Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Appreciate you coming.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: Absolutely thrilled to be here with you guys. I've heard about this event, been here about 10 months now, and this is one of the things, when I first got here, everybody said, you're going to love Hoggs Illustrated what they do not only for the university, but for this entire community. So, obviously, as we're getting closer to kickoff, this will be my last true speaking engagement. So I'm glad I was honored to be able to do it with you guys.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: When Graham was introducing the Rogers team, he said they want his freshman, sophomore, juniors and seniors. I almost expected him to say they were appealing for a fifth year of eligibility, as everyone seems to be doing now.
Some. Some people may know, some people may not. There was a news this morning that a couple of your defensive backs, Caleb Wooden and Sean Williams, were granted a restraining order in Washington County Court. That makes them eligible for now. I know this can change by the time you drive back to campus, but to get them eligible for now, I wonder what that means to your team.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: I think it's so unique, right? This is college football in a nutshell, where the rules are constantly changing, right. Whether it's this morning. Right. Maybe while we're sitting up here on stage, the TRO's may go in the trash. But as we're trying to navigate the waters of the ncaa, whether it's those two gentlemen, we also had a third that we're trying to figure out, if it ultimately makes sense for us to have them on the roster. Obviously, we feel comfortable enough right now, but as we know, the rules can change. And I said this the other night is. This is my seventh year as a head coach and my 28th in coaching. But the last seven years, there's not been a single year back to back where the calendars look the same, where the rules have stayed the same, but, you know, we got to stay on top of it. We're going to do everything in our power to obviously make our roster the best it can possibly be, even if it's last minute. But we'll just, like the rest of the country, sit and wait and see what they tell us to do.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: When you get into coaching, you ever think you would moonlight in the law the way that you guys are having to do right now?
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, you know, 10 years ago, you hear about a player with a restraining order, you say, wait, wait a second. That's not. It's not necessarily what we want. Now you're like, oh, good, they got a tro, a temporary restraining order. Now I'm reading legal Documents and trying to figure out what the NCAA is ultimately trying to get done. And now obviously, conferences being involved and the legal battles, obviously we talk about on a national level. But it's totally changed, right? The role of a head coach even every year has changed. Right. It's more of a CEO, like, more understanding of everything that's got to be involved moving forward with the program.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: You know, when they talk about you being a first year coach and you are at Arkansas, it sometimes I laugh though, because you've been on the ground here for nine months. I mean, you landed on November 30th of last year. That was your first day on the job.
I wonder when you think back to November 30, what you inherited to where you have come. I wonder what are the big changes that you see in the football program?
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Well, I think first and foremost, one, I always said that we will, you know, always respect and honor those that came before us, especially the rich history and traditions at the University of Arkansas and all those that played and coached prior to us. But we'll never sit here and fault what has occurred in recent history. Right. Obviously there's a reason for a change. And I hit the ground running and said, okay, change needs to occur immediately and met with the players that were on the roster. Every single one of them sat face to face within my first 48 hours of being on campus. And I said, what? What have we done? Well, and what needs to change? And obviously an obvious answer is people say the culture. And the one thing they talked about was accountability, right? Everybody wants to talk about the physical changes, which we'll get here in a second. But it was the culture of accountability. And when you have 18 to 22 year olds say we want to be held more accountable, you say, okay, we got a chance.
It was the few that said, well, we want nicer chairs. Well, those are the ones that got to go.
It's the ones that say, we want to be held accountable because they have a chance. They're going to work, they're going to buy into the way we're going to do things. And I told everybody, I told every single person, whether it's guys that decided to stay right, young men that we recruited out of the transfer portal, or high school kids. I said, you come here, you have to work harder than you ever had. It's going to be hard here. It's going to be very difficult. We're going to hold you accountable.
But I think a lot of the ones that understand it, and girls, you guys understand because Obviously, you've had success in your lives is you want to be held accountable. You want to say, okay, here are my goals, right? I want to get the 3.6 GPA. I want to graduate. I want to be able to play for conference championships. I want to do these things. And it's our job to help hold them accountable to it. So the accountability piece has been huge. And as we've moved on, right from first month, it wasn't as easy second month, but you progress and then it becomes a player led accountability. And to me, that's been. Everything is now these players are out there, hey, clean up your locker. Hey, make sure you're not parking there. And when they start leading each other, it makes our job a lot easier. That means the culture that we, not just me, but we, Everybody involved, all 200 people in our program have helped create day in and day out, that's huge. And that means everything to me. And then other things, right? On the surface area, people see, right? We've torn up a lot of things. We had a beautiful video board to our indoor.
