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00:00:01
Convo with Coach Kelm
31 Plays8 months ago
Pete and Chuck talk with Coach Nate Kelm about the differences in calling offense and defensive plays wile talking about a great year of coaching together at Taylor High School in Texas.
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Without thinking, what's your favorite football video game of all time? Tecmo Super Bowl. Favorite fast food burger? A1 Thick and Hardy. Favorite place to get new plays? Mad 19. Did we just become best friends? Yep. You want to podcast in your kitchen? Yep.
00:00:25
Speaker
Pete, what's happening, dude? Just looking at my – pulled up my March Madness bracket for the first time in about a week. And it's doing better than I thought. We're sitting around 89%. But Florida's still in it. So, Damon's going to be happy about that.
00:00:42
Speaker
You know, I got Florida to win it all. I – of course, I'm Arkansased out right now. I did not have my boys making the Sweet 16 and then almost the Elite Eight. But those were a couple that I happily – would have missed, but you know, I shot my bracket the foot.
00:01:02
Speaker
Cause you worry about everybody's bracket looking the same. So you want to like, Oh yeah. You got to call it something. Right. So like I had Drake, I had the upset by Drake.
00:01:15
Speaker
I had, i had UC San Diego actually going to the sweet 16. That was like my going to be one of my surprises, but the big one, the one that hurt me, As I had Florida in the title game, I still have against Clemson.
00:01:31
Speaker
And, yeah. Yeah, if you follow. Yeah, I was pretty close. and The final four right now is it's pretty chalk, Chuck. It's three it's all four one seeds? No?
00:01:46
Speaker
Three one seeds and a two? It is. Yeah, mean, it's all high seeds. Whenever you get to the Sweet 16 10,
00:01:54
Speaker
Is the lowest seed still in it? i mean, you've had a pretty by-the-book bracket. Yeah, i've got I've got Florida winning.
00:02:06
Speaker
I had them originally winning over Michigan State, who just lost. um But, you know, obviously they're matching up with Auburn, and then we have Duke and Houston on the other side. My pick for the championship game was Florida over Houston, with Houston over Duke playing in that final four game. So I got three out of the final four right, which i I will take some credit on that, but I obviously went pretty chalk if I got three out of the four right.
00:02:29
Speaker
Hey, man, sometimes chalk flies, right? I mean, sometimes that's how it works out. Those guys are seated high for a reason. No doubt. um But yeah, mine's ah mine was not so good.
00:02:43
Speaker
You know, sometimes, and of course, I mean, I'll own it. I haven't watched it enough college basketball to to be much more than lucky. Of course, I was obviously watched a lot more SEC like you.
00:02:58
Speaker
watched a lot more SEC basketball than the other conferences. Yeah, what a heck of a conference this year. I know we've talked about that already, but. That's heck of a conference this year. Well, I'm ready to see you in a couple weeks coming up. Heck yeah.
00:03:13
Speaker
The Meat Mafia, man. little barbecue. Birthday, my 29th birthday. It's going to be a fun time. It's going to 29. See, I forget that because Tim just turned this last week 28.
00:03:25
Speaker
And so I was like... you know, dang, he's pushing 30. Now I look at you and I think of you as that much older than him. I forget y'all are like the same age. And I'm like, gosh, he ain't even 30 yet.
00:03:38
Speaker
Yep. 29, April 12th. It's coming up. Dude, uh, I gotta give you, you know, I just came off spring break. Y'all spring break was a couple of weeks ago, right?
00:03:49
Speaker
Yep. So I just came off spring break. We went on, uh, We went to my granddaughter's plural baby shower, meaning for the twin girls and Tim's upcoming twin girls.
00:04:09
Speaker
And we did that Sunday and then we went to Arizona for a few days and man had a had a heck of a time, had a good time.
00:04:22
Speaker
Went to, I'd never been to the Grand Canyon um it was pretty amazing. Big hole in the ground? ah Yeah. the It looks, I'm going to tell you, if you've anybody's ever been there, I don't know, Pete, if you've been there or not.
00:04:37
Speaker
No. it looks like a painting. Like it's so fricking big that your mind can't be like, those are real dimensions. Like those are real cliffs or anything.
00:04:48
Speaker
It looks like it's a painting cause it's so daggum massive. And then if you're in the national park, you you hardly can see water. Like there's only a couple little windows where you're like, Oh, there's the river and everything else is dry. There was one thing that messed me up really bad.
00:05:08
Speaker
there's like a cave entrance. Like if you're in the national park, right behind where the visitor center is, you look down and halfway down, which is like 2,500 feet down, there's a cave entrance.
00:05:24
Speaker
And that's all I could see, all I could think of rest the rest of the time. I'm like, how do you get to that cave? I'll get that cave. See what that cave looks like.
00:05:35
Speaker
I bet Nicolas Cage could get in that cave. I bet you treasure. There's some national treasure. There's some secrets guaranteed up in that cave. Mesopotamia is in that cave. That's probably where the City of Gold is, man. Who knows?
00:05:49
Speaker
It's crazy stuff. Oh, shit. Hey, where's Nick? we yeah We got to get Nick on it. Yeah, we do. National Treasure 3, the Grand Canyon.
00:06:03
Speaker
We'll just name it, what's in that cave?
00:06:09
Speaker
So that was number one. Number two, and my daughters and my wife had me started on this intrusive thoughts idea, you know. If you heard of it, obviously you're young. like Intrusive thoughts are the... I think of them as silly, stupid things, but apparently they're dangerous thoughts, and I don't want to be non-PC.
00:06:31
Speaker
ah You know how how essentially PC our podcast is. um I don't want to be non-PC. But I'm watching all these families are standing out on this point, and there's a fence there, and my thought was...
00:06:47
Speaker
How messed up would they be if I just looked at Janet and yelled, I wish I was never born and it took off running and just jumped over the edge?
00:06:57
Speaker
Like, what do you do? You're there taking your selfie and all of a sudden the 48-year-old fat man just runs past you and jumps. What the hell just happened?
00:07:08
Speaker
I would have thought about... If I was there, the first thing I would have thought about was Joe Dirt and his parents leaving him at the Grand Canyon. That's exactly... Janice said that. She was like, hey, is everybody here? want to leave anybody at the Grand Canyon.
00:07:23
Speaker
No, the other thing that like was nuts... and So for the... We went to the to the shower for Tim and Aaron. And then Wednesday they had an appointment.
00:07:36
Speaker
So...
00:07:40
Speaker
Pete, you've met, I mean, you know me, you've met Tim. like ah So he's not a little dude. I'm not a little dude. um
00:07:52
Speaker
Erin's family are not small people except for her mom, you know, is a little short woman. But other than that, Erin's sister, dad, or, you know, athletic parents,
00:08:03
Speaker
Big, tall people. Well, apparently these girls are measuring one to two weeks older than they're supposed to be. So one of them... there So this is twins.
00:08:15
Speaker
One of them is a week ahead. And the other one's two weeks ahead. Dogs. So, yeah, dude. These girls... These girls are going to be ready to go from birth. Like, it's going to be...
00:08:34
Speaker
It's going to be on. Anyway. I know we're 100% in on the on the two girls, but yeah how hard would your fist pump be if one of them came out just was a boy when it came out? Would you would you give ah but you give a big Tiger Woods full fist pump in the waiting area and when they came out and said, we made a mistake, one of them's a boy?
00:08:53
Speaker
Well, no, man. I'm good. I am so i'm so ready. I keep telling Aaron – ah keep telling aaron So though my last four years that I'm supposed to be in education before I retire would be their senior year would be my last year.
00:09:13
Speaker
And I'm like, I'm moving down and coaching their soccer team for my last four years. so ah so It was going to be two boys. I was going to coach their football team, move down to the area and just retire on that. But i said, no, since it's girls, I'll go coach their soccer team.
00:09:31
Speaker
That sounds good. I mean, you got some softball background, too. Maybe it's softball. Maybe. Maybe it's softball. You never know. Kara played – Aaron's sister played little juco softball. Yeah, there you go.
00:09:45
Speaker
It could be. It could be. Tim jim was not a baseball player. We'll just leave it at that.
00:09:52
Speaker
it just He just wasn't. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we'll we'll leave it at that. um So what did you do? Anything fun on spring break for you while you guys were out? A lot of t-ball, softball and baseball. Zane and Hadley are both in the middle of their stuff. and Mm-hmm.
00:10:12
Speaker
So a lot of that, i'm pretty sure we had practice like, you know, spring break's what, nine total days? I think we had practice in games on like six out of the nine days. Yeah, so I missed it. And it's great. I i mean, I love it.
00:10:25
Speaker
it's ah I love being out there with them and being able to do it. you know You know, it's it something that I'm sure I'll look back on and and and think fondly of. But, yeah, definitely. When i'm when I was on spring break, I ah finally hit one of the days where we didn't have anything. I was like – Baby, I don't want to go do nothing today. I want to sit right here.
00:10:44
Speaker
I don't want to go out there. I don't want to do nothing. But sitting here and just be lazy for a day and sit the A.C. but I want to know what's up with, you know, I lived down there. for i Well, i lived down in Texas before Buffalo for nine years.
00:11:01
Speaker
Buffalo for two or three years. Live right there in Central Texas for two or three years. The year I leave, the Houston Rodeo gets the best lineup I've ever seen them have for their concerts. I was so upset. i'm forgot I forgot about that. Yeah.
00:11:17
Speaker
So that was after spring break. So that was crazy. We bought, so we bought Charlie Crockett tickets for Monday of what we thought was spring break and ended up being the Monday after we went back to school. So, uh, had to drive to Houston, uh, got off a little early that day. McKenzie is already off, uh, for some appointments and went down there, watched it and got back home about 1am, went to school the next day.
00:11:40
Speaker
So, uh, that was a fun trip. Great show. He put on a heck of a show. I know Cody Jinks was like on Thursday, like two days later. Would have loved to see Jinks was down there. Post Malone was down there. Post Malone was there, yeah. they answer I think Bun B or somebody was down there playing, had a little rap, old school rap going at the rodeo.
00:11:59
Speaker
So they had a good life this year. Didn't they have Brooks and Dunn or somebody up there one one day too? There was an old school band. I'm But I looked at the lineup. I'm like, you sons of, you know what? You wait until I move Arkansas and have a lineup like that.
