Speaker 1: Hike and everybody. I'm Dan Horde and this is the
Speaker 1: Bengals Booth Podcast, the brand new day edition, as we
Speaker 1: introduce you to Zach Taylor. Coming up two in depth conversations. First,
Speaker 1: my fun facts interview with the Bengals new thirty five
Speaker 1: years young head coach. If you want to know about
Speaker 1: his plans for building a championship team in Cincinnati, it's
Speaker 1: not that type of interview. For that information, I recommend
Speaker 1: watching his introductory news conference on Bengals dot com or
Speaker 1: reading the many great stories posted by Bengals dot Com
Speaker 1: editor Jeff Hobson. My interview is more of a this
Speaker 1: is your life type of conversation, ranging from how Zach
Speaker 1: handled the white hot spotlight that goes with being the
Speaker 1: starting quarterback at Nebraska to his wife, Sarah, who's about
Speaker 1: to move for the seventeenth time in thirty five years
Speaker 1: as the daughter and wife of football coaches. After that conversation,
Speaker 1: my broadcast partner Dave Lapham joins me to discuss why
Speaker 1: the Bengals pick Zach Taylor and what players should expect
Speaker 1: with him in charge. All of that is straight ahead,
Speaker 1: but first here's a quick reminder that you can have
Speaker 1: the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet,
Speaker 1: or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, or pod Bean.
Speaker 1: It's the greatest invention since YouTube. In doing some research
Speaker 1: about Zach, I learned that one of the highlights of
Speaker 1: his playing career in Nebraska was a game winning last
Speaker 1: minute drive against Texas A and M. Want to see
Speaker 1: it Search for Nebraska drive versus Texas A and M
Speaker 1: and you can watch it on YouTube. I love that
Speaker 1: that drive was one of many topics I asked him
Speaker 1: about when we sat down after his news conference in
Speaker 1: the Bengals locker room. Time for some fun facts with
Speaker 1: the tenth head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, Zach Taylor. Zach,
Speaker 1: you are from a football family. Your dad played at Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: coached at Oklahoma. Your brother was a college quarterback, coaches
Speaker 1: in the NFL. Your father in law was an NFL
Speaker 1: head coach. What are your earliest football memories? Probably owe
Speaker 1: you Nebraska when I was a little kid. You know,
Speaker 1: I remember watching those games on TV when it was
Speaker 1: in Lincoln and going to the games when it was
Speaker 1: usually freezing cold outside in late November. And my next
Speaker 1: reor neighbor was Gary Gibbs, who was the head coach
Speaker 1: at Oklahoma for a number of years, and so his
Speaker 1: daughter and I would play football in the front yard
Speaker 1: while they were having road games on TV. And so,
Speaker 1: you know, I grew up from the day. I can
Speaker 1: remember being a Sooner fan and just wanting to play
Speaker 1: and I seeing my son now, you know, Brooks, he
Speaker 1: does the same way that I'm a coach. I can
Speaker 1: see see my childhood through him now. And you're a
Speaker 1: basketball ball boy for the Sooners. Correct. That's great research
Speaker 1: by you. I was Billy Tubbs was the head coach,
Speaker 1: and my uncle Mike Anderson was an assistant, and so
Speaker 1: I could not tell you how old I was. I
Speaker 1: was probably nine or ten years old. My sweat bottoms
Speaker 1: were too long. I trip over him, and I'd sit
Speaker 1: behind the opposing teams head coach, you know, and just
Speaker 1: kind of serve water all the players. So, yeah, that
Speaker 1: that goes way back to my really early days. We're
Speaker 1: doing fun facts with Zach Taylor. You shared a bedroom
Speaker 1: with your brother Press. I've read that it was a
Speaker 1: shrine to Peyton Manning. Yeah, we actually had a Tennessee
Speaker 1: jersey on the wall. We had an old Miss Jersey
Speaker 1: on the wall for Eli, for my younger brother. So
Speaker 1: we had a basketball hoop. We had really high ceilings
Speaker 1: for whatever reason. It was above the garage. It was
Speaker 1: a former attic that we converted, so we had high ceilings.
