UNCC Head Football Coach Will Healy

hit me with three? What's going on? I did not know? You got it? Sometimes you gotta switch it up, man. You don't want things to be stale. Yeah that's true. How are you? Man? I'm doing good? Yeah. What's your energy level at right now? On the scale of one to team? I don't know, Probably low because I don't even know. All right, It's okay. Well, man, we're gonna go into the archives a little bit. We hadn't done codes and in a while, but man, I think it's

big dummy time. So we're gonna take this down to Florida in clear water. Hold on, hold on, hold on our social media manager has found our big dummy. So shout out to uh, absolutely shout out to Peyton. Peyton Smith doing the research for us, are leading our research team, research team, and one he found the story. Yeah, I'm trying. Don't hype it. Don't overhype it because he'll start start

pounding up. Yeah, he'll start smelling himself. So. Down in clear Water, Florida, twenty seven year old Herbert McClellan is accused of swiping more than a dozen and scratch off lottery tickets from a local speedway, then trying to cash in the ticket at the same store. So hold on, he swiped them, that means he stole him. Clarification, I know what it means, but somebody may be listening and said, well, he swiped him. So police say that McClellan strolled into

the convenience store around two am on Tuesday. Listen what they say. Nothing good happens after midding no um. So he strolled into the convenience store around two m on Tuesday, and while the worker behind the counter was caught up doing something else, McClellan reached over and took thirteen scratch offs worth just over a hundred all this. Let me tell you where you went wrong. Okay, he took the wrong number, so it was not lucky, unlucky. I'm lucky. See,

you can't steal and take the wrong number. You know what that is when you're just starting. That's a big dummy nicole. But dumny. But but the story don't stop there. So he's there's small, Yeah, there's there's tail. So he left out the store police say, And apparently he couldn't wait to see if any of his tickets were winners. One was. It was worth thirty dollars. So a few hours later he showed back up. Hold on, hold on,

I got bo peeing out. Let me let you all two am right now, still both be at that's a bad number anyway. Only thirteen I want is millions. Other than that, I want nothing else. Thirteen tickets at two am a few hours? So is this few? Is just our few? So few as two? No, a couple of fews like four or five, three or four? Okay, a little quick math click click your internal calculator, yes, my internal calculator. So dumbass came back about five a m.

Same day. Okay, we're probably wearing the same clothes, so back up at the same speedway so convenience store to cash it in per police. So, according to the jail records, was charged with petty theft. You said per police. That means they got him. So he came back in the store, workers called the police and the police arrested him because he tried to cash him in for thirty dollars at the same store, stole a hundred dollars worth, got thirty, went to jail over well, he made it. He did

make a profit because it was free. I figured discount and then he made thirty dollars and now you gotta make bail. Now you gotta make bail. So all in all, it wasn't worthy because he was It's tough times right now, man, you gotta you gotta get it how you live. But I don't think this was orchestrated. Herbert, first of all, the Herbster. The Herbster is in the slammer who names their child Herbert? That must be a family name. I ain't hating on the name Herbert. I'm hating on the

way that he planned this out. That just went more well. After he gets released from jail, Herbert will be now hermit, Hermit, Herbert the Hermit, because now he can't go to a speedway he did? Did they not tell you? He also has a lifetime band from all speedway community stores. So he is the recipient of our big dummy work. You big as dummy. Yeah, that's tragic, right, there's hate it for you, Herbert. Uh, that's what you get, stupid goodness. Gracious,

you know what I read this quote? Life is hard, but it's harder when you're stupid. That's cold blood, Rick James. Think about it. Life is hard where we are right now. Life is hard, and then when you do stupid stuff, it makes life compounded. It makes life so much harder. So, hey, I don't know your struggle, Herbert, but I know your

struggle now, brother. And look those thirteen lottery tickets got you now pent up into jail, backed into a corner, making sure your bunk mate, Debo, don't take your lottery tickets. So hat it for me one more time, big dummy? Can you? You're a big dumming? Hey who we got on the show. It ain't Herbert, damn so late coming up on the cut to a podcast We've got Will Heally, the current coach of the Charlotte forty Niners football team.

A former FCS Culture of the Year, he led un C Charlotte to their first Bowl appearance in their program's history. Will Heally on the cut to a podcast. Our first segment, coach, is called get iced Up, So it is basically our version of icebreakers. You don't know what's coming. We got some pre selected questions that me and him talked about. You don't know what's coming on. Uh So there may or may not be a follow up, and Smithie go ahead and give him the first one. I'm ready. Alright,

bug what I'm saying, I don't know why? All right, here we go, Here we go. If you had an extra hour, a free time a day, what would you use it to do? I would The politically correct answer is I was fitting with my family if I if it was just me, I'd play golf. Yeah too, pretty normal answer. Yeah that's good. You know southern? Are you from the south, right? Yeah? Tenn Where's Uda Wah right next to Chattanooga. It's about fifteen minutes north of Chattanooga,

heading towards Knoxville. Okay, yeah, alright, so I understand you're golfer. I'm a little bit of golfer. You know, hey, I can tear up some grass. I take credit. You shot at eighty five the other day. You're doing good. Where did you do that? Where do we play, Joe? Ocean? Ocean course, ocean now, yeah, where they're having the p GA next. So I played that this summer, my wife, would you shoot me that? I played all the way from the tips, all right, I went back back back,

all right and walk the thing. Well, you only can walk if you disable, so you don't get on brownie points for walking that you can take a card after ten because I found that out too. Your mother Joe, do you know what? Because Joe was with a black dude always holding So I shot. I shot eighty four. I blew up on the back, shot thirty seven on the front. There you go, struggled, struggled, struggled coming in. Well, it's so long, got the best. It throws you off

because you're going fast. I literally hit a shot from the beach on one of the last couple of holes, like I founded so far right on the beach. I'm off saying I'm not going that far. I'maying I'm good now. I wanted to I wanted to shot myself. I wanted to challenge myself. Okay, cool, all right, what are you most thankful for? Family? For sure? I got to unbelieve a wife. I met her in seventh grade. Uh, have two kids, five year old boy and almost two year

old boy, and uh they're awesome. I love being name Eli and Winn when when all I do is win, w w y n N. It was the meaning behind those. We had some friends in Chattanooga that like, we we just heard them. You know, hey, we liked this name and we stole it from him. It was really what it was like. We we heard the name, we liked it. So it's when Livingston. Livingston's my middle name, so we used my school. Yeah, and then we got William Elliott. Uh we call him Eli. So yeah, they're awesome. Cool.

I what's your biggest pet peeve? And why? Negativity? I freaking hate it. Um. I don't want to be around negative people. UM. I think it drains you. It's energy sucking um. And I feel like you can find something positive about everything. So as a coach, you gotta be around negative people. What do you do to adjust? Well? I think you have to show him what is negative, And why is it important to be positive? You know?