00:12:14
Speaker
Austin had a good lineup, too. Rodeo Austin is like almost the same time period. They had a good lineup, too. I think Charlie Grockett played in Austin, too.
00:12:24
Speaker
Well, Pete, we got we've got a good friend with us. And before we get... too far along. Uh, I'm going to bring him on here in a second, but we got Nate come with us and, uh, we coached together at Taylor.
00:12:39
Speaker
Nate was the, uh, was the O-line coach and i was his assistant. Um, Anyway, that first year.
00:12:51
Speaker
But he is now – actually, you know what? I'll just um just bring Nate on in, and he can talk about where he is. So, Nate, you may have to unmute yourself here.
00:13:07
Speaker
You got me now? I got you, man. How's it going, Nate? It's going good. Been waiting for a while to get on this thing. Oh, listen. Okay. You're the second guest, man. We're the second guest. Come on. I do.
00:13:25
Speaker
Anybody that knows, we have our own little text group, the three of us. You know, we've had it since we were all together. and it We kind of have a – obviously, y'all go back to Buffalo, but when I came in, it felt like kind of – like we ended up being the three – We were the three. We still are the three amigos.
00:13:44
Speaker
Yeah. That is, I started to say, if you look at our text group right here, that's what it's named. It's named the three amigos. You know, so obviously, you know, we were all together there. guess, Pete, that was your second year at Taylor.
00:13:56
Speaker
And Chuck and I, that was our year there together.
00:14:01
Speaker
You know, I left there, went with Huey to Del Valle. And then I came back to the Houston area. I'm at East Bernard right now. so Yeah, so you were you were on the offensive side with us. Yes. But you the you're on the defensive side now. So what are you doing at East Bernard now?
00:14:17
Speaker
ah D.C. and I coach the inside linebackers and then track. so Okay, so let me let me ask this. like you You're D.C. yeah Was it ever not going to be the inside linebackers? like is Did you walk in and go – If I'm going to D.C., I want the linebackers.
00:14:36
Speaker
Or is there another group that you – I'm just curious. So, when I got there, it was a – you know anything about Eastman? They had been a split defense since Moses was born. I mean, they had been ah basically an old school four four We're playing threes and sixes and out you know eight outside linebackers, you know, like the ghost eights, and here we are.
00:15:03
Speaker
And they go back 25 years. That's what they've done. And so when we got there, we were like, okay, we wanted to be a 50. That's really what we are.
00:15:17
Speaker
Now we could get into some 4-2-5 stuff and get into some split stuff. But our strength was our D-line. And initially when I got there,
00:15:31
Speaker
Okay, maybe back up even more. and i Initially, when I knew I was going to East Bernard, I was actually going to go coach the quarterbacks. Oh, wow. And then the guy that he's going to bring in to D.C., something worked.
00:15:42
Speaker
He's like, hey, would you come over the defense side? I was like, fine.
00:15:47
Speaker
Can I have the D-line? Because I knew that was going to be the strength of deal. And i was like, not that I was trying to say anything bad about anybody. was like, if anybody's going to coach him, I'd rather be the guy that's kind of going to be in charge.
00:16:00
Speaker
we got We got fortunate and hired a guy that played in the league, played D-line. I'm like, oh, good. Now I don't have to worry about it. Let me go to you know, inside backers. You know, so.
00:16:12
Speaker
But, you know, I think, you know, Chuck, you've been on the defensive side. You know,
00:16:19
Speaker
when you're good in the line, it makes a world of difference. Either side of the ball. Yeah, both sides. World of difference. You know, and when it's getting coached a certain way, you know, it makes a big difference. You know, and we had some dudes at Taylor. Don't get me wrong, like some dudes.
00:16:40
Speaker
But, you know, you kind of looked at where we were beginning the year with them, five pups. And, yeah, they we had five pups at Taylor. Yeah. Towards the end of the year, like, those aren't pups anymore. They were some dudes.
00:16:53
Speaker
I'll tell you, right.
00:16:57
Speaker
I'll tell you, like you were saying, you know, because I did i came from the defensive side of the ball. and Anyway, when I was at Searcy and I was a freshman in D.C.
00:17:07
Speaker
Anyway, when I was given that, I'm like, I want the inside backers, period. You know, of course, we were three four So I'm like, I want the inside backers. Those guys are mine. I don't want anybody else touching them.
00:17:22
Speaker
If somebody else talks to them, I'll punch the face. Like, do not mess with my inside backers. um Now, of course, when started at Buffalo, i was D-line.
00:17:34
Speaker
and And we had some dudes on D-line, and we had some dudes for inside backers. I mean, we had dudes all over the place. But um that's why I was curious. i was like, man, for me, even now today, can coach. can coach coverage.
00:17:50
Speaker
No problem. can coach defensive back technique. That's not a problem. But, man, going to put me on the defensive side, I want the inside backers.
00:18:01
Speaker
I'll take the outside backers. You know what I mean? We're in a small staff. I'll take all the linebackers if I got to to get to the inside backers. But those are my guys that I like anyway.
00:18:13
Speaker
mean, I had a lot of fun coaching them. I really did. And it's, you know, coaching them. Sometimes it's just, you know, you have not that you don't have limited drills, but those guys got to see so much live action and live reps of doing it. And, you know, so we had, we started a sophomore this year.
00:18:36
Speaker
um Yeah. A pup. And so we were we were like okay, is this guy going to be a borderline JD guy, borderline varsity? You know, he ended up second team all district as a sophomore. And i'm like, he came a long freaking ways. And oddly enough, he was the only one from day one until our last playoff game that played the that position the entire year.
00:19:01
Speaker
Our inter-squad squirmage lost the second linebacker. First game of the year, Lost the other one. And he finally came he finally came back in our second playoff game.
00:19:15
Speaker
So by our second game, we had to take a safety and bring him down to play inside back. or So I'm playing. um so We're sitting there coaching basically a safety and a pup.
00:19:29
Speaker
from week two to the last playoff game. And, boy, did we take some – I shouldn't say lumps, but we took some of those moments where you're like, what are you all doing?
00:19:41
Speaker
like Like – That's small school. That's that's you know small school Texas high school football. That's what it's all about, man. Pluck, you know, finding the pieces and finding out where they fit to make the best puzzle, you know.
00:19:55
Speaker
And it's the truth. And the kid that we had, we moved from safety because they had been, like I said, the old school split cover three where your free safety is the alley runner a lot of times.
00:20:06
Speaker
So he had that kind of natural instinct and I'm sitting there looking around and not to say anything about our other kids. I was just like, we got to have somebody that'll plug. I'm like that dude will plug, just move him with me and like he'll get better as the year goes on. But I mean,
00:20:22
Speaker
Our head coach and I were joking last week, you know, just talking about stuff. It'd be one time a game. Them two would just go the wrong freaking way.
00:20:33
Speaker
I mean, but it looked like they were totally in sync. I mean, they were in sync going, but it's like that's not what we're reading. Right. Why are you both doing that? are they we then we Then we come in at halftime and like chew them, and then it never happened again.
00:20:51
Speaker
I'm like, it just is got to the point, not that we were like trying to coach it. We're just kind of like, it's going to happen. It's just, it's going to happen in the first quarter. We're going to yell at them. And then when they do the same play later on, we're going to fit it right. It's going to be a no yard game.
00:21:06
Speaker
After the first time they ran it, they popped it for like 30, you know, it happened. You can watch any of our games. it It would, it would happen one time a game. Like that's not what we coach.
00:21:18
Speaker
Yeah. But the fact that it's only happening one time is pretty stinking good, though. Right. And it's also one of those things that when you're coaching those guys, if you're both wrong, you can make the other guy right.
00:21:33
Speaker
You know I mean? If you're working together and, hey, I'm supposed to scrape. Maybe you're reading guards. I'm supposed to scrape. I attack. So the other guy goes, okay, I scraped. And we just basically swapped gaps.
00:21:46
Speaker
That's okay. The problem would they'd fake jet and run counter the other way, and we're chasing the ah jet. Everybody chases the jet the first of the season. I'm like, we rigged guards down pool. like It's not complicated. We work that drill every day. Nate, Nate, Nate, Nate. You're an offensive guy deep down. You know that fake jet is a killer? I know.
00:22:10
Speaker
It is. I'm not saying that's happening. I like that's what you bank on. And I know the first time I see motion, I'm like, Oh, this is, they're going to pop it. It's going to happen. The first time they were going get, like, well, we're screwed.
00:22:22
Speaker
We're screwed. That's why you kind of got to keep that in your pocket. You kind of know, like going into a game, like, you know, you just got those old reliable plays, you know, speaking as an offensive guy, like we, we get down, you know, in the nut cutting areas, you'd like to call it.
00:22:37
Speaker
And, you know, you, You run jet and have your running back act like he's following the jet and run quarterback power or run quarterback counter the other way. You just know.
00:22:48
Speaker
You know. Yeah. Yep. Against any defense you draw up, you know you can just off the top your head, third and one, you need to play.
00:22:58
Speaker
Run a jet and run your quarterback counter power either to the same side or the opposite side. Whichever one you like better, wherever your matches are. Same side auction, yeah. That play is always in your pocket, always as ah as a high school coordinator.
00:23:12
Speaker
It is. It truthfully is. But, you know, looking at it for now from a defensive side, I'm like, you know, Chuck, you know, checking out coaching and soundbusters, it's like we read linemen. So, like, why are we looking at,
00:23:26
Speaker
All that junk. Hey, it's that good looking woman walking across the backside. I guess, I guess. Right? That ADD is winning is really what it is. It's that day ADD has set in. You're like, guys, like, stop. like no but It's not complicated.
00:23:42
Speaker
but Football is not complicated. That's a Brandon Houston quote right there. It is not complicated. It's true. But look, here's what it is. You're standing there, you're having a conversation with your wife at the beach, your kids are blah, blah, blah, and then behind your wife walks this person that just catches your eye for one second, and you're like, dang, and you focus for that half second, and you get caught, you get the little smack on the head, what are you looking at?
00:24:11
Speaker
That's what happens a lot. That's what the jet sweep is. It is. That's what jet motion does. It was definitely fun, you know, being on that side because you knew stuff was going to be called.
