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164. Grit, Preparation & Leadership with Brandon Doman & Justin Miller
77 Plays11 days ago
What separates athletes who reach their potential from those who fall short?
In this episode of the Especially for Athletes podcast, Dustin Smith sits down with Brandon Doman (former San Francisco 49er and BYU QB & Coach) and Justin Miller (former Southern Utah University QB) for a powerful conversation about preparation, self-belief, opportunity, grit, patience, and leadership.
With more than 30 years of combined coaching and playing experience, Coach Doman and Coach Smith share lessons learned from working with elite athletes at the high school, collegiate, and professional levels. Together, they discuss what young athletes, parents, and coaches often overlook in the pursuit of success and why character, consistency, and belief matter just as much as talent.
One message stands out throughout the conversation:
“If your heart believes it, you can achieve it.”
This episode is packed with practical wisdom for athletes chasing big goals and for the parents and coaches trying to guide them the right way.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Why grit and patience matter more than instant success
- How preparation creates confidence and opportunity
- The overlooked qualities of effective leadership
- What separates athletes who last from athletes who fade
- Lessons learned from coaching elite competitors
- How belief impacts performance and long-term growth
This is a must-listen for athletes, coaches, and parents who want to better understand the mindset required to compete and lead at a high level.
Please listen, share, and leave a review if you are enjoying the show.
Message from E4A Founder Dustin Smith:
As we wrap up the 2025–2026 school year, the Especially for Athletes program is stronger than ever. We owe a huge thank you to all of you for your continued support.
We are now heading into our 15th year. The “Eyes Up, Do the Work” message has reached tens of thousands of people in person and over a million more through social media, our podcast, and various media outlets.
This summer, we are focused on improving our program and making it even more accessible. We will be fundraising and seeking sponsors to keep costs low—or free—for teams, schools, and clubs. We remain diligent in our search for leaders committed to improving culture and community for our young people.
If you have ideas or stories of “Eyes Up, Do the Work” that you would like us to share, please reach out.
Thank you for believing in our mission.
Learn more at E4A.org
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Credits: Hosted by Dustin Smith
Produced by E4A and IMAGINATE STUDIO
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Transcript
Introduction to Especially for Athletes
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Especially for Athletes podcast, where we explore essential principles that empower athletes to learn life's most valuable lessons through sports.
00:00:16
Speaker
Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Especially for Athletes podcast.
Guest Introduction: Brandon Doman and Justin Miller
00:00:19
Speaker
I'm joined today with two friends of the program. Both of our guests today have been on the program before.
00:00:27
Speaker
They were not on at the same time, however, and I thought it would be awesome if I could get them both on at the same time and talk about some things that they both
Brandon Doman's Career Highlights
00:00:34
Speaker
have in common. So, Today we have former ah professional NFL quarterback, um Division I quarterback at BYU, Brandon Doman. Brandon was also longtime quarterback coach at BYU.
00:00:48
Speaker
Good friend of mine since the early 90s. We've been friends for 30 plus years. Very good friends. And Always a close to the both, especially for athletes and to the ah my quarterback elite program.
Justin Miller's Journey in Football
00:01:01
Speaker
Brandon's been awesome at helping with both. And then Justin Miller, who now works for especially for athletes and for quarterback elite. Justin came up in the QB elite and especially for athletes program.
00:01:13
Speaker
Went on to play at Snow College at Southern Utah University, where he had a very successful couple of years. And then he played over in Europe. where he was super successful as well, being the German league MVP.
00:01:25
Speaker
and So Justin, Brandon, thank you. Thanks for hopping on. And let's hop right into some questions.
Paths from High School to College
00:01:33
Speaker
So Brandon, want to start with you. Um,
00:01:36
Speaker
And let's go back to, we'll kind of work through up to your coaching, your coaching days. But when you were playing, because Justin, you'll have some similar experiences. Both of you guys came up, but out of high school, you had two different ah sort of paths, I guess, to college.
00:01:53
Speaker
um Justin, you had to grind it and just, you know, plow doors down um just to get into, ah you know, get on a team and have have a shot. Brandon had to do that as well.
00:02:04
Speaker
But Brandon had a lot of interest coming out of high school. I had ah offers from all over the country, from big time schools. Brandon settled at BYU. But then it wasn't easy, Brandon, when you got to BYU. It wasn't like you were right there in the mix. You were so you were going to be the guy in a year or two.
00:02:21
Speaker
you were pretty you know You were down the depth chart and had to kind of work your way
Challenges and Preparation at BYU
00:02:25
Speaker
in. So I want to kind of talk about what you learned from that experience um that might help another, you know, a young athlete who maybe is finding himself as a backup, but you know, ah what what did you learn from that experience? You eventually ended up starting.
00:02:42
Speaker
and And when you had your opportunity, especially your senior year dominating. So walk us through that and give us some, some counsel. I look back and I, High school, i think I was one of the luckiest quarterbacks in the country and just one of the luckiest human beings in the country to be able to be surrounded by so many unbelievable just high school friends and high school athletes and a culture and an environment where – we were trained to be excellent. And our high school coach's name was Roger Dupay in the early 90s at Skyline High School. it was about as good of a high school football experience as you could create for anybody. So I look back at that and then I fast forward throughout the years.
00:03:27
Speaker
And there were times when I was in college and thinking, well, gosh, we... this is what we did at Skyline back in the day. How come we're not doing it here? And and and I felt like I came from a culture of excellence, a culture of preparation, a culture of if we do the small things um right, it'll translate into into future successes. So simple successes over time um create the miraculous big events.
00:03:54
Speaker
And preparation plus opportunity equals success.
Mindset of Readiness and Opportunity
00:03:57
Speaker
So you can't truly become great or you don't get to accomplish success but what you've what you've set your mind to unless unless your heart believes it or you've truly done the work. my my dad and brothers, I was raised in the environment that if your mind can conceive it and your heart can believe it, then you can achieve it. And the hardest thing to to accomplish is to get your heart to believe it.
00:04:21
Speaker
And in high school, we just learned we're going to be there at 6 a.m. We're going to grind through the work. We're going to be diligent to the coach's requests. we're going to do all the We're going to tackle and block and do all the things better than than anybody else was doing it.
00:04:38
Speaker
And I learned that that in order for me to become what I needed to become, I had to do all the little things right. I had to do the things off the field that I knew I needed to do. i needed to spend the time um in my own personal life, doing the things that i needed to do. i needed to, in order for me to be the person I wanted to be and to be the football player I wanted to be, it wasn't just going to be me lacing up the cleats and walking out on the grass and doing the work there. I felt like there were so many other things I needed to do in my life in order for me to accomplish the goals I wanted to achieve.
00:05:13
Speaker
as a student athlete and ultimately as ah as a quarterback. And so um I think that's how I would start this, Dustin, is just that nobody is going to hand you anything. Nothing's free.
