¶ Building a Loyal College Football Team
Hey , you're welcome to the coaching minds podcast free resource from mental training plan . Today we are we are resurrecting OTS on the spot .
We've got Zeke and Comer are still in here , and we actually just started having this conversation right after , right after we finished up recording the last episode , and just I had this question and I thought you know what , why don't , why don't we just toss the headphones back on , turn on the mics and and just I mean , this is truly what on the spot is
right .
Zeke , I love it , I love on the spot . But it gets me a little nervous because you just don't know what you're about to say , what the question is . But it's for all of our viewers to find out that we're just regular people , that we don't know .
So here's my question , comer , like you know , because you've got , you've got all these people all across the world except Antarctica . Still we're working , knowing that yet We've got , you know , you got all these people that just heard you say you're maybe potentially interested in taking some people on this trip , on this journey .
But then you know , there's also like this and and I feel like we're seeing this in this new era of college football with the transfer portal , where people can just come and go , I mean here's , you know , the most extreme example in my mind is you know , looking at Ohio State , here's a , here's a starting quarterback at the end of his junior year just took
his team to an 11-1 regular season and then leaves and goes to Syracuse for his senior year . Is that there's , just there's . There's gotta be a new challenge for college football coaches to be able to build like that . You know this trust because you were talking about , you know the just the boring details , matt , about your Grand Canyon hike .
You know you were talking about going through your equipment , going through your checklist , visualizing the different locations , visualizing the path . You know , in the military , they talk through every single possible scenario , every single possible . You know well what if this happens , what's our contingency plan ?
Is there in this , in this new era of college football , is it more difficult than ever to really truly put together a team that you know is not going anywhere and is not going to quit on you ? Is it even possible ? Is I mean , is it like you know , if things don't go their way , they're gonna do what's best for them , they're leaving .
I'm not saying that's good , I'm not saying that's bad . I'm saying , as a coach , is it even more difficult now to put together that team ? What does it look like to really truly build together that team ?
Because I mean , there had to have been there , had to have been a piece in your mind , matt , when you guys were on this hike that it was like , all right , no matter what happens , these guys are in it , we're finishing this together . Talk , talk to me just a little bit about your , your thoughts on this topic it's just gonna be different .
It's gonna be more like professional sports . I think you need to really map out your program to who you want . I think you kind of need your culture guys , and then you go out and pick your stars as they're available .
Whether that's whether the , I don't know there's a new dynamic where the group of five conferences like the Mac they're the only ones recruiting high school kids now and Then the power five . Yeah , are they the new minor leagues of college football . I think GM's head coaches of college football now have to now start look at professional models .
Yeah , you're gonna be bringing guys in for one to four years and , however , I don't know how and I and I L works . You know , I know how it works , but , like , can you put them to some sort of a year contract , to your contract ? Can they get out of it whenever they want ?
It's a whole new dynamic , but I definitely think Culture is gonna be bigger now than than ever . How can you have someone come in leave like a house date ? You know they're getting this kid from Kansas State .
Yeah , yeah quarterback .
So you know he's got to come in there , presumably now , maybe for the spring semester . Obviously , get all his teammates to buy into them , Learn the system in the spring and be ready to roll by August . That's not easy , you know . So coaches now have to be even better salesmen , if you will , but their number one thing has to be that locker room .
It has to be the culture of the program where kids come in . And yet you know you have to recruit the right kids . But it does seem now that they're just taking anybody Like there , unless they recruited them , maybe they're recruiting them out of high school . So they've been following this kid at LSU for two years .
Like I know him , I recruited him two years ago . He's good , let's bring him on . But some of these guys jumping Like the highest eight quarterback Does he know someone at Syracuse ? Did someone go there ? Maybe ? But that's a big jump Just to go into something . So culture is going to be more important than ever . It's got to be lasting and it's got it .
The locker room has got to have some veterans in there . So you almost got to recruit some that like he's a four-year guy , yeah , and you got . You got to recruit your own players Weekly . Yeah , it seems like you rub a kid the wrong way he could be out , Mm-hmm you know , it's crazy .
I imagine a most of the coaches , older coaches for sure that you hate this new era of the athlete where , yeah , if you rub them the wrong way , if you know they didn't get to play as much as they wanted , they're out and that's . That's kind of the new , where you've kind of just seen it throughout .