00:24:23
Speaker
I really, truthfully, um this isn't my first go-around being on defense. I've coached early on in my career. coached football. I coached the second error defense side. I coached secondary. When was it? Beckville and Alto, I coached on D-line. So, like, I've now coached every spot on defense. And so it definitely has helped that I had a little bit.
00:24:48
Speaker
And, you know, and truthfully told to part of my background is that, you know, I'm a coach's kid. My dad yeah was a defensive coordinator for the first probably half of his career, you know. And now growing up, I knew him as an offense coach, you know, when I can remember. But I knew he was defense guy.
00:25:08
Speaker
So being around football in my life was a big deal, just understanding. you know, stuff and probably, you Pete, you're probably going have the same situation with yours.
00:25:20
Speaker
You know, they're going get to the point where they're sitting in a field house going, calling whatever the play is for you as you're inputting, you know, or stuff like that. I was doing that. you know, at six, seven years old, I was sitting there going, okay, hey, that's right, but 28 sweep. I mean, I was just calling it, you know, at six, seven years old, you know.
00:25:40
Speaker
Yeah, so that was going to lead me to my next question. You know, tell us, you you just told us you're a coach's kid, and that's kind of how you got the itch for it or the love for But tell us a little bit about your background. Where have you been? What all have you coached? I know, obviously, we're going to talk a little bit about – we've already talked a little bit about swapping from offense to defense. You know, you have a – you have a ah a niche perspective, I would say you've called, you know, you've called defenses and offenses, you know, at this point in your career and your career is nowhere near being over. You know, you got a long way to go and and much more success coming. So, so let us know about your background.
00:26:15
Speaker
So, you obviously, like I said, I'm a coach's kid and I'm when say coach kid, I'm from a coach's family. um So at one point, you know, early in my coaching career, I think there was nine of us that were teachers coaches.
00:26:29
Speaker
And obviously most of them being on oh wow um my dad's side. Now, um my mom's brother coached college basketball. My mom's brother, so my uncle actually coached my mom in college.
00:26:41
Speaker
That's got his honest truth. yeah Wow. So, but, you know, obviously on my dad's side is where a lot of us are. you know, my dad's brother and brother-in-law coached at Crawford.
00:26:54
Speaker
Had a lot of success there. You know, dad's brother there was there for 30 years, and they won 298 football games in 30 years. Holy. You're talking about some success. Wow.
00:27:06
Speaker
You know, a lot of my cousins now have gone back to raise their kids there, which, I mean, I get. i mean, I don't blame them. It's been a good community for them. They really like it there.
00:27:19
Speaker
But being around it has been a big, big deal for me. You know, I grew up in the Panhandle. I graduated from West Texas A&M, and my first coaching job was Leveland, Texas, right outside of – I say right outside Lubbock. We were closer to Clovis, New Mexico than – Wow.
00:27:37
Speaker
um So we were 35 minutes to Clovis and 40 minutes to Lubbock. So, like, it is what it is. And then, obviously, like, my mom moved to the San Antonio area, so it was me and no one.
00:27:53
Speaker
So i eventually kind of made my way down to ah Central Texas, and I've been in East Texas a little bit, been in Houston. You know, I kind of call it Houston ah my home now.
00:28:04
Speaker
a Obviously, i came out to Central Texas with y'all for a couple years, you know. But I've been kind of but all over the state through the years. Yeah. You know, it coaching with people I knew – um or somebody knew knew them, knew me. So ah I've coached the gambit of stuff.
00:28:26
Speaker
I was telling somebody at a track meet the other day, we were just talking about stuff. You know, they asked me what I coach. I go, well, I'm coaching inside linebackers now. And said, what else is you coach? I'm like, I've coached all 22 positions.
00:28:41
Speaker
I literally have coached 22 positions. Early in my career, I coached running backs. I mean, I was a coach. About my first four years, I coached nothing but running backs and quarterbacks.
00:28:52
Speaker
And then when I went to – where was I at? think was Diball. One a year, had to coach receivers. So and that in that my year, my like whatever, three four years that was at Diball, I went running backs and quarterbacks, receivers back to quarterbacks.
00:29:11
Speaker
I'm like, coached it all. then some point, I don't know when it happened. I became a line coach. Yeah. And you can get pigeonholed there, man. You can get pigeonholed as a line coach.
00:29:25
Speaker
We've talked about that a bunch. And then like all sudden now, like if people ask, like we need a line coach. I'm like, are you asking me? Are you just stating that? Like,
00:29:39
Speaker
why do you just throw that out? Cause I'm like, I don't know if, you know, but. I've enjoyed coaching line. It's probably – that's the same thing that happened to my dad. He was a running backs coach forever, then somehow he became a line coach. And I always thought he was a dang good line coach.
00:29:55
Speaker
But, know, we were talking about that earlier. Coaching O-line, D-line is a very valuable skill. Coaching secondary is another one.
00:30:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Those are probably top three, honestly. You know, and then if you can coach those spots, like, this to me, makes you golden, you know, as a coach.
00:30:19
Speaker
can yeah I know that, you know, Pete and i have talked about this before, and I know, Nate, we've talked about I started as a D-line coach, the and the first thing – that the DC made me do was he made me take over run hole.
00:30:36
Speaker
So I had inside runs and had to draw up all those dang cards whenever we used to do cards. and And the whole reason he made me do that is ah he said, this is going to help you if you ever want to go coach O-line.
00:30:50
Speaker
One, it's going to help you as a D-line. But if you ever want to coach O-line, you know, to see how these guys have attacked different fronts with different things. And I'll tell you what I enjoy about coaching O-line is you kind of get to make up your rules. Right.
00:31:07
Speaker
You get to kind of create your angles and create, you know, if we're against this year, if you were crazy enough to play a four, you know, play fours and a zero, when we ran inside zone, we fajited that.
00:31:23
Speaker
Yep. So basically, yeah. Our, uh, so that just meant our guard was going to kick the four and we were going to wrap up and, and the nose, I'm just like, or the center. I'm like, just get beat to one side.
00:31:35
Speaker
I don't care what side to get beat to. take one and Take your controlled butt whooping. one way the If he steps, if he steps left, get beat to the to the left. and It doesn't matter.
00:31:48
Speaker
You know, and push him out, get him out of the way. And, uh, Man, with that diamond backfield, it was tough when we ran inside zone against those three, four teams.
00:32:00
Speaker
And people don't understand that maybe that haven't coached line or maybe watched football, but don't understand coaching line. Sometimes some of the the language is different in how you talk to them, like on on combos.
00:32:16
Speaker
Sure, yeah. you know Chuck, you were with me on some of the stuff that we talk about. probably would make no sense to any other position, any other group of people in the world, but us.
00:32:28
Speaker
Any other line. Remember our guys at ah at our guys at Taylor, they wanted to call combos chocolates. They call it chocolate and cookie. Yeah. I swear to God. that's what Like if we were going to remember when we went our outside zone, we weren't pinning and pulling it. And there's one of the combo. It was cookie.
00:32:46
Speaker
If it was inside zone, we call it chocolate. Like I don't, I didn't care. like They knew exactly what was about to happen and go. But, you know, we got so good at some of that stuff. Like, you you just kind of roll with it because they remembered it. You're like, all right, we're not the ones on the field. Like, get it communicated who you're comboing with and go.
00:33:09
Speaker
Yeah. so Yeah, man, you're one of the only, if if not the only guy that that I've worked with that's that's coached everything. So it's it's very, you know, you have a very interesting point of view on on a lot of stuff. You know, I tell a lot of the young guys when I came in, the thing that helped me the most out of anything, you know, and and you know I'll be the first to say I've never coached the defensive side of the ball, but that's what I – in high school, that's what I played. Like 85% of my snaps probably in high school. Now, before high school, I played ah probably every down on both sides or whatever growing up as you're coming through Pee Wee's and all that crap.
00:33:47
Speaker
Once I got to the varsity level, 85 – probably 75% to 85% of my snaps were on the defensive side of the ball. So, I really kind of had an understanding of – of what's going on in the defensive front. We we had a lot of ah freedom with you know playing defensive end as a five tech. i could I could swap gaps with linebackers and communicate across ah to other levels of the defense, even even as somebody who put their hand in the dirt. So I kind of had an understanding of that going in.
00:34:14
Speaker
But I always kind of knew I wanted to call plays. It's really what I wanted to do in my career. and so ah But the best thing that happened for me, i sorry, long story short, is my first year coaching, I coached receivers and but and had to help running backs and had to help tight ends and had to help O-line because we only we only had three offensive coaches. and one of them yeah one of them One of them was the head coach.
00:34:39
Speaker
So he was always with the quarterbacks. It was me, the head coach, and the offensive line coach. So when the O-line went with the O-line coach and the quarterbacks went with Houston, I had the receivers. Sometimes I'd take the running backs if Huey would take the receivers.
00:34:54
Speaker
If Huey had receivers and running backs, maybe do some seven-on-seven stuff with defense, I would go to the O-line with tight ends. And so I learned pretty much everything that first year, especially receivers. That was my main thing, right?
00:35:07
Speaker
And then I went into you know my second year – ah We hired a receivers coach, and so I could do running backs and tight ends. And so switching positions that first to second year making me learn everything. So running backs and tight ends are – if I'm hiring a young guy that's that's eager to learn and wants to learn, I want him to do running backs and tight ends because they have to learn all the run schemes.
00:35:32
Speaker
They have to learn pass protections for the running backs and the tight ends. They have to learn route concepts for the tight ends and the running backs – They have to learn every level of the offense. They have to learn at least some chunk of it.
00:35:46
Speaker
That is so true. So true. So they get a little bit of everything. You're going to spend time with the O-line, doing pass pro, doing inside hole. You're going spend time with quarterbacks and receivers, doing route concepts, seven on seven.
00:35:58
Speaker
So when when young guys come out and they tell me they want to eventually be a play caller, I tell them they need to get to running backs tight ends as quickly as possible. And they kind of just learn. You got to learn everything.
00:36:09
Speaker
And so as I learned that, i felt like I could do anything offensively after that. Once I learned that stuff in year two, I was like, I'm ready to go. Like, I can do it. so There's a lot of truth in that. And just being able to understand the grand scheme of what offense or whatever whatever system you're running is a big deal, you know. And with that being said, you know, kind of going back to my background and in it,
00:36:38
Speaker
So anybody that's been around my my uncles, my dad, they are old school. My uncles were split back here. My dad was wing T. So that's what I grew up knowing.
