Texas’ Steve Sarkisian: Saban Saved My Career, 2nd Chances, Marriage & Future with Manning

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast FOLLOW HAPPY DAD: https://www.instagram.com/happydad FIND HAPPY DAD: https://www.happydad.com/find Don’t miss out on all the action this week at DraftKings! Download the DraftKings app today! Sign-up using http://dkng.co/pivot or through my promo code PIVOT Never allowing failures to define your future has become the message Sarkisian spreads to his players, coaches and those around him. Known as one of the most dynamic and successful college football coaches under the Nick Saban tree, Sarkisian turned his low moments into lessons and his opportunities into a success story. After being fired from USC in 2015 mid season, Sarkisian sought treatment for alcoholism and worked to overcome personal struggles. Not being able to find any coaching job and about to give up and turn into a different career path, Sark received a call from Nick Saban who saw something in him to give him a shot. Embracing his second chance to the fullest, Sarkisian opens up on how his own trials and tribulations have helped made him navigate coaching and relationships with more of an open mind. Becoming the head coach of University of Texas football team in 2022, he makes it known that Nick Saban saved his career and he wouldn’t be where he is today without Saban’s grace, which is why he chooses to extend the same courtesy to others on this journey. NIL and the transfer portal have been big topics throughout college athletics and one that our very own, Fred Taylor feels very strongly about. Fred asks Sarkisian about his perspective on NIL and the transfer portal and as a head coach how he combats this during recruitment. Steve talks about the tool of adaptability and finding the positives in change. Promoting a philosophy of not allowing players to come back to the team if they've entered the transfer portal, Sark believes they’ve maintained a steady program at Texas due to transparency and truly selling that playing for Texas is a 40-50 year decision rather than a 4-5 year decision. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (CO/IL/IN/LA/MD/MI/NJ/OH/PA/TN/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MA/MI/MD/NJ/NY/OH/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. Void in MA/NH/OR/ONT. Eligibility restrictions apply. Valid 1 per new customer. Min. $5 deposit. Min. $5 prefight moneyline bet. Bet must win. $150 issued as bonus bets that expire 7 days (168 hours) after being awarded. See terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballterms. Ends 5/28/23 at 11:59PM ET. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). Sponsored by DK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 0:11Speaker 00

  Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Semaglutide injection, 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOVIE or visit wegovie.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?

• 0:30Ryan Clark?

  We'll get to the bottom of what the people want to know. Yeah. Who dressing who? We know Coach A come with these new cement by itself.

• 0:38Speaker 02

  Come on, man. Yo, this is Huff. It's Huff.

• 0:41Ryan Clark?

  I just asked him outside.

• 0:42Speaker 02

  He's so fresh.

• 0:44Ryan Clark?

  Before they even dress. Yeah, we know. We know Coach A ain't go get the cement by itself. Huff wore Jordans though in the league too.

• 0:51Speaker 02

  He did. One of the originals.

• 0:53Ryan Clark?

  In games?

• 0:55Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 0:56Ryan Clark?

  He was like, might have been one of the originals. Yeah. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. Yeah. Because you gotta remember Huff was drafted seventh.

• 1:03Speaker 02

  The Raiders.

• 1:04Ryan Clark?

  Overall.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  And Huff is the guy that tackles Lyndell White in the national championship game. So he reminds me of that too. Fourth and two.

• 1:13Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:13Speaker 02

  When we were at SC.

• 1:14Ryan Clark?

  Uh huh. Wow. And at SC, were you and Lane there?

• 1:18Speaker 02

  Me and Lane were together.

• 1:19Ryan Clark?

  Coach, I had to think that y'all were dating it unbeatable that year.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  We felt it.

• 1:23Ryan Clark?

  Because I do want to talk about this.

• 1:24Speaker 02

  We knew we were a little vulnerable defensively. We were young.

• 1:27Ryan Clark?

  Okay.

• 1:28Speaker 02

  So like that whole crew, like Cushing, Ray, Maluga.

• 1:32Ryan Clark?

  I want to talk about this.

• 1:32Speaker 02

  All those guys.

• 1:33Ryan Clark?

  Were you being here now?

• 1:33Speaker 02

  They were freshmen.

• 1:35Ryan Clark?

  Wow.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  And so when we, we were just, we just were outscoring everybody. But then we got to that game. I even remember like in warmups, I'm like, damn, they look like us.

• 1:49Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:50Speaker 02

  And then early in the game, we tried to hit Reggie on a wheel route.

• 1:53Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 1:54Speaker 02

  And he got wired. I was like.

• 1:56Ryan Clark?

  I remember that.

• 1:57Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:59Ryan Clark?

  And then Steve Smith double moved, I think it was Aaron Ross and Griff came over the top and picked it. I'm like, they got some, they got, they got real players too, man.

• 2:10Channing Crowder?

  That's the fun ones. When you're good and then you, yeah, you see.

• 2:13Ryan Clark?

  And then Superman started playing. Vince went berserk.

• 2:17Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, Vince.

• 2:17Channing Crowder?

  I remember where I was when I was watching that game.

• 2:19Ryan Clark?

  We wanted Vince to come play friggin receiver at LSU. I still remember it. We were recruiting him to come play receiver. Out of Houston? Uh huh. He was like, hell no.

• 2:29Channing Crowder?

  He was 6'5", wasn't he?

• 2:30Ryan Clark?

  Yeah. But he could do everything. Have you seen, Vince is a big man.

• 2:35Fred Taylor?

  Shit, we used to see him all the time in the AFC South when he was in Tennessee.

• 2:40Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, Vince was, Vince is, Debo suplexed him though. Got 15.

• 2:48Channing Crowder?

  That's your pride play. That's your pride play. You in trouble.

• 2:51Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, we took, we took it off of Vince's mind, put it on his tail. Changed the whole thing.

• 3:18Ryan Clark?

  Well, Coach, thank you so much for letting us into this beautiful facility. You know, I at one point in my life thought I was gonna be a Texas Longhorn. You know, it was back in the day, they sent you the book. Chris Carter was on the front, Westbrook. I was like, oh yeah, they gonna offer me for sure. They did not. I realized that there was enough players in Texas that they didn't need me. But Coach tapping in to Louisiana. Coach Steve Sarkisian, head coach of Texas. I know for you, you know, to be at a university like this, it just says a lot about the things you've gone through and the things that you've accomplished. Channing Crowder, Freddie T. Welcome to The Pivot, to our partners, Happy Dad, DraftKings, our sponsors. We thank you for all your support, everybody that watches the show. We gonna get in trouble, right? You Florida guy, right? You sitting here with

• 4:02Ryan Clark?

  the head coach of Texas. I'm an LSU guy. I'm doing the same, Coach. But to get to where we are now, for you to have an opportunity to coach at one of the greatest universities in the entire land, it has to start in 2015. To go through what you went through, not as just a coach, but as a person, and to come through that adversity to be at this point is a story of perseverance, but also will and effort. Just take us back to that time of your life.

