Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I'm a little John and this
Speaker 1: is cut to it. Good do it, Good do it.
Speaker 1: They's get down to do it. Good do it. We
Speaker 1: asked the questions you always want to know, but no
Speaker 1: one ever asked, let's cut to it. You ain't heard
Speaker 1: am about it? Then we're about to let you know.
Speaker 1: It's all. I'm ready, Yeah, good, mhm, what's going on?
Speaker 1: What's going on? Steve? What's going on? I'm good? You
Speaker 1: hit me with three? What's going on? I did not know?
Speaker 1: You got it? Sometimes you gotta switch it up, man.
Speaker 1: You don't want things to be stale. Yeah that's true.
Speaker 1: How are you? Man? I'm doing good? Yeah. What's your
Speaker 1: energy level at right now? On the scale of one
Speaker 1: to team? I don't know, Probably low because I don't
Speaker 1: even know. All right, It's okay. Well, man, we're gonna
Speaker 1: go into the archives a little bit. We hadn't done
Speaker 1: codes and in a while, but man, I think it's
Speaker 1: big dummy time. So we're gonna take this down to
Speaker 1: Florida in clear water. Hold on, hold on, hold on
Speaker 1: our social media manager has found our big dummy. So
Speaker 1: shout out to uh, absolutely shout out to Peyton. Peyton
Speaker 1: Smith doing the research for us, are leading our research team,
Speaker 1: research team, and one he found the story. Yeah, I'm trying.
Speaker 1: Don't hype it. Don't overhype it because he'll start start
Speaker 1: pounding up. Yeah, he'll start smelling himself. So. Down in
Speaker 1: clear Water, Florida, twenty seven year old Herbert McClellan is
Speaker 1: accused of swiping more than a dozen and scratch off
Speaker 1: lottery tickets from a local speedway, then trying to cash
Speaker 1: in the ticket at the same store. So hold on,
Speaker 1: he swiped them, that means he stole him. Clarification, I
Speaker 1: know what it means, but somebody may be listening and said, well,
Speaker 1: he swiped him. So police say that McClellan strolled into
Speaker 1: the convenience store around two am on Tuesday. Listen what
Speaker 1: they say. Nothing good happens after midding no um. So
Speaker 1: he strolled into the convenience store around two m on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: and while the worker behind the counter was caught up
Speaker 1: doing something else, McClellan reached over and took thirteen scratch
Speaker 1: offs worth just over a hundred all this. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you where you went wrong. Okay, he took the
Speaker 1: wrong number, so it was not lucky, unlucky. I'm lucky. See,
Speaker 1: you can't steal and take the wrong number. You know
Speaker 1: what that is when you're just starting. That's a big
Speaker 1: dummy nicole. But dumny. But but the story don't stop there.
Speaker 1: So he's there's small, Yeah, there's there's tail. So he
Speaker 1: left out the store police say, And apparently he couldn't
Speaker 1: wait to see if any of his tickets were winners.
Speaker 1: One was. It was worth thirty dollars. So a few
Speaker 1: hours later he showed back up. Hold on, hold on,
Speaker 1: I got bo peeing out. Let me let you all
Speaker 1: two am right now, still both be at that's a
Speaker 1: bad number anyway. Only thirteen I want is millions. Other
Speaker 1: than that, I want nothing else. Thirteen tickets at two
Speaker 1: am a few hours? So is this few? Is just
Speaker 1: our few? So few as two? No, a couple of
Speaker 1: fews like four or five, three or four? Okay, a
Speaker 1: little quick math click click your internal calculator, yes, my
Speaker 1: internal calculator. So dumbass came back about five a m.
Speaker 1: Same day. Okay, we're probably wearing the same clothes, so
Speaker 1: back up at the same speedway so convenience store to
Speaker 1: cash it in per police. So, according to the jail records,
Speaker 1: was charged with petty theft. You said per police. That
Speaker 1: means they got him. So he came back in the store,
Speaker 1: workers called the police and the police arrested him because
Speaker 1: he tried to cash him in for thirty dollars at
Speaker 1: the same store, stole a hundred dollars worth, got thirty,
Speaker 1: went to jail over well, he made it. He did
Speaker 1: make a profit because it was free. I figured discount
Speaker 1: and then he made thirty dollars and now you gotta
Speaker 1: make bail. Now you gotta make bail. So all in all,
Speaker 1: it wasn't worthy because he was It's tough times right now, man,
Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta get it how you live. But
Speaker 1: I don't think this was orchestrated. Herbert, first of all,
Speaker 1: the Herbster. The Herbster is in the slammer who names
Speaker 1: their child Herbert? That must be a family name. I
Speaker 1: ain't hating on the name Herbert. I'm hating on the
Speaker 1: way that he planned this out. That just went more well.
Speaker 1: After he gets released from jail, Herbert will be now hermit, Hermit,
Speaker 1: Herbert the Hermit, because now he can't go to a
Speaker 1: speedway he did? Did they not tell you? He also
Speaker 1: has a lifetime band from all speedway community stores. So
Speaker 1: he is the recipient of our big dummy work. You
Speaker 1: big as dummy. Yeah, that's tragic, right, there's hate it
Speaker 1: for you, Herbert. Uh, that's what you get, stupid goodness. Gracious,
Speaker 1: you know what I read this quote? Life is hard,
Speaker 1: but it's harder when you're stupid. That's cold blood, Rick James.
Speaker 1: Think about it. Life is hard where we are right now.
Speaker 1: Life is hard, and then when you do stupid stuff,
Speaker 1: it makes life compounded. It makes life so much harder. So, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't know your struggle, Herbert, but I know your
Speaker 1: struggle now, brother. And look those thirteen lottery tickets got
Speaker 1: you now pent up into jail, backed into a corner,
Speaker 1: making sure your bunk mate, Debo, don't take your lottery tickets.
Speaker 1: So hat it for me one more time, big dummy?
Speaker 1: Can you? You're a big dumming? Hey who we got
Speaker 1: on the show. It ain't Herbert, damn so late coming
Speaker 1: up on the cut to a podcast We've got Will Heally,
Speaker 1: the current coach of the Charlotte forty Niners football team.
Speaker 1: A former FCS Culture of the Year, he led un
Speaker 1: C Charlotte to their first Bowl appearance in their program's history.
Speaker 1: Will Heally on the cut to a podcast. Our first segment, coach,
Speaker 1: is called get iced Up, So it is basically our
Speaker 1: version of icebreakers. You don't know what's coming. We got
Speaker 1: some pre selected questions that me and him talked about.
Speaker 1: You don't know what's coming on. Uh So there may
Speaker 1: or may not be a follow up, and Smithie go
Speaker 1: ahead and give him the first one. I'm ready. Alright,
Speaker 1: bug what I'm saying, I don't know why? All right,
Speaker 1: here we go, Here we go. If you had an
Speaker 1: extra hour, a free time a day, what would you
Speaker 1: use it to do? I would The politically correct answer
Speaker 1: is I was fitting with my family if I if
Speaker 1: it was just me, I'd play golf. Yeah too, pretty
Speaker 1: normal answer. Yeah that's good. You know southern? Are you
Speaker 1: from the south, right? Yeah? Tenn Where's Uda Wah right
Speaker 1: next to Chattanooga. It's about fifteen minutes north of Chattanooga,
Speaker 1: heading towards Knoxville. Okay, yeah, alright, so I understand you're golfer.
Speaker 1: I'm a little bit of golfer. You know, hey, I
Speaker 1: can tear up some grass. I take credit. You shot
Speaker 1: at eighty five the other day. You're doing good. Where
Speaker 1: did you do that? Where do we play, Joe? Ocean?
Speaker 1: Ocean course, ocean now, yeah, where they're having the p
Speaker 1: GA next. So I played that this summer, my wife,
Speaker 1: would you shoot me that? I played all the way
Speaker 1: from the tips, all right, I went back back back,
Speaker 1: all right and walk the thing. Well, you only can
Speaker 1: walk if you disable, so you don't get on brownie
Speaker 1: points for walking that you can take a card after
Speaker 1: ten because I found that out too. Your mother Joe,
Speaker 1: do you know what? Because Joe was with a black
Speaker 1: dude always holding So I shot. I shot eighty four.
Speaker 1: I blew up on the back, shot thirty seven on
Speaker 1: the front. There you go, struggled, struggled, struggled coming in. Well,
Speaker 1: it's so long, got the best. It throws you off
Speaker 1: because you're going fast. I literally hit a shot from
Speaker 1: the beach on one of the last couple of holes,
Speaker 1: like I founded so far right on the beach. I'm
Speaker 1: off saying I'm not going that far. I'maying I'm good now.
Speaker 1: I wanted to I wanted to shot myself. I wanted
Speaker 1: to challenge myself. Okay, cool, all right, what are you
Speaker 1: most thankful for? Family? For sure? I got to unbelieve
Speaker 1: a wife. I met her in seventh grade. Uh, have
Speaker 1: two kids, five year old boy and almost two year
Speaker 1: old boy, and uh they're awesome. I love being name
Speaker 1: Eli and Winn when when all I do is win,
Speaker 1: w w y n N. It was the meaning behind those.
Speaker 1: We had some friends in Chattanooga that like, we we
Speaker 1: just heard them. You know, hey, we liked this name
Speaker 1: and we stole it from him. It was really what
Speaker 1: it was like. We we heard the name, we liked it.
Speaker 1: So it's when Livingston. Livingston's my middle name, so we
Speaker 1: used my school. Yeah, and then we got William Elliott.
Speaker 1: Uh we call him Eli. So yeah, they're awesome. Cool.
Speaker 1: I what's your biggest pet peeve? And why? Negativity? I
Speaker 1: freaking hate it. Um. I don't want to be around
Speaker 1: negative people. UM. I think it drains you. It's energy
Speaker 1: sucking um. And I feel like you can find something
Speaker 1: positive about everything. So as a coach, you gotta be
Speaker 1: around negative people. What do you do to adjust? Well?
Speaker 1: I think you have to show him what is negative,
Speaker 1: And why is it important to be positive? You know?
