This is the OTP presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Plan on paying less for the coverage you need with Farm Bureau Health Plans. Get a quote today at FBHP dot com with Amy Wells. I'm Mike Keith and this is head coach Brian Callahan. Welcome back to the OTP. Good.
We wanted to you know before we let you go. You've experienced a lot of questions, maybe once or twice, or three or four, seven or eight times, and so Mike, you have the list of the.
List of the questions that you have gotten most often. Let me just run them down here.
I probably you can probably play this game too.
Eric, what's it like to work with your dad? By far? Number one? How is will Levis doing a variety of offensive line questions? A lot of questions about Traylon Burke's, A lot of questions since he got here. A lot of questions about Tyler boyd Yes players not participating in voluntary workouts and your opinion on that. Wanting to know where Tavandre a sweat is and is he okay? A
lot of questions about how you're going to handle play calling. Yeah, seems like every reporter who comes into town wants to ask the play calling question, yes, and then the what's your message, what's your message leading into the draft, what's your message going into OTAs, what's your message in mini camp, what's your message into the off season, what's your message into training camp. I mean, these are all legitimate questions.
I mean it's very much part of the job. And I guess that's the thing you were getting to is this is the job.
This is the job, and just maybe something you didn't think about as much when you're taking that job is that you're going to get the same question hundreds of times.
That's been the one that's definitely been one that you just don't think about. You think about media, and you have to do all these it's all part of the job. But the repetitiveness of I feel like I've answered the same question a lot, and then you also feel like and this is no you know, don't disrespect. It's just different when you talk to the national people versus the
local people. And so the national people all ask very very very similar questions, and the local guys and women that cover the team are much more aware of some things and so they don't ask the same ones like they kind of know what questions have been asked them, but you get the same national persons a lot, and so it's I never thought about that, but I've noted as my media availability went along the spring, I was like, I wonder what question I have to answer about trailing today?
I wonder how many times I've talked about my dad? It happened a lot. It happened a lot. Did I leave any out?
All those are the ones we actually Beryl and I went through them this morning and we tried to come up with all of it. But that's that's the That's the part of this is even though you're the most prepared first time head coach I've ever been around in any sport. Well, I've I've just never seen anybody with the background you have and what you were allowed to do coming up and obviously your dad having been a
head coach. But there's still stuff you don't know, and that just like your your first year when you just go off to college, there's stuff people just can't tell you that you have to experience.
That's great, that is correct. I felt like I've done this long enough, and I've been around football long enough. And as I've said before about just the access I was allowed in Cincinnati with Zach and how much he allowed me to see behind the curtain a little bit, where not a lot of you know, head coaches allow that sort of access to the day to day and so I felt like I was probably more prepared than most people would be for the for the job, and
it's it's certainly paid off. I feel that, you know, especially early on, early on, I felt it where there was some things that had I not been exposed to that stuff would have probably thrown me a little bit off, just because you don't know sure. And then there's still things even even to this day that come up that you're like, well, I didn't think about that, that one, that one's new. I wasn't really I wasn't quite ready
for that particular situation. But it's been fun though. That the the part of it it's been cool is that I haven't felt it's never felt overwhelming. I've never felt
like I was unprepared. If that makes sense, It totally sense, and it just I've I feel like one of the strengths of my personality is I can generally take things in stride, and I think you have to be able to do that as a head coach, because there's so many things that you don't anticipate that can come up in the course of a day that you woke up in the morning. You never thought that would be something you'd be dealing with that day. So yeah, it's a
it's a it's a wild job, it really is. It is fun though.
When you're thinking about being a head coach one day, one of the things I'm sure that crosses your mind is putting together your staff and who I would have as this coach or that coach and this thing. After you have those thoughts, I would assume because the way I would do it, that's my only frame of reference, is that it would almost exist in a vacuum, like I want my wide receivers coach to be this person.
I want my coordinator to be this person. Are you then surprised when you get them all together and it's like, oh, these are this is working. These guys all get along really well. It is that maybe a line that you don't always draw when you're just imagining what you will be like as.
A head coach.
