Levar Woods | WUW 524 - Washed Up Walkons

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Wehave a big one on deck today.
The summer lineup of great guests onthe Washed Up walk Ons Best Iowa podcast
in the world continues today with noneother than Coach LeVar Woods, one of
our favorite coaches from when we playedin Iowa City another situation where he played
for Iowa and now is coaching forthe Hawkeyes. One of the most enjoyable

(00:20):
podcasts for US three of all time. You guys are gonna love it.
Let's have a day, Let's go, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight is a

(00:54):
pretty special one for this podcast.Here we get the opportunity to bring a
conversation that we very much enjoy havingbecause we're very close to this individual now
much more than just coach, buta friend and a mentor and somebody that
we all look up to quite abit. But you guys are gonna get

(01:15):
a chance to hear from Coach Woods, who is an absolute legend of a
human being, a football coach,a maker of men, and somebody who
you don't just show up and playfor. You would walk hand in hand
through the gates of hell and kickthat sum bitch down if he asked you

(01:36):
to do so with them. So, Coach Woods, it's a pleasure to
have you. Man, I justjump at any opportunity to get to talk
to you anymore because it's too fewand far between. But tonight we get
that opportunity. So thank you verymuch for joining us. And I can't
really wait. Yeah, thanks forhaving me. Glad to be here.
I appreciate the introduction there too,Man, that's pretty intense. I appreciate

(01:57):
the man, Coach Woods. Youcan't you can't give somebody who is that
meaningful a lackluster introduction. You didn'tdo ship half ass when you coached us,
so I can't do half ass introductionon you. Man. I appreciate
that. Appreciate that. And asI told you, coach Drake's taking a
bit of a hiatus. You're you'rethe only one that can get him back

(02:20):
to this show nowadays. I'm justglad to see the guy. Man.
Last time I saw him was Ithink a wedding. The wedding, yep,
I missed you when I was inPhoenix this time past, but yeah,
be a wedding. Does does Drakelook like he's any any more worse
for wear since we played or sinceyou played. No, that guy looks

(02:42):
fantastic. Man, he's got this, got the flow going, tally,
got training, working hob to kicksomeone's But hell yeah, all six guys
that I've signed on the dotted lineto fight have backed out, Coach.
I don't doubt that sounds like thesix and oh then right, uh technically,
oh unfortunately, undefeated. You saidmaker of men and your intro drake

(03:06):
and uh and and coach quite literallybiologically is a maker of men. He
has a son, and that Isaw this was news to me. Mason's
a hawkey. Three hours ago Masonbecame a Hawk guy. And I don't
know how much you can talk aboutthis because now you're in a weird position,
coach. Uh, but I'm sureyou can talk about it as a
dad, just having a son committo a from the dad perspective. I

(03:30):
don't know how much you can likespeak on him like, oh, he
runs great routes, we love hishands, all that stuff. But congratulations,
coach, that is a that's gotto be a cool feeling for you.
Yeah, I appreciate it. Idon't know what the rules are either,
so I'm probably gonna keep a realbland but yeah, keep it off.
But from a father's perspective as youas you stated earlier, so that

(03:51):
at the answer of the lay islistening. This is from a father.
They don't have any power anyway anymore. I'm definitely going to say that either.
But respective, it's really cool.It's uh, you know, from
Washington, guy to be born andevery day driving his mom, driving me
crazy at the house, to geta chance to see and be around guys
like you. You know, allthree guys. Grant not you, I'm

(04:13):
sorry, man hasn't been around youyet. But being around you guys.
Kevin actually coached his eighth grade teamone year. All the coaches coached his
generous term. I think I showedup to about six practices all year.
But I didn't know that you madean impact, man, you made an
impact. But you know, justbeing in this billy along with guys like
George and Noah and TJ. Andyou go go down the list of Kirksey

(04:36):
and Hitchins and Morris, those guysthat uh that he's been around and who
Tory and all the guys in itinclude you you as well, that he's
been around. It's been it's beenpretty cool and obviously, I cannot say
enough great things about coach parents andjust the what he's done for me in

(04:57):
my life as a as a playerand then as a coach, and then
having a son have the opportunity toplay for that. I hope any of
you guys that have sons, youknow, that have an opportunity if Coach
is still coaching during that time.God, because that we're looking at like
twenty years out right, there's noway for us. But I understand what
you're getting at. Yeah, andI'm over for one already. I have

(05:19):
a daughter, So if they havea chance to play for a minute,
it's pretty cool, you know,to hear those messages that he's imparted on
all of us for years. Yeah, how relieved is the missus? The
missus is relieved for this recruiting thingto be done managed. Yeah, the
whole different ballgame when you're a whenyou're a parent, it's a different deal.

(05:41):
Like we recruit every day at work, right, every day. I
understand it and understand some of thecrazy things and things that happen, things
that are said, and but shedoesn't get it right and he doesn't get
it. So it's just a differentjust being different on this side. Yeah,
so he obviously had other offers andstuff. I don't know how much
you can talk about it, butwhat was it like kind of being on

(06:01):
the other side of it, LikeI'm a D one football coach and there's
other coaches for other programs recruiting myson, Like, I don't know,
like that is weird as that weirdfeeling kind of to give advice on that,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, fromit's it's definitely strange a little bit.
It's it's kind of cool when someoneelse sees something that that you see

(06:25):
or maybe even you don't see inyour own kids because you're around them so
so much, you're so close tothem, you know that. It's it's
cool when that happens. And andpeople extend those opportunities, but it's an
opportunity, right, And then he'sgot to decide what he wants to do
for his future because you know,none of as you guys know, we're
not you got it's a lot ofhard work that goes into it, a

(06:46):
lot of time and effort, Likeit ain't gonna be me doing that.
I got my own stuff going on. So yeah, he's got to do
that and figure it out. Whereis it, where's he want to go,
where's he want to live, who'she want to who's he want to
coach him? Or all those thingsthat you've got to go into making a
decision like that. And you know, as you guys know, it's not
just a four year decision. Thisis like a forty fifty year decision that

(07:08):
you've got to think about. You'reabout to You're about to get a whole
new family. Yeah right, You'regonna have the best friends for the rest
of your life, right. Yeah. It's not even friends, man,
it's blood. Yeah. I meanwe Coach was I think Coach was with
because you you played with Dallas,right, Dallas was out Dallas to our

(07:28):
teammates. Yeah. And and wewere on the phone earlier today. Mason's
hanging out with Dallas and his kidsdown to tight end you right now.
I mean that's that there. Yourun in some wicked routes. I don't
know. I messaged you on oneof those, one of those routes you
posted. He got in and outof that cut like butter, Yeah,
it's cool to have you know,like those are like his uncle's right.