• 4:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was a tough start. Like, I like that we started there because the reality is, that's when my life changed, right? That was when you're out of work, you can't get a job, you can't get an interview, you're trying to figure out who you are as a person, and you start chopping away, and you find out who is close to you and who's supporting you, and you lean into those people, and you lean into the people that have good intentions for you, and you just start trying to find your way. And in 2015, as I came out of that and had gotten fired at USC, gone to recovery, started working on me personally, and then coming out of that, not being able to get a job, somewhere in there, somebody's gotten extending all the branch to you.

• 5:15Speaker 02

  And in 2016, I was ready to go do TV. I couldn't get an interview for a job, and Nick Saban saved my career, and he offered me an analyst job. And I was willing to do it for free, but he said, "I gotta pay you $30,000 so you can get benefits." And I said, "Okay, I'll do that." I'm forever indebted to him because at that time, you know, somebody in life has got to give all of us a second chance, right? And it totally changed my perspective. It changed my perspective on how I coach, how I deal with our players, because everybody's going through stuff, right? Everybody's got stuff. Whatever your stuff is, you just try to get through it.

• 5:59Speaker 02

  And if I can be that guy that can extend that olive branch to our players as we go through this journey, I always lean back to that time because here's the greatest coach of all time in our era, right? And for whatever reason, he saw something in me to give me a chance, to give me a shot. From there, he actually makes me the offensive coordinator for the national championship game against Clemson. And I was an analyst. I wasn't even a coach. I call that game. It was an amazing game. Jalen Hurts scrambles and scores. Deshaun Watson goes down, wins the game. Coming out of that game, Dan Quinn offers me the offensive coordinator job at the Atlanta Falcons, and I'm thinking... Kyle Shanahan just goes to the 49ers. I'm going to go to the Atlanta Falcons.

• 6:43Speaker 02

  And I go do it for two years. For whatever reason, that didn't work, you know? And I was like, okay, I figured it out and I realized again, I'm a pretty good coach. I was going to stay in the NFL. That was the plan. And I'd actually verbally accepted a job to be an offensive coordinator of the NFL. And guess who called me again? Nick Saban called again.

• 7:01Channing Crowder?

  When Nick calls, man, whether you're a player or a coach, it's tough to say no.

• 7:04Speaker 02

  I called the woman in my life at that time, who now is my wife, Loria. And I said, she didn't want me to leave Alabama the first time. And I said, why did you not want me to leave? And she reminded me that he gave me that chance and that I owed him. I went back and I went back for that very reason. Like I had unfinished business with this man that we didn't accomplish what we set out to do. And two years later, we go win a national championship, an amazing run. I had turned down some jobs along the way and Texas called. And it was like, okay, this is the one. This is the one you're supposed to go take. Because you never know if you're going to get another one.

• 7:44Speaker 02

  So you, the one you get, you hope that it's one that you can go achieve greatness and win a championship and build your own legacy. And here we are, man. It's amazing, been an amazing ride.

• 7:55Channing Crowder?

  Coach, as you, and you're talking about you calling the national championship game. And I, we remember that. We were part of football and as you were playing and analyzing your coaching. Your path is different than most coaches. They usually come up in the system, they sit behind somebody, then they'll have their job to go to a small school or just stay behind that guy.

• 8:12Speaker 02

  He was at El Camino College.

• 8:14Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, like. You looking through his Wikipedia like, hmm, how is that offense? But why is your path so different? Like, why are you talking about, yeah, I coached this game and I get an offer to coach an NFL team and things? Like, it seems like your coaching history is way different than other coaches.

• 8:31Speaker 02

  I don't know. First of all, I've been lucky. Early in my career, I was coaching at junior college, at El Camino Junior College, and Pete Carroll offers me to be a graduate assistant at USC when he just gets the job at SC. And Pete really became my mentor. I worked for him for seven years. I leaned into Pete and I just was like, man, I'm gonna be a sponge from this guy who I thought was incredible. The way he coached, the way he tapped into his players. Shoot, at 34 years old, I was the head coach at University of Washington. But I took that job when they were 0-12 the year before. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna try to go build this place. I'm gonna go take it back. Because just like you, Ryan, I always wanted to go to UW when I was coming out of high school. They didn't offer me,

• 9:15Speaker 02

  but that was when UW was in their heyday. National champs in 1991, all that. We did it for five years. USC called and I went back. And probably that was the one mistake in my career because I didn't realize what I was building. I didn't recognize it. My eyes were too far down the road rather than just being where my feet are. And in the end, Coach Peterson comes in and two years later, they're in the college football playoff, with a lot of those kids that we had recruited. As you navigate through, man, the people I'm around, I try to be a sponge. Whether it was a Dan Quinn, or a Nick Saban, or a Pete Carroll. Shoot, I was with Norv Turner for a year in Oakland, and I thought he was an amazing offensive mind. And the other thing I try to do, quite frankly, I try to

• 9:59Speaker 02

  recreate our offense every year. I try not to just be the same. Who are we? What are we good at? And then, let's go craft an offense that fits what those guys can do really well.

• 10:10Fred Taylor?

  In this business, relationships are currency. Have you identified what they saw in you other than being a really good coach?

• 10:18Speaker 02

  One thing, I think I work hard. There's never... I'll get to that later. It's like, I'm gonna finish what I start, and I'm gonna try to do it well. Because if I work for you, I want you to look at my work and say, this is really well done. So whether I'm a pleaser or not, I don't know, but I feel like I always want to validate my work with the people that I'm working for. I do think that positive Energy, there's something about that. Every day I walk in a building, I'm grateful, man. Every day I walk through this front door here, man, I'm so grateful to be the head coach at University of Texas. Like, I do not take it for granted. That energy starts at 5:30 when I walk in, you know? And with the next person I see, it's like, how do I uplift that person to be the best that they can be?

• 11:01Speaker 02

  And I'm about giving, not taking. And in the end, because when you give, you do end up receiving. I just try to impact people that way, you know, in just a really positive, in a positive way. And I don't know, you know, quite frankly, I don't know what they saw, you know? But it must have been something pretty good. They keep promoting me for the next job.

• 11:21Ryan Clark?

  Speaking of positive impacts and relationships, you mentioned your wife earlier. And a lot of times when you are going through things, people see it as occupational because what you were dealing with occupationally was so public. But there's also that personal and internal fight that you have to deal with. And I told your wife when we walked in, I was like, listen, you're a damn black woman, superhero. You know what I mean? I'm talking about legendary game day fits. You say she don't dress you. I don't really know, coach. You got the cement, you got the cements on. But when you are going through those things, not only, like you said, rebuilding your career, but rebuilding yourself, what is it like to have someone so strong, believe in you,

• 12:04Ryan Clark?

  and continue to be in your corner through those times of getting back to this point?