Speaker 1: We had a basketball hoop in there, and there was
Speaker 1: a lot of competitive games back in the day. A
Speaker 1: lot of tears shed, that's for sure, with some of
Speaker 1: the elbows we threw to each other. But yeah, it
Speaker 1: was it was. That was. That was a long time ago.
Speaker 1: You're really doing your research here. I love, we're just
Speaker 1: getting started. Trust So you and your brother have competed
Speaker 1: against each other in the NFL. And there's a trophy,
Speaker 1: the Taylor bro Bowl Trophy in your father's office right
Speaker 1: It's in my father's office in Norman. Unfortunately, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna say the record on air here because it's it's
Speaker 1: not in my direction right now. But hopefully someday in
Speaker 1: the next couple of years we can we can even score.
Speaker 1: You are a great player at Nebraska. You were the
Speaker 1: Big Twelve Player of the Year your senior year as
Speaker 1: a quarterback. And if you're the quarterback at Nebraska, you
Speaker 1: are playing under a white hot spotlight. How has that
Speaker 1: prepared you for what you're about to do now? I
Speaker 1: think it's it's really helping me that that experience is invaluable.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've never I've never been a wild
Speaker 1: person outside of the complex, but it really does let
Speaker 1: you know that you're in a fish bowl and everyone's
Speaker 1: watching everything you do, and you get to conduct yourself
Speaker 1: the right way and treat people with respect, and so
Speaker 1: that goes a long way. And I've known that since
Speaker 1: my childhood. I think my parents raised me the right way,
Speaker 1: and so that just carried over my time at Nebraska.
Speaker 1: But that is that is an intense environment. I know
Speaker 1: what it's like to be booed when you're thrown on completion,
Speaker 1: and so you know, I know that that's no different
Speaker 1: when you're coaching the NFL. So I think that experience
Speaker 1: will serve me. Well, we're doing fun facts with Zach Taylor.
Speaker 1: If you're a forty nine Ers fan, you have the
Speaker 1: catch Dwight Clark's catch against the Cowboys. If you're a
Speaker 1: Broncos fan, you have the helicopter John Elway's leaping first
Speaker 1: down flight in the Super Bowl against the Packers. If
Speaker 1: you're a Nebraska fan, you've heard of the drive which
Speaker 1: you led against Texas A and M, a dramatic last
Speaker 1: minute game winning touchdown drive. Look up the words Zach
Speaker 1: Taylor drive on the internet and it takes you right
Speaker 1: to the YouTube clip. Was that the highlight of your
Speaker 1: playing days? Yeah, that was certainly one of them. You know,
Speaker 1: that clinched the Big twelve North for us, and that
Speaker 1: was something that we had a goal of all season,
Speaker 1: and to do it on the road in an intense
Speaker 1: environment against a great team at the time, it was
Speaker 1: not easy to do and it took all three phases
Speaker 1: in that game. We walked a kick. First of all,
Speaker 1: we got to stop on defense, and then we walked
Speaker 1: a kick, and then we were able to convert on
Speaker 1: offense and go down and Marie Spurify had a great
Speaker 1: touchdown catch there on the left corner of the end zone.
Speaker 1: So that's a memory I'll never forget, certainly one of
Speaker 1: our better moments at Nebraska. Yeah, that was that was
Speaker 1: a fun time. After Nebraska was finished, you spent some
Speaker 1: time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The head coach was
Speaker 1: John Gruden at the time, famously tough on quarterbacks. I
Speaker 1: know you weren't there for very long, but did you
Speaker 1: get a taste of that. I did. He has high
Speaker 1: standard for those guys and puts a lot on their
Speaker 1: point and expects a lot out of him, which you
Speaker 1: showed in the NFL, and so I appreciated the way
Speaker 1: you coach. I was. I think I was the six
Speaker 1: stream quarterback and there was only five quarterbacks there because
Speaker 1: Jake Plummer was under contract but not reporting. So I
Speaker 1: didn't take any snaps really during my time there. But
Speaker 1: it was a fun experience to be a part of
Speaker 1: an NFL team, at least for a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: and from there was on to the CFL. You didn't
Speaker 1: get the opportunity to play for Winnipeg, but you were
Speaker 1: on the team. What was that experience like? It was good?