(07:50):
You talk about George and Dallas's prettygood uncles. Yeah, so some other
guys that he knows there's been aroundjust from being in you know, being
around football and hanging out and havingDallas be your be your chaperone for two
nights, isn't isn't the worst thingthat can that can go on. There's
a lot of people that that wouldlove to get imparted with some knowledge by

(08:13):
Dallas Clark. So it's pretty prettycool. He'll talk their ear off too.
He's probably got that, that isfor certain. We had like a
three hour podcast with the guy.Yeah, he's Mason's probably doing a workout
tonight like ten eleven pm. Dallasis going to have running wind sprints after
tight end you today? If Iknow Dallas, uh at all? And

(08:35):
uh but yeah, that's that's sick. I mean, and you're right going
back to the what you're signing upfor, Like it's it's weird to have
your kid. It's like, okay, is there big boy decisions now?
Like this is a huge commitment.There's a lot of work that goes into
this. We played with a bunchof guys who had all the talent in

(08:56):
the world we could name off.I mean, we can name off half
of more class that we lost toattrition over the five years we were there
more than that. Some of themfor other reasons, but like some of
it just guys just weren't ready forthe workload. Like it's just hard to
be a student athlete. So that'show cool would it be to have your

(09:20):
old man there to kind of justhelp you through it? Though, because
everybody has their old man on thephone, you are most you call them
and get some help. But atthe end of the day, man,
you have a shitty practice, youcan just walk up the stairs, kick
the door closed and be like,you know, coach, I need you
to be my dad right now.I'm fucking frustrated and shit ain't going right,
And it would just such a nicething to have. That's my perspective,

(09:45):
unless I don't. If I didthat, you know, Todd,
Todd would have been like, sorry, buddy, had a shitty practice.
I mean, you were getting workedout there. It could go wrong,
you know, it could be onthe other side. I don't know how.
I don't know how cool that's goinggonna be. Yeah, there's some
intense moments for sure at home,So I can only imagine what it's like,

(10:07):
yeah, yeah, and he's gothe's got mom at home to help
him. He doesn't have here,So true, it would be some truth,
some truth told. I imagine.I imagine a lot of moms would
be uncomfortable if they if they foundthemselves at a daily practice at a Division

(10:28):
one facility, done that and donethat to be Iowa City, could be
anywhere around the country. There wouldbe some There would be some sad moms
about about the kind of criticism thattheir sons have to go through. Uh
yeah, coach, we want totalk football and you coaching now. But
this, like we said, goesall the way back. You mentioned it.

(10:50):
This isn't just coaching for you.This is like you're you played,
you were a Hawkeye before you werea Hawkeye. Coach. Can you give
us, like a quick cliff notes, how much you remember about being recruited
to play at Iowa. You camein right at the turn of Hayden Fry

(11:11):
and sort of that you know itwas, it kind of got a little
bit sloppy at the end there.Coach picked up a team that was I
think your first season. I don'tremember the years. The first year you
were there, ninety nine, wasit? My My junior year was nineteen
ninety man, Oh, so youwere a little bit older than that.
Even so, there was a coupleof years there where you guys were,

(11:35):
you know, search great. Wewere great, Tyler. Don't forget we
were great. Well, the showis the record is the show. But
we were great. Something was goingright, something was cooking, because a
few years shortly after was probably thegreatest three year run in the history of
the program. So what do youremember about being recruited to come play for

(11:56):
Hayden Fry And how did your recruitmake go out of high school? I
think the only thing I have hereis we know west Lyon right, got
it home, greats high school,greatest high school in the country, just
for the record in then tell youwhat it's in Iowa Football Feeding Factory.
Yeah, gotta be something a lotgood man. My head coach, coach

(12:20):
Jay Roswim is still he's a Hallof Fame coach, hall of fame person.
They don't they don't make people hallof fames or for being a person.
But you can look that up asthe Iowa High School Hall of Fame.
He's in it. But he's stillthe head coach man, he's had
a phenomenal, phenomenal run. AndI've shared this with him, so I
don't think I'm speaking out of turnsharing on a podcast, but he has

(12:41):
completely helped mold and shape that community. You think about it, he's been
the head coach there since I wasin I was a freshman in high school.
I graduated in ninety six. Almostdo the math, and I'll let
you guys do the years. Years, thirty years. You think about the
of of young men that have comefrom that through that program, and then

(13:03):
he's coaching, you know, kidswho's then had kids who still have kids.
He's coaching people's grand grandkids. Andto have that kind of impact on
people and impact on young men anddevelop and shape the community, that's pretty
impactful. And so he's still going, still doing it man, and still
he still looks like a million bucks. Still coaches with no shirt on.

(13:26):
Hell yeah, no no shirt on. Legend, how does he look.
He's in great shape, man,great shape, great shape. Now that
is actually kind of beautiful though.How how a man in a mentor position
like that can have an impact ona small community, especially like a small
town in Iowa. That's uh,I mean, that's kind of that's the

(13:48):
kind of longevity you don't find anywhere, right, No, I mean very
rare. I mean we were experiencedsome of that here at Iowa football right
with with coach parents. But theguy like Rosie, everyone called him Rosie.
I still call him Rosie. Thiskind of impact he's had on people
is phenomenal. Coach, can youI don't want you to say anything the

(14:11):
UF feel comfortable was saying, butcan you talk about how big of a
blessing it has been to have coachFarence as the Plymouth rock that is not
moving, it's not going anywhere,and you know that the program is going
to be on the same track becauseyou have the same great leader. Yeah,
no, it's awesome. So Itell people this all the time.