Speaker 1: I mean, to me, it's life changing when you can
Speaker 1: find ways to you know, find something positive in everything
Speaker 1: and if that's your mindset, And to me, it's kind
Speaker 1: of an accountability and a positivity deal, like the account
Speaker 1: of ability of finding yourself at fault with any given
Speaker 1: situation and then the positivity of saying, Okay, I've got
Speaker 1: control over it, so I can fix it instead of
Speaker 1: the coach screwed me or it's a bad situation or
Speaker 1: whatever it is, Like, what could I do differently to
Speaker 1: make sure the coach had no choice but play me?
Speaker 1: And then how can I find positivity in this time
Speaker 1: of struggle? You got to bos some of that stuff
Speaker 1: up and write a book. You don't do that because
Speaker 1: I'm a dud buk half of I'm a former player.
Speaker 1: I don't that. So you're born raised in the South,
Speaker 1: so you have those Southern you know, obliging walk you know,
Speaker 1: a woman or older hospitality, break it down, hospitality. So
Speaker 1: you you're walking into the store or building, older lady
Speaker 1: or younger lady, doesn't matter. Woman goes in. You open
Speaker 1: the door, correct, correct? All right? When you open up
Speaker 1: the door, right at the crack of the frame of
Speaker 1: the door. You look down and there's a fifty dollar bill.
Speaker 1: Do you, ma'am she dropped it. I didn't say she dropped.
Speaker 1: You got you gotta feeling that feeling. You open up
Speaker 1: the door. You see you she goes. She takes about
Speaker 1: ten fifteen steps. You know, you stop. You look down
Speaker 1: for some reason, there's fifty dollars right there at your foot.
Speaker 1: Do you ask her as it hers? Do you chase
Speaker 1: her down? Or do you keep it moving? I can
Speaker 1: one tell you I would chase her down and ask
Speaker 1: her if it was hers, and if it was not,
Speaker 1: I would give it to somebody at the store, because
Speaker 1: somebody's coming back for fifty bucks. Oh, he doubled down
Speaker 1: on being the Southern. I believe I can answer that. Hey,
Speaker 1: I would have done be pro I just said I
Speaker 1: would have. I probably would have chased her down. She
Speaker 1: said not, it's not my money. That's in my pocket. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're giving somebody who needs it. We're keep it in
Speaker 1: my pocket. I'm not judging. I've done every cardinal sin
Speaker 1: in the book. I've done. I promise what was your
Speaker 1: what's your was? Bro? That's a that's a shoulder tap
Speaker 1: from the lower I'm so seed, the Lord said, I
Speaker 1: love what you just did. And thank you Jesus. My
Speaker 1: money clip and keep it moving, thank you Jesus. Part
Speaker 1: as what saved you. I guess on it. I don't
Speaker 1: care what you're talking about. Look, so we got varying degrees.
Speaker 1: And thank Jesus. Chasing that lady you're talking about, she
Speaker 1: dropped it while I'm from come up? That is? Hey, Lord,
Speaker 1: I need you today? Bank? That's that? What do you
Speaker 1: say if you ask it? I don't know why that
Speaker 1: took me? All right, coach you ready, look just listen,
Speaker 1: we got we gotta look. Let me just show you.
Speaker 1: I got you. We got you in studios, so we
Speaker 1: we love it. We we think it's awesome. I got
Speaker 1: four or five pages right of all this stuff. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you right now, I could rip it all up.
Speaker 1: You know what I want to know. We're gonna use
Speaker 1: our baseline of some of the things that we have,
Speaker 1: and then we're just gonna let you convers right. Um,
Speaker 1: so really are our standards always? Where are you from
Speaker 1: in a place that you call hometown? Your hometown? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I um, I mean stop lights? Uh it's I mean,
Speaker 1: we got Walmart, we got Chick fil A, we got y'all.
Speaker 1: That's a that's a metropolitans. So when when we moved there,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that way. It had a golden gallon, Uh,
Speaker 1: in a waffle house, golden gallon, which is a gas
Speaker 1: station and in a waffle house. But but now it's
Speaker 1: it's uh, it's it's a booming metropolis. Uh. I moved
Speaker 1: there when I was five. I had two older brothers,
Speaker 1: once eight years older, once ten years older. And uh,
Speaker 1: middle brother was getting into some trouble um and so
Speaker 1: we moved as far away as we could where he
Speaker 1: could get his act together. And so uh grew up there.
Speaker 1: And uh and and I mean that's that's still where
Speaker 1: my parents are, still their same house I grew up in,
Speaker 1: was it? So? What was your favorite team growing up
Speaker 1: as a kid? Any sport? I was? My dad, uncle,
Speaker 1: and granddad all played at Georgia Tech. So I grew
Speaker 1: up a huge Georgia Tech fan. Joe Hamilton's and Stepharberry
Speaker 1: and he went fall. Basketball was my deal. I mean
Speaker 1: I did not miss a basketball or football game. Like No,
Speaker 1: I didn't always go to Atlanta, but I was gonna
Speaker 1: watch it or listen to it or star beery. He
Speaker 1: was nice back then. Most people forget he went to
Speaker 1: Georgia Tech. Yeah yeah, and and uh Drew Drew Barry
Speaker 1: Matt Harpring was a stud. Uh you know, and then
Speaker 1: the glory days of Big Bad Joe Hamilton's. That was
Speaker 1: my guy. Joe Hamilton's my favorite college no offense, my
Speaker 1: favorite college football player of all time. He wants you
Speaker 1: to be offended. So I grew up watching. Are you
Speaker 1: trying to say you only have one black fan or friend?
Speaker 1: H my, my, the guys who made me want to
Speaker 1: play quarterback where Joe Hamm, Charlie Ward, and Tommy Fraser.
Speaker 1: Those were my three dudes. Tommy Fraser to two amazing
Speaker 1: running quoteback options. I'm gonna get a flak for this one.
Speaker 1: You named all people that you are not well. You know,
Speaker 1: I wanted to be there. The boys was athletic. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at I saw a coach walking the building.
Speaker 1: I'm stereotyped. I passing, shall not hey, they told shall
Speaker 1: not be unrealistic? Keeper you do? You're a football coach?
Speaker 1: You you used the eye test. I wouldn't recruit myself.
Speaker 1: I know, that people ask me why. People people saying,
Speaker 1: why are you get into coaching? Because I wasn't good
Speaker 1: enough to keep playing. I mean that's the truth. Like
Speaker 1: I know, I wouldn't recruit myself right now. Uh but
Speaker 1: I mean I'm okay with that. I know who I am.
Speaker 1: I know my you know, I know my limit. Thought
Speaker 1: it was cool. It's like, but you can't want to
Speaker 1: be that person. I know, but I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: Those were that. Those were those dudes seventy eight years old.
Speaker 1: I didn't know I wasn't gonna be there. I thought
Speaker 1: I was okay, I don't but I mean, think about it.
Speaker 1: They will cut you off. That was my listening face.
Speaker 1: Joe Hamilton was say five ten alvin South Carolina quarterback
Speaker 1: that you know was not highly recruited. I love football,
Speaker 1: and when you name the people you're talking about, Charlie
Speaker 1: War was on the War I thought for me and
Speaker 1: some nick fans would agree, some probably wouldn't. It was
Speaker 1: remarkable his career in basketball that he had compared to
Speaker 1: I thought he was a dynamic football player as well.
Speaker 1: I thought for sure he was always and then he
Speaker 1: had all that's amazing the fact that that dude could
Speaker 1: leave the game of football and go have that not
Speaker 1: like he wasn't. And I'm saying a long career and
Speaker 1: like he just had a three year career he had
Speaker 1: He was like, so that's why. And then I grew up.
Speaker 1: Tommy Frazer, uh rest his soul and all the stuff
Speaker 1: that he had to deal with. The Lawrence Phillips that
Speaker 1: that whole Nebraska they were in that option. Like when
Speaker 1: you're saying these individuals, I'm like, wow, that's that I'm
Speaker 1: exaggerating now, have been like you saying, man, you know
Speaker 1: love Roger Craig, which I love. But there are some
Speaker 1: things where you generally, I believe, especially as young kids,
Speaker 1: little boys, you you gravitate or show favoritism to the
Speaker 1: people you believe athletically you can emulate or resemble. And
Speaker 1: that's that's why I kind of kind of joking. But
Speaker 1: there's you know, there are something like for me playing
Speaker 1: wide receiver, want to be a wide receiver. There are
Speaker 1: some wide receivers that I'm like, like, uh, was it
Speaker 1: read that played with Minnesota or um Herman Moore like
Speaker 1: some of those taller receivers. No, No, I mean I'm
Speaker 1: in a you know, the short man. Uh category. So
Speaker 1: I did welcome we meet on Tuesdays. I didn't really
Speaker 1: I want to emulate those guys because I you know,
Speaker 1: I had to feel and I wasn't gonna be six
Speaker 1: five right. So, and that's why the Joe Hamilton's story
Speaker 1: for me was like, so that's cool. It's small, dude,
Speaker 1: you know, for your starter, I mean, made Georgia tech cool,
Speaker 1: made Georgie tech super cool. Because right after they right
Speaker 1: after he left, they went back to reality. We have
Speaker 1: to take a break and morning anything. We gotta pay
Speaker 1: some bens. I love cut to It, and I love
Speaker 1: it even more when you download us and subscribe, and
Speaker 1: you can follow us on social media to Smithie where
Speaker 1: where at? That's at cut to It on Instagram? What
Speaker 1: about twitter at? Cut to It Facebook? Cut to It
Speaker 1: featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online? And you can
Speaker 1: follow us at cut podcast dot com where you can
Speaker 1: buy merch and you can subscribe to this wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions, Um yeah,
Speaker 1: I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for,
Speaker 1: a brother, cut to a podcast dot com. So young
Speaker 1: Will was watching Joe Hamilton's and Georgia Tech. How did
Speaker 1: your upbringing shape your view on how you see the
Speaker 1: world today? You know, I think that sports really helped
Speaker 1: me get get a much better view of what how
Speaker 1: I see the world today than probably anything I ever
Speaker 1: had from my my background. My mom's from America's Georgia. Uh,
Speaker 1: America's it's uh Sumter County, Georgia's South Georgia, like south
Speaker 1: South Georgia. That's like North Florida, like near Albany or
Speaker 1: you know what, America's Georgia. I was like America's Georgia. Ship.
