Bengals Booth Podcast: Brand New Dey

not that type of interview. For that information, I recommend watching his introductory news conference on Bengals dot com or reading the many great stories posted by Bengals dot Com editor Jeff Hobson. My interview is more of a this is your life type of conversation, ranging from how Zach handled the white hot spotlight that goes with being the starting quarterback at Nebraska to his wife, Sarah, who's about to move for the seventeenth time in thirty five years

as the daughter and wife of football coaches. After that conversation, my broadcast partner Dave Lapham joins me to discuss why the Bengals pick Zach Taylor and what players should expect with him in charge. All of that is straight ahead, but first here's a quick reminder that you can have the latest edition of this podcast delivered right to your phone, tablet, or computer by subscribing on iTunes, Stitcher, or pod Bean.

It's the greatest invention since YouTube. In doing some research about Zach, I learned that one of the highlights of his playing career in Nebraska was a game winning last minute drive against Texas A and M. Want to see it Search for Nebraska drive versus Texas A and M and you can watch it on YouTube. I love that that drive was one of many topics I asked him about when we sat down after his news conference in the Bengals locker room. Time for some fun facts with

the tenth head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, Zach Taylor. Zach, you are from a football family. Your dad played at Oklahoma, coached at Oklahoma. Your brother was a college quarterback, coaches in the NFL. Your father in law was an NFL head coach. What are your earliest football memories? Probably owe you Nebraska when I was a little kid. You know, I remember watching those games on TV when it was in Lincoln and going to the games when it was

usually freezing cold outside in late November. And my next reor neighbor was Gary Gibbs, who was the head coach at Oklahoma for a number of years, and so his daughter and I would play football in the front yard while they were having road games on TV. And so, you know, I grew up from the day. I can remember being a Sooner fan and just wanting to play and I seeing my son now, you know, Brooks, he does the same way that I'm a coach. I can see see my childhood through him now. And you're a

basketball ball boy for the Sooners. Correct. That's great research by you. I was Billy Tubbs was the head coach, and my uncle Mike Anderson was an assistant, and so I could not tell you how old I was. I was probably nine or ten years old. My sweat bottoms were too long. I trip over him, and I'd sit behind the opposing teams head coach, you know, and just kind of serve water all the players. So, yeah, that that goes way back to my really early days. We're

doing fun facts with Zach Taylor. You shared a bedroom with your brother Press. I've read that it was a shrine to Peyton Manning. Yeah, we actually had a Tennessee jersey on the wall. We had an old Miss Jersey on the wall for Eli, for my younger brother. So we had a basketball hoop. We had really high ceilings for whatever reason. It was above the garage. It was a former attic that we converted, so we had high ceilings. We had a basketball hoop in there, and there was

a lot of competitive games back in the day. A lot of tears shed, that's for sure, with some of the elbows we threw to each other. But yeah, it was it was. That was. That was a long time ago. You're really doing your research here. I love, we're just getting started. Trust So you and your brother have competed against each other in the NFL. And there's a trophy, the Taylor bro Bowl Trophy in your father's office right

It's in my father's office in Norman. Unfortunately, I'm not gonna say the record on air here because it's it's not in my direction right now. But hopefully someday in the next couple of years we can we can even score. You are a great player at Nebraska. You were the Big Twelve Player of the Year your senior year as a quarterback. And if you're the quarterback at Nebraska, you are playing under a white hot spotlight. How has that

prepared you for what you're about to do now? I think it's it's really helping me that that experience is invaluable. And you know, I've never I've never been a wild person outside of the complex, but it really does let you know that you're in a fish bowl and everyone's watching everything you do, and you get to conduct yourself the right way and treat people with respect, and so that goes a long way. And I've known that since

my childhood. I think my parents raised me the right way, and so that just carried over my time at Nebraska. But that is that is an intense environment. I know what it's like to be booed when you're thrown on completion, and so you know, I know that that's no different when you're coaching the NFL. So I think that experience will serve me. Well, we're doing fun facts with Zach Taylor. If you're a forty nine Ers fan, you have the

catch Dwight Clark's catch against the Cowboys. If you're a Broncos fan, you have the helicopter John Elway's leaping first down flight in the Super Bowl against the Packers. If you're a Nebraska fan, you've heard of the drive which you led against Texas A and M, a dramatic last minute game winning touchdown drive. Look up the words Zach Taylor drive on the internet and it takes you right to the YouTube clip. Was that the highlight of your

playing days? Yeah, that was certainly one of them. You know, that clinched the Big twelve North for us, and that was something that we had a goal of all season, and to do it on the road in an intense environment against a great team at the time, it was not easy to do and it took all three phases

in that game. We walked a kick. First of all, we got to stop on defense, and then we walked a kick, and then we were able to convert on offense and go down and Marie Spurify had a great touchdown catch there on the left corner of the end zone. So that's a memory I'll never forget, certainly one of our better moments at Nebraska. Yeah, that was that was a fun time. After Nebraska was finished, you spent some time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The head coach was