Maybe you know , in middle school , a kid you know here , he went and play with this a you team , with this guy , and then , but they didn't get to play much , so well , we'll just go play with this team , and they kind of bounced around . Well , that's just gonna continue and that's continued into college sports .
I mean shoot . That's continued into high school sports .
Sure , oh , it's bouncing around right , so like it luck . You know , whatever you hate it , that is what you have , and we have in front of us . And I don't think that's changing . No , and so , as coaches , what can you do ?
And I think you're right , like as far as the college scheme goes of like , well , you recruit , you know , maybe , like I hate to say lesser players , but people that you know they're gonna be here and they're gonna be solid , and then maybe they're kind of like salesmen to try to keep these guys here . But I think that we're gonna see more Change coming .
I think it's like the floodgates hit the NCAA with transfer and NIL , and now You're just trying to backtrack and try to come up with a plan , because I think everybody's probably in a grand set . It's not a great system right now and what's going on ?
I love that the players are getting some of the money that they are bringing in to the universities , but I don't think it's good , a good system for life of . I don't like what's going on . I'm just going to leave and I'm going to go find that that like , like you're saying Coma , like grinding it out , and you're going to have to work .
Yeah , we're bringing in this five star quarterback and yeah , you're a really good quarterback , but you got to get better and you got to work and it's kind of just getting to that . When you're married and you have kids , it sucks . You can't just be like I'm not happy with what you did today , my wife , I'm out , I'm gonna leave .
You know people do that , but that's not what makes life great and you just got to learn that there's going to be hard times . You've got to push through those and it's going to be worth it . I mean we talked about that in your podcast , matt , of how you've got to push through it and it's the journey of getting there Right .
Imagine if Ohio State is to win the national championship next year and a quarterback was like yeah , I don't know what the reasons were , he transferred , but whatever , it was like he pushed through all that . How worth it it would be . I don't think he's going to get that at Syracuse . I just don't think for whatever reason he went there .
Like you said , matt , he knew somebody . So maybe there's family that's there , maybe there's a legitimate reason , but I don't think it would be as satisfying as what it was at Ohio State and that . I could be wrong . I don't know much on it . That's why we're on the spot , that's .
I mean that's fair . I mean I don't know . I don't know necessarily those reasons . I know it can't . It can't feel good as a junior that just finished up an 11 and 1 regular season . When your coach is asked who the starting quarterback is next year , that his answer is I don't know open competition , but that doesn't mean , you just leave right . I'm not .
I'm not disagreeing with you , but if , if I'm out at the same time , like if I'm Kyle and I'm thinking , you know , there's a chance that if I go somewhere else I can develop my game , I make it into the NFL .
There's a chance that if I stay here to Ohio State with this staff that's already not happy with me I'm already , you know , behind the eight ball a little bit . Maybe I don't even play , maybe I don't even have a shot at the NFL .
I don't know , I don't want to , I don't want to get into the specifics of , like , what's driving those individual athletes , because you know we'll save that for the ESPN talk
¶ Sports Contracts and Accountability Discussion
shows . But I am intrigued , comer , what you were saying about like potentially being able to sign them to a one year or a two year deal . Get a little bit more commitment out of them , solidify that a little bit more . And I completely agree , zeke , what you were saying , like it's , it's the Wild West right now . Like there's .
There's going to have to be some reigning in of things .
Yeah , it's all I mean . You start giving them contracts , like I understand , like coaches leave , you should get a chance to leave to a point , but they're getting huge buyouts , like they're not leaving , like whatever reason they're leaving for they're fired or you know . A lot of times the top coaches don't leave on their own for another day .
It's like the Mac schools , like if they have a great year they'll leave . Yeah , but even with the kids , like if you sign these things and they want to leave early , you know they got to pay back . Or you know , if you do something where you offer or you want them out to free at that scholarship , you have to , you owe them a buyout .
I don't , I don't know what , like , I think it's just got to be a professional model where some of this is now guaranteed . Or you got to like you got to sign your name on a dotted line and stick to it . Maybe that's the thing right now is there's no , there's no accountability , there's no , there's nobody holding them to these commitments .