Speaker 1: You know, that wasn't a great fit for me. You know,
Speaker 1: I got small hands and that ball is a little
Speaker 1: bit bigger. So I knew really the first day I
Speaker 1: showed up on the campus the place and picked up
Speaker 1: a football. I said, this isn't gonna go well for me.
Speaker 1: So I happened to join the best team. We went
Speaker 1: to the Great Cup. We were the runner ups, but
Speaker 1: it was a good experience for me just to be
Speaker 1: able to check that one off and say that this
Speaker 1: isn't the future for me. I think it's time to
Speaker 1: get into coaching. I found an interview I think from
Speaker 1: maybe July of two thousand and seven something like that,
Speaker 1: you were twenty five years old, and it's the first
Speaker 1: reference that I saw you say I want to be
Speaker 1: a head coach. How did you know in your mid
Speaker 1: twenties that you wanted to do this. Well, I think
Speaker 1: I've had great role models and great coaches that coach
Speaker 1: Man College, and so when you're around great teachers like that,
Speaker 1: it leaves a lasting impression on you. And you know,
Speaker 1: I've made the statement before. I remember sending a Nikon
Speaker 1: and accounting classes at Nebraska and studying my playbook instead
Speaker 1: of paying attention to what I should have been paying
Speaker 1: attention to. And so you know, at some point a
Speaker 1: don's on you that maybe this is the best path
Speaker 1: for me. This is what I understand, this is what
Speaker 1: I like to do. When you've been around great teachers
Speaker 1: that you can follow their lead, and it was just
Speaker 1: a natural progression for me. I got to know you
Speaker 1: a little bit in twenty sixteen when you were the
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati, and it was
Speaker 1: a tough year always coach Tuberville's final year as the
Speaker 1: head coach. You've said you learned from that experience. Give
Speaker 1: me something something it's specifically that you learned from that year. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, there's games where it's difficult to move the
Speaker 1: ball and you face a lot of adversity, and so
Speaker 1: you always want to be accountable and take responsibility when
Speaker 1: you feel like you're the leader of that side of
Speaker 1: the ball. And so because the coaches and the players
Speaker 1: always going to look to you to be an example,
Speaker 1: and it's not always going to be easy. There's going
Speaker 1: to be adversity in this profession, and so you got
Speaker 1: to conduct yourself the right way, be a problem solver.
Speaker 1: And those are some things I took away from that
Speaker 1: experience there. For that year, you recruited a quarterback that
Speaker 1: you didn't get to coach, but Cincinnati fans are happy
Speaker 1: you did, Desmond Ritter, and you two guys have stayed
Speaker 1: in frequent contact. Yeah, he's a great kid. I fell
Speaker 1: in love with him when he was in Louisville. And
Speaker 1: remember the workout he conducted with his teammates and he
Speaker 1: was just a great leader. That's the thing that struck
Speaker 1: me is the guys were drawn to him, and he
Speaker 1: led the whole workout was accurate. And so it's great
Speaker 1: to see the job that Luke Fickle has done there
Speaker 1: with that program. He's outstanding coach, treats people the right way,
Speaker 1: and I think Dez has done a great job leading
Speaker 1: that team. A few more fun fact for Zach Taylor,
Speaker 1: you and your wife Sarah enjoyed your time. Here's talking
Speaker 1: to her a little while ago, she said this will
Speaker 1: be her seventeenth move related to coaching, her father's coaching
Speaker 1: career and now your coaching career. That's unbelievable, it is.