00:36:50
Speaker
I quickly getting when I went to some ah what early my career, my first two years were with a guy that coached my dad. So I'm like all the stuff that he was calling was my dad's stuff. I'm like, I know this verbatim. So like i it helped.
00:37:05
Speaker
yeah But as I started getting into stuff, learning you know, bigger systems like, you know, the the spread stuff, the RPO stuff, and obviously working with Brandon, you know, learn as many different systems and just watch, just watch.
00:37:21
Speaker
I cannot stress that enough for young coaches. Just watch the game, not just as a fan, but watch it as a coach. Like, okay, they're running. That's 42-pound stick. You know, that was a big one for us. yeah You know, but what is 42-pound stick? Well, it's inside zone and you're reading the inside linebacker for the RPO.
00:37:39
Speaker
Like, how are they how are they getting the the RPO off? Who's the flat defender? The read. You know, just watch it as a coach sometimes, not just as a fan.
00:37:51
Speaker
You know, I joke a lot of times now, like, I can't watch it as a regular fan. You know, like, I can't watch games as a regular fan. That happens to you, doesn't it? You're like, God dang, they freaking didn't block the backside inside back. or No wonder that didn't go.
00:38:05
Speaker
Yes. You know,
00:38:09
Speaker
Yeah, no, go ahead. that you were so You were saying, yeah, you you end up analyzing other guys. yeah is oh yeah You the time. You watch it as as a coach and you start understanding ah how how things fit together in certain schemes.
00:38:25
Speaker
I think that's made me a better coach as I went along. It's just, you know, watch the game and appreciate what's going on. Like I i still to this day, my three favorite college football teams in America are Army, Navy, and Air Force.
00:38:40
Speaker
I love watching them play because it's so unique to watch what they're trying to do and how they're trying to put that together. Then you're looking at everybody else like, that's just triple option out of the gun.
00:38:53
Speaker
Like 42-pound stick. It's inside zone, but you know what it really is? It's triple option. It really is. yeah It's just a different way of doing it.
00:39:05
Speaker
And it's a different look. You know, you can go from the Mike Leach spread where they're chunking it 80 times to like Air Force played a game this year where I think they threw it one time.
00:39:16
Speaker
Or Army. Where they're like, Holy crap, like you're talking about this a vast difference of watching games, and that's why i love watching college football. i think You can see so much different stuff.
00:39:29
Speaker
And defensively, too, watching – like I like watching Iowa State play versus Michigan because Iowa State does a lot of the 3-3 stack. Right. We're moving people where Michigan is going to sign up in their old school, like four down and here we You know, and – we're just going to be really good on defense and we're going to be in the eye and like, sorry. Like there's, and there's a, that's a coaching point. Like, and I, I'm in soccer right now. I'm in soccer season, but, ah but I think this applies to whatever sport, um man, figuring out what your best, what you're going to be. That's going to be best.
00:40:13
Speaker
I'll tell you that like, First game, and i'm again, i know we we talk mostly football, but if you're a high school coach you're listening to us, you've got to coach other sports.
00:40:24
Speaker
And so you got to learn about coaching also as a rule. And so I come into soccer, and and I'm looking at the guys we have, and I'm like, we have some age. ah Man, this guy is really athletic and fast and dependable, moves well the ball.
00:40:39
Speaker
I'm going to put him up front, and I'm going put this guy here. We played our first game that we were favored in by three or four goals, and we lost one nothing Could not generate any offense.
00:40:52
Speaker
So we go into game two, which is our place, and we're down 3-0 at half because I made a complete change. Changed everything up, made a change, and at halftime of that game, I'm like, guys, this is two games I've tried to find offense, and it's not working for us. So here's what we're going to do.
00:41:13
Speaker
We're going to play good defense and we're going to see if that creates some counter opportunities. So at halftime of our second game, we, we allow no more goals. We score one.
00:41:26
Speaker
So we lose again, but we lose three, one, we come back against one of the teams that's going to compete for the conference title. Like, and we're, I think now we're in that mix. We didn't start out in that mix. Now we're in that mix, but, uh,
00:41:42
Speaker
And we play them, we're winning 1-0 until a penalty in the penalty box with three minutes left. I mean, just we shot ourselves in the foot. And after the game, the team goes, hey, guys, this is us.
00:41:55
Speaker
We're going to make it hard for people to score. We're going to try to take advantage of the opportunities we get. You know, we're putting, we're defending 16 shots on goal a game where we're only getting six on goal. That's the style that we're playing right now.
00:42:12
Speaker
But these athletic guys are hella defenders, man. They're just really good at defense and not really good one-on-one. And so it's kind of this,
00:42:24
Speaker
we've developed this identity of this kind of, hey, we're going to play back. We're not going to give you easy goals. We're going to make your athletes work. We're going to play solid defense, solid goalie play.
00:42:37
Speaker
And if you mess up, we've got a couple guys up here that can score. And I think that's a good good point about what you made about, like, understanding different sports, not just you're a coach.
00:42:51
Speaker
And I – I learned this a long time ago, and not just from um obviously my family, but you know early in my career. And I always ask this question.
00:43:02
Speaker
Do you want to be called a coach or do you want to coach? There's a huge different difference. difference. You know, coaching is coaching. i I've coached football.
00:43:14
Speaker
I've coached basketball. I've coached soccer. I've done powerlifting. I've done track. Like, I mean, I've coached a lot of different things, and I still enjoy coaching all of them.
00:43:27
Speaker
Now, I'm not a soccer person by any means. I'm not going to downplay that. But I coached it, and I coached it to my best ability because that's what the kids deserved.
00:43:38
Speaker
Sure. You know, and, yeah, and I have one season as a head soccer coach and made the playoffs. oh Look out. oh Yeah, I'm going to keep that record alive as for as long as I can. one ah One for one, i'm making the playoffs as a soccer coach.
00:43:56
Speaker
But, ah you know, like learn the sport. That's a big thing as a coach. Learn your other sports. that's That's a good point. that's a great point. And you got check your ego at the door sometimes. I've coached baseball, basketball at the varsity level, both of them.
00:44:11
Speaker
I was the va head coachat golf coach at the varsity level, obviously. um And now, you know, my secondary sports now are all junior high. I'm junior high basketball. Last year I was junior high track and junior high basketball and junior high softball. So I've even dabbled into softball now.
00:44:28
Speaker
and ah And in doing so, I make sure and go out to at least a handful of varsity practices for softball just so I can kind of align what I'm teaching. You know, the junior high kid, you know, you got you got to.
00:44:40
Speaker
You've got to have the effort and the want to you know to give the kids the best you've got when you're coaching them. And so that they deserve that from you. if If you want them to play hard for you and to try and win games for you, because, i mean we I mean, we got into this for a lot of reasons. I love kids, and I want to help kids, and I want to be here for them.
00:44:58
Speaker
But by God, if I'm going to be out there, I want to win no matter what I'm doing. And so but if i compet if I want them to give me that effort, i got to give i gotta to give them that effort. You what saying? I've got to give them the same effort that I want them to give me.
00:45:12
Speaker
And so that's that's something good for for all the young coaches out there. Just be competitive. like Just because we can't. Just because we can't fight anymore. yeah Be competitive because nobody wants to put a bad product.
00:45:28
Speaker
At least I would hope as a coach. You don't want to put a bad product out there. Coach, i go I hate to say it. I hate to say it. We've all seen it. And if we have anybody thinking about coaching, have their kids coached or whatever, and they'll say it, for the I'll be the bad guy for saying it.
00:45:45
Speaker
There are coaches out there that want to be the ultimate geniuses who came up with something nobody else can come up with, and they put that over making your kid competitive.
00:45:58
Speaker
And like I'm telling you, there is our team next year, I think, unless something drastically changes, I really think we're not going to be able to do some of the same things next year on offense or defense. I guarantee you on defense that we did this year because we won't be competitive again.
00:46:23
Speaker
Now, I can say i run this defense and this is what I do and buth blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, you know what? You're going to bounce around to try to keep the kids. I think the best coaches in the business look at your kids and say, what can I do to maximize their potential?
00:46:42
Speaker
And there's a lot of truth in that. Like, we're going to be way different. than we were. Like, we – okay, for instance, I just took two kids to the Texas Relays, both them seniors.
00:46:55
Speaker
Both of them were dudes on defense. I'm talking dudes. Like, one of them is going to throw – shot putter is going to throw at A&M Corpus Christi.
00:47:08
Speaker
Like, losing him at D-tackle, kind of a little – Yeah, it's going hurt. It it really is. We're not saying our other kids can't go do it and can't go compete.
00:47:20
Speaker
We're just going to have to be a little different. Do it differently. We're going to to it differently. We're going to have to stem more, maybe do some different things. You know, still have your identity of what you want to be, but get there differently.
00:47:34
Speaker
You know, maybe it's more movement. more Maybe it's, you know, like we could have stayed, like when we just caught our base stuff, we were no's, threes, nines. or nose four, eyes nine.
00:47:47
Speaker
Maybe we're a shade of five and four, you know, to get there. That's what we're looking at probably next year. So it's still have your identity, but get there differently.
00:48:01
Speaker
Maybe it's a movement, maybe. Different presentation. You know, it's, it you have to understand what you have. we We had two really good D tackles.
00:48:11
Speaker
Like really good technique D tackles. We have two really good non-techniques. You know, our secondary was was pretty dang good. Now, helps that we have a kid playing corner for us that's a twenty two four You know, like you can go cover dudes.
00:48:31
Speaker
You know, we had a 14-8 hurdler playing in the secondary. That helps. He's a 39-300 hurdler. Yeah, we're cover some dudes pretty easy.
00:48:45
Speaker
We don't have that next year. So, like, how do we modify what we want to do? Okay, maybe we're a little bit more zoned than we were this year. You know, so.
00:48:56
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. You just kind of evolve it, and I don't care what sport it is. Like, evolve what you do. Mm-hmm. Leading into that.
00:49:07
Speaker
What is, ah you know, you've called plays on offense before as a coordinator. You're now calling a defense or, or you know, game planning for a defense. what are What are some differences, you know, maybe game planning differences or differences going into a game? Do you feel like you dictate it more as a defensive coach? you feel like you dictated more as an offensive coach and you're more reactive as a defensive coach? You know, what what what is your take on that?