I mean, to me, it's life changing when you can find ways to you know, find something positive in everything and if that's your mindset, And to me, it's kind of an accountability and a positivity deal, like the account of ability of finding yourself at fault with any given situation and then the positivity of saying, Okay, I've got control over it, so I can fix it instead of the coach screwed me or it's a bad situation or whatever it is, Like, what could I do differently to

make sure the coach had no choice but play me? And then how can I find positivity in this time of struggle? You got to bos some of that stuff up and write a book. You don't do that because I'm a dud buk half of I'm a former player. I don't that. So you're born raised in the South, so you have those Southern you know, obliging walk you know, a woman or older hospitality, break it down, hospitality. So you you're walking into the store or building, older lady

or younger lady, doesn't matter. Woman goes in. You open the door, correct, correct? All right? When you open up the door, right at the crack of the frame of the door. You look down and there's a fifty dollar bill. Do you, ma'am she dropped it. I didn't say she dropped. You got you gotta feeling that feeling. You open up the door. You see you she goes. She takes about ten fifteen steps. You know, you stop. You look down for some reason, there's fifty dollars right there at your foot.

Do you ask her as it hers? Do you chase her down? Or do you keep it moving? I can one tell you I would chase her down and ask her if it was hers, and if it was not, I would give it to somebody at the store, because somebody's coming back for fifty bucks. Oh, he doubled down on being the Southern. I believe I can answer that. Hey, I would have done be pro I just said I would have. I probably would have chased her down. She said not, it's not my money. That's in my pocket. Okay,

we're giving somebody who needs it. We're keep it in my pocket. I'm not judging. I've done every cardinal sin in the book. I've done. I promise what was your what's your was? Bro? That's a that's a shoulder tap from the lower I'm so seed, the Lord said, I love what you just did. And thank you Jesus. My money clip and keep it moving, thank you Jesus. Part as what saved you. I guess on it. I don't care what you're talking about. Look, so we got varying degrees.

And thank Jesus. Chasing that lady you're talking about, she dropped it while I'm from come up? That is? Hey, Lord, I need you today? Bank? That's that? What do you say if you ask it? I don't know why that took me? All right, coach you ready, look just listen, we got we gotta look. Let me just show you. I got you. We got you in studios, so we we love it. We we think it's awesome. I got four or five pages right of all this stuff. I'm gonna tell you right now, I could rip it all up.

You know what I want to know. We're gonna use our baseline of some of the things that we have, and then we're just gonna let you convers right. Um, so really are our standards always? Where are you from in a place that you call hometown? Your hometown? Yeah? I um, I mean stop lights? Uh it's I mean, we got Walmart, we got Chick fil A, we got y'all. That's a that's a metropolitans. So when when we moved there,

it wasn't that way. It had a golden gallon, Uh, in a waffle house, golden gallon, which is a gas station and in a waffle house. But but now it's it's uh, it's it's a booming metropolis. Uh. I moved there when I was five. I had two older brothers, once eight years older, once ten years older. And uh, middle brother was getting into some trouble um and so we moved as far away as we could where he could get his act together. And so uh grew up there.

And uh and and I mean that's that's still where my parents are, still their same house I grew up in, was it? So? What was your favorite team growing up as a kid? Any sport? I was? My dad, uncle, and granddad all played at Georgia Tech. So I grew up a huge Georgia Tech fan. Joe Hamilton's and Stepharberry and he went fall. Basketball was my deal. I mean I did not miss a basketball or football game. Like No, I didn't always go to Atlanta, but I was gonna watch it or listen to it or star beery. He

was nice back then. Most people forget he went to Georgia Tech. Yeah yeah, and and uh Drew Drew Barry Matt Harpring was a stud. Uh you know, and then the glory days of Big Bad Joe Hamilton's. That was my guy. Joe Hamilton's my favorite college no offense, my favorite college football player of all time. He wants you to be offended. So I grew up watching. Are you trying to say you only have one black fan or friend?

H my, my, the guys who made me want to play quarterback where Joe Hamm, Charlie Ward, and Tommy Fraser. Those were my three dudes. Tommy Fraser to two amazing running quoteback options. I'm gonna get a flak for this one. You named all people that you are not well. You know, I wanted to be there. The boys was athletic. Yeah, I'm looking at I saw a coach walking the building. I'm stereotyped. I passing, shall not hey, they told shall not be unrealistic? Keeper you do? You're a football coach?

You you used the eye test. I wouldn't recruit myself. I know, that people ask me why. People people saying, why are you get into coaching? Because I wasn't good enough to keep playing. I mean that's the truth. Like I know, I wouldn't recruit myself right now. Uh but I mean I'm okay with that. I know who I am. I know my you know, I know my limit. Thought it was cool. It's like, but you can't want to be that person. I know, but I'm just trying to

Those were that. Those were those dudes seventy eight years old. I didn't know I wasn't gonna be there. I thought I was okay, I don't but I mean, think about it. They will cut you off. That was my listening face. Joe Hamilton was say five ten alvin South Carolina quarterback that you know was not highly recruited. I love football, and when you name the people you're talking about, Charlie War was on the War I thought for me and

some nick fans would agree, some probably wouldn't. It was remarkable his career in basketball that he had compared to I thought he was a dynamic football player as well. I thought for sure he was always and then he had all that's amazing the fact that that dude could leave the game of football and go have that not like he wasn't. And I'm saying a long career and like he just had a three year career he had He was like, so that's why. And then I grew up.

Tommy Frazer, uh rest his soul and all the stuff that he had to deal with. The Lawrence Phillips that that whole Nebraska they were in that option. Like when you're saying these individuals, I'm like, wow, that's that I'm exaggerating now, have been like you saying, man, you know love Roger Craig, which I love. But there are some things where you generally, I believe, especially as young kids, little boys, you you gravitate or show favoritism to the

people you believe athletically you can emulate or resemble. And that's that's why I kind of kind of joking. But there's you know, there are something like for me playing wide receiver, want to be a wide receiver. There are some wide receivers that I'm like, like, uh, was it read that played with Minnesota or um Herman Moore like some of those taller receivers. No, No, I mean I'm in a you know, the short man. Uh category. So

I did welcome we meet on Tuesdays. I didn't really I want to emulate those guys because I you know, I had to feel and I wasn't gonna be six five right. So, and that's why the Joe Hamilton's story for me was like, so that's cool. It's small, dude, you know, for your starter, I mean, made Georgia tech cool, made Georgie tech super cool. Because right after they right after he left, they went back to reality. We have to take a break and morning anything. We gotta pay

some bens. I love cut to It, and I love it even more when you download us and subscribe, and you can follow us on social media to Smithie where where at? That's at cut to It on Instagram? What about twitter at? Cut to It Facebook? Cut to It featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online? And you can follow us at cut podcast dot com where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to this wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my answers questions, Um yeah,

I got all my questions answered. That's what I'm here for, a brother, cut to a podcast dot com. So young Will was watching Joe Hamilton's and Georgia Tech. How did your upbringing shape your view on how you see the world today? You know, I think that sports really helped me get get a much better view of what how I see the world today than probably anything I ever had from my my background. My mom's from America's Georgia. Uh, America's it's uh Sumter County, Georgia's South Georgia, like south