We've obviously talked about the lights at the stadium, the new sound system, and I think we're going to continue to see changes. And then ultimately, right, we're going to be questioned and judged by the play on the field, but I think you guys are going to see a more disciplined football team that plays with relentless effort. And to me, right, we're going to be the best of the country, what we control, and hopefully that's part of it.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: You talked about that sound system and those lights. I was told in the spring that you were obsessive over every aspect of the program, that you were going back even and saying, why is Arkansas's home field advantage not been as good as other teams have enjoyed? What was that process like looking into and what did you find that maybe might change on game days, Right.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: The first couple months, put my head down, focused just on getting the staff and the players together and creating what our program is and then saying, okay, why have there been struggles, right? Why has there only been one SEC home win last three years? And that's not just. That's a combination of so many things and not to point the finger at a single thing, a single person, but that's not very good. And so the devil's in the details. And I always say we talk about little things matter, but I think that little things are big things. And so there's things. I'll give you a perfect example. Everybody wants to tell the story about My first press conference or my first day on, I told them to turn on the lights and they said they are on. And I said no. So we sent our ops guy to Walmart that night. We were changing out light bulbs. But I also think about this, like we talked about. We have this beautiful dining hall called the Jones center where our players eat.
And I said, okay, the players park over in that parking lot and we're asking them to eat their meals over at the Jones Center. And if you park in the middle of that player parking lot and you walk over the Jones center and then you walk back and then you do it again for lunch and you walk back and you do it for dinner, our players are putting over a mile and a half on their legs every day and say, I ask them to eat there just four days out of the week, just 30 weeks out of the year. That means 22 weeks out of the year, we're not eating a meal, which you guys know football players, that's not going to happen. And so you're putting over 107 miles on your legs. And people say, well, they're 18 to 22 year olds, but maybe that makes a difference. Maybe that allows us to play a little bit faster in the fourth quarter. If during the season I can bring meals in, right? Maybe we can grab and go and we can pack the lunches ourself and allow the meals in our dining facility that we have on our football complex. And I think when you start looking at that, people say, well, that seems minute, but every single thing matters. I believe in how you do anything is how you do everything. And right. We had the highest GPA in program history last spring. And nobody says, why does that matter? Because I believe there's a direct correlation for our guys going to class to showing up on time, to parking the right way, to how they treat women, to how they dress, to what they go about their business and how they act in society is a direct correlation to how we're going to have success on Saturdays. And I'm a firm believer in that. And that's why the devil always, always will be in the details.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: This, Go ahead.
This is kind of open ended.
This might be the region, the town, the team.
What did you think you were going to find when you came to Arkansas versus what you have actually found over the last nine months?
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Well, one of the reasons I took this job is because of the rich history and traditions and obviously being on the edge of Arkansas. I'd gotten all the way up to Little Rock and recruited this area and understood. But I'd never really been in northwest Arkansas. But what's so attractive is the people of this great state, the pride that we all have in the Razorbacks, right? The community, the fuel, right? All the way from West Memphis through to Little Rock, through the Ozarks, all the way up to every town around here. It's been remarkable. And that was one of those things you hear about it, but you get to see it, right? Last night I had my first radio show at the Catfish Hole and just to see it packed out with people that are so excited and then some people are hesitant because maybe the recent failures or shortcomings of Arkansas football hasn't been men, what you all deserve, but still being prideful and say, hey, we're going to show up. And to think about this, even with last year's record, I don't want to harp on the past 92% capacity in that stadium. Well, if we give them a product to continue to be proud of, that stadium's going to be full every single Saturday. And to me, that's huge. And so I knew about the pride, but I had no idea truly how it was right in the state of Tennessee when I was there. We had people in middle Tennessee that rooted for one team. We had people on east side of the state that rooted for another. And you had a well collected here. It's all Razorbacks. And that's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: How do you change the reputation of
[00:08:58] Speaker B: the program, winning football games? Very simple, right?
