Mike McDaniel Makes his Drive Time Debut

of Drivetime. We'll talk about coach's vision for these Miami Dolphins, about meet and greet with players and staff, his phone call with quarterback to a tongue of bloa. And of course it wouldn't be Drive Time if we did not get into the xs and os with Mike McDaniel. All of that and more from the Baptist Health Studios inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This is the Drive Time Podcast. Let's go ahead and jump right into my interview with

the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel. What's Up Dolphins? Travis Wingfield here, the host of the Drive Time podcast on the Miami Dolphins podcast Network, and I am joined today by the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel. Coach. Welcoming, thank you, glad to be here, Happy to have you. And so day one is in the books. Now you've completed your first day here in South Florida. Initial impressions. Have you met the staff and the players and just kind of walk us

through how your first day went. There's been a lot of energy. It's been UM, very much enjoyable. You're sitting there just eager to meet the people that you know you're about to spend UM you're foreseeing the future with and so you gotta pace yourself. You gotta breathe and tell yourself to slow down. UM. But having some of the players come through UM has been awesome. Really meeting the people and the environment and the the excitement UM

has been invigorating. So it's been pushing me through when I'm tired of just walk in the always see somebody's energetic face and keep moving. I appreciate you coming all withay the East Coast and kind of hitting it all rapid speed and getting out here fast. And you know this is the next part of your football journey. And I was reading a little bit about you before you came in here and then you rode your bike to

Denver Broncos training camp as a kid. But I wanted to ask you, when did football really first capture your imagination. Do you have a specific moment you can go back to and say that's when I knew football was my path. It's a good question. I'm going through the files right now, and uh, I think there it's one or two. I can remember sitting on on my floor in a house looking at tops UM cards and looking at Mark duper Um and Mark Clayton, and um, I didn't have a

Dan Marino because that would have been worth something. Um. But then some Bronco players as a Bronco fan when I was in Denver, um and that that was an impactful moment. Or I think my first NFL game might have been nineteen eighties seven. You have to check the facts, but I was like in the nosebleeds and the story my mom tells me is that we were the Broncos were getting they were either blowing out or getting blown

out regardless. It wasn't a close game. It was kind of cold, and I made her stay until the very last snap of the fourth quarter. And that's when she said, you're a football psychopath. That's the side with your fan. Ye stay in the whole, the whole four quarters. That's good to hear. So now you're here with the Dolphins and you're taking over the program here. When you when a team comes in here to play the Dolphins in South Florida on the road or otherwise, what do you

want them to think? This is the first thing I have to take away from a Mike McDaniel lad Miami Dolphins team. Much the the one thing you want teams to know about when they play the Dolphins. They have to match her energy. I think it's a big deal. Um that that is a lot of times overlooked when you have a collective group of players playing at a

different energy level. And it's something that you have to practice that you don't get the week of It's something that has to be ingraded in in your DNA, and it's something that you should really um, you really have to earn together to be able to play at a speed and regardless regardless of it's run pass, we're in a three by one, two by two two back, we're in personnel. They're gonna feel us come off the ball and have to defend the entire field from the first

snafter the last. So that energy idea match as well with early season weather down here. I don't know if you've ever played a game in South Florida or coaching game in South Florida experience with that. My first NFL game was it was in two thousand five. My first regular season game was with the Denver Broncos playing in Miami and we got lapped. We we were down to like we had safeties playing corners and we were gutted, had no no chance. It was like over in the

early third quarter. So yes, I've felt it heavily, um and know what kind of a competitive advantage it can be. Jason Taylor had an eighties seven yard fum where return for a touchdown in that game. Remember that game really well, now you're just stat flexing a little bit. I mean, that was a big one for us, A big blow victory over a team that was supposed to beat us that day. So that was a fun one. But sorry,

I wasn't the same for you on the other sideline. Hypologize, So there's a great clip on social media right now with all the content we had earlier this week, and you're hiring with you talking to a tungle Byla on the airplane. I wanted to ask you about that clip and just how it was to kind of meet him through the phone. It was. It was fun. It was choppy, the the WiFi experience was kind of weird, but no, it was really cool to feel his energy. It didn't

matter Um that sometimes he were breaking in and out. Um. He was just excited to talk to me, and that excited me. I was excited to talk to him. You know. It's something that everybody's been waiting for, uh, you know, waiting for the powers that be to um decide we're going to this direction. And they did, and we're all excited about it. And I couldn't be happier to um work for this franchise, for an incredible owner, and work

alongside a credible GM and all of it. And I think he could feel that energy and it was obvious on his face and his tone of voice. Is that what you're most excited about working with him? His energy? Um? No, I'm excited about a player that wants to get better. And point blank, it's a in the coaching player relationship. Both parties have to participate and you can only get out of a player what they're willing to put in,

you know. And and so I'm excited for him to he's I can tell he's really going to attack it. He he's a player that has an internal chip on his shoulder and um. But we have a lot of work to do, and that will be a really fun day when we first get to get on the field. But first and foremost, we have to get him. We have to get a staff to coach him, and then some players to are some players to study in a playbook too, to study so that you can study some film and and get to that point which we're all

excited about. And your quarterback is going to be obviously the conduit for the offense or on the field for your offense. And you know, talking about two and and just earlier you mentioned free by one, two by two kind of some of the offensive designs there. What does what does it look like for you in terms of when you go to design to play, How does that process kind of work for putting together a play for Mike McDaniel m HM. Well, that was a cool question.