00:05:25
Speaker
um It's going require everything you got in order to accomplish the greatest successes in your life. And there's going to be hurdles and walls and unique challenges and injuries. So many things that are there're they're gonna obstacles that will come in front of you and you're going to have to decide how bad you want it.
00:05:46
Speaker
And if you truly are going to exhibit this personal grit and stick-to-itiveness, this unconquerable spirit, That no matter what, um i I know where I'm going. i have the end in mind.
00:06:01
Speaker
And um I'm just going to keep believing. And I'm going to keep moving in that direction. and And for me in my life, it has not just become true. It's become foundational. It's almost like this.
00:06:14
Speaker
earthly truth that um that when I say preparation plus opportunity equals success, it's an equation that never fails. And um now that ah now that you got more gray hair than I do, i have no hair. That truth even more foundational in my life for sure.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yeah, Brandon, you were ah when you you me what you got your first chance University of Utah your junior year. No, your first start was at Colorado. Yep. But you played in that up at the University of Utah was sort of your big kind of coming out party, I guess. Like you you you scored late in the game. It was a typical BYU-Utah rivalry game that came down to the last second.
00:06:55
Speaker
You know, if if I took you back a couple weeks before that first start in Colorado, um if if what I'm hearing is correct, what you're saying is you were preparing, you were controlling what you can control. And that was the preparation. You couldn't necessarily control when your opportunity was going to come.
00:07:14
Speaker
Somebody else had to make that decision.
Event plus Response Equals Outcome
00:07:16
Speaker
um But you, your only option was to quit and say, all right, I'm sick of preparing for something that I don't have a promise is ever going to come or bust my tail and prepare as if my opportunity is going to be tomorrow and I got to be ready so that when that opportunity does come, I can strike. Because that's, you know, what you say is absolutely correct in that equation.
00:07:42
Speaker
However, when that opportunity comes, you may not get a a lot of them and you got to be ready to go and write and show when it comes. Is that, was that sort of your mindset? Is that what? Yeah, you have to pounce. immediately you have to pounce when it shows up.
00:07:56
Speaker
And um whether whether it's an athlete or it's just a person in life. And you're right. The opportunities, and sometimes the opportunities are different than what you expected. So even though I may have been preparing for this,
00:08:10
Speaker
um opportunity. i may have experienced I may have been given this opportunity, but it was equal as great, if not greater than what I had had been envisioning in my mind was going to be the the outcome of this. But regardless, the opportunity came.
00:08:23
Speaker
And if the preparation exceeds the opportunity, then sometimes
Non-negotiables and Deep Belief
00:08:28
Speaker
the success is wild. It's beyond your wildest imagination. But at a minimum, if it's if it's equal to the opportunity, then the equation of success is there. And um I was just was grateful. i was grateful when it came. My grandpa called me on the phone. I've told this story a hundred times. I was in the hotel the night before the Colorado State game. I was not the starter. um Charlie Peterson was the starter. My grandpa calls me on the phone. He's probably 85 years old at the time. And I pick up the phone him and in the hotel room, right? We pick that up. It's ringing. I'm like, who's calling in my hotel room? And I said, hello. And all he said was, this is Clifford Gledhill, the grandfather of Brandon Doman, the starting quarterback of BYU.
00:09:15
Speaker
Click. And he hangs in the phone up. He was living in St. George at the time. And I'm like, my dang grandpa's trying to teach me a lesson right now again, because he was that kind of a guy too.
00:09:27
Speaker
um And it wasn't hello. There was no conversation. It was that. So i opened my journal up and I wrote down again, i Brandon Doman, am the starter of quarter i starting quarterback at BYU. I wrote it three times. That journal sits by the side of my bed still to this day. and And he was reminding me, Brandon, don't give Don't quit.
00:09:47
Speaker
Don't quit. Your mind has been seeing this for a long time. Don't stop believing. And by halftime of that game, I was the starting quarterback at BYU. And why? Because they all got hurt. It wasn't like something, you know, Lavelle Edwards had to come in and say, Brandon, you're the starter. But gosh, Bredingham got hurt. Charlie Peterson got hurt. And I was the third string quarterback. So um that sometimes and usually that's how it comes about.
00:10:17
Speaker
Circumstances in other people's lives or other sort situations change. And then all sudden you're standing there. and and And I happened to be standing there. And thankfully, thankfully, I was ready. There's an equation that I've used before. And I'm trying to remember, I feel bad that I can't note who it was that came up with this because it wasn't me. You know, but what i' I'd like to credit whoever it was, but I have used it a lot. Event plus response equals outcome.
00:10:46
Speaker
So E plus R equals O. And, you know, and I think that goes for everything in our life, right? We have the event, whatever that is. And then the next thing is just how we respond to that event. And that's what ultimately determines, you know, the outcome.
00:11:01
Speaker
um In your particular case, you remind me of something I heard Kobe Bryant say that I just loved. I may have to get it printed and hung in my office or something, but he talked about non-negotiables and how he would not negotiate with himself.
00:11:16
Speaker
And in what he meant was what he meant is is similar to the old adage by ah the the Native American ah chief sitting bowl who said there's there's two dogs in every one of us.
00:11:27
Speaker
They fight each other every day. The dog that wins, the alpha dog is the dog we feed the most. yeah one we give the most attention to. And in Kobe Bryant's mind, it's there was no negotiating with, well, maybe I feed the other dog occasionally. It was no, like I am getting up at 4 a.m. and there's no negotiating.
00:11:46
Speaker
And my workout is what it is. And once it's written down on paper, once I've made that commitment, I think that's what, Brandon, when you talk about if your mind can conceive it, well, that's I think that's the easy part. The hard part is, can your heart, does your heart really believe it?
Regrets and Importance of Preparation
00:12:01
Speaker
And that's where you have to, I think, practice this non-negotiable of if your heart really believes it, there is no plan B, right? It's it's all in on plan A. And if plan A doesn't work, it doesn't work.
00:12:12
Speaker
But I'm going to be ready that if I get my opportunity to execute plan a that my response is going to be such that the outcome is you know hopefully positive. If not, at least I go to bed knowing, hey, I had my chance. I gave it all I had. It didn't work.
00:12:28
Speaker
Right. And that sucks. But that's sometimes life. But, you know, I think and you can tell me if you agree with this and then I'll just and i know you have some similar experiences. um The biggest regret would be.
00:12:42
Speaker
Negotiating with yourself, kind of being ready, knowing you're not quite there because you didn't really get a 90 percent in your preparation.