Speaker 1: I'm not that guy. Uh help us, Joe, help us,
Speaker 1: help us. But I got panic. I was like, damn,
Speaker 1: no more Americus c us. That's why that's why I asked.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you clearing that all, because we right before
Speaker 1: we lost about a hundred and fifty followers just off that. No.
Speaker 1: It was like what no, uh and so I mean
Speaker 1: for me, it was like I got I Mean, the
Speaker 1: thing I love most about my profession right now is
Speaker 1: that it's not typically what a white guy from Utahwah,
Speaker 1: Tennessee with that lived on the lake and went to
Speaker 1: private school was not the the world that typically most
Speaker 1: of my friends are living in my brothers. You know, um,
Speaker 1: I think that it's you know, it's it just gives
Speaker 1: you an appreciation for people of all different backgrounds, of
Speaker 1: all different beliefs. Uh you. I mean I get asked
Speaker 1: the question all the time. If you weren't coaching football,
Speaker 1: what did you do? I mean, I be fine doing
Speaker 1: something else, Like I I love football, but football is
Speaker 1: not my life. I mean, if my deal is, there's
Speaker 1: nothing else I would choose to do because of the
Speaker 1: relationships I have with people who are we we we
Speaker 1: don't have if you found us, if you saw us
Speaker 1: both on the street there, you would no way in
Speaker 1: the world those two people are are best friends. And
Speaker 1: that's what sports special. I mean. The church doesn't even
Speaker 1: do that right now, right, I mean, the the church
Speaker 1: is the most segregated, one of the most segregated areas
Speaker 1: in the United States. You put a jersey on, right,
Speaker 1: and you've got differences, and we still have bickering and
Speaker 1: to our staff fights like like we're brothers. I get it.
Speaker 1: But if you gave me one person to go drink
Speaker 1: beer with and go hang out with, it would be
Speaker 1: the people on our staff and that's that's that's not normal. Brothers.
Speaker 1: My brother's perception and life experiences of change because of
Speaker 1: what I've gone through with sports, you know, like the
Speaker 1: teammates that I have, the my best friends, the coaches
Speaker 1: that I work with, their perception has changed in a
Speaker 1: very white world, you know, like they get to see
Speaker 1: a different side and have different experiences. And I think
Speaker 1: that's why judgment has made is based on your experiences.
Speaker 1: My experiences have been different because of sports. Can we
Speaker 1: go there then? Just love to you you given us
Speaker 1: this opportunity because there are times, uh, you know, we've
Speaker 1: had a number of guys on We had Michael uh
Speaker 1: Malcolm Jenkins, and he discussed what it was for him
Speaker 1: to be um go to all black school and then
Speaker 1: when he went to public school where he he saw
Speaker 1: and experienced things at the public school that he didn't
Speaker 1: really know any different until he was outside, when he
Speaker 1: got outside of his box, right and and a black box,
Speaker 1: right and and and so there are times where people
Speaker 1: say things of no matter who it is, where they go, Well,
Speaker 1: there's no such thing as systemic racism. You know, everybody's
Speaker 1: created equal, everybody's the same. But the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter isn't. I'm in an interracial relationship with my wife.
Speaker 1: Me and her been married twenty years, We have four kids.
Speaker 1: She was born and raised in Utah. Our relationship hasn't
Speaker 1: always been accepted in her family. But yet when we walk.
Speaker 1: We used to walk around in Utah in two thousand,
Speaker 1: two thousand one where it's like they look at me,
Speaker 1: they look at my wife, they look at my son,
Speaker 1: then they look back at me. And I used to
Speaker 1: always like, do we look alike? Right? And so um,
Speaker 1: but also left. Some of people in my family also
Speaker 1: told me, right, don't go to Utah, may and a
Speaker 1: white woman, right, and that that was tough. Right. But
Speaker 1: I grew up in l A, which is so much diversity,
Speaker 1: Yet at times our minds and our hearts are not
Speaker 1: as i diverse as we believe they are. You're limited
Speaker 1: to your own learned experience. That's what That's what I
Speaker 1: noticed what a lot of people, and I think Coach
Speaker 1: brought that up. I mean, so many people look at
Speaker 1: things in a vacuum there they You may be from
Speaker 1: one place, but sometimes you have that place mentality. And
Speaker 1: that's what I think both of y'all are talking about
Speaker 1: in your own different Walks. I think the cool part
Speaker 1: about it is you and your wife broke the chain.
Speaker 1: Like it takes somebody to break the cha It takes
Speaker 1: somebody to be like, you know what, I know what
Speaker 1: the perception is, but like I love this person and
Speaker 1: I don't really give a man what anybody doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: And and that's cool now, Like I'll never forget. I'm
Speaker 1: in sixth grade. My my mom, who's from sixth grade
Speaker 1: out like that was like four years ago, eight years ago,
Speaker 1: so young. The my my one of my really good
Speaker 1: friends from school, t J. Brooks, all right, comes over
Speaker 1: to my house, black guy. My my grandmother from Americus
Speaker 1: Georgia c u As Georgia is at my house. My
Speaker 1: mother's mom and Americas Georgia is not. There is no medium, right,
Speaker 1: I mean it is very secretary. Okay, so hold on,
Speaker 1: hold on me before you go into this story. Is
Speaker 1: Grandma still alive? I just don't want you to get
Speaker 1: back no, no, no, when you go back to America's George,
Speaker 1: I hadn't been back there, I promise, just because you
Speaker 1: can get them for Grandmama. And I told our team
Speaker 1: this story, you know, And so we walk into the
Speaker 1: house and my grandmother packed your stuff up and she leaves.
Speaker 1: And she told my mom, if this is what's gonna
Speaker 1: happen in your house, I'm not coming to your house. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what would I be, you know, eleven, twelve
Speaker 1: years old? So this is you know, right, let's school. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So for me, you know what, my mom in a
Speaker 1: situation where she didn't have to. We're talking family here,
Speaker 1: we're talking we're talking blood, right. It could be very
Speaker 1: easy for my mom to just say, well, just go
Speaker 1: play outside, like she said. You know what, this is
Speaker 1: a major impact in my son's life, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make sure he knows this is Okay, my mom broke
Speaker 1: the chain. Inn I remember that, right? I think about
Speaker 1: my five year old has now been to a march
Speaker 1: up to a protest, right, and he's on the shoulders
Speaker 1: of three of our black players that are they know
Speaker 1: he's tired of walk in right, it's written all over
Speaker 1: his face, right, and he's screaming and yelling things. He
Speaker 1: don't know what the hell they mean. Right, he's still
Speaker 1: yelling at through the street to sh Antilly, right, And
Speaker 1: this is what democracy looks like. And all these times
Speaker 1: he don't even know what democracy is right. But one
Speaker 1: day I when he really understands it, I'll be able
Speaker 1: to go back and say, you did this because you
Speaker 1: support some people who are were on Daddy's team, who
Speaker 1: aren't going through some of the same things you're doing.
Speaker 1: Don't they have different fears than you have, But you
Speaker 1: can still love each other. Right. And my my biggest
Speaker 1: thing that I always say to players, Look, I'm the goofy,
Speaker 1: dorky white dude from mood to Walll Tennessee. I don't
Speaker 1: claim to know and I don't claim to understand that.
Speaker 1: You know what the last six months did for me.
Speaker 1: It told me how ignorant I was on a lot
Speaker 1: of different situations. Inky Johnson Alright. One of the most
Speaker 1: powerful moments I've had in coaching, Inkie Johnson is on
Speaker 1: the Zoom call, which before we leave, I want you
Speaker 1: to talk to our guys on zoom. But Inky Johnson's
Speaker 1: on a zoom call, Okay, talking to our football team.
Speaker 1: Ikey came to Baltimore Morgan, uh Morgan, who is our punter,
Speaker 1: I mean our long snapper? Um play with Inky and
Speaker 1: so he got him to come. But he went in detail.
Speaker 1: He got to introduce Inky and talked about what it
Speaker 1: was like and what happened to Inky, and it was
Speaker 1: you know, it's one thing that Inky tells it. But
Speaker 1: when you hear some fellow brother from their perspective as
Speaker 1: how they lost me and what it was, what it
Speaker 1: was like, and what he did. Look, I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: getting getting goose bumps talking about it because it was
Speaker 1: such an impactful, uh conversation. Wow. So you're talking about positivity, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: I mean like oozing like I mean talking about bottled
Speaker 1: it up. Bottled it the reason he's still on back,
Speaker 1: no doubt. So Inky speaks, all right, And one of
Speaker 1: the things that are our defense coordinator Marcus West, who
Speaker 1: is a brother to me, literally, is says to Inky,
Speaker 1: do you think that the George Floyd death is as
Speaker 1: close as we've had to Emmitt till as anything that's
Speaker 1: happened in in the last decade or two. All Right,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there and my initial reaction is, I don't
Speaker 1: know who the hell right? Well, first of all, stop,
Speaker 1: I love your transparentshi right. I love the fact that
Speaker 1: you're not one. You're not trying to pump yourself up,
Speaker 1: you're not trying to water it down. You being honest
Speaker 1: and true, you know, because a lot of time, especially coaches,
Speaker 1: y'all could be full of ship sometimes, you know, And
Speaker 1: I love that You're actually like, I didn't know, right,
Speaker 1: So what do you all? Right? You're on a zoom
Speaker 1: meeting right with a hundred and sixty players, and as
Speaker 1: soon as they ask you, you gotta. Marcus and Inky
Speaker 1: are having this conversation. I'm just listening. I have to
Speaker 1: have two ways I go with this thing. You can lie,
Speaker 1: I can sit there and just didn't exist, Or I
Speaker 1: can say, educate me. You could be passive or you'd
Speaker 1: be act right, no doubt about it. And so I said,
Speaker 1: I said on the zoom call, I don't know who
Speaker 1: in it. Till is right, and one of our players,
Speaker 1: Tyler Ringwood, who I love and respect the hell it up,
Speaker 1: says coach. That's the problem, right, that is the problem.