(14:33):
Back when I used to have likecurly hair, and he used to sit
in the seats over at the otherfacility out this one, the one that
much older. We got to tasteof that, We got to taste you
guys, got a little bit ofa taste. That thing was polished up
quite a bit when you were there, but it was still the original form

(14:54):
when I was over there. Butlisten to him that the speeches he gave
in the in the spring of nineteenninety nine of the some of the same
things he talks about now, thethings that are important right about football and
about life, the same thing.So, and let me tell you,
Tyler, you alluded to this earlier, that there were some lean years early
on. We had won one gamein nineteen ninety nine and won three games

(15:18):
the next year. I mean,that's like, I can't even fathom that
anymore to think about, but thatwas That's what it was like then.
And I'm telling you the same messageshe gave then he gives now, whether
you're you're talking about in twenty fifteen, you guys are all around for that
that you know that's an undefeated season. Those are the same messages he was
given then. So that, toDrake's point, that just proves you the

(15:41):
Plymouth Rocks, the kind of guyhe is, the steady, the steady
leader. It's phenomenal and it's likeit's refreshing to come to work now every
day because it's not always easy.You know, we've got a lot of
challenges and things that we face herecoaching. But to have a guy like
that that you can look to andyou know, it's not super high.
He's not super low. And Itell people this too. I think I've

(16:03):
seen him and it's probably best dayprofessionally and probably his worst day professionally,
and same thing personally, probably hisbest day and maybe even worst day.
You know, I don't I don'twant to get too far into his personal
life. But like, the guyis steady any man, and that's that's
not you don't see that anymore.You don't see that in life anymore.
Steady and be able to look athim and be able to not sure what

(16:27):
to do. You look at thecoach Farnce and he may not have the
answer, but he'll at least makeit seem like he like he has the
answer always. And he can alsoalways find a way to make everybody feel
calm and like positive about any situation. That will always think you can get
something done. Yeah, that's agift. He has a gift like that,
and that's very admable. I swearto God he is. He has

(16:52):
magical powers. That's the only wayI describe Coach Farance, not just with
like the coaching the person of thepersonal ability to communicate. But I always
go back to like how he rememberspeople's names and families, and it's unbelievable.
I don't understand how he does it. The craziest story is the one

(17:14):
that we had. I don't knowif you remember Colin Fisher that he was
one of our He was one ofour managers while we were there. We
had him on to bring, youknow, the football manager perspective for an
episode, and he talked about hisfirst day coming into the complex. He
had never been in the complex yet, other than to come out and like
do his run through for like atrial run to you know, basically his

(17:37):
application or rudder. He steps inthe building. First person he sees is
KF. Never met him, KFknew his name. Then the manager who
hasn't worked a day yet. It'sunbelievable. And like in today's day and
age, where you have coaches thatmight they might get through years at a

(18:00):
place, they might not even knowa player's name, and you've got guys
like KF who know everybody in theprogram and their social security numbers just in
case they forget, just like theyneed it. Yeah, the KF,
oh shut out a clue, Igotcha. You need to fill in a
form, No problem, Okay,we're gonna be fired laughing these jokes.

(18:26):
No, But seriously, like asa coach, as a player, that
was great, right, Like tohave somebody he is the most steady is
the best word for him. Butas a coach too, in the wild
world of coaching, it's got tobe it's like something that you guys don't
even have to worry about. It'slike it's got to be so comforting.
Yeah, it's it's unheard of.It's very unique. And uh, you

(18:48):
know the gift that he has tobe able to remember people, remember names,
and remember events, score things likethat, and that's it's silly plays
that happened in the third quarter intwo thousand in the second drive, we're
going we're going this way and youknow, I think it was third down
like that. Stuff is unbelievable tome that he can recall things like that
in conversations and people's names something.Hayden had that too, right, Hayden

(19:14):
had the ability to remember your name, remember certain things that happened to you,
or certain things about your family.We were talking earlier about recruiting Cluve,
and my recruitment was blackluster at best. Uh, Like Iowa State was
my first offer. So think aboutthis, this is how long ago.
This was not to date myself thatmuch, but I got offered by Iowa

(19:36):
State after coming off the field afterthe semi final game of playoffs my senior
year, semi final game, sothat you're talking about like November. That
was late in the process, right, So that's my first offer. And
then took a visit to Iowa State. Thought I was going to go there,

(20:00):
had everything lined up, and whileI was on my visit, Hayden
Fry called my hotel room. Sothink about there's no cell phones, there's
no no way to talk about powermove. Yeah. No, I think
back of this now, like,man, that was that was pretty sick.
But at the time I was like, man, why is he calling

(20:21):
my hotel room? But he calledmy hotel room in Aimes on my visit
there to let me know that theywanted to offer me a scholarship. So
again fast forward, now this isthis is the next so the state finals.
I could I could ring my highschool friends right now, Man,
they will tell me the exact day. I think it's like November sixteen or

(20:41):
seventeen. I think the sixteenth oftwo thousand or November sixteen, nineteen ninety
five, we lose the state championshipgame, not that I remember that or
anything clearly. Still, next thenext weekend, I'm on my visits i
a Woway stay. Hayden calls,says, hey, we want you to
visit. We want to offer you. Now, I'm thoroughly confused because,

(21:04):
as crazy as to sound like,at that time, everything everyone leaned to
Nebraska. Oh yeah, our houseat the time. They were they were
it. They were it at thetime, but they didn't reprove me.
And so it was like for me, that's where I thought I wanted to
go, even though that would havebeen a terrible fit as I look back

(21:26):
at it now. But so atat Iowa State, Hayden calls, I'm
confused. I leave. I alwaysstay, thinking I was going to commit,
but I didn't. My mom forcedme to get in a car the
next weekend to take a visit toIowa. I did not want to go.
I wanted the whole thing to beover with. And now now I'm
watching, you know, watching thiswhole movie play out with a seventeen year

(21:48):
old in my own in your house. You just wants to tell it.
I was like, I've seen thismovie before. Man, I've seen it
before, but uh, I didnot want to go. I was at
my friend's. Her mom just madeus all the snacks, you know,
the toastinos, pizza, here's thechips and dip. Here's some sodas for

(22:08):
you guys get those movies. Everyone'shanging out and my mom's like, I'm
coming to get you. We gottago, And so my mom puts me
in a car. That's right.So it just me and my mom and
sister growing up. And my momput me in the car. We're going
to Iowa City. I told thecoach we were coming. We're going to

(22:30):
go. We get in the carand it's normally probably a six hour drive.
Just under a six hour drive toIowa City. Took us thirteen hours
a snowstorm. No. But mypoint with all that is, so that's
how recruiting. When I got Iwas said and actually loved it and loved
the people loved I look back atit like, I can't imagine if I

(22:52):
would have gone anywhere anywhere other thanhere, but fast forward. So then
you fast forward call it twenty thirtyyears running too. Coach Fry, he's
back here for the last time isin this building. Probably before he passed,
he came out to the team andtalked to the team, and I'm
just having a conversation with him.You know, I did not play a