00:12:53
Speaker
because your heart didn't really believe it. It was something you kind of wanted, but you didn't sell out on it. And then that opportunity came. and you weren't ready. And then you go out and you and and you have to live with the rest of your life knowing, i didn't really prepare myself. um You know, i think we all can try to convince ourselves we did. But in our hearts, we know, you didn't really believe it, believe it, right? Like you, you negotiated with yourself out of some workouts out of some study out of some sleep out of some, whatever it is. And I and it's the same in life, right? That this print, that's what love about
00:13:27
Speaker
Sports is it's so applicable to the same negotiations happen in our life, right? The same kind of believe in it with our heart. We don't, but we don't sell out on it. And, and we feed the other dog too much. And sometimes we feed it enough that we become the other dog, the lazier,
00:13:44
Speaker
you know, version of ourselves versus the killer version of ourselves. um One more Brandon. And then I want to kind of Justin, cause you had some similar stories. So Brandon, your senior year, you get that, you you play that game against Colorado state. I remember it.
00:13:59
Speaker
So I was like doing cartwheels in my house when you got in. Um, he was the subway player of the game. I still remember like, wow, how cool is that? He's the subway player of
Achieving Dreams and NFL Draft
00:14:09
Speaker
the game. Like subway recognized him. Like that's where, and this is my guy and he's so happy for him.
00:14:14
Speaker
And then it was just like, you just steamrolled everybody. and And senior year was unbelievable. You guys go like 10 and O to start the year. You're, you know, the talk talking about you in the Heisman race, like it was nuts. When then it comes, you grab, you you finish it up and you get drafted.
00:14:33
Speaker
You get drafted by the 49ers. So let's fast forward to that. Where was your mind at when now all of a sudden you realize, holy cow, I did it. Like, did it, did it. Not just starting at BYU.
00:14:45
Speaker
I'm going to the San Francisco 49ers. And at that time, Brandon, I mean, I think you believe we were 49. That was kind of our team and a lot of us in Utah, right? That's where Steve Young played. That's like, that was close to us. Tell me about that.
00:14:59
Speaker
Well, yeah. I've thought a lot about this over the years because I look back, Dustin, at being eight years old and we were watching Jim McMahon and Steve Young and Danny Ainge and Danny White and Michael Jordan. and It was an unbelievable time, but for for a young kid from Utah,
00:15:22
Speaker
There wasn't anybody bigger than Steve Young for me. I mean, the 49ers were the were was just it. But quite honestly, I got to be honest with you. I don't think that in my brain anything was bigger than BYU. Really? BYU football it's about as big as it could get in my brain. i just The BYU quarterbacks and BYU football, I wanted so badly to be the quarterback of BYU.
00:15:45
Speaker
that I didn't even think about anything beyond that. And I was like, if I can just get into that stadium and run out of the northea the southeast corner end zone with the fog and the smoke going, and I get to run out in that field with the BYU jersey on, and I'm the quarterback at BYU, that maybe that was the pinnacle of everything.
00:16:04
Speaker
and what was amazing was, is that when that happened, the fruits of that labor then just had been a steamroll in my life. I got to go play. I got drafted in the NFL because shoot, I was the quarterback for BYU and we won a bunch of games. and And, I look back at that time in the NFL and,
00:16:25
Speaker
I needed some things to go differently and a couple of things to change. and i and And I look at my approach, you know, there's a lot of things that maybe could have been differently, but I worked my tail off out there in San Francisco and i was never a starter in the NFL.
00:16:39
Speaker
But the impact of being the quarterback of BYU in my life now that I'm almost turning 50 has been a miraculous blessing in every way, in every facet.
Gaining Perspective on Accomplishments
00:16:51
Speaker
There's tentacles coming into my life.
00:16:54
Speaker
as fruits from that time that have blessed me and my family that I'll forever be indebted to, to the experience. So I guess what I'm trying to say is is that really was the opportunity that I think I wanted so badly. And you look back years later with perspective and,
00:17:12
Speaker
you know, heaven and earth intertwined in my life, I think. And that was the opportunity that truly has impacted and blessed my family, my wife and I, and our kids for all these years. And even professionally, as I go to work every day, and I'm just so grateful for, for BYU, for BYU fans and just the whole thing.
00:17:30
Speaker
So, um, I think we have to be really careful about what it is that we read be really smart about what we're earmarked goal. And um San Francisco is unbelievable, great people, but it was a fruit that came from, i think, goal being the quarterback at BYU.
00:17:47
Speaker
I think that's interesting because I think sometimes I found myself doing this not long ago. I mean, it was a year, a year and a half ago where I was kind of feeling like, man, I'm not – kind of And it's good. I mean, in in some ways, it's good. It's a motivator. But I just felt like I'm not doing enough. I haven't done enough. I need to do more.
00:18:07
Speaker
And yeah it's easy to fall into the trap of of negativity there. Like you can beat you'll be really hard on yourself. And then I heard somebody talk about something to you know your your wishes and dreams years ago and often And then yeah you're playing them out oftentimes now, right? And I looked back and I was like, man, if you'd have told me 10 years ago that this would be the case with you know work with family, with other things, physical, some health stuff. like i'd be this I'd have been like, really? like Are you kidding me That's going to be in 10 years from now? okay
00:18:44
Speaker
And then when they happen, like I would ever want or ask for another thing ever again in my life. like I got it, right? But what we do is we fall into the, well, now what? We want more. or We always want more. Maybe it's the selfishness or the greed. or and i'm I'm careful on this because it's also a good thing to want to you know find something else to stretch for and to reach for and to to motivate you and push
Focusing on Current Goals
00:19:04
Speaker
you.
00:19:04
Speaker
um But I think that's interesting that you say that, that your sort of Mount Everest was BYU. you know That was the cutout picture on your mirror in the bathroom was that. and And you wanted that every day. And so when you got there, instead of thinking, okay, great, enjoy that for a day, but now I've got to be this person.
00:19:24
Speaker
You soaked up the fact that I'm a Cougar. I'm doing it. I'm living my dream. And I'm going to go all in on this. and it's probably the right approach, Brandon, because you went all in on being now trying to become the best BYU quarterback that you could be. The other stuff happened.
00:19:40
Speaker
The San Francisco 49ers call came. But if you're focus i think if we're focusing on next week or next month too much, we blow it today. And and we know we miss now. And I think that's the idea of our principle of winning the hour, that you be where your feet are. And and your feet at the moment were BYU quarterback.
00:19:57
Speaker
You could control that. And if you control that and had some success in that, other things may come. And they did. And you had a chance to go you know play in BYU and then go to Buffalo and and then get into coaching at BYU. And all these things opened up.
00:20:11
Speaker
But had you immediately switched your mind to, all right, I'm going to you know starting NFL quarterback, you may not have been the court college its quarterback that you were because your mind your your eyes got off the goal, right?
00:20:23
Speaker
um is Is there some truth to that, ah Brandon? And then, Justin, maybe I'll get your thoughts on that. No doubt. Yeah, I think you said it beautifully. I don't think I'd say it any differently. oh and and i think that's easy I think it's smart sometimes in life to take ah an inventory of kind of what we have, where we're at, and then maybe ask ourselves, if I could go back 10 years from now and and see a ah you know crystal ball or something, where I'm at now, would I be okay with that? Would I be happy with it? And then maybe realize...
