chair and

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Speaker 1: I get to run the meetings. But I knew deep

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Speaker 1: down like there was so much I still didn't know.

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Speaker 1: That's inevitable, Like that's life. So no one's ever going

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Speaker 1: to know everything at any point in their career. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: you know, statistically you're at your most vulnerable the younger

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Speaker 1: you are or the fresher you are as a head coach.

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Speaker 1: How much of that stuff when it first came time

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Speaker 1: for you to assume the world of head coach was

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Speaker 1: just a bunch of I don't knows. Let me go

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Speaker 1: learn as quick as I can.

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Speaker 3: You know, I tried to study everybody I've ever been around,

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Speaker 3: head coaches and other coaches that weren't head coaches, but

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Speaker 3: I thought were great leaders. And really when I first

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Speaker 3: when I took the job at Troy after the twenty

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Speaker 3: twenty one season being at Kentucky for three years, I

388
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Speaker 3: asked Mark Stoops, Hey, give me two or three things

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Speaker 3: I need to know right of the gate, like I

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Speaker 3: tell yourself something ten years ago that you didn't know.

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Speaker 3: And Mark gave me some great advice. A lot of

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Speaker 3: it is about staff. I'll never forget. Mark told me, hey,

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Speaker 3: don't worry about how fast you hire your staff. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: that doesn't matter, like you don't give an award for

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Speaker 3: getting it done really quick. So I didn't hire my

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Speaker 3: first new hires at Troy assistant coaches until I was

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Speaker 3: on the job for two weeks, and I hired my

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Speaker 3: offensive coordinator and my defense corner of the same day.

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Speaker 3: But it's two weeks after I took the job, and

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Speaker 3: so Mark helped me there. He also the other thing

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Speaker 3: he told me that I really took with me. He said,

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Speaker 3: you know, you can't hire all your friends, like you're

403
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Speaker 3: going to know more people that are your friends than

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Speaker 3: you can hire.

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Speaker 2: And to be quite I probably took it a step further.

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Speaker 3: I didn't hire many of like my friends, I might

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Speaker 3: not have hired anybody that would probably consider me a

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Speaker 3: friend because I probably, like I needed to hire who

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Speaker 3: is going to help do the job the best, and

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Speaker 3: so Mark was very helpful.

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Speaker 2: Neil Brown is a dear friend, is man.

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Speaker 3: I learned so much working for Neil about structure, organization.

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Speaker 3: Like Neil had like every second of the day planned out.

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Speaker 3: I mean it was like I was blown away with

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Speaker 3: his detail and planning and just structure that I learned

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Speaker 3: a lot from.

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Speaker 2: So I think.

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Speaker 3: Different people and then other head coaches I hadn't worked for,

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Speaker 3: like Eli Drinkowitz, you know, just a little bit ahead

420
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Speaker 3: of me maybe in the progression of being a head coach.

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Speaker 3: He's been a great friend. He gave me a great

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Speaker 3: tidbit on when I first took the job at Troy.

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Speaker 3: I said, hey, give me one thing you would do,

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Speaker 3: and he goes, hey, put full buyouts.

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Speaker 2: In your head coaches got tracks for the first six months.

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Speaker 2: So if anybody this is a great story, you can

427
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Speaker 2: air this and he'll so Drake Drake's Drake's at Missouri.

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Speaker 3: I take the job at Troy and I said, hey,

429
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Speaker 3: give me give me one thing I should do and

430
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Speaker 3: he goes, put full buyouts for your coaches for six

431
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Speaker 3: months in their contracts till like June. So that he goes,

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Speaker 3: So that way, if anybody tries to poach anybody on

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Speaker 3: your staff, you know from a higher level, they have

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Speaker 3: to pay a buyout.

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Speaker 2: So we do it. I'm like, that's a great idea.

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Speaker 2: It makes sense.

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Speaker 3: I don't want to have full buyouts in the coaches forever,

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Speaker 3: but the first little block when we get the staff together,

439
00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:49,080
Speaker 3: that's fair and I think reasonable.

440
00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:52,560
Speaker 2: So we do that. Well, about two months later, Drink

441
00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:55,000
Speaker 2: calls me and he goes, hey, uh no, did you

442
00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:59,240
Speaker 2: did you put full buyouts in those contracts? And I said, yeah,

443
00:19:59,240 --> 00:19:59,880
Speaker 2: why woulds something?

444
00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,640
Speaker 3: I want to hire Al Pogue, Al's the corners coach,

445
00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:06,800
Speaker 3: Al's and Ala Drink it Missouri, but Missouri had to

446
00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:09,080
Speaker 3: pay about so therefore Ture we got new headsets that

447
00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:11,439
Speaker 3: year for Al. We made a trade for Allen some

448
00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,720
Speaker 3: new headsets and a new dB coach. But I take

449
00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:17,200
Speaker 3: advice from everybody, like I think, you have to be

450
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:21,200
Speaker 3: a constant learner, and people that have been in the

451
00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:24,879
Speaker 3: experience that you're in can usually you can glean something

452
00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:28,440
Speaker 3: from them. If you're selfless enough and maybe not prideful

453
00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:30,359
Speaker 3: to go, hey, pick up the phone and hey, what

454
00:20:30,359 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 3: would you do?

455
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:33,119
Speaker 2: What did you do? What did you not know?

456
00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:37,639
Speaker 3: And I have a notebook full of stuff that I

457
00:20:37,680 --> 00:20:39,720
Speaker 3: wrote down from people that have been in that chair

458
00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:42,320
Speaker 3: that I could maybe use some of their wisdom on.

459
00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:45,240
Speaker 1: When you've got headsets on every Saturday, they always have

460
00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:47,240
Speaker 1: lettering on them, no one ever knows what it means.

461
00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:49,320
Speaker 1: Did you ever just consider throwing an E L Y

462
00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:51,840
Speaker 1: on the side of that where one guy out there

463
00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:55,119
Speaker 1: would know why these headsets say E L I or

464
00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:57,600
Speaker 1: we just spell Eli E L I And then the

465
00:20:57,600 --> 00:20:59,399
Speaker 1: rest of the country just wonders. I wonder what company

466
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:00,280
Speaker 1: E L I is is?

467
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 2: I haven't thought about it. A good move, I'm not.

468
00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:05,840
Speaker 2: I've not thought about it. What's on the headset?

469
00:21:07,440 --> 00:21:10,240
Speaker 1: ELI Memorial headsets?

470
00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:13,080
Speaker 2: That's a question My brother would ask my brother. He

471
00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:15,760
Speaker 2: would he would go, hey, what's on what's the headset? Deal? Like,

472
00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:17,399
Speaker 2: he would ask, yeah, what's Eli?

473
00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:21,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, where's where's that company? You know, you

474
00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:24,280
Speaker 1: were an assistant coach for a long time. You I

475
00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:26,520
Speaker 1: assume you always aspired to be a head coach. You're

476
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:30,240
Speaker 1: here now. When you look around a room a bunch

477
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:32,440
Speaker 1: of other assistants in there. They now work for you

478
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:37,920
Speaker 1: at Troy and at Tulane. How quickly can you pick

479
00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:40,640
Speaker 1: out which ones you think will be head coaches down

480
00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:41,000
Speaker 1: the road?

481
00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:44,719
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the most important component to being a

482
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,600
Speaker 3: head coach is just being a leader. And so while,

483
00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:52,080
Speaker 3: like we talked, you do have to understand the game.

484
00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:53,400
Speaker 2: You can't get to.

485
00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:55,600
Speaker 3: The seat of being a head coach and not know

486
00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:59,080
Speaker 3: the game. But leadership is the most important thing, you know,

487
00:21:59,160 --> 00:22:02,960
Speaker 3: I think, I think I love the quote from Coach

488
00:22:02,960 --> 00:22:05,080
Speaker 3: Saving about like if you want to be if you don't,

489
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:06,680
Speaker 3: if you want to be light, don't be a leader,

490
00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:10,240
Speaker 3: go sell ice cream, right, Like, you have to make

491
00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:14,760
Speaker 3: tough decisions that are for the greater good, and but

492
00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 3: do it with tact and class and grace that people

493
00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:21,119
Speaker 3: understand like, hey, this is not against anyone, this is

494
00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:22,520
Speaker 3: for everyone.

495
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:24,640
Speaker 2: And that's the hardest thing I think about the job.

496
00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:26,720
Speaker 3: So you have to be able to make those decisions

497
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:31,679
Speaker 3: and do the right thing, maybe in tough moments. You know,

498
00:22:31,920 --> 00:22:33,600
Speaker 3: I didn't always know I wanted to be a coach,

499
00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:35,760
Speaker 3: And there's some days you may ask me, I say,

500
00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:37,400
Speaker 3: I would be okay, not being a head coach.

501
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 2: I love what I do.

502
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:40,439
Speaker 3: The thing I love about what I do now is

503
00:22:40,440 --> 00:22:43,000
Speaker 3: I get to set the culture of the entire program.

504
00:22:43,520 --> 00:22:45,679
Speaker 3: And so like when you walk around our building and

505
00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:49,240
Speaker 3: you interact with our team, man, we're gonna have positive energy,

506
00:22:49,359 --> 00:22:51,320
Speaker 3: Like we're gonna our guys got great attitudes.

507
00:22:51,359 --> 00:22:53,440
Speaker 2: Like we may have bad moments, we don't have any

508
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:53,960
Speaker 2: bad days.

509
00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,000
Speaker 3: We got life pretty damn good, you know what I mean, Like,

510
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:57,680
Speaker 3: we got a lot of positive things.

511
00:22:57,520 --> 00:22:58,120
Speaker 2: Going for us.

512
00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:01,320
Speaker 3: And so that's probably the most fun thing you get

513
00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:03,960
Speaker 3: to do as a head coach, is like the environment,

514
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:05,840
Speaker 3: the culture of the vibe and the building.

515
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:07,800
Speaker 2: I set that, Like that starts with me.