People will continue to invite me back to speak if we continue to win football games. I think part of it is right. We know we're judged by wins and losses, obviously, hopefully a lot more wins in our future. But ultimately, I think this, it's my job, it's our job responsibly as a program is to put a product on display that makes you all proud.
I don't know right now from a talent level. I think we're talented. I think we got a heck of a group of young men. But I want, when you guys come to the games, when you guys watch an away game, if you can't make it to Salt Lake City, you sit there and say, that team looks different. That team looks like they're playing disciplined football. That team looks like they're playing with relentless effort. They look like they're well coached. That's the best compliment anybody can ever say. They play really, really hard.
It's my job to get that guy that can run that 43540 and to match up with the rest of those guys in the conference. And I understand that we got to recruit that and develop that, but ultimately that's what I want the fans to be able to see. And that's how we'll be judged. And I think that's how you start to mark. Okay. Hey, is this program getting better?
[00:10:00] Speaker A: I want to talk more about your team. I like to take these opportunities, especially when we have someone here for the first time to get to know them a little bit.
I want to start here. When you got hired, I started looking up stuff about you, obviously, and I
[00:10:14] Speaker B: realized, and you still invited me to come. We still did that Google search didn't go too far.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Then I realized pretty fast that a good friend of mine, Steve Dittmore, is the dean of the Silverfield College at the University of North Florida.
Your family has got strong ties to that university.
Your family's got a nice real estate business for themselves. Why did you not go into the real estate business? Why did you go into football coaching?
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Well, first off, you know, that was a family decision to name a university of North Florida. I'm from Jacksonville, Florida, the School of Education. My mother actually went to grad school there and we decided a few years ago that it was best to provide back to the community. In fact, she did similar. It was called Dreams Come True as a nonprofit organization in the city of Jacksonville for over 20 years. It's like Make a Wish but fully nonprofit. So children with life threatening illnesses. She spent her entire life giving back to the community completely, where they're renting out places, doing things where she would work 80 hours a week just trying to help out children in need. And my father, nobody in my family ever got into coaching. In fact, as you guys know, a lot of y' all know, I started coaching when I was 18 years old.
But it was one of those things I always have chosen the path that's a little bit different than everybody else. Right. I started coaching when I was 18. I coached at a small college in Virginia. In fact, I shouldn't say this publicly. I dropped out of college so I could continue to coach. Now girls, go get your degree. Okay. I have a degree in economics. I just don't use any. Well, actually now I use it with nil, but it's just one of those unique things. And then at the age of 20, I was a full time coach and at 23, I was a head high school coach. But to me, when you have an injury, when you're taken away from the game you love, you say, okay, well, what's next?
And I always said, okay, this is the path I want to go down. And there's times, right? I mean, anybody that's ever worked hard, I'd say the old quote from Rick Ross is like, where I come from, your household determines your salary. And so I'd work 110 hours a week and making $5,000 a year, truly trying to find leftover scraps out of the trash can, living in places that are not as nice as the place I live in now. I'll just leave it at that. And ultimately, because I had a dream and I had things that I wanted to accomplish in my life and it's easy. So many of us can rely on others, and I have, and so many people, I'm appreciative to get me here. But once I decided to go down this journey, it's, hey, this is what it's going to take. And I tell young people all the time, people always say, what advice do you have for young people? Just put your head down and work your ass off. And good things will come. And young coaches, too many want. I want to be a head coach. Arkansas. That's great. It took me 28 years to get here and a lot of sleepless nights. A lot of, like everybody in this profession, you've been hired, you've been fired, you've made no money, you've made good money, you've had to move, you've had to sacrifice a lot of things. And that's the life that I've chosen. And ultimately I couldn't be more happy with where it's led me today.
[00:13:01] Speaker A: The neck injury that kept you from playing football, how did it happen and how did you react to that?
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Well, clearly no one looks at me and sees, hey, this is an Arkansas looking football player, right? I mean, maybe he coaches the kickers.
I was an undersized D lineman and my only official visit was to a place called Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. i just thought it was a school with a good basketball program. I didn't even know Georgetown had football. Took an official visit there. And over the year, you know, months after the playing, my neck kept hurting me, kept getting headaches. And I said, well, let me go check this out. I wasn't going to go play anywhere major.