00:20:58
Speaker
you know, maybe in a, in a spiritual sense that God did play a ah part in my life. Like he did answer those prayers um or he, he answered them differently than I wanted, but man, I'm glad he did.
Justin's College Experience and Respect
00:21:09
Speaker
Cause I did looking at it now. I'm glad I didn't get some of those things. You know, the the course correction actually took me this way, which was better. um And I think it's the same thing in sports. So Justin,
00:21:22
Speaker
you know you When you came out of high school, you know there were some colleges that were interested in you, but they weren't knocking down your door to commit to go to BYU or you know Michigan or somewhere.
00:21:32
Speaker
You had to kind of grind it in high school. You you went to you went down to southern Utah. Did do you walk on at Snow? I was on scholarship at Snow. That was my only offer out of high school. And then went on a mission. And when I came back, walked on it. so hurt your Hurt your hand, your wrist, had to deal with that?
00:21:50
Speaker
ye and and went down and walked on at Southern Utah. And I'm guessing when you got down there as a walk on similar circumstance to Brandon and that, you were You were down the list a little bit, right? I know you had a couple couple other guys that I've worked with that you knew well that were down there.
00:22:07
Speaker
You had to kind of bulldoze your way into that starting role, right? Yeah, when I got there, it was essentially the coaches were saying, I mean, it's an open competition, but we had a starter last year that got hurt a little bit. And so we have...
00:22:23
Speaker
three or four guys in the room that played last year due to injuries and and different experiences. So there was a ah lot of experience in the room. um I walked in there and I was the one, i mean, I had played in junior college, but I was the only one that hadn't played at Southern Utah as a quarterback. And so there were a few guys there that, I mean, they were stepping into it, knew what it was going to be like. had experienced the game at that level. And, and so it was a big opportunity for me and challenge for me to walk in and go, all right, this is who I am. And this is what I can do.
00:23:03
Speaker
um And that first year ended up red shirting, um, the The one that the first starter that had gotten hurt was the starter again and ended up transferring at the end of the year. And so that was kind of the big open door for me that it was, hey, this is really fair game now. And and it's open for whoever wants to come take it. And so, yeah, I mean, just like Brandon was saying is a lot of it just comes from your mindset and your willingness to
00:23:37
Speaker
do the work and, and grind. Um, and that was, that was kind of my mindset of it was, all right, I just got to do everything I can possibly do to win this job and, and to make the coaches say, we can't give it to somebody else. Cause this is our, yeah he's, he's the leader, trust him and and we trust him. And so that's our guy. We, we can't go with anybody else. And so I remember,
00:24:02
Speaker
ah In our spring season, our i mean our spring ball and and our off-season regiment was between a couple different coaches, we had spring competitions where starting when we got back in the winter in January from Christmas break, we would start and you'd get...
00:24:23
Speaker
you kind of draft a team or or get put on a team and all right, you got to get the most points as you can. There was some kind of point system for every year and, and you could get points through your academic work, through extra study hall hours, through winning competitions in the weight room or out on the field, all that kind of stuff. And,
Leadership and Credibility in Sports
00:24:43
Speaker
So the way I approached those was the same way I wanted to approach a game was I got to do everything I can possibly do to win this, um to win it for my team and and personally. So if it was something I could do individually, i was doing as many points or getting as many points throughout the day and throughout each week as I could to help the team out. Yeah.
00:25:07
Speaker
if it was maxed at whatever point, a hundred points a week, all right, I got to make sure I'm at a hundred points a week. Cause for me, if my teammates look at it and say, Oh, well, our quarterback's only at 20 points this week.
00:25:21
Speaker
Well, how's that going to look on me? And, and then who's going to follow me? Cause I'm not doing as much as I can. and so I heard, uh, a quote or a press conference from Fernando Mendoza last week when he was doing his stuff with the Raiders now. And he was talking about how that kind of leadership is in somewhat or some way earned. um And it's not always just you walk in there and you can be the leader and people listen to you.
00:25:51
Speaker
Part of that comes from experiences with other guys, with your teammates, with your coaches, making sure that they know that you're up to the standard, that you can play at a certain level or you can compete at a certain level. And the other part of it is kind of that instinctual, I'm the guy, I'm i'm going to lead. And so it kind of comes in in two different waves where You can't always just walk in and expect people to listen to you. You kind of have to earn that respect and and gain that leadership credibility.
00:26:23
Speaker
And so that was one way that I wanted to do that was, all right, my team has to win this. And whether it's personal points that you can get or the team points, my team has to win.
00:26:35
Speaker
um And so that's kind of the way I approached it. My first off season at Southern Utah was, all right, Let's let's get a team that and whether we have great athletes or great students or whoever it was, we got a mix of everything.
00:26:50
Speaker
We have to win this. And so getting everybody on board was kind of the first step in my leadership experience and and my experience. My way of really of winning the the starting job there was, all right, how can I get everybody on board with this? and And it was kind of a microcosm of what you're doing with it. How can I get the offense or to listen to me and to buy in and figure out how we're going to get to where we want. I think especially in football, but this, this also, this translates into any team sport, I guess, but I, but football is the ultimate team sport. I don't think there's anything, i where you depend more on a teammate than in football for the old, for your success. Um,
00:27:35
Speaker
so So in football, in particular, in quarterback, right, you've got to have several other guys do their jobs right for you to have any shot at looking good. And if not, you're you're getting sacked and and throwing in completions and interceptions and You don't have guy blocking for
Team Support and Unexpected Opportunities
00:27:52
Speaker
you you. don't have receivers running the right route. You're dropping passes. Like all these things have to go and have to work for you then to be the, you know, the the hero that the quarterback usually ends up being at the end of a win. And Fernando Mendoza's comment reminds me of two things. One is, Justin, you worked with Fernando. You trained with him. we i i
00:28:10
Speaker
I stood next to you and Fernando Mendoza, and we did the same drills, and you did the same workouts with him just a couple years ago. And I remember walking away from that workout, And then did not for one second think Fernando Mendoza was the best quarterback on that field. I had you and four or five other Utah kids I trained that were all college quarterbacks. He was at Cal at the time.
00:28:33
Speaker
There was another kid from UCLA. And they were all good. But I did not walk away feeling like, well, yeah, they were all good. But that guy, holy cow, that dude's going to make it. He's going And then we fast forward three years and he's playing football.