516
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:10,880
Speaker 3: If I if I'm upbeating positive, everybody else is gonna

517
00:23:10,920 --> 00:23:12,760
Speaker 3: feed off that. If I'm you know, if I got

518
00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:14,480
Speaker 3: my daughter down and I walk around like e or

519
00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:16,720
Speaker 3: everybody else is gonna probably do that too. And so

520
00:23:17,400 --> 00:23:19,320
Speaker 3: that's that's the thing I think you have to look

521
00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:22,960
Speaker 3: at when you're maybe looking at assistance and going could

522
00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:25,880
Speaker 3: this guy be in that chair? Is how do they

523
00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:27,919
Speaker 3: carry themselves? How do they treat other people, how they

524
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 3: engage with other people. Not everybody wants to be a

525
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:33,800
Speaker 3: head coach, and everybody's gonna be a head coach. And

526
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:36,440
Speaker 3: some guys are great play callers that maybe don't fit

527
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:40,600
Speaker 3: the head coach component because they're just in the weeds

528
00:23:40,640 --> 00:23:41,840
Speaker 3: on dialing up plays.

529
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:43,960
Speaker 2: But there's so much more that goes into it.

530
00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:47,920
Speaker 3: I think the number one thing about leading a programs

531
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:50,680
Speaker 3: you have to understand it's about humans over hardware.

532
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:53,480
Speaker 2: Like I use that term a lot, It's about people,

533
00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:55,520
Speaker 2: not buildings. I don't care.

534
00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:58,439
Speaker 3: You give me the best people from a talent and

535
00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:01,640
Speaker 3: a character standpoint, I don't care our offices are and trailers.

536
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:02,920
Speaker 2: We'll win a lot of games.

537
00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 3: You give me the best building in the world and

538
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:07,520
Speaker 3: the wrong people in it, we're gonna.

539
00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:10,080
Speaker 2: Get a butts kicked. And so I think it's about people.

540
00:24:10,119 --> 00:24:14,200
Speaker 3: It's about relationships, about understanding what makes people take, what's

541
00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:17,080
Speaker 3: their why, and how they get them to be their best?

542
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:20,439
Speaker 1: What about the dynamics? So everyone loves From the outside

543
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:22,439
Speaker 1: looking at to think of a coaching staff as just

544
00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:26,920
Speaker 1: completely harmonious. Everyone loves each other, everyone's going out for

545
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,840
Speaker 1: drinks after work. And yet you know, when we get

546
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,080
Speaker 1: to be on our side of the fence in this business,

547
00:24:32,359 --> 00:24:34,680
Speaker 1: you find out some of these dudes can't stand each

548
00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:38,840
Speaker 1: other outside of work, but professionally they know the organizations

549
00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:40,240
Speaker 1: at their best when both of them are in the

550
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:42,040
Speaker 1: building and both of them in the room. And for

551
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:45,680
Speaker 1: whatever reason, you got really good organizational chemistry, even though

552
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:47,840
Speaker 1: you may not be working with dudes who you know

553
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 1: you really love and aspire to hang out with. I

554
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:52,800
Speaker 1: know that's the case in my business. I know that's

555
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:54,520
Speaker 1: the case in your business. You've been on a number

556
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,160
Speaker 1: of staffs. Now, how often have you seen that dynamic?

557
00:24:57,200 --> 00:24:57,240
Speaker 3: Go?

558
00:24:57,480 --> 00:24:59,199
Speaker 1: I got dudes I don't really like that much in

559
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:01,520
Speaker 1: this room, but man, I respect the heck out of

560
00:25:01,600 --> 00:25:02,160
Speaker 1: his work ethic.

561
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:03,160
Speaker 2: Yeah. You know.

562
00:25:05,280 --> 00:25:08,520
Speaker 3: When I talk about people that I took things from

563
00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:12,440
Speaker 3: Bronco Manden Hall when I was at Troy. Bronco and

564
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:15,240
Speaker 3: I talked, and Bronco said, Man, at the end of

565
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:16,840
Speaker 3: the day, make sure you hire good people.

566
00:25:18,040 --> 00:25:20,639
Speaker 2: And so that doesn't mean they all have to be alike.

567
00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:23,360
Speaker 3: You know, somebody might like to drink water, one guy

568
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:25,199
Speaker 3: might like to drink beer, when one guy might like

569
00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,280
Speaker 3: to drink bourbon. They're all gonna have different tastes. But

570
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 3: hire good people, quality people, people of character. Usually good

571
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,199
Speaker 3: people can find common ground. That mean they're gonna be

572
00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:39,000
Speaker 3: the same like some Like I said, some guys may

573
00:25:39,040 --> 00:25:41,000
Speaker 3: want to go play golf after work, some guys may

574
00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:43,600
Speaker 3: want to go watch your kids play sports, or everybody's different.

575
00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:46,719
Speaker 3: But I think it's you do have to hire good people.

576
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:49,199
Speaker 3: And if you hire good people like who they are

577
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:54,520
Speaker 3: at their core, they're gonna work well together. There's there's

578
00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:56,760
Speaker 3: gonna be disagreement if there's not if we all agree

579
00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:59,040
Speaker 3: all the time and every meeting we have a problem.

580
00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:00,960
Speaker 3: I gotta tell our staff all the time, like be

581
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:03,760
Speaker 3: originally your thought, don't be a yes man. So I

582
00:26:03,800 --> 00:26:07,160
Speaker 3: think there's always some conflict that's good and needed for growth.

583
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:10,040
Speaker 3: But when you walk out of a meeting, everybody's been

584
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:12,399
Speaker 3: on the same page. Everybody's got to like pull the

585
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:13,359
Speaker 3: rope the same direction.

586
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:14,639
Speaker 2: You know.

587
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,280
Speaker 3: One of my favorite books is Legacy. That's about the

588
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:20,719
Speaker 3: New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks, and they got

589
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:23,639
Speaker 3: a role on their one of their team rules and

590
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:25,160
Speaker 3: I don't know if I can say this or quite

591
00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:29,760
Speaker 3: not politically correct, but it's no dickheads allowed, like and

592
00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:30,920
Speaker 3: that's about their locker room.

593
00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:35,280
Speaker 2: No dickheads allowed. Like hire good people, be around good people.

594
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:39,360
Speaker 3: Get people in your organization that aren't jerks, that are

595
00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:40,160
Speaker 3: gonna treat.

596
00:26:39,920 --> 00:26:40,800
Speaker 2: People the right way.

597
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:44,199
Speaker 3: I don't like I can teach a guy what he

598
00:26:44,280 --> 00:26:46,639
Speaker 3: needs to know football wise, if he's deficient in something,

599
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 3: I can't change a guy's heart. And so I want

600
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:52,280
Speaker 3: good people in the building because that's going to trickle

601
00:26:52,320 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 3: into our locker room and our players will feed off

602
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 3: that too, and.

603
00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:56,679
Speaker 2: That matters men.

604
00:26:56,760 --> 00:27:00,400
Speaker 3: Like I think that gets lost so often professionally is like, yeah,

605
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:02,640
Speaker 3: there is a threshold you have to be good enough

606
00:27:02,680 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 3: at your job to be at this level.

607
00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:05,960
Speaker 2: Same as a player in.

608
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 3: The recruiting game, I'm not going to recruit a player

609
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:11,760
Speaker 3: unless he meets a certain threshold of talent. But I

610
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:13,920
Speaker 3: showed our team eclip the other day of Peyton Manning

611
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:17,240
Speaker 3: talking about Tony Dungee's teams in Indianapolis.

612
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 2: They were talking about character.

613
00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:22,800
Speaker 3: Well, those teams in Indianapolis, that PEG was like guys

614
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:25,160
Speaker 3: that weren't high character. They didn't stay very long because

615
00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:27,639
Speaker 3: they didn't last. They didn't meet the standard. So I

616
00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 3: think it's about hiring good people. There's gonna be conflict,

617
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:32,720
Speaker 3: there's gonna be times at guys butt heads, but you

618
00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:35,960
Speaker 3: have to be able to understand that everybody's in it

619
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:36,760
Speaker 3: for the same goal.

620
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 2: It's for the greater good.

621
00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 1: When you're looking at a guy to add to your staff,

622
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:43,719
Speaker 1: I mean, you want to vet him as much as

623
00:27:43,720 --> 00:27:46,439
Speaker 1: you can. So I assume you're looking them in the eye,

624
00:27:46,840 --> 00:27:49,800
Speaker 1: you're meeting with him, You're trying to test as much

625
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:54,199
Speaker 1: of their background as possible. What does it take for

626
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:57,320
Speaker 1: you to be sold that a guy is wired right

627
00:27:57,320 --> 00:27:58,360
Speaker 1: from a character standpoint.

628
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question. So the two things. If

629
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,000
Speaker 3: if it's an external hire, that's very different.

630
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:07,000
Speaker 2: Right. If it's internal hire, I've seen the guy work,

631
00:28:07,359 --> 00:28:12,360
Speaker 2: you're promoted, let's go externally. I talk to a lot

632
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:15,960
Speaker 2: of people on a job before making a hire, So.

633
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:18,240
Speaker 3: Like if I've got a job open, I don't usually

634
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:23,400
Speaker 3: just talk to one guy it's done. I talked to five, six, seven, eight,

635
00:28:23,640 --> 00:28:25,800
Speaker 3: sometimes nine guys on.

636
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:27,480
Speaker 2: A zoom to just kind of figure out does this

637
00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:29,800
Speaker 2: guy know what he's doing? Do I think he'd fit?

638
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 3: And then I probably call more people that have worked

639
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,359
Speaker 3: with somebody if I haven't worked with them, to find

640
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 3: out about the person. I care about the football component,

641
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:43,440
Speaker 3: but I think I can usually decipher that on an

642
00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:46,720
Speaker 3: interview and asking them to teach me, like, hey day,

643
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,200
Speaker 3: when install teach me what you would teach. But Man,

644
00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:53,600
Speaker 3: when I'm hiring somebody, I wear out the phone calling

645
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:56,480
Speaker 3: everybody that's been around them that I trust and just

646
00:28:56,520 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 3: say good staff, guy, the Trees family, the right way,

647
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:02,800
Speaker 3: a you know, all those things, so that I have

648
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 3: a as good of a pulse of who is the

649
00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:06,320
Speaker 3: person coming in.