This is actually a fun conversation. I was just having this conversation with Dinard the other day is he's you know, you hit this time of year and your coordinator around the league, this is kind of the time of year you prep for potential interviews, whether it's at the end of the season or two years from now, you just this is the time of year where you can take a minute and step away from your job and actually focus on maybe what could be coming your way and
have a long conversation about the staffing process. And it's I think the one that makes or breaks a lot of guys in the interview process. And I think if you ask Grant about how I presented my vision for it, I think it was probably one that resonated and it felt prepared. But the thing about the staff I'll say this is that I spent a ton of time thinking about the people and I never got locked into one person, which I think some people do you get this is
I want this guy and this guy only. I had four or five guys in each spot that I felt comfortable with. But I spent also a ton of time thinking about how they fit with their personalities. With the guys that how it would all work. I spent a lot of time thinking about that, and I think it paid off. Because I think if you you around our staff and as you guys have gotten to know them and you see us interact on the field, it's a it's a really fun group of guys to be around,
and they're really good at their job. But I just think that that so that I was very intentional with hiring in the staff and the type of people I wanted. I focused more on personality traits than I did specific people, and I think that helped. I think that helped helped me build a really a staff that I'm real proud of, and as we've gotten together, I'm even more excited about now than I think I was when I hired them.
After I watched them all work for an off season, it's a fantastic coaching staff.
Well what made me think about that is we've had the opportunity to get to know a lot of the assistant coaches and coordinators within the staff, and every single one of them has mentioned that they genuinely enjoy the other people that they are coaching with. They actually are friends with and like working with the people they're working with, and you don't always get that within a coaching staff,
especially people offering it up like that. So easily. How important is it to have that chemistry within the coaching staff, because I would guess that it is just as important, if not more important, then having the chemistry within the football team.
I think they go together. I think when you hire a staff that that's cohesive and connected and is all pull in the same direction and and wants to be a part of it, and guys that are unselfish in the same sense that you're looking forward from your players. My first goal when I hired the staff was I wanted our staff to embody what I wanted our team to look like, how we interacted, how we communicated, what
type of personality, guys have, the mixes of personalities. And I felt like if I hired the right people, and I hired good people, that the team would feel that and they would also when they walked in the building interacted with the staff, they would feel that we were operating under the same really tenants that I wanted our team to operate under. And so all this comes together and all the players come in the building, and it
really worked exactly like I hoped it would work. For the players to see and feel our interaction, and just like you with kids, you try to model behavior, and so the hope and the goal was that our coach yourself would model the same behavior we want our team to have. And you know, to the first this offseason, it's it really worked about as good as I could have hoped for. And I think that it was it
was intentional, though I wanted to. I spent a lot of time trying to get the right people and the right mix of personalities so that our players would feel the same thing.
Well, they like you and they like each other. So I think it's work.
Yeah, so far, so good, So far, so good. Amy made a great point about the staff cohesion and the fact that we've had a chance to meet them, and every head coach doesn't do that. I mean, you've certainly known some that the assistant coaches basically don't talk. They're in the background. The head coach is totally in the foreground,
and that's it. So you obviously made the decision that it would be different because we've gotten a chance to talk to all of these people, men and women, up and down the football staff throughout the last five months. And then the other thing too is Dinard Wilson is a rising star in the business and it seems like correct me if I'm wrong, But you are very comfortable with his star being shown in a way maybe like Zach Taylor was with you in Cincinnati. Oh.
I think that's probably a good comparison. I think that I think Zach and I have very similar personalities, and I think that's why we work so well together. But Zach's Zach does not have. Zach is like the most egolest person I've ever been around, and I think that takes a tremendous amount of self confidence, and I've always admired that about him, and I think that at the end of the day, you want to be around a bunch of people that don't really care about getting the credit.
I don't care who gets the credit. I just want to have a good football team that puts a good product out there and we win games and people are excited about it. Whoever gets the credit, whoever gets the shine, it doesn't matter to me. I really don't care about that. And I encourage guys to be put out there. I want people to see what kind of coaches we have, and and I hope that Dinard gets to be a head coach in this league sooner than later, because I
think he'll be a fantastic one. But to me, it's it's always I think good leadership and as always about trying to help prop other people up. And I think that I learned that from Zach. He was great to me and it allowed me the same access for that and hopefully you guys feel the same way here. But the credit to me doesn't really matter. I just want to have a good football team and a good coaching staff.
