Speaker 1: I do like to do the interest.
Speaker 2: Lan and gentlemen, Welcome to another episode of the Bustle
Speaker 2: with the Boy Spring to whur we are with Coach
Speaker 2: to day at the Ohio State University. Pains me to
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Speaker 2: I saw when I started to mess up a little
Speaker 2: bit and kind of looked up at me, and that
Speaker 2: gave me some scaries.
Speaker 1: Oh really, you know, the boy doesn't read well honestly.
Speaker 3: Like I was reading something and I kind of just
Speaker 3: did my whole pan off to the side and think
Speaker 3: about something.
Speaker 1: I didn't even hear what they And that's crazy that
Speaker 1: it goes.
Speaker 2: Back to like maybe the guys aren't always on me,
Speaker 2: you know, maybe maybe other people.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, it's like, yeah, well, hey we're here. We
Speaker 3: finally did it. Coach to Day, thank you for joining us. Look,
Speaker 3: I'm sitting in between these guys for a couple of
Speaker 3: different reasons. One, Taar likes to sit on the outside.
Speaker 3: I do like two, we got a Michigan boy in
Speaker 3: an Ohao Staate boy over here. I feel like there
Speaker 3: might be a fun question, There might be something that
Speaker 3: you want to ask. Because of fact, we have to
Speaker 3: kick this thing off with some sense of the rivalry
Speaker 3: that happens.
Speaker 2: At takes place. Yeah, I got a couple questions for sure.
Speaker 2: I think one of the first questions I'll go with
Speaker 2: is do you feel happy that the University of Michigan
Speaker 2: has won the last two? And the reason why I
Speaker 2: asked that is because the rhetorical question is not rhetorical.
Speaker 2: We we Michigan. When I was at Michigan, we barely
Speaker 2: won once, and you guys are dominated the tens. You
Speaker 2: guys dominated us in the two thousands, and it's kind
Speaker 2: of nice to get the rivalry back where it's going.
Speaker 2: So I'm kind of leading you into a possibility of
Speaker 2: giving Michigan some flowers here? Are you happy that Michigan's
Speaker 2: won the last two games?
Speaker 4: I mean, I know you're coming out with that question.
Speaker 4: I could see you coming on the sideboard with that.
Speaker 4: Know this this is this is year seven for me,
Speaker 4: and this is you know, we played in that game
Speaker 4: five times and you know, lost the last two and
Speaker 4: it hurts, I mean, quite honestly, you know. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know how much it means to so many people,
Speaker 4: you know, in both states, and so you know, when
Speaker 4: I first had my first press conference, the first thing
Speaker 4: I said was that, you know, you got to win
Speaker 4: that game. That's the number one thing, most important thing.
Speaker 4: When you don't do that, it hurts. It hurts for
Speaker 4: three undred sixty five days, and so so it has
Speaker 4: for the last two years, you know. And so yeah,
Speaker 4: I mean it's something that we think about every single day.
Speaker 4: But but that's what that's what makes the rivalry great,
Speaker 4: you know, and certainly you know when you played the
Speaker 4: rivalries back and forth as well, So it's something we
Speaker 4: think about all the time.
Speaker 2: The rivalry is bigger than ever now because Michigan finally
Speaker 2: has a couple of w's in the column. You needed
Speaker 2: that otherwise it was truly turning into a game.
Speaker 1: It's like that. But yeah, we didn't need that. But
Speaker 1: you know, you guys didn't need that, but we we
Speaker 1: definitely didn't need that.
Speaker 3: Like it stinks being on the wrong side of it,
Speaker 3: Like as a fan of the game, it stinks being
Speaker 3: on the wrong side of it.
Speaker 1: But there is like a yo, the game is like
Speaker 1: the game.
Speaker 2: It's the game again a little bit, and I know
Speaker 2: it's like, oh yeah, I'm excited that the game is back.
Speaker 1: But obviously you want to come if the.
Speaker 2: Rules were reversed to like let's say Michigan was dominating
Speaker 2: for that long, you guys won the last two.
Speaker 1: Obviously, as a former player, I'd be upset.
Speaker 2: But I've I've been out of it for so long
Speaker 2: that I've zoomed out and been able to be like, okay,
Speaker 2: that is thank god we got a rivalry again. I mean,
Speaker 2: that is the kind of maybe a good approach for
Speaker 2: Ohio State, because like, you guys have dominated for so
Speaker 2: long to kind of be like, well, let's give them
Speaker 2: some flowers here.
Speaker 4: Well, it's it's the first thing that when you come
Speaker 4: here as a recruit and you walk right in here
Speaker 4: and you go look at the rivalry video. You know,
Speaker 4: it's it's one of the first things you have to
Speaker 4: do when you're a coach chair is understand the rivalry,
Speaker 4: you know, and what it means, and so yeah, I
Speaker 4: mean it's it's everything, and it's going goes back a
Speaker 4: long time, right, and you think about all the different
Speaker 4: games and all the different coaches and teams that have
Speaker 4: come come through, and it means so much. And that's
Speaker 4: why you know, when you go through the hallways here,
Speaker 4: you see all the different teams and one of the
Speaker 4: first things you asked is what was your record in
Speaker 4: the game?