650
00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 2: That part.

651
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:13,200
Speaker 3: I'm very very meticulous song just background on who the

652
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 3: person is.

653
00:29:13,960 --> 00:29:15,880
Speaker 1: Does the word get out pretty quick? I mean, if

654
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:18,560
Speaker 1: a guy's not made of the right stuff, like I assume,

655
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:20,960
Speaker 1: folks are pretty straightforward when they're giving you off the

656
00:29:20,960 --> 00:29:23,360
Speaker 1: record feedback, and word gets out pretty quick on.

657
00:29:23,360 --> 00:29:27,800
Speaker 3: Guys, really quick, really easy. It's it's easy to see,

658
00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:31,480
Speaker 3: you know. And two, most of the time people will

659
00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:36,120
Speaker 3: be pretty honest with you. I can also tell when

660
00:29:36,520 --> 00:29:39,880
Speaker 3: somebody's not going all in to help a guy, but

661
00:29:39,920 --> 00:29:42,400
Speaker 3: they're not trying to hurt a guy. Like you can

662
00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:47,480
Speaker 3: sense if there's real genuine, authentic enthusiasm about who the

663
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 3: guy is or not.

664
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:49,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, I he's giving you a bunch of he means

665
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 1: what pretty good?

666
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:54,200
Speaker 2: Yeah he doesn't. Okay, John, like could be worse.

667
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:57,120
Speaker 3: It's like saying, you know to about a you know

668
00:29:57,120 --> 00:29:59,800
Speaker 3: a girl grownd Oh she's sweet, she's got a good person,

669
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:01,200
Speaker 3: God bless her.

670
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:02,720
Speaker 2: That means she's not very pretty.

671
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:10,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, So the whole staff dynamic. Man, It's really it's

672
00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 1: kind of to me parallel to your roster because the

673
00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:16,680
Speaker 1: better you do, if you're the head coach at Tulane,

674
00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:20,080
Speaker 1: the more attention you're going to get from some places

675
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:23,560
Speaker 1: that have much bigger salary pool and budget and whatnot

676
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 1: that you have than you have here. And this is

677
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:27,720
Speaker 1: a great place to be at this level, but there's

678
00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:31,080
Speaker 1: also the reality of the bigger structure of college football.

679
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:34,239
Speaker 1: So everybody has to be aware of this. But I

680
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:37,160
Speaker 1: think maybe you have to be hyper aware of every

681
00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:39,760
Speaker 1: time we're winning a game, every time we're moving the needle,

682
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 1: there are dozens and dozens of eyeballs on us, not fans,

683
00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 1: but people up the ladder who may be looking to

684
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:49,040
Speaker 1: take players, looking to take coaches. So you always hear

685
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:51,640
Speaker 1: the story about how every ad or every head coach

686
00:30:51,680 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 1: they've always got that top drawer, they always got backup

687
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:58,440
Speaker 1: options ready. How prepared do you think you are at

688
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:02,280
Speaker 1: any given point to just suffer attrition on the roster

689
00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:03,760
Speaker 1: or attrition on the coaching staff.

690
00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 2: You know, they're kind of different.

691
00:31:07,200 --> 00:31:11,760
Speaker 3: The roster component's probably harder because, like you said earlier,

692
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 3: you may develop a player who is an unknown and

693
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 3: you don't foresee that that player is not canalli your

694
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:21,080
Speaker 3: roster in six months, and then how do you make

695
00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:23,880
Speaker 3: up for going and getting a starter. I think as

696
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:24,760
Speaker 3: a coach.

697
00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 2: You're a little more dial then on Like coaches are

698
00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 2: going to have opportunities.

699
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:34,280
Speaker 3: I'm for everybody in our building staff wise, to have

700
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,400
Speaker 3: professional development growth and to be able to create opportunities

701
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,800
Speaker 3: for themselves career wise, and so I think you probably

702
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:45,160
Speaker 3: keep a little bit closer tabs on the staff stuff

703
00:31:45,200 --> 00:31:48,959
Speaker 3: and maybe backfilling certain jobs. I personally love to promote

704
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 3: from within, like that's something it makes maybe the systems,

705
00:31:55,000 --> 00:32:00,480
Speaker 3: the carryover those transitions really really smooth.

706
00:32:01,400 --> 00:32:03,040
Speaker 2: There's something nice about adding.

707
00:32:02,720 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 3: Some external guys here and there too that can give

708
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:08,880
Speaker 3: you a different set of lens perspective on maybe how

709
00:32:08,920 --> 00:32:12,960
Speaker 3: they see something. But there's a lot to hey, there's

710
00:32:13,000 --> 00:32:15,760
Speaker 3: a standard here. This is how we do things. It's

711
00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:17,720
Speaker 3: not always what we do, but how we do it

712
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:20,680
Speaker 3: matters just as much because what you do you evolve

713
00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:24,080
Speaker 3: and adapt every year, Like we may play one coverage

714
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:26,320
Speaker 3: one year and played a little less to next because

715
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:28,640
Speaker 3: we have to evolve on who our people are or

716
00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:31,440
Speaker 3: what works. But I think how you do things matters.

717
00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:34,200
Speaker 3: There's a rhythm and a I call it battle rhythms.

718
00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 3: There's battle rhythms to everything we do. And the more

719
00:32:38,080 --> 00:32:40,520
Speaker 3: you know about our battle rhythms, the easier it is

720
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,640
Speaker 3: to kind of just hit it and go. But you

721
00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 3: have to always be ready for attrition, and that comes.

722
00:32:48,680 --> 00:32:52,960
Speaker 3: Success gets a lot of attention for individuals, And I'm

723
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:54,840
Speaker 3: for our players. I hope most of them go to

724
00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:57,240
Speaker 3: the NFL instead of transferent But I'm for our staff

725
00:32:57,240 --> 00:33:00,280
Speaker 3: getting opportunities to We do have guys. Like we asked

726
00:33:00,320 --> 00:33:02,600
Speaker 3: earlier about head coaches, we had guys are on the

727
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 3: staff room. We had football coaches. I have zero now,

728
00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:08,400
Speaker 3: Like there's several guys currently on our staff that will

729
00:33:08,400 --> 00:33:12,560
Speaker 3: be very successful head football coaches at the right time.

730
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:16,040
Speaker 1: You also never know, because I think my mind's weird.

731
00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:19,280
Speaker 1: I think in terms of like future documentaries. So at

732
00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:21,640
Speaker 1: any given point, if I'm watching a football team or

733
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,400
Speaker 1: if I'm watching whatever, I'm always thinking about thirty years

734
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:27,080
Speaker 1: down the road. There could be something historic happening right

735
00:33:27,080 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 1: in front of your eyes. You just don't know it

736
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:31,000
Speaker 1: because you're in the moment. But I picture like a

737
00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:33,400
Speaker 1: documentary thirty years down the road. To drop back to

738
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:36,920
Speaker 1: your perspective, you could have someone saying, well, that two

739
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,440
Speaker 1: lane staff in twenty twenty five, most of America didn't.

740
00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:41,959
Speaker 2: Know it, but this dude was on it.

741
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:44,880
Speaker 1: This student, that dude was on it, this girl worked there,

742
00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:47,320
Speaker 1: that guy worked there. And at any given point, if

743
00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:48,640
Speaker 1: you're doing it the right way and your staff in

744
00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:51,120
Speaker 1: the right way, you could have a building of future

745
00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: stars walking around that are already doing it because.

746
00:33:54,520 --> 00:33:55,040
Speaker 2: You see it.

747
00:33:55,080 --> 00:33:58,520
Speaker 1: But then who knows, man, everybody could just mushroom cloud.

748
00:33:58,920 --> 00:34:00,680
Speaker 1: In terms of personal profile down the.

749
00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:04,680
Speaker 3: Road, it's amazing. I've seen it once early in my career.

750
00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:07,200
Speaker 3: So I was at the University of San Diego. After

751
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:09,719
Speaker 3: IgE ate at Kentucky, I went to us D. At

752
00:34:09,719 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 3: the time, I did another difference between San Diego and

753
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:15,000
Speaker 3: San Francisco. I'm out from the southeast. I moved to

754
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:16,600
Speaker 3: San Diego, and I'm like, I might be here a

755
00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:18,880
Speaker 3: year or two. I ended up being there for five. Well,

756
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 3: Jim Harbaugh had previously been the head coach and he

757
00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:24,319
Speaker 3: had gone to Stanford. Ron Kerriger was a running backs

758
00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:28,120
Speaker 3: coach at Kentucky and he Ron leaves to go take

759
00:34:28,120 --> 00:34:30,160
Speaker 3: the head job at USD, and so I go with him.

760
00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:33,880
Speaker 3: And you know on that staff Dave Adolf who was deceased,

761
00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:37,040
Speaker 3: but Dave was you know, he was an honorary captain

762
00:34:37,080 --> 00:34:39,680
Speaker 3: before he passed for Ohio State and Michigan in that

763
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,359
Speaker 3: game for both teams. Like that tells you a little

764
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:45,160
Speaker 3: bit about Dave. He was Marty Schottenheimer's defensive cornator for

765
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 3: a long time. But on that staff, but prior to

766
00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:50,120
Speaker 3: my time there, you had a guy named David Shaw,

767
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,680
Speaker 3: and you had Johnny Morton, who Johnny's now the OC

768
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,719
Speaker 3: in Detroit. You had a lot of guys that had

769
00:34:56,760 --> 00:35:00,040
Speaker 3: been all over then I was there. We had and

770
00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 3: Tannor Ingstrand who's now the OC for the Jets that

771
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:06,839
Speaker 3: was in Detroit last year. Jimmy Doherty who just got

772
00:35:06,840 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 3: promoted to be the OC in Washington. I mean, there's

773
00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:11,719
Speaker 3: a lot of guys that I remember. We were all

774
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:14,360
Speaker 3: working in a trailer, you know, and there was like

775
00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:15,600
Speaker 3: rats running around and stuff.