00:28:45
Speaker
in the national championship and making all this money. And now in in the NFL, especially now he's going to make all sorts of money. And it was sort of back to Brandon's point. He had an opportunity, right? The opportunity came up. He ended up in Indiana, the right circumstance presented itself. And he struck, he bounced like Brandon said, you know, and, and, and your opportunity worked out, but it it wasn't at Indiana. And then let me know now with the Raiders, but,
00:29:11
Speaker
looking at what you did in Germany and what that's then led to. And now with your kids and your family and what you're doing with your life, you know, the opportunity that did present yourself, you took advantage of
Heart Belief and Grit in Sports
00:29:23
Speaker
it, right? And you promised. And I think we can get caught saying, well, why is it, why did they get that chance? Or they get that chance? Or the guy in front of me didn't get hurt or I would have been the guy he's the only reason he played is because look, we can't control any of that stuff, but all you can do is, is be ready For when your time comes and then be ready to to shine when that time comes and you don't know when it's going to. And that's the thing is that you can do all the work and the door might never really open. But you've got to if you really want it. I love what but I keep going back to Brandon's the heart belief point. I think there's so much to that, that you have to believe it so much.
00:30:04
Speaker
that there is no negotiables. It's, it's, I'm doing this until the bitter end, no matter the pain, no matter the sacrifice, somebody is going to tell me I'm done. I can't do it anymore. I'm not going to make that, you know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to quit before I just emptied my tank.
00:30:20
Speaker
And if you still have 10% left in the tank, you empty it. And then when you aren't empty, you're empty and you walk away and you you fill your tank in some other area of your life. But, you know, in your case, Justin, you know, you had to stay hungry and, and what you did off the field, you said something there that I think is important. And Brandon maybe has a ah thought on this as well, because you need your football teammates to perform.
00:30:43
Speaker
They're going to perform and play harder when they want to see you be successful. And when they feel like you're their guy and they they respect you, and you see that in certain teams where there's a backup who the guys just love, man. they If he goes in, they're all watching.
00:30:58
Speaker
They stand up from the bench and walk up to the, and they want to watch him play because they've seen him at practice. And they've seen him in the weight room and they've seen him at team functions. And he's just the guy that's all in. And if he gets a chance to play, man, we want to see him. He's our, like, we want to see him kill it. Right. He's our guy. If that guy's your quarterback and your linemen feel that way.
00:31:19
Speaker
where they're like, man, I i don't know. i love all my quarterbacks, but this guy, man, if he ever gets a shot, he deserves it because this dude works his tell-off. When you do get your shot, if you've got those guys then kind of downshifting into, okay, we're going to make sure he gets in the end zone or those receivers saying, oh, man, i'd love this guy's been doing the extra work. I'm going to make sure that I run my heart. And they all pick it up a little bit better. You benefit.
00:31:45
Speaker
Really. And in and an order for you to benefit, they kind of need them to do that because the alternative could be, they say, oh yeah, great. So-and-so's in. All right. Like the man, this guy, he's a prima donna.
00:31:56
Speaker
He talks a good game, but he didn't, he wasn't there. And when it was really hard, he wasn't there when it was cold or when it was, when he was in it hurt a little bit, he'd sit out. He didn't like, nah, man. And you get it And then you don't get their best and you don't perform. Brandon,
00:32:11
Speaker
You had the respect of the players in part, not just because of what you did at practice and things. They saw how hard you worked. But my guess is too, like you were you were a dude, like you hung out with them. you You let them know who you were as a person. So they they gravitated.
00:32:26
Speaker
but
Vince Lombardi's Philosophy on Purpose
00:32:27
Speaker
Yes. John, you keep making me think of of of a John Wooden's a phrase that he called competitive greatness, being at your very best when your best is needed.
00:32:38
Speaker
And i think you that is absolutely earned. And i think once you've made some great plays and made you know you've prepared for it, then all a sudden you make the plays and your teammates are like, yeah, this this guy really can play.
00:32:54
Speaker
And you do it over and over again. The very best players in the world, their teammates are looking to them to be at their very best when their best is needed. And Steph Curry, for the most part, is at his very best when his best is needed. You're like, how did he make – well, that's when he's at his very, very bad moment. And and I think your teammates have to earn your trust. And and Vince Lombardi talks about there has to be truth in your purpose and willpower in your character. And that's earned – um In so many ways. And as you say, when your teammates realize this is a guy that I love, this is a guy that I can hang out with. This is a guy that that there he there really is truth in his purpose and his purpose is us. It's not me. It's not him.
00:33:37
Speaker
His purpose is truthful. It's a purpose that we can trust and the hang our hat on. This dude is about us. And, and why do I know that? Because there's willpower in his character. I can see that this guy is all about us and the way that he trains, the way that prepares, the way that communicates to us in the huddle, the way he communicates to the team, so on and so forth. And,
00:33:57
Speaker
and The way Justin communicated, it's the greatest opportunity that I could possibly imagine creating for somebody to give them opportunity to be a quarterback of a football team.
Realizing Childhood Dreams
00:34:10
Speaker
It's just an amazing opportunity. but Justin, I want to ask you one more question about your experience. and then I know you had a couple questions that you wanted to ask specific to quarterback.
00:34:20
Speaker
you You wanted to play at BYU as well, right? That was kind of your your goal growing up. And in most kids here in Utah where we live, you know, playing at Rice-Eccles Stadium or Lavelle Edwards Stadium or maybe up in Logan at Aggie Stadium. But specifically, I think Utah and BYU, that's every kid would like to, you know, have that moment.
00:34:41
Speaker
Yeah. And you did, bre Justin, you did get a play at BYU, just in another color uniform. And you threw a touchdown at Lavelle Edwards Stadium just for the other team.
00:34:52
Speaker
So tell us about how that was, not not playing for BYU, scoring against BYU, running out of the opposite end tunnel. But what was that like for you? and And how did that feel when you realized, man, I I'm playing here, not on the team I thought I would, but I'm playing here. And and then you you did well in that game too. What was that feeling like for you? It was pretty cool. I mean, growing up, mostly, most of my time in California, in Southern California was a little bit different where not a ton of kids down there were BYU fans. and And that's what I grew up as. and And my parents kind of instilled that in me. And it was my parents and all my grandparents. And you got generations that were all
00:35:36
Speaker
Cougars. And so it was ah just kind of like, I mean, similar to what Brandon was saying, it was, that was kind of the pinnacle that was, that was where you were trying to get if you were playing football.
00:35:47
Speaker
And so for me growing up, I remember going to all their Las Vegas bowl games and, and we would, hang out and tailgate and do all that stuff and so watching those uh games and growing up as a byu fan in high school it was tough on me where i would go to the camps and wouldn't get looked at and then coming out of high school ah met with it was ty detmer at the time was the offensive coordinator and and i mean we had a good conversation where he said listen i mean you could walk on but
00:36:22
Speaker
you're probably going to be better off going to snow and and getting another look after that because we just have a lot of guys here right now. And so you're probably not going to get the opportunity you want ah at this time.
00:36:35
Speaker
And I mean, so grateful for him to tell me that and, and, be honest with me because that sent my career in a whole different path and so kind of once that mindset shifted um of all right it might not be byu but i can still go play at another school and and have a successful career um that kind of shifted it and said all right well Let me put my head down again and start grinding and and get back to work. And then for it all, I mean, in my senior year too, for it to end up at BYU was kind of full circle for me. And I know my parents and grandparents and everybody that was there was kind of similar where we thought you would be in blue and white playing here, but
00:37:22
Speaker
We're glad you ended up playing here at some point. And then, I mean, to throw a touchdown there, i remember my cousins were at BYU at the time, and they were up in the student section, and you could hear them scream as we scored.