Speaker 1: And I said, you're exactly right, and how did you
Speaker 1: take and instead of I love it, yeah, tell me
Speaker 1: how you feel? Right, You're right, that is the problem.
Speaker 1: And his point was not you were the problems. His
Speaker 1: point was that that's not taught in the history books
Speaker 1: of Board Buchanan School. So you have in that transparency
Speaker 1: moment with your team. Look, how did how did how
Speaker 1: did that shape the dynamic? How did that? I'm sure
Speaker 1: it galvanizing maybe made everything strong. I I think that
Speaker 1: the most important attribute of a lead or is authenticity,
Speaker 1: Like just be who you are. You know, if I'm
Speaker 1: in a if I'm in a room recruiting a uh,
Speaker 1: a guy from inner city Birmingham, and and you know
Speaker 1: I didn't grow up there, But doesn't mean that I
Speaker 1: can't love your son and want to help your son
Speaker 1: go to where he wants to go and help him,
Speaker 1: you know, reach his aspirations. So it's like, help me understand,
Speaker 1: help me learn. And so you know, we talked about it,
Speaker 1: and we talked about how it is an issue and
Speaker 1: and you know what it made me do. It made
Speaker 1: me go watch a bunch of stuff on him, Matt
Speaker 1: till you know, and then it made me come back
Speaker 1: to the players and be like, okay, I know more
Speaker 1: than you know now, Like here's here's here's what I learned.
Speaker 1: And it was, you know, same thing I did. Uh
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King Jr. Speech that I have a dream speech, right,
Speaker 1: I have heard I have a dream and everything that follows.
Speaker 1: But I've never watched the seventeen minutes, Okay, I had
Speaker 1: to learn that. I had to learn to memorize in
Speaker 1: school and like the third grade, it's it's it's not
Speaker 1: all the it's not all the coffee Mill quotes that
Speaker 1: we just not just that. I have a dreaming, and
Speaker 1: I asked more things to go to it. I asked
Speaker 1: our players, how many of you watched the whole thing? Right?
Speaker 1: And not many? So I show it during camp. We
Speaker 1: showed on a projector. We have to meet outside because
Speaker 1: you've got to be socially distanced, and you're meeting in
Speaker 1: chairs and a pavilion in the middle of campus, right,
Speaker 1: and we're showing this. I have a dream speech, Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King Jr. Says from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Right,
Speaker 1: That's where my family was born. That's where for the
Speaker 1: first five years before we moved to Ooda Wall we
Speaker 1: we lived. My grandparents, my dad, my brothers were raised
Speaker 1: there like and and so the question I asked after
Speaker 1: this the speech was what has changed and what hasn't changed?
Speaker 1: What are we still fighting today? Right? Police brutality obviously
Speaker 1: one of the things that was still right. There's still segregation.
Speaker 1: I mean, whether we want to act like I mean,
Speaker 1: there's there's still a there. There's there's still racism. I mean,
Speaker 1: and I always say to me, racism exists because of
Speaker 1: the extremes, Like everybody who just wants to perceive it
Speaker 1: this way and with their experiences. They watch the news
Speaker 1: and they see the you know, the KKK guy and
Speaker 1: then they see this guy doing this, black guy doing this,
Speaker 1: and they say, all white people are like this and
Speaker 1: all black people are like this. Right, So that's not
Speaker 1: again that's not my experience. But when they said, you know,
Speaker 1: I said, how is it? How is it improved? And
Speaker 1: I said, boys, I just want to tell you something
Speaker 1: like this dude is praying that people from Lookout Mountain
Speaker 1: of Tennessee. We'll get the point. I'm from Lookout Mountain
Speaker 1: of Tennessee, and I'm having this conversation with you all today,
Speaker 1: like trying to better understand how I can help you
Speaker 1: and how you can feel safe and how you know
Speaker 1: you're loved and how you can change the world like
Speaker 1: I you know, how it's changed the fact that I
Speaker 1: can have this conversation with you and the fact that
Speaker 1: you will listen, you know, like we're making progress in
Speaker 1: some area, we're not anywhere close to where we need
Speaker 1: to be. But like there's some real conversations that our
Speaker 1: football team has had through some of these experiences where
Speaker 1: in my opinion, I talked to Ron Sanchez, our basketball coach,
Speaker 1: about this. The greatest point he said, he said, will
Speaker 1: when it hurts you as bad as it hurts some
Speaker 1: of your black players, when it hurts your white players,
Speaker 1: and something as bad as bad as it hurts some
Speaker 1: of the uh, the white players as bad as some
Speaker 1: hurt some of the black players, then we're making progress.
Speaker 1: And when I don't allow a conversation that shouldn't be
Speaker 1: had because it's a white world and because it's a
Speaker 1: comfortable environment. When I say that doesn't work here, you're
Speaker 1: breaking a trend. You're stopping. Like that's how you make progress.
Speaker 1: And that's the coolest thing about football. You know me,
Speaker 1: I get to have a conversation, you know, real conversations
Speaker 1: and say educate me because I care, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: I want to understand your difference where you came from.
Speaker 1: So well, let's just kind of get into the recruiting.
Speaker 1: Because you have a guy that comes in you you're
Speaker 1: thirty four, thirty five years old. You look years old.
Speaker 1: You're not the same complexion as the people you're going into.
Speaker 1: The homes you're going into. How do you manage two
Speaker 1: connect with their parents? Like? How do you handle being
Speaker 1: literally you're on a putting a sports analogy four by four.
Speaker 1: You coming in at the last hundred meters, but this
Speaker 1: damn they're the important hunt of meters. You gotta bring
Speaker 1: it home. You gotta bring it home. How does that
Speaker 1: work with because you're the head coach and you're also
Speaker 1: coming in and when you know, you got a kid
Speaker 1: and a family who is extremely interested, but you gotta
Speaker 1: see a deal. Yeah, I mean to me, I think
Speaker 1: the biggest thing you gotta do this is different than
Speaker 1: everybody to talk to, is you got to talk to
Speaker 1: the parents from the get go. And so does not
Speaker 1: always happen. It really does not, especially depending on the school.
Speaker 1: They think. I'm I'm Florida State and I talk and
Speaker 1: maybe they can't. I don't know, but I never I've
Speaker 1: never been I've never been recruiting Floor State, So I
Speaker 1: don't know. And I was just gonna say, even think now,
Speaker 1: like these players got Instagrams, you got twitters, coaches hit
Speaker 1: him up on there, you know, I mean to me,
Speaker 1: it's like, what are you selling? What makes you different?
Speaker 1: And to me, if your people make you different, then
Speaker 1: your people need to talk to their people, right. So
Speaker 1: if I mean for me, our rule is when we
Speaker 1: offer a guy, we have to talk to the high
Speaker 1: school coach because the high school coach is being left
Speaker 1: out of this now, right because they got a handler
Speaker 1: or they're in an a AU team or whatever it is. Right,
Speaker 1: So sometimes the high school coaches, though you can't trust
Speaker 1: on these high school coaches. Some of these high school
Speaker 1: schoachers be on that BS. Sorry well, especially when you
Speaker 1: go back a year later and they're like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: probably could have told you he was gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: not paying out for you. And you're like, why didn't
Speaker 1: you tell me that a year ago? But so that's okay,
Speaker 1: Yeah that was a wound, like that was that was directed,
Speaker 1: that was somebody right now, you listen to that podcast,
Speaker 1: your head coach, if you're wondering if it's you, it's
Speaker 1: probably right. Uh. The My biggest deal is that, um,
Speaker 1: you know I think that you have especially now because
Speaker 1: you have to pick a guy who matches your culture's right,
Speaker 1: all right. So for me, I'm thirty five, I look
Speaker 1: twenty four. Right. If I walk into the question that
Speaker 1: I never get as can you relate? Always get you know, like,
Speaker 1: oh this guy, he's young, he can relate. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't. Nobody worries about that. They worry about can
Speaker 1: the eighty year old relate to the eighteen to twenty
Speaker 1: three year olds? My deal is they always look at
Speaker 1: me like, how is this child gonna help my son
Speaker 1: become a girl? Asked I would want him to. Somebody
Speaker 1: just told him that two weeks ago was a black mama.
Speaker 1: So I get it. I understand, be my dear to
Speaker 1: answer that question, there has to be some kind of
Speaker 1: disciplining moment that you that you have, like it may
Speaker 1: be an official visit and you may, you know, be
Speaker 1: slouched down in your seat and falling asleep or not
Speaker 1: paying be on your phone when there's an academic person
Speaker 1: across sitting across from you. So it's my first chance
Speaker 1: to rip your ass, like we don't do that around here. Man.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what you can find it. If this
Speaker 1: is where you're gonna be, we can go ahead and
Speaker 1: find you another place to go and if they respond
Speaker 1: to it, then I know that that they'll learn right,
Speaker 1: because sometimes their mom is sitting right next to them
Speaker 1: and they're doing it, and you're like, well, maybe they
Speaker 1: haven't learned this, right. It's not their fault that they
Speaker 1: don't know. I will teach somebody who doesn't know and
Speaker 1: will do it. What I will not teach is the
Speaker 1: accepted who knows it. And just how many athletic, very
Speaker 1: athletic players you take the mindset up I can teach
Speaker 1: them and then you discover they're unteachable. What do you
Speaker 1: do with that? Um? I've made that mistake plenty of times,
Speaker 1: you know, UM, and I always go back. Tony Bennett
Speaker 1: has a quote that you've got to take players you
Speaker 1: can lose with before you can win, and he's exactly right,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, it's it's it's so I remember,
Speaker 1: you're one at Austin Pe we go oh n eleven.