And they found out that over time, just with contact, everybody's neck has a natural curve. On my neck, you can't tell by the surface area has lost its natural curve. And there's some issues going on with spasming throughout my neck and doctors Are like, listen, if you're not going to go play anywhere major, why don't you just hang it up? And you know, that time it pains you. Anytime you're taking something away from you that you love, well, you figure out what's next. And I got into coaching because I just. I missed the locker room. I missed being around the players.
I missed all those things that came along with it. And then I found out you can make a difference in young men's lives. I found out a difference even at a young age. For me, man, it's so unique to coach something, to teach something on a whiteboard. Back then, it was a chalkboard, okay, and see it develop, but then also talk to them about, hey, this is how you act. This is how you got to be better in society even at a young age. And as much as college football, as much as high school football, as all these things have continued to change, I still believe in pouring into these young men.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: You go to Hampden Sydney College in Virginia.
I read that you lived underneath the basketball floor in the gymnasium.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Yep, I did. That's part of there. You know, it'd been nice to make $5,000 a year. I made about $1,000 a year and truly lived in a place they called the dungeon. So underneath the old basketball gym that was built in 1892.
And so it's where they put me. But it was nice because my office was on the third floor, so it was very easy to get to. And if you ever heard me talk about, I don't believe in the snooze button. So it's, you know, getting up on that third floor pretty quickly was easy, but I did. It was a sacrifice. You do when you say, hey, this is what I want to do for a living. I was a defensive line coach, whatever it takes. And ultimately it led to progress in my career and movement.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: And you were coaching players who are older than you. You're 20 years old. You're probably coaching guys who are 22, maybe 23. What was that like?
[00:15:21] Speaker B: Well, I, you know, and I'll work my way back. It was no different when I got in the NFL and started coaching, you know, some of these guys. Jared Allen, a future who's now a Hall of Famer, Steve Hutchinson, a Hall of Famer. And they sit there and say, well, you never even played football. How do you get to know? And for no different, when I was 20 years old, I always felt like this. If I could give something to somebody, a tool, a technique that would make them better they're willing to listen. And then so you have to prove it every single day. So I believe that's where everybody says, where did you learn how to coach? Well, if you have to prove yourself every single day to somebody, you're gonna do whatever it takes. You're gonna be as detailed as you could. You're gonna be prepared for meetings. Even someone say, it's small college football. Why are you going to that length? Because I had to prove myself as a 20 year old, that I'm good enough to coach, that I can coach guys that are 22 years old and act a certain way.
It'd be funny. I'd be on the road recruiting, and parents would say, well, how old are you? I'd just skip that question. I'd just keep going and say, yeah, your son's gonna love it here. And you just, you know, talk about some wife and kids I don't have and just go from there. But it was all part of it.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: You played nose guard, and then when you go to the NFL, you end up becoming known as an offensive line coach.
And that's not uncommon. There are a lot of coaches who played one position and they become known for coaching something else. But in your case, how did that come about?
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I think having not played college football, I've actually coached almost every position. In fact, when you're a head high school coach at age 23, you've got to do the laundry. You got to paint the field, you got to coach every position.
At Jacksonville University, I was a quarterbacks coach, then kind of bounced around, in fact, my first half of my career as a D line coach and then first three years in the NFL working with the defensive line, Leslie Frazier became the head coach. Leslie Frazier is now the assistant head coach with the Seattle Seahawks. But he was a head coach at the time. He was a D coordinator for the Vikings.
He gets the head coaching job. He says, hey, I want you to move over to offense. I want you to be an offensive line guy. And I said, well, I know nothing about it. He said, perfect. And so him and I met and would discuss defensive schemes on how to attack offensive lines. And so, as I learned, offensive line play was actually so I could help our head coach understand blitz schemes. And so it's interesting. I actually learned offensive line play backwards. And I think it's helped me to this day. And the next thing you know, all of a sudden you get labeled an offensive line guy, and it's been great. Obviously, you know, after the Vikings went to the Lions and then, you know, 10 years at Memphis and the rest is history. But it's. I think having the ability to. To be in every position to understand special teams is the best for a head coach these days.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: That's an area. The offensive line, it seems like you guys really put an emphasis on because you've got yourself, but you've also got two assistant offensive line coaches. That's not.