South Georgia. That's like North Florida, like near Albany or you know what, America's Georgia. I was like America's Georgia. Ship. I'm not that guy. Uh help us, Joe, help us, help us. But I got panic. I was like, damn, no more Americus c us. That's why that's why I asked. I appreciate you clearing that all, because we right before

we lost about a hundred and fifty followers just off that. No. It was like what no, uh and so I mean for me, it was like I got I Mean, the thing I love most about my profession right now is that it's not typically what a white guy from Utahwah, Tennessee with that lived on the lake and went to private school was not the the world that typically most

of my friends are living in my brothers. You know, um, I think that it's you know, it's it just gives you an appreciation for people of all different backgrounds, of all different beliefs. Uh you. I mean I get asked the question all the time. If you weren't coaching football, what did you do? I mean, I be fine doing something else, Like I I love football, but football is

not my life. I mean, if my deal is, there's nothing else I would choose to do because of the relationships I have with people who are we we we don't have if you found us, if you saw us both on the street there, you would no way in the world those two people are are best friends. And that's what sports special. I mean. The church doesn't even do that right now, right, I mean, the the church is the most segregated, one of the most segregated areas

in the United States. You put a jersey on, right, and you've got differences, and we still have bickering and to our staff fights like like we're brothers. I get it. But if you gave me one person to go drink beer with and go hang out with, it would be the people on our staff and that's that's that's not normal. Brothers.

My brother's perception and life experiences of change because of what I've gone through with sports, you know, like the teammates that I have, the my best friends, the coaches that I work with, their perception has changed in a very white world, you know, like they get to see a different side and have different experiences. And I think that's why judgment has made is based on your experiences. My experiences have been different because of sports. Can we

go there then? Just love to you you given us this opportunity because there are times, uh, you know, we've had a number of guys on We had Michael uh Malcolm Jenkins, and he discussed what it was for him to be um go to all black school and then when he went to public school where he he saw and experienced things at the public school that he didn't really know any different until he was outside, when he got outside of his box, right and and a black box,

right and and and so there are times where people say things of no matter who it is, where they go, Well, there's no such thing as systemic racism. You know, everybody's created equal, everybody's the same. But the truth of the matter isn't. I'm in an interracial relationship with my wife. Me and her been married twenty years, We have four kids. She was born and raised in Utah. Our relationship hasn't always been accepted in her family. But yet when we walk.

We used to walk around in Utah in two thousand, two thousand one where it's like they look at me, they look at my wife, they look at my son, then they look back at me. And I used to always like, do we look alike? Right? And so um, but also left. Some of people in my family also told me, right, don't go to Utah, may and a white woman, right, and that that was tough. Right. But I grew up in l A, which is so much diversity, Yet at times our minds and our hearts are not

as i diverse as we believe they are. You're limited to your own learned experience. That's what That's what I noticed what a lot of people, and I think Coach brought that up. I mean, so many people look at things in a vacuum there they You may be from one place, but sometimes you have that place mentality. And that's what I think both of y'all are talking about in your own different Walks. I think the cool part about it is you and your wife broke the chain.

Like it takes somebody to break the cha It takes somebody to be like, you know what, I know what the perception is, but like I love this person and I don't really give a man what anybody doesn't matter. And and that's cool now, Like I'll never forget. I'm in sixth grade. My my mom, who's from sixth grade out like that was like four years ago, eight years ago, so young. The my my one of my really good friends from school, t J. Brooks, all right, comes over

to my house, black guy. My my grandmother from Americus Georgia c u As Georgia is at my house. My mother's mom and Americas Georgia is not. There is no medium, right, I mean it is very secretary. Okay, so hold on, hold on me before you go into this story. Is Grandma still alive? I just don't want you to get back no, no, no, when you go back to America's George, I hadn't been back there, I promise, just because you

can get them for Grandmama. And I told our team this story, you know, And so we walk into the house and my grandmother packed your stuff up and she leaves. And she told my mom, if this is what's gonna happen in your house, I'm not coming to your house. Okay, this is what would I be, you know, eleven, twelve years old? So this is you know, right, let's school. Yeah. So for me, you know what, my mom in a situation where she didn't have to. We're talking family here,

we're talking we're talking blood, right. It could be very easy for my mom to just say, well, just go play outside, like she said. You know what, this is a major impact in my son's life, and I'm gonna make sure he knows this is Okay, my mom broke the chain. Inn I remember that, right? I think about my five year old has now been to a march up to a protest, right, and he's on the shoulders of three of our black players that are they know he's tired of walk in right, it's written all over

his face, right, and he's screaming and yelling things. He don't know what the hell they mean. Right, he's still yelling at through the street to sh Antilly, right, And this is what democracy looks like. And all these times he don't even know what democracy is right. But one day I when he really understands it, I'll be able to go back and say, you did this because you support some people who are were on Daddy's team, who aren't going through some of the same things you're doing.

Don't they have different fears than you have, But you can still love each other. Right. And my my biggest thing that I always say to players, Look, I'm the goofy, dorky white dude from mood to Walll Tennessee. I don't claim to know and I don't claim to understand that. You know what the last six months did for me. It told me how ignorant I was on a lot

of different situations. Inky Johnson Alright. One of the most powerful moments I've had in coaching, Inkie Johnson is on the Zoom call, which before we leave, I want you to talk to our guys on zoom. But Inky Johnson's on a zoom call, Okay, talking to our football team. Ikey came to Baltimore Morgan, uh Morgan, who is our punter, I mean our long snapper? Um play with Inky and so he got him to come. But he went in detail.

He got to introduce Inky and talked about what it was like and what happened to Inky, and it was you know, it's one thing that Inky tells it. But when you hear some fellow brother from their perspective as how they lost me and what it was, what it was like, and what he did. Look, I mean, I'm getting getting goose bumps talking about it because it was such an impactful, uh conversation. Wow. So you're talking about positivity, yes, sir, I mean like oozing like I mean talking about bottled

it up. Bottled it the reason he's still on back, no doubt. So Inky speaks, all right, And one of the things that are our defense coordinator Marcus West, who is a brother to me, literally, is says to Inky, do you think that the George Floyd death is as close as we've had to Emmitt till as anything that's happened in in the last decade or two. All Right, I'm sitting there and my initial reaction is, I don't know who the hell right? Well, first of all, stop,

I love your transparentshi right. I love the fact that you're not one. You're not trying to pump yourself up, you're not trying to water it down. You being honest and true, you know, because a lot of time, especially coaches, y'all could be full of ship sometimes, you know, And I love that You're actually like, I didn't know, right, So what do you all? Right? You're on a zoom meeting right with a hundred and sixty players, and as soon as they ask you, you gotta. Marcus and Inky

are having this conversation. I'm just listening. I have to have two ways I go with this thing. You can lie, I can sit there and just didn't exist, Or I can say, educate me. You could be passive or you'd be act right, no doubt about it. And so I said, I said on the zoom call, I don't know who in it. Till is right, and one of our players, Tyler Ringwood, who I love and respect the hell it up, says coach. That's the problem, right, that is the problem.