Speaker 2: This facilities, by the way, are incredible. Yeah, they're really nice,
Speaker 2: really incredible.
Speaker 3: Asking about that game because you guys are a hell
Speaker 3: of a team year and a year out and when
Speaker 3: you have it be that close at halftime and then
Speaker 3: the second half goes the way it does. What's the
Speaker 3: messaging after that game when you reflect back on it,
Speaker 3: like you, what were some things I'm sure you've probably
Speaker 3: already talked about in press conferenstions, but also in the
Speaker 3: same question, what is your message to get them boys
Speaker 3: ready for Georgia? Because you guys, even you busted your
Speaker 3: ass that game too. Obviously didn't come out of the
Speaker 3: way you wanted it. But still for them guys that
Speaker 3: come out and perform the way they did after you
Speaker 3: take a loss to Michigan and stuff like that, I
Speaker 3: just think it also speaks to like getting their head
Speaker 3: back right and everything else.
Speaker 4: So yeah, it made it just a range of emotions.
Speaker 4: You know, we think about the way that weekend went down,
Speaker 4: and then that week following and then we you know,
Speaker 4: get selected for the CFP and all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: you know this life again, life in the facility, and
Speaker 4: then we just went about the business of getting after
Speaker 4: it all the way to the bowl game. I think
Speaker 4: we went it was like fifteen hundred snaps during bowl practice.
Speaker 4: I mean, we got after it. Bowl practice was really
Speaker 4: it was violent. It just and we prepared to play
Speaker 4: in that game. And I think when you think about
Speaker 4: those two games in particular, you could probably grab out
Speaker 4: in those two games alone, ten plays that cost us
Speaker 4: both of those games. And like you said, you know,
Speaker 4: you look at at the game, you look at you know,
Speaker 4: the scoreboard different times of the game, and you can
Speaker 4: just look at like, you know, really five plays in
Speaker 4: each game that cost you. So one of the things
Speaker 4: we've been talking about during our offseason or eight weeks
Speaker 4: leading up to spring practice now we're into the third
Speaker 4: week of spring practice. Is you just don't know when
Speaker 4: that play is gonna come into play. And as you
Speaker 4: guys know, you played the game. You could play seventy
Speaker 4: great snaps, but you know if five of those don't
Speaker 4: go your way, it can cost you the game. And
Speaker 4: that's when you're playing matchup games. That's what happens. And
Speaker 4: we got to own that. And so you don't know
Speaker 4: when that play is gonna come. You don't know when
Speaker 4: that day's gonna come. So we need to be consistent
Speaker 4: in our offseason. We need to be be there every
Speaker 4: day and just find those plays on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: And as we go into spring practice.
Speaker 2: It's the same way when you're sitting at five, you're
Speaker 2: watching the BEY ten championship, all the championship games happen,
Speaker 2: you see USC lose, you're probably thinking, Okay, we're going
Speaker 2: to make it in this college football playoff. When before
Speaker 2: that time and when you guys officially made it in
Speaker 2: knowing you're going to be the four seed or guy
Speaker 2: just went to the three seed, right, how.
Speaker 1: Did it work? Yeah?
Speaker 2: So we were the four You guys were the four
Speaker 2: y So we played Georgia. Was there a was there
Speaker 2: a part of you that wanted Michigan again right away?
Speaker 2: Or would have been better to see a national champe Uh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I remember that day, uh well, leading that
Speaker 4: week leading up to it, it was I think it
Speaker 4: was around Tuesday we got together, uh, and you know,
Speaker 4: by the time Wednesday came, it was like, all right,
Speaker 4: we got to stop feeling sorry for ourselves. We've got
Speaker 4: to move on because those those couple of days were awful, uh,
Speaker 4: following the game, and so we brought everybody in and
Speaker 4: we said, guys, uh, you know, we have to believe that,
Speaker 4: you know, there's gonna be something that happens over the
Speaker 4: weekend that allows us an opportunity to play in the CFPN.
Speaker 4: So we can't let this week just go by. So
Speaker 4: you know, I said to the guys, somebody's gonna lose
Speaker 4: here and we're going to be in. So we have
Speaker 4: to be ready when that happened. So we went about
Speaker 4: practicing on Wednesday and Thursday leading up to that weekend,
Speaker 4: and then when it happened, there was just a lot
Speaker 4: of life injected into the whole facility, and we really
Speaker 4: didn't care. We just want an opportunity to play because
Speaker 4: you know, like I said, we're on life support there
Speaker 4: for a week and we just wanted life again.
Speaker 1: We want an opportunity to play because we.
Speaker 4: Always last year we felt like we could play with
Speaker 4: anybody in the country and beat anybody in the country.
Speaker 4: And you know, it didn't work out that way, but
Speaker 4: but that's kind of how it all went down.