00:37:37
Speaker
And they told me after, everybody was looking at them all funny, and then they said, well, the quarterback, so I kind of got to cheer for them. And they were all cool about it, but... Yeah, i mean i mean, the thing that made it even better for me was that it was a nice touchdown. It wasn't just ah a wide open shot. It was a post over the top and and hit him right at the back of the end zone. And so memorable in that sense, but also, I mean, just a ah really cool experience to play on the field and and to finally get to play there after growing up for so long.
00:38:11
Speaker
kind of expecting or or wanting to play there. That was that was my expectation on myself was was to get there. And so to be able to play in in some of those bigger stadiums at Lavelle Edwards and Rice Eccles and down at Arizona State a couple times, those were pretty special.
00:38:29
Speaker
Well, it was I loved it man. I was just like when, I mean, i didn't, it's a different feeling with you than it was with Brandon.
Fan Loyalty and Athlete Success
00:38:36
Speaker
Brandon was, you know is still to this day, one of my very best friends.
00:38:40
Speaker
But with you, I trained you, you know, since eighth or ninth grade. and And I don't know, very few quarterbacks I've worked with more than you, you know, or or as much as you, just a handful So, I mean, it was, it was up for us, you know, your parents, your fans, your your friends like me, that it was pretty dang cool, man, to see. you and And then I was cheering for Southern Utah in that game. I, people ask me if I'm a BYU fan or a Utah fan. I said, I'm a fan of the quarterback. If I, if he's a kid I worked with,
00:39:07
Speaker
That's all I care about. I don't, I don't, I want to see him do well. And, or, or one of my buddies is coaching when Brandon was at BYU. And when Ty was at BYU, I was a BYU fan. um But as soon as they left and then only if, only if one of my guys is playing, otherwise I don't, I have other, don't really care.
Quarterback Accountability
00:39:23
Speaker
Um, Justin, you had a couple of questions specific to quarterbacks, um, fire those away and I'll let Brandon answer them. If I have anything I'll, I'll say, but I'll speak up, but why don't you fire away a couple of questions? Yeah, i think the first one kind of been on my mind for a little bit, um,
00:39:39
Speaker
I was reading the the Bill Belichick book. I think he came out with it last year and um some really insightful information throughout the whole book. but But one chapter has really stuck out to me about mistakes and how, I mean, we're going to make mistakes all the time. And and he talks about the biggest thing.
00:40:03
Speaker
or the most important thing that you can say after you make a mistake is first to own it. And then to tell those involved that you messed it up.
00:40:13
Speaker
He used a little more colorful language, but we'll keep it with that, that, Hey, I messed that up. That's on me. Um, My question for Brandon and and you, Dustin, too, is as a quarterback, we have so much responsibility to run the offense, to to win games, to to do all this different stuff.
00:40:35
Speaker
um And I've heard and been coached and in a lot of ways when I was really young as a quarterback, you always tell receivers, my bad, like, hey, that one's on me.
00:40:47
Speaker
i didn't put it in the right spot, even if it wasn't. And so my question for you guys would be, how do you kind of balance that accountability where you still want to be real and you want to be honest about things? um and And in some ways, I think guys get a little hesitant.
00:41:05
Speaker
ah to be that honest because they think my coach is going to yell at me. he Maybe he doesn't know that it it actually wasn't my fault. And so how do we balance that as as quarterbacks and take responsibility, be accountable, but also be realistic in in what we're expecting from our teammates as well?
00:41:25
Speaker
I think if you hold yourself accountable to a high standard and you, we've, we've spent all this time talking about what the expectation is of ourselves and the way that we're going to do the work. If you, if you demonstrate, demonstrate that over time, they recognize this guy's running at this level and he's now expecting us to run at that level with him.
00:41:49
Speaker
And, and some guys have the ability to raise expectations. the intensity, raise the expectation um of all their teammates. And that happens day after day, week after week, month after month of just staying at it.
00:42:05
Speaker
Like I said about this Vince Lombardi quote, that leadership rests not only upon the ability or the capacity of the player or the person, There has to be truth in your purpose and willpower in your character, and they have to be combined. If there's truth in your purpose and then you combine that with this unbelievable willpower in your character as a leader, those those guys are going to respond to you. So when they go the wrong direction or run the wrong route and and it really hurts the team,
00:42:36
Speaker
they' They're not expecting you to um you know degrade them or to make them feel lesser of a human being.
Owning Mistakes and Building Trust
00:42:44
Speaker
They're expecting you to hold them to ah a level of accountability of of this outcome, this successful outcome that you're expecting. And in most cases, it enables these guys to rise to the occasion. i look back at some of my teammates that were so dang good.
00:43:01
Speaker
um I think they expected me to hold them to that standard. And if they weren't there, I think they were expecting me to say, hey, listen, we have to be different. We can't keep doing this. And and if I wasn't saying that, I think they'd been so disappointed, right? they were I think they had come to recognize and and and expect that, hey, Brandon's going to require this level of expectation.
00:43:23
Speaker
And if we're not hearing it from him, then, man, something's wrong. and um And that even required more out of me. and And so when Bill Belichick says, hey, look, I own it.
00:43:34
Speaker
i own my mistakes. When you said, Justin, I own it. ah knew what was what i knew my what my role was. And I had to fulfill that role. And i if it was 100 points, I had to get 100 points. You earned the right.
00:43:48
Speaker
You earn the right.
Recruiting Quarterbacks: Skills and Intangibles
00:43:50
Speaker
And when you earn that right, um then you you have complete trust and confidence from your teammates. It's the same thing as a father. i mean, gosh, you have to earn the right as a dad to be able to communicate to your family that way and hold them to that expectation. And and ah what ah what an awesome thing to learn as a young quarterback. Yeah, I mean – super important to, I mean, we have to be accountable. Right. And, and that's one of the things that I think separates a lot of quarterbacks, um, and, and people in general from, from others is owning mistakes where, I mean, as I was reading in there, it's kind of you're going through it and you're like, yeah, yeah, I can, I can own my mistakes. And in theory, it's all nice. You can always do it, but then it, it comes up in a real life situation. And,
00:44:36
Speaker
Like, god I might be a little more hesitant to say something right away or or maybe it's not even owning it right in the moment where it's, okay, I can wait maybe an hour or a day or something and then i can say, yeah, that was my fault. I did that and and try to wait for everybody to cool off a little bit where you got to be able to do it in the moment and and step up.
00:45:00
Speaker
Yeah. I think probably last question for you, Brandon, is when you were coaching at BYU and kind of goes along with E4A and our quarterback elite stuff, what were you looking for specifically in your quarterbacks when you were recruiting them? Yeah.