And I said, you're exactly right, and how did you take and instead of I love it, yeah, tell me how you feel? Right, You're right, that is the problem. And his point was not you were the problems. His point was that that's not taught in the history books of Board Buchanan School. So you have in that transparency moment with your team. Look, how did how did how did that shape the dynamic? How did that? I'm sure

it galvanizing maybe made everything strong. I I think that the most important attribute of a lead or is authenticity, Like just be who you are. You know, if I'm in a if I'm in a room recruiting a uh, a guy from inner city Birmingham, and and you know I didn't grow up there, But doesn't mean that I can't love your son and want to help your son go to where he wants to go and help him, you know, reach his aspirations. So it's like, help me understand,

help me learn. And so you know, we talked about it, and we talked about how it is an issue and and you know what it made me do. It made me go watch a bunch of stuff on him, Matt till you know, and then it made me come back to the players and be like, okay, I know more than you know now, Like here's here's here's what I learned. And it was, you know, same thing I did. Uh Martin Luther King Jr. Speech that I have a dream speech, right, I have heard I have a dream and everything that follows.

But I've never watched the seventeen minutes, Okay, I had to learn that. I had to learn to memorize in school and like the third grade, it's it's it's not all the it's not all the coffee Mill quotes that we just not just that. I have a dreaming, and I asked more things to go to it. I asked our players, how many of you watched the whole thing? Right? And not many? So I show it during camp. We

showed on a projector. We have to meet outside because you've got to be socially distanced, and you're meeting in chairs and a pavilion in the middle of campus, right, and we're showing this. I have a dream speech, Martin Luther King Jr. Says from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Right, That's where my family was born. That's where for the first five years before we moved to Ooda Wall we

we lived. My grandparents, my dad, my brothers were raised there like and and so the question I asked after this the speech was what has changed and what hasn't changed? What are we still fighting today? Right? Police brutality obviously one of the things that was still right. There's still segregation. I mean, whether we want to act like I mean,

there's there's still a there. There's there's still racism. I mean, and I always say to me, racism exists because of the extremes, Like everybody who just wants to perceive it this way and with their experiences. They watch the news and they see the you know, the KKK guy and then they see this guy doing this, black guy doing this, and they say, all white people are like this and all black people are like this. Right, So that's not again that's not my experience. But when they said, you know,

I said, how is it? How is it improved? And I said, boys, I just want to tell you something like this dude is praying that people from Lookout Mountain

of Tennessee. We'll get the point. I'm from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee, and I'm having this conversation with you all today, like trying to better understand how I can help you and how you can feel safe and how you know you're loved and how you can change the world like I you know, how it's changed the fact that I can have this conversation with you and the fact that you will listen, you know, like we're making progress in some area, we're not anywhere close to where we need

to be. But like there's some real conversations that our football team has had through some of these experiences where in my opinion, I talked to Ron Sanchez, our basketball coach, about this. The greatest point he said, he said, will when it hurts you as bad as it hurts some of your black players, when it hurts your white players, and something as bad as bad as it hurts some of the uh, the white players as bad as some hurt some of the black players, then we're making progress.

And when I don't allow a conversation that shouldn't be had because it's a white world and because it's a comfortable environment. When I say that doesn't work here, you're breaking a trend. You're stopping. Like that's how you make progress. And that's the coolest thing about football. You know me, I get to have a conversation, you know, real conversations and say educate me because I care, I appreciate you. I want to understand your difference where you came from.

So well, let's just kind of get into the recruiting. Because you have a guy that comes in you you're thirty four, thirty five years old. You look years old. You're not the same complexion as the people you're going into. The homes you're going into. How do you manage two connect with their parents? Like? How do you handle being literally you're on a putting a sports analogy four by four. You coming in at the last hundred meters, but this damn they're the important hunt of meters. You gotta bring

it home. You gotta bring it home. How does that work with because you're the head coach and you're also coming in and when you know, you got a kid and a family who is extremely interested, but you gotta see a deal. Yeah, I mean to me, I think the biggest thing you gotta do this is different than everybody to talk to, is you got to talk to the parents from the get go. And so does not always happen. It really does not, especially depending on the school.

They think. I'm I'm Florida State and I talk and maybe they can't. I don't know, but I never I've never been I've never been recruiting Floor State, So I don't know. And I was just gonna say, even think now, like these players got Instagrams, you got twitters, coaches hit him up on there, you know, I mean to me, it's like, what are you selling? What makes you different? And to me, if your people make you different, then

your people need to talk to their people, right. So if I mean for me, our rule is when we offer a guy, we have to talk to the high school coach because the high school coach is being left out of this now, right because they got a handler or they're in an a AU team or whatever it is. Right, So sometimes the high school coaches, though you can't trust on these high school coaches. Some of these high school

schoachers be on that BS. Sorry well, especially when you go back a year later and they're like, yeah, I probably could have told you he was gonna, you know, not paying out for you. And you're like, why didn't you tell me that a year ago? But so that's okay, Yeah that was a wound, like that was that was directed, that was somebody right now, you listen to that podcast, your head coach, if you're wondering if it's you, it's

probably right. Uh. The My biggest deal is that, um, you know I think that you have especially now because you have to pick a guy who matches your culture's right, all right. So for me, I'm thirty five, I look twenty four. Right. If I walk into the question that I never get as can you relate? Always get you know, like, oh this guy, he's young, he can relate. I don't. I don't. Nobody worries about that. They worry about can the eighty year old relate to the eighteen to twenty

three year olds? My deal is they always look at me like, how is this child gonna help my son become a girl? Asked I would want him to. Somebody just told him that two weeks ago was a black mama. So I get it. I understand, be my dear to answer that question, there has to be some kind of disciplining moment that you that you have, like it may be an official visit and you may, you know, be slouched down in your seat and falling asleep or not paying be on your phone when there's an academic person

across sitting across from you. So it's my first chance to rip your ass, like we don't do that around here. Man. I'll tell you what you can find it. If this is where you're gonna be, we can go ahead and find you another place to go and if they respond to it, then I know that that they'll learn right, because sometimes their mom is sitting right next to them and they're doing it, and you're like, well, maybe they haven't learned this, right. It's not their fault that they

don't know. I will teach somebody who doesn't know and will do it. What I will not teach is the accepted who knows it. And just how many athletic, very athletic players you take the mindset up I can teach them and then you discover they're unteachable. What do you do with that? Um? I've made that mistake plenty of times, you know, UM, and I always go back. Tony Bennett has a quote that you've got to take players you can lose with before you can win, and he's exactly right,

you know. I mean, it's it's it's so I remember, you're one at Austin Pe we go oh n eleven. Year two, we go eight and one versus FCS competition, have the best turnaround in college football. Year three, it's like we're going undefeated, right, and you take some questionable character guys and then you have five guys leave your staff right that it didn't invested and picked those people, and you felt I could handle those guys, and and

they had bought into the position coach. And now you have some guys that I mean, you know what, I really don't believe in shaking a hand or looking somebody in the eye, or or you know, having having energy, passion, enthusiasm and positivity all day long, or you know, uh uh, you know the importance of making a good first impression or a community like whatever it may be, that's important.