Speaker 2: You guys definitely are that team with a level of
Speaker 2: prestige and you've gotten to the point where it's truly
Speaker 2: a factory, especially in the skill position category. You guys,
Speaker 2: as wide receivers, it seems like every year you have
Speaker 2: like a sophomore that's like the best wide receiver in
Speaker 2: the country, and it just keeps getting better and better.
Speaker 2: Like from a recruiting standpoint, how do you keep that
Speaker 2: consistency going at a place like this, Like, I mean,
Speaker 2: there's a whole bunch, like the college football landscape is
Speaker 2: changing and keep rooms together. You got guys much with
Speaker 2: all the transfer portal, Yeah, it is. It's a it's
Speaker 2: a wild deal because it's hard to recruit when recruiting
Speaker 2: is national. Now it's not like people are just recruiting regions.
Speaker 2: The only people that still recruit regionally is Texas, you know,
Speaker 2: because they got there in the state of Texas. But
Speaker 2: like you have to recruit against everybody, you have to
Speaker 2: recruit against tools like that are in nice tropical areas
Speaker 2: and it's year round a year round for somebody here
Speaker 2: and there here, How do you keep that consistency, consistency
Speaker 2: level going.
Speaker 4: I mean, there's a lot that goes into that. I
Speaker 4: think when you look at Ohio State, half a million
Speaker 4: alumni and just the power of the brand of Ohio State,
Speaker 4: we're able to recruit nationally, and so our first priority
Speaker 4: is the state of Ohio and the Midwest, you know,
Speaker 4: but when you look at our roster, we have guys,
Speaker 4: like you said, from from Hawaii, California, Seattle, Texas, Florida,
Speaker 4: throughout the country. You know, there's there's Buck guys everywhere
Speaker 4: throughout the United States. So we're able to have an
Speaker 4: impact throughout the country. So that's that's good. Our foundation
Speaker 4: is here in Ohio and that's always going to be
Speaker 4: that way. But we want to go recruit guys who
Speaker 4: want to be elite. So although there's people from all
Speaker 4: different parts of the country with different different backgrounds. We
Speaker 4: want people who think big here at Ohio State. So
Speaker 4: like you said, you know, a loaded wide receiver room,
Speaker 4: a loaded D line room, offensive line room.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you know when teams recruit against us as well,
Speaker 4: they have a loaded room. You know, why would you
Speaker 4: go there? You can come over here and play. Well,
Speaker 4: we're recruiting you because we think you can play. And
Speaker 4: if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
Speaker 4: And I think that's gonna be the mentality and it
Speaker 4: has been because you know, guys come here and they
Speaker 4: want to compete every day. And when you're going against
Speaker 4: really good players every day, that's how you get better.
Speaker 4: So like, for instance, one of our defensive ends who's
Speaker 4: here now, Kenyatta Jackson. He was on a scale team
Speaker 4: last year. He's from South Florida shan Manhamadana High School.
Speaker 4: Every day in practice he went up against Paris Johnson
Speaker 4: and when they got done after practice, they'd sit over
Speaker 4: on the bench and they talk about what going on
Speaker 4: that day, and Paris kind of put him under his
Speaker 4: wing and talk to him about that. I'm willing to
Speaker 4: bet that when Kenyat is all said and done, and
Speaker 4: he moves on. He's gonna do the same thing for
Speaker 4: somebody else because he was going against a really good
Speaker 4: player every day in practice.
Speaker 1: And that's the idea, is that you know JT.
Speaker 4: T was going against the Dewan Jones last year, and
Speaker 4: you know it's not just the twelve regular season games,
Speaker 4: it's every day in practice. You're getting better and that's
Speaker 4: a big part of our development.
Speaker 3: I want to talk a you for a second and
Speaker 3: ask kind of about your philosophies or things you've picked
Speaker 3: up along the way, because you you grew up in
Speaker 3: New Hampshire, which is barely I don't even know if
Speaker 3: it's a state anymore in the United States. You went
Speaker 3: to school there as well. You went to New Hampshire
Speaker 3: there as well, and hey, obviously some flowers here. Coach
Speaker 3: was a GATORAY Player of the Year senior year. But
Speaker 3: there's been a lot of adversity along the way. You
Speaker 3: had mentioned your father passed away when you were nine
Speaker 3: years old. You go on and you play college ball
Speaker 3: with Chip Kelly. You're a GATORAY Player of the Year.
Speaker 3: You cut your teeth in the game as a GA
Speaker 3: for three years. If I'm not mistaken, which we've been around,
Speaker 3: we've seen the GA life, Like, that's not an easy life.
Speaker 3: You're putting about fifteen years worth of work before you
Speaker 3: become a head coach. What are some philosophies that you've
Speaker 3: picked up along the way that's kind of molded you.
Speaker 3: And maybe there's a coach or somebody that could be
Speaker 3: listening that might not have known that they influenced you
Speaker 3: in such a way, but kind of talk about your
Speaker 3: philosophies and kind of overcoming a lot of those adversities.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think the first thing is like adversity,
Speaker 4: you know, our tests along the way and you can
Speaker 4: do one of three things that can either crumble you,
Speaker 4: you can get through it, or it can make you stronger.