Speaker 1: But she's a trooper. Her mom's a trooper, and so
Speaker 1: she learned from her mom. And you know, she's really
Speaker 1: the leader of her household. She keeps it all together
Speaker 1: and she's been outstanding throughout this whole process. So it's
Speaker 1: nice to for once leave a place that we really
Speaker 1: enjoyed being and come back to a place that really
Speaker 1: feels like home. And so I know that's special for
Speaker 1: her and special for me. It just feels right. How
Speaker 1: do you juggle the demands of being an NFL head
Speaker 1: coach with trying to raise four young kids. It's hard.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's important to have a wife who understands
Speaker 1: what she signed up for and can be the leader
Speaker 1: that she is. And you know, but my family is
Speaker 1: the most important thing to me, and so every chance
Speaker 1: I get away from football, I want to make time
Speaker 1: for them and be the dad that they need and
Speaker 1: the husband that they need. And so you know, we
Speaker 1: do have a special group of kids, and my wife
Speaker 1: leads the charge there, so I appreciate her all right.
Speaker 1: Last few topics, No great research on my part. Greatest
Speaker 1: athlete in any sport of all time? I mean Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1: As a kid in my generation, that's who I grew
Speaker 1: up idolizing and in watching and thinking he was the
Speaker 1: greatest of all time. And so um, that's probably the
Speaker 1: name I would say. Do you have a hidden talent
Speaker 1: that nobody knows about? No, I can. I can definitely
Speaker 1: say that I have no talents that are not well known.
Speaker 1: What was your all time worst sports injury? I broke
Speaker 1: my wrist my first ever tackle football game. And my dad,
Speaker 1: who was my coach, I don't know if he's here
Speaker 1: and out. My dad was my coach, and he didn't.
Speaker 1: You know, a coach whose son is playing tackle for
Speaker 1: the first time as the quarterback and he's hurt on
Speaker 1: in the first game, you know, hey, tough enough and
Speaker 1: get back out there. But in reality, I'd broken my wrist,
Speaker 1: so um, you know, typical coach. He's trying to get
Speaker 1: me to play through it. I'm crying. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: in sixth grade and uh that you know, I've really
Speaker 1: been fortunate, knock on wood, to have not suffered any
Speaker 1: injuries in my playing or coaching career, and that was
Speaker 1: probably the biggest one. Great to have you back in town.
Speaker 1: Look forward to working with you. Congratulations on extraordinary day.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Dan claudi Beer. I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed that conversation with Zach as much as I did,
Speaker 1: and I really look forward to co hosting his weekly
Speaker 1: TV show this fall with Dave Lappham. Speaking of Lap,
Speaker 1: he played for the first four head coaches in Bengals history,
Speaker 1: including Paul Brown and Forrest Gregg, and he's covered the
Speaker 1: last five as a Bengals broadcaster. Following Zach's introductory news conference,
Speaker 1: I picked Lap's brain on the hiring of Zach Taylor Lap.
Speaker 1: We've known this was coming for a while. Now it's official.
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor is the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 1: I thought he killed the news conference, which is always
Speaker 1: a good first day on the job. What were some
Speaker 1: of your biggest takeaways? I agree with you, Dan, I
Speaker 1: think I think he killed it, destroyed it, and I
Speaker 1: can see why in an interview process for our interview
Speaker 1: process with the committee that tasks with finding a new
Speaker 1: head coach, that he crushed it, you know, and he
Speaker 1: was the guy that they walked away from that meeting
Speaker 1: was saying, Wow, this guy's impressive. You know two things
Speaker 1: that I think he's going to be all about, and
Speaker 1: I think they're equally important, and it's almost like peanut
Speaker 1: butter and jelly. They're both good when you put them together,
Speaker 1: they're even better. Scheme and culture, and that's he's big.
Speaker 1: Scheme is obvious. I think he feels like he's got
Speaker 1: a scheme that's gonna work. It's a proven scheme out
Speaker 1: there with the La Rams. He knows an inside out.
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna have offensive players are going to
Speaker 1: be thrilled to death. They're gonna put up, be put
Speaker 1: in favorable matchups. It's all about matchups, and he is
Speaker 1: gonna design and scheme formations, personnel motion to get matchups
Speaker 1: that will heighten that player's skill set. He'll put them
Speaker 1: on the big stage to do big things. Quarterback Andy Dalton,
Speaker 1: Aj Green. I mean, you know, Joe Mixon, Giovanni, Bernard, Tyler, Boyd,
Speaker 1: if the list goes on and on. He is gonna
Speaker 1: make their life so much better. And it's it's it's gonna.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of when Linda and Fonte had us
Speaker 1: on a roll when we were in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: As a player, we'd go into those meetings when he
Speaker 1: was introduced in the game plan like what's he got now?