00:49:34
Speaker
You know, At times, I felt like it was more um reactive. But if you know what you want to do, like, don't overthink it.
00:49:47
Speaker
eight You know, call it from what your gut tells you. Like, you can know, we can all have game plans. And, you know, like, we're going to we're gonna try to work this. But in the spur of the moment, sometimes, like, the game dictates what you have to call.
00:50:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Like, and I'll use a prime example. Like, we we go to play both, and we're trying to play them. We play them at our 4-2.
00:50:17
Speaker
But it's getting to the point late in the game, like, we just sort got to go create pressure. Like, we're down. You know, it's 50-0 going into the the fourth.
00:50:28
Speaker
um well We're like, well, you just got to get in our, or what we call it, bear, our base, our 50. and we're just going to send our five and we're going play man behind it. And because that's what it, know, that wasn't our game plan.
00:50:42
Speaker
Right. Like the game dictated that being called. And like, it was just like in the moment, like guys, we got, you know, tighten up and let's go. And we ended up getting a strip fumble, make it 15, seven.
00:50:57
Speaker
Once then it gets us into kind of a rhythm. We onsite it, we go down score and we ended up making it a game. You know, just because we're like, we just got to go. Got to try something.
00:51:08
Speaker
Got to try something. Now, when when you're you're game planning throughout the week, yes, it's a little different, like, understanding, like, what is their base plays.
00:51:19
Speaker
What are they trying to do? what what's What's this coach's favorite thing to do? You know, when we were game planning, you know, the three of us were game planning, you know, we looked for similarities of, like, what things gave them trouble.
00:51:32
Speaker
Mm-hmm. You know. Mm-hmm. You know, and that's amazing. Formationally, plays, types of players maybe that gave them trouble. yeah Yeah. You know, we were looking for what things would give people trouble on defense.
00:51:47
Speaker
on Doing on the defensive sides, what's their top handful of formations and what's their top handful plays? If you can take away those things, and and I never – rule five, never get out more than five formations and never more than five plays.
00:52:02
Speaker
Like, because – It comes down to, i mean, pass plays, there's a lot of one-offs. But, you know, what are they – you know, like what are probably like the three major run plays and what are probably three to four major pass plays? And start taking away those things, you know. And be one, who's their dude? Like find their dude.
00:52:24
Speaker
Like we you know when we were all Taylor, what it came down to, ball was going a dude. Like when it was coming to that moment, we all knew who we were going to.
00:52:37
Speaker
Yeah. One or the other. We had two of them. Yeah. But we know like if if it had to go to somebody, we knew who the dudes were. like
00:52:49
Speaker
Sometimes, you know, you have to go make a tackle. Like I didn't want to try try to tackle Jarvis. like No. No, you're right. how much how much How much easier is the weekend? I always make fun of the defensive guys. They seem like they're a little bit they're a little bit easier on the weekends than we are. feel like the offensive guys are grinding.
00:53:10
Speaker
The defensive guys are like, hell, we're done. we ready you go home, like an hour into Yeah. Like, for us, because, you know, when it comes down to it, and it's probably the same thing that y'all did at Rockdown and we did at Taylor, we would get stuff early in the week, you know, and we'd already – I had to go through and – very similar to how we did Taylor, I would break down certain things.
00:53:32
Speaker
So by the time we got there on Saturday, 90% it was already broken down. We'd run our reports and go, Oh, okay. Answer it. You know like how Brandon had the, okay.
00:53:46
Speaker
And everybody had their same spots and it you know, it's little similar type deals. And then we'd look in and go, Oh, let's run our reports. ah Okay. These are a top handful of formations.
00:53:58
Speaker
How are we going to line up to it? Okay, this is really easy. Okay, anything abnormal we need to know. And so when we came in Sundays, and we did come in a little bit Sundays. It was bang, bang, bang.
00:54:09
Speaker
If we needed to print cards, we could print cards. But another back story, I ended having to help on on ah offense this year too. So it got to the point about the third week, like we stopped drawing cards because I could just call our offense.
00:54:26
Speaker
for scout team. Like I i just could call our, like screw drawing this stuff up. Cause it's too slow to the huddle. Let me just call it. Yeah. We talked about that like multiple times on here.
00:54:38
Speaker
Cards are, cards are old news. it To me, this made us way more efficient in getting. Now, was it, you know, early on, was it probably the way it needed to be done? Probably the first couple of weeks, just trying to, cause I didn't know how we called crap on offense.
00:54:56
Speaker
You know, but as it went on, because I ended up having to help because we just needed it, I started picking up my – I told our head coach, I was like, I don't need cards anymore.
00:55:08
Speaker
Like, I know all our signals. Just have the defense turn around. I'll signal to the offense what I want. And I can kind of put us in the very very similar formations. It may not be the – how we call it. I was going to tell those guys getting trips.
00:55:22
Speaker
Because, you like Texas was a big one for us, you know. Like, we didn't have that formation. But I'm like, hey, y'all getting trips. You come down to tight end. Rather than, like, having to see the card. Like, okay.
00:55:38
Speaker
Then we can go from there. But little things like that, you know, helped. You know, having have the offensive background. You know, sometimes, like, yeah I knew the what the play was. Like,
00:55:55
Speaker
playing somebody at inside zone. I'm like, okay, they hadn't showed this, but I know what the answer would be. Like if they can't block Idomo, which was our good D-line, if they can't block them, guess what they're about to do?
00:56:10
Speaker
They're going read them. Yeah. That's what I would do. So i'm like, okay, yeah here's what we're going to do. and and And so i could I could call it. And like, we had got a little call, just like that was our duck call. We had a very similar call here. I'm like, so I would tell them what, you know, signal it.
00:56:26
Speaker
point there, whatever I signal for the duck call was, i'd signal that. And then that way it's like, okay, they haven't shown it, but guess what? Any team in America that runs inside zone can read it. They can do that. so that like So having that background help, like and you know people, it was a couple of times this year that happened to us. like They hadn't showed it until they got to us.
00:56:51
Speaker
So having at least kind of seen it, our kids didn't freak out. sure how big of it yeah How big of a deal is it when – because this is something that you know we did a lot at Taylor and it was something that I still try and do even now at Rockdale. We did it at Buffalo all the time is where you just like – you drop a formation for like three weeks.
00:57:14
Speaker
And so you you you know that team probably doesn't have film on just say twins. Then you roll out in the first quarter and the second drive you come out in twins. Yeah. yeah How big of a deal is it as a defense coordinator when we throw a formation or two at you that you probably didn't prepare for?
00:57:31
Speaker
um to To me, when it comes down to it, you know, I think if you, you would hope you'd have enough film, but we've seen so much stuff throughout the year.
00:57:44
Speaker
You know, you kind of have your built in, like we had our, Or built-ins. Built-in base. I feel like it forces you into base at least a little bit until you can get them off to the side and fix stuff.
00:58:02
Speaker
And there's a lot truth in that. Now, we were probably one of the few teams, like, it wouldn't matter because we played probably 75% of the in 50-cover-zero.
00:58:16
Speaker
and a fifty cover zero So it wouldn't matter. Like it really didn't matter. Like now we had some checks sometimes.
00:58:28
Speaker
Like we would go take our safeties and go smash the tight end. Like we'd just line up on the tight end. You know, we we had that. I got you. You know, we had that built in. Now, if they didn't smash it, we would make a bump call.
00:58:42
Speaker
We'd end up looking like a stack. So people are always like, well, are y'all stacked him? I'm like, we're just a 50 cover zero. And if they can't go line up on the smash,
00:58:53
Speaker
um they can't go line up on the tight end, bump the linebackers, and you just still cover the tight end. Like, don't make this overcomplicated.
00:59:05
Speaker
And so that's what I like, you know. So with that being said, sometimes our DB safety guys would come work linebacker stuff with me just because they didn't have to fit in there, you know.
00:59:21
Speaker
So. Which one's more fun? which one's more fun calling calling an offensive Calling a perfect offensive play for a touchdown, something that you knew, like this is a new play, it's trick play, it's going to work.
00:59:36
Speaker
yeah We're going to score and it ends up scoring. Or you know what, this new blitz, it's going to work. We're going to smack the quarterback before he ever sees us and you know we'll hit him on the blind side or whatever. what what's What's the more exciting play as a coordinator, calling that perfect blitz or that perfect trick play to to put it in the end zone?
00:59:54
Speaker
don't all of it. all of it. Come down to it. Like, it's just coaching all that. Completely, didn't it? Well, it's easy. Okay, now, you'd asked me two years ago, would have said the offense because that's all I ever knew. Yeah, yeah.
01:00:10
Speaker
You know, you'd asked me during the season this year, would have played with said defense. Now, as a retrospect, probably looking at it, it feels the same because you're getting the same effect out of it to me because, like,
01:00:24
Speaker
Being in more of an offense guy for so long, I'm like, yeah, it's a great call. I knew exactly what to do. I knew exactly what the call needed to be. During the season, I'm like, oh, this's it's over. They don't have a chance. Like, please hurry up. Snap the ball so we can kill you.
01:00:38
Speaker
Now it's like looking at it, it's like, okay. it's this it's To me, it was the same because you know exactly, like even before the ball's snapped, you can kind of see what's about to happen. You're like, oh, this is going to be good.
01:00:52
Speaker
yeah so chuck's Chuck's got other ideas over there. Dude, i look look, let's just be real. And I think I will, for the most part. Well, you know what? I'll do whatever I got to do to help kids. I may end up coaching defense next year for all I know. you know what I mean? Who knows?
01:01:08
Speaker
But let me tell you the thing. When you're calling a good defensive game and you're watching that freaking Lululemon wearing OC prancing around with his RPO shit, just get his butt whipped.
01:01:26
Speaker
I'd literally wave both fingers to that joker the whole time. I'm like, Oh, hello. Some of us study film. I mean, like, yeah. There is to me, when you are kicking of you daggum prancing around OC types, dad kicking them in the throat in the in the head over and over and over, there's something to that, dude.
01:01:50
Speaker
There's something that just makes you want to, I don't know, maybe because I'm old. I'm like, yeah, just take your Nike Pegasus, buddy, and just walk on out and invent some more RPOs.
