January 2020 - 32

You played under both Hal Mumme and Mike
Leach. How did they influence your coaching
philosophy?
Both are player's coaches. You gravitate to them, you
want to play for them, and they have a knack for getting
the most out of students-athletes. When we were here,
we used to love going to the office or practice every day
because we had fun.
They worked extremely hard, and that's one thing I took
from coach Mumme. The other thing is don't be scared to
be yourself. You can't take another job and try to be another
coach just because they've had success. Be yourself and
stick to your guns. That's what's so neat about Mike Leach.
People always ask me, is he really that way? He's 100% that
way. That is not for TV and cameras - I promise.
I also was fortunate to work with (Stetson University
coach) Roger Hughes at Princeton. He's so detail-oriented
and on top of everything. I learned from him that it's
extremely important to pay attention to alumni and
boosters, and hand write the thank-you letters. Do as
much as you can in the community. I learned from him to
make sure you're doing a little bit of everything to make
sure the program is running smooth.
At the time of our interview, your team has
won 23 straight games dating back to last year.
You have sophomores who have never lost a
college game. Do you worry about whether
your team can face adversity?
Everyday. I worry that our players just expect the wins
32 JANUARY 2020
are going to continue to happen. We fight that every day
here, but we've really done a good job of focusing on
being 1-0 each day, or 1-0 for the week.
We talk about that all the time, and it's a daily struggle.
They are 19 to 22 years old, and they're human too, but
we're trying to block out the white noise and focus on us
every day. My fear is my voice starts falling on deaf ears
because every week I say, " These guys are good enough
to beat us. We've got to prepare. " Then we go out and win
by 40 points. I worry they'll think, " You said this team was
good. " Then they don't believe me anymore.
You talk about paying your dues in this
profession. What do you say to a fellow coach,
perhaps at the high school level, trying to climb
the ladder the way you did?
The first thing is be patient. One thing that muddies the
water is you see these big time coaches making big time
money, and a lot of guys get into the profession with the
idea that they're going to make it big and get rich. That's
not why I got into it at all. I would have been completely
fine being a high school coach. That's what I thought was
going to happen.
Like anything, if you have a passion for it and you work
hard, great things will happen. They might not happen as
fast as you want, but somebody somewhere is watching.
If you just continue down that road and work hard at
doing the right thing, someone is going to give you an
opportunity at some point. Our society wants things
instantly, but that's not how it always works.
January 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2020