Speaker 1: Year two, we go eight and one versus FCS competition,
Speaker 1: have the best turnaround in college football. Year three, it's
Speaker 1: like we're going undefeated, right, and you take some questionable
Speaker 1: character guys and then you have five guys leave your
Speaker 1: staff right that it didn't invested and picked those people,
Speaker 1: and you felt I could handle those guys, and and
Speaker 1: they had bought into the position coach. And now you
Speaker 1: have some guys that I mean, you know what, I
Speaker 1: really don't believe in shaking a hand or looking somebody
Speaker 1: in the eye, or or you know, having having energy, passion,
Speaker 1: enthusiasm and positivity all day long, or you know, uh uh,
Speaker 1: you know the importance of making a good first impression
Speaker 1: or a community like whatever it may be, that's important.
Speaker 1: That are important in our place, you know, because everybody's
Speaker 1: got the right answer right in recruiting, we have a
Speaker 1: family environment, right, we'll help you reach your aspirations. Uh,
Speaker 1: we got what you need academically. You give him a
Speaker 1: great meal, right, roll out the red carpet, all that
Speaker 1: kind of As they signed, the question is like a
Speaker 1: Bain switch in the program. It's the program gone. The
Speaker 1: band's gone. What boys signed, it's a bugle, that's right,
Speaker 1: that's right. So I mean that that's it. Now what
Speaker 1: you talked about relationships with high school coaches. You go
Speaker 1: recruit one of these guys, you've sold him the world.
Speaker 1: What's his experience when he gets there, because it'll be
Speaker 1: the only kid you signed from that high school if
Speaker 1: what you're selling is different than what he experienced you.
Speaker 1: So my deal is whatever I'm gonna tell you is
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. So would you debunk the myth then
Speaker 1: that A lot of people think that when you're recruiting,
Speaker 1: you're setting that player on the program. But from your
Speaker 1: see your you have to sell on the culture. In
Speaker 1: building a culture, Listen, if I've worked at Harvard, I
Speaker 1: probably sell the school. I don't you know. And for me,
Speaker 1: eighty percent of my time as a college athlete was
Speaker 1: dictated by what my coach told me. I had to do, study, hall, travel.
Speaker 1: I mean, look, I'm gonna go to class, but I
Speaker 1: would do that if I was a regular student. I'm
Speaker 1: not going out in the fall, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: after a win on Saturday night. But you don't have time.
Speaker 1: You're not doing anything else. So supposed I get it.
Speaker 1: I didn't have enough friends, I guess, obviously. But my
Speaker 1: deal is, like it's the coach is going to dictate
Speaker 1: what type of experience you have in a place, and
Speaker 1: you're not so you're not picking it. I mean, you
Speaker 1: could say it sounds great. I want to pick place
Speaker 1: that I'd be happy if I wasn't playing football. Well,
Speaker 1: that's I mean, that's not like any coach who tells me,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not We're not. I'm not selling myself.
Speaker 1: I'm selling the school or anybody. Yeah, anybody who I
Speaker 1: recruit against who says you know that that we've we've
Speaker 1: got you know this or that. That doesn't have to
Speaker 1: do with the staff. No, you're picking Charlotte because our staff.
Speaker 1: Because our staff is gonna give you a great experience.
Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, here's what we're gonna sell
Speaker 1: to get you to Charlotte. A city, a campus, an opportunity,
Speaker 1: you know, a culture, these type of things. But you're
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to sell people. I mean it's
Speaker 1: me selling me. And then once I sell that, you'll
Speaker 1: believe in our vision. And which is important because you know,
Speaker 1: for for our listeners, you're the coach of the shold
Speaker 1: at forty niners. It is a program that's only been
Speaker 1: around since So it's not like you have this long
Speaker 1: standing history of which you can you don't have a
Speaker 1: don't have a ballgame apparents until you lead your team
Speaker 1: that in nineteen so it talk. Would would you walk
Speaker 1: us through what that looks like from having a very
Speaker 1: infant program and and and selling players on that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is impress I mean you're thinking about you built
Speaker 1: a stadium for an FCS program, right, I mean you
Speaker 1: you you built a facility for me down a parking structure. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I used to parking there too, really, I used to.
Speaker 1: I used to have football camps there back in the day,
Speaker 1: and and um what else you know, just soccer turn
Speaker 1: was all the kids activity. So you know, I've seen
Speaker 1: that campus grow over here. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: lum not, there was nothing there. I was there when
Speaker 1: there was no football. There was nothing there with the stadium.
Speaker 1: I think that, um, you know, for me, it's um.
Speaker 1: The program asks you're you're you're not taking a guy
Speaker 1: who wants to hop on a bandwagon, right, You're not.
Speaker 1: You're not taking a guy who wants to be the
Speaker 1: next Amanti Edwards at app or who wants to be
Speaker 1: the next Joe Hamilton's at Georgia Accord. Like, you're taking
Speaker 1: a guy that literally is confident enough in themselves and
Speaker 1: has a little bit different swag about them where they
Speaker 1: want to go be like the first to do it.
Speaker 1: They want to be the trailblazer. You know they want
Speaker 1: to go have their have their picture all over the building. Um,
Speaker 1: it's probably yeah, I mean, and and there's it's a
Speaker 1: different it's a different kind of uh task, and it's
Speaker 1: a different kind of challenge. But there's a lot of
Speaker 1: fun in being the group that that builds it. And
Speaker 1: then there's a whole another task and to sustain. So
Speaker 1: you you you've used the word culture, Yeah, what what
Speaker 1: is it? The most overused word in coaching is the
Speaker 1: most bullshit? Is that? I just like the way that
Speaker 1: you said it, though well we we sometimes, but because
Speaker 1: I think coaches sometimes, like I struggle with just where
Speaker 1: there's a in sports, there is this expectations from players
Speaker 1: and then there's this unaccountable expectation from coaches that I've
Speaker 1: seen or heard or witnessed. Coaches do things that if
Speaker 1: a player did it, he wouldn't be at the college
Speaker 1: or he wouldn't be allowed to play, And I just
Speaker 1: I find it it's, Uh, you know, my kids have
Speaker 1: done a really good job. Sometimes I'm saying, you know, Dad,
Speaker 1: that sometimes you come across do you know, say as
Speaker 1: I do, don't do as I say? And that's really
Speaker 1: stung me. At times, and so I just think at times,
Speaker 1: I I just see what coaches sometimes they it's the
Speaker 1: same thing. Man, it's almost uh like coaches. Coaches get
Speaker 1: paid really well and sometimes they're not very good, and
Speaker 1: they get a lot of credit and they receive a
Speaker 1: lot of out of boys, especially in college football. And yes,
Speaker 1: student athletes are given the opportunity two learned school and
Speaker 1: get education, get a degree. Right, but let's be honest.
Speaker 1: These coaches come and interview the players, and then now
Speaker 1: the coach becomes instead of the interview were they they
Speaker 1: start to become the interview where the the parents are
Speaker 1: interviewing them and all that stuff where the roles reverse.
Speaker 1: But there's some degree where coaches who are grown men
Speaker 1: sometimes aren't held to the same standard and in which
Speaker 1: they are judge and jury on some of these young
Speaker 1: men and women who are just figuring out life. Yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that's that's really good. All right. So he go, here's one,
Speaker 1: uh you there's a there's a consequence from missing class.
Speaker 1: I miss class, right, I think that the deal is. Look,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that I never I missed class. I did, right,
Speaker 1: But here's what I am trying to tell. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to help you learn through my life experiences, and I'm
Speaker 1: trying to create a culture that says I firmly believe,
Speaker 1: I believe, and maybe I'm crazy for believing this. I
Speaker 1: firmly believe that everything that has to do with our
Speaker 1: culture will help them outside of the game of football.
Speaker 1: I really do believe that. So do I think it
Speaker 1: can help you in the meantime. Hell you do. I
Speaker 1: think that this can help provide opportunities for you when
Speaker 1: you leave. Hell you, But I really believe that learning
Speaker 1: how to introduce yourself to somebody, learning how to shake
Speaker 1: a hand, learning how to make a great first impression.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. In class, sit in the front
Speaker 1: two rows, don't have your cell phone out right, make
Speaker 1: sure that you go every other week and go create
Speaker 1: a relationship with that professor outside just a classroom. That's like,
Speaker 1: that's a tool that will help you when you get
Speaker 1: into the real world, you know. Um, so I think
Speaker 1: that the authenticity side of Look, man, I'm I'm telling
Speaker 1: you I screwed this up to right. I was the
Speaker 1: selfish player, you know, that was all about me and
Speaker 1: all about my playing time, and until it hit rock bottom,
Speaker 1: and I didn't get to play. Did I figure out?
Speaker 1: You are the most selfish human being on this entire
Speaker 1: football team and you claim to be like some great
Speaker 1: leader and have it figured out, but like, really you
Speaker 1: are about you. And until that happened, If that wouldn't
Speaker 1: have happened, I don't know that I would ever be
Speaker 1: in a position to be able to do what I'm
Speaker 1: doing right now and be real about it. So you
Speaker 1: know I skipped class too. Yeah, and I had Fred Graves,
Speaker 1: who's kind of like a father of my Um. Five
Speaker 1: am runs in Utah damn mouth too. Wote me out?
Speaker 1: You changed after that, didn't you? Hell? Yeah, I may
Speaker 1: have been sleeping there, but I was in class. I was.
Speaker 1: I was nodding, but I didn't want to get up
Speaker 1: at five am and go run. And Fran was so dirty.
Speaker 1: He did me so dirty. He drove behind me at
Speaker 1: five am. That's like some He honked a horn. He
Speaker 1: honked the horn. Is there something it worked for you?
Speaker 1: Here's why I worked for me, because I'm m I'll
Speaker 1: use this. You can use it. You can steal it.