776
00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:17,440
Speaker 2: It was crazy. And the defensive trailer.

777
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:21,640
Speaker 3: It was nasty, but there's guys that kind of been

778
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:24,920
Speaker 3: fun to see those guys elevate and grow their careers.

779
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:28,120
Speaker 3: It's always neat to see guys you've come up with

780
00:35:29,560 --> 00:35:33,520
Speaker 3: and where they've gone, you know, for me personally, Like

781
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:37,880
Speaker 3: I mentioned Eli drink Witz and Dan Lanning. I remember

782
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:41,719
Speaker 3: Eli drink Witz's first job. He was a full time job.

783
00:35:41,719 --> 00:35:43,800
Speaker 3: He was at Arkansas State and I was an assistant

784
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,560
Speaker 3: here and we went to dinner and mobile and it's

785
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 3: been ten years ago, and like he had never been

786
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:53,000
Speaker 3: the road recring until that spring, and because he had

787
00:35:53,040 --> 00:35:56,520
Speaker 3: been a high school coach and then an analyst and whatever.

788
00:35:57,000 --> 00:36:00,000
Speaker 3: And then Dan Lanning, like I remember kind of tracking

789
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,359
Speaker 3: and Dan and I were crossing pass and he went

790
00:36:03,400 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 3: to Alabama, went to Memphis, was Arizona State, went to

791
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:09,640
Speaker 3: Memphis with Norvel and those guys, and kind of seeing

792
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 3: guys come up through this, It's really a lot of

793
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:15,160
Speaker 3: fun to see guys grow, especially the ones are great people.

794
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:17,040
Speaker 2: That's a lot of fun to watch.

795
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,600
Speaker 1: How crazy is it when you are living the life

796
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:22,880
Speaker 1: you're living. So you know, you know Dan Lanning well before,

797
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:25,279
Speaker 1: ninety eight percent of the public knows it well now

798
00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:27,760
Speaker 1: Lanning's a rock star after in Eugenie and he's telling

799
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:31,239
Speaker 1: his life story and everyone's like, oh my goodness, he

800
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,640
Speaker 1: worked where he made how much? And meanwhile, you knew

801
00:36:34,640 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: it the whole time, and you're like, I've heard this

802
00:36:36,239 --> 00:36:37,839
Speaker 1: story before, I've watched this story.

803
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:39,279
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got a story on my own. If you

804
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:42,960
Speaker 2: people want to, well, no, Dan's story is amazing. It is.

805
00:36:43,239 --> 00:36:46,080
Speaker 2: And he's got such.

806
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:50,480
Speaker 3: A cool background and a great personality and treats people

807
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:51,040
Speaker 3: so well.

808
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:53,640
Speaker 2: Me and him had a couple of head to head.

809
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:55,920
Speaker 3: Recruiting battles when I was at Troy and he was

810
00:36:55,960 --> 00:36:57,480
Speaker 3: at Memphis, and then I went to Ole, Miss and

811
00:36:57,480 --> 00:36:59,800
Speaker 3: he went to Georgia, and then I was at Kentucky

812
00:37:00,040 --> 00:37:02,000
Speaker 3: at Georgia and we kind of we would we would

813
00:37:02,160 --> 00:37:04,320
Speaker 3: run at each other all the time on the recruiting trail.

814
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:07,160
Speaker 3: But he was always one of those guys that when

815
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:11,439
Speaker 3: we would interact, always just I felt like, all right,

816
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:13,680
Speaker 3: this is my kind of guy. This kind of guy

817
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,359
Speaker 3: I'd be cool being around every day. And he never

818
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 3: worked with him, but have always kept in great touch.

819
00:37:20,160 --> 00:37:22,160
Speaker 3: We were in the SEC. We would talk a ton

820
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:24,880
Speaker 3: the weeks we played each other. We wouldn't talk, but

821
00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:26,879
Speaker 3: we'd keep in great touch and still to this day,

822
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:30,279
Speaker 3: and so very proud of him, and so so cool

823
00:37:30,320 --> 00:37:35,200
Speaker 3: to see somebody who's sacrificed so much and had people

824
00:37:35,239 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 3: around him make sacrifices to provide him with the opportunity

825
00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:41,600
Speaker 3: to do what he's doing, and then the way he's

826
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:43,000
Speaker 3: killing it's been fun to see.

827
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:47,160
Speaker 1: When you look at the passion portion of what you

828
00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:51,160
Speaker 1: do for a living, you have it yourself, you demand

829
00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:54,279
Speaker 1: it from the people in your building. If I were

830
00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 1: to play a hypothetical out, let's say you got all

831
00:37:57,800 --> 00:38:01,640
Speaker 1: the knowledge that you've a require, You've got your natural,

832
00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:03,759
Speaker 1: god given ability to do this for a living. You

833
00:38:03,800 --> 00:38:06,800
Speaker 1: get to keep all that, but I take the passion

834
00:38:06,840 --> 00:38:09,799
Speaker 1: from you. I take the love of coaching football, the

835
00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 1: love of the game from you, But you got you

836
00:38:11,680 --> 00:38:13,719
Speaker 1: get to keep all the rest of the stuff. How

837
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 1: long could you fake it? How long could you could

838
00:38:16,160 --> 00:38:18,160
Speaker 1: you hollow kind of ride a wave?

839
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:21,560
Speaker 3: I don't think I could fake it. My wife would

840
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 3: tell you my greatest strength is my greatest weakness. I'm

841
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:27,160
Speaker 3: brutally honest to the core, Like I don't people ask

842
00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:28,440
Speaker 3: me like, hey, what do you think about this? And

843
00:38:28,480 --> 00:38:31,400
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you like I'm not gonna like, you know,

844
00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:34,240
Speaker 3: I think it's okay, and like if the pot ROAs stinks,

845
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:38,239
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you it stinks. I can't imagine not

846
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:40,680
Speaker 3: being passionate about what I do, like I love it,

847
00:38:40,760 --> 00:38:42,759
Speaker 3: Like I wake up every day. And I told our

848
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:45,120
Speaker 3: teams the other day when my alarm clock goes off

849
00:38:45,120 --> 00:38:47,680
Speaker 3: every day at four forty four am and my heat

850
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:49,719
Speaker 3: my feet hit the floor, I'm like.

851
00:38:49,880 --> 00:38:50,600
Speaker 2: Man, this is awesome.

852
00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:52,520
Speaker 3: I get to go to work today, Like how cool

853
00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:55,000
Speaker 3: is They're paying me to be a football coach.

854
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:58,400
Speaker 2: This is the best thing ever. If I ever lose that,

855
00:38:58,440 --> 00:38:59,360
Speaker 2: I'll go do something else.

856
00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:02,400
Speaker 3: And that's the thing, like kind of going back to

857
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:05,719
Speaker 3: the portal and nil, I'm not gonna let the external

858
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 3: factors that maybe make our job more chaotic.

859
00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:09,680
Speaker 2: Still the joy in the job.

860
00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:11,800
Speaker 3: The joy in the job for me is still about

861
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:15,600
Speaker 3: developing people and players to be their best every day.

862
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:19,680
Speaker 3: And so I'm so passionate about that. I said this

863
00:39:19,719 --> 00:39:22,560
Speaker 3: in my introductory press conference, and I tell our staff

864
00:39:22,560 --> 00:39:23,799
Speaker 3: this all the time. If you're not you know the

865
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:25,960
Speaker 3: old quota think it might have been Vince Lombardi. But

866
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:28,399
Speaker 3: if you're not, fire with enthusiasm. You're gonna get fired

867
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:31,360
Speaker 3: with enthusiasm, Like, you have to be passionate about what

868
00:39:31,360 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 3: you're doing. I don't care if you're a football coach,

869
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:36,880
Speaker 3: if you're washing cars, if you're a school teacher, whatever.

870
00:39:37,080 --> 00:39:38,520
Speaker 2: Man, you got to be fired up by what you do.

871
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:41,960
Speaker 3: And if you don't go do something else like that stinks,

872
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:44,480
Speaker 3: that's not that's not a life to live, man. And

873
00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:50,520
Speaker 3: so I can't imagine not loving this, you know, I

874
00:39:50,560 --> 00:39:53,200
Speaker 3: wake up every day fire up about getting getting to

875
00:39:53,200 --> 00:39:53,640
Speaker 3: go to work.

876
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:56,120
Speaker 1: You ever run into folks in this business that do

877
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:59,480
Speaker 1: not love it? Or is it such a competitive business

878
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,160
Speaker 1: that you can can't make it if you don't love it?

879
00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:04,080
Speaker 2: I think if you want to be elite, you gotta

880
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:04,440
Speaker 2: love it.

881
00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:07,320
Speaker 3: I think you get there's probably people that are mediocre

882
00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:09,879
Speaker 3: that survive and hang on and can kind of blend in.

883
00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:13,160
Speaker 2: But if you want to be a high achiever, there's.

884
00:40:12,960 --> 00:40:15,239
Speaker 3: Only one way to that path, and it's doing the

885
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:16,400
Speaker 3: things that gets you there, you know.

886
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:18,440
Speaker 2: And I think you know.

887
00:40:18,719 --> 00:40:22,040
Speaker 3: Conversely, high achievers want to be around high achievers, Like

888
00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:25,000
Speaker 3: motivated people want to be around motivated people. When I'm

889
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:27,480
Speaker 3: around somebody that's comfortable with mediocrity. It kind of makes

890
00:40:27,520 --> 00:40:30,399
Speaker 3: me nauseous, Like I get a little uncomfortable like it.

891
00:40:30,400 --> 00:40:33,000
Speaker 3: It makes me like, like talk about punching a hole

892
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:34,400
Speaker 3: in the wall. That'll make me punching a hole in

893
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:38,120
Speaker 3: the wall. Like do things great due to exceptional job?

894
00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:40,920
Speaker 3: And whatever your job is. There's probably a lot of

895
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:44,240
Speaker 3: people out there that are okay being just good enough.