Speaker 4: And adversity's coming somewhere along the way. And you know,
Speaker 4: we just had to someone speak to the team the
Speaker 4: other day and I thought it was really really good
Speaker 4: what he said. He said that, you know, finding balance
Speaker 4: in your life is building high ground.
Speaker 1: For hard times, and that's hard.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's really cool because and the way you do
Speaker 4: that is by investing your faith, family and friends, and
Speaker 4: so adversity makes you stronger if you allow it to.
Speaker 4: And so we're all going to face adversity along the way.
Speaker 4: And I think for me, you know, if I didn't
Speaker 4: lose my father at a young age, I don't know
Speaker 4: if i'd be in the position I'm in right now,
Speaker 4: because you know, it just had that, you know, Chip
Speaker 4: on my shoulder growing up and wanted to prove a
Speaker 4: lot of people wrong. I prove a lot of people right.
Speaker 4: And I had a lot of great mentors along the way.
Speaker 4: And I think that's a big part of this profession
Speaker 4: is that you don't really go to school to become
Speaker 4: a college football coach.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 4: When I got recruited, you know, Chip Kelly and I
Speaker 4: sat down and he said, what do you want to
Speaker 4: do after you're playing? And I studied business administration, but
Speaker 4: I told him I wanted to coach, and he said, oh,
Speaker 4: I got you, and he did. You know, I coach
Speaker 4: with him in the NFL. I coach with him in college,
Speaker 4: and you know the same thing with erb Meyer. He
Speaker 4: you know, he took me along the way and certainly
Speaker 4: gave men unbelievable opportunity here at Ohio State. I think
Speaker 4: a big part of this profession is apprenticeship. But there's
Speaker 4: a lot of sacrifice that goes along the way. And
Speaker 4: when you grow up in New Hampshire, like you said,
Speaker 4: he all a small state, you know, you don't have
Speaker 4: the privilege of going right to the front of the line.
Speaker 4: You know, you have to move around a lot, you know,
Speaker 4: and that I did and you know my wife, you know,
Speaker 4: and I have had to move eleven times, you know,
Speaker 4: to even have an opportunity to be at a place
Speaker 4: in Ohio State. And you know, you know, a big
Speaker 4: part of that is your family, you know, and kids,
Speaker 4: being the new kid in class. And so that's one
Speaker 4: of the reasons why I fight so hard as two
Speaker 4: reasons why I won to win games here is to
Speaker 4: continue to have an impact on young people. And then two,
Speaker 4: you know, for my family, I don't want to have
Speaker 4: to move them again, because I know what that's like.
Speaker 4: And that's part of this profession, as you guys know.
Speaker 4: And it's the same way being a player.
Speaker 1: When you do. You brought up Urban Meyer in this situation.
Speaker 2: Urban's also obviously had an incredible career as a college
Speaker 2: football head coacher, and when you take over for him
Speaker 2: at Ohio State, what was your process of Like Urban
Speaker 2: Meyer is a legend, and so for you to take
Speaker 2: over for him. How did you earn the respect of
Speaker 2: these players as quickly as you did?
Speaker 4: Well, it was very difficult to, you know, following someone's
Speaker 4: footsteps like that. I remember one of the first weeks
Speaker 4: I became the head coach. Here, I walked down the
Speaker 4: hall right here, and there's pictures of Whatdy Hayes and
Speaker 4: Jim Tressel and Earl Bruce and John Cooper and Urban Meyer,
Speaker 4: and then there's a picture of me, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: what the hell is this? You know, I mean, I
Speaker 4: you know, you just like pinching yourself, you know. But
Speaker 4: I've always kind of had the mentality. And you know,
Speaker 4: a coach of mine, Dan a Bible, used to say,
Speaker 4: well why not you?
Speaker 1: Why can't it be you? That kind of has to
Speaker 1: be your mentality.
Speaker 4: But when when you're in these types of situations, you know,
Speaker 4: now you live in the moment. You just try to
Speaker 4: do the best you can in that moment. Can't worry
Speaker 4: about it's coming tomorrow, you can't worry about what happened yesterday.
Speaker 4: You just do the best you can right then in
Speaker 4: that moment, and you trust the people that are around you.
Speaker 4: And so there was a lot of infrastructure in place here,
Speaker 4: you know, and a lot of people said, you know,
Speaker 4: how are you gonna follow.
Speaker 1: Up with or Mayra?
Speaker 4: I mean seven to zero in the rivalry game, you know,
Speaker 4: won a national championship, unbelievable success. And people kept saying,
Speaker 4: you know, what if you lose, what if you do?
Speaker 4: And I always said, what if I don't? This is
Speaker 4: an unbelievble opportunity to coach at a place like Ohio State,
Speaker 4: And so just tried to be myself the best I could.
Speaker 4: You know, kept a lot of the same things that
Speaker 4: he did here, but then over time, you know, put
Speaker 4: your own spin on it and your own flavor on it.
Speaker 4: You have to be yourself even though there's a lot
Speaker 4: of things, you know, people in place, culture, core values,
Speaker 4: philosophies that we continued through.