Speaker 1: I will give you my signature. You can. Um. You
Speaker 1: don't have to have talent to be a grinder, and
Speaker 1: so I was a grinder, but I had talent. But
Speaker 1: I'm also a professional sleeper. And brother loved his sleep,
Speaker 1: and I would have to get up at five, and
Speaker 1: not getting up at five isn't that bad, but when
Speaker 1: you got to be alert, stretched, warm and running and
Speaker 1: dumbass didn't like ditch class at September? What school did
Speaker 1: I go to? Coach fim Bold? It wasn't cool and
Speaker 1: it was five am, and U tak thirty thirty five
Speaker 1: degrees And we weren't even with like the schools now
Speaker 1: with Nike like we had to. They were Nike, but
Speaker 1: they were really champs, so they weren't. They weren't like
Speaker 1: and not when champion was about. There was an old
Speaker 1: champion before Nike, Bamber. They ain't the champ that you
Speaker 1: buying the store and they're happening. They was thin. Man
Speaker 1: Fred was a beast, and I just remember and I
Speaker 1: was like, and he goes. He says, I don't want
Speaker 1: to get you up every morning because you don't want
Speaker 1: to go to class. But I will, I will. But
Speaker 1: this is what he said that I stayed in my mind.
Speaker 1: He said, um, but if you continue this at some point,
Speaker 1: I'll quit getting up with you, and then there are
Speaker 1: other things that will stop getting We'll stop getting up,
Speaker 1: like you'll stop getting past us, you'll stop getting plays.
Speaker 1: Then eventually you'll stop coming to practice. Right and now
Speaker 1: that fear in me that I would have to go
Speaker 1: back home, you have you lose it. I have to
Speaker 1: go back home and tell them why. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to face my folks and tell them that I basically
Speaker 1: screwed up. I did what I was just statistic, did
Speaker 1: exist what they quote unquote expect you to do when
Speaker 1: I left college. When I before I left college, I
Speaker 1: got an argument with someone I will not name and said,
Speaker 1: when your dumbass fell out of school, don't come back here.
Speaker 1: That's what they told you. That's what they told me.
Speaker 1: It stung me until it till it's Tiller's day. Pretty
Speaker 1: much after this, I'm probably gonna go work out. Just
Speaker 1: offer not a work out like a gold liftway, but
Speaker 1: just give me a little a little running just because
Speaker 1: it still lives in me today because it hurt right
Speaker 1: and and and a lot of these kids that you're
Speaker 1: going to and you've seen it. The scholarship or the
Speaker 1: opportunity that you're presenting to these kids in Birmingham, Alabama,
Speaker 1: in someth South Carolina, Myrtle Beach. I don't care, Charlotte,
Speaker 1: I don't care where you are. Some of these kids,
Speaker 1: this is the only opportunity they have to go to college.
Speaker 1: And if they don't get this, they have no alternative.
Speaker 1: Their alternative, their alternative is only wage worker or right
Speaker 1: now with COVID, they're essential worker, meaning our our world
Speaker 1: needs to evolve in our world only goes by these
Speaker 1: people backing cards or whatever the case may be. And
Speaker 1: I'm not knocking those knocking those people are looking down,
Speaker 1: but I do look down upon this issue that at
Speaker 1: the only way they can go to college because of
Speaker 1: the lack of resources is this is if a young
Speaker 1: man or old man that that is at a college
Speaker 1: institution gives them an opportunity that they never can have,
Speaker 1: no matter how good their grays are, just because the
Speaker 1: the the economy or wage gap is so so much
Speaker 1: there that they don't have enough. They barely could keep
Speaker 1: the lights on. College that doesn't exist. And I think
Speaker 1: the hardest part is a coach is knowing that, and
Speaker 1: then you have a guy who's literally just not willing
Speaker 1: to do what you want to do what you want
Speaker 1: him to do, and he becomes an issue like it
Speaker 1: what's best for him is not necessarily what's best for
Speaker 1: the football team. But you know that if you do
Speaker 1: let this guy go because it is the best thing
Speaker 1: for the football team because they are not anything about
Speaker 1: your culture that you want them to be. They're not
Speaker 1: doing what you ask them to do, then that's where
Speaker 1: they are going to go back to. And that's sometimes
Speaker 1: why I hold on too long, and it bites me
Speaker 1: because it tears a locker room apart. You know, that's
Speaker 1: the tough part I used to get, like as a kid, right,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody at Tennessee would fail a drug test
Speaker 1: and you're like, Tennessee just wants to win games. You're
Speaker 1: getting the coaching, and you're like, I didn't what it's about, man, Like,
Speaker 1: you're legitimately trying to make an impact in somebody's life
Speaker 1: that may not be able to do it without the
Speaker 1: people that are in it, without that structure, And if
Speaker 1: you let them go, then who knows what happens to
Speaker 1: you know, and sometimes it costs you, But I don't
Speaker 1: think it can make you scared to go to go
Speaker 1: try it again. I'm not trying to make fun of you.
Speaker 1: But you're going to a grandparents house, especially a black
Speaker 1: grandparents house, and we just used to insurance man something
Speaker 1: you're like, your face is the face that we used
Speaker 1: to play the game with. It's like like I meant,
Speaker 1: you know, we are brothers. But I would tell him, hey, gee,
Speaker 1: door for you, some white man like door for you,
Speaker 1: Like oh man, they got me again, like back today
Speaker 1: jooan witness, right, And so you're like, hey, that is
Speaker 1: what I had a dog man he got me. So
Speaker 1: you know, like how are you you know, how do
Speaker 1: you handle yourself? Because that is I'm I'm joking, but
Speaker 1: I'm messing it's a real deal. Because there's somebody listening
Speaker 1: to go on, man Stevens racist or why they having
Speaker 1: these these jokes Like this is some of the stuff
Speaker 1: that comes in that there's a thirty five year old
Speaker 1: Caucasian man in the hood driving a rental car so
Speaker 1: it looked like a narc and he pulling up in
Speaker 1: this all predominantly black or low income household. You come
Speaker 1: in dressed in all green now right representing the colors
Speaker 1: you come in, You're gonna get looks, You're gonna get
Speaker 1: some people sideways like, who's that? So how do you
Speaker 1: gain trust? Well, I think I think all of it
Speaker 1: goes back to look. I mean, I know what I
Speaker 1: look like. I know that I'm in a situation where
Speaker 1: it's per time. I mean, it's not an area where
Speaker 1: I know I look like the insurance guy going to
Speaker 1: going into the neighborhood. Are you looking or if it's
Speaker 1: really lately, look like you're buying dope? Straight up? I mean,
Speaker 1: I maybe I'm just saying okay, I mean, I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to make but no, I mean, I'm just throwing
Speaker 1: it all out there because there are people who literally
Speaker 1: that are that will be listening to this coach that
Speaker 1: they live in their homes and they live in the
Speaker 1: places they live, and they go, man, these dudes are exaggerating.
Speaker 1: And then there's gonna be I was gonna say, the
Speaker 1: flip side of that isn't gonna be people who listen
Speaker 1: to this and be like I remember that, or that's
Speaker 1: that's that's my shared experiences And I've thirteen years have
Speaker 1: been going through some experience and I promise you my
Speaker 1: own brothers have not been that. And that doesn't make
Speaker 1: me tougher, but my deal is more aware. I understand
Speaker 1: the perception, right it's a white head coach that's going
Speaker 1: in and he's gonna sign my son who's a black player.
Speaker 1: He's gonna make the money, he can leave where he
Speaker 1: wants to leave. It's just about the game of football
Speaker 1: a lot of times. I also understand. I'm glad you
Speaker 1: said it what I mean saying. I also understand the
Speaker 1: experiences right of he You may have had a white
Speaker 1: coach at some point in time in your life, you
Speaker 1: got hurt, or you didn't get playing time, and he
Speaker 1: only cared about you if you were the best player
Speaker 1: or whatever. I mean. I understand all of those things right,
Speaker 1: And it's really really hard to gain trust in somebody
Speaker 1: who's had that experience. With one visit. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to write, but my deal is, here's who I am.
Speaker 1: I promise you that when you see me in three
Speaker 1: months with my shirt off in club lit and acting
Speaker 1: like a complete moron, I'm gonna be the same exact
Speaker 1: person I am here today. And I tell you what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do. I'm gonna trust you, right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: trust that what your son is telling me, what you
Speaker 1: are telling me, I'm gonna trust the fact that we
Speaker 1: can at least be on the same page about this.
Speaker 1: I legitimately want your son to reach his aspirations in
Speaker 1: our place. Now, let's talk about what they are. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about what's important to you. Let's talk about what
Speaker 1: your aspirations are for him. Let's let me tell you.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you my faults. Like we're looking for, Uh,
Speaker 1: we're looking for some unbelievable facilities. Well, let me just
Speaker 1: go ahead and tell you before you come on our campus.
Speaker 1: We we are under construction, right we we do not
Speaker 1: have the stadium that I would like to have at
Speaker 1: some point in time. Right, I don't want to go
Speaker 1: to play it. App, I don't want to go play
Speaker 1: at East Carolina. I don't want to go play it
Speaker 1: wherever it is in the A C. C. Or And
Speaker 1: and say, you know what, we're in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Speaker 1: We should have a facility that looks like that. We
Speaker 1: don't have that yet. You know why, because we don't.
Speaker 1: We haven't built that yet. We don't we haven't won
Speaker 1: enough games to have that yet. Now we're going to
Speaker 1: but so what do we not have? Let me be
Speaker 1: honest with you, Uh, mental health right now, right, huge, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: We are still developing resources to help these guys to
Speaker 1: be able to get through the crap that's going on
Speaker 1: in their life right now. You add COVID to it,
Speaker 1: and you add you know, racial tension, everything everything is
Speaker 1: like we need help for these guys. Like it's mental
Speaker 1: as much as it is physical, you know, So where
Speaker 1: are we struggling? And let me just be honest with
Speaker 1: you and um, but I think the authenticity in that
Speaker 1: moment is more important than it is any other time.