01:02:03
Speaker
yeah When y'all are on the defensive side calling plays, y'all get that when y'all's defense is just, you know, getting ran through like a screen door, do you get that same helpless feeling as you do as a play caller on offense when you can't get a single first down? Yes. Oh, my God. god Now, we were very, very fortunate this this year.
01:02:23
Speaker
Our two losses, we got beat 28 – or no, 15-13. you know twenty nine twenty eight and fifteen thirteen That was our team. Yeah, we all didn't have any crazy games. Yeah. Now, we did have a game early in the year where we were down by 18. It was almost a Taylor-type deal where we were down 21.
01:02:44
Speaker
But we were down 18 with six and a half minutes left in the game and came back and won. so Yeah, the here's the difference, honestly, to me on defense is – defensively, you're one guy misses it. And i we could talk about the O-line, miss the one block, changes it everything, right?
01:03:05
Speaker
But every D-lineman can do everything perfect. And the backer, the linebacker, not read guard. You know what I mean? Backside linebacker, not read the guard, go with the jet or and scrape.
01:03:19
Speaker
And that's, hey, man, now you've got a safety one-on-one with 2-2. And all you're doing is going, oh, you know what I mean? All because that one linebacker went somewhere.
01:03:30
Speaker
You know what I mean? I feel like on offense, yeah. You know, you can get an athlete can make an defense and an athlete can make a play, but he's going to make a play for a 10 or 12 yard game versus.
01:03:45
Speaker
Hey, man, on ah offense, this guy makes one guy miss the other guy that was supposed to be there to help got ran off on coverage and left his zone. And now you're screwed.
01:03:56
Speaker
You know what I mean? So I do feel like there's some of that. i coach defense that way. Hey guys, you're the dude that could screw up, be out of the gap and loud touchdown. If you're out of your gap, that guy can house it.
01:04:09
Speaker
Yeah. There's a lot to feel like you're in the slot if your defense is really doing things that way. As a coach, you feel like, heck yeah. You know, we've got everybody bought in doing their job, you know,
01:04:27
Speaker
You know, I probably got a different perspective sometimes because going to play a Westlake, a Lake Travis, a Dripping Springs, you're like,
01:04:41
Speaker
it don't matter what we do. on either side on either On either side of the ball, it it doesn't matter. But generally speaking, agree, Chuck. Generally speaking, it's like one person not fitting right, forcing it back to where it's supposed to be.
01:04:57
Speaker
you know But you're going to have – Pete, you've been in this long enough. Chuck, you've been around it. You're just – it don't matter. You're going to have that that game where you're just like, oh, it don't matter what's about to happen. Yeah, yeah. Unless you're at a Westlake your entire career or like Travis. Yeah.
01:05:15
Speaker
Unless you're at those top schools, it's going to happen. you're just like, it don't matter. yeah Sometimes you're the bug. Sometimes you're the windshield. You just hope you're not the bug that often. you know and You know, Pete, I kind of think about this.
01:05:29
Speaker
Your first year at Taylor, LBJ. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, it's going to happen, but if you just do it long enough, sometimes you stop being the bug.
01:05:41
Speaker
You know? like hey our Heck with that. Our second year, Bernie. we went Oh, God. I remember looking at freaking Chuck and Chuck watching a film. I'm like, I think you remember even asking Chuck, like can we even block these dudes?
01:05:57
Speaker
No. They were good in the D-line. I'm like, God. like, like I think all four of their – Go ahead. was going to think all four their D linemen that year were All-State.
01:06:11
Speaker
I just was like – Oh, their linebacker was dude too. The head coach is so – Yeah, I was like, God, it was just – He was a sideline player, man, that linebacker.
01:06:23
Speaker
They had a – Well, my my buddy from college, Sam, shout out to Sam Eisenberg. He just got promoted from – He was their linebacker coach the last several years. He is now their DC. Oh, wow.
01:06:35
Speaker
Yeah, big time for him. That's awesome. Yeah, it really is. That's a good spot, man. It is. They've done a good job. They really have. one and Probably my last question I had for you um before we maybe can tell our favorite story from Taylor or something cause i know we're already running over an hour here, but halftime, the video stuff.
01:06:57
Speaker
How big of a deal is that for you? Huge. Huge. Huge. Because y'all got a little sideline this year, right? Huge. God. And I kind of mentioned this early.
01:07:11
Speaker
is We were, those two backers, wouldn't matter. They were going to go wrong way one time. And it was so easy going to halftime and going, hey, you two, look at this.
01:07:24
Speaker
Why they're like coach? We don't know like and so like little things or showing them. Hey, they come back to this formation. What's gonna happen? You know, so like little things that you know through the course of the half, you know You're like, okay. Hey, we see the video. You're gonna see what I'm talking about because sometimes yoll you can tell a kid like hey You didn't squeeze enough or whatever But when they see it on the film at halftime, they're like, oh, I get what you're saying.
01:07:56
Speaker
and so i big How big of a deal for it is you during the game? For me, it's its so big. Because I was up in the press box. Same. Okay. Okay.
01:08:07
Speaker
So like seeing it, seeing it, like going back and watching because sometimes, you know, you're in the moment, you kind of you're like, OK, that's what I thought I saw. But going back and confirming what you saw, like, oh, that's not what I saw.
01:08:20
Speaker
Yes, that's that's my biggest thing, you know, is that I i think I see something. And so I won't look until after the drive. Yep. So I'll go through that because it's too hard for me to focus.
01:08:34
Speaker
You know maybe I can call a play early and get a peek at something. But usually I'll wait until our drive is over. We have a timeout and I'll watch that drive, the previous drive.
01:08:46
Speaker
But, yeah, I'll see something. And I think I saw it this way, and I am confident this is what happened. And I'll look on the film i'm like, well, by God, that's not what happened. This guy did this, and this guy's the one who followed in or whatever. you know um I'm sitting here MFing one kid for missing a block, and it wasn't even his guy. You know what i mean? so So it does help with stuff like that. halftime I think it helps a lot more at halftime. Everybody can kind of get in there and watch it.
01:09:13
Speaker
The end game, I don't want to say I can take it or leave it, But halftime is much more beneficial to me than in-game because the kids can see it. the All the coaches on the ground can see it. It's not just you upstairs trying to explain to the coaches, here's what I'm watching on film. Now you try and explain it to the kid.
01:09:32
Speaker
So it's like a game of telephone. It's lot easier at halftime to like, look This is – he is not lining up in a five. He is in a freaking four-eye, just like we're telling you. Look, it's right here. You know what i mean?
01:09:44
Speaker
So, yeah it does help. I just was was questioning for defense. I mean, I mean i know ah I've talked to our defensive guys, obviously, but I just want to know for the defensive guys we play against, you know, just trying to get y'all's feel for how big it is for you guys. Oh, it's it's so it's so nice to be able to go – And not only relay the message, but show them the message. it's Like, this is what happened.
01:10:09
Speaker
This is what you're getting. Like, if you know, i can't tell you how many minor little adjustments at a halftime. but Like, okay, hey, we can't just stay in threes.
01:10:20
Speaker
Move them to four eyes. Or whatever. Like, okay. Four eyes is kind of cool, but like we're beating the crap out of the guards because their guards are aren't doing very well. Let's just go beat the crap out of them, moving back down to threes or whatever.
01:10:34
Speaker
You know, like little things because they're like, okay, this is what's happening. Let's make this small little adjustment and then go. Well, and the other thing, i because we had whole sideline when I came to Arkansas the first time.
01:10:48
Speaker
We already had a little sideline. And it was and when you're eyeing the sky, especially for the – so, you know, I was eyeing the sky for defense. Offense is going.
01:11:00
Speaker
And they go, hey, what was this? Now, not only does the offensive coach get to look back and go, okay, so-and-so broke their route off early. Now the defensive coach goes, yeah, but he broke his route off because the safety is over the top. So he read the safety.
01:11:15
Speaker
You know what i mean? The quarterback didn't see the safety over the top. and so eitherther You know what I mean? Like, it was it was big for for us because we had two guys side-by-side in the booth.
01:11:26
Speaker
You know what I mean? And I'm looking at it from a defensive side. They're looking at it from offensive side. But, yeah, but you sky man, my first year, Huddle Sideline, I was like, dude, this is cheating.
01:11:38
Speaker
It feels it feels like feels like you're cheating. You're like – Oh, this is huge. You know, like a huge upgrade. It's like, you're like an NFL guy with all them white laptops. and like Yeah. Yeah.
01:11:50
Speaker
Now I will tell you this though, guys, whenever you're very understaffed, like we are here and I got, we've got four coaches, uh,
01:12:02
Speaker
it's not as helpful because you honestly don't have time to go through and and you know what I mean? At halftime, you try to train a guy to be like, Hey, mark this play.
01:12:13
Speaker
You know mean? So we can come back to it and see what happens, but you got to do it fast. You got to in the moment and then you got to come back and find it. You know what I mean? um Where you guys down, down there in Texas carry a little bit more staff,
01:12:29
Speaker
and a few more coaches than where I am currently anyway, I think it's a lot more helpful. It is. Yeah, ours was always finicky. Like some games it would go like 30 minutes without uploading stuff. It would just disconnect.
01:12:45
Speaker
Yeah. The wireless technology. The Huddle sideline stuff, yeah, it's not great. I i like another company that me and Kelm, yeah The Houston deal this year seemed way better than Huddle. And I know Huddle's not a sponsor, neither is is the other one. I can't even remember the name of it. Is Sky Coach or Coach Tom, the other one?
01:13:04
Speaker
I don't remember. Maybe Sky Coach. I don't know. Sky Coach. Yeah, what was it? It was cool. I can't remember. Yeah, it seemed it seemed a little better than Huddle. It did. It did. They were in an indoor setting, so the Wi-Fi was, you know, it's right until you get it on the field, you don't know.
01:13:19
Speaker
But anyway, was your stadiums too. So some of those, just the expanse of what you're doing makes a big difference, you know?
01:13:32
Speaker
so it was it's been a big deal for us and I think it will continue to be a big deal. Big positive at least. So guys, I know like Pete said, we're pushing where our time usually runs, but that's fine.
01:13:46
Speaker
But let's close out. ah let's close out with a couple of things. We'll, we'll bounce around. Um, again, for everybody, the three of us got acquainted at Taylor, my, my only year at Taylor.