Speaker 1: Oh boy, what's he cooking? How what's my involvement going
Speaker 1: to be in this big process? And guys couldn't wait.
Speaker 1: And I can see that same thing happening with these
Speaker 1: guys because everybody knows what the Rams did through thirty
Speaker 1: three until I get belichicked. But thirty three points a game,
Speaker 1: you know, is phenomenal, and so that part of it,
Speaker 1: I think is going to be dynamic. But the other
Speaker 1: part is more of an intangible obviously in the culture,
Speaker 1: you know, his whole thing is like Sean McVay. He said,
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that he learned from Sean McVay was
Speaker 1: dealing with people, not necessarily scheme and although scheme officus
Speaker 1: was huge and important, but everybody's validated. Everybody in that
Speaker 1: RAMS organization has validation from very top to very bottom,
Speaker 1: and everybody's opinion means something. Everybody's opinion is solicited, and
Speaker 1: that's that's when you're valued like that. I mean, everybody
Speaker 1: wants to contribute to the cause even more so. So
Speaker 1: those are the two things that you know, I took
Speaker 1: away from from the long press conference and the long
Speaker 1: meetings with media that he had afterwards, and even his
Speaker 1: patience with all of that. His endurance and patience through
Speaker 1: that whole thing was impressive. By Zach as I listened
Speaker 1: to his news conference, the person that I thought of,
Speaker 1: oddly enough, was Luke Fickle because he kept coming back
Speaker 1: to the theme that guys want to be pushed, they
Speaker 1: want discipline, and we are going to They're going to
Speaker 1: come in here and love going to work every day.
Speaker 1: That really reminded me about what I've been hearing for
Speaker 1: the last couple of years from UC's now highly successful
Speaker 1: head coach. Well, you know, it's it's a lot like
Speaker 1: being a parent. I mean, your kids crave discipline, whether
Speaker 1: they realize it or not. Your kids need discipline. They
Speaker 1: crave discipline, they respond to discipline. And I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about you know, cruel and unusual unusual punishment discipline, but
Speaker 1: I'm talking about structure and the discipline in the daily life.
Speaker 1: And you know, knowing that they're going to get three
Speaker 1: good meals, whatever their schedule is, they're going to go
Speaker 1: to bed at night and have a roof over there.
Speaker 1: All of that sort of thing your kids create that
Speaker 1: they create the continuity and the consistency of all that.
Speaker 1: Players are the same way players want to be, you know,
Speaker 1: coached by guys that know what they're doing. And players
Speaker 1: can sniff out guys that don't know what they're doing quickly,
Speaker 1: and they can also really appreciate guys that do know
Speaker 1: what they're doing. And the response is immediate and dramatic.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what he's going I think guys
Speaker 1: are gonna be like, Wow, this stuff is really good.
Speaker 1: This guy knows what he's doing. I think that's the
Speaker 1: reaction he's going to get. And you know, and I
Speaker 1: think I think the players are. I think he's going
Speaker 1: to treat him like men. But I do think that
Speaker 1: he's going to hard coach him too. And you know,
Speaker 1: you don't have to beat guys up, but you know,
Speaker 1: just whether it's repetition of the same things over and
Speaker 1: over and over again and then maybe presenting in a
Speaker 1: different way, but it's the same thing, and then they
Speaker 1: catch onto it that way. It's it's giving a pulse
Speaker 1: for you know how if you if you have any
Speaker 1: Dalton who can understand calculus, but you have other guys
Speaker 1: out there on the offense and only understand the alger one,
Speaker 1: you can't go to calculus until you get the algab
Speaker 1: one to go to algebra two, and beyond that, you know,
Speaker 1: you have to dumb it down. Those are all the
Speaker 1: things he's going to be learning about his personnel, not
Speaker 1: just watching what their physical attributes are on tape, but
Speaker 1: getting to know them as players and as people. And
Speaker 1: he's going to deep dive into everybody. You can tell
Speaker 1: that man, he's gonna drill. He's gonna drill down really
Speaker 1: really far. Indeed, we both know him a little bit.