Speaker 1: And so it's very different than if you were to
Speaker 1: start your own program.
Speaker 4: If I was to become a head coach tomorrow at
Speaker 4: another school, you start from scratch, you hire everybody from scratch.
Speaker 4: It's a different transition and something that you know, quite honestly,
Speaker 4: I had to kind of figure out on the run
Speaker 4: a little bit, and that all kind of happened fast.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the twenty twenty one Nebraska Cornhuskers. Are they the
Speaker 3: greatest three win team you've ever played against? Because if
Speaker 3: you remember correctly, I remind you, I think we were
Speaker 3: on a game winning drive and the refs kind of
Speaker 3: stole the game.
Speaker 1: But we were kind of set to beat you guys
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. When two years ago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say it was probably the best, the
Speaker 4: best three to three team, three win team maybe that
Speaker 4: I was around in the Big Ten.
Speaker 1: That was a good team. I mean on defense, I
Speaker 1: thought they were very good. That's how it's all we needed. Boys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean how many how many really upset you? You
Speaker 1: answered it?
Speaker 4: But they will all the firepower in the world. We
Speaker 4: were we were a solid team. Yeah, I mean how
Speaker 4: many games they lose by by a touchdown or less?
Speaker 4: I mean the score differential throughout the entire season was zero.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so every every every loss that they had, all nine,
Speaker 3: they were within one score.
Speaker 1: That was a hard game. That was a hard game. Yeah.
Speaker 4: We didn't play well. We we we just played him
Speaker 4: play well later. Yeah, we didn't play in an emotional,
Speaker 4: tough game. And uh yeah that was that was you
Speaker 4: know Jackson. I remember he made a huge play he
Speaker 4: made a guy miss and scored a touchdown.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then that was a battle. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I Mean the thing about the Big Ten, especially when
Speaker 4: you're playing nine conference games, you know, there's no gimmes.
Speaker 1: They're hard ruckers. Marilyn Michigan State. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: good coaches. They I'm just telling you, he are there
Speaker 1: some gimmis in the I'm telling you.
Speaker 4: I'm telling you that there's good coaches and good programs,
Speaker 4: you know, and and I just continually see these these
Speaker 4: programs getting better and better and better. I just know
Speaker 4: maybe maybe there were a few years ago. I just
Speaker 4: don't see that as much anymore. I think there's really
Speaker 4: good coaches, and we get together on calls or we
Speaker 4: get together at some of our coaches meetings, really good minds,
Speaker 4: really good coaches. They're they're really sharp and how they
Speaker 4: handle their business. And I got a lot of respect
Speaker 4: for everybody in the conference.
Speaker 1: We've got to get the national title back to the
Speaker 1: Big Ten. It has to happen. It has to happen.
Speaker 1: We were trying to legitimately, We're trying to guys were
Speaker 1: in it.
Speaker 2: We were legit like we were going for Michigan and
Speaker 2: Ohio State in the National Championship. When Michigan lost the TCU,
Speaker 2: I was watching us hoping you would win because the
Speaker 2: SEC is getting too full of themselves.
Speaker 4: It make it makes me sick every day to think
Speaker 4: about it, you know, and just going back through you know,
Speaker 4: you think about nineteen, but this this this last game,
Speaker 4: I mean, you just go.
Speaker 1: Through other I know you guys would have beat the
Speaker 1: brakes off of TCU too.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, I just you know, it's just it's
Speaker 4: one play here, one play there, but it doesn't happen.
Speaker 4: And so you know, you have to own it. And
Speaker 4: it's hard. It's hard to take, but you got to
Speaker 4: regroup and learn from it, and like you said, keep swinging.
Speaker 4: I think that the the twelve team playoff will be interesting,
Speaker 4: you know, you know, you're yeah, I think it's going
Speaker 4: to be, you know, interesting to see how that all
Speaker 4: plays out. You know, if the four first four teams
Speaker 4: get a buy second Ford home field advantage, can get
Speaker 4: a home field advantage, that's cool, playing the big thing,
Speaker 4: and you know that could be a you know, a
Speaker 4: game in December on the road. You know, so there's
Speaker 4: a lot to be determined here. Now that's that's two
Speaker 4: years away, but looking forward to see what that looks like.
Speaker 2: You. I think you were about to ask a really
Speaker 2: good question, but I forgot what that question was.
Speaker 1: I think I forgot it too, because I could see
Speaker 1: it lighting up, talked about it wasn't gonna be like
Speaker 1: a really good ones. I think it was.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, if Michigan beats TCU, yes that was the
Speaker 2: Did you have rooters for Michigan in the national title?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Okay, hold on before you elaborate before this is what
Speaker 2: you need to think about here.
Speaker 1: We need to take it.
Speaker 2: Put our swords down for a second, because if Michigan
Speaker 2: wins that game, it's not Michigan. We're thinking now Big
Speaker 2: ten conference wise, that's conference trying to like a Game
Speaker 2: of Throne situation, Like.