And again , they're verbal . Every kid now you know he's happy to leave his university . Then he puts on Instagram how thankfully he was for them and I'm like , well , if you're that thankful and it was that great of experience , you don't know what's going on , so it's tough to say .
But maybe you know some sort of you know we're not going to verbal , we're going to sign here .
Yeah .
You know , if you leave early you're going to pay back this scholarship . You know it's hopefully your new schools paying new NIL money . You can pay us back , however that works .
Yeah , maybe it does become like a truly professional model where , like you know , deion shows up at Colorado and he says , all right , here's who I'm bringing in and we're going to commit to this program for this year and everybody's here for this year . Right , and that you know . Maybe , maybe that is the way that you go , but I don't know .
It'll be interesting to see . I appreciate you guys being a part of on the spot .
Number three I like it . Another question for you guys just happened here in the NFL , where they've recently finished up week 18 of the season . Dan Campbell has developed this culture and mindset with the Lions , who were really bad not too long ago , and now it's this like we're , we're grinders .
We're going to get after it .
You know it doesn't matter . You know they just got really screwed over in the Dallas game . Yeah , and he was like it doesn't matter , like we're going to show up . You know that game's done , we're going to show up , we're going to work harder than ever . This is going into week 18 , so on and so forth . Week 18, .
They've already solidified their spot as the number two seed and the playoffs . Most teams sit their players , their best players , but Dan's got these . Like , we've got this mindset that we are going to work as hard as we can . This is an opportunity to play Controversial . Him playing it , one of his star players gets hurt . What are you guys' thoughts ?
Like , you know , you've developed that culture , you've developed that mindset . You know , did he take it too far ? Is it that gray or there ? What are you guys' thoughts on that ?
I don't think so , because that's the culture he set . You know , luckily he's built in that culture like this is how we do things . You know , now it's going to be the next man up , so I have no problem with it , as long as that culture has been established , that trust has been established .
You know , no one came out later , none of the players , and like I knew we shouldn't have played . I'm a Cleveland Browns fan so they rested a lot of guys . You know the quarterback . I understand some guys they that were hurt . They played because they need to see him play in action . Other guys were banged up and they sat him .
So it's one of those things that if he doesn't get hurt and they go on to win the Super Bowl , you know it was the greatest thing ever , but you know hindsight's 50-50 . So those are always tough . They're good to talk about . Almost like that the Colts play .
You know , I don't think anybody disagreed with the play call , but if that guy catches it , it's phenomenal .
It's phenomenal .
Like what a what a coach to put his trust in the third string running back and give him a role . And for that guy you know what a great coaching job , what a great job by him . But since he dropped it , everybody's like why is the third string court running back in there ? And I think he even said that like it's the NFL , like these things happen .
I mean I've seen stories of NFL guys getting hurt at home . I don't know it's , it's definitely 50 , 50 , me personally , I probably just rest guys . But that's like you said , that's the culture he built , that's the way he does things . So no one's surprised by it . It's almost like you know he gets hurt . Well , that's how we do things .
But I do think , like you're saying , a testament to his culture is you didn't have guys that were like I'm not playing , or that came out in the interview afterwards like yeah , we really didn't want to , but like they're bought in . I mean , you can see what the product on the field they're bought in .
And I just think it's a testament to him , ben , what do you think I ?
feel like , since Barry Sanders left , like what have the Lions had ? Like , what have the Lions done the Megatron . Look at sure .
But that was a quick glimpse , sure , yeah .
I mean like they are a legit , fun team to watch . Like my inner spread the field and throw the ball all over the place , offensive coordinator self is kind of like , well , I don't know if I'd want to run this kind of offense , but I mean , how do you turn that on and not want to cheer for the guy ? Like , how do you , how do you turn on this ? This ?
You know hard nose style of football that maybe has been missing for a while as we've gotten a little more spread . You know a little bit less the big personnel , a little bit less downhill . You know power running game Many , many is fun to . He's fun to cheer for .
And I almost feel like if you , if you are going to build your program around doing things tough , as hard as you can every single time and competing until the final whistle blows , and then you don't do that in week 18 , I almost feel like it does more harm than good to the culture of your program .