01:14:00
Speaker
Um, and Nate was the O-line coach. I was, I was the assistant O-line at tight ends coach. Pete was the OC. And, uh, we spent Nate and I spent a lot of time. Pete didn't have to go to ah away JV games because he was coordinator. I was announcing the junior high games. okay I was working the video Yeah, you are. I was the junior high games. I won. Whatever. The wide receivers coach and I –
01:14:37
Speaker
ah We're the offensive coaches for away JV. Well, for all the JV games. And um remember, anyway, we, I'll just say this. We had a good time calling.
01:14:53
Speaker
There were times that, uh, we would we would all sort of go. We all three had different ideas, I guess, would be the right way it. Oh, yeah Y'all did sometimes. Y'all would start getting heated. And it was a great it was a great offensive staff, man. I would sign up to work with you three guys and Huey any day of the week. That was a great staff to work on. But, yeah, y'all had some fun trying to figure out. All three y'all be wanting to run different personnels, different different plays, all kinds of stuff.
01:15:23
Speaker
Okay, I'm going to say this. So when I knew I was going to Taylor, Brandon asked me, he's like, do you want to call anything on the lower level? So I was like, no, I'll just help.
01:15:34
Speaker
And so I was trying to help, but I was getting that OC background would come into play. I'm like, why the hell we calling this? Why? I didn't get it.
01:15:45
Speaker
i didn it It made no sense to me in my mind. I'm like, why? You know, and so... trying to help, you know, Chuck and our receivers coach understand, you know, like, which kind scene yeah, which by the way, i didn't call either. I felt like, I felt like Lance had been there and I'm like, that's his man. If he wants to call it, like, I'm not going to come in.
01:16:13
Speaker
and be that guy. I already did that at Buffalo. I came in and called JV defense from, you know, week one, my first year. So I wasn't to go do that to Lance. I was like, man, if you want to call it, call it.
01:16:25
Speaker
um but well y Y'all had a heck of a year, man. Y'all ended up winning. I would say y'all. We ended up winning a lot of JV games that year. Surprisingly. With some ankle biters at line. It's crazy.
01:16:40
Speaker
We did. I'm like, I always look back to that. This is, i mean I'm going to steal. Like, I'm i'm sorry, Nate. I know I just stepped on you, bro. But, ah like, this is what was fun about that JV squad.
01:16:54
Speaker
One, the kids the kids would do their, but I mean, the kids always put in good effort. They always put in good effort. and They weren't getting a lot of stuff yet. We were pretty simple. You know what I mean? But there was never an effort question.
01:17:10
Speaker
from those guys, sometimes understanding. But my like my all-time favorite, because you know the rule is you don't run anything on JB until you run it on varsity. And ah when we started that game, I think it was Robinson in Porkchop and basically stayed in Porkchop for an entire drive which, if guys, our pork chop is basically a 30-personnel quarterback keep right.
01:17:42
Speaker
It's single wing. It's single wing. The whole line blocks left, and all three your backs kick right, and the quarterback finds a crease and just goes.
01:17:54
Speaker
And it's never your real quarterback. If we weren't doing that with with Eli, we would put one of our starting linebackers back there and he would take the snaps.
01:18:05
Speaker
And that first drive, this team has never seen this formation out of us. And we go into JV and they're like, oh you know, we're always trying to gather intel from JV games. Like the offensive staff is taking notes.
01:18:17
Speaker
Hey, what'd they do? We're going to run this formation one time just to see how they line up to it and and stuff like that. So we put Porkchop in. These guys have never seen it.
01:18:29
Speaker
And I wanted to know what the defensive staff was thinking on the other side. Oh, hell, is this the game plan coming out and Porkchop tomorrow? What would make me laugh is – And not that I was ever like not around the JV. It's just like sometimes when we would split, Chuck would go with ah the JV kids and I would stay with the varsity guys. And I always used to feel so bad about that. I'm like, cause I know how hard Chuck was working with them. JV Lyman. Cause I know.
01:18:57
Speaker
And then we come out and I'm like, really? Like when, do when did we put this in? and And we're going to, we run it. Like, um Okay. He's like, so we marched down there and we scored right, Chuck. We go down there and score.
01:19:10
Speaker
Yeah, we did. Yep. And I was like, okay, that's freaking awesome. Like, I was like, wow. We just lined up and ported up the whole series. And, you know, that was a fun, fun moment.
01:19:22
Speaker
i this And then, God, what game was it where Houston texted down and goes, is that the best we have on the JV line? I'm like, what? You remember that? I was like, that's all we have. That's all we need we have. Is that the best line we can put together? I turned around and looked up at the box and went, yes, this is the best line. Like, yes, we look like a Nike check.
01:19:51
Speaker
We look like a Nike check because our left tackle is huge and we went down to like an oompa-oompa and it's just like, that's all we had. but God, they played hard. They did. They didn't play hard. They didn't know their left from their right. They didn't know the difference between inside zone and outside zone.
01:20:08
Speaker
um I got to tell a story here in a second, Chuck. Go ahead. This is going to brag story on you. It really is. okay This is a brag story on Chuck Carr.
01:20:21
Speaker
So what week was it when you had to go get ah your wife? Like your wife had that little like fender bender. yeah. I don't remember, but she ran over something in the car and like she called me and said, Hey, I'm on the side of the road. I just hit the animal and I had to leave practice and go get her.
01:20:38
Speaker
Yeah. So, you know, so when we did run holes, you know, Pete would come down with the varsity, Chuck goes with the JV.
01:20:48
Speaker
And then, uh, I would kind of go back and forth just to try to help halfway, you know, alleviate some Chuck because i didn't want him like,
01:20:59
Speaker
strangling the kid but so that that day like chuck's gotta leave and like i'm sitting there thinking i don't want to go with them hey huey you gotta run jv you gotta run the jv he goes all right so huey goes down there and i'll never forget we finished run hole and huey walks over and goes what the hell i'm like you see what the chuck has to deal with all the time so He did a great job, isn't he? He goes, oh, my God, Chuck's did a great job. I'm like, yeah.
01:21:32
Speaker
ah Yeah, Chuck's did a great job. a lot of those kids had never played. Definitely never played in our system. But, ah man, they could not remember for the life of them. If it ended with an even number, it went right.
01:21:48
Speaker
If it ended with a hard number, it went left. 43 and 42 screwed them up. It's like the Bulls 46 to 47, you know. oh god Oh, I used to get, like, we'd run 28 and 29. I'm like, Lance, we can't do that.
01:22:03
Speaker
Like, look at our tackles. We can't do that. I was like, we can't do that. Yeah, know, but you know. but But it's open. I got to call it because it's open.
01:22:15
Speaker
oh like Yeah, it's open because they know we can't do it. Yeah. with is i mean We had so many little funny moments on the JV that just would make me laugh.
01:22:28
Speaker
Like getting in the double sniff of red. Yeah, baby. Yeah, that's a chuck one. You know, this doing stuff like that. You know, this little stuff. and Hey, how about motioning in the Z so that he could run a corner round out of red?
01:22:43
Speaker
so yeah That was amazing. That was open every freaking time. Tristan Vega had to have half of his catches had to be on Utah. oh god yeah and this Little stuff. this like Like, hey, can we do this?
01:23:01
Speaker
like Yeah, we can try. like Just do it. See what happens. I don't know. It might it might work. It's a JV. Who cares? You know, yeah I don't remember, what God, what game was it, though? We were talking about this earlier. I'm like, we had called a timeout or something.
01:23:16
Speaker
I'm like, and Lance was trying to – we were trying figure what to call. I was like, just call Orlando. ah But it was like a third and short or something. I'm like, just call Orlando.
01:23:28
Speaker
I just remember somebody saying, how the hell is the line coach calling Orlando a pass play? And we ended up scoring on it. It's not complicated. Just do it. do it You know, but petes Pete's probably got more stories of me than anybody just because he had to sit with me up in the press box.
01:23:48
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you know, getting to work, obviously that was the first year I i called plays when I took it over. And it was – having you up there was a –
01:23:59
Speaker
Oh, gosh, how do I say this? it was It was invaluable to have you up there with me just as a confidence boost as somebody who's done it before, but also somebody who let me do it. As much as I would ask you for help or for input and stuff, you basically – mean, it's not that you didn't help me or didn't give me suggestions. You just let me let me do my thing and trust my instincts. You just gave me the confidence to do that. Yeah.
01:24:22
Speaker
You know, there were some times it would get heated on there. I'd just take my mic off like, can you freaking do it. I'm done, you know, or they can do it, whatever. You know, it gets hot up there. I'm an emotional guy. I'm, you know I'm riding the highs and lows of the game just like everybody else. That's what I love about it.
01:24:38
Speaker
You know, you don't know what's about to happen. It's, you know, it's it's ah it's a drama happening in real life. I mean, it's what it is. You know. know I'm going piggyback on the off of this, and I think this is a good coaching point for anybody that's going be coach.
01:24:52
Speaker
Find your niche on your staff, whatever that may be. yeah and And I was an emotional coach early on, but I went to that staff, and I'm like, okay, I know Huey because my dad had coached me.
01:25:07
Speaker
Kind of emotional guy. And nothing against you, Pete. I'm like, younger OC, probably going be an emotional guy. Okay, so it's me and Chuck. We're kind of, we're the line guys, so we kind of got to figure this out. And I knew Lance was kind of, he could be an emotional guy. I'm like, all right, so I guess I got to be kind of the halfway level-headed ones who, you know, ah especially if going be upstairs of like, what game was it when Brandon was losing his mind I was just going to talk about Smithfield. like, I just remember telling Pete, we've got to call play.
01:25:42
Speaker
We've got to call play. We've got to call play. Somebody's got to get a play in. ah ah But it happens know several times. I'm like, hey, have a have a play call ready. Have a play call ready. You know.
01:25:53
Speaker
ah So like, and yeah, i can I mean, I can I can close my eyes and hear you saying that as I'm as I'm screaming about a riff missing something, you know, 10 seconds into the play clock and cause like call play call play like you just get over it, you know, call play move on to the next one.
01:26:09
Speaker
And so i'm I'm still probably the emotional guy on our staff. Our offensive line coach is the most steady guy of all time. Nicest guy you'd ever meet. You know, ah our quarterback's coach is as calm. He's as calm and his let doesn't doesn't ride those roller coasters. Our receiver coach is up there with me. Can't do it a little bit.