Speaker 1: I got to know him from his season at the
Speaker 1: University of Cincinnati when he was the offensive coordinator. You
Speaker 1: broadcast his games as a Nebraska quarterback and got to
Speaker 1: be in these production meetings leading a leading up to
Speaker 1: kickoff on Saturday. I could see why the Brown family
Speaker 1: would be so drawn to him. Humble guy, not a
Speaker 1: flashy guy very much, just wants to be part of
Speaker 1: a team. Um. It seems to me like personality wise,
Speaker 1: he's a perfect fit for Mike Brown, Katie Troy, Paul
Speaker 1: and Duke Tobin, no question about it. And you know
Speaker 1: the another common denominators. Both are football families. Their whole
Speaker 1: life is football. Mike Brown doesn't have other businesses, and
Speaker 1: this is a hobby. This is it. This is Mike
Speaker 1: Brown's life. You know, he grew up with football with
Speaker 1: his dad, the legendary Paul Brown, and it just goes
Speaker 1: from there. Zach Taylor's family, I mean, his father, his
Speaker 1: father in law's brother. I mean it's you know, everybody's football. Um.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that that was that was was striking to me.
Speaker 1: And I just think the other thing with him is
Speaker 1: he never when he played we were talking about this earlier,
Speaker 1: he did take a beating. I mean, he got crushed.
Speaker 1: He got he got pounded, he got thrown around. He
Speaker 1: never pointed a finger at his offensive line. He never
Speaker 1: complained to anybody. He just took the licking and kept
Speaker 1: on ticking. And that's that's what he's like with Tommy Tubberville.
Speaker 1: Could have you know he was being thrown on the bus.
Speaker 1: He never threw anybody under the bus. He always burdens
Speaker 1: the shoulder responsibility, you know. And he's like playing the
Speaker 1: quarterback position. We've talked about this before. Every great one
Speaker 1: shoulders the burden of blame and deflects credit. I screwed
Speaker 1: that up, man, that guy made a great play. And
Speaker 1: that's how he is with not just as a quarterback
Speaker 1: on the field playing, but I think that's how he
Speaker 1: is as a leader. He is good whenever they have success. Everybody, man,
Speaker 1: you guys were all great. Whenever they struggle. I'm not
Speaker 1: doing enough. I'm just not good enough. That that concept,
Speaker 1: I think is going to be him as a leader
Speaker 1: of the Cincinnati Bengals organization as well. I really believe that.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the football mine because obviously he's got
Speaker 1: the Sean McVeigh ties now for the last couple of seasons,
Speaker 1: but even going back to his playing days. He takes
Speaker 1: over as the quarterback in Nebraska when they are converting
Speaker 1: from having a run the football and option football forever
Speaker 1: to becoming a West Coast passing style under Bill Callahan.
Speaker 1: The fans revolted, This isn't Nebraska football an incredibly complex
Speaker 1: system for college football at that point? And he picked
Speaker 1: it up in a snap. I did, and Bill Callahan
Speaker 1: and I remember, you know, I was part of the
Speaker 1: West Coast offense. I remember a lot of nomenclature. I
Speaker 1: mean a lot of words. I mean some players were
Speaker 1: like fifteen twenty words, you know, to get a play
Speaker 1: called it was. It was multiple words for formation, protection,
Speaker 1: the actual play. It's like, wow, you know some words
Speaker 1: for routes, so we're supposed to be It was something.
Speaker 1: And Bill Callahan and his dad was talking about it today.