And you almost like you got guys that are like , well , is this all just a ? You know a bunch of a bunch of fluff that he's thrown around , like he had a chance to put his money , his money , where his mouth was and he did , and you know , somebody got hurt . But it's the NFL next guy up , I mean in the Comer .
I'm glad you brought up the Colts game , like I think yeah , me too . Sorry , let me rephrase that I'm not glad about the Colts game . I'm glad you brought up that topic because I think the thing that stood out to me culturally after that play call was when they stuck a camera in Jonathan Taylor's face .
He said we trust our coach , we trust our play caller . He's been putting a masterpiece together all year . I mean the dude's been working with , he's been working with backups the entire season . Like why this isn't like he's coaching you know six man football in rural Montana . And putting in the third string kid like can barely tie his shoes .
Like he's putting in the kid who was the best player at his high school , one of the best players probably at his university and now I know it was a stud Right and like , now , all of a sudden , we don't trust two grown men that are professionals to complete a past two yards downfield . Like , well , maybe they shouldn't be in the NFL then .
Like , so I don't know . Like , should you hand the ball to JT and let him get you one yard ? Let your $46 million running back pick up a yard for you , right , sure , is it a good play ?
Call to you know , put some third or fourth string guy that no one in the world is thinking , oh , the ball's going to him , hide him in the backfield and then release him out into the flats . I don't know .
You could argue that's an even better play call . We're a prisoner of the moment right , absolutely . And the Colts . They threw the ball the most in the NFL on like fourth and third and less , Like it's what the Colts have done .
Sure .
And Shane . You know that's their identity . Like it or hate it , that's what they've done and you know it failed in this moment .
So then you question everything I think people forget that he didn't drop a touchdown Like he dropped the first down . They still had to score .
Right , like they are , assume we hadn't done much of .
Right , they are assuming that , because even if he caught it , he falls down . You know it's first down , which is good , game's not over , but the defense is going to lay down , I mean they could have thrown a pick , like if that happens , and then they handed off to Jonathan Taylor any fumbles , like it's a whole different narrative but the same result .
So , like this whole thing that the Colts lost on that play and then we've talked about in football before that was the play that ended the game . Yes , but there was probably a lot more plays to be made Defensively . Get another takeaway somewhere .
Every single position coach will be able to go back through his guys and find if we would have done this , the outcome maybe could have been a little bit different .
If you catch that , it's not like the Texans were gonna lay down and let them score on the next play . I mean they still had to win the game . They're still behind .
So and if you score quickly , cj Straub has the ball in his hands again like yeah , yeah , there's no way you can blame the game on that , right .
I do agree with you , though , ben , that the response from from that guy as well , yes , it was great response .
That's a mentally tough guy .
Like I been and I talked earlier of he could have just taken the fine and not talked to reporters .
Absolutely , I'm not gonna do it .
He was a man about it and you got a .
Sometimes you got a man up to your mistakes , yeah , and yeah , you screwed up . That doesn't make you any less of a man , right , makes you more of a man . There's just man up to it , and so I was happy . You know as as angry as I was in that moment yeah , to see that from him was like , oh okay .
Yeah , he's a human he's a man right and he said and we , we tell the kids this and tell my daughter's like . He even said , like that play does not define him .
Yes , yeah like .
So you know you as a football player does not define you as a man like you said . So when he said that , like that was Spot on . You know from to have the composure , wanted to sit in front of all those people and answer questions right After probably the most devastating play in his life with obviously still some tears in his eyes , one of the most .
Disappointing moments , yeah , maybe of his career .
Yeah , it's good to see . Obviously he says like go talk to my parents , probably the only people love me right now . Oh , that was great .
Like . Was it Franklin that gave him a hug after the game ? I ?
believe so .
I mean , yeah , he mentioned his teammates were still just .
Walked over to him , grabbed a hold of him , gave him a hug , said you know , the whatever version of this isn't your fault came out of their mouth , I mean just time after time . There's some , there's definitely some good culture pieces in that lock . Yeah , there is good stuff . That's the beauty of on the spot right .
We have no idea what the questions are gonna be , where the conversation is gonna go , just Sharing some thoughts with you guys . So , as always , if you enjoyed the show would love for you guys share this was somebody would love for you just in in conversation when it's you know , hey , what are you doing this off season to ? To improve yourself as a coach ?
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