That are important in our place, you know, because everybody's got the right answer right in recruiting, we have a family environment, right, we'll help you reach your aspirations. Uh, we got what you need academically. You give him a great meal, right, roll out the red carpet, all that kind of As they signed, the question is like a Bain switch in the program. It's the program gone. The band's gone. What boys signed, it's a bugle, that's right, that's right. So I mean that that's it. Now what

you talked about relationships with high school coaches. You go recruit one of these guys, you've sold him the world. What's his experience when he gets there, because it'll be the only kid you signed from that high school if what you're selling is different than what he experienced you. So my deal is whatever I'm gonna tell you is what's gonna happen. So would you debunk the myth then that A lot of people think that when you're recruiting,

you're setting that player on the program. But from your see your you have to sell on the culture. In building a culture, Listen, if I've worked at Harvard, I probably sell the school. I don't you know. And for me, eighty percent of my time as a college athlete was dictated by what my coach told me. I had to do, study, hall, travel. I mean, look, I'm gonna go to class, but I would do that if I was a regular student. I'm not going out in the fall, you know, I mean

after a win on Saturday night. But you don't have time. You're not doing anything else. So supposed I get it. I didn't have enough friends, I guess, obviously. But my deal is, like it's the coach is going to dictate what type of experience you have in a place, and you're not so you're not picking it. I mean, you could say it sounds great. I want to pick place that I'd be happy if I wasn't playing football. Well, that's I mean, that's not like any coach who tells me,

you know, we're not We're not. I'm not selling myself. I'm selling the school or anybody. Yeah, anybody who I recruit against who says you know that that we've we've got you know this or that. That doesn't have to do with the staff. No, you're picking Charlotte because our staff. Because our staff is gonna give you a great experience. And oh, by the way, here's what we're gonna sell to get you to Charlotte. A city, a campus, an opportunity, you know, a culture, these type of things. But you're

I mean, you have to sell people. I mean it's me selling me. And then once I sell that, you'll believe in our vision. And which is important because you know, for for our listeners, you're the coach of the shold at forty niners. It is a program that's only been around since So it's not like you have this long standing history of which you can you don't have a don't have a ballgame apparents until you lead your team

that in nineteen so it talk. Would would you walk us through what that looks like from having a very infant program and and and selling players on that. Yeah, it is impress I mean you're thinking about you built a stadium for an FCS program, right, I mean you you you built a facility for me down a parking structure. Yeah. I used to parking there too, really, I used to. I used to have football camps there back in the day, and and um what else you know, just soccer turn

was all the kids activity. So you know, I've seen that campus grow over here. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna lum not, there was nothing there. I was there when there was no football. There was nothing there with the stadium. I think that, um, you know, for me, it's um. The program asks you're you're you're not taking a guy who wants to hop on a bandwagon, right, You're not. You're not taking a guy who wants to be the next Amanti Edwards at app or who wants to be

the next Joe Hamilton's at Georgia Accord. Like, you're taking a guy that literally is confident enough in themselves and has a little bit different swag about them where they want to go be like the first to do it. They want to be the trailblazer. You know they want to go have their have their picture all over the building. Um, it's probably yeah, I mean, and and there's it's a different it's a different kind of uh task, and it's a different kind of challenge. But there's a lot of

fun in being the group that that builds it. And then there's a whole another task and to sustain. So you you you've used the word culture, Yeah, what what is it? The most overused word in coaching is the most bullshit? Is that? I just like the way that you said it, though well we we sometimes, but because I think coaches sometimes, like I struggle with just where there's a in sports, there is this expectations from players and then there's this unaccountable expectation from coaches that I've

seen or heard or witnessed. Coaches do things that if a player did it, he wouldn't be at the college or he wouldn't be allowed to play, And I just I find it it's, Uh, you know, my kids have done a really good job. Sometimes I'm saying, you know, Dad, that sometimes you come across do you know, say as I do, don't do as I say? And that's really stung me. At times, and so I just think at times, I I just see what coaches sometimes they it's the

same thing. Man, it's almost uh like coaches. Coaches get paid really well and sometimes they're not very good, and they get a lot of credit and they receive a lot of out of boys, especially in college football. And yes, student athletes are given the opportunity two learned school and get education, get a degree. Right, but let's be honest.

These coaches come and interview the players, and then now the coach becomes instead of the interview were they they start to become the interview where the the parents are interviewing them and all that stuff where the roles reverse. But there's some degree where coaches who are grown men sometimes aren't held to the same standard and in which they are judge and jury on some of these young men and women who are just figuring out life. Yeah, man,

that's that's really good. All right. So he go, here's one, uh you there's a there's a consequence from missing class. I miss class, right, I think that the deal is. Look, I'm not saying that I never I missed class. I did, right, But here's what I am trying to tell. I'm trying to help you learn through my life experiences, and I'm trying to create a culture that says I firmly believe,

I believe, and maybe I'm crazy for believing this. I firmly believe that everything that has to do with our culture will help them outside of the game of football. I really do believe that. So do I think it can help you in the meantime. Hell you do. I think that this can help provide opportunities for you when you leave. Hell you, But I really believe that learning how to introduce yourself to somebody, learning how to shake a hand, learning how to make a great first impression.

I'll tell you what. In class, sit in the front two rows, don't have your cell phone out right, make sure that you go every other week and go create a relationship with that professor outside just a classroom. That's like, that's a tool that will help you when you get into the real world, you know. Um, so I think that the authenticity side of Look, man, I'm I'm telling

you I screwed this up to right. I was the selfish player, you know, that was all about me and all about my playing time, and until it hit rock bottom, and I didn't get to play. Did I figure out? You are the most selfish human being on this entire football team and you claim to be like some great leader and have it figured out, but like, really you are about you. And until that happened, If that wouldn't have happened, I don't know that I would ever be in a position to be able to do what I'm

doing right now and be real about it. So you know I skipped class too. Yeah, and I had Fred Graves, who's kind of like a father of my Um. Five am runs in Utah damn mouth too. Wote me out? You changed after that, didn't you? Hell? Yeah, I may have been sleeping there, but I was in class. I was. I was nodding, but I didn't want to get up at five am and go run. And Fran was so dirty. He did me so dirty. He drove behind me at five am. That's like some He honked a horn. He

honked the horn. Is there something it worked for you? Here's why I worked for me, because I'm m I'll use this. You can use it. You can steal it. I will give you my signature. You can. Um. You don't have to have talent to be a grinder, and so I was a grinder, but I had talent. But I'm also a professional sleeper. And brother loved his sleep, and I would have to get up at five, and not getting up at five isn't that bad, but when you got to be alert, stretched, warm and running and

dumbass didn't like ditch class at September? What school did I go to? Coach fim Bold? It wasn't cool and it was five am, and U tak thirty thirty five degrees And we weren't even with like the schools now with Nike like we had to. They were Nike, but they were really champs, so they weren't. They weren't like and not when champion was about. There was an old champion before Nike, Bamber. They ain't the champ that you

buying the store and they're happening. They was thin. Man Fred was a beast, and I just remember and I was like, and he goes. He says, I don't want to get you up every morning because you don't want to go to class. But I will, I will. But this is what he said that I stayed in my mind.