Speaker 1: It's like here, I am, I listen. This ain't necessarily
Speaker 1: the most uncomfortable, comfortable environment I've ever been in, right,
Speaker 1: but I'm here because I legitimately feel like that this
Speaker 1: is the right place for your son, grandson, whoever it
Speaker 1: may be. And I feel like you and I are
Speaker 1: gonna laugh about this in three weeks because you're gonna
Speaker 1: be like everybody tells me that story. You're the dorky
Speaker 1: white dude that walks in and looks like he was
Speaker 1: about to sell me something, And three weeks later we're
Speaker 1: laughing about Man, my son is having an unbelievable friends here.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that they chose here. You know, and
Speaker 1: those are fun conversations conversation, but pointing out the obvious
Speaker 1: whenever you walk in, I'm thirty five years old, I'm
Speaker 1: a I'm a white dude, I'm you know what, I
Speaker 1: don't look like an athlete. I mean, I get all
Speaker 1: of it, right, but I just I say it that
Speaker 1: way just because they're sometimes you know, you're in the
Speaker 1: business of you're in the business of taking people's uh,
Speaker 1: their most precious item for you know, some for some
Speaker 1: of these for some of these families, that's their shot,
Speaker 1: you know. For some of these families, that is they've
Speaker 1: soaked they have sunk their last penny and nickel into
Speaker 1: that individuals, whether it's I mean I remember, for me
Speaker 1: going to Utah, my family had to scrounge up money
Speaker 1: for one way ticket. You gotta remember night two thousand.
Speaker 1: A one way ticket wasn't a lot of money. It
Speaker 1: was a lot of money though right where It's like
Speaker 1: three or four people had to do it, and then
Speaker 1: we had to find someone that had a credit card
Speaker 1: to be able to book it all right. And and
Speaker 1: so that's what I'm saying all of all of this
Speaker 1: because they're so want to listen to this that their
Speaker 1: son and daughter. You know, always you always hear them
Speaker 1: that that they want to go to a college. Well,
Speaker 1: they don't always know what it looks like. You know
Speaker 1: what it feels like, right and so or the process
Speaker 1: and just you hear you watch the all these shows
Speaker 1: and you see the glamorous part about recruiting. You see
Speaker 1: the big time schools, but there's a lot more other
Speaker 1: schools that if you if some of these kids got offered,
Speaker 1: it would be just like Florida State, it would be
Speaker 1: just like yes, but I mean, you should be able
Speaker 1: to do that at any level. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: stuff we should be I mean you, but like I mean,
Speaker 1: people said you couldn't do that also and p right,
Speaker 1: and then people say you can't do it in the
Speaker 1: group of five in the in the conference. US say
Speaker 1: you can do whatever the heck your priority is. And
Speaker 1: if it doesn't work out, you gotta be okay with saying,
Speaker 1: you know what, it was a bad fit. Like, but
Speaker 1: I believe here's the one thing I know it if
Speaker 1: and when I get fired one day, right, it's probably
Speaker 1: when if you're coaching long enough, you're gonna get fired.
Speaker 1: At when when I get fired one day, I will
Speaker 1: legitimately believe that I didn't do something just to keep
Speaker 1: a job. I didn't do something just because I thought
Speaker 1: if somebody else did it, Oh that's gotta work. Look,
Speaker 1: this is what I believe in. These are the relationships
Speaker 1: I believe in. If it doesn't work out, then it's
Speaker 1: not meant to be and I'll find something else to do.
Speaker 1: I still got a family, I get a chance to
Speaker 1: go home too, I'll be just fine. I think it's
Speaker 1: about that time. Just take a little breather, good good,
Speaker 1: getting down to dood. Hey Gerard, why did you get
Speaker 1: that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes, I
Speaker 1: got it from cut to a podcast that on where
Speaker 1: we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at
Speaker 1: seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on,
Speaker 1: buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. You talked about the good conversations you
Speaker 1: have during recruiting when you're leaving in school. How do
Speaker 1: you have those tough conversations you mentioned Austin Austin p
Speaker 1: when you left after three years for the Charlotte Ford
Speaker 1: and Honors job. After going through recruitment, how do you
Speaker 1: have those hard conversations. When you depart, you had the
Speaker 1: the recruiting class was ranked number one, great class, great class,
Speaker 1: and then you go, how did how did that go?
Speaker 1: Charlotte job comes open, interview or I'm supposed to interview
Speaker 1: for it. They find somebody else that they want to hire.
Speaker 1: He ends up taking another job. They come back, are
Speaker 1: you interested in the job? Yes? Right, I'm being sloppy seconds. Uh.
Speaker 1: So we we go to Um, I'm not sure I'm
Speaker 1: getting the job or not. I go to New York
Speaker 1: with my with my boss that I was just telling
Speaker 1: you about this at Austin to go raise money. UM.
Speaker 1: I get a phone call saying, hey, we know we're
Speaker 1: figuring out some stuff, but you'll know tuesday afternoon whether
Speaker 1: you got the job or not. Okay, So I fly
Speaker 1: back Tuesday morning from New York. I'm driving into our
Speaker 1: facility at Austin, p having called a four o'clock team
Speaker 1: meeting with it already having been leaked on social media
Speaker 1: that I was taking the head job at Charlotte that morning. Right,
Speaker 1: I have not been offered the job. You now in
Speaker 1: the parking lot, it's three fifty five. My team meetings
Speaker 1: at four o'clock and I've still not heard whether I
Speaker 1: got the job or not. All right, watching all of
Speaker 1: these guys walk into I'm facing this way my rear
Speaker 1: view mirror. I'm watching all the guys park and walk
Speaker 1: into the team meeting, saying, what if I don't know
Speaker 1: something in the next five minutes? Right, And I know
Speaker 1: they're already heated because they read on social media phone
Speaker 1: call Mike kill our chancellor, you got the job, right,
Speaker 1: so in five minutes, so you got you got I
Speaker 1: got the job in five minutes within that window, I
Speaker 1: got the job. I'm so excited. I called my wife
Speaker 1: and I gotta walk back in and tell a group
Speaker 1: I'm leaving you. Who is the only reason why I
Speaker 1: got an opportunity? Right? And that's what I told him.
Speaker 1: There's nothing I can say to you right now that
Speaker 1: is gonna make this any better in the in The
Speaker 1: crappiest part about all of this is I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: walk out of this room and never address this group
Speaker 1: again because somebody else is gonna come take this group
Speaker 1: and like they're gonna be ticked off at me if
Speaker 1: I go talk to their players, because they're gonna think
Speaker 1: I'm trying to recruit them all to Charlotte or something. Right.
Speaker 1: So a group that you the number one recruiting class
Speaker 1: in the country, that committed to you after going on eleven.
Speaker 1: Another group that's been there for a long time and
Speaker 1: gone through one and forty seven and goes and wins
Speaker 1: eight games. A group that's one thirteen games in two years,
Speaker 1: which was the most in school history, you know, most
Speaker 1: conference wins in school history. All that type of stuff.
Speaker 1: When you go from so so bad that everybody laughs
Speaker 1: at you to like top twenty five the country, there's
Speaker 1: a bond in that growth that you can't replace. I
Speaker 1: couldn't replace it with assistance that I tried to hire
Speaker 1: to go replace it, like, because you've been through so much,
Speaker 1: you can't replace that relationship. So you better have somebody
Speaker 1: who's confident with just being themselves and can earn that
Speaker 1: over time, is gonna bring something to the table that
Speaker 1: they'll earn that, you know, respect over time. So I
Speaker 1: walked in and I just told him, look, I got
Speaker 1: this opportunity because of all of you. It's the best
Speaker 1: opportunity for me and my family. Um, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take the job. And with some of the players they
Speaker 1: didn't want to talk to me, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: I just hired two of them back to come work
Speaker 1: in our weight room this year, and it took them
Speaker 1: about a year to want to talk to me. You know,
Speaker 1: Um I left him. I recruited him there. Uh um,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, how do how does that sit
Speaker 1: with you? You recruited him, You talked to their family,
Speaker 1: like you said, the culture, the player, the you know,
Speaker 1: they must have this, this, this, you know you named
Speaker 1: off these things and now you're taking those things that
Speaker 1: you've built into these young men, and now you're taking
Speaker 1: that philosophy, that culture somewhere else. Now, Now, what how
Speaker 1: does that? How does that work? And I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to put you on the spot. I'm just asking because
Speaker 1: you you keep using the word culture, which I love
Speaker 1: and I hate. But to some degree, that's who that
Speaker 1: That's how you're built, That's that's what you are. You
Speaker 1: know what helped me sleep at night is when when
Speaker 1: we left Austin p I felt like that those guys
Speaker 1: knew better and that we had created something that could
Speaker 1: sustain and we left it a lot better than we
Speaker 1: found it. And I could sleep at night because I
Speaker 1: felt like there's another group that could benefit from this,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, and didn't make it any easier. You know.
Speaker 1: I tell you what was hard is to love the
Speaker 1: guy is that I inherited at Charlotte as much as
Speaker 1: I love the ones I left at Austin P. I
Speaker 1: didn't pick those guys at Charlotte, the eighty guys that
Speaker 1: were on the roster. I mean I didn't recruit them.
Speaker 1: I picked to come take their job, but I hadn't
Speaker 1: invested as much into them as I had those guys
Speaker 1: that I had recruited. Those those players picked Charlotte not
Speaker 1: because of me. They picked because of another coach, right
Speaker 1: who ain't there? That's right, he's gone. Um. And I
Speaker 1: think that my my job is to make sure that
Speaker 1: I hire an offensive coordinate because I always feel like
Speaker 1: when you inherit a program, the question is what can
Speaker 1: I do to make sure that the seniors who really
Speaker 1: buy into this thing and and are the glue to
Speaker 1: this have an opportunity to be successful right away? It's
Speaker 1: not important, but but I just think if they're gonna
Speaker 1: come back and they're gonna put the work in, you
Speaker 1: like you can't wait to win. I think that uh,
Speaker 1: from a recruiting perspective as you're building at long term,
Speaker 1: you say, I'm gonna go recruit a quarterback who can
Speaker 1: do this right, I'm gonna go, and that you may
Speaker 1: already have one. You may inherit it back. That's better
Speaker 1: than what you may have recruited yourself, you know. I
Speaker 1: mean we we inherited a third round draft pick at
Speaker 1: defensive end. I mean, I'd love to say I'm a
Speaker 1: damn good recruiter, but I don't know how many more
Speaker 1: third round draft picks I'm recruited defensive end. How did
Speaker 1: you process that night when you had to break that
Speaker 1: news to your team? You get this job, but you
Speaker 1: had to break that news to your team. How did
Speaker 1: you process that night? And what do you do for
Speaker 1: self care as a coach? It's a lot of um.