01:26:28
Speaker
But, man, I'm i'm still – but that's just the way I got to coach. That's just – it puts me kind of in the feel of the game, lets me feel the momentum of the game.
01:26:38
Speaker
I feel like that that kind of connects me with kind of the feel. It gives me a little bit better feel to it. but with you. I have been trying to do a little better on it just because – Yo, my focus does need to be there. so I've been a little bit less screaming and yelling at refs and random stuff when nobody can hear me, but three three and my three of my coaches.
01:26:59
Speaker
ah Or violating another coach up there after a punt return. Yeah, squeezing to death, giving him the biggest hug of his life. Oh, my God. Yeah, we some good times, man. We did. It was a fun year.
01:27:13
Speaker
Chuck Carr might have took the best, the absolute best joke ever. at Taylor, ever. Hey, careful. Be careful because I have i edit these episodes.
01:27:27
Speaker
Well, I'm just saying, I'm just going to throw this out there. It was one of those, if you knew our staff and how really close our staff was, it was one of those moments where it just, it broke the tension of that game because it was the Davenport game, right?
01:27:46
Speaker
Yeah, right before. It was before Davenport. And it And not that we weren't going to play well against Davenport, ah not to say that. Oh, yeah, real well. But I think in that moment when the joke happened, whatever little, like, uneasiness, have you know, it just broke it. And I thought we coached just relaxed.
01:28:11
Speaker
And, it I mean, it was funny. And Chuck knows. I mean, it was a joke. But if anybody could ever have saw – what happened because all ah reaction the reaction of of the joke, it looked like cockroaches scattering.
01:28:28
Speaker
So everybody since since i since I took the brunt of it, I'll go ahead and and let everybody know. Yeah, go ahead. So what happened was for some reason, i was on a social media app that remained nameless.
01:28:45
Speaker
And I found this picture of Coach Kelm And y'all,
01:28:53
Speaker
I don't know if he was trying to impersonate Zach from Saved by the Bell back in the late or what, but this outfit that this kid had on in this picture, and it was like one of the face, dang, dang, I said it.
01:29:10
Speaker
Anyway, I'll have to edit that out. It was one of the it was one of the profile pictures. And when I saw it... By the way, from I was going out at a wedding. I was the best man at my cousin's wedding. Okay, well, that wedding happened at Bayside in 1991. Okay, either way. Fine, whatever. whatever Okay, proceed. So, I'm like...
01:29:34
Speaker
I pull the picture off of social media and I send it to our entire staff. And I'm like, hey, has anybody seen this guy lately? Or who do you who's this guy? Yeah, who's who's this guy?
01:29:45
Speaker
I'll save everybody the details. You'll get enough of it. When he suggested he and my mom might have known each other in those days. i So I'm going piggyback.
01:29:58
Speaker
So our linebackers coach and I, Pierce, yeah I guess D-line. So we always took the the headsets up to the press box and we hang out there for a minute or two. So we're up there and my phone goes off and I look at it and you know it's our coach's group text. I'm like, well, maybe somebody... I open it and it's the picture with the, who's this guy? I'm like, uh-uh.
01:30:28
Speaker
Oh, it's on. And so I... Made my response and I put my phone down. So I ah turned it where it was face down. Now I'm sitting up there and Pierce is sitting up there next to me.
01:30:41
Speaker
And all of our other coaches are in a circle talking to each other. And you can tell everybody, the people got the text. So they start pulling out their phones. And immediately as they pull out the phones, people just scatter like cockroaches.
01:30:57
Speaker
And I just see Pete walking the down the field, shaking his hand, like pumping his fist. I started rolling on the ground. i was laughing so hard, man. That was so good. was just like, okay, that wasn't – I didn't think it was going be as funny as it was.
01:31:13
Speaker
But i in that moment, I was like, that's a good staff. Because everybody just died laughing. And it it was just like, this is – we're golden. Yeah, it wasn't – ah the game was a like, we were competitive. We enjoyed it. We love the game, but it was like, we can enjoy other things. You know what i mean? Even in a stressful at a pregame, we can enjoy other things. Yeah. Kind of brought levity to what was the biggest game of the year so far. And, and obviously they were probably all around, maybe the more talented team. Obviously they're six a six, eight. Now they were growing school, you know new school.
01:31:53
Speaker
And, uh, You we played the heck out of them, had every chance to win that ball game. We did. couple of bounces here or there. Literally a couple of bounces. I thought both sides called good games. i You know, I've always felt like I kind of let that one up.
01:32:09
Speaker
You know, we were pounding the ball on them. We kind of went into, you know, just ground and pound mode and they could not stop us on the ground. And they scored to go up with about three minutes left.
01:32:20
Speaker
and i And I went – I should have just kept running the football. And i I don't want to say panic, but my strategy changed a little bit and into, we need to pass it now. And I should have just stuck with it. So, I've always kind of hated that about that game. It's a poor finish for me, even though I feel like, you know, the three-and-a-half quarters leading up to that was pretty stinking solid. Yeah, it was really solid. Yeah. I really thought through the course of the year we we coached our butts off, you know,
01:32:46
Speaker
I thought we really did. i know y'all said it earlier. Our offensive staff was a good, good staff. i know Obviously, Chuck and I had to work bunched together you know with a with the line, but I think the three of us ended up forming a pretty good friendship through all of this. For sure. For sure. Pete having to sit next to me in the middle of games, listen to me.
01:33:11
Speaker
taught me a lot. yeah I used to laugh sometimes. Really and truthfully, it was kind of my goal sometimes to make you laugh before the game started because I always knew for me as a play caller, I didn't ever want to be uptight. just wanted to call it something like if I can get him to relax before this kickoff starts, to say something that's obscure and off the wall, it was it was it was good because then you kind of forget in the moment like, oh, yeah. Yeah, breathe a little bit.
01:33:40
Speaker
Chuckle little bit. Have some fun. Smile. Just relax. Goodbye. But I remember the very first game, and I will always tell people this story, of you having to call it Pete. And so, like, Pete and I was sitting next to each other.
01:33:52
Speaker
Pete was always on my right. I was always on Pete's left. And so I'm just looking out the fields. but way We're going out there. Cool. And I'm not even looking at Pete.
01:34:05
Speaker
And Pete starts calling it. And I can see out of the the corner of my eye, Pete's head start turning as he's calling it. don't remember saying, Pete, just call the play. Just call the play.
01:34:17
Speaker
I was like, I knew he was about to call it and ask me what I thought. I'm like, just call the play. I don't care. Yeah. I was looking for that affirmation, Cal. I needed the pat on the back, all right? I just remember saying, I didn't turn and look at them. i just was just like, Pete, call the play.
01:34:36
Speaker
It's okay, whatever it is. But, I don i mean, I think we had a pretty good dynamic. You know, we had a lot of fun, lot of laughs at Huey's expense, too.
01:34:46
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. but Look, that's what you got to do, though. If you're in this profession, you've got – and I feel like that's – I mean – i don't I don't want to speak out of turn here, so tell me if I'm wrong, but i feel like one of my best qualities as a coach, other than you know working with the kids or whatever, is I get along with pretty much everybody.
01:35:06
Speaker
and And you kind of have to. If you don't go out of your way to to at least be friends with the guys you're working with, you're going to spend so much time with these people. but your friends you for Be friendly with them.
01:35:18
Speaker
Learn their personalities. Joke with it Learn what they like, what they like to do. Talk about it with, like, make everybody feel comfortable. And I feel like us us three do a great job of of doing that.
01:35:30
Speaker
And in turn, it makes us better coaches and makes makes for better staff, which makes for better outcomes with with the players. oh so i I mean, yeah, I mean, absolutely. Like Chuck probably kind of topped me off a ledge about nine million times.
01:35:44
Speaker
Just because, you know, whatever it may be, but, you know, it when you do this long enough and you're really invested in it, you end up investing in others, you know? and Like when's the last time the three of us have actually been together in the same place? Was it last year at Houston?
01:36:06
Speaker
But like, we still talk, we still text, you know, like, and I never like, you know, Pete and I were at the Houston one again. It's like, we never lost anything. We just kind of picked up and rolled with like same old, same old.
01:36:19
Speaker
You know, Chuck's the same way. Like, we just kind of picked up at the same like we've always been through the course of all of this. So, like, to me, like, I think that's what what coaching is about. If you're investing in each other and, you know, I'm not saying you're going to have the same – you're going have guys every year. But because, you know, I don't talk to the guys with my first two years coaching. I don't.
01:36:44
Speaker
But, like, I didn't know any better. I guess. But like yeah as you get in, it you're like, oh, you know what? they We're all in this together.
01:36:54
Speaker
you know We did. We had a lot of fun over over that year, especially nice at at each other's expense. Not saying that we were making like trying to be on on each other, but just laughing at each other, just yeah having having a funny little moment together, like going you through it together, because you go through some stuff together.
01:37:17
Speaker
God dang, we went through some stuff. Well, guys, ah think we're i think we're in a good spot, man. a good spot just to kind of to call this one the end of the episode. We've enjoyed having you, dude Appreciate you getting on and spending your...
01:37:36
Speaker
Sunday evening with us. This is a Sunday evening. We've been watching. i'm mean Storms have been like blowing through. I keep waiting and going, well. ah But they've stayed north of us, so we've been pretty fortunate.
01:37:48
Speaker
But I heard, Pete, I hear your dogs. Somebody somebody i must have showed up unannounced or something. Your dogs are not happy. Yeah, i don't know what's going on there. That or my kids are running around and playing with them.
01:38:01
Speaker
but uh but i'm gonna say this is a great a great place to kind of call it quits um nate again man enjoyed it it's been great talking to you guys ah pete i've got what two weeks yeah see two weeks for meat mafia drawing the dub well i feel good about our chances of pulling the hey man like Three straight years Three straight years, the second place God dang, you'd think eventually We'd win it Eventually we'd not put too much sauce in the chicken container Or something, right? but suppose Supposedly there's like 40 something teams Might be a bigger pot this year Look out look here we go man Here we go Alright guys hey Love you guys, have enjoyed it And We'll talk to you next time
01:38:53
Speaker
Yeah, man. Love both of you. We'll see y'all.