• 12:09Speaker 02

  I think a couple of things, you know, she is, she is that person. Because, you know, the reality of it is, there were things in my life that, shoot, I had to get reconnected to the Lord, you know? And she helped me do that. I had to find my own self-confidence again, you know? Well, anytime you get fired, I don't care what industry you're in, you lose some of that confidence, you know? It's like, how do you find it again? How do you recreate it again? And she was the one that kept reminding me. She was the one, when jobs would come up, she said, I don't think that's the one. I think you're better than that. And I was like, wow, okay, alright. It was like, I needed, I needed some of that, you know, to build my own self-confidence.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  And then even going through our times, like, because the, the idea to think that, hey, I did that in 2015 and then I've just, life's been great and perfect since then. Nah, we all, we still have struggles. We still go through things. You know, it's a, it's a daily process for all of us. She's been there every step of the way, the good, the bad, the ugly, whatever it's looked like. And she's right there every single time and even on game day. She dresses me on game day, I'll, I'll give her that. Not everybody loves what I wear, but I like it, she likes it, so, so we're, we're good with it.

• 13:25Channing Crowder?

  And Coach, it's crazy to hear you say like, that you get down. Because as a player, like, you know it's gonna come to an end sooner or later. Or if you get hurt, you can say, ah, I'm slower because of my ankle. As a coach, like, your system works, your offense works, it's worked. So if you lose a job or have, you know, some turmoil, why would you question yourself? Like, you know, you just said, I can recreate what I know works. So why would you ever question yourself?

• 13:48Speaker 02

  I, I think it's part of human nature some, right? I mean, at, at the end of the day, nobody likes to feel like, I didn't get the job done. Like, that's who I've always been. I've been a worker, I'm gonna get the job done. And they didn't think I got the job done.

• 14:05Channing Crowder?

  Like, that, that.

• 14:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:06Channing Crowder?

  Well, you get, no.

• 14:08Speaker 02

  Well, my point is, my point is, you get, you get to that, right? But I wasn't there in 2015. I was at a point where, man, I had gotten fired, I was trying to get a job. Shoot, I couldn't get a call back. I was willing to work for free. I couldn't get an interview. And so the, the point of it was, man, then you start to question, like, well, shoot, is, is it ever gonna happen again? Is this gonna happen again? And it takes one shot. The one shot I got just happened to be from the GOAT. You know? That changed the whole deal.

• 14:37Channing Crowder?

  Coach, in listening to Channing, it almost seems like he's asking about questioning your...

• 14:44Ryan Clark?

  Football acumen. Clearly, no one questions that because that's how you have a job. That's why the GOAT calls you because he ain't stupid.

• 14:52Speaker 02

  Right.

• 14:52Ryan Clark?

  Right? And he understands and he believed in you as a person too. You know, you said you didn't get the job done. But is it different that you feel like you didn't get the job done and it was who you were? Because I, to me, I think that would be harder for me. It's not, it's not that I didn't know football because I know I knew football. I could do that. I didn't do some other things. And

• 15:15Speaker 02

  Right.

• 15:15Ryan Clark?

  I'm pretty sure that's why you couldn't get the call back or the interviews. How difficult was that part to do?

• 15:22Speaker 02

  That was the key, right? Because in the end of the day, it's like, man, I made some choices and decisions in my life that are impacting my future. Right? It wasn't about, did I know how to beat Cover 3? Or could I pick up this blitz? Or could I attack, you know, Red 4? Or any of those things? It was, I had done some things in my life and I made choices and decisions in my life that at that point, I was like, man, this is affecting my future now. Not only did it affect my present, I got fired because of it. But now, man, is this affecting my future?

• 15:55Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 15:56Speaker 02

  Am I ever gonna get another shot? To show you what I really know in football? To show you how I can beat Red 4? How I can find that weak link in your defense? How I can go attack that corner and get it formationally set up to where my best player's against your worst player? I knew I could do that. It was, were my choices and decisions gonna ultimately affect my chance to go do that again? That's where, that was the struggle, you know?

• 16:23Fred Taylor?

  You made the decision to keep the main thing, the main thing? And come down here to the big, beautiful state of Texas? Why Texas?

• 16:31Speaker 02

  It's the biggest brand in the land, man.

• 16:34Fred Taylor?

  That is very true. And football down here is heaven.

• 16:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:37Fred Taylor?

  You know, people down in Texas, especially these Cowboy fans like our producer back there, she's crazy. But they love their football in this state and the pressures that come along with that. What was it about this university where you said, you know what? This is gonna be on?

• 16:52Speaker 02

  I've never not Loved a great challenge. I've always wanted something to men. I wanted to do it the biggest, the best, better than anyone's ever done it before. So that's why you take a 0-12 Washington job. That's why you go to USC when they're on probation and they only got 50 kids on scholarship. That's why you go to Atlanta after they just have the catastrophic loss in the Super Bowl, see if you can take them back. And then that's why you come to Texas after a decade of down years and would they ever get back and can you recreate it and turmoil and different things going on? And it was like, yeah, this is what I'm supposed to go do. This is, I'm built for this, you know? And as you go through it and you watch the transformation, in my past, I

• 17:37Speaker 02

  didn't appreciate the transformation because I was always worried about what was down the road. Today, now I go through it and I see it. I try to really watch our team. I was just telling my brother-in-law the other day, I said, "This looks like my team." And it's year three. I said, "It feels and looks like my team. The way the players talk, the way they act, what they look like, the way they move, the way they run, how we practice, the speed, the tempo, all of those things." Man, I'm like, "Okay, now we're about ready to go. This is what it's supposed to look like." And we need to because we're going to the conference. You guys just came.

• 18:12Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, big time. But 90% of your offense, well, your Russian offense, just went to the NFL in Bijon Robinson. And I see that you have some guys that have been here and you got a five-star, right, from Florida?

• 18:27Speaker 02

  Out of Orlando.

• 18:28Fred Taylor?

  Out of Orlando. And a few young quarterbacks. One who can't keep up with his ID, right? Arch Manning. How has the process of, you know, getting back to it, you just finished up spring, how has that process been for, you know, to get this next season going?

• 18:44Speaker 02

  It's been good. You know, every year you have your own challenges, right? You look at your team, you look at your roster. Where are your issues? Okay, how are we gonna fix these issues? And then how are we gonna play to the strengths of what we have? We lost two great players, really. We lost Bijon Robinson and Roshan Johnson. Roshan. I mean, those guys. Playing for it, yeah.

• 19:02Ryan Clark?

  Watch those two dudes train. I don't mean to interrupt you, Coach. Great humans. Like, not just good kids. I mean, great leaders, great young men. Those dudes host Bible study with their guys that they're training with for the combine. And so I can understand the sort of attachment you would have to both of those.