John Gruden at the time, famously tough on quarterbacks. I know you weren't there for very long, but did you get a taste of that. I did. He has high standard for those guys and puts a lot on their point and expects a lot out of him, which you showed in the NFL, and so I appreciated the way you coach. I was. I think I was the six stream quarterback and there was only five quarterbacks there because Jake Plummer was under contract but not reporting. So I

didn't take any snaps really during my time there. But it was a fun experience to be a part of an NFL team, at least for a couple of weeks, and from there was on to the CFL. You didn't get the opportunity to play for Winnipeg, but you were on the team. What was that experience like? It was good? You know, that wasn't a great fit for me. You know, I got small hands and that ball is a little bit bigger. So I knew really the first day I showed up on the campus the place and picked up

a football. I said, this isn't gonna go well for me. So I happened to join the best team. We went to the Great Cup. We were the runner ups, but it was a good experience for me just to be able to check that one off and say that this isn't the future for me. I think it's time to get into coaching. I found an interview I think from maybe July of two thousand and seven something like that, you were twenty five years old, and it's the first reference that I saw you say I want to be

a head coach. How did you know in your mid twenties that you wanted to do this. Well, I think I've had great role models and great coaches that coach Man College, and so when you're around great teachers like that, it leaves a lasting impression on you. And you know, I've made the statement before. I remember sending a Nikon and accounting classes at Nebraska and studying my playbook instead of paying attention to what I should have been paying

attention to. And so you know, at some point a don's on you that maybe this is the best path for me. This is what I understand, this is what I like to do. When you've been around great teachers that you can follow their lead, and it was just a natural progression for me. I got to know you a little bit in twenty sixteen when you were the offensive coordinator at the University of Cincinnati, and it was a tough year always coach Tuberville's final year as the

head coach. You've said you learned from that experience. Give me something something it's specifically that you learned from that year. Well, I mean, there's games where it's difficult to move the ball and you face a lot of adversity, and so you always want to be accountable and take responsibility when you feel like you're the leader of that side of the ball. And so because the coaches and the players always going to look to you to be an example,

and it's not always going to be easy. There's going to be adversity in this profession, and so you got to conduct yourself the right way, be a problem solver. And those are some things I took away from that experience there. For that year, you recruited a quarterback that you didn't get to coach, but Cincinnati fans are happy you did, Desmond Ritter, and you two guys have stayed in frequent contact. Yeah, he's a great kid. I fell

in love with him when he was in Louisville. And remember the workout he conducted with his teammates and he was just a great leader. That's the thing that struck me is the guys were drawn to him, and he led the whole workout was accurate. And so it's great to see the job that Luke Fickle has done there with that program. He's outstanding coach, treats people the right way, and I think Dez has done a great job leading that team. A few more fun fact for Zach Taylor,

you and your wife Sarah enjoyed your time. Here's talking to her a little while ago, she said this will be her seventeenth move related to coaching, her father's coaching career and now your coaching career. That's unbelievable, it is. But she's a trooper. Her mom's a trooper, and so she learned from her mom. And you know, she's really the leader of her household. She keeps it all together

and she's been outstanding throughout this whole process. So it's nice to for once leave a place that we really enjoyed being and come back to a place that really feels like home. And so I know that's special for her and special for me. It just feels right. How do you juggle the demands of being an NFL head coach with trying to raise four young kids. It's hard. I mean, it's important to have a wife who understands what she signed up for and can be the leader

that she is. And you know, but my family is the most important thing to me, and so every chance I get away from football, I want to make time for them and be the dad that they need and the husband that they need. And so you know, we do have a special group of kids, and my wife leads the charge there, so I appreciate her all right. Last few topics, No great research on my part. Greatest athlete in any sport of all time? I mean Michael Jordan.

As a kid in my generation, that's who I grew up idolizing and in watching and thinking he was the greatest of all time. And so um, that's probably the name I would say. Do you have a hidden talent that nobody knows about? No, I can. I can definitely say that I have no talents that are not well known. What was your all time worst sports injury? I broke my wrist my first ever tackle football game. And my dad, who was my coach, I don't know if he's here and out. My dad was my coach, and he didn't.