And as guys get credit and we play well, then I hope they get all the glory, don't I don't need it.
Why is Dinnard Wilson such a rising star in the coaching business, Well, I think first and foremost he's got great technical knowledge of defensive football, both in the in the front, in the run game. And then his expertise obviously is the secondary. Been a part of really good productive secondaries, and that's what wins in the NFL these days is you better be pretty good against the past,
and everywhere he's been, they have been. So that's the first kind of the baseline is he's an excellent football coach on the technical side of the schematic side. And then he's got a presence about him as you see, he's uh, he's really great in front of a room. He's got a he's got a command, and he's got a very unique way of being direct and honest and truthful in a way that doesn't offend people. If that I don't know if that's the best way to put it.
But he can get up in front of those guys and he can coach him hard, and he can be critical and they walk out of the room loving him more than they did when they walked in.
And it's just it's just part of his personality.
And he's but that's what a great teacher does. I would agree with that. Yeah, I would agree with that. You think about your teachers in school and the people who could say, I want to see you do better here because you're capable in this way. You know, you would walk out and go, Okay, I don't want to disappoint mister or missus so and so when.
This that's probably a good comparison for him. But he's and he's and then on top of that, he's hyper competitive. I love competing against him. In practice. It doesn't take much to get him riled up. All you got to do is to have Tyke run over there and start yelling at him about the uh some pass completion, and then oar gets mad, and then it's just it's competitive, and he's he's a he's a he's a top level competitor, and that that part the players feel as well.
And so.
Everything about how he how he goes about his business, how he leads the coach, his coaching staff on defense, how he leads the players, how he teaches, all those things are going to lead. I mean, he's he'll be a head coach in this league sooner than later. If if we have any of the success that I think we're capable of having, that's something that's probably coming for him pretty quickly. So I hope it does. He's he'll he'll he'll have earned it and be deserving of it.
All of those traits, though, that you were just describing, when you're talking about modeling, lack of ego, competitiveness, being held accountable, held to a high standard, those are all things that are existing within this coaching staff, and with a roster that has some guys with some established reputations already on it, seeing those traits has to be helpful on the field.
So far, it has. I felt that from our team. I've seen that in their actions, the way they work, the way that they come into the building every day are all things that echo all the things that I feel about our coaching staff. I've seen in our players, and I think they appreciate it. I think they appreciate the style, they appreciate the messaging, and I think they believe in what we represent both as teachers and as people. And I think they see the potential in the roster
in their teammates. And then you have the scheme parts of it in all three phases, and I think you got a bunch of guys that believe in what we're doing.
As you have come into this, Who is a player or players that you didn't really know who has been a pleasant surprise from the leadership standpoint, on the field, in the weight room, whatever. Give me a guy or guys bit jump out in that way.
Yeah, I'll give you two that that really have jumped out to me. I think that arden Key has been fantastic. I love everything about how he practices and works, and his personality is infectious. He's got some, you know, real leadership traits on top of it, and he's just been really fun to be around and and I think he provides a lot of energy to the team and I think they enjoy he I mean he never stops. You hear arden all day long, and I enjoy that.
I like it.
I think it's a great thing. And then Jack Gibbons, I think has really stood out to me is you know, he's he's a hyper competitive and he's really taken on a leadership role on the defense and just I didn't know anything really about him until I knew who he was, but I didn't know much about him, and this over this process of the spring has been eye opening to me. I mean, I think he's really you know, he's kind
of one of the first ones that starts talking. I mean, he's he's got some he's got something to him, he's got an edge to him. And I think that he's been one that I've been really enjoyed seeing him kind of bloom a little bit in a leadership role.
He keeps getting better, he has since the day he's been here, and people kind of underestimate him. They underestimate his athleticism overall, and then you just you watch You're like that guy's pretty good.