• 19:20Speaker 02

  And I owe a great deal to both of them because when we came here, the program was not stable, as I would like to say it. And our first year was tough. It was hard, man. We lost some really tough games. Those guys were rocks. Every day, they showed up, they practiced harder than anybody, they worked harder than anybody in the offseason. Now they're gone. So now you gotta tap into, okay, who do we have now? We got some really good players on board now. Who's coming into the program to help us? You talked about Cedric Baxter out of Orlando. But what else on our team? Where are we gonna lean into, right? Are we gonna lean into an Xavier Worthy, a Jordan Whittington? Are we gonna bring in an A.D. Mitchell from Georgia? Maybe we gotta throw the ball a little bit more.

• 20:04Speaker 02

  But what I do know, Fred, every year I've called plays in college football, I've always had a thousand-yard rusher. I saw that. And you got your big boys up front. Somebody's gonna tote it for us, man. Right. And all of the linemen are returning. Yeah. The entire line, man. Yep, all five, all five linemen. We started two true freshman O-linemen. We had a freshman All-American left tackle in Kelvin Banks. So we believe in running the football. We believe you win games up front and you run the ball. And I think your team figures out, you know, we do team run. You aren't allowed to throw a pass, man. It's 11 on 9, really, because the safeties know we're not throwing it. But we develop an identity and the team knows, hey, that guy running that ball right there in the fourth quarter, he's gonna run it and we're gonna be able to run it when they know we're gonna run it.

• 20:49Speaker 02

  And I think there's a mentality in that. And you gotta stop the run. Like, everything in football starts there. It's like, it goes all the way back for decades. You gotta be able to run the football.

• 20:58Ryan Clark?

  Hey Coach, you are tasked with getting Texas back to the top of the mountain in football. But this isn't your first run in with Texas. At one point USC was the pinnacle Coach.

• 21:11Speaker 02

  They had to bring it up, right?

• 21:13Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, that was who, you know, I mean Reggie Bush, Lyndell White, Matt Lannan, y'all had them all Coach. You guys run into Texas in the national championship and that's what they want your team to look like. Now, what was that like when you step onto the field and you kind of know that y'all were it? And you look across the sideline and you're like, oh shoot, they might be it too.

• 21:32Speaker 02

  When we went into that Rose Bowl, we had won 33 straight games. I mean, that's 33 games in a row and we're trying to, we're trying to win our third straight national championship. And um.

• 21:45Speaker 00

  Every game day you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 21:56Speaker 00

  Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Some agglutide injection 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOVY or visit wegovy.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?

• 22:14Speaker 02

  Even in pregame, you could kind of look, you know, you know, as coaches, you're looking at their, yeah, let me check. Like, they look like us, you know, they look, they look like we looked. And as the game got going, I remember, you know, we called the wheel route to Reggie early in the game and the linebacker was in his hip pocket and the ball fell incomplete. I remember we threw a double move and Michael Griffin comes out of the roof and intercepts the ball right on the goal line. And then all of a sudden Superman started taking over and Vince Young started being Vince Young. But, but that team, that Texas team was a lot more than just Vince. That secondary is legendary. The Michael Huff, Aaron Ross's of the world.

• 22:54Ryan Clark?

  Both Griffin brothers?

• 22:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, both of them. And it was, it was an amazing game. And I say it all the time, like, even when we got in the locker room, I remember sitting there thinking, man, I might've just been part of the greatest college football game ever. With the amount of talent and the way the game went. You know, Michael Huff works for us now.

• 23:10Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 23:11Speaker 02

  And he's the guy that gave me the cement, by the way. Just so you know. Huff, I'm giving you a plug. But in the end, it came down to fourth and two. And at that time, Reggie had just won the Heisman. But Lindell was the hot hand that night. Lindell was running the ball and he was physical and he was tough. And Coach Carroll was like, you gotta go for it because we aren't going to stop him anyway. So we gotta try to win the game right here. And Michael Huff tackles Lindell White, short. And there goes Vince Young, fourth and four, scores. And the confetti, the shot of Vince scoring with the confetti. It's like one of the most legendary pictures in all of college football history.

• 23:49Ryan Clark?

  We had Bijon on the show and he would always talk about, that was before last season. He's like five and seven. And then you guys start this year and you know, one of your early games is Alabama. And it's a tight game. It's a close game and you're speaking of players who could put on Superman capes. You played against one as well in Bryce Young.

• 24:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:10Ryan Clark?

  When you think about Quinn going out early in that game, and he did have a hot hand. When you look at this year's team, Coach, what's to, what has to be done for y'all to take that next step and be on that next level where when you are across from the GOAT on the other sideline, Texas comes out on top.

• 24:28Speaker 02

  We do. We play them September 9th and everybody knows it, you know, that we're going to Tuscaloosa this time around. And I think the experience on our team matters this year. At the end of the day, to beat the Alabamas, the Georgias of the world, you gotta be good up front, which I think we are. You gotta have playmakers on the perimeter, which I believe we have. And you gotta have a quarterback, you know? It's the most important position in sports for a reason. And we're fortunate to have more than one. And I think that that's what it takes. We learned that in that game last year because you never know when that guy could get injured and who's going to come in next. And that lends itself to recruiting. And you know, we've, we're starting to stack recruiting classes on top of one another like you're supposed to do to build that talent.

• 25:11Speaker 02

  But in the end, I think it's going to be our composure and our experience late in games to go finish those tight ballgames that we learned kind of how to do last year. And now we really gotta take that next step this year.

• 25:23Channing Crowder?

  And Coach, Nick Saban, like you said, he extended that olive branch. To get you back in and he drafted me so he honestly changed both of our lives.

• 25:32Speaker 02

  Yes, yeah. He's changed a lot of lives and people don't know that about him. He's changed a lot of lives, man. He is, he and Miss Terry.

• 25:39Channing Crowder?

  They do a lot.

• 25:40Speaker 02

  They, they're some of the most compassionate people I've, I've ever met.

• 25:44Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, and I showed him my appreciation by bringing a stripper into him for the rookie show in the NFL. So, you know, I know you didn't bring him one, so it's a, you know, we show our appreciation different. But it's funny when you said, because I coached, I played for him. He gaited, he cusses you out, talks to you like a child. You know how it is. You don't have to coach sign, but.

• 26:04Speaker 02

  The coaches get it too, you know.

• 26:05Channing Crowder?

  Okay, so that would cuss out too. Okay, but you recognize his greatness. You recognize him as a defensive guy. He's a defensive mind. He would call plays and tell you they're throwing the backside of trips. They're gonna throw a screen. This is how he'd say it. They're gonna throw a scheme to your guy. They, they don't think you can tackle, so he's coming to you. Damn, Coach, why can't you just tell him he played a back tight? But he, he would talk great to you, but you respect his football mind. The man's a genius. Now you're going back to play the guy that brought you up. Are you going into a game against Nick Saban's defense, are you whistling through the graveyard? I got him. Oh, no, no, no big deal. Is there a respect there? Because you can't respect him too much because you gotta go after his neck, but you still can't act like he's not Nick Saban.