00:45:20
Speaker
in terms of physical ability, but also mental ability and how did you kind of get that out of the quarterbacks that you were recruiting? I mean, it's a little easier now where there's so much more media available um and different ways of kind of going about recruiting. But for you,
00:45:38
Speaker
I mean, how did you go about it? What were you looking for? And kind of how did you extract what you were looking for out of these? There were tangibles. There were certainly tangibles we were looking for. They they had to have the ability to play. They had to be able to stand in a Division position.
00:45:57
Speaker
you know, huddle and in a division one locker room and on a division one field. And they had to be able to make the throws. They had to be able to run. They had to be able to, you know, do all the things physically that were required of them. It wasn't necessarily whether or not they were five foot 10 or six foot five. It just was, can they do it physically?
00:46:14
Speaker
And that's why you went to all those camps. That's why these guys would show up for your high schools to evaluate that. But then it got really important. And we were trying to figure out, I was trying to figure out, does this guy have um a ferocious competitiveness?
00:46:33
Speaker
Does he have this competitive grit about him? this I've said it. I keep using the word grit, but I want to find someone with grit. Grit was what to me is, is is this ability to have you know greatness comes from this individual toughness, the stick-to-itiveness that when I get knocked down, i'm going to be the first one up.
00:46:57
Speaker
um And the quarterback has to be that guy. He really has to be that guy. As goes the quarterback, so goes the team. And you watch any any team at any level. If that guy um has that type of grit stick to it of us and then he can play – um I felt like we could coach him into being a well-rounded player. I felt like it was my duty and my responsibility take that guy. and Now he's got the tangibles and the intangibles.
00:47:25
Speaker
If I fail to coach him to be great, that was on me. as a coach. um If he wasn't performing well, I feel like that was my fault. And um I had to own that as a coach.
00:47:38
Speaker
and And I would way rather have to bring a guy down that has this level of confidence in himself and his ability to be great in those moments and kind of have to taper that back a little bit than to try and figure out how to build him into that person. And you have that luxury in college where you can go find those guys. And I think you could find two or three of them and put them in the cupboards and start breeding that type of a culture and environment. and And I look back as a coach and I think we had a lot of guys like that. And it had had to do with recruiting the right people to be there.
Necessary Skills for Quarterbacks
00:48:11
Speaker
Brandon, I know you got to get running real quick. I don't want to keep you late from your mission brand or from your your meet your meeting. So why don't you hop off and then Justin. will Okay. Thank you guys. you brandon Thanks Go ahead, Josh. Sorry. He's got to get to this meeting. Oh, you're good. um Yeah. Just, I mean, going along with that is you're looking for a lot of um tangible things and and there's kind of a baseline that you have to be able to reach as a quarterback or any athlete that, all right, I got to be up to this standard physically to be able to do things. And then that mental side is really where it comes into play of, can this guy process information? Can he make decisions and make consistently good and decisions?
00:48:54
Speaker
In this instance of quarterbacks, does he know the playbook inside and out? Does he know where everybody else is supposed to be and what's supposed to be done, even up to the offensive line on run plays and and pass protection and stuff like that? I think Brandon was spotted on. and i mean He recruited a lot of good quarterbacks. so He did. and and i would I would add to that that if you're a quarterback who thinks that you have what it takes to be the next level, well let's back it up. Let's just say you think you should be the high school guy.
00:49:23
Speaker
And all these guys, um you know, who are who are coming to camps and and and doing the trainings and whatever, think that they should be the high school quarterback. You know, if you're going to be a high school quarterback in 2026,
00:49:37
Speaker
There's a lot more expected of you than there was, I think, in 2006. The game's changed. The quarterback is way more involved in decision-making and has to do a lot more back in just the way the game is played offensively.
00:49:49
Speaker
And you have to be tough. You have to be gritty. You have to have all these things. you have to have a good arm, all these things. If you want to be really you know really good. But even if you just want to play at all, there's some minimums you have to be able to do. You have to be a guy that your teammate knows or your coaches and teammates know does the extra. You got to know your offense and you got to know basic understanding of defenses.
00:50:10
Speaker
If you're going into your sophomore, junior year and you can't get up on a whiteboard and explain the core three or four defenses that you're going to see by, you know, 80% of the the plays from high school teams you're playing against, and then know which one of your plays work against those and which ones you maybe not are aren't going to work and what your reads are. And ah that's something you don't really think important.
00:50:31
Speaker
I can tell you, Justin, from training QBs all these years, that there's a lot of them who, when it comes to that stuff, they just go blank faced on me and they don't want to, they just want to go out and throw touchdown passes.
00:50:42
Speaker
And they think that if they just work on their arm strength, or go to a million seven on seven tournaments, that they'll just go out there and throw touchdown passes. And what they don't understand is that when you get in real football and a team has seen film on you for two weeks and the way you run your offense and the decisions that you make, and maybe know some of the the tendencies that you have, if you see a certain thing or have a rush against you, what you, you, you know, you throw off balance or you're late to certain throws, they'll try to put you in those situations so that you fail.
00:51:12
Speaker
that's, your understanding of all of the game, not just you have a good arm and you can drop back and throw a post route, but understanding how to handle adversity, how to handle bounce back from mistakes, how to handle being criticized from a coach.
00:51:27
Speaker
Because sometimes your coach is going to get frustrated. And if you're going play the QB position, balls in your hand, every play, they are going to be, no matter what, I promise you, times when your coach gets frustrated with you. And he's going to, and and at the same time, I think good coaches give a lot of rope to their QBs, a lot of slack, right? Like they get it. They understand it's a hard position and you're going to make mistakes. But if you're just making mistakes, that's different than the mistake of being
College Recruitment Process Insights
00:51:53
Speaker
lazy. That's not a mistake. That was a choice that you made to be lazy, not to go to a workout, not to live, not to study your playbook. And then you come out and make that, show that error in a game.
00:52:04
Speaker
That's where your coach is going to be pretty frustrated. And honestly, that's on you. Like you deserve that. you're You're the one who wants all the attention and the the fame that comes with being the quarterback. And it's awesome. And and that's good. Go. and you want to be the leader. or You want to be the dude. And that's awesome. We need those guys. And you have to have a little bit of that mindset of, you know, I'm going to be the quarterback. I'm the dude because everybody would like to be. But you've gone for it, right?
00:52:28
Speaker
And that's okay. But if you're going to accept that and or expect a coach to give you that opportunity, then you owe it to your teammates and to your coach to be ready and to know what you're doing when you get back there. And then if you make a mistake, you make a mistake because you're going to, right? But it's not from lack of preparation.
00:52:46
Speaker
We're paying attention. It's just because you underthrew a pass. That happens at every level, every game. You overthrew a guy. You made the wrong read. You can come off the field, coach, I made the wrong read. And coach can look at it and say, yeah, you did. And all right, why? And you can talk through it. But if you why did you make the wrong read? And you say, I don't know.