That's how he's come across to me, is I just I know you got I watched him play a little bit obviously last year when he got thrust in there and played pretty well, and you just you know, his his track where undrafted, free agent, all these things that he's kind of come overcome to get to the spot,
and you go, man, that's been pretty impressive. And then every day it's like, oh, it's pretty good, and you know, he makes play on the ball, and then he's he's in worries, he's where he's supposed to be, and there's just there's a consistency that he's starting to develop. And I think that that goes a long way too, where he's sort of the same He's got the same energy, the same guy every day, and then he still continues
to execute what's asked of him schematically. And I think that that's how guys play a long time in this league.
We left one out who's going to wear the green dot? We left one that's a great one. Yeah, we left that out. Could Jack Gibbons be the guy who wears the green dot? Yeah?
I think I think all those guys. I think him and him and Kenneth, I think both are fully capable of of doing that job and being uh in that communicator role. And I think I've said before too that it's it is uh, it's defensive. Communication is still an eleven person job. They don't all just come from one person. They all talk at different points and they talked to
safeties and corners talks. So there's there's a lot more communication that goes on than just the guy that gives the call, you know, before the snap, which is which is great. You got to have that guy too, But there's a lot more to it than that. But yeah, there's a lot of that was a that's a heavy topic of conversation around here in Green Bay.
Disappointed in us.
Yeah, I'd left one off.
Yeah, and that's it.
I'm sorry. I apologize.
O TP, That's okay, you found it eventually.
We hit it four minutes in.
Who are you or maybe a couple of people? Are you most excited to see finally put pads on?
Ah, that's a good one. I am very excited to see Devandre Sweat put pads on. That was always a good one. Will he be available? I was looking here, that's that's number six? Yeah him. I think seeing JC and pads is going to be fun. He's had a really nice, really nice offseason, and just to see a guy of his size and strength actually be able to, you know, come off the ball and hit and do
things in linemen do will be fun. I'm really looking forward to seeing those guys I think are really gonna be fun players to watch play in training, camping in the preseason. As we get started, those guys, I'm I'm excited to see. And you know, I think there's there's gonna be some fun battles on the offensive line on the right side, which will be you know, pads will come on and that'll be very telling and revealing of of what that will look like of the course of camp.
So the first day of pads is always kind of my favorite day of the football calendars. It's like, okay, football, It's we're back. We're playing football again. So but those guys, I think for sure are the ones that that i'd be I'm looking forward to seeing.
Before I went down the Green Dot rabbit hole, I was going to follow with you. You mentioned Jack Gibbons as a player that you've had a chance to watch, and arden key that these guys who have really done a good job I wondered if you would say John a Juku.
Yeah, that's a good one. He that's he's been really impressive. I think, given an opportunity because of some injuries to show what he's all about. And and he's about everything you want your offensive lineman to be about. And he's he's engaged in the meeting room. It matters, it's important to him. And the best way I can explain this is when he's playing what he's been playing with the one group for you know, last handful of practices, and
you don't notice that he's out there. And I mean that in a very complimentary way, is that he doesn't look out of place, he doesn't make any mistakes. He does things right enough to where you feel like he belongs there, if that makes sense. Sure, And so that's you know, and again we haven't played any football yet, but what he's done with the opportunity has been he
has been given has been very impressive. You know, for a guy that nobody even probably really knew his name before the off season program started, and and he's he's slowly but surely made sure people know who he is. And you know, sometimes a door opens and if you you sprint through it. There you go. Sometimes that's how it works. And so I'm very excited to see what
he looks like as well. And you know, again he's hasn't played a ton and and he's gonna have some opportunities to play, and you know, I hope he takes advantage of it because he's the kind of guy you root for. Guys like him, you know that that things right and approach their job the right way, and you hope that they can capitalize on it.
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So Titans fans fan.
Brian Callahan, thanks so much for joining us on the OTP.
It's always a pleasure.
It's kind of fun to come here at the end of the off season program. Here we go, well, you know.
We're here to put a bow on things and then shoot you forward. That's what we do.
Here for Amy Wells and coach Brian Callahan. I'm Mike Keith, thanking you the OT people for joining us for the o TP. Welcome to the Big show where the Lenson's going ever boughten nose. It's a