• 26:46Speaker 02

  No, no, there's definitely a, a high level of respect because I know the work that he puts in. I know the work that he has his staff put in. I know the way they practice. I know the way they prepare. But that's what motivates you too, right? My, myself, like, I've been on that staff, right? And I know, I know what it looks like. And so you're always trying to find that edge as a coach. And shoot, I felt like last year we had our chances and that we created some opportunities for ourselves. And that's what it's gonna take. And then the key to the drill is when you get your ops, you gotta, you gotta make them, you gotta make them come to life. And so there's definitely a great deal of respect for their program, the history and tradition of, of Alabama, Coach Saban. But in the end, you know, we're, we're the University of Texas too. And we got pretty good players too. And we got pretty good coaches too.

• 27:31Speaker 02

  In the end, you gotta go play the game. And who can make those plays? Who can call the right calls at the right time and have your players prepared in the most critical moments? That's ultimately what football comes down to. You know, there's that eight to 10 plays that ultimately define a game. And can you make those plays in those moments?

• 27:50Fred Taylor?

  Stan with Bama, you've been around some really good young quarterbacks and Mac Jones and Tua, right? You have a second ago, I mentioned a young guy coming here losing his ID, Arch Manning.

• 28:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:02Fred Taylor?

  Does he wear the Manning name well?

• 28:04Speaker 02

  First of all, he lost his ID twice.

• 28:05Fred Taylor?

  Twice.

• 28:06Speaker 02

  The first of it, not once, but twice. But the beauty of it is this, he's a kid. He's a college kid. Like, I think so many times you see the Manning name and you think he's this perfect in a box, like, nothing's wrong with him. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with him, but he's still a kid. I love that about him. But what he does have that I think is somewhere in the Manning DNA, this guy loves football. He works at football. We practice in the morning. That evening, he wants to already be up here watching every one of his plays. He works at his craft. He wants to be great. There's no doubt about it. And I think that's why he came here, you know? And we've had a pretty good track record of developing quarterbacks over the last 20 years. We really have.

• 28:50Speaker 02

  Going back to Carson Palmer, or Matt Liner, Matt Castle, Jake Locker. I mean, we've had a pretty good run. And I think their family handled recruiting really well. He's got two great parents. I will say this, I never talked to Peyton or Eli one time. As much as people think they were involved in this whole thing, I didn't talk to them. Their family went through the recruiting process. They visited, they got to know Laurie L. and I, they got to know our staff, they got to know the players we were recruiting, they got to know the city of Austin. And ultimately, Arch said, that's where I want to go to school. Who else do you want to be a recruit? And he started talking to Sed Baxter. He started talking to Anthony Hill. He started talking to Jontay Cook. And we ended up with one of the top recruiting classes in the country.

• 29:34Speaker 02

  But he spearheaded that like a really good quarterback should. Yeah. Right? They're the leaders of that class and where this program can go.

• 29:42Ryan Clark?

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• 29:54Channing Crowder?

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• 30:06Fred Taylor?

  But the same game parlays aren't everywhere. But I do know one thing, Chan. If you take your little mobile device and download DraftKings Daily Fantasy, you still can get some action. That's what I do and that's what I'm gonna do and I'm gonna win.

• 30:19Ryan Clark?

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• 30:30Channing Crowder?

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• 30:38Fred Taylor?

  And stay tuned to the end of the show. We got some picks coming for you.

• 30:42Ryan Clark?

  DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the app now. Coach, you've been in the game so long and you had that stacked team at USC. And now having an opportunity, like you said, to stack recruiting classes, to build the team in your image, the way that you want them to look with NIL and all the things that are different now to transfer portal. How has that changed the way you guys go about recruiting? And do you think it's positive as well?

• 31:09Speaker 02

  It goes both ways for me. You know, part of me is a little bit of a traditionalist when it comes to college football. Like, I still love bowl games, man. Like, they were, there was something special about it. But now we're going to a 12-team playoff here in the future, you know? What is that going to look like for the team that's number 13, and 14, and 15? The transfer portal definitely has changed the game in the fact that, you know, we've got young men on our team who are four and five-star kids that we're recruiting. And everybody wants instant gratification. Well, you know what? There's a thing called development still. There's a thing called perseverance that is a trait that we can work on and get better at. But everybody's got somebody at home telling them, "Man, you should be playing more.

• 31:54Speaker 02

  Let's go over here. Let's take your ball and go over here." And so that's where I think the relationship piece is so important as a coach. We've really got to develop great relationships with our players so that they feel they can trust us, man. And trust is something you earn over time with consistency. You don't get it overnight. So we have to keep working at it. But then all of a sudden, there's NIL. So now, all of a sudden, you're talking about, "Well, I love it here, Coach, but if I go over here, they're going to pay me X, Y, or Z. What can we do here?" I'll say this, we're fortunate, the University of Texas, man. We've got great support at this university. So I think we can keep the players that we have, but also recruit the right players that fit.

• 32:37Speaker 02

  I will say this about recruiting, that I think, maybe we're different than others, I don't know. NIL is the last thing I talk about to recruits about.

• 32:45Ryan Clark?

  It's good.

• 32:46Speaker 02

  I sell the University of Texas. We've got an unbelievable product. The University of Texas, the history and tradition, the facilities, the world-class education. The city of Austin is on fire, fastest-growing city in the United States. No pro sports to compete with. We've got no NFL, no NBA, no Major League Baseball. At the end, I talk about NIL because I want to suck them all the way in to where, "Man, they want to come to Texas so bad."

• 33:12Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 33:12Speaker 02

  Then we'll talk about NIL. If I put the cart before the horse and talk about NIL first, they're coming for the wrong reasons. And in the end, I'm going to have disgruntled employees, right? I'm going to have disgruntled players that, man, I'm not a gift.

• 33:26Ryan Clark?

  Coach, that just hurt my soul that you had to say about college athletes, "You're going to have disgruntled employees."

• 33:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:33Ryan Clark?

  Because when I went to school, it wasn't a choice. If I wanted to leave LSU, I had to go to Southern. Nothing's wrong with HBCU, but I knew the difference in playing in front of, at that time, 92,000, and playing in front of 10,000. You know, I knew the opportunities I had there, the facilities, but now... You know, kids clearly, I redshirted. As a freshman, I just played nickel in special teams.

• 33:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:54Ryan Clark?

  And then by the time I earned it, I was so, I was so grateful for it. And I loved being at that school and earning, earning my way. When you do have to have that conversation when a kid says, Coach, look, I ain't playing. And this school says, I'm gonna get this NIL money here. I want to go there. Is it a situation where you're working to keep them? Or you feel to, you feel like, well, if you've already gotten to this point in your process, this isn't the school for you?

• 34:22Speaker 02

  I think it goes both ways. I feel for our players because I do think it's not just them. A lot of times, they're hearing it from outside sources. High school coaches, trainers, right? Family members, uncles, whatever it is, right? Social media, right? Everything's out there now that they're trying to figure out who they are. But for us, that's where I think the relationship piece is so critical so that I can be honest. I don't ever feel like I have to tell somebody something that isn't true. And when I can be really honest with the young man and say, hey, you're probably a year away, but that's okay. Here's what we're gonna work on with you to get you to that point. So when your time comes, I don't want to throw you out on that field in front of 105,000 people

• 35:07Speaker 02

  and you don't know what to do.