Speaker 1: I mean I confide in my wife a lot with
Speaker 1: those things, you know, and just I mean she lives
Speaker 1: it the same way I do, just like she does
Speaker 1: with a win or a loss, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: I learned a long time ago whenever I came out
Speaker 1: of the locker room as an assistant coach after a
Speaker 1: loss and pouted and acted like a little punk, and
Speaker 1: and and and wanted to make everybody else's life miserable
Speaker 1: because I lost a football game. And my wife and
Speaker 1: her parents are kind of they feel like they gotta
Speaker 1: act like they're miserable just because we lost a football game.
Speaker 1: That it's like, all right, I have the ability to
Speaker 1: be able to totally dictate what the experiences of everybody
Speaker 1: based on how I was, you know. And so she
Speaker 1: lives it. I mean she she breathes it. So whenever
Speaker 1: I get home after a loss, you know, she's she's
Speaker 1: there to comfort and my deal like, thank you, I
Speaker 1: love you. I'll be okay, it's a football game. We're
Speaker 1: gonna we're gonna be all right, and um, you know.
Speaker 1: But but times like that, like that feels bigger than
Speaker 1: a football game, you know. That's like you feel like
Speaker 1: you just disappointed parents, players, You feel like you're a liar.
Speaker 1: You feel like you've let everybody down, you know, and
Speaker 1: and and then you just say, but I I think
Speaker 1: this is the right thing for our family. And I
Speaker 1: think that the players that we are, we're gonna love
Speaker 1: these players as much as we just love the last
Speaker 1: ones because we're gonna be able to make an impact
Speaker 1: on their life too. And and just talking to her
Speaker 1: and saying and you know she sees it, she knows it,
Speaker 1: and she's like, um, you felt the same way when
Speaker 1: you left Chattanooga when you left that position group or
Speaker 1: you know, I mean just little things like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she she's she's really good. Her name is Emily. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying you you you're talking about her in such
Speaker 1: a way. You know, don't lose no points. You got
Speaker 1: a name or player. She's a real deal. Well, our
Speaker 1: last section coaches the deep three, and they're basically three
Speaker 1: questions where we go beyond you being a coach on
Speaker 1: the sidelines. We want to get to know you. So
Speaker 1: s media give you the first question of our deep three. Ready, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's about you. So if you fail, that's on you.
Speaker 1: It's not a past failing test. Um. I've read or
Speaker 1: heard you use the word culture a few times. Why
Speaker 1: is culture important in football? And more importantly, why is
Speaker 1: it as is important or more important in life? You know,
Speaker 1: I think that, Um, you hope that they that they correlate.
Speaker 1: You know, you hope that what you're you're teaching them
Speaker 1: in the short term to help them become better football
Speaker 1: players are also things that they they will translate to
Speaker 1: their career, to being a husband or to being a father. Um.
Speaker 1: I think my biggest thing is listen, how how it
Speaker 1: feels to be in our building every day, and what
Speaker 1: type of student athlete experience or what type of assistance
Speaker 1: or what type of assistant coach experience these people have
Speaker 1: is what I take personally. Like I really believe that
Speaker 1: if people come to our place because of our people,
Speaker 1: you can have the best student athlete experience you can
Speaker 1: ask for. I believe if you're a coach on our staff,
Speaker 1: we may argue, we may disagree, we make work, we
Speaker 1: may work long hours, but as far as an assistant
Speaker 1: coaches is concerned, nobody can give you a better experience
Speaker 1: than I can do. I fail at it, heck yeah,
Speaker 1: But I think every everybody has to be bought into
Speaker 1: that same thing where it's bigger than you. It's about
Speaker 1: an experienced it's a servant like mentality. Everybody's got to
Speaker 1: have it. Right to me, the coaches need to have
Speaker 1: it for the players, and in return, the players need
Speaker 1: to have so much respect and be so grateful for
Speaker 1: the opportunities that they have that they that you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's reciprocal the trainers need to have it, the
Speaker 1: coaches need to have it, for the people who clean
Speaker 1: the building. Like, if everybody has that type of mentality,
Speaker 1: then I think you can do really special things. But
Speaker 1: I think all of that is in your culture, and that,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, what I want to be a part
Speaker 1: of our culture are things that are about life. And
Speaker 1: this is all just a little minor league test for
Speaker 1: what it's gonna feel like when you gotta make a
Speaker 1: paycheck to feed your family or your son peas on
Speaker 1: you in the middle of the night at two am
Speaker 1: and you don't feel like getting getting up or whatever.
Speaker 1: Like it's just what habits are you creating now that
Speaker 1: are gonna help you be a dad or a husband.
Speaker 1: You're pretty good, right, I'm telling you, what would you
Speaker 1: like your legacy as a coach to be. It's deep
Speaker 1: three now, not the shallow to Nobody cared about me
Speaker 1: more than that guy. He would give you the shirt
Speaker 1: off his back. Um it was as as crazy as
Speaker 1: he was is as much as I thought things were
Speaker 1: out of the ordinary, I really honestly believe he cared
Speaker 1: about me as a person more than he cared about
Speaker 1: me as a player. So nothing to Newaball. I'm not
Speaker 1: a great football coach, you know. I mean I'm not not.
Speaker 1: I mean like X is and o's of football, right.
Speaker 1: I mean that's not why I got the job. I
Speaker 1: didn't get it because I was gonna outscheme anybody or
Speaker 1: because like I feel like, I got it because I
Speaker 1: could hire the right type of people who could do
Speaker 1: that and then we could go raise awareness about our
Speaker 1: program and create an environment and a culture that people
Speaker 1: enjoyed being in. The co worker of mine always said,
Speaker 1: it's not about the x's and owls, It's about the jimmies,
Speaker 1: and no question about it, Mike raw there is zero
Speaker 1: question great players win games. I mean, you know, and
Speaker 1: I know culture and scheme and all that have a
Speaker 1: lot to do with it. But I mean, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, we are going Monday through Friday
Speaker 1: as part of our process to prepare them and then
Speaker 1: they have a decision to make on Saturday what they
Speaker 1: do with it. And we're not playing. I mean, we
Speaker 1: got to put him in the best possible opportunity to
Speaker 1: have success, and that's what's our job as a coach.
Speaker 1: How about this. The definition of a coach, okay is
Speaker 1: a covered wagon that carries someone or something from where
Speaker 1: they are to where they want to go. Right Like,
Speaker 1: that's it. And if you think it's more than that,
Speaker 1: then you're wrong. I mean, where are you now and
Speaker 1: where do you want to go? That's aspiration? So how
Speaker 1: do I help you get there? That's my job. You know,
Speaker 1: some fire cover wagon they car and they it's nowhere
Speaker 1: That Oregon Trail is screwed up. Somebody got disn'tear. I
Speaker 1: man make an impact on the student's life was more
Speaker 1: important building a winning team players or student winning in life.
Speaker 1: You know, if you go ohing eleven every year, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be tough to have a great experience. You know
Speaker 1: what job security, It's right, You're not gonna be coaching
Speaker 1: very long. So I understand that winning is ultimately what
Speaker 1: you are judged on. I love winning because I think
Speaker 1: it helps with your experience. But I hope when they
Speaker 1: look back on the experience that they understand it was
Speaker 1: about more than winning. Um. I go back to Tony Bennett.
Speaker 1: I mean, one of the things from our culture that
Speaker 1: we use all the time is because I understand what
Speaker 1: truly matters, it enables me to enjoy what seems to matter.
Speaker 1: And like, what truly matters is literally that these guys
Speaker 1: are grown ass men by the time they leave our program.
Speaker 1: That really matters to me that they can go get
Speaker 1: a job, that they can go be a dad and
Speaker 1: be a husband, and they can go thrive, not just survive.
Speaker 1: But what it enables me to enjoy what seems to matter,
Speaker 1: and that's winning, you know. But that's ultimately how I'm
Speaker 1: gonna keep my job. So let's be great at bout Hey.
Speaker 1: I got a word for you, a little encouraging word, talent.
Speaker 1: You don't need a lot of talent to grind. I
Speaker 1: heard that the other day, and I also heard this
Speaker 1: the other day. Um a couple of whenever we played
Speaker 1: this couple of weeks ago, I was it was a
Speaker 1: nice sunny monday here in Charlotte, but I was at
Speaker 1: but in my mind it was a little cloudy, and
Speaker 1: so I decided I was gonna get on. I was
Speaker 1: gonna go do a run. And there's a there's there's
Speaker 1: runner was saying, Hey, when I got certified, I was
Speaker 1: doing this, this and the that that my teacher gave
Speaker 1: me a certification. They said, you know what, sometimes you
Speaker 1: just gotta go do a stupid run. I was like,
Speaker 1: what does that mean? And a stupid run? Is this
Speaker 1: not stupid? In the derogatory ray, stupid is meaning don't
Speaker 1: underthink and don't overthink. Just go out there and just
Speaker 1: run and then when you get to the point where
Speaker 1: you can't run anymore, walk back home. It changed my
Speaker 1: whole day. So my challenge to you, as you listen
Speaker 1: to this it cut to it and next time you're
Speaker 1: feeling bad, the next time you're not feeling good enough,
Speaker 1: the next time it is sunny outside but it's gloomy
Speaker 1: in your mind and heart, go for a stupid run.
Speaker 1: It changed your day. I'm Steve Smith Senior, IOHN. Just
Speaker 1: cut to It, Appreciate it, God bless Cut to It
Speaker 1: with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production
Speaker 1: of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black
Speaker 1: Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
Speaker 1: to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard
Speaker 1: little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media
Speaker 1: manager Peyton Smith. From Balto Creative Media cut to It
Speaker 1: is produced by Brian Falta Chevitch and Meredith Carter, with
Speaker 1: production assistance by Alex Lebrec, Production manager Sarah Pollock. Theme
Speaker 1: music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard about it, then, we're about to let
Speaker 1: you know. It's all