896
00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:48,520
Speaker 3: But that's something that would really give me a problem

897
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:49,280
Speaker 3: being around daily.

898
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:51,160
Speaker 1: I tell the story on our show sometimes. But the

899
00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:53,319
Speaker 1: thing to freak me out the most, but it also

900
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:56,279
Speaker 1: opened my eyes a lot was I didn't get right

901
00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:58,760
Speaker 1: into sports media. I did a bunch of manual labor

902
00:40:58,760 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 1: stuff Like I worked real jobs that suck. So you know,

903
00:41:02,680 --> 00:41:05,160
Speaker 1: ten fifteen years ago, I finally get a little bit

904
00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:07,319
Speaker 1: of a break. And you go to these games and

905
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:11,440
Speaker 1: you walk in these press boxes, and you assume everyone

906
00:41:11,480 --> 00:41:13,279
Speaker 1: feels the same way you do it. Four forty four

907
00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:14,960
Speaker 1: in the morning, feet hit the ground. I get to

908
00:41:15,080 --> 00:41:17,840
Speaker 1: cover sports for a living. That's wild. Like, if you

909
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:19,960
Speaker 1: can pay me money to go to a football game today, well,

910
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:22,320
Speaker 1: whatn't like that? And I walk through that press box

911
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 1: and you're looking around and there's some folks there who

912
00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:26,040
Speaker 1: love it. Do not get me wrong, but there are

913
00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:27,719
Speaker 1: a lot of folks who are just there because I

914
00:41:27,760 --> 00:41:30,759
Speaker 1: got to be there, which dumbfounded me. Be tellus, I'm so,

915
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:33,239
Speaker 1: you know, wide eyed, I'm thinking this is this is

916
00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:35,120
Speaker 1: like a fairytale world for people.

917
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:35,719
Speaker 2: Well what?

918
00:41:36,680 --> 00:41:38,960
Speaker 1: But it did show me that if you have that

919
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:41,480
Speaker 1: kind of passion, but it's just channeled over here into

920
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 1: this business, you can do some special things. And then

921
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:46,040
Speaker 1: of course, you know, you got to get your breaks

922
00:41:46,080 --> 00:41:48,160
Speaker 1: and whatnot, and people have to believe in you. But

923
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:51,560
Speaker 1: I think sometimes it helps if you've done stuff you

924
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:55,960
Speaker 1: hate for a living. That's the perspective that really lets

925
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,200
Speaker 1: you know at four forty four in the morning, when

926
00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:00,000
Speaker 1: you're getting to do what you love for a living

927
00:42:00,200 --> 00:42:01,719
Speaker 1: like that, stuff doesn't make sense to a lot of

928
00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:03,360
Speaker 1: people because a lot of people are not doing what

929
00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:05,160
Speaker 1: they love that's right, and so it really helps to

930
00:42:05,160 --> 00:42:07,439
Speaker 1: hear someone talk about it from the perspective of hey,

931
00:42:07,640 --> 00:42:09,719
Speaker 1: I am doing something I love, so you can either

932
00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:13,080
Speaker 1: envy me or you can go find this version for yourself.

933
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:14,240
Speaker 1: That's that's probably the better.

934
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:17,160
Speaker 2: Course of the question. Everybody has a calling, right like something,

935
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:20,760
Speaker 2: there's something for everybody. And to your point, like growing

936
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:21,160
Speaker 2: up to.

937
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:24,239
Speaker 3: Buy my first My first car was a white Ford

938
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:26,080
Speaker 3: Bronco like OJ drove.

939
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:28,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, really popular in the nineties. That's a popular now.

940
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:31,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so that was my first vehicle as a

941
00:42:31,600 --> 00:42:34,160
Speaker 3: high schooler. And I cut grass to pay for it.

942
00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:37,200
Speaker 3: And I like cutting grass. I don't love cutting grass, like,

943
00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:39,279
Speaker 3: I'll do it.

944
00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:40,759
Speaker 2: It's not like I want to go cut a bunch

945
00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:41,080
Speaker 2: of yards.

946
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:42,200
Speaker 1: It's a mediocre at grass.

947
00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:43,839
Speaker 3: Yeah, I ma average at It's not my it's not

948
00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:47,400
Speaker 3: my expertise. And so I'll get the job done. But uh,

949
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:50,399
Speaker 3: but no, I think doing things that you know get

950
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:51,839
Speaker 3: you to where you are make you even have more

951
00:42:51,880 --> 00:42:53,160
Speaker 3: of an appreciation for what you.

952
00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:54,960
Speaker 2: Do get to do day in day out.

953
00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 1: So let me ask you this. All right, So let's

954
00:42:58,040 --> 00:43:00,319
Speaker 1: say you're the same person. I'm not white and your

955
00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:03,359
Speaker 1: memory clean or anything. But for some reason, a voice

956
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:06,800
Speaker 1: came from above you and said, no football, no working

957
00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:09,839
Speaker 1: professionally in football for the rest of your life. You're

958
00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:11,359
Speaker 1: free to go do whatever you want to do. Where

959
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:11,920
Speaker 1: are you headed?

960
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:14,240
Speaker 2: I'd probably go to like the financial world.

961
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:17,960
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I got my undergraduate degree in business finance

962
00:43:18,000 --> 00:43:20,920
Speaker 3: at the University of Kentucky. If I wasn't coaching. Now

963
00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:23,319
Speaker 3: it's probably a little too late to do this, but like,

964
00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:28,040
Speaker 3: to me, the competitive nature of Wall Street, the stock market,

965
00:43:28,520 --> 00:43:32,320
Speaker 3: the hustle, the grind. I really enjoy the grind of things,

966
00:43:32,360 --> 00:43:36,000
Speaker 3: like like I like the early morning, I like the

967
00:43:36,239 --> 00:43:39,279
Speaker 3: outworking people. I like the and about outwork people. I'm

968
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:43,400
Speaker 3: not always talking about hours. I think being strategically efficient

969
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:45,680
Speaker 3: in how you do things is a big part of that.

970
00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:49,640
Speaker 3: But like the competitive nature. I like the world where

971
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:52,600
Speaker 3: there's a winner and a loser. Like I enjoy that.

972
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:57,640
Speaker 3: Like I you know, every day we work, there's not

973
00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:01,320
Speaker 3: always a scoreboard on everything we do. We keep scoring

974
00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:04,240
Speaker 3: everything we do in our workouts, like our off season maturials.

975
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:06,440
Speaker 2: There's a score for everything. And so.

976
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:09,359
Speaker 3: I would want to be a part of something that

977
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:12,080
Speaker 3: was very competitive in nature, which I've always felt like

978
00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:15,520
Speaker 3: Wall Street that environment was was a go getter environment.

979
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:16,120
Speaker 2: Dude.

980
00:44:16,480 --> 00:44:17,879
Speaker 1: Yeah, the movies are great.

981
00:44:17,960 --> 00:44:23,280
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've never been. Yeah, they're entertaining for sure.

982
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:27,560
Speaker 1: As specific as you can get on this stuff. The

983
00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:29,239
Speaker 1: one of the fun things we always do anytime I'm

984
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:33,160
Speaker 1: talking to coaches is before the cameras are rolling. Coaches

985
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:36,120
Speaker 1: have a million stories. Understandably, you cannot tell most.

986
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 2: Of the long I can't tell a lot of them.

987
00:44:38,040 --> 00:44:41,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, if if you were to, like if it was

988
00:44:41,480 --> 00:44:44,200
Speaker 1: like a government file and all the names are redacted

989
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:47,480
Speaker 1: and the places are redacted. Having been in the business

990
00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:51,160
Speaker 1: as long as you have, generically speaking, what's some of

991
00:44:51,200 --> 00:44:54,400
Speaker 1: the wildest stuff that you've experienced or you've been around

992
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:56,759
Speaker 1: that made you go to If the public could see this,

993
00:44:57,400 --> 00:44:58,680
Speaker 1: it would blow their mind.

994
00:45:00,200 --> 00:45:08,799
Speaker 3: Man, I would say, you know, probably for me the

995
00:45:09,239 --> 00:45:12,680
Speaker 3: when I was an assistant coach in the SEC pre

996
00:45:12,920 --> 00:45:14,160
Speaker 3: in il Oh.

997
00:45:14,239 --> 00:45:16,759
Speaker 1: Man, this is already a good story.

998
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:21,719
Speaker 2: The the night before sign day and the.

999
00:45:23,239 --> 00:45:26,880
Speaker 3: That that was like being in a boiler room, you know,

1000
00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 3: and there and then and then the night before it

1001
00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:31,960
Speaker 3: goes dead before like three or four days before Sunday,

1002
00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:35,200
Speaker 3: of staking out in front of a kid's house to

1003
00:45:35,239 --> 00:45:36,719
Speaker 3: be the last guy that could go in and see

1004
00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:40,840
Speaker 3: him and his mom before they signed in five days

1005
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:45,640
Speaker 3: and kind of trying to box another staff out, or

1006
00:45:46,200 --> 00:45:48,520
Speaker 3: and sitting the home to eleven fifty nine pm and

1007
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:50,440
Speaker 3: walk out at midnight so they can't walk in.

1008
00:45:50,680 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 1: People people don't even know, like there's there are a

1009
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:55,040
Speaker 1: lot of young people who watch the show, so like

1010
00:45:55,040 --> 00:45:57,799
Speaker 1: someone who's in high school right now. What you're talking

1011
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:01,919
Speaker 1: about is not that long ago. No, it's years ago. Yeah,

1012
00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:06,880
Speaker 1: years ago. I don't want people to just to overlook

1013
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:09,080
Speaker 1: what you said. So the Sunday, I think it was

1014
00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,520
Speaker 1: like the Sunday night before signing day at eleven fifty nine,

1015
00:46:11,560 --> 00:46:12,319
Speaker 1: that's when it's going down.