• 35:08Ryan Clark?

  Hell no.

• 35:08Speaker 02

  Or you get beat, or you can't make that tackle, or you can't cover that guy, or you can't run that route. And when I put you out on that field, I want you to play great.

• 35:17Ryan Clark?

  Right.

• 35:17Speaker 02

  Because in the end, that's gonna help you go fulfill your real dream of playing in the NFL. And I think our players really understand it. I, I do. But everything we do in our program now is totally transparent and totally upfront. I wasn't always that way as a coach, you know? 10 years ago, 15 years ago, whatever it was. But now, because I've had, I've had to change, I've had to become vulnerable. I've become vulnerable with our players. And I think they appreciate it. And I can start closing the gap on earning their trust quicker. And then I can have those conversations that are, that are really just upfront and honest about where they're at in their development stage of their career.

• 35:57Channing Crowder?

  Did NILs change the kids? Because you'd bring up back in, back in the, you know, early 2000s when you couldn't do it.

• 36:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:04Channing Crowder?

  And then you coaching all those great players. But I'm looking at Bijon Robinson, didn't he drive a?

• 36:09Speaker 02

  Lamborghini.

• 36:10Channing Crowder?

  Like you have a running back that has a Lamborghini, he's a child. There's Georgia, UGA, I saw a video of them, dudes coming at back to back to back Hellcats. Like, I don't know, they locked me up three times and I didn't have a million dollars. You know what I'm saying, Coach? Like, I would have been in trouble with a million dollars at 18 because I was getting in trouble with Nandine. But you seeing pre-NIL and now you seeing NIL. I don't know if the drive will be the same. I don't know if the studying will be the, you know, would they work harder or work less with all this money? I don't know from a coaching perspective. You've seen both sides. How, how is it different when a kid is driving a Lamborghini and know he got seven figures in the bank?

• 36:49Speaker 02

  Well, I think, I think it's a couple of things. One, you gotta, in recruiting, you gotta really start to dig into the character of the kid.

• 36:55Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 36:55Speaker 02

  You got to know the kid, man. It's not just what's on the tape. You really got to dig into the character of the kid. Who is he? What's he made of? What's he about? And that doesn't, even if he's not perfect, that doesn't mean he can't get to where we need him to get to. But if, what's his intent? You know, what's, what, what, is he intentional with what he's trying to get done? That's why we talk about NIL last. But the point is, like, I wanna, I wanna hit on Bijon because this is important. That had nothing to do with the University of Texas. Bijon got that Lamborghini because of Bijon Robinson, because of who he was as a person. We'd already touched on it. He is a better human being than he is football player. And at first, when he got the car, I actually thought he was almost embarrassed to drive it.

• 37:39Speaker 02

  He did not want to be out there like that. He's such a good person that way. Now, we had other guys that were chomping at the bit to get Lamborghini. And I told them, don't give him one. Because A, A, he'll probably wreck it and that's not good for your insurance. And B, he won't be able to handle it. And so, we try to help that, help a lot of some of those bigger NIL deals with people of who's mature enough to handle those things as they work their way through it.

• 38:07Channing Crowder?

  That's more stress on you now.

• 38:09Ryan Clark?

  See, his point though, you wouldn't have gotten one.

• 38:11Channing Crowder?

  Who wouldn't?

• 38:11Ryan Clark?

  That's what he's saying.

• 38:12Channing Crowder?

  Hey, Coach.

• 38:13Ryan Clark?

  Whenever it came to him, like, hey, they'd be like, hey.

• 38:15Channing Crowder?

  You might not have been watching SCC, but I would bust his ass over that.

• 38:19Ryan Clark?

  When they would have came to him and said, you earned it, he'd have said, nah, I don't think Chan ain't gonna be able to handle it.

• 38:23Speaker 05

  What? All-American, baby, I can eat a Lamborghini.

• 38:27Fred Taylor?

  I don't think it's as much the actual NIL. And Coach, you can correct me if I'm wrong, give me your opinion on it. I think having the NIL and the transfer portal. As it stands now, I don't think they could really coexist as it stands now. Cause kids are using the portal as leverage to say, hey, I'm gonna leave. I can get more over here from this school. And now you're stuck, you, you know, spent all these man hours in recruiting. And now this kid's gonna just up and leave because of instant gratification, entitlement, that other thing. So I don't think it's NIL per se, Shaq. I think it's more so the portal and them having an out when they don't get what they want.

• 39:06Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, just the, the changing of it. Back when we were, we got recruited, you go to your school. You, as a freshman in red shirts, you have some old, some old guy, four years old, he's gonna play over you. You might sneak in halfway through the season, like there was a set way. Now, these kids are getting, like you're saying, the transfer portal. I have to keep them happy, emotionally happy, and now I gotta keep them financially happy? Take your ass to class.

• 39:31Speaker 02

  That's exactly what we say too.

• 39:35Speaker 02

  That's exactly what, and ask any one of our players, that's exactly what we say.

• 39:38Channing Crowder?

  Yeah, but seeing both sides though of it, could every coach adjust to what's going on now? Cause obviously you have.

• 39:45Speaker 02

  I, I don't know. I'm, I think time will tell, right? Time's gonna tell. But I will, I will take this and I give Coach Saban a lot of credit for this. He, he used a saying, and it wasn't about this, it was something about totally different. But I've held on to the saying ever since and I will forever. Adapt or die. There's a reason dinosaurs aren't on the earth anymore. You have, we have to adapt. This, this is the time of college football right now. We've got NIL and transfer portal like this. Is it healthy for our sport? I don't know. But at the end of the day, what are we doing? How are we adapting to it? And I, hey, I'm not saying this is secret sauce or not. There is one thing we do here that I think has helped. The moment you go in the transfer portal at the University of Texas, you're no longer coming back.

• 40:31Speaker 02

  Which I think a lot of schools do, kids go and test the waters and try to come back. We're not, I'm not playing that game. Right. If you want to go on the portal, go on the portal. Good luck to you. Now, we have real candid conversations before that, but in the end, at some point, there has to be something that we can hold on to to say, hey, man, like, this is a special place. And they may, you may get some more money over here, or they're promising you playing time over there, but we're promising you an amazing experience. We're promising you development. We're promising you growing as a man. We're promising you, here's a coach who's being vulnerable with you, who's being candid with you, who's being transparent with you. I don't know if you're gonna get that over there. The grass might look greener, but when you get over there, they might have sprayed it.

• 41:18Ryan Clark?

  Astro turf. Hey Coach, well, Baltimore is letting Lamar Jackson test the transfer portal right now. And so, you know what I mean, maybe everybody don't feel that way. Cause I'm gonna kinda switch gears a little bit, because I am just very interested in life. And I think that's one thing about our show, you have three kids.