You know, a coach whose son is playing tackle for the first time as the quarterback and he's hurt on in the first game, you know, hey, tough enough and get back out there. But in reality, I'd broken my wrist, so um, you know, typical coach. He's trying to get me to play through it. I'm crying. You know, I'm in sixth grade and uh that you know, I've really been fortunate, knock on wood, to have not suffered any injuries in my playing or coaching career, and that was

probably the biggest one. Great to have you back in town. Look forward to working with you. Congratulations on extraordinary day. Thank you very much, Dan claudi Beer. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Zach as much as I did, and I really look forward to co hosting his weekly TV show this fall with Dave Lappham. Speaking of Lap, he played for the first four head coaches in Bengals history, including Paul Brown and Forrest Gregg, and he's covered the

last five as a Bengals broadcaster. Following Zach's introductory news conference, I picked Lap's brain on the hiring of Zach Taylor Lap. We've known this was coming for a while. Now it's official. Zach Taylor is the head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals. I thought he killed the news conference, which is always a good first day on the job. What were some

of your biggest takeaways? I agree with you, Dan, I think I think he killed it, destroyed it, and I can see why in an interview process for our interview process with the committee that tasks with finding a new head coach, that he crushed it, you know, and he was the guy that they walked away from that meeting was saying, Wow, this guy's impressive. You know two things that I think he's going to be all about, and I think they're equally important, and it's almost like peanut

butter and jelly. They're both good when you put them together, they're even better. Scheme and culture, and that's he's big. Scheme is obvious. I think he feels like he's got a scheme that's gonna work. It's a proven scheme out there with the La Rams. He knows an inside out. I think you're gonna have offensive players are going to be thrilled to death. They're gonna put up, be put

in favorable matchups. It's all about matchups, and he is gonna design and scheme formations, personnel motion to get matchups that will heighten that player's skill set. He'll put them on the big stage to do big things. Quarterback Andy Dalton, Aj Green. I mean, you know, Joe Mixon, Giovanni, Bernard, Tyler, Boyd, if the list goes on and on. He is gonna make their life so much better. And it's it's it's gonna.

It reminds me of when Linda and Fonte had us on a roll when we were in the Super Bowl. As a player, we'd go into those meetings when he was introduced in the game plan like what's he got now? Oh boy, what's he cooking? How what's my involvement going to be in this big process? And guys couldn't wait. And I can see that same thing happening with these guys because everybody knows what the Rams did through thirty

three until I get belichicked. But thirty three points a game, you know, is phenomenal, and so that part of it, I think is going to be dynamic. But the other part is more of an intangible obviously in the culture, you know, his whole thing is like Sean McVay. He said, the biggest thing that he learned from Sean McVay was dealing with people, not necessarily scheme and although scheme officus

was huge and important, but everybody's validated. Everybody in that RAMS organization has validation from very top to very bottom, and everybody's opinion means something. Everybody's opinion is solicited, and that's that's when you're valued like that. I mean, everybody wants to contribute to the cause even more so. So those are the two things that you know, I took away from from the long press conference and the long meetings with media that he had afterwards, and even his

patience with all of that. His endurance and patience through that whole thing was impressive. By Zach as I listened to his news conference, the person that I thought of, oddly enough, was Luke Fickle because he kept coming back to the theme that guys want to be pushed, they want discipline, and we are going to They're going to come in here and love going to work every day. That really reminded me about what I've been hearing for the last couple of years from UC's now highly successful

head coach. Well, you know, it's it's a lot like being a parent. I mean, your kids crave discipline, whether they realize it or not. Your kids need discipline. They crave discipline, they respond to discipline. And I'm not talking about you know, cruel and unusual unusual punishment discipline, but I'm talking about structure and the discipline in the daily life.