It's not something you see a whole lot.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Yeah, well, if you think about this, we have 22 offensive linemen our roster, and that's the greatest number of any position by far and away. And in the sec, you gotta be really good in the trenches. Right. We gotta be really good on the offensive line, really good on the defense line to give ourselves a chance. And so I hired two guys. I hired a guy named Jeff Myers, who was with us at Memphis, but prior to that he was at Iowa State and actually played for me. And the guy named Marcus Johnson, who also played for me with the Minnesota Vikings, he was a second round pick, but had been the O line coach at Missouri, had been the O line coach at Mississippi State, at Duke, all these other spots. So I bought those two together because if there's 22 guys out there, we need all hands on deck. Meanwhile, you may have a tight ends coach that's coaching five guys. And so I can see the attention to detail that's needed by having more hands on deck with the offensive line. I think it's important.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: I read something when you got out of the NFL and went back to college that people kind of questioned, why would you make that move? And you said, because in the NFL you don't get to have. You basically, you don't get to teach your players as much as you do in college. You said you're not giving Brett Favre life advice, I think was the quote that I read. Maybe you should have. But the.
So is college football. Is there still that element with how transactional it has become that you can still mentor the players who are coming into your program?
[00:19:17] Speaker B: That's a great question. So when I left the Detroit Lions, in fact, they had offered me a contract to stay on as a tight ends coach, and I left to be a position coach at Memphis. Everybody said, what are you doing? Just go stay in the NFL. And for me, it felt the NFL was truly a business. Right. You're clocking in, clocking out. Yes, you want to win games, but there's not that pageantry, there's not that care. You know, I wasn't having the players over for Thanksgiving. I wasn't talking and having those relationships and I missed that. I truly did. I didn't have any kids of my own at the time. And so for me, getting back to college allowed me to feel like, okay, I've got the opportunity to truly develop young men and not only that off the field, as well as eventual better husbands, better fathers, all those things that come along with it. But I think truly teaching the fundamentals is a huge part of it. And so when I got back to it, and then long winded answer to your question is, I still believe you can make a difference. And a lot of coaches, and there's some in this conference and others that say, you know, it doesn't matter, it's all about, you know, X's and O's and schemes. I totally disagree because when we line up to take our opponents on, right, I hope we're the best team. I didn't say the most talented. I hope we're the truly the best team. And by saying that, maybe we build a camaraderie, maybe the players not only going to play for the name on the back of their jerseys, right, because they're making a paycheck and they're supporting their family, but hopefully we talk about the name on the front of our jersey. We also hope maybe they step out and if I can get 5% more out of them, because maybe they believe in their head coach and what he's trying to instill in them or the position coaches are. I think that gives us an opportunity to make a little bit of a difference and we'll take every advantage we can get.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: I've read during your 10 years at Memphis that you turned down numerous opportunities to leave, including from some SEC teams.
Any, any job that maybe was more notable than another.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll share this story with you. I don't think many people have heard this. I was our off season, we won our bowl game and I was at a local pub that I walked to, okay, I walked to it and I was with our strength coach at the time and him and I were enjoying ourselves because we both walked to it and get a call on my phone, take it out. And it's Les Miles at the time, he's the head coach at Kansas. You guys know Les Miles is the one time head coach LSU and he had just lost his offense coordinator to go be the offense coordinator to go be the head coach at Troy.
And so Les says, hey, I'd like to come to town tomorrow night and interview you. He'd already Offered me a job previously. And I and I for the offense, corner job and a significant salary. And he said, listen, you don't even need an interview. Let's just do dinner to see if this is something you want. I'll fly to you in Memphis. I said, okay, go back in. And I said, ah, I'm not sure if this is a job I want. So I continue to enjoy a couple cold beverages. Again, I remind you guys, I walked, okay. And talking to our strength coach. And then my phone rings again. Take it out. It's Coach Saban at Alabama. They just played in the national championship. They got home and he said, hey, listen, our offensive line coach, Brent Key, is going to Georgia Tech. Brent Key is now the head coach at Georgia Tech. And Brent and I actually worked together at UCF a long time ago. Hey, we'd like to fly you down or you can drive down to Tuscaloosa tomorrow morning. But I think I want to hire you as you have the offensive line coach.