Speaker 1: Let's let's ally up for a second. You watch Game
Speaker 1: of Thrones or did you? I've watched them.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you ally up for just a touch, make
Speaker 2: sure we get the trophy in there, and then we
Speaker 2: can all go back to our civil war within our conference. However,
Speaker 2: like the SEC is so so damn full of themselves,
Speaker 2: so like we're of balls guys, We're Bama guys.
Speaker 1: Well South Carolina. It doesn't.
Speaker 2: Everyone's fighting for their own fight down there. We need
Speaker 2: to band together as a conference and say, like, if
Speaker 2: you guys were in it, I'm rooting for a house state.
Speaker 2: I want Ohio State to win because ultimately, ultimately I
Speaker 2: want Michigan to take it from you. Right, you could
Speaker 2: somehow get around that being like you want Michigan to
Speaker 2: win the next championship if you guys weren't also in
Speaker 2: it because ultimately you want to take from Michigan.
Speaker 1: Can we agree on that?
Speaker 2: Do you want us to be the best conference in
Speaker 2: the country, That's all, That's all we're asking.
Speaker 4: I think if you say that, for sure we have
Speaker 4: to be the best conference in the country, and I
Speaker 4: do think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But can't just say you're going to live the
Speaker 1: situation I would root for Michigan. I cannot say that.
Speaker 1: I literally we need the clips bad, please God. I
Speaker 1: physically can't say, yeah, what were you going to do? Well?
Speaker 4: No, I just think that adding UCLA and USC really
Speaker 4: is is really a game changer.
Speaker 1: And so many different ways.
Speaker 4: You know, it's so much different than certainly when you
Speaker 4: played you think about like that's just not natural, right,
Speaker 4: It's not a natural rivalry. It's going to be very untraditional.
Speaker 4: But those are two very good teams, and so as
Speaker 4: you think about adding those teams and then in twenty four,
Speaker 4: you know, they haven't finalized at all yet, but but
Speaker 4: going away from the divisions and then you know, think
Speaker 4: about it. You know, we could play the rivalry game,
Speaker 4: you could play Penn State, you could play USC all
Speaker 4: in one season. That that's quite a schedule, you know,
Speaker 4: it's just very different now. And so I think we
Speaker 4: have the capability of being the best conference in America.
Speaker 4: And I think the addition of those two teams, you know,
Speaker 4: based on how things play out moving forward, and then
Speaker 4: with the twelve team playoff, getting more teams into the playoff,
Speaker 4: I think it gives us a great chance.
Speaker 2: Does adding the two California teams open up anything recruiting
Speaker 2: wise that you think about, like recruiting better in California
Speaker 2: because obviously you guys have the brand of Baho State period.
Speaker 4: You know, I think right now probably it's about the same.
Speaker 4: But I think as we start to play games out there,
Speaker 4: and you know, they start to travel out this way,
Speaker 4: I think it will. I don't think that the recruits
Speaker 4: quite yet feel that, you know, now we've played in
Speaker 4: the Rose Bowl twice in like the last five years,
Speaker 4: I guess, and so a lot of those guys are
Speaker 4: familiar with us. But the more I think they see
Speaker 4: the Big ten teams coming through the California area, I
Speaker 4: think it'll open up. But I still don't think that
Speaker 4: that's going to be like a you know, a recruiting
Speaker 4: hotbed for the Big Ten. I think it's still going
Speaker 4: to be. You know, the Midwest area will still be foundation.
Speaker 4: You know a lot of cats up here, Ohio in particular.
Speaker 2: How's Ohioania, Missouri, Missouri. You get some like diamonds in
Speaker 2: the rough in Missouri. Oh yeah, diamonds in the rough.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say it's a hotbed for football now like Arizona.
Speaker 3: When you say hotbed and I think about it a
Speaker 3: little bit more, I can I can say that's fair.
Speaker 2: That's a big of you. That shows growth of will Compton.
Speaker 2: What do you with you guys adding UCLA and USC
Speaker 2: to the conference in twenty twenty four, Where do you
Speaker 2: see the NCAA going?
Speaker 1: Because this is what I see.
Speaker 2: I see SEC making an ultimate conference, you guys making
Speaker 2: an ultimate conference and then essentially branching away, getting away
Speaker 2: from the NCAA and becoming your own league and in
Speaker 2: return kind of becoming like, this is where you want
Speaker 2: to go if you want.
Speaker 1: To go to the NFL conferences. You know.
Speaker 4: I think that there's so many different discussions that are
Speaker 4: happening right now of things like that, you know, and
Speaker 4: it's like what's coming next?
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: I think as we just sit here right now, I
Speaker 4: think we we all know things are going to continue
Speaker 4: to change because of everything that's going on in America
Speaker 4: right whether it's the NIL, the transfer portal, this conference realignment.
Speaker 4: We know that if there's going to continue to be
Speaker 4: lawsuits down the road, so things are going to change.
Speaker 1: Where it goes, I really don't know.
Speaker 4: I do think that the way that college football is
Speaker 4: right now, there's nothing really you can compare to it.
Speaker 1: Right There's nothing else out there.