1016
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:14,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's yeah, so before you go dead, it would

1017
00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:16,920
Speaker 3: always go dead that Monday. We weren't allowed to be

1018
00:46:16,960 --> 00:46:20,120
Speaker 3: off campus on that Sunday, but we could be this Saturdays. Yeah,

1019
00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:22,319
Speaker 3: Like I can't remember all the dates and rules. We'd

1020
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:27,480
Speaker 3: always clear through compliance of course, sure, but like I

1021
00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:29,799
Speaker 3: will give you a one name, like David Ran.

1022
00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:32,560
Speaker 2: It was Devid core Lsu and I was an.

1023
00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:36,799
Speaker 3: Old mess and we were like he pulls up right

1024
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:39,080
Speaker 3: before me to go in the house of a linebacker,

1025
00:46:39,840 --> 00:46:42,680
Speaker 3: and I pull up right behind him, and he like,

1026
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:43,480
Speaker 3: I don't know.

1027
00:46:43,640 --> 00:46:45,719
Speaker 2: I'm like, what is Dave doing there? Like he's in

1028
00:46:45,719 --> 00:46:46,280
Speaker 2: there forever.

1029
00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:48,439
Speaker 3: I'm just waiting to walk out so I can walk

1030
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:52,000
Speaker 3: in and then, uh, you know, neither one of the

1031
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 3: signing kicks.

1032
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:54,200
Speaker 2: I think someone else had a bigger check book than

1033
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:56,440
Speaker 2: both of us. And that was before an il.

1034
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:57,920
Speaker 1: They also read it through compliance.

1035
00:46:58,040 --> 00:47:02,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, they read all through the checkbook. But you know,

1036
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:07,040
Speaker 2: I think the recruiting stuff back.

1037
00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:12,480
Speaker 3: Then, when there was no nil that was allowed and

1038
00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:15,120
Speaker 3: all that stuff, and there was stuff going on. Obviously

1039
00:47:15,200 --> 00:47:18,000
Speaker 3: everybody knows that there's been plenty of things go on.

1040
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:21,440
Speaker 3: As a coach, you were never really ear least I wasn't.

1041
00:47:21,840 --> 00:47:23,799
Speaker 3: I was never in the middle of that component. But

1042
00:47:23,840 --> 00:47:25,279
Speaker 3: I was like, you have to be naive and I

1043
00:47:25,480 --> 00:47:28,040
Speaker 3: know it's going on. I guess to be an idiot

1044
00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:31,080
Speaker 3: to go, oh, no, there are any players getting paid, Like,

1045
00:47:31,239 --> 00:47:31,560
Speaker 3: come on.

1046
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,680
Speaker 1: Yeah. I used to remember I would listen to like

1047
00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:37,760
Speaker 1: sports talk radio or look at message boards or whatnot,

1048
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:42,759
Speaker 1: and there would always be this unspoken or unknown but

1049
00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:46,000
Speaker 1: understood aspect that, oh, everyone knows this is happening. But

1050
00:47:46,560 --> 00:47:48,520
Speaker 1: I remember having it explained to me the first time

1051
00:47:48,560 --> 00:47:50,319
Speaker 1: by some high school coaches who were kind of aware

1052
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:51,879
Speaker 1: of the way the game was played. And they said,

1053
00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:54,080
Speaker 1: you know, because I was talking to them like I

1054
00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:55,759
Speaker 1: knew what I was talking about, and I knew nothing

1055
00:47:55,800 --> 00:47:57,399
Speaker 1: more than the Internet had taught me. And they said,

1056
00:47:57,440 --> 00:48:00,839
Speaker 1: you keep talking about these coaches. They said, coaches are

1057
00:48:00,920 --> 00:48:04,600
Speaker 1: the last ones plausible deniabilities important the coach are the

1058
00:48:04,640 --> 00:48:06,920
Speaker 1: last ones to ever know how that's working. Now, you

1059
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:09,359
Speaker 1: got Jimmy who owns a tire shop down here, that's

1060
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:10,640
Speaker 1: the one you want to go talk to. You got

1061
00:48:10,680 --> 00:48:12,799
Speaker 1: friend who owns a couple of banks, that's the one

1062
00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:15,239
Speaker 1: you want to go talk to. And I was like, oh,

1063
00:48:15,320 --> 00:48:16,440
Speaker 1: that's the way it works.

1064
00:48:16,719 --> 00:48:18,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh okay, Yeah.

1065
00:48:18,200 --> 00:48:21,279
Speaker 3: The coaches are never really like the coach. You know,

1066
00:48:21,320 --> 00:48:25,160
Speaker 3: the coaches weren't involved. You're still good old fashioned recruiting,

1067
00:48:25,760 --> 00:48:26,239
Speaker 3: trying to be the.

1068
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 2: Last guy in the house.

1069
00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:30,919
Speaker 3: But you knew there was somewhere, there was some other

1070
00:48:30,960 --> 00:48:33,880
Speaker 3: stuff going on that was outside of your domain, and

1071
00:48:33,920 --> 00:48:34,480
Speaker 3: you didn't.

1072
00:48:34,280 --> 00:48:36,319
Speaker 2: Know who it was or how it was done. I

1073
00:48:36,360 --> 00:48:37,440
Speaker 2: didn't want to know, you know.

1074
00:48:37,520 --> 00:48:39,560
Speaker 3: You're just like, I'm just trying to make sure the

1075
00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:43,000
Speaker 3: kid feels good about our situation. But those those recruiting

1076
00:48:43,040 --> 00:48:46,759
Speaker 3: things were always always uh. I got a hunter of

1077
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:51,720
Speaker 3: those stories of the final hour, you know, and and

1078
00:48:51,719 --> 00:48:53,000
Speaker 3: and I've got a few of them. On the other side,

1079
00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:57,200
Speaker 3: we're a bit successful, you know. There there was one

1080
00:48:57,239 --> 00:49:00,239
Speaker 3: of the one of the ones that I was part

1081
00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:04,120
Speaker 3: of that was really good at Kentucky. Before my last season,

1082
00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:08,600
Speaker 3: there a young man from Wayne County, Georgia, which is

1083
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:11,880
Speaker 3: South Georgia. I just coached Jami and Davis, who was

1084
00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:15,000
Speaker 3: a first round pick in Washington. I think it was

1085
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:17,640
Speaker 3: like the nineteenth pick of the draft. And Jay was

1086
00:49:17,640 --> 00:49:20,800
Speaker 3: from Long County, Georgia, and right next to Long County

1087
00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:22,200
Speaker 3: is Wayne County, Georgia.

1088
00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:25,279
Speaker 2: Two, I mean one stop like type town, right, smaller town.

1089
00:49:25,800 --> 00:49:31,400
Speaker 3: Well, Trevin Wallace was a recruit from Wayne County and

1090
00:49:31,440 --> 00:49:34,120
Speaker 3: it was Auburn and in kind of.

1091
00:49:33,800 --> 00:49:35,799
Speaker 2: Us at Kentucky, we're sort of the two.

1092
00:49:36,719 --> 00:49:39,480
Speaker 3: And then like it felt like late maybe Georgia tried

1093
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:41,520
Speaker 3: to get in and we held on for dear life

1094
00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:44,200
Speaker 3: and signed him. And it was one of those positive

1095
00:49:44,239 --> 00:49:46,480
Speaker 3: recruiting wins where we're like, you're just sitting in your

1096
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:48,000
Speaker 3: office for a couple of hours, like I'm not sure

1097
00:49:48,040 --> 00:49:51,000
Speaker 3: how he just got that done, but we got it done,

1098
00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:53,400
Speaker 3: like he's our team. And then his freshman year, we

1099
00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 3: played Florida at home. I think we won by three points.

1100
00:49:56,719 --> 00:49:58,759
Speaker 3: We block a field goal, he catches it well, he

1101
00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:00,759
Speaker 3: was a high school running back, and he takes the

1102
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:02,920
Speaker 3: block field goal seventy yards the house to win the

1103
00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:06,719
Speaker 3: game as a true freshman, and so you're part of

1104
00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:08,960
Speaker 3: all the stories where you just know what it took

1105
00:50:08,960 --> 00:50:10,640
Speaker 3: to get a guy there and then to see what

1106
00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:11,040
Speaker 3: he does.

1107
00:50:11,040 --> 00:50:12,160
Speaker 2: It's really always fun.

1108
00:50:12,280 --> 00:50:14,680
Speaker 1: But a lot of that was relationship based. A ton

1109
00:50:14,719 --> 00:50:17,279
Speaker 1: of those relationship based, and nowadays I'm not saying that

1110
00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:21,239
Speaker 1: doesn't exist, but there's the whole other sort of transactional

1111
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:24,560
Speaker 1: element that gets baked in. Do you miss the way

1112
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:26,120
Speaker 1: it was or do you prefer the way it is?

1113
00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:31,320
Speaker 3: I still make it relational because I don't get involved

1114
00:50:31,360 --> 00:50:36,400
Speaker 3: on the financial We provide financial opportunities for guys that

1115
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:40,200
Speaker 3: are here, and those are a part of conversations during recruiting.

1116
00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:43,440
Speaker 3: They're not a part of my conversations and recruiting. So

1117
00:50:43,480 --> 00:50:46,399
Speaker 3: the way we've structured it, and I don't care if

1118
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:49,160
Speaker 3: I'm coaching high school football, college football, pro football.

1119
00:50:49,600 --> 00:50:51,960
Speaker 2: I want to be a football coach. Yeah, I'm not.

1120
00:50:51,960 --> 00:50:55,560
Speaker 3: Interested in being the salary cap guy. And so does

1121
00:50:55,600 --> 00:50:59,040
Speaker 3: that mean I'm naive to what we're doing financially?

1122
00:50:59,120 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 2: No, I have an idea and I'm involved, and I

1123
00:51:03,120 --> 00:51:03,600
Speaker 2: got I.

1124
00:51:03,560 --> 00:51:05,759
Speaker 3: Got a pretty good pulse of where we are, how

1125
00:51:05,840 --> 00:51:07,799
Speaker 3: much money we have to work with, and what can

1126
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:09,840
Speaker 3: we spend on each room, and those sort of things.