(23:14):
meaningful snap for ad and Fry,but he remembered everything about me and my
recruitment, my mom's name, mysister. This is thirty years later,
you know, and he's much olderat the time, and I was dumbfounded.
You remember my recruiting business. Yourmama is the best mama. She
drove you all the way here inthis snowstorm. With his accent. Yeah,

(23:36):
it's wild, But I mean coachFarns has that gift too, that's
crazy. So both those guys arephenomenal with that. That's unbelievable. So
this is what makes me sad becausecoach Farans obviously can't coach forever. I'm
sure there was a point where,I mean, you were right there in
that towards the end of that,you were there for the transition. There's
probably a lot of people who feltthe same feelings that a lot of people

(23:57):
sort of feel now with coach Farans, it's like he seems immortal in the
coaching world. But at some pointguys hang it up and just like want
to want to hang out, youknow, they want to be able to
like, you know, he's gotvacations to take with Mary at some point.
Uh. And I'm probably like,there was probably some people who thought

(24:17):
like Hayden Frey's gonna be here forever, and then he wasn't there. Now
we got this new guy, CoachFarrence. Damn, that's crazy. That
is a wild story. He foundyour hotel room at Iowa State and sniped
you from there. That is crazy. No cell phones. I think that's
even more unimaginable than we can eventhink of, because of which hotel are

(24:41):
you staying at? And how doyou get the person gets you your room
number? How do you call thefront desk and they're like, yeah,
sure, here's here's this number.Crazy wow. And he remembered it all.
That's wild. You remember it all. He remembered. The trip to
my mom took like you know,normally a visit star arts on Friday night
when you get there, my visitstarted. I didn't. We didn't arrive

(25:04):
until like five am, you know, and I was my mom was like
She's like I got to sleep fortwo hours or something before we joined the
rest of this group. But thesmart mom, by the way, obviously
very smart. Yeah, what wasit about Iowa City or is it the
staff? What what made you wantto commit to Isle right after that?

(25:26):
Yeah, So I'll spare some detailsof this Iowa state and some details my
visit to Iowa City. But man, it was just it was just I
didn't feel I felt like there werethings just fell out of place there,
let's put it that way. Andthen I got here and it just seemed
like, Man, it's really easyto be here. Everyone's cool, you

(25:52):
know, going downtown, being aroundpeople, all that stuff was was was
really cool. I think I canshare this story because I I was talking
about it not too long with aformer teammate whose son is also going through
the recruiting process. I think we'reon the statute of limitations of your recruiting
visit. I think so, buthe's he's not on his I'll just say

(26:15):
this person was not born in theUnited States of the continental United States,
let's put it that way. Buthe's one of the first people I met
on my visit here to Iowa City, and man, he might he was
the nicest guy I ever met man, the nicest guy and just super welcoming
and just a giant, just agiant dude. And now you're giving it

(26:37):
away too much. Look scary kindof little growth. But man, he
was just a super super nice dude. Man And I ran into him later
that night downtown and it'saw a littlebit different side of him, but it's
still still just a good dude.There's a really good teammate. But but
you know, during that time,it's crazy, I didn't think about that
going through all things like that wasthe height of Tim Dwight. Who you

(27:03):
know, if you grew up inIowa, you heard of Tim Dwight.
Yeah, there was Again, thinkabout this, there's no internet, right,
so it wasn't like you're getting TikTokfeeds or Twitter feeds. You had
to like know, you had tosee him on the six o'clock or ten
o'clock news, listen to the radio, know about Tim Dwight or or Tavian
Banks, like those are two dudesthat were from Iowa, that were dudes,

(27:26):
dudes, and that like seven hoursaway, that's how far apart we
live. But I've heard of thoseguys and to see them in person like
man. That was. That wasreally impressive. Cedric Shaw bill Inge go
through those those kind of guys,man, that was. Those are legendary
guys to me at that at thattime. Did you have any moments where,

(27:48):
Okay, Iowa City feels right,I get to campus for first camp.
Oh man, maybe I don't,but I just got my ass beating
practice. Maybe I don't want tobe here day. Was there any of
those like welcome to college moments foryou? We always asked that question.
Hell, yeah, those are myfirst two years. The whole, the
whole, the whole first year wasa blur. Man. I got my

(28:10):
ass kicked every day, every dayby Ross Burba who was the first round
pick for the Green Bay Packers.And I was a defensive end at the
time, fresh off the turnip truckfrom from Alboard Iowa Northwest Side, lined
up playing scout team against Rossberger.And he might have been the biggest,
the biggest jerk you could ever imagine, man, he was. I was

(28:33):
a rush in I'm coming off theedge and once once I'd see him,
I just power down and hit theground and he put his knee braces right
in my back, you know,and then I try to get up,
pile, drive you right in theback. But he was training to be
a first round pick. I wastraining to just kno, get ass kicked,
you know, like a small townkid. Wasn't quite sure I belong

(28:55):
there. But that was every daymy first year. Man every day and
yeah, no, that was everyday. And so every time I'd seen
the locker man, I would getnervous. So here's a funny story for
you. So that was he gotdrafted after that first year. Fast forward
ten, eight nine, not eventhat, probably eight years. I'm sitting

(29:18):
in the locker room in Detroit,where I was playing at the time,
in the off season, take ashower, come out sitting in my locker
in walks ros Berber. Dude,Rothberber walks in. I immediately just start
getting getting panicked, the same feelingthey signed him as they signed him as
a free agent in UH in Detroit. Man, I was so nervous when

(29:41):
he walked in UH and I triedto avoid him, and he couldn't have
been nice. He's like, oh, Man, I remember you. You
you know you're a hawk eye thisand that we ended up like, you
know, connected, And when welived in the same uh, in the
same little I lived above a UHcoffee shop downtown and burn Have in Michigan.
He lived right around the corner inthat area, so we would ride

(30:03):
to work every once in a whiletogether in his Lamber, in his Lamborghini
and you know, driving super fast. But hey, old fella could fit
in a Lamborghini. Big, thisdude, a yellow Lamborghini. Man,
Wow, I they could fly.Made me a little maybe quite nervous,
but that's hilarious. He walked inthe NFL locker room and I still got

(30:23):
still got nervous. However, manyyears, ten years later, that would
be like if Brandon Sheriff walked in, I would still yeah, he still
flinched. Yeah, for sure,I'd be like, hey, man,
I hope you remember me. Dude, Brandon, Brandon somebody that I wanted
to have on this podcast. Ijust don't know how to, Like,
I mean, I do know howto reach him. I just don't want

(30:45):
to go that back channel, likeget Ike to give me his phone number.
So I like, because I'm honestlyscared of him still uh quite literally.
Day two of our first camp twentythirteen, him and Sloat, who
I didn't know was a gentle giantat the time. Threw me in one
of the vans so that we sothat MRF could drive us away and get
to the back to the meal faster. And dude, I don't know,

(31:12):
could still be wrecking vans. Theythrew me in and I sat between them.
It was like the middle seat onan airplane share. I mean,
it's like sheriff and slow. AndI'm sitting there and I think I'm texting
Lauren, who's girlfriend at the time, and I'm like, I don't I
think I'm in the wrong place actually, because these humans aren't built like me.