Okay, I go back in. I said, water, give me water. Let's go. This is at least got to be on my P's and Q's for Coach Saban. And so finish up there. And I told our Mike Norvell, who I worked for at Memphis, who's now the head coach at Florida State. I said, hey, I'd only ever talk to people one day out of the year. In fact, post season, it's changed now. After bowl games, I used to fly out of the country just so I didn't have to think about other jobs, just so I don't have to answer any other questions. Obviously, that's changed now. Right after a bowl game, right after the season, you're back in your office meeting with recruits and have those two things set up. So I put on my suit, go down Tuscaloosa, meet with Coach Saban, and he said, hey, listen, you know, we'll have a contract for you. We want you to be the offensive line coach. We understand you. You're happy at Memphis.
Then that night, have dinner with Les Miles. He offers me the offense coordinator job at Kansas.
I'm sitting on my couch that night just trying to figure out what's. What do I, you know, what's best for me, what's best for my future.
Then a guy named Mike Vrabel calls, says, hey, we went off either tight end job with the Tennessee Titans. And I said, okay. It's amazing because I've been unemployed before and looking at my phone, why is nobody calling me? Right? It was like My old dating life, like, it's completely dry.
And this time it's when it rains, it pours. And so I sat there and I said, you know, believe it or not, none of this feels right. I think it's in my best interest to stay at Memphis. And I sat down with the head coach and he said, listen, you know, we'll either be here, you'll probably be the next head coach in Memphis, or we'll go somewhere, maybe in the SEC or the ACC down the road. And it's amazing how it all works. And Coach Saban still gives me a hard time about that today. And I said, I never turned you down. I just said, didn't take anything. And it's been remarkable how it all works, and it's been a blessing and you're so fortunate. And I think about the times where I was making no money, living in the dungeon, but ultimately, right, it's about hard work and dedication. And I believe when you, when I started coaching age 18, you never thought that those opportunities would be in front of you. And it's been very, very special. And so many people should get the credit for us and where we're at today.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: You got a lot of Memphis flair on your team. I think I counted four full time assistant coaches, ton of support staff people, eight players who have come over with you.
Has that helped the transition at all, having that type of familiarity?
[00:24:36] Speaker B: I think part of it, right, when you initially introduce a culture that may be extremely different than what had happened in the past, sometimes that helps. So people can say, guys, he's not completely crazy. This will work. That helps when you have some of that going on and then the players, right, the buy in the locker room and understanding, hey, what this looks like. And no different. There's the other day I said, hey, on Thursdays, tell me, did we do this here or was it over here? And just having some people to give us feedback. And a lot of times, so many of those people were loyal to us there. That trust, that feeling of, okay, here's what we need to do moving forward and can be the honest answers. But we've also added so many new faces to our program because I need to get better. If we do what we did at Memphis, that's not good enough here. And so I need to continue to grow every single day as a coach.
So I feel like we got a great blend of people.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: Would it surprise you if I told you that your first opponent had the same number of Memphis transfers as your team has?
[00:25:31] Speaker B: That's recently. I Didn't know it was the same number, but I did look at the roster and I said, wait a second. So they'll certainly know the snap count and they'll have all of our other signals down. So that's one thing we gotta get changed here in the next couple days.
[00:25:43] Speaker A: I was talking to Brent Dearman earlier this week. He's the North Alabama football coach, and he said that you all went against each other a couple of years ago. I looked it up. Memphis won that game 40 to nothing. What do you remember about coaching against them? And the second part to that question is, when you've got a staff, and I know they've got some former guys of yours on their staff, but when you've got a staff that takes that many players from your program, is there a point of pride in that, that they certainly like what they've seen in some regard?
[00:26:09] Speaker B: Well, first off, a lot of respect for Coach Derbin. I wish now that I'm no longer at Memphis, you'd feel a lot better if maybe Notre Dame had taken those. It means you recruited really well. But no, they are playing at North Alabama, and I've got a lot of pride for those guys that had the opportunity to maybe better their chances to play by going there. Coach Dearman's a guy I've known for a long time. At one point he actually wrote a book on RPO play with you guys that aren't familiar with that, the run pass option. So he's been considered a guru of that and facing his offenses over the years. It's a high tempo, it's multiple formations. You're going to look over there, there's going to be a center on one hash and the rest of the offensive line the other. It's very, very unique. And it prevents some challenges because it's going to be our first, you know, first game, first home game, obviously dealing. We want the defense. We want when we're on defense, it to be very loud. But that creates communication, conflict for us. And so there's going to be a lot of those things, plus the familiarity. Right now, a lot of those guys are on the defensive line understanding, hey, this is what Sirfield's done in the past up front, and they're going to have a great understanding of that. So there's going to be some unique challenges I really wouldn't have seen had it been somebody else.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Now, this changes. Next year, you guys will start in what is known as week zero. Now, next season when you play Gardner Web. But FCS right now, they get to start this week, fbs, you can't without, you know, some sort of exemption.
