On different player personalities and which he likes best:
I love it all. And I think that’s what’s really fun about my job is, how does each player tick? Not every kid learns, is coached, or can handle coaching the same way. So I think that’s one of the things that I love. What we do is really what every high school teacher in America is trying to do is engage and understand how their student learns. And them providing them the tools and the resources to be the best learner that they can be in the classroom. Again for me, everybody’s different. How they learn, how they approach day-to-day life. But you cut them open, they’re the same kid. They’ve got worlds of potential. And so it’s really one of the favorite things that I love about my job is every young man is different. How I have to learn how and what makes them different, and how do I challenge them to be the best version of themselves they can be. That’s relationships and creating those relationships whether it’s through recruiting or once they get here. It’s my favorite part of what I get to do.
On the future legacies of D’Andre Payne and Brian Peavy:
I think one of the things that going to be really fun for those two is, and I’ve already seen this, their legacy as great players is really good. But there’s some great talent in that room right now and their legacy to come back someday and say, you know, what, how those guys work, how those guys play, what their attention to detail is, I was part of that for those guys. I helped those guys get it started. And again I think that’s where we’re talking in this program, that’s when you’ve got a football program rather than a football team. The older guys are teaching the young guys how to do it and they come back somewhere down the line and say, man, I take great ownership in what those guys are doing. And then those guys when it’s their time to be that, they have the ability to pick up the next group of young guys in the program. Both Brian and D’Andre, that’s one thing I love about both of those guys. Those guys have given way more of themselves than they’ve ever taken from the program. I think it’s got a chance to be reflected this year because I think that group is going to be critical. Those young guys now are a little bit older and have a chance to really help us and create some of those defensive match-ups for us in a positive way.
On watching NFL play for ideas to adapt for use at Iowa State:
If anybody’s ever watched us, we’re always evolving. One of the challenges as soon as we get back I’ll take the top four or five teams offensively that I think, in collegiate football, and who, like-mindedness, like-conceptually, maybe fit what this year’s group has got coming back. And each coach’ll get one of those teams, break ‘em down, study ‘em. We’ll do the same thing in the NFL and what we’ll do is we’ll kind of pull that (together). And then when we get off (road), starting spring practice, we’ll then take that information and almost clinic ourselves. And we’ve done that since, for the last ten years we’ve done that. And to me, whether we end up using that information, whether we don’t use that information, cause our sports constantly evolving, somebody else is already doing it, nobody is the natural creator of that. And so one of the things that I think is really big is we’re always then adapting. You’ve heard me say this: players, formations, plays. Who are your players, what formations you get in, what plays you run. But I think it’s great for our coaches to learn the game and continue to pull in and it’s great for all of to us to come back and say, here’s what’s going on, does it apply to us? Maybe it’s a third-down play, maybe it’s red zone offense or red zone defense. We do the same things on special teams and on the defensive side. I think all those things have always helped us because you just never know, really until even midway through fall camp, exactly who those players are and now how do you adjust scheme to benefit them. You better have a pretty good pool to help yourself out.
On the team assisting with Marshalltown tornado clean-up:
We had a team activity that Saturday morning that we were going to do. It was actually Julian Good-Jones and a couple of others. It had already crossed my mind, hey should we cancel and go do this? Talking to some of our leadership team, some of those guys, and it was just like this is a no-brainer. You never know because these freshmen had just gotten here. That’s when I knew, no matter what happens this season, we’ve got a really good group of kids. That doesn’t give you anything. That doesn’t give you wins or losses or anything like that. But what it does give you is it gives you a chance. And I watched those kids work and I watched those kids give back and interact. What was powerful is not only watching our kids do that, it was watching this town, who is devastated in some way, shape or form. And the entire community is out there helping each other and working with each other hand-in-hand. I think the perspective is our job as coaches - yes football is important, this is still collegiate athletics - is to continue to foster a culture where our kids have the opportunity to grow not just as football players but as young men. And so I thought it was a really powerful day for us. I thought it was really powerful just to watch our kids interact, not just with each other but with this community. It wasn’t for anything other than that. Those were some powerful moments for this football team.
On recruiting success in Eastern Iowa leading to more of it there:
No matter where it is, I think it’s any time there’s a young man that comes into the program, starts to have some success, and then you start to recruit someone else from that area. Again the coaching aspect is overrated sometimes. We think, man this recruiting and I recruit a young man, it’s about me. One of the things I always tell young people is, don’t ask us as coaches. Our job is to tell you all the great things about our school. No coach ever says, hey, don’t come here. Our job is to tell you all the great things. But when you have a player that’s having a great experience and he’s got the ability to communicate that and say, those coaches, this is what they really are. 18-to-22 year-olds kids, they’re not lying. So the nice thing is they’re going to tell you what’s going on and when they can communicate that to their friends or to maybe somebody in there community, I think that’s really important. So no matter where we’ve done (well) and had the ability to get young people geographically, I do think that’s helped us with some of our recruiting. Not just the coaching aspect but our players being able to say, hey, this is what’s going on in our football program.