(31:36):
Yeah. Man, if you ifyou don't have PTSD and you didn't
hate your life your first year ofviable football, I'm not sure you did
it right. You did it wrong. I agree, man, I agree.
If you's a smooth sailing for youyour first year, you're either like
super elite athlete, freak show athletes, or you didn't care. Yeah.
The next question that was going tocome to my mind, which isn't as

(31:59):
relevant. Maybe it is. Youcould tell me you're not coach. But
a lot of the guys we talkto now in this podcast, and we
have players on are like our ageor younger than us, where our generations
are just not as tough or committedas your guys's generations were. I was

(32:19):
going to say, if you gotyour ass beat for two years, was
there any ever any thoughts of likeI should try and transfer, or like
maybe give give up on this?But I forgot like back then, you
guys just kind of hammered out careers, no big deal, and you guys
were good at that, and thensome are somewhere along the line society just
lost that ability to stay committed tothings. But were there any of those

(32:40):
thoughts? Okay, so I've gota couple of theories on that. I
don't think there were definitely those thoughts. They definitely those thoughts. I did
want to leave, I did wantto transfer. That happened in second my
second year, so be coming afterthe second season, so I have I
came in as a defensive end.Even though I thought I was going to

(33:02):
be a tailback. I quickly gothere and realized I'm not going to be
a tailback. Well you did haveLet's see, it's in the it's in
the thing right here. A twelvehundred rushing yards your senior year. Yes,
I did, okay, which Ishould have had like four thousand because
my my fullback was the guy blockedfor me was Kyle Vanibash, was an

(33:22):
All Pro defensive end. What latestsecond? Hold on? You and Kyle
Vanderbosch played it West laying together?You guys going to talk about underachieving under
it just didn't win the state title? What fuck? Did here? We
go? Here? Coach? Youand Kyle Vandenbosch together together. He was
the full back. I was thetailback. I'm about to blow your mind

(33:45):
right now. I was the oldestOkay. I was the tailback. He
was the fullback. We had anoffensive lineman named Luke Vanderstandon who played at
Iowa State. He was the yearafter Kyle, and he had a cup
of coffee in the NFL, Ithink the forty nine ers somewhere. He
went to camp in the NFL.And then we had a fourth guy.

(34:08):
Another guy that played with this wasa freshman named Darren Natchez who got drafted
to play baseball. He went toStanford played football and baseball there. And
so another girl in another athlete inthat I think I can't remember. She's
two years younger. Than me.I think named Sherry blow as she holds
all the records for for the Paralympicsin the I think it's the hundred,

(34:34):
the eight hunter, the four hundred, she chairs the Boston Marathon, and
for Paralympic athletes, she's unbelievable athlete. It is like a super decorated athlete,
all all from the all from thesame little school in Northwest. He's
saying something in the water out inWest Line. I would say that there's
there's some but yeah, go backto coach. I'm gonna go back to
coach roseven Man, like he setthe tone, set the culture, and

(34:57):
was just him. There are otherguys, there are the coaches there as
well, but you know he's thehead coach. He deserves a lot of
the recognition, the teachers, thepeople in that community. It was like
this growing up, man, youeither so there are thirty two boys I
think I'm writing this, there arethirty two boys in our class. Twenty
seven of them were out football.And so you either you either played sports

(35:22):
or you worked on a farm orhad a job somewhere, some blue collar
job. I was about to askwhat are those other five doing? Like
like get what the program here,and we were lucky to get twenty seven
and two classes to play football andwe had three hundred and fifty a class.
Yeah yeah, I mean, Idon't know. I kid you not.

(35:43):
Man. There's there's I keep there'sa group chat that somehow a friend
started like probably five six years ago. At some point. There's there's some
communication every single day on a groupchat. That's awesome that those guys that
grew up with. But going backto what I was, what I was
saying that Kyle was a fullback.I was a tailback. The greatest like

(36:07):
underachieving performance ever is that I rushedfor however many yards you said that was
with Kyle Vanibash as the fullback.You know, kids in high school who
choked the title game got to betheir defense. Hey, listen, man,
we're a team. Okay, we'reteam. We all were, we
all worked. I take full responsibilityfor my last loss in high school.

(36:30):
I say I choked it. Ihad a part. I had a part
of that. That's crazy. Wedidn't make plays and we needed to make
them. There was a phantom holdingcall on a throwback kick return. Phantom
holding call. I still haven't watchedthis game on VHS because I refuse to

(36:51):
watch it. Thirty years later thereps were bought. I'm not saying.
I'm not saying that. What isit they sell the game? Coach or
if we need listen, I watchedI watched those games of Dome every year,
man, every year to this day. And they run on the TVs
out in the hallway, and I'vegot one up here on the screen here
and then one on the on mycomputer screen. I'm watching them like throughout,

(37:15):
you know, throughout the now.They played the semi finals in the
finals, and we watch them here, man, and I get PTSD every
time. I get great memories like, oh man, that was awesome,
my boys, the best time,time of my life, and then I
get PTSD thinking about, man,how the hell do we lose that game?
Is that one? You have togo back and check the tape.
Yeah, we're gonna have to findtape. I'm not watching that, but

(37:36):
I know some people that will giveyou that tape. Right now. I
need to see the kick return.That would be great. Speaking of tape,
if you could get the All twentytwo film for us for for IOWA,
that would be fantastic. We'd lovethat just slipping that in there.
Total. Yeah, going back touh before we got the side checked there,
you said you came in expecting toplay running back, and yeah,

(37:58):
yeah yeah. It also goes backto like, hey, what number?
What number am I going to be? I want to be number six?
Hey, Tim d White's that number? No, that's number okay? Well
I also were number thirty two inhigh school. How about thirty two?
Now Doug Miller had that number,he's zero and you he can't have that.