00:53:03
Speaker
what coverage are they in I have no clue, coach. Well, what route was he supposed to run run there? ah Why didn't you check out of it? Why didn't you do this, right? when Did you see the backside with one-on-one and you don't know anything he's talking about?
00:53:17
Speaker
That's on you, right? That's a mark against you. And forget college, if that's a thing. Like at the college level, Brandon or any of these other coaches that I know that are college coaches, they're going to look for a reason not to recruit you.
00:53:30
Speaker
Because they get a they get a ah ah bowl full of 30 really good quarterbacks. And they're they're picking from that bowl. And they're looking and they're like, man, all these guys can play. They all run. They all throw well. They all came from good teams and good offenses. So what's a reason not to recruit this kid?
00:53:47
Speaker
And they're looking for, and it could be something as simple as his coach say really doesn't put a lot of time in the film room. Or I heard from somebody doesn't hang out with his teammates. He kind of has his own other thing that he's not really involved with the team and in a team setting that might be a red flag would for me if I were recruiting a kid, I want him to want to be with him and to create that bond. What his grades Right. If you get really but bad grades, but maybe really high s SAT t or ACT scores, well, that tells me something about you.
00:54:16
Speaker
You didn't have put in the work to get good grades, but you're a smart kid, clearly, because you had a good, pretty good ACT score. You just didn't want to do your homework because you were playing video games or other things. Like there's all these things that they're going to look for. And then they're going to whittle that down to three or four guys.
00:54:31
Speaker
And then they're going to show that film to all the coaches and everybody's going to look and just make a decision on a kid. Um, But ah most of those, you all you can do as a quarterback is control the controllables, and you have to make sure that you're elite in those controllables. And if you just want to kind of do it,
00:54:49
Speaker
you you can't play quarterback. You got to play another position. You know that like you, there's way too much to go into that position to just sort of, sort of be ready. You can't be kind of ready. Yep. There's way too much. And I think going back to what you were talking about, just being able to explain defenses and, and knowing your offense, knowing defenses, things like that.
00:55:09
Speaker
I remember in, uh, I was probably in, eighth grade or around there just kind of before we had moved to utah pretty soon and i had decided i really was dedicated i want to play quarterback now and so we started working with somebody down in california and about, I don't know, six months or so in, and I had had a lot of experience and, and I should have known probably more than I did at the time, but we sat down in a classroom or on a whiteboard and he started asking me questions of, all right, what's our read here?
00:55:46
Speaker
What do we like against cover three? What do we, what do we prefer against cover two? What are the weaknesses of all this stuff? And there were too many times where I hesitated and said, uh,
00:55:57
Speaker
I'm not sure. like And I know he was disappointed with me because he had a higher expectation. And from that point on, it was kind of, all right, I need to figure this out. like There can't be a time when a coach comes up and asks me this thing and I don't have an answer for him or I hesitate and and can't draw it up exactly right or the the way he wants me to. and And he had expressed that to me as well was,
00:56:25
Speaker
Listen, at some point, you're going to have a coach say, all right, get up on the board and you got to be able to do what he needs you to do or answer the question that he has for you.
00:56:35
Speaker
And i mean, throughout high school and then certainly throughout college, that happened a ton, right? Like, When you're in college, that that's most of your meeting days is, all right, let's talk about this. We'll install stuff, but now we got to draw it up on the board and we got to learn defenses. We got to dive into really what is this defense this week doing to us? And now let's talk about it up on the board.
00:57:00
Speaker
And if you struggle with that, Coaches notice that and and that trust level drops a little bit and kind of promised myself, all right, that's not going to happen anymore. Like this was my kind of awakening to it. And I know, all right, I'm not, I'm not very good with this right now. And and it wasn't necessarily, I didn't know it, but it was expressing how I come across, right? Like if you're, if you know the answer, but you can't explain it to somebody, is that much good for you? Where yeah yeah if you're, you might know it, but in crunch time, when we need you up there, are you going to be able to really know it? If your receiver comes over to you and says, Hey, what route do I have here?
00:57:45
Speaker
and you hesitate and take 10 seconds to think about it, you might know it and it might come to you, but now the play clock's gone and we got to call it timeout. And so little things like that make a huge difference. And, and I mean, back to your point of they're looking for ways to kind of cross you off their board in recruiting.
00:58:05
Speaker
That's a huge one. If, if you don't know that stuff and if they ever quiz you, they come over to your school and ask you something and you sit there and go, uh, I'm not really sure or takes a little bit to kind of process what they're saying. They put a big X right next to your name and move on to the next guy. It's so true. It's,
00:58:26
Speaker
It's that way, I think, in every sport and at every level, the the expectation in certain positions, even more so, the expectation's greater. and And you have to, you got to do your part. And then you got to, you know, let it let it fly and see what happens. And there's no guarantees that if you do everything right, you're going to get the reward, unfortunately.
00:58:46
Speaker
That's not how it works. It's not how life works. um I wish I could say that if you did all those things and you knew how to do all those things and understood every defense and all your plays and could draw it up and and and whether that's basketball or football or whatever the sport is.
00:59:01
Speaker
and you knew everything that you would be guaranteed success in playing time, you know, you' you' you're more likely to get it, but I, you still, i can't guarantee you're going to get it. It's unfortunately so the coach may go with somebody else, but at least, you know, you gave it all you had and, and it just didn't work out that that's an easier pill to swallow. Then you were given a chance and you weren't ready and you blew it, you know? And so, you know, but I think that's my message to everybody. um Be ready when the moment comes and then do your very best. But your very best, you won't know what your very best is if you're not ready when that moment comes, if you haven't prepared.
00:59:40
Speaker
you know And that regret of, well, I think I had more. I could have been better. Well, yeah, but it's it's over now. So... Be ready. Do your very best when the time comes and then live with the result. And then, you know, sometimes know when it's time to move on to the next thing, which you're you're having to do now. you know, I had to do it. Brandon had to do it. We all at some point have to close chapters and open up new chapters in and in a book just in our life.
01:00:04
Speaker
And but for those kids listening to this, you got a chance to be an athlete, play on a team. Be ready, do all the work that's necessary and then some and find out what's necessary. Make sure you know what's necessary. Ask the coaches and then ask them what extra you can do and then do it so that the coach and your teammates see that you do it. And then they'll respect you.
01:00:26
Speaker
They'll be happy when you do have successes. They'll want to see you be successful and you have a much better shot of, you know, not only playing. of but playing well and having your teammates play well for you because they want to win for you because they respect you, but that's earned.
01:00:42
Speaker
So, well, everybody keep your eyes up, do the work. Thank you for joining the Especially for Athletes podcast. To learn more about Especially for Athletes organization, get a copy of our book, The Sportlight, or to bring our program to your team, school, business, or organization, visit us at especiallyforathletes.org.