He said, um, but if you continue this at some point, I'll quit getting up with you, and then there are other things that will stop getting We'll stop getting up, like you'll stop getting past us, you'll stop getting plays. Then eventually you'll stop coming to practice. Right and now that fear in me that I would have to go back home, you have you lose it. I have to go back home and tell them why. I didn't want to face my folks and tell them that I basically

screwed up. I did what I was just statistic, did exist what they quote unquote expect you to do when I left college. When I before I left college, I got an argument with someone I will not name and said, when your dumbass fell out of school, don't come back here. That's what they told you. That's what they told me. It stung me until it till it's Tiller's day. Pretty

much after this, I'm probably gonna go work out. Just offer not a work out like a gold liftway, but just give me a little a little running just because it still lives in me today because it hurt right and and and a lot of these kids that you're going to and you've seen it. The scholarship or the opportunity that you're presenting to these kids in Birmingham, Alabama, in someth South Carolina, Myrtle Beach. I don't care, Charlotte,

I don't care where you are. Some of these kids, this is the only opportunity they have to go to college. And if they don't get this, they have no alternative. Their alternative, their alternative is only wage worker or right now with COVID, they're essential worker, meaning our our world needs to evolve in our world only goes by these

people backing cards or whatever the case may be. And I'm not knocking those knocking those people are looking down, but I do look down upon this issue that at the only way they can go to college because of the lack of resources is this is if a young man or old man that that is at a college institution gives them an opportunity that they never can have, no matter how good their grays are, just because the the the economy or wage gap is so so much

there that they don't have enough. They barely could keep the lights on. College that doesn't exist. And I think the hardest part is a coach is knowing that, and then you have a guy who's literally just not willing to do what you want to do what you want him to do, and he becomes an issue like it what's best for him is not necessarily what's best for

the football team. But you know that if you do let this guy go because it is the best thing for the football team because they are not anything about your culture that you want them to be. They're not doing what you ask them to do, then that's where they are going to go back to. And that's sometimes why I hold on too long, and it bites me

because it tears a locker room apart. You know, that's the tough part I used to get, like as a kid, right, you know, somebody at Tennessee would fail a drug test

and you're like, Tennessee just wants to win games. You're getting the coaching, and you're like, I didn't what it's about, man, Like, you're legitimately trying to make an impact in somebody's life that may not be able to do it without the people that are in it, without that structure, And if you let them go, then who knows what happens to you know, and sometimes it costs you, But I don't think it can make you scared to go to go try it again. I'm not trying to make fun of you.

But you're going to a grandparents house, especially a black grandparents house, and we just used to insurance man something you're like, your face is the face that we used to play the game with. It's like like I meant, you know, we are brothers. But I would tell him, hey, gee, door for you, some white man like door for you, Like oh man, they got me again, like back today jooan witness, right, And so you're like, hey, that is

what I had a dog man he got me. So you know, like how are you you know, how do you handle yourself? Because that is I'm I'm joking, but I'm messing it's a real deal. Because there's somebody listening to go on, man Stevens racist or why they having these these jokes Like this is some of the stuff that comes in that there's a thirty five year old Caucasian man in the hood driving a rental car so it looked like a narc and he pulling up in

this all predominantly black or low income household. You come in dressed in all green now right representing the colors you come in, You're gonna get looks, You're gonna get some people sideways like, who's that? So how do you gain trust? Well, I think I think all of it goes back to look. I mean, I know what I look like. I know that I'm in a situation where it's per time. I mean, it's not an area where I know I look like the insurance guy going to

going into the neighborhood. Are you looking or if it's really lately, look like you're buying dope? Straight up? I mean, I maybe I'm just saying okay, I mean, I'm not trying to make but no, I mean, I'm just throwing it all out there because there are people who literally that are that will be listening to this coach that they live in their homes and they live in the places they live, and they go, man, these dudes are exaggerating.

And then there's gonna be I was gonna say, the flip side of that isn't gonna be people who listen to this and be like I remember that, or that's that's that's my shared experiences And I've thirteen years have been going through some experience and I promise you my own brothers have not been that. And that doesn't make me tougher, but my deal is more aware. I understand the perception, right it's a white head coach that's going in and he's gonna sign my son who's a black player.

He's gonna make the money, he can leave where he wants to leave. It's just about the game of football a lot of times. I also understand. I'm glad you said it what I mean saying. I also understand the experiences right of he You may have had a white coach at some point in time in your life, you got hurt, or you didn't get playing time, and he only cared about you if you were the best player

or whatever. I mean. I understand all of those things right, And it's really really hard to gain trust in somebody who's had that experience. With one visit. I'm not going to write, but my deal is, here's who I am. I promise you that when you see me in three months with my shirt off in club lit and acting like a complete moron, I'm gonna be the same exact person I am here today. And I tell you what

I'm gonna do. I'm gonna trust you, right, I'm gonna trust that what your son is telling me, what you are telling me, I'm gonna trust the fact that we can at least be on the same page about this. I legitimately want your son to reach his aspirations in our place. Now, let's talk about what they are. Let's talk about what's important to you. Let's talk about what your aspirations are for him. Let's let me tell you. Let me tell you my faults. Like we're looking for, Uh,

we're looking for some unbelievable facilities. Well, let me just go ahead and tell you before you come on our campus. We we are under construction, right we we do not have the stadium that I would like to have at some point in time. Right, I don't want to go to play it. App, I don't want to go play at East Carolina. I don't want to go play it wherever it is in the A C. C. Or And and say, you know what, we're in Charlotte, North Carolina. We should have a facility that looks like that. We

don't have that yet. You know why, because we don't. We haven't built that yet. We don't we haven't won enough games to have that yet. Now we're going to but so what do we not have? Let me be honest with you, Uh, mental health right now, right, huge, unbelievable. We are still developing resources to help these guys to be able to get through the crap that's going on in their life right now. You add COVID to it, and you add you know, racial tension, everything everything is

like we need help for these guys. Like it's mental as much as it is physical, you know, So where are we struggling? And let me just be honest with you and um, but I think the authenticity in that moment is more important than it is any other time. It's like here, I am, I listen. This ain't necessarily the most uncomfortable, comfortable environment I've ever been in, right, but I'm here because I legitimately feel like that this is the right place for your son, grandson, whoever it

may be. And I feel like you and I are gonna laugh about this in three weeks because you're gonna be like everybody tells me that story. You're the dorky white dude that walks in and looks like he was about to sell me something, And three weeks later we're laughing about Man, my son is having an unbelievable friends here.