Speaker 1: I remember Bill Callahan talking about his saying, you know,
Speaker 1: an installation, we put like nine of our we thought
Speaker 1: top plays that you know, go to plays bread and
Speaker 1: Butter plays the West Coast offense on a on a
Speaker 1: board and Zach took him down and a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of nomenclates are a lot of wording. The
Speaker 1: very next day, spit them all back at him like
Speaker 1: like and it feels like we knew we had our quarterback,
Speaker 1: we knew we were good there. So um that that's
Speaker 1: that's a little bit of a testament to it. But
Speaker 1: you know we've mentioned this before. You know, I had
Speaker 1: like doing the games as an analyst in these meetings
Speaker 1: and Major apple White and Zach Taylor or the two
Speaker 1: guys to get up on the board and could install
Speaker 1: their offense like they were the offensive coordinator, not the quarterback.
Speaker 1: And I remember saying to guys and the crew, It's like, man,
Speaker 1: these guys, these guys could be coaches. And Major apple White,
Speaker 1: you know, has risen to a head coaching position during
Speaker 1: the course of his career in college football. And now
Speaker 1: Zach Taylor is in the NFL, so not a surprise.
Speaker 1: And uh, he definitely has you know, people throw football
Speaker 1: like you around like you know, like it's quarters now.
Speaker 1: But he has it. He really has it. He's he's
Speaker 1: got it at a very very high level. You know,
Speaker 1: probably you know, I want to throw him in the
Speaker 1: genius category. I'll say a genius for Paul Brown, Bill Wallace.
Speaker 1: There there's a you know, just a that that that
Speaker 1: that's not a very long roll call when you have
Speaker 1: to make that genius role call. But he is sharp.
Speaker 1: He's sharp as attack. He's thirty five years old, he
Speaker 1: has not been a head coach, so he doesn't have
Speaker 1: that skin on the wall. Are guy's going to challenge him? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think they will. You know, it sounds they'll test
Speaker 1: him sometimes maybe even if they don't realize they're testing
Speaker 1: him or not, you know, and um, and it's going
Speaker 1: to be interesting to see how how he handles that.
Speaker 1: I think though, when the biggest the biggest thing, and
Speaker 1: we've already talked about this, your credibility, I mean, do
Speaker 1: you know football? And can you are you a teacher?
Speaker 1: Can you make me better? Everybody wants to be coached,
Speaker 1: Everybody wants to be better. So that's how he's going
Speaker 1: to make his his um, you know, his identification, identity
Speaker 1: with the football team, those kind of things. And but
Speaker 1: there will be I mean, there'll there'll be a surly
Speaker 1: veteran in his office someday at some point in time,
Speaker 1: maybe not even the two dear near distant future. That is,
Speaker 1: you know, he's going to challenge him a little bit
Speaker 1: and be interested to see how he disarms him or
Speaker 1: I asked him that very thing. Um, I said, you know,
Speaker 1: how do you how do you handle that? You try
Speaker 1: to convert him or do you dismiss him basically? And
Speaker 1: he said, you know, basically kind of get to know him,
Speaker 1: you know, and then make a determination. I don't think
Speaker 1: he's going to do anything like, you know, like a
Speaker 1: snap judgment kind of thing. I think he's gonna, like
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier, drill and get deep into a
Speaker 1: lot of these players and coaches and organization, every everybody
Speaker 1: that he's working with, and a lot of names out
Speaker 1: there about possible defensive coordinators. For a while, it looked
Speaker 1: like Jack del Rio might be the guy. Now it's
Speaker 1: been reported that that's not happening. Uh and Zach did
Speaker 1: not want to talk about possible members of his coaching
Speaker 1: staff today. Didn't think that was the right time to
Speaker 1: do that. But but in general terms, what do you
Speaker 1: think I think happens with defensive coordinator? You know, I
Speaker 1: still think that that the recipe, the formula, whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it, that Sean McVay used, is what
Speaker 1: they're looking for. Wade Phillips, the you know, a KG
Speaker 1: veteran um I've been to many many wars and battles, uh,
Speaker 1: and basically it's like you're you're almost assistant head coach.