I've never got that one before. UM. And the long and short of it is, I look at offensive plays as as problem solving solutions. So I don't really sit there and think, Okay, what can be cool? I look at the Okay, what is the defense, what defense do they play? What issues do they have? UM? Where are they vulnerable? And how to attack it? And then you think back to the library, what are they, what are they defending, how do they want to defend you? What

have they've been practicing? And all of those things formulate. Okay, well, let's let's do this one play that you could do any number of ways. But let's take the tight end and motion them from left or right, or let's start in the backfield because we have another play that plays off of that. All of it is finding solutions um that the defense presents UM. And then okay, well, what ways can we take advantage of our offensive personnel? UM? Hey,

Wattle is pretty really really really fast. UM, let's line them up over here and make him defend something deep and then run the ball behind it. Things like that. Yeah, it's a great answer. I think Dolphins fans are gonna love to hear that. So obviously you have an extensive

history of coaching offense in this league. Is offensive coordinator, receivers, running backs, the whole gamut, as you will know, how does that, How does leading an offensive room or a receiver's room, running backs room, eventually an offensive room prepared you to take over an entire football team and be a head coach of the Miami doult I think sometimes people can over complicate coaching and what what's what's very comforting to me is being coaching a receiver and being

a receiver coach. Wasn't that different than coaching an offensive group. Because what you're doing is you are establishing a connection with players and saying, hey, here, I'm going to prove to you how um, I'm gonna get you better. And if they buy what you're selling, they listen to it and they apply it, and that relationship that that where hey, player,

you're depending on me. It doesn't matter what position I'm coaching, as long as you are talking to them and um, really engaging their mind and they learn they can establish hey, you know what, whatever he's saying, if I listen to it, man, that's gonna make me better. They will do anything for you and when you're talking to a team, I guess what is an offensive coach? If you do know what

you're doing, you have to know defense. It's impossible to be able to coach offense without knowing defense and vice versa. So those those types of things. For players, all they want to do is get better, you know, they just they want to play their best. So you established that you can make them better, and hey, they'll do whatever

for you. So kind of on that same train of thought about the defense, you inherit a defense that has had a lot of production and a lot of players that have caused that production from the last previous couple of years. Returning to this team, how do you maintain that defensive performance we saw the last couple of years here in Miami. Well, there's I heard this early in my career, and I think it's very true. You're either getting better or getting worse. You don't stay the same.

So I think that hunger um that they've they've had here is very important. But you don't stop where you left off. You continue to grow. And that's all I see from um. The people in the bill, of the players that I've talked to, is they're not saying, hey, that was cool to UM be a pretty good defense. No, we want to win football games. Well, if we have to be the very best defense in the league to do it, let's do that. If we can be marginally worse but the offense can be a lot better, let's

do that. It doesn't matter. It's a team sport. We're focused on the team getting better and the team winning football games and knowing that last year. UM, it's a foundation, but it doesn't mean anything moving forward. Absolutely, and in one area of I suppose more modern day football, maybe for their back and people realize, but in all three phases of the game, analytics have really taken on their

new role in the National Football League. What's your approach to analytics and how they can benefit a coaching staff or a player, just the entire operation. UM. I tend to try to really focus on the numbers that are right. No, UM, it's a it's a very, it's a very it's a useful tool. But like anything else, you can't take anything

as an absolute. So you UM, you're taking the information like, hey, UM, I understand why it's UM over time you should probably go for it on fourth down here, But you also um, my opinion. You have to be careful to do anything in absolutes, and you have to understand, Okay, what's the situation, what's the time of the clock, Um, how's our defense plane, what if we give the ball back? All these factors.

So it's a tool like anything else. But um, you use it, um with every every other piece of information to try to make the best decision. Is there kind of a process for how you determine, you know, the best way to handle certain situations in terms of late game or time out management, clock management. Is there something that you can kind of look back to in your football life and say that's prepared me for that challenge

here as a head coach. No, you Um, you try not to miss a rep along the way, and very mindful of you know, it's been documented. I've been pretty ambitious during my career. I've had being a head coach in my mind, um for a long time. And if you're serious about that, every single game, you don't you you don't miss a rep. So what I've tried to do is put myself in the position of the head coach for the last fifteen years, UM, because I you'd hate to to all of a sudden getting a situation

like I feel unprepared. But even that's not enough because there's so many situations that happened, So you have to UM. You're coaching staff has to be able to acquire multiple situations. We've we've had We've had something in the past that I planned to employee called around the league where weekly we take UM different situations that come up so you can review and then in the offseason you have to review.