So watching North Alabama live this weekend, how much does that help you in getting ready for that game?
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Well, tremendously, I think you always want to rely on what you know. And anytime you play these week zero, week one opponents and it's a new coordinator, new coaching staff, you are literally sometimes chasing ghosts. I mean, I've done it in the past where I've watching film from, from seven years ago. I mean, I kid you not, going back and saying, okay, hey, this guy was in the CFL or the ufl going, trying to study tendencies, trying to figure out what they do, whether it's offense, defense or special teams. And so at least having them play the game, we're not going to have all the answers, but we'll have a general idea.
I know they're going to have to kick off. I know they're going to have to put out their kickoff return team. So those are things, right? You assume they're going to have to punt. You hope so. You get a feel for maybe you have an understanding of what they're doing formationally, who the guys are that are going to be playing. It gives you a little bit better understanding. It's really hard to go into a game, and I've done it before, where you're studying this thing and you assume this is what you're going to get and then ultimately you get a totally different thing. But we've got to be prepared. I think so much of it in game one, obviously so much respect for Una. We still need to focus on what we're doing and whatever they throw at us, good, better and different, we've got to be ready for. But yeah, getting a heads up, people always say is an advantage for them to play because there's always a game one jitters and things that occur for so many of our guys. We have got 80 new players and a ton new staff. Or is it better to have an understanding of what they do?
[00:28:47] Speaker A: I was listening to your show last night. You said punter is still a position battle. Is that the only one where you haven't named a starter?
[00:28:53] Speaker B: We haven't named a starter. A lot of positions. I think it's. We got guys have a general understanding. I think there's some, you know, everybody's heard me brag on Chris Marshall, wide receiver. I think he's the known starter. But we've told the rest of those guys, they continue to battle out and figure out who that is. And at that position, defensive line. We still got guys that are rotating, trying to figure out who our stars are, and that doesn't panic. That means we got guys that can all play. We did name a starting quarterback. I'm not sure if you saw that. Okay.
But yeah, I always think if you throw that one, the punter gives the media types. Oh, my gosh. They haven't named a punter yet.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: Well, I was hoping you could name a punter here the way you named a starting quarterback last Sunday.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: Just mic drop with the starting pointer, make some headlines. And now we'll wait on that one.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: You went through a walkthrough this morning over there, and I was really interested to hear you talk about how you kind of do things differently than a lot of programs do. A lot of programs, they'll have shorter practice on Thursday, they'll walk through on Friday. You walk through on Thursday, you put your pads back on on Friday. Explain that philosophy.
[00:29:51] Speaker B: So a couple things that are probably a little bit different, especially than they've done here in the past, is we actually now we're in season, we go to a morning practice and everybody says, why do you do that? I think it's a. I'm a firm believer. You get the guys up, we're able to feed them, right? We know they're not going out if they got to be up pretty early. All right, well, we hope they're not going out. I'll leave it at that. They're still college kids, able to feed them, meet with them, practice, feed them again, right. Maybe get a lift in depending on the day of the week, and then they have the rest of the day to focus on their academics. If they so feel like it, they come back that evening, maybe get another meal and watch some of the film. In the past year, they've always done afternoon practices. Now in training camp, we went out in the heat and gotten some of that. In the spring, we go out in the afternoons, just so any kid that wants to take a class that's only offered in the a.m. has the ability to do so in the spring. And it's more about making sure they can graduate and do what they need to do academically. But one of the things we do as far as scheduling Monday is technically our off day, where the coaches are game planning for the future opponent. Tuesday, Wednesday, we get after it pretty good. So if you've ever been out to a Tuesday, Wednesday practice, we're out there. Whatever compliance allows us to do, we get after it. We've got the shoulder pads on, we're Banging. We're doing short yards, goal line, we're doing all the different elements that need to be incorporated. And then Thursdays, believe it or not, we actually do a true walkthrough. So we go into our indoor and a lot of our players said we didn't even know we had indoor because they wouldn't let us use it during training camp.