Speaker 1: You've got the defense, and I'm going to take care
Speaker 1: of the offense, and you know his exit, he's calling
Speaker 1: his own play. So uh, when you're when you're doing that,
Speaker 1: you don't want to have to be It's not like
Speaker 1: he's not going to know what they're going to do defensively,
Speaker 1: what their concepts and schemes and philosophies are. He's going
Speaker 1: to be all over that. But on a game management standpoint,
Speaker 1: you know, he wants somebody to be able to handle
Speaker 1: that and he doesn't want to have to cloud cloud
Speaker 1: his responsibilities with that. So I think, you know, the
Speaker 1: former head coach um the coordinator position being held before
Speaker 1: experience in those areas. I think a young head coach
Speaker 1: there's there's nothing more valuable than having a former head
Speaker 1: coach on their staff that can at least say to him, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, heads up for this, watch out for this.
Speaker 1: I did this and it didn't work out very well
Speaker 1: when I first faced this, and I should have maybe
Speaker 1: handled it this way when this turned out when when
Speaker 1: I did this, this one man, I got great results
Speaker 1: all that all that kind of information is invaluable. So
Speaker 1: it's somewhere during the course of assembling his staff, I
Speaker 1: think a former head coach somewhere I think is an
Speaker 1: important thing. It's not doesn't sound like it's going to
Speaker 1: be the offensive side of it. You know, Brian Callahan's
Speaker 1: a year younger than Zach, thirty four years old. So
Speaker 1: that offense is going to be young and jet energetic, enthusiastic,
Speaker 1: open minded. It's going to be very interesting and very creative.
Speaker 1: I'm sure, and I'm not saying defensively has to be
Speaker 1: an old man. Get off my lawn. You know I'm
Speaker 1: doing it this one and a hell of hot water. Man.
Speaker 1: You ain't telling me anything. I'm not going to do so.
Speaker 1: So I think cohesion is the big thing. I think
Speaker 1: cultural cohesion C squared the two C words are going
Speaker 1: to be big and what za Zach is thinking when
Speaker 1: he assembles his staff. But I still maintain that the
Speaker 1: two coordinator positions and his offensive line coach, those are
Speaker 1: the three big hires and we'll see how that all
Speaker 1: shakes down. Last thing, I looked over toward his folks
Speaker 1: in the middle of his Knitti's conference and they're there
Speaker 1: in the front row holding hands, and I'm thinking, how
Speaker 1: unbelievable is that your thirty five year old kid is
Speaker 1: about to be an NFL head coach. And they're so grounded,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean when you look at them and
Speaker 1: you look at that relationship, and you look at the
Speaker 1: way Zach turned out, and you look at you know, um,
Speaker 1: you know, Zach and Sarah having their children and the
Speaker 1: family that they are, It's it's quite a legacy, you know,
Speaker 1: if you're you're sitting there as a as a parent
Speaker 1: and a grandparent, that's got to be. Man. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know if I could have butten my sport
Speaker 1: coade if he were him, you know, my chest to
Speaker 1: be so swelled up, so proud. That is that that's
Speaker 1: that's amazing. And then to boot Press his other son
Speaker 1: as a quarterback coach with the Philadelphia Eagles who won
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl last year. So you got you got
Speaker 1: two kids that played the quarterback position at the college
Speaker 1: level that are ones on a coaching staff in the
Speaker 1: NFL and a rising star highly regarded, and the other
Speaker 1: one just got his first head coaching opportunity in the
Speaker 1: National Football League and the oldest is thirty five years old.
Speaker 1: That's a blessed family. But as the old saying goes,
Speaker 1: good things happen to good people, and the Taylor family
Speaker 1: that's pretty darn good people, isn't it. My thanks to
Speaker 1: Lap and to Zach Taylor, and that's going to do
Speaker 1: it for this episode of the podcast. But there is
Speaker 1: some news for you. For the first time, I will
Speaker 1: be doing regular Bengals Booth podcast during the off season,
Speaker 1: So if you haven't done so already, don't forget to
Speaker 1: subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or pod Bean. And if you
Speaker 1: have a minute, give it a rating or leave a comment.
Speaker 1: Your feedback is always appreciated and five star rankings help
Speaker 1: more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and
Speaker 1: thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.