1127
00:51:10,400 --> 00:51:14,120
Speaker 3: But for me, I mean, I'm I'm I'm there to

1128
00:51:14,160 --> 00:51:17,000
Speaker 3: serve the player. I'm there to develop the player. Like

1129
00:51:18,239 --> 00:51:21,200
Speaker 3: our our jobs are to serve and develop. Well, I

1130
00:51:21,239 --> 00:51:24,840
Speaker 3: can't serve and develop if my primary relationship with the

1131
00:51:24,880 --> 00:51:26,480
Speaker 3: player is about.

1132
00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:27,839
Speaker 2: The transaction it took to get them there.

1133
00:51:28,360 --> 00:51:31,239
Speaker 3: So my primary relationship with the player is about what

1134
00:51:31,280 --> 00:51:33,600
Speaker 3: we're going to do to help them grow. And I

1135
00:51:33,640 --> 00:51:39,319
Speaker 3: don't in the recruiting process have conversations about the financials

1136
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:40,600
Speaker 3: so that.

1137
00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:44,719
Speaker 2: That allows me to be the coach. And so there

1138
00:51:44,719 --> 00:51:45,200
Speaker 2: are some.

1139
00:51:45,080 --> 00:51:49,480
Speaker 3: Transactional components that I think have have made some of

1140
00:51:49,520 --> 00:51:53,920
Speaker 3: the things you know more challenging. But I've tried to

1141
00:51:53,960 --> 00:51:57,319
Speaker 3: make sure that's not the lane I'm living in. To

1142
00:51:57,360 --> 00:52:01,080
Speaker 3: be honest, I've tried to maybe exclude myself from that

1143
00:52:01,320 --> 00:52:04,480
Speaker 3: so I can not have to be somebody different than

1144
00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:06,439
Speaker 3: who I am with the guys on our team.

1145
00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:09,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's also that's a preference on your part.

1146
00:52:09,560 --> 00:52:11,120
Speaker 1: I mean, it's I think a lot of people if

1147
00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:12,800
Speaker 1: they if they turn this on in the middle of

1148
00:52:12,880 --> 00:52:15,200
Speaker 1: us talking, they heard you say that, some of them

1149
00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:17,680
Speaker 1: would just call BS on it. Other ones would say,

1150
00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:20,360
Speaker 1: what does he does he want us to think he's stupid.

1151
00:52:20,440 --> 00:52:22,480
Speaker 1: Does he want us to think he's unaware of what's happening.

1152
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:25,480
Speaker 1: And what you're saying is you know full well it's happening.

1153
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:28,880
Speaker 1: You've actually structured so that it can happen over here

1154
00:52:29,360 --> 00:52:32,319
Speaker 1: in this room. Because when we're in this room, I

1155
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:35,359
Speaker 1: want it to be about this, this, this, and not that,

1156
00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:38,360
Speaker 1: because it kind of poisons the well of what you

1157
00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:39,040
Speaker 1: want to be about.

1158
00:52:39,320 --> 00:52:41,200
Speaker 3: I want to walk into our team meeting room and

1159
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:43,719
Speaker 3: nobody in that meeting room think, well, coach, he.

1160
00:52:43,680 --> 00:52:45,480
Speaker 4: Didn't pay me. He paid that guy this and this

1161
00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:48,640
Speaker 4: guy that. Well, I didn't pay anybody anything. I'm not

1162
00:52:48,680 --> 00:52:52,479
Speaker 4: sitting down doing any like do I know what's going on? Yes,

1163
00:52:53,200 --> 00:52:56,600
Speaker 4: like I got, like I got, but I don't. I

1164
00:52:56,640 --> 00:53:00,400
Speaker 4: don't make the deal. I don't sit there and do

1165
00:53:00,440 --> 00:53:01,479
Speaker 4: those things because for.

1166
00:53:01,440 --> 00:53:04,520
Speaker 3: Me, it doesn't allow me to be the best I

1167
00:53:04,560 --> 00:53:08,480
Speaker 3: can for the player or for the team. If I'm

1168
00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:12,040
Speaker 3: in the weeds on trying to be a general manager,

1169
00:53:12,680 --> 00:53:13,600
Speaker 3: salary cap guy.

1170
00:53:14,760 --> 00:53:16,000
Speaker 2: I've got people that do that.

1171
00:53:16,719 --> 00:53:19,520
Speaker 3: I know what we're doing in that area, but I

1172
00:53:19,600 --> 00:53:23,080
Speaker 3: draw a line where I'm like, hey, if the guy goes, hey,

1173
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:24,120
Speaker 3: we we got to go further.

1174
00:53:24,160 --> 00:53:24,839
Speaker 2: To get that guy.

1175
00:53:25,320 --> 00:53:31,239
Speaker 3: Okay, let him walk, I'm good. We'll find another player. Usually,

1176
00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:34,800
Speaker 3: and the way we recruit to if in the first

1177
00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:39,120
Speaker 3: conversation or if early in the first conversation, it turns

1178
00:53:39,160 --> 00:53:42,160
Speaker 3: the compensation rightut of the gate. No different than when

1179
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:45,120
Speaker 3: coachesep if a coach in the early in the first

1180
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:46,879
Speaker 3: conversation is like, hey, what's the job pay?

1181
00:53:47,120 --> 00:53:49,880
Speaker 2: Hey bud, you're not the right dude for the job player,

1182
00:53:49,960 --> 00:53:51,759
Speaker 2: same deal. I don't care. I don't care.

1183
00:53:52,040 --> 00:53:53,799
Speaker 3: If you know, if I was at a school that's

1184
00:53:53,880 --> 00:53:56,840
Speaker 3: got the full rep share of sixteen million or fifteen

1185
00:53:56,880 --> 00:53:59,840
Speaker 3: million for football out of the twenty million pot, fifteen million,

1186
00:54:00,520 --> 00:54:03,279
Speaker 3: if the first question is what's that pay? Okay, do

1187
00:54:03,320 --> 00:54:05,759
Speaker 3: you love what football can do for you or do

1188
00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:08,799
Speaker 3: you love football? Because if you love football, then it's

1189
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:10,840
Speaker 3: going to continue to do great things for you. But

1190
00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:12,359
Speaker 3: if you love what it can do for you right

1191
00:54:12,360 --> 00:54:14,719
Speaker 3: now and you're just trying to it's only about the

1192
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:16,240
Speaker 3: short term.

1193
00:54:16,080 --> 00:54:19,440
Speaker 2: Check, we're probably not going very far. Yeah, you know.

1194
00:54:19,480 --> 00:54:22,600
Speaker 3: And so I think you have to kind of gauge

1195
00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:26,560
Speaker 3: what's a guy about in regards to his questioning or

1196
00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:29,040
Speaker 3: what he's interested in in the recruiting process.

1197
00:54:29,320 --> 00:54:30,520
Speaker 1: One of the other things I want to ask you

1198
00:54:30,560 --> 00:54:36,160
Speaker 1: about the psychology of game day itself for the team. Yeah,

1199
00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:40,200
Speaker 1: but I'm talking about you specifically, like the level of

1200
00:54:40,239 --> 00:54:43,319
Speaker 1: focus that you have, because it's crazy that you work

1201
00:54:43,400 --> 00:54:44,799
Speaker 1: year round on this stuff and it comes down to

1202
00:54:44,800 --> 00:54:47,439
Speaker 1: twelve Saturdays really and it's just like a small chunk

1203
00:54:47,440 --> 00:54:50,239
Speaker 1: of time on those twelve Saturdays and everything's poured into

1204
00:54:50,280 --> 00:54:54,040
Speaker 1: that all year. Described to someone who's never worn a headset,

1205
00:54:54,080 --> 00:54:57,680
Speaker 1: walked on the sideline before, the level of razor focus

1206
00:54:58,000 --> 00:55:00,480
Speaker 1: that you have play to play in a foot ball game,

1207
00:55:00,520 --> 00:55:02,000
Speaker 1: to the point where a lot of you guys can

1208
00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:04,399
Speaker 1: get in a postgame press conference and recite play after

1209
00:55:04,400 --> 00:55:07,120
Speaker 1: play after play, what happened, what you saw, WHYTT went

1210
00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:09,160
Speaker 1: this way, why it didn't work that way, Like what

1211
00:55:09,239 --> 00:55:10,680
Speaker 1: is that level of focus like to be able to

1212
00:55:10,719 --> 00:55:11,360
Speaker 1: get to that point?

1213
00:55:11,520 --> 00:55:14,560
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think as a head coach it's different.

1214
00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:17,440
Speaker 3: You know, to your point earlier, when you're coming up

1215
00:55:17,440 --> 00:55:20,319
Speaker 3: on one side of the ball, you're so just dial

1216
00:55:20,400 --> 00:55:22,759
Speaker 3: then on that phase. As a head coach, I think

1217
00:55:22,800 --> 00:55:26,960
Speaker 3: that's where you have to be nuanced and understand the

1218
00:55:27,000 --> 00:55:28,160
Speaker 3: ebbs and flows of the game.

1219
00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:30,560
Speaker 2: Clock management, timeouts.

1220
00:55:31,040 --> 00:55:33,719
Speaker 3: Play sequencing when you're gonna go for it on fourth down,

1221
00:55:33,719 --> 00:55:35,480
Speaker 3: making sure you can do a good job on the headset,

1222
00:55:35,480 --> 00:55:39,600
Speaker 3: communicating to your offensive coordinator, Hey, if it's fourth and three,

1223
00:55:39,640 --> 00:55:42,360
Speaker 3: here we're going. It's a go, like ahead of the drive,

1224
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:45,560
Speaker 3: so they know how to play sequence. Once we get

1225
00:55:45,560 --> 00:55:48,360
Speaker 3: to this yard line at fourth and this, it's a go.

1226
00:55:49,120 --> 00:55:52,400
Speaker 3: And so the guys. So I think the end game communication,

1227
00:55:54,480 --> 00:55:57,880
Speaker 3: so much of it really happens before the game. Like,

1228
00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:01,640
Speaker 3: to be honest with you, on game day, my job

1229
00:56:01,680 --> 00:56:03,320
Speaker 3: is just to make sure we keep the trailing.