(38:19):
So here are your choices. Youcould be number ninety eight, number
ninety six, or like seventy one. Again, I was a defensive end,
right, so I'm like, oh, I graduated in nineteen ninety six.
How about ninety six? Oh?Perfect? I showed up my first
day of number ninety seven. AsClover knows, that's the best number in
football, great number, the bestnumber of football. And I'm to ask

(38:42):
you. I don't recall being asked. I think you said, hey,
you're twenty six. We don't knowhow long you're going to be here,
but this is your number. SoCongress, correct, Kevin. I assume
that they that wasn't consulted. No, I don't think Drake was either I
thought, and this may be givingthem too much credit. The Undernummer game

(39:04):
I played in, they gave meninety seven, so I thought that they
just saw that and they're like,cool, give hi ninety seven. It
was probably just the only ninety numberthat was available. And Drake got forty
five because they thought he was goingto be the next Mark Wiseman, but
he wasn't. So I got fiftyfour. Dude, Oh you did get
fifty game. I remember that now. Yeah, you're fifty four initially and
then they figured out you didn't havehipps. I'm not gonna lie Coach Woods

(39:27):
if it is. It is.One of the things that I regret a
little bit is not being able toplay for Coach Wallace. Yeah, at
linebacker. Even if I didn't play, I would have loved to have played
for Coach Wallace. It was coolto play fullback, but I would have
if I would have known that Wallacewas going to be the linebacker coach,
I don't think I would switched.Yeah, too much head and shoulders,

(39:51):
not enough to hips and feet.I get it, Hey, we needed
you. I still remember. Istill remember when Coach Reid talked about how
much he loved it was on thatIt was a kickoff. I think it
was a scout kickoff and you flewdown the field and go, look at
this going run. Look at thateffort he's got. That is a great
impression. That was a pretty goodimpression. Yeah, that's that's what I

(40:15):
remember. The player that puts youon the mat man. That was when
all of a sudden, like man, we gotta find we're gonna find something
for this guy. And found ppperfect position, perfect effort, Just give
effort and you'll find somewhere to be. Is there any is there any position
we're lacking right now where we needa guy who gives effort? Yeah,
the one where they just run rightinto him, wrecking ball. Honestly the

(40:39):
one position. Listen, you're stillon the install tape for punt protection.
You're still on for real? Wow? Actually, actually all three of you
guys are I don't know if Iis it? Is it when I I
mean, the staff was high,but I'm guessing the protection was solid.
I'm just gonna throw it out.Guests there, you put those install tapes

(41:00):
together about six years ago and justhaven't updated them. Yeah? Absolutely,
absolutely? Uh, are we stillyou probably remember, Uh, Drake,
there's one where your boss, Uh, it's it's great teaching man, because
it's combat, isn't the combat?No, not that or not not to

(41:20):
that point. Yet your boss likeuh kind of had like a little sloppy
footwork and like whist on a guyagainst Penn State, and all of a
sudden you had to pick up yourguy and his guy and uh and some
guys come scream. I use thatas a teaching example all the time,
like how we can't put can't putuh the position the position that Drake played

(41:42):
in a buying like that. Weall got to handle our business. I
remember the rep that you're talking about. But we got it done right.
The punt got off. We gotit off by the grace of God.
Man, I'm not sure think off. There were several punts that were close
over the over the time. Uh. One of them being when I snapped

(42:04):
it high to Clusi and he decidedto reverse out the other way. Yeah,
snapped and half man by Devin Bush. That was that was That was
a great job by Ucluve because wegot a first down targeting call maybe targeting
call. It probably top three badsnap in my career and uh, only

(42:24):
time kaf Ever put his hands onme. You were about to kill Calu.
I was, I was on Kalusi'sthroat and caf came and horse collared
me. That's wild. Only timei've well, other than him getting piss
at us at the Rutgers at halfat Rutgers and then yeah, that time
is the only time I don't thinkhe has been steady. It's crazy.

(42:46):
Five years, two moments. That'swild. And what's a shocker? I
brought one of them out. Yeah, no, that's not that's not a
surprise at all. But dude,I don't know about you, but just
think about that. Don't you justmiss being on edge like that? You're
in a tight ball game and atKinnick Stadium and it's like every little thing
matters, and it sometimes all itjust takes a little thing to snap and

(43:08):
yours like, Oh, do youmean do we miss the last time we
felt alive? Yeah, Kevin,we do well. I didn't want to
say it. Yeah, yes,And no, keV, I understand like
the competitive anxiety you're you're alluding to, Not once in my life have I

(43:28):
ever wanted to snap like you ona game day. You're a psychopath psych
ward So and I don't call himpsych ward for nothing, and he absolutely
was. I fucking loved winning footballgames, all right. Yeah, man,
there ain't nothing better than than winningcollege football games. Because the the

(43:49):
effort that you have to put into be a collegiate football player throughout the
entire year is so razor close tonot worth it. But twelve saturdays,
man, when you grind it outwith your family and you get the w
it is heaven. It is bliss. It's worth it. Talk about how

(44:10):
much work goes in on the coachingside, Yeah, I was just about
to ask winning as a player winningas a coach similar feelings, one better
than the other. What what What'swhat's the locker room feeling for you after
a win these days compared to actualwinning, actually winning? Yeah? Like,
yeah, well, I mean there'snothing better than playing. Wait,

(44:32):
I'm going to back up. Whatis not actually winning? Well? No,
no, I mean like the actualwinning or I guess me, I
think I misunderstood the question actually winninga football game? Yeah, yeah,
like like winning a football game orbeing a part of a win, Like,
there's nothing better than playing. Solike coaching is a second right,

(44:53):
a second to that there's nothing betterthan playing, so like you do a
little bit of the taste though,yeah, a little bit, yeah for
sure, for sure. So butI would say it's playing. There's nothing
beats playing. Man, I'm sorryyou're with your guys, your your busses,
your butt like, uh, Kimra, who says is you Drake is?