I'm so glad that they chose here. You know, and those are fun conversations conversation, but pointing out the obvious whenever you walk in, I'm thirty five years old, I'm a I'm a white dude, I'm you know what, I

don't look like an athlete. I mean, I get all of it, right, but I just I say it that way just because they're sometimes you know, you're in the business of you're in the business of taking people's uh, their most precious item for you know, some for some of these for some of these families, that's their shot,

you know. For some of these families, that is they've soaked they have sunk their last penny and nickel into that individuals, whether it's I mean I remember, for me going to Utah, my family had to scrounge up money for one way ticket. You gotta remember night two thousand. A one way ticket wasn't a lot of money. It was a lot of money though right where It's like three or four people had to do it, and then we had to find someone that had a credit card

to be able to book it all right. And and so that's what I'm saying all of all of this because they're so want to listen to this that their son and daughter. You know, always you always hear them that that they want to go to a college. Well, they don't always know what it looks like. You know what it feels like, right and so or the process and just you hear you watch the all these shows

and you see the glamorous part about recruiting. You see the big time schools, but there's a lot more other schools that if you if some of these kids got offered, it would be just like Florida State, it would be just like yes, but I mean, you should be able to do that at any level. There's a lot of stuff we should be I mean you, but like I mean, people said you couldn't do that also and p right, and then people say you can't do it in the group of five in the in the conference. US say

you can do whatever the heck your priority is. And if it doesn't work out, you gotta be okay with saying, you know what, it was a bad fit. Like, but I believe here's the one thing I know it if and when I get fired one day, right, it's probably when if you're coaching long enough, you're gonna get fired. At when when I get fired one day, I will legitimately believe that I didn't do something just to keep a job. I didn't do something just because I thought

if somebody else did it, Oh that's gotta work. Look, this is what I believe in. These are the relationships I believe in. If it doesn't work out, then it's not meant to be and I'll find something else to do. I still got a family, I get a chance to go home too, I'll be just fine. I think it's about that time. Just take a little breather, good good, getting down to dood. Hey Gerard, why did you get that T shirt? You mean this thing? Oh? Yes, I got it from cut to a podcast that on where

we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you can go on, buy you a T shirt, subscribe to us wherever you listen to podcasts. You talked about the good conversations you have during recruiting when you're leaving in school. How do you have those tough conversations you mentioned Austin Austin p when you left after three years for the Charlotte Ford and Honors job. After going through recruitment, how do you

have those hard conversations. When you depart, you had the the recruiting class was ranked number one, great class, great class, and then you go, how did how did that go? Charlotte job comes open, interview or I'm supposed to interview for it. They find somebody else that they want to hire. He ends up taking another job. They come back, are you interested in the job? Yes? Right, I'm being sloppy seconds. Uh. So we we go to Um, I'm not sure I'm

getting the job or not. I go to New York with my with my boss that I was just telling you about this at Austin to go raise money. UM. I get a phone call saying, hey, we know we're figuring out some stuff, but you'll know tuesday afternoon whether you got the job or not. Okay, So I fly back Tuesday morning from New York. I'm driving into our facility at Austin, p having called a four o'clock team meeting with it already having been leaked on social media

that I was taking the head job at Charlotte that morning. Right, I have not been offered the job. You now in the parking lot, it's three fifty five. My team meetings at four o'clock and I've still not heard whether I got the job or not. All right, watching all of these guys walk into I'm facing this way my rear view mirror. I'm watching all the guys park and walk into the team meeting, saying, what if I don't know

something in the next five minutes? Right, And I know they're already heated because they read on social media phone call Mike kill our chancellor, you got the job, right, so in five minutes, so you got you got I got the job in five minutes within that window, I got the job. I'm so excited. I called my wife and I gotta walk back in and tell a group I'm leaving you. Who is the only reason why I got an opportunity? Right? And that's what I told him.

There's nothing I can say to you right now that is gonna make this any better in the in The crappiest part about all of this is I'm supposed to walk out of this room and never address this group again because somebody else is gonna come take this group and like they're gonna be ticked off at me if I go talk to their players, because they're gonna think I'm trying to recruit them all to Charlotte or something. Right.

So a group that you the number one recruiting class in the country, that committed to you after going on eleven. Another group that's been there for a long time and gone through one and forty seven and goes and wins eight games. A group that's one thirteen games in two years, which was the most in school history, you know, most conference wins in school history. All that type of stuff. When you go from so so bad that everybody laughs at you to like top twenty five the country, there's

a bond in that growth that you can't replace. I couldn't replace it with assistance that I tried to hire to go replace it, like, because you've been through so much, you can't replace that relationship. So you better have somebody who's confident with just being themselves and can earn that over time, is gonna bring something to the table that they'll earn that, you know, respect over time. So I walked in and I just told him, look, I got this opportunity because of all of you. It's the best

opportunity for me and my family. Um, and I'm gonna take the job. And with some of the players they didn't want to talk to me, you know. I mean I just hired two of them back to come work in our weight room this year, and it took them about a year to want to talk to me. You know, Um I left him. I recruited him there. Uh um, you know, you know, how do how does that sit

with you? You recruited him, You talked to their family, like you said, the culture, the player, the you know, they must have this, this, this, you know you named off these things and now you're taking those things that you've built into these young men, and now you're taking that philosophy, that culture somewhere else. Now, Now, what how does that? How does that work? And I'm not trying to put you on the spot. I'm just asking because you you keep using the word culture, which I love

and I hate. But to some degree, that's who that That's how you're built, That's that's what you are. You know what helped me sleep at night is when when we left Austin p I felt like that those guys knew better and that we had created something that could sustain and we left it a lot better than we found it. And I could sleep at night because I felt like there's another group that could benefit from this, you know. Um, and didn't make it any easier. You know.

I tell you what was hard is to love the guy is that I inherited at Charlotte as much as I love the ones I left at Austin P. I didn't pick those guys at Charlotte, the eighty guys that were on the roster. I mean I didn't recruit them. I picked to come take their job, but I hadn't invested as much into them as I had those guys that I had recruited. Those those players picked Charlotte not because of me. They picked because of another coach, right

who ain't there? That's right, he's gone. Um. And I think that my my job is to make sure that I hire an offensive coordinate because I always feel like when you inherit a program, the question is what can I do to make sure that the seniors who really buy into this thing and and are the glue to this have an opportunity to be successful right away? It's not important, but but I just think if they're gonna come back and they're gonna put the work in, you

like you can't wait to win. I think that uh, from a recruiting perspective as you're building at long term, you say, I'm gonna go recruit a quarterback who can do this right, I'm gonna go, and that you may already have one. You may inherit it back. That's better than what you may have recruited yourself, you know. I mean we we inherited a third round draft pick at defensive end. I mean, I'd love to say I'm a damn good recruiter, but I don't know how many more

third round draft picks I'm recruited defensive end. How did you process that night when you had to break that news to your team? You get this job, but you had to break that news to your team. How did you process that night? And what do you do for self care as a coach? It's a lot of um. I mean I confide in my wife a lot with those things, you know, and just I mean she lives it the same way I do, just like she does

with a win or a loss, you know. I mean I learned a long time ago whenever I came out of the locker room as an assistant coach after a loss and pouted and acted like a little punk, and and and and wanted to make everybody else's life miserable because I lost a football game. And my wife and her parents are kind of they feel like they gotta act like they're miserable just because we lost a football game.