And you know, knowing that they're going to get three good meals, whatever their schedule is, they're going to go to bed at night and have a roof over there. All of that sort of thing your kids create that they create the continuity and the consistency of all that. Players are the same way players want to be, you know, coached by guys that know what they're doing. And players can sniff out guys that don't know what they're doing quickly, and they can also really appreciate guys that do know

what they're doing. And the response is immediate and dramatic. And I think that's what he's going I think guys are gonna be like, Wow, this stuff is really good. This guy knows what he's doing. I think that's the reaction he's going to get. And you know, and I think I think the players are. I think he's going to treat him like men. But I do think that

he's going to hard coach him too. And you know, you don't have to beat guys up, but you know, just whether it's repetition of the same things over and over and over again and then maybe presenting in a different way, but it's the same thing, and then they

catch onto it that way. It's it's giving a pulse for you know how if you if you have any Dalton who can understand calculus, but you have other guys out there on the offense and only understand the alger one, you can't go to calculus until you get the algab one to go to algebra two, and beyond that, you know, you have to dumb it down. Those are all the things he's going to be learning about his personnel, not just watching what their physical attributes are on tape, but

getting to know them as players and as people. And he's going to deep dive into everybody. You can tell that man, he's gonna drill. He's gonna drill down really really far. Indeed, we both know him a little bit. I got to know him from his season at the University of Cincinnati when he was the offensive coordinator. You broadcast his games as a Nebraska quarterback and got to be in these production meetings leading a leading up to kickoff on Saturday. I could see why the Brown family

would be so drawn to him. Humble guy, not a flashy guy very much, just wants to be part of a team. Um. It seems to me like personality wise, he's a perfect fit for Mike Brown, Katie Troy, Paul and Duke Tobin, no question about it. And you know the another common denominators. Both are football families. Their whole life is football. Mike Brown doesn't have other businesses, and this is a hobby. This is it. This is Mike

Brown's life. You know, he grew up with football with his dad, the legendary Paul Brown, and it just goes from there. Zach Taylor's family, I mean, his father, his father in law's brother. I mean it's you know, everybody's football. Um. So yeah, that that was that was was striking to me. And I just think the other thing with him is he never when he played we were talking about this earlier, he did take a beating. I mean, he got crushed. He got he got pounded, he got thrown around. He

never pointed a finger at his offensive line. He never complained to anybody. He just took the licking and kept on ticking. And that's that's what he's like with Tommy Tubberville. Could have you know he was being thrown on the bus. He never threw anybody under the bus. He always burdens the shoulder responsibility, you know. And he's like playing the quarterback position. We've talked about this before. Every great one shoulders the burden of blame and deflects credit. I screwed

that up, man, that guy made a great play. And that's how he is with not just as a quarterback on the field playing, but I think that's how he is as a leader. He is good whenever they have success. Everybody, man, you guys were all great. Whenever they struggle. I'm not doing enough. I'm just not good enough. That that concept, I think is going to be him as a leader of the Cincinnati Bengals organization as well. I really believe that.

Let's talk about the football mine because obviously he's got the Sean McVeigh ties now for the last couple of seasons, but even going back to his playing days. He takes over as the quarterback in Nebraska when they are converting from having a run the football and option football forever to becoming a West Coast passing style under Bill Callahan. The fans revolted, This isn't Nebraska football an incredibly complex system for college football at that point? And he picked

it up in a snap. I did, and Bill Callahan and I remember, you know, I was part of the West Coast offense. I remember a lot of nomenclature. I mean a lot of words. I mean some players were like fifteen twenty words, you know, to get a play called it was. It was multiple words for formation, protection, the actual play. It's like, wow, you know some words for routes, so we're supposed to be It was something. And Bill Callahan and his dad was talking about it today.

I remember Bill Callahan talking about his saying, you know, an installation, we put like nine of our we thought top plays that you know, go to plays bread and Butter plays the West Coast offense on a on a board and Zach took him down and a lot of a lot of nomenclates are a lot of wording. The very next day, spit them all back at him like like and it feels like we knew we had our quarterback, we knew we were good there. So um that that's that's a little bit of a testament to it. But

you know we've mentioned this before. You know, I had like doing the games as an analyst in these meetings and Major apple White and Zach Taylor or the two guys to get up on the board and could install their offense like they were the offensive coordinator, not the quarterback. And I remember saying to guys and the crew, It's like, man, these guys, these guys could be coaches. And Major apple White, you know, has risen to a head coaching position during

the course of his career in college football. And now Zach Taylor is in the NFL, so not a surprise. And uh, he definitely has you know, people throw football like you around like you know, like it's quarters now. But he has it. He really has it. He's he's got it at a very very high level. You know, probably you know, I want to throw him in the genius category. I'll say a genius for Paul Brown, Bill Wallace.

There there's a you know, just a that that that that's not a very long roll call when you have to make that genius role call. But he is sharp. He's sharp as attack. He's thirty five years old, he has not been a head coach, so he doesn't have that skin on the wall. Are guy's going to challenge him? Yeah?