(45:13):
I think talked about the razor thinlike to the point where like you
want out, you know, youwant to, man, and then you
don't, you don't tap out,and you stay in and somehow you're victorious.
Like, man, there ain't nothingbetter than that. That's a player.
And I tried to tell us too. Yeah, yeah, everybody tried
to tell us everyone And listen,man, there's we could all tell stories

(45:36):
of this all day. But there'sa point where every player has to has
to go through that point where they'regoing to quit before it becomes worth it
to them to play football. Youasked that question before. If I ever
come close, Like, yeah,I saw my second year. I wanted
to quit. I think everybody does, and I think it's makes it even

(45:57):
more rewarding to push through. Right, It's like you have the those doubts,
you have those like, man,I don't know if this is for
me, but you find it incietyto push through and make a successful career
out of it, and then youcome out the other side it's like,
I can get through anything life's gonnathrow me. After that, I literally
was just about to say, don'tyou think it forges a more bulletproof mindset
when you're on the brink of quittingand you're just like, no, I'm

(46:22):
just going to put one more footin front of the next, and I'm
just not gonna stop walking. Andthen by the time you make it through,
you're like, yeah, I'm bulletproofnow, dude. Like I work
a tough job and I get likeshit thrown in my face on a regular
basis, and like these big enormousgoals I got to hit, but it's

(46:43):
nothing compared to you know, whatyou mentally and physically put yourself through through
five years of VIAB with football.I think about it, Yeah, I
think about it all the time.In parenting, like you know, everyone
says, like, man, parentingis hard, Like you know what you're
doing, your lock of sleep,like to make all these decisions you and
your you know, the relationship getsstrained and I just think, like,

(47:05):
damn, though, have you everrun sixties with Doyle? Because I've been
through some ship bro, Like Ireally I really saw other dimensions out there
on that practice field, and likeparenting feels pretty easy, get almost to
that, right. So that's whatis though, Like you're locked into being
a parent unless you're going to bea deadbeat. Like you're locked in.

(47:27):
You don't have a choice, right, yeah, I mean generally, oh
football, Like, no one's forcingyou to do it, right, you
can leave whenever you want to.We had a make that just left middle
of them. He ran out ofthe commissioning Shout out to him, man,
shout out, dude, I knowyou're talking about. Yeah, I'm
not I'm not saying we won't wewon't drop a name. But he quite

(47:51):
literally on a fifty five just keptrunning. Run moment you just say this
is for me anymore, I'm done, man, the man. More power
to them because everyone, everyone hasto decide if they're going to do it
or not. And it's funny youguys are talking about the sixties. I
took We went over with the specialiststoday to the to Kinck to do working

(48:12):
in the stadium, We're walking downthe stadium stairs and man, I got
PTSD thinking about we sue stadium stairs. So that's before your time. That's
yeah, we didn't do that.We never did, actually, Coach,
they dropped that the year that wecame in because the class above us used
to talk about their freshman year doingstairs, and from the moment we came

(48:32):
in, there was never any morestairs in like thirteen. It was nuts.
Man. We watched him Dwight raceup and down these stairs like we
do thirteen reps up and down andI get to like eight and I want
to want to just quit, man, just quit. And it was then
you had to know like the nextweek you came back, you are eight
this week, it's nine next week, and then it's ten and that's eleven.

(48:53):
Yeah, thirteen, and I'm gonnathrow up. That was brutal,
man, Like that was like youwant to talk about the harsh things I've
done and like to me, butthere was such a mental block with the
Drake's point, like you get throughthat part, you get through that hurdle,
then you feel like you can doanything after that. I mean,
so that sounds hard, but tome, that's like an acute, like,

(49:14):
hey, it's a one hour workout. It's gonna suck. Like,
hew, I'll get through it.Yeah. When I think about like the
hard ship that y'all went through,I think about, like I remember one
camp. I'm asking you, like, hey, what what a camp looked
like back back when you're there twentyone days? And then you're like,
all right, well, you knowthe first day we had practice in the
morning and media day in the afternoon. Second day it was full padded practice

(49:39):
in the morning, full pic practicein the afternoon. And then day three
through twenty two were same as Daytwo, same as August fifth, as
as August fifth, same as Augustthrough. Yeah, I'll break that's jump
out of the ban come in andcoach would say, hey, we're not

(50:00):
gonna wear pants today, but you'resomewhere shoulder pads and helmets. Well,
yeah, run around the locker room. How beat up? Where you got
obliterated? The hardest thing to getthrough. We needed that, though,
man, we needed it. Youknow, like you asked before Kevin,
like about Clinton and all that stuff. And after I went from the end

(50:22):
to tight end, Hey, maybehe's a tight end. Okay, maybe
he's gon go back to d Endand I'm like, I told my mom.
I was like, Mom, Idon't want to go back, and
she told me. She told me. He's like, listen, you got
to go back for spring football.You're going back to second semester of my
second year. Like if you getthrough spring football and you hated that bad,

(50:43):
then then yeah you can transfer,because I want to transfer to to
Northwestern College in Orange City. Iwas shot out Northwest no way. Wow.
The head coach in Northwestern they wonthe Nationals, they went back to
back championship games, and the headcoach there was a college team or a
high school teamate in mine. He'sdone a phenomenal job and he's a really

(51:04):
good football coach. But that's wheremy my high school friends, a lot
of them went to Northwestern comfortable,and it was like, hey, I
want to go back. I wantto go back home. But I didn't.
And I went through that spring Aminute sucked. It was awful,
but I got out of it,and I've kind of carved a little niche
for myself as a pass rusher.At the time. I couldn't pass rush

(51:24):
anything right now, but at thetime, and then I went into my
third year, and then I'm playingon special teams and got a role on
h and pass rushing, and thenthings just started started to click, you
know. So I but that That'show I feel like every player has that
has that moment where they got todecide am I going to do this or

(51:44):
might not? And and I cansee it now in kids clear as day,
like, hey man, putting it. I wasn't putting enough time,
I wasn't paying it. I wasn'treally paying attention. I was just kind
of being there at the time.And but now I can see that in
kids pretty easily. But it took. It took I had a strength coach
that said it, hey man,you can do this, and I have

(52:07):
my mom saying you're not. You'renot quitting. And I think it was
you clue that said, you know, the generational thing is this is this
different? You know, we're softernow, like I don't. I don't
think so, man. I thinkit's more you guys, your generation,
because I will say I'm older thanyou guys that people kids today have more