Go do a walkthrough in the indoor. And really one of the things I've studied is it's a sports science related deal, right? So 24 hours prior to kickoff, if you haven't done anything with your body, if you're just walking through, well, your body has not caught up to speed by the time you kick the ball off. And if you look at it and say, well, we haven't done anything 48 hours prior to this, if you practice hard on Thursday.
So what we do is we do our walkthrough on Thursday, we have an understanding of what our guys know and don't know. And then Friday we put the shoulder pads back on and we get after it. But what we're doing is we're replicating what we did on Thursday in a faster demeanor, getting some of the physicality out of them, getting them running and getting them up to top speed because within 24 hours of kickoff now we've at least seen it and our bodies can do it. It's an old Olympic study.
I think it's easy to say, well, this is the way we always do it, but how do you, as a coach, how do you continue to move forward in the right direction? A lot of schools are doing it, but I think it makes the most sense for us.
[00:32:01] Speaker A: How did the walkthrough go today?
[00:32:02] Speaker B: Went well. I'm here, so that didn't mean, you know, I didn't. I'm not still yelling or repeating play. So we're here. It went well. I think the guys have understood. You think when you do a walkthrough for that long, so much of its focus, right? And some of you guys are losing focus right now. But when you have 18 to 22 year olds and you got to focus for an hour and a half on the details of every play, of every little thing makes a huge difference.
[00:32:25] Speaker A: Two more. I remember listening to you last year before the Memphis Arkansas game and I think it was on your coach's show and you said that you thought having a morning practice routine might help you when you played Arkansas because that was an 11 o' clock kickoff and, and certainly you guys won that.
How advantageous Is it, do you think, when you do play those early games?
[00:32:45] Speaker B: Well, hopefully we're playing night games here in Arkansas, right. I know everybody wants that.
But at Memphis, we either played night games or 11am and anybody. How many y' all traveled over to Memphis for that game last year? Handful. Some of y' all did okay. Nobody did. All right, that's good. That's why I didn't get booed coming up here.
But it gets hot and muggy at that time in the morning. And I always thought it was advantageous for us. Right. We actually played UCLA one year and NBC wanted to do it at 6pm and I said, no, let's do that. 11am it's 10am their time. So I think it gives us an advantage. I think, ultimately, right, how you train what you do in the off season. But then, you know, we play in Salt Lake City, it's going to be 9:15 our time. That's way past my bedtime, and I'm going to be one of those guys that's going to have to get myself going, so. But. But I believe that morning practice, that routine, it gets the guys up. It gets them to a daily schedule pretty well.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: You've been doing a lot of stuff here the last couple of weeks, trying to get your team ready for what game day might look like, staying in a hotel, busing down to Fayetteville. Like you mentioned, you know, 9:15 scrimmage last Saturday night, you're going to do a mock game at 3:15, just like you'll play the game next week. Have you let yourself think through what it's going to be like when you run onto the field for the first time.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: Well, there's excitement, obviously, I'm honor and privilege to be sitting here today. And it's one of those things you, when you get so caught up, right? I think about the last 10 months, you just, you work, you work, you work, you work. And every so often you gotta sit there and say, man, I'm the head coach at the University of Arkansas, the best job in the world, and I cannot wait. Like, there will be so many emotions going through. I'm getting emotional talking about now running through that day and seeing 76,000 fans, hopefully so many of you, what a special, special moment. So at that time, take a deep breath. I'm going to enjoy it. And then, folks, got to go put the blinders back on and get ready to play some football.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: Ryan, we appreciate your time and good luck to you this year.
[00:34:31] Speaker B: Thank you, guys. Go Hawks.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: All right.
[00:34:32] Speaker B: Thank you Ryan LPGA Week in Northwest Arkansas returns this September as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Walmart Northwest Arkansas Championship presented by P and g. Join us September 21st through the 27th at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers to watch the world's best female golfers compete,
[00:34:50] Speaker A: plus enjoy family friendly activities, food and
[00:34:53] Speaker B: entertainment all week long.
[00:34:55] Speaker A: Tickets start at just $10.
[00:34:57] Speaker B: Visit www.nwachampionship.com to learn more and purchase your tickets today.