I think they will. You know, it sounds they'll test him sometimes maybe even if they don't realize they're testing him or not, you know, and um, and it's going to be interesting to see how how he handles that. I think though, when the biggest the biggest thing, and we've already talked about this, your credibility, I mean, do you know football? And can you are you a teacher? Can you make me better? Everybody wants to be coached,

Everybody wants to be better. So that's how he's going to make his his um, you know, his identification, identity with the football team, those kind of things. And but there will be I mean, there'll there'll be a surly veteran in his office someday at some point in time, maybe not even the two dear near distant future. That is, you know, he's going to challenge him a little bit and be interested to see how he disarms him or I asked him that very thing. Um, I said, you know,

how do you how do you handle that? You try to convert him or do you dismiss him basically? And he said, you know, basically kind of get to know him, you know, and then make a determination. I don't think he's going to do anything like, you know, like a snap judgment kind of thing. I think he's gonna, like we talked about earlier, drill and get deep into a lot of these players and coaches and organization, every everybody that he's working with, and a lot of names out

there about possible defensive coordinators. For a while, it looked like Jack del Rio might be the guy. Now it's been reported that that's not happening. Uh and Zach did not want to talk about possible members of his coaching staff today. Didn't think that was the right time to do that. But but in general terms, what do you think I think happens with defensive coordinator? You know, I still think that that the recipe, the formula, whatever you want to call it, that Sean McVay used, is what

they're looking for. Wade Phillips, the you know, a KG veteran um I've been to many many wars and battles, uh, and basically it's like you're you're almost assistant head coach. You've got the defense, and I'm going to take care of the offense, and you know his exit, he's calling his own play. So uh, when you're when you're doing that, you don't want to have to be It's not like he's not going to know what they're going to do defensively,

what their concepts and schemes and philosophies are. He's going to be all over that. But on a game management standpoint, you know, he wants somebody to be able to handle that and he doesn't want to have to cloud cloud his responsibilities with that. So I think, you know, the former head coach um the coordinator position being held before

experience in those areas. I think a young head coach there's there's nothing more valuable than having a former head coach on their staff that can at least say to him, hey, you know, heads up for this, watch out for this. I did this and it didn't work out very well when I first faced this, and I should have maybe handled it this way when this turned out when when I did this, this one man, I got great results

all that all that kind of information is invaluable. So it's somewhere during the course of assembling his staff, I think a former head coach somewhere I think is an important thing. It's not doesn't sound like it's going to be the offensive side of it. You know, Brian Callahan's a year younger than Zach, thirty four years old. So that offense is going to be young and jet energetic, enthusiastic, open minded. It's going to be very interesting and very creative.

I'm sure, and I'm not saying defensively has to be an old man. Get off my lawn. You know I'm doing it this one and a hell of hot water. Man. You ain't telling me anything. I'm not going to do so. So I think cohesion is the big thing. I think cultural cohesion C squared the two C words are going to be big and what za Zach is thinking when

he assembles his staff. But I still maintain that the two coordinator positions and his offensive line coach, those are the three big hires and we'll see how that all shakes down. Last thing, I looked over toward his folks in the middle of his Knitti's conference and they're there in the front row holding hands, and I'm thinking, how unbelievable is that your thirty five year old kid is about to be an NFL head coach. And they're so grounded,

you know. I mean when you look at them and you look at that relationship, and you look at the way Zach turned out, and you look at you know, um, you know, Zach and Sarah having their children and the family that they are, It's it's quite a legacy, you know, if you're you're sitting there as a as a parent and a grandparent, that's got to be. Man. I don't I don't know if I could have butten my sport coade if he were him, you know, my chest to be so swelled up, so proud. That is that that's

that's amazing. And then to boot Press his other son as a quarterback coach with the Philadelphia Eagles who won the Super Bowl last year. So you got you got two kids that played the quarterback position at the college level that are ones on a coaching staff in the NFL and a rising star highly regarded, and the other one just got his first head coaching opportunity in the National Football League and the oldest is thirty five years old.

That's a blessed family. But as the old saying goes, good things happen to good people, and the Taylor family that's pretty darn good people, isn't it. My thanks to Lap and to Zach Taylor, and that's going to do it for this episode of the podcast. But there is some news for you. For the first time, I will be doing regular Bengals Booth podcast during the off season, So if you haven't done so already, don't forget to

subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, or pod Bean. And if you have a minute, give it a rating or leave a comment. Your feedback is always appreciated and five star rankings help more Bengals fans find this podcast. I'm Dan Horde and thanks for listening to the Bengals Booth Podcast.