Speaker 4: You'll be like, Okay, yeah, follow this model because it
Speaker 4: doesn't exist. And I think if we can find a
Speaker 4: way to look more like some of the models that
Speaker 4: are out there. I mean, obviously the NFL is a model.
Speaker 4: It's different because this is collegiate, it's not the professional.
Speaker 4: But the more we can find something to grab on
Speaker 4: to say, Okay, let's let's run college football something like this,
Speaker 4: so we have more comparisons, because what happens now is
Speaker 4: there's just a lot of hard feelings between schools. There's inequities,
Speaker 4: whether it's the players you know and you know, different folks,
Speaker 4: and lawsuits about you know, all the things that go
Speaker 4: on across college sports. Where in other sports like the NFL,
Speaker 4: you know, they have rules in place, they have players associations,
Speaker 4: they have clicked the bargaining agreements, they have all these
Speaker 4: different things in place that you can look through to say, okay,
Speaker 4: there's precedence here. Right now, we're in a world where
Speaker 4: there's no precedence.
Speaker 1: It's the wild West.
Speaker 4: It's it's wild, and so that's what creates hard feelings.
Speaker 4: And I think for all of us sometimes, as you know,
Speaker 4: coaches and even our players, you're not too sure what
Speaker 4: to think. No, And I think that's probably the hardest
Speaker 4: part right now. So I think any of that stuff
Speaker 4: is possible because we don't really know what's coming next.
Speaker 2: It seems as the lines getting grayer and grayer. Because
Speaker 2: when I was when we were playing day back in
Speaker 2: our day, there was like dumb rules like you could
Speaker 2: have a bagel, but you couldn't have cream cheese, Like
Speaker 2: there was all these crazy things that the NCAA would
Speaker 2: put in, and now every other conference basically gets to
Speaker 2: do what the SEC did and that's paid players one
Speaker 2: way or another. And so you kind of just see
Speaker 2: it going over and over eventually, like we're essentially turning
Speaker 2: into a minor leagues of the NFL.
Speaker 1: Are we not there? Is them there? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Right, I think it's a little right now because again
Speaker 2: there's yeah, there's nothing to kind of police it.
Speaker 3: Literally tomorrow if they want, like binding through binding agreement.
Speaker 3: I know, we're kind of just talking.
Speaker 2: To each other, all right, that's what the best podcasts
Speaker 2: are anyways, do you think and I step standpoint. I
Speaker 2: know there's the team itself can't be involved with that,
Speaker 2: but you guys got a pretty good ANIL situation set up.
Speaker 2: Got these guys some accountants and stuff like that for
Speaker 2: one case.
Speaker 4: Well, so, yeah, the great thing for us is the
Speaker 4: city of Columbus. There's two million people here, thirty thousand
Speaker 4: business So we're really positioned well to be able to
Speaker 4: have our guys take advantage and image like those because
Speaker 4: business right across the street. There's so many things in
Speaker 4: place here and then certainly with the fan base and
Speaker 4: people throughout Ohio and throughout the country, there's a lot
Speaker 4: of people that want to help, and so our guys
Speaker 4: are very visible, visible, and so there's a lot of
Speaker 4: opportunity for them the way that name image of likeness
Speaker 4: was designed for, you know, and I think a lot
Speaker 4: of our guys have benefited from that.
Speaker 2: When it comes to I think it's a good say
Speaker 2: way like, how do you sell guys on obviously your
Speaker 2: house it's a big brand.
Speaker 1: We'll want to lid on the store on that, that's
Speaker 1: a massive brand.
Speaker 2: How do you get guys from a California, from a Texas,
Speaker 2: from a Florida and sell them on the idea of
Speaker 2: a house state?
Speaker 4: No kind of kind of what we're talking about before.
Speaker 4: You know, A big part is you come here to
Speaker 4: win championships and you come here for development. You come here,
Speaker 4: you know, to have an opportunity to not only you know,
Speaker 4: develop as a football player, but also life after football.
Speaker 4: You have so much you know, such a such a
Speaker 4: network out there that you can tap into. That's a
Speaker 4: big part of this finding out what, you know, what
Speaker 4: else do you want to do when you're done playing football?
Speaker 4: I talk to our guys all the time about that.
Speaker 4: You guys got done playing, You're not just gonna sit
Speaker 4: on the couch and hang out. You got to figure
Speaker 4: out what's next, you know, And you probably had no
Speaker 4: idea it was gonna be be a podcast and you know,
Speaker 4: you want to get into broadcasting. Maybe you did know that,
Speaker 4: but I think we talked to our guys about is
Speaker 4: they actually have an opportunity to figure that out while
Speaker 4: they're in college where you know a lot of families.
Speaker 4: I'm sure you know you guys had family members where
Speaker 4: they had to do something on it necessity and didn't
Speaker 4: have the opportunity to think, oh, this is what I
Speaker 4: like to do. You know, obviously you guys enjoy doing this,
Speaker 4: so you get an opportunity to do it after, you know,
Speaker 4: careers in the NFL, well that's the goal. They come
Speaker 4: in with careers in the NFL, and then what do
Speaker 4: you want to do when you're done? Hopefully you can
Speaker 4: find your passion and that way you don't feel like
Speaker 4: you go into work every day. Your people in your family,
Speaker 4: people in my family, they had to go to.
