January 2020 - 29

I didn't want to come in and be the new sheriff in town.
Everybody said the players are going to resent me a little bit
because I'm replacing a phenomenal coach. But it has gone
very well, and I think the team bought in. They understand
our values are who we are, and they are what we believe in.
Did you encounter pushback from any players?
From more than a couple. I think every program has its
challenges, and there were some challenges here. Some
of them off the field.
I tried to make sure we stayed the course. As we
encountered that pushback, I tried to educate the
individual about why we're doing these things. I know
it's different than what they did in the past, but that
doesn't mean it's bad or it's not
going to work. The most important
thing is that we're all trying to
accomplish the same mission
and all have the same goal. There
were some people that weeded
themselves out. There were some
guys who didn't want to buy in that
are no longer with us. That's OK;
that's their choice.
There was definitely pushback
and some resentment, because
they were at the top of Division II.
They couldn't do any better, so who
is this guy coming in? And now
we have a little different way to
practice and different rules off the
field. I get it. But overall, I think it
went as smooth as it possibly could.
Did you consider maintaining
anything from the previous
system to give players a
sense of familiarity?
There is some similarity. When
you watch the two offenses, the
formation and structure is almost
identical. There's just a little
different philosophy on how to
attack different areas of the field.
I only know what I know, and I'm
comfortable running my offense.
I didn't want to come here and be
someone else and do something
I didn't have every answer to. But
it is cool when talking to players
about different reads and it's
familiar from the previous system.
It's a pretty easy transition.
I remember from the first
week of spring, some of the guys
were wondering what's going
on. What they failed to realize
is the quarterback is back there
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going through all these reads for the first time. Once
the quarterback got through a couple practices, things
started to settle down and click. I had to remind them
that they didn't master coach Bell's offense in just one
week either.
At Tiffin, you managed to turn around a struggling
program. What's your approach to changing the
direction of a program when you first step in?
I've been fortunate to play for and work under some
phenomenal coaches. I think there's always something you
can learn from them.
When I first got to Tiffin, I thought it was all about
the magical Xs and Os. What I realized after the second
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