I love it all. And I think that’s what’s really fun about my job is, how does each player tick? Not every kid learns, is coached, or can handle coaching the same way. So I think that’s one of the things that I love. What we do is really what every high school teacher in America is trying to do is engage and understand how their student learns. And them providing them the tools and the resources to be the best learner that they can be in the classroom. Again for me, everybody’s different. How they learn, how they approach day-to-day life. But you cut them open, they’re the same kid. They’ve got worlds of potential. And so it’s really one of the favorite things that I love about my job is every young man is different. How I have to learn how and what makes them different, and how do I challenge them to be the best version of themselves they can be. That’s relationships and creating those relationships whether it’s through recruiting or once they get here. It’s my favorite part of what I get to do.
On the future legacies of D’Andre Payne and Brian Peavy:
I think one of the things that going to be really fun for those two is, and I’ve already seen this, their legacy as great players is really good. But there’s some great talent in that room right now and their legacy to come back someday and say, you know, what, how those guys work, how those guys play, what their attention to detail is, I was part of that for those guys. I helped those guys get it started. And again I think that’s where we’re talking in this program, that’s when you’ve got a football program rather than a football team. The older guys are teaching the young guys how to do it and they come back somewhere down the line and say, man, I take great ownership in what those guys are doing. And then those guys when it’s their time to be that, they have the ability to pick up the next group of young guys in the program. Both Brian and D’Andre, that’s one thing I love about both of those guys. Those guys have given way more of themselves than they’ve ever taken from the program. I think it’s got a chance to be reflected this year because I think that group is going to be critical. Those young guys now are a little bit older and have a chance to really help us and create some of those defensive match-ups for us in a positive way.
On watching NFL play for ideas to adapt for use at Iowa State:
If anybody’s ever watched us, we’re always evolving. One of the challenges as soon as we get back I’ll take the top four or five teams offensively that I think, in collegiate football, and who, like-mindedness, like-conceptually, maybe fit what this year’s group has got coming back. And each coach’ll get one of those teams, break ‘em down, study ‘em. We’ll do the same thing in the NFL and what we’ll do is we’ll kind of pull that (together). And then when we get off (road), starting spring practice, we’ll then take that information and almost clinic ourselves. And we’ve done that since, for the last ten years we’ve done that. And to me, whether we end up using that information, whether we don’t use that information, cause our sports constantly evolving, somebody else is already doing it, nobody is the natural creator of that. And so one of the things that I think is really big is we’re always then adapting. You’ve heard me say this: players, formations, plays. Who are your players, what formations you get in, what plays you run. But I think it’s great for our coaches to learn the game and continue to pull in and it’s great for all of to us to come back and say, here’s what’s going on, does it apply to us? Maybe it’s a third-down play, maybe it’s red zone offense or red zone defense. We do the same things on special teams and on the defensive side. I think all those things have always helped us because you just never know, really until even midway through fall camp, exactly who those players are and now how do you adjust scheme to benefit them. You better have a pretty good pool to help yourself out.
On the team assisting with Marshalltown tornado clean-up:
We had a team activity that Saturday morning that we were going to do. It was actually Julian Good-Jones and a couple of others. It had already crossed my mind, hey should we cancel and go do this? Talking to some of our leadership team, some of those guys, and it was just like this is a no-brainer. You never know because these freshmen had just gotten here. That’s when I knew, no matter what happens this season, we’ve got a really good group of kids. That doesn’t give you anything. That doesn’t give you wins or losses or anything like that. But what it does give you is it gives you a chance. And I watched those kids work and I watched those kids give back and interact. What was powerful is not only watching our kids do that, it was watching this town, who is devastated in some way, shape or form. And the entire community is out there helping each other and working with each other hand-in-hand. I think the perspective is our job as coaches - yes football is important, this is still collegiate athletics - is to continue to foster a culture where our kids have the opportunity to grow not just as football players but as young men. And so I thought it was a really powerful day for us. I thought it was really powerful just to watch our kids interact, not just with each other but with this community. It wasn’t for anything other than that. Those were some powerful moments for this football team.
On recruiting success in Eastern Iowa leading to more of it there:
No matter where it is, I think it’s any time there’s a young man that comes into the program, starts to have some success, and then you start to recruit someone else from that area. Again the coaching aspect is overrated sometimes. We think, man this recruiting and I recruit a young man, it’s about me. One of the things I always tell young people is, don’t ask us as coaches. Our job is to tell you all the great things about our school. No coach ever says, hey, don’t come here. Our job is to tell you all the great things. But when you have a player that’s having a great experience and he’s got the ability to communicate that and say, those coaches, this is what they really are. 18-to-22 year-olds kids, they’re not lying. So the nice thing is they’re going to tell you what’s going on and when they can communicate that to their friends or to maybe somebody in there community, I think that’s really important. So no matter where we’ve done (well) and had the ability to get young people geographically, I do think that’s helped us with some of our recruiting. Not just the coaching aspect but our players being able to say, hey, this is what’s going on in our football program.