• 41:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:39Ryan Clark?

  And I think I looked at the pillow over there, and that may be them. And they've watched you persevere through so much. Where are you just right now, in your life, looking at everything that you've been through, and now, everything that you have?

• 41:54Speaker 02

  Man, there was a time when I was going through it, the relationship was fragmented, you know? I was their dad who was on the ticker, right? I was their dad who at school, you know, kids will say things to them that are the most hurtful things in the world about their dad personally, right? And those kids are saying it because that's what their parents, they hear their parents saying, right? That's what they... So in the end, the fact that my own son is gonna be coming here this fall to be on our team, that this is what he wants to do, is come play for his dad, that, that's amazing, you know?

• 42:33Speaker 02

  My daughter's studying abroad, she goes to NYU, I'm like, those are the things now as a father that, man, I don't... Not that I missed it back then, but man, I put a wedge in that relationship a while ago that I've every day working to try to get back and you know, I've got an unbelievable wife, I've got three kids, I've got an amazing team of 100 and another 120 kids that I feel like we raise every day, you know, we're finding a way to raise them every day and the impact I can have on people around me like I don't take it lightly, you know, I really don't. I'm fortunate, I'm so blessed to be where I'm at today that man, I just,

• 43:16Speaker 02

  that's why I have the pillow. They gave me that as a Christmas gift, by the way, and I don't think anybody thought I was gonna bring it in the office and put it in here, but I was like, that's the perfect thing, because it's a great reminder of kind of how far I've come to the fact that there was a time when, man, that wasn't that way.

• 43:33Speaker 00

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 43:44Speaker 00

  Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Someaglutide injection 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WEGOVIE or visit wegovie.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?

• 44:03Channing Crowder?

  Hey Coach, you bring up your wife and joking about how she dresses you and all that stuff. Coach, you married a sister. I'm putting it out there like, you know, that's a black woman over there, Coach.

• 44:17Channing Crowder?

  I was surprised, but also being in Texas, being in coaching, being around this stuff, like is it, do you, does your wife feel a certain way? Does she ever get, you know, treated differently or what goes on there? Because I would say this relationship is not what I've seen in the past. And I know a lot of coaches, I played for a lot of coaches, I actually coached in high school and stuff. So the interracial, running the University of Texas athletic program pretty much as a head football coach and interracial relationship. And it's usually the other way around. We're gonna be totally honest, it's usually

• 44:52Speaker 02

  That's real talk.

• 44:52Channing Crowder?

  It's usually a black man with a white woman. So this is a different perspective and this is a different thing than I've ever seen.

• 44:58Speaker 02

  Well, might have outkicked my coverage a little bit.

• 45:00Channing Crowder?

  You did.

• 45:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, so let's start with that.

• 45:02Channing Crowder?

  He pointed to it, piss out of him.

• 45:05Speaker 02

  The Gunners better show up, right? But in the end, you know, we say it all the time, like, we're here for a reason. Like, God put us here for a reason at the University of Texas for something bigger than just winning football games. And I think that, um, in the end, the impact that we have, not only on our team, on the university, on our community, uh, is a positive one. I think we live life the right way.

• 45:36Speaker 02

  Shoot, we love one another, you know? And in the end, I don't think, we don't look at each other that way, you know? And I think all of a sudden now, it's like, it's okay, you know? It's okay. And in a time when, you know, a couple of years ago, that civil unrest and things, everything that was going on, for us to be put at the University of Texas, coming out of all that stuff, hopefully, we're setting a standard of, man, this is what America can be. It doesn't have to be what it was. This is what it can be. And we can treat people with respect, we can love one another, and we can do it on a really high level. I say it all the time, if our society could be a football locker room, it would be a better place.

• 46:18Speaker 02

  Cause a football locker room is, nobody cares if you're black, white, Saban, Hispanic, nobody, man, we're on a team. And we're, and we're all, and we're all working towards a common goal, right? And, and we all have a role to make that, make that happen, right? And everybody's job is different. That's what makes football so beautiful, right? There's 22 guys on that field every snap, and everybody's in a different stance, got a different responsibility, got a different key, gotta play it differently, and then you gotta go do it again, and again, and again, and again. And so, we're just living it on a daily life, you know? Dude, we love it, you know? And again, I think we're impacting people in a positive way.

• 46:57Ryan Clark?

  Hey Coach, former football player, track and field athlete, if we put y'all both on the line right now to run the 40, who wins?

• 47:04Speaker 02

  I'd get smoked. I got no chance. I got no chance, man.

• 47:08Channing Crowder?

  Coach know how to be married.

• 47:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:10Channing Crowder?

  No, no, no, no, she got it. She know, nah, Jack.

• 47:12Speaker 02

  No chance.

• 47:13Channing Crowder?

  You about to mess up my house.

• 47:15Ryan Clark?

  He like, remember you said I was married to a black woman?

• 47:20Channing Crowder?

  I ain't going home with y'all.

• 47:23Fred Taylor?

  Coach, when I'm walking in here, I peeked behind your desk, saw a few quotes back there.

• 47:28Speaker 02

  Why you going behind people's desks, friend?

• 47:31Fred Taylor?

  I peeked.

• 47:32Speaker 02

  You can read, man?

• 47:33Channing Crowder?

  You know they was looking funny when we walked in here. Get out of here, man. Your big ass sneaking around.

• 47:38Fred Taylor?

  No, but let's see, they always beat me up like this. What is all of? Just a few quotes, right? And I want you to tell me which one resonates the most with you and then break it down for me a little bit. "Today is most important day. Be a thermostat and not a thermometer, and better never rest." Which one resonates the most with you?

• 47:56Speaker 02

  They all do. They all do. But I would say be a thermostat, not a thermometer. And the reason is, is because that plays into "Today is the most important day." You know, when you think about a thermostat, that sets the temperature in the room. A thermometer just gauges and tells you what the temperature is. So, my idea is, man, everywhere I go, and in my own life, I want to set my own temperature. Right? I want to, and I try to, try to really get that across to our players, like, you don't have to buy into what your circumstances are. Right? Or what a relationship, you think what society is telling you it's supposed to be,

• 48:41Speaker 02

  or whatever that is. How do you want to go live life? Right? What type of energy do you want to provide? Who do you want to be every day? And so, I want to be a thermostat. I don't want to, oh, it's supposed to be cold, okay, I'm gonna, okay, I'm supposed to be cold now. Or it's hot, I'm supposed to be hot now. Shoot. I go upstairs, it's hot when I go where my wife is, so I want to be back downstairs where the temperature's where I want it to be. Right? So, you want to, in my opinion, I think being a thermostat is, is more important, you know, obviously than being a thermometer, but that lends itself to "Today is the most important day", because it's all about being where your feet are, man. Today is the most important day. I can't get tomorrow back. Tomorrow's not promised. Today is the most important day.

• 49:26Channing Crowder?