You know, there's everything is built towards UM trying to make the best informed decision UM with all the variables that are compounding and there's never an absolute and you're only right if it works, and all of that has led you to coaching some of the top running games in the National Football League the last few years. I wanted to get your take on just how important and how valuable the running game is in the modern NFL and the importance of balance on offense as well. It's UM.

I think it's extremely important UH in terms of you can you can really play to the strength of your team when you have a good defensive team. I think it's important to dictate the terms like when you're running the ball, you're taking more time off the clock. When you're taking more time off the clock, you know who doesn't have the ball the other team. It's hard to score when you don't have the ball. So all of

these things are will always be important in football. I do think there's a competitive advantage UM as of late where you know people there this league is cyclical, it goes in trends, and there's a lot of people are pretty excited about throwing the ball. UM, and I think that does give an advantage of people that try and know how to run the ball. UM. But it still means you have to be good at passing the ball

as well to be a complete team. But UM, in football, because you have to have the ball to score unless you turn it over. UM, there will always be a competitive advantage if you can run the ball. Well. Yeah, just this last playoff rom we saw your forty niners take a take a couple of top quarterbacks and keep on the sideline with that running game. And so with that in mind, you know you've been a part of a lot of playoff teams and coaching a lot of

big games and playoff games. How do you think that experience prepares you for the possibility of coaching in big games down the line here with the Miami Dolphins. The the more you coach in big games and playoff games because there's a different atmosphere in them, um, the more I just got the chills because it's it's a different atmosphere, but you become much more comfortable with it, so it

feels like a regular game. And that's the key. You want to really put yourself in the position that your your heart rates the same, your intensity is the same at all times. You want to practice deliberately, so you should. You're trying to replicate that energy and practice. It's tough, but you try to. And then regular season playoffs. The more they're all the same, the more you're making decisions for the right reasons, which is your job to do.

And the more that, um, the moment doesn't become too big to the point that there there aren't really nervous when you when your whole season is on the line, You're just worried about doing what's best for your team and making the best possible call, uh that they can put your players in position be successful hopefully. Yeah. And a big part of that obviously is kind of having

that message right your coaching staff. Can you kind of take us for the process of filling out a coaching staff and what's important to you in those those possessions, in those roles. UM, this is this is a business of relationships. It's lost in a lot of it there in the in fantasy football and UM all this stuff, you really lose sight of the fact that these are human beings that have to play together. There's eleven of them at the same time, and the objective is who

can operate the best together. So within that UM, coaching staffs are extremely important in the same regard where you have to have communicators, you have to have leaders, but they also have to be able to maintain relationships with these players because they are asking they're asking the players to do something in a violent sport that if put themselves in harm's way for the sake of the team, and the only way you do that is by establishing relationships.

So that's first and foremost. I look at for communicators, people that can establish relationship and and good teachers UM. And then at the end of the day, you assembled as many of those as you can, UM, you should be able to set your team in the right direction. Earlier you mentioned your pursuit of being a head coach

for your entire coaching career. I don't know if you saw this earlier, but a friend of yours, Jeff Darlington from ESPN, tweeted out a resume that you sent him back in two thousand and five with the Denver Broncos or to get that job with the Denver Broncos, and you sent the tum on an Excel document. That got a lot of people talking on Twitter about the idea of putting a resume on an Excel document. What was

the thought process there? Because I hate word tab functions and I was I was trying to find the edge in the resume game, and I had like this. I thought it was pretty cool at the time. But I had like and Excel you can like merge all the all cells on the right hand side and then like do whatever feature that is, and I had my signature and like cursive. It didn't work, But um, I think I think you did. I mean I could have just used word but that that was the reason. And uh,

it was a risk. It was risky business because I'm not that good of a speller and Excel doesn't really have spell check or at least it didn't at the time. So um, but you know, no guests, no glory. I guess I love it. I love I have one more question for you. It's a complete departure from what we've been talking about. But no vegetables, Yeah not really, So what does a meal look like for you? I mean, no green vegetables. I'm a potato guy. Um, meat and potatoes. Um.

I kind of eat like a kid, right. Any cloric in take is great for me. But uh, very big meat chicken I was. I was raised out West um and Greely, Colorado, which is a cattle cattle country. So burgers, fries, all that, all that jazz. We've got plenty of options downstairs, Jackie the Jackshack they call it here. Lots of great food options for you down there. It's all I got for you. Coach, appreciate time today. That was awesome and

there he goes, head coach of the Miami Dolphins. We have another great guest lined up for you this week on the podcast, as well as coverage of Coach McDaniel's press conference. Will have that coming your way here on drive time, on Miami Dolphins dot com and across all social accounts your go to source for all things Miami Dolphins football. In the meantime, that is gonna be my time. You all, please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcast, leave us a rating, leave us a review.

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