1230
00:56:03,120 --> 00:56:07,040
Speaker 2: Tracks a little bit. Like we've we've rehearsed.

1231
00:56:06,760 --> 00:56:10,920
Speaker 3: Discussed, and gone through enough times that everybody kind of

1232
00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:13,959
Speaker 3: knows what we're gonna do. I tell to the point

1233
00:56:14,000 --> 00:56:16,280
Speaker 3: I tell our staff, our team, Like on our Thursday

1234
00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:21,880
Speaker 3: staff meeting. We we always talk, you know, when the

1235
00:56:21,920 --> 00:56:23,920
Speaker 3: toss loses, the toss, defer, all that stuff.

1236
00:56:24,120 --> 00:56:26,760
Speaker 2: We talk, wind, weather, all that stuff.

1237
00:56:26,800 --> 00:56:28,960
Speaker 3: We talk. If we're on the road, what's the visiting

1238
00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:31,080
Speaker 3: locker room look like? I don't want to, like I

1239
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:33,040
Speaker 3: show it to the team. I don't want to walk

1240
00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:35,080
Speaker 3: in and be like, oh the locker room small, there's

1241
00:56:35,120 --> 00:56:37,840
Speaker 3: only three bathroom three three places use the bathroom. I

1242
00:56:37,960 --> 00:56:39,799
Speaker 3: tell it if we know that, I tell the team

1243
00:56:40,000 --> 00:56:42,120
Speaker 3: before we get there, so they're not like, oh, this

1244
00:56:42,200 --> 00:56:45,920
Speaker 3: bathroom situation sucks. Hey, guys, we know the bathroom situation

1245
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:50,240
Speaker 3: is gonna suck today. Like just so there's already we

1246
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:53,600
Speaker 3: know what's coming. So I try to control and maybe

1247
00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:56,319
Speaker 3: prepare for as much of those things as possible. But

1248
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:59,719
Speaker 3: the end game decisions so much that's already discussed in

1249
00:56:59,719 --> 00:57:03,080
Speaker 3: playing end that every now and then you have something

1250
00:57:03,120 --> 00:57:06,359
Speaker 3: to do. But like this year, we had in one

1251
00:57:06,440 --> 00:57:08,920
Speaker 3: game that almost could have come down to, hey, do

1252
00:57:08,960 --> 00:57:10,080
Speaker 3: you go for two or do you not?

1253
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:12,359
Speaker 2: And our staff do that game. I was gonna make

1254
00:57:12,400 --> 00:57:12,960
Speaker 2: this decision.

1255
00:57:13,040 --> 00:57:14,720
Speaker 3: Well, the next game, it may be a different decision

1256
00:57:14,719 --> 00:57:19,560
Speaker 3: based upon who we're playing, where we're playing, the elements, whatever.

1257
00:57:20,120 --> 00:57:21,600
Speaker 3: One game, I may go for two to win at

1258
00:57:21,640 --> 00:57:24,120
Speaker 3: the end one game I might not based upon all

1259
00:57:24,160 --> 00:57:24,760
Speaker 3: those factors.

1260
00:57:24,960 --> 00:57:27,320
Speaker 1: All Right, I get you here on this Spring, as

1261
00:57:27,360 --> 00:57:30,840
Speaker 1: you and I are talking, has not begun yet. You're

1262
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:33,360
Speaker 1: focused on everything in Spring. What's like one thing, if

1263
00:57:33,400 --> 00:57:34,960
Speaker 1: you just circle it with red sharp, you're one or

1264
00:57:34,960 --> 00:57:37,959
Speaker 1: two things that are really pivotal for this year's team

1265
00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:38,520
Speaker 1: to come together.

1266
00:57:39,320 --> 00:57:43,240
Speaker 3: Well, I think, you know, we lost a lot like

1267
00:57:43,320 --> 00:57:48,520
Speaker 3: our roster o attrition, we got two returning offensive starters,

1268
00:57:49,080 --> 00:57:55,800
Speaker 3: all right, we got three or four on defense returning starters.

1269
00:57:57,040 --> 00:58:00,440
Speaker 3: So for me, it's so much about in the visual

1270
00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:04,360
Speaker 3: player development through the spring, what guys can we rely

1271
00:58:04,440 --> 00:58:07,600
Speaker 3: on and depend on, you know, which guys are gonna

1272
00:58:07,640 --> 00:58:09,200
Speaker 3: consistently perform at a high level.

1273
00:58:10,320 --> 00:58:14,600
Speaker 2: And then within that, where do we go.

1274
00:58:14,680 --> 00:58:17,200
Speaker 3: Like we've had a style of play, but your style

1275
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:19,920
Speaker 3: of play constantly has to evolve around who are your players?

1276
00:58:20,360 --> 00:58:22,920
Speaker 2: You know, Like I go back to my first year.

1277
00:58:22,760 --> 00:58:25,000
Speaker 3: At Troy in twenty twenty two, I knew we weren't

1278
00:58:25,000 --> 00:58:27,240
Speaker 3: gonna be great on offense. I watched this practice all spring.

1279
00:58:27,360 --> 00:58:29,040
Speaker 3: I'm like, all right, this could be a tough offensive

1280
00:58:29,120 --> 00:58:31,400
Speaker 3: year probably. So that year we won games like ten

1281
00:58:31,440 --> 00:58:34,160
Speaker 3: to six and ten to nine, and we won twelve

1282
00:58:34,240 --> 00:58:36,440
Speaker 3: games doing it that way. Well, the next year Troy

1283
00:58:36,480 --> 00:58:39,680
Speaker 3: won some games, scoring forty points. Last year it was

1284
00:58:39,720 --> 00:58:40,560
Speaker 3: kind of a little bit of both.

1285
00:58:40,600 --> 00:58:43,160
Speaker 2: Here. We played decent defensive times, we had decent offens

1286
00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:43,640
Speaker 2: at times.

1287
00:58:44,880 --> 00:58:46,760
Speaker 3: We're probably a little bit ahead of the curve on

1288
00:58:46,920 --> 00:58:49,080
Speaker 3: defense from where we were a year ago.

1289
00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:50,600
Speaker 2: This time when I got here a year ago.

1290
00:58:50,680 --> 00:58:54,680
Speaker 3: This time, man, the cupboard had been pulled apart pretty good.

1291
00:58:54,680 --> 00:58:57,680
Speaker 3: On defense, whether it been in the portal or whatever,

1292
00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:01,080
Speaker 3: we're a lot more whole right now on defense we

1293
00:59:01,080 --> 00:59:05,479
Speaker 3: were a year ago. We have obviously a pretty well

1294
00:59:05,520 --> 00:59:09,600
Speaker 3: known quarterback. Competitions can be wide open with several guys involved.

1295
00:59:10,080 --> 00:59:12,600
Speaker 3: The best player will win the job. You know, last year,

1296
00:59:13,200 --> 00:59:16,080
Speaker 3: like the start of our conversation, nobody knew how to

1297
00:59:16,080 --> 00:59:19,200
Speaker 3: say Darien Mins's last name when I got here. I

1298
00:59:19,200 --> 00:59:21,840
Speaker 3: got in the building. In the first couple weeks in

1299
00:59:21,880 --> 00:59:24,520
Speaker 3: the job, I heard more people call him mensa. That's

1300
00:59:24,520 --> 00:59:26,960
Speaker 3: not how you say his name, it's mensa. So who

1301
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:30,000
Speaker 3: will win the job the guy that earns it. And

1302
00:59:30,400 --> 00:59:32,040
Speaker 3: I'm excited about watching the guys compete.

1303
00:59:32,440 --> 00:59:33,760
Speaker 2: I love the off season.

1304
00:59:34,320 --> 00:59:38,080
Speaker 3: I really like February's fun to me because that's where

1305
00:59:38,280 --> 00:59:40,320
Speaker 3: it's a dead period. No recruits are allowed to come

1306
00:59:40,360 --> 00:59:44,600
Speaker 3: on campus. We can't go see recruits. I'm solely focused

1307
00:59:44,600 --> 00:59:46,480
Speaker 3: on the guys that are on our campus right now

1308
00:59:46,960 --> 00:59:50,520
Speaker 3: in developing this team every day, and some of that's

1309
00:59:50,680 --> 00:59:54,200
Speaker 3: through some shared sacrifice of early morning team runs and

1310
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Speaker 3: seeing who's gonna spit the bit and who's gonna push

1311
00:59:56,760 --> 01:00:00,400
Speaker 3: a little harder, who's gonna go and so who loves

1312
01:00:00,400 --> 01:00:03,800
Speaker 3: to compete. But I'm really fired up about you know,

1313
01:00:04,400 --> 01:00:08,600
Speaker 3: all the turnover roster wise can be scary. It's also

1314
01:00:08,720 --> 01:00:13,560
Speaker 3: sort of like reinvigorating and exciting because I think we

1315
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Speaker 3: have to reinvent ourselves. We have to find out what's

1316
01:00:16,560 --> 01:00:19,120
Speaker 3: gonna work for this year. No two years are the same,

1317
01:00:19,200 --> 01:00:21,960
Speaker 3: No two teams are the same anymore. Every team is

1318
01:00:22,000 --> 01:00:26,960
Speaker 3: completely new. Your your program and culture, your standards don't change,

1319
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Speaker 3: but your rosters and such flux that you have to

1320
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Speaker 3: figure out how fast we make this thing come together.

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Speaker 3: And being in New Orleans, it's like, how do we

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Speaker 3: put it together a good gumbo, you know what I mean?

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Speaker 3: How do we mix it all together to make it

1324
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Speaker 3: the right product? And we'll get there. But I'm fired

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Speaker 3: up to see these guys, some of the young guys

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Speaker 3: that are here, see them step up and some of

1327
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Speaker 3: the transfer guys, see what they're about and how they

1328
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Speaker 3: kind of.

1329
01:00:49,480 --> 01:00:52,160
Speaker 2: Fall into the fold. Coach, we appreciate it, thank you,

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Speaker 2: appreciate you having.

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