  That leads me into it with the sayings. Like, I played for Zook at Florida, Charlie Strong, who was here in the past.

• 49:32Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 49:32Channing Crowder?

  And those guys, they have these sayings and all. And as a kid, I would be like, oh yeah, thermostat not thermometer. But then when I got to the league, like, give me my check and I'll go out here and make these tackles for you. Like, the thought of it, I wanted to ask you, because Nick Saban, we talked about earlier, he drafted me. Two years, he was out of the NFL. He's about 500.

• 49:49Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 49:50Channing Crowder?

  Urban Meyer went over to Jacksonville and made a damn fool of himself. Just great coaches, college coaches trying to get to the league. You've done both. You've never really been 10 toes down in the league. You've never put years and years in, but you've been on both sides.

• 50:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 50:04Channing Crowder?

  Why do Hall of Fame, great national championship college coaches, why can't they make it in the NFL?

• 50:11Speaker 02

  Um, I don't know, because I look at Pete Carroll.

• 50:14Channing Crowder?

  Mm-hmm.

• 50:15Speaker 02

  Like, I think there's always, you can always find one for the other, right?

• 50:19Channing Crowder?

  Yes.

• 50:19Speaker 02

  And I've seen plenty of NFL coaches try to come to college too and not do great, you know? So I think there's, you have to know your environment and what you're in. Shoot, when I was in the league and two years in Atlanta, I loved my time. I mean, I was coaching Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Mohamed Sanu, Calvin Ridley, Devonte Freeman, you know, I mean, I had Austin Hooper. We had a great team. We had players. We had pros. I mean, and they were, they were awesome to coach. And they, they wanted to be coached hard. I think at the end of the day, great players want to be coached.

• 50:53Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 50:53Speaker 02

  They want, they want to make sure that they're getting put in position to be successful on game day. Right? And are the coaches doing that? And I think the higher you move yourself up, the food chain and those players, as you guys all were great players in the NFL, you know if that coach is helping you prepare.

• 51:13Channing Crowder?

  Yeah.

• 51:13Speaker 02

  You know if that coach is putting you in position to be successful. And if they're not, or if you guys feel like they're faking it, or they don't know what they're talking about.

• 51:23Speaker 02

  You checked out. Man, we're cooked, man. We got no shot. Like, this whole idea, like, I live by this, this concept of credibility. All right? I think anytime you speak to anybody, whether it's in a room, could be speaking at a, at a function, it could be this interview, it could be talking to a team, it could be in your position meeting. Every time somebody speaks, everybody is asking themselves a few questions, right? A, do you know what you're talking about? B, have you ever coached anybody like me? C, have you ever done this before? And if no, no, no, you might as well just reject everything the guy's saying already. You might as well leave. Because you're gonna reject it anyway. Right?

• 52:07Speaker 02

  But if there's a yes in there, you'll start to accept some of the messaging, or the, or the fundamentals, or the techniques, or the schemes that start getting presented to you.

• 52:17Ryan Clark?

  Oh, I know what they thought we was about to do. They thought we was gonna bring you something from our partners DraftKings about how they wanted to give you money. But in truth, I just want to talk about the picks. Who you got for MVP?

• 52:27Channing Crowder?

  Oh, you know I'm going my man Jokic. He's balling triple-doubles every night. Jokic is gonna win his third in a row.

• 52:33Fred Taylor?

  Damn, that's tough. I like Embiid, but I also like Jason Tatum. I don't know.

• 52:39Ryan Clark?

  Y'all went the easy route. Y'all picked the MVP. Of course, it's one of those two guys. But Emmanuel Quikly from New York, that's my dude that's gonna win the sixth man of the year. And our partners DraftKings wants you to be here for all of it. You know, Coach, there are gonna be coaches that sit at their homes and watch this, or coaches, coaches who have watched you rebuild your career. And many of those African-American coaches as well are gonna say, there's no way we could have made the decisions Steve Sarkisian made, and now be in this position. And you've worked your way back to this point. What do you go out and do? Or what are your actions and attempt

• 53:22Ryan Clark?

  to show how grateful you are for now being in this place?

• 53:26Speaker 02

  It's really cool of you to ask this question because... How can I touch as many of them as I can, as many coaches as I can, as many young coaches as I can? I mean, as a head coach, I probably call more young coaches to check on them. How are you doing? What's going on? How are you trying to do this? Are you trying to do that? Because at the end of the day, I am grateful. This is not promised to me, you know? I just tried to work hard. I tried to connect with the right people. I'm hopeful everybody gets a second chance. And so here, you know, have I given a lot of guys second chances? Sure. Have people thought about, coaches on our staff, why are you giving that guy a second chance?

• 54:10Speaker 02

  I mean, this guy, or a fourth or a fifth chance? Because I got those chances, you know? I got those chances. Now, at some point, if they're a detriment to the team, we always got to make those tough choices, right? As coaches and as humans, but man, I'm always trying to, one more shot, man, one more chance. Because you never know. That might turn the corner. That might be the light switch to make that happen, you know? I wish everybody would get the chance that I got. Because, look where I'm at, man. Who would have thought this? I go back, and I have to pinch myself sometimes. In 2016, I couldn't get an interview. I couldn't get an interview. In 2021, I was the head coach at University of Texas.

• 54:54Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 54:55Speaker 02

  I'd won a national title. I'd been in the NFL playoffs. It was an incredible journey, you know? But that wasn't outside of, A, the love and support from my wife, and B, working hard. And then just trusting who you are as a person, man. Like, I'm a good dude. I've gotten to the point of, man, I know, I'm a good dude. Why do they like me? Fred, you asked me that earlier? I said, I think I'm a good dude. I really do. I think that I like people, I get along with people, I try to find the good in every person I talk to, and I try to let them feel me of exactly who I am, and then I just try to bust my butt and do the best job that I can do at whatever I'm doing.

• 55:37Ryan Clark?

  I love the story. I love the effort. And I guess from us, I just say, failure only defines people who refuse to rewrite those definitions. And so from the pivot, man, just keep writing.

• 55:50Speaker 02

  I appreciate it, man.

• 55:50Ryan Clark?

  Appreciate you, Coach.

• 55:51Speaker 02

  Appreciate you guys coming, man. That was really cool.

• 55:54Ryan Clark?

  Yes, sir. You guys are great.

• 55:55Speaker 02

  All right, young man. Happy belated again. Appreciate it, brother, for sure. Older you, Coach. Forty-nine, dude. Young man, young man. It's gonna be the best year of my life. Here, I've been telling everybody this, okay? You know, at the end of the first half, when you get, you get the ball back with like a minute and thirty? You know, the coaches use that term, lap 'em. Like, we're gonna score at the end of the first half and get the ball to start the second half, score again, so I got the ball, forty-nine. It's gonna be the best year of my life, and then fifty's gonna be even better. We're gonna lap 'em.

• 56:28Channing Crowder?

  That's the positivity I need out of my.

• 56:55Speaker 00

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 57:05Speaker 00

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