Speaker 1: Work because they had to pay bills. Not a necessity.
Speaker 4: The goal was for them to be able to find
Speaker 4: their passion so that they don't really have to work
Speaker 4: a day in their life. They're finding something that they
Speaker 4: like to do. And so that combined with obviously the
Speaker 4: football platform that you have here and the ability to
Speaker 4: play for national championships. You know, when you walk in
Speaker 4: the building right here, you enjoy being in the building
Speaker 4: every day. You enjoy grinding and getting after it every day, competing,
Speaker 4: but also being part of a family and and and
Speaker 4: then also the develop developing part, you know, being able
Speaker 4: to develop and be in a environment where that that
Speaker 4: you know, there's a lot of similarities to being in
Speaker 4: Columbus to being in the NFL. Yeah, it's an NFL
Speaker 4: factory here is you know, playing in the big lights.
Speaker 4: You know the expectations. You know, our guys walk downtown.
Speaker 4: I mean they're gonna get noticed. It's you know, so
Speaker 4: you have to move a little different and you learn
Speaker 4: that at a young age.
Speaker 1: When you're hear in clumb.
Speaker 3: Mitch, you are a massive Oha State fan. You have
Speaker 3: anything before we let coach Daego. Mitch asked when his
Speaker 3: players leave, what do you want to want them to
Speaker 3: walk away with?
Speaker 1: IM? Sure you do? Well?
Speaker 4: I think the first thing you want them to walk
Speaker 4: away with is you know, a feeling that they miss it,
Speaker 4: that that they want to come back because there was
Speaker 4: a brotherhood here that you know, when you leave, you're
Speaker 4: like leaving a family. And you know, our goal is
Speaker 4: to maximize these guys and help their reach their dreams
Speaker 4: and goals. But at the same time, like love them
Speaker 4: and our arms around them help them the best they can.
Speaker 4: And so if you want them to have a great experience,
Speaker 4: know that they got challenged, they got pushed, you know,
Speaker 4: and it's our job to make them see things they
Speaker 4: can't see, do things they wouldn't do on their own,
Speaker 4: Hear things that maybe they can't I don't want to hear.
Speaker 4: But that's part of coaching, that's part of parenting, that's
Speaker 4: part of you know, mentoring. But I also know that
Speaker 4: they maximize themselves in the field, had a great experience
Speaker 4: and want to come back and give back.
Speaker 1: And be part of the program. I think it's not.
Speaker 2: In the Big Ten. There's multiple coaches in the Big Ten.
Speaker 2: If you had to fight one of those coaches, what.
Speaker 1: Coach would it be? You're got to take me down
Speaker 1: this road, and why is it? Jim Harba, would it
Speaker 1: even be? Who would he fight? And why is it
Speaker 1: Jim Harball?
Speaker 4: I don't know, uh, And I can tell you our
Speaker 4: our our culture is you know, if you say fight,
Speaker 4: you see fight all over the facility.
Speaker 1: You can see it right there. Fight.
Speaker 4: Fight to become the best version of yourself. So we're
Speaker 4: fighting every day. We're fighting against every opponent.
Speaker 2: You take Matt rule, work with Matt Hey, he could
Speaker 2: take Matt roll Oh Temple at Temple.
Speaker 4: Temple the first year in two thousand and five, it
Speaker 4: was Al Golden's first year there.
Speaker 1: We won one game.
Speaker 4: I think we're the only team to ever lose back
Speaker 4: to back game sixty two to nothing.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, is there anything we have to look
Speaker 2: forward to? With the coach ruling in Nebraska? He's hees great,
Speaker 2: it's great. He's a really good coach, really sharp. You know,
Speaker 2: he'll do great things. You know, he's a lot of
Speaker 2: respect for Matt. He's a really good coach. So I
Speaker 2: haven't fought him before, so I'm not sure that would go.
Speaker 2: But on the fighting thing, who do you think he'd
Speaker 2: have the most trouble with in the Big ten? Just
Speaker 2: on stature alone, because you got some ship to you now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say probably you know who would be
Speaker 4: uh PJ would be hard because the guy's got so
Speaker 4: much energy. He's got a high motor guy. Would feel
Speaker 4: like he would just keep going coming at you.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean. You have to plan to
Speaker 1: like you got to choke him out or something. You
Speaker 1: have to him. He's gonna keep coming back, keep coming
Speaker 1: next day, day in, day out. He's got a lot
Speaker 1: of energy day out. He's another great coach and a
Speaker 1: great guy. Yeah, yeah, thanks a lot, man, Thank you
Speaker 1: for sitting down with us.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Hopefully, hopefully we did all right. All right,
Speaker 3: good deal, hell you guys, the dumbs up. We got
Speaker 3: the dumb good luck.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you, all right, you got a man, of course,