That it's like, all right, I have the ability to be able to totally dictate what the experiences of everybody based on how I was, you know. And so she lives it. I mean she she breathes it. So whenever I get home after a loss, you know, she's she's there to comfort and my deal like, thank you, I love you. I'll be okay, it's a football game. We're gonna we're gonna be all right, and um, you know. But but times like that, like that feels bigger than

a football game, you know. That's like you feel like you just disappointed parents, players, You feel like you're a liar. You feel like you've let everybody down, you know, and and and then you just say, but I I think this is the right thing for our family. And I think that the players that we are, we're gonna love these players as much as we just love the last ones because we're gonna be able to make an impact

on their life too. And and just talking to her and saying and you know she sees it, she knows it, and she's like, um, you felt the same way when you left Chattanooga when you left that position group or you know, I mean just little things like that. Yeah, she she's she's really good. Her name is Emily. I'm just saying you you you're talking about her in such a way. You know, don't lose no points. You got

a name or player. She's a real deal. Well, our last section coaches the deep three, and they're basically three questions where we go beyond you being a coach on the sidelines. We want to get to know you. So s media give you the first question of our deep three. Ready, Yeah, it's it's about you. So if you fail, that's on you. It's not a past failing test. Um. I've read or heard you use the word culture a few times. Why is culture important in football? And more importantly, why is

it as is important or more important in life? You know, I think that, Um, you hope that they that they correlate. You know, you hope that what you're you're teaching them in the short term to help them become better football players are also things that they they will translate to

their career, to being a husband or to being a father. Um. I think my biggest thing is listen, how how it feels to be in our building every day, and what type of student athlete experience or what type of assistance or what type of assistant coach experience these people have is what I take personally. Like I really believe that if people come to our place because of our people, you can have the best student athlete experience you can

ask for. I believe if you're a coach on our staff, we may argue, we may disagree, we make work, we may work long hours, but as far as an assistant coaches is concerned, nobody can give you a better experience than I can do. I fail at it, heck yeah, But I think every everybody has to be bought into that same thing where it's bigger than you. It's about an experienced it's a servant like mentality. Everybody's got to

have it. Right to me, the coaches need to have it for the players, and in return, the players need to have so much respect and be so grateful for the opportunities that they have that they that you know, it's it's reciprocal the trainers need to have it, the coaches need to have it, for the people who clean the building. Like, if everybody has that type of mentality,

then I think you can do really special things. But I think all of that is in your culture, and that, in my opinion, what I want to be a part of our culture are things that are about life. And this is all just a little minor league test for what it's gonna feel like when you gotta make a paycheck to feed your family or your son peas on you in the middle of the night at two am and you don't feel like getting getting up or whatever.

Like it's just what habits are you creating now that are gonna help you be a dad or a husband. You're pretty good, right, I'm telling you, what would you like your legacy as a coach to be. It's deep three now, not the shallow to Nobody cared about me more than that guy. He would give you the shirt off his back. Um it was as as crazy as he was is as much as I thought things were out of the ordinary, I really honestly believe he cared about me as a person more than he cared about

me as a player. So nothing to Newaball. I'm not a great football coach, you know. I mean I'm not not. I mean like X is and o's of football, right. I mean that's not why I got the job. I didn't get it because I was gonna outscheme anybody or because like I feel like, I got it because I could hire the right type of people who could do that and then we could go raise awareness about our program and create an environment and a culture that people

enjoyed being in. The co worker of mine always said, it's not about the x's and owls, It's about the jimmies, and no question about it, Mike raw there is zero question great players win games. I mean, you know, and I know culture and scheme and all that have a lot to do with it. But I mean, at the end of the day, we are going Monday through Friday as part of our process to prepare them and then they have a decision to make on Saturday what they

do with it. And we're not playing. I mean, we got to put him in the best possible opportunity to have success, and that's what's our job as a coach. How about this. The definition of a coach, okay is a covered wagon that carries someone or something from where they are to where they want to go. Right Like, that's it. And if you think it's more than that, then you're wrong. I mean, where are you now and where do you want to go? That's aspiration? So how

do I help you get there? That's my job. You know, some fire cover wagon they car and they it's nowhere That Oregon Trail is screwed up. Somebody got disn'tear. I man make an impact on the student's life was more important building a winning team players or student winning in life. You know, if you go ohing eleven every year, it's gonna be tough to have a great experience. You know what job security, It's right, You're not gonna be coaching

very long. So I understand that winning is ultimately what you are judged on. I love winning because I think it helps with your experience. But I hope when they look back on the experience that they understand it was about more than winning. Um. I go back to Tony Bennett. I mean, one of the things from our culture that we use all the time is because I understand what truly matters, it enables me to enjoy what seems to matter.

And like, what truly matters is literally that these guys are grown ass men by the time they leave our program. That really matters to me that they can go get a job, that they can go be a dad and be a husband, and they can go thrive, not just survive. But what it enables me to enjoy what seems to matter, and that's winning, you know. But that's ultimately how I'm gonna keep my job. So let's be great at bout Hey. I got a word for you, a little encouraging word, talent.

You don't need a lot of talent to grind. I heard that the other day, and I also heard this the other day. Um a couple of whenever we played this couple of weeks ago, I was it was a nice sunny monday here in Charlotte, but I was at but in my mind it was a little cloudy, and so I decided I was gonna get on. I was gonna go do a run. And there's a there's there's runner was saying, Hey, when I got certified, I was doing this, this and the that that my teacher gave

me a certification. They said, you know what, sometimes you just gotta go do a stupid run. I was like, what does that mean? And a stupid run? Is this not stupid? In the derogatory ray, stupid is meaning don't underthink and don't overthink. Just go out there and just run and then when you get to the point where you can't run anymore, walk back home. It changed my

whole day. So my challenge to you, as you listen to this it cut to it and next time you're feeling bad, the next time you're not feeling good enough, the next time it is sunny outside but it's gloomy in your mind and heart, go for a stupid run. It changed your day. I'm Steve Smith Senior, IOHN. Just cut to It, Appreciate it, God bless Cut to It with Steve Smith Senior. That Is Me is a production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The Black

Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio Apple Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, singer co host Gerard little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media manager Peyton Smith. From Balto Creative Media cut to It is produced by Brian Falta Chevitch and Meredith Carter, with

production assistance by Alex Lebrec, Production manager Sarah Pollock. Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton. You ain't heard about it, then, we're about to let you know. It's all