(52:27):
information. I didn't know anything atthe time. There's no think that there's
no internet. You couldn't I didn'tknow who the recruits were in the school
next to me, you know,because unless you saw them in a track
meet or you competed against them,you didn't know who was good or it
wasn't good. Now kids all knoweach other. Kids around the state,
around the country all know each other, right, they all have information on
one another, just from a recruitingstandpoint. But I think it's more so

(52:52):
like guys are basically just felt like, I don't think I have any other
options, right, you don't knowyou have no apperances, blessed kind of
thing. Yeah, very much so. But once you once you have more
information, once you know more stuff, think about it, like if you
were in the NFL, Like,once your buddy retires o ship man,
Like, may I need to startthinking about this. That's that's kind of
how how it works, makes sense. And one guy retires and the next

(53:15):
guys again, man, this isn'tfor me anymore, and the things start
to start to snowball. But youweren't even able to put that kind of
stuff in your head at that timebecause you didn't you didn't see it,
you didn't know it. You didn'tknow what everyone else was doing. For
the better, yeah, for thebetter, for the better. Now information
comes right to my right to mypalm or right to my wrist. I'm

(53:37):
my watch. You know you getthat instantly. H. Now you say
you pick these guys out now thatyou feel like are kind of like on
that like cusp of like saying forme, what what what do you see?
Is it like it's is a demeanor? Is a body language? Is
it already? Like? Uh?What? What's what's like some of the
telling signs that guys like kind ofon the edge of Yeah, the demeanors

(53:59):
one thing for sure. I thinka lot of times kids come in here,
they have everyone has doubts, man, But let's let's not say kids,
because everyone does, no question.I think all three of us can
vouch for that massive amounts of them. Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's
not a day that goes by Idon't doubt something about myself or like me.

(54:22):
Yeah, Seth makes demeanor of anoun, a verb, and adjective.
It's everything, it's everything. CoachWallace made demeanor his persona. Yeah,
sorry, I had to I hadto derailize quick. I had to
pull up the goat walls. Sure, so that's funny, man, But
uh, but you can see it, and again everyone comes into thinking they're

(54:45):
going to be the guy, andalso they get they get punched in the
face. By those sixties, you'retalking about, oh my god, we've
got to push the we got topush the sled, and awesome ship gets
n I realized you don't know anything. You don't know anything because when you're
when you're ignorant and you're you're blissfuland you think you think football is foot

(55:07):
ladders that you see on Instagram andyou think that, hey, I'm going
to go to this camp and I'mgoing to do this. Oh I ran
fast for forty Like, man,that doesn't mean anything. You know that.
You get in there and you starthitting people and you start being hit.
You start seeing guys like, wellI ran a four or four.
Well yeah, so the brand isSheriff. I think that's three hundred pounds,

(55:28):
and things get real different all ofa sudden, and then that's when
people start like, I'm not surethis is for me, but you can
sort you can kind of see that, and you just have to remind people
that that you're going to grow,you're going to change. You can need
more time in the weight room,the skill, your skills have to improve.
You got to put in time forthat. All that stuff can be
developed if you stay with it.If you stay with it, you stay

(55:51):
on, stay on the train,and stay on, stay with it.
I remember, Uh, don't thinkabout that. They want to bail out
right away and get off the train. Then once you get off the train,
man, you can't get back on. Do you find it hard to
recruit to players and sell that messagelike hey, like this is not going
to be like year one, yeartwo deal, Like you're gonna have to

(56:12):
put in at least two three yearsof work before like this is probably gonna
be the right fit. Yeah,can you even tell a guy that anymore?
I mean, like god, Ithink when it depends on where you're
recruiting, what area you're recruiting,and like where the kid comes from.
Mm hmm. You know, likeI was talking about the State of Iowa.
Recruit in the State of i recruitsome of the recruit back home where

(56:34):
I grew up, and those kidsare playing three and four sports. You're
not going to be playing three andfour sports and walk in Iowa and be
like, yeah, I'm I'm gonnastart playing football Because you just don't have
the skill yet, right, butthere's potential there and if you stick with
it, if you you learn theskills, you learn the system, you
get in the weight room, youdevelop your body, like, yeah,
you're gonna play and you're gonna doreally well. You're gonna you can grow

(56:58):
quicker than guys that are a onesport or even two sports. They have
a they probably have a bigger base, you know. But those kids,
they tend to see it because they'veseen guys like like you guys you know,
they've seen guys from the state orfrom the neighboring states will come in
and work their butts off and doneit. Whereas there's other areas I recruit

(57:20):
where they think, again, theythink you just walk in and because you
got offered you know this many starsthat you're going to walk in and be
the guy. They may have atalent to do that, but they don't
have some of the You know,you've got to be careful with who you're
selecting and who you're recruiting to knowwhether they have I don't want to say

(57:40):
all parts the right word, butbut have what it takes to the fit
the program, right, they fitthe program. That's a better way.
But centure to say that because ofthe coaching staff at Iowa and the culture
that you guys truly like embed intous to the point where it's just the

(58:04):
only thing we're thinking about is theteam, and one foot in front of
the other, leave the jersey ina better place. We have I think
one of the country's best player developmentprograms. The amount of talent that the
Iowa coaching staff y'all are able toget out of the players is like legitimately

(58:27):
maximal from each player. And Idon't know if there's other coaching staffs around
the country that can really say,yeah, we took an amazingly talented player
and took him to his max potential. But the Iowa coaching staff takes the
players that you guys are, thatyou guys recruit and absolutely squeeze the last
thing we got out of us.You know, do you agree coaching staffs

(58:52):
don't turn Josie Jewel into a fourthround draft pick, no offense, Josie,
you know what I'm saying, Like, it's just the Iowa coaching staff.
The Iowa coaching staff finds a wayto get everybody to their peak.
I was thinking, well, coachwas talking there and he said he they
see guys like you, guys thathave come before them, And I just

(59:14):
thought, in my mind, Iwas laughing because I just thought of them
putting like our freshman faces up onthe wall, like, look, these
guys played here. Oh seriously,these guys played here. I don't know.
I was one with the short hair. He looks like he was on
meth. He did that back inthe day. You know, Like what

(59:35):
you're talking about, Drake, there'sa lot of truth to that. But
I've been on both sides as aplayer and as a coach, and I
will tell you I have no problemsaying this, Like, no one's coming
to Kinnick Stadium to watch me,coach, right, coach right, They're
coming to watch the players. Soit takes someone mentioned Josie Jewel, like

(59:59):
Josie like that dude man like he'sgot he's a different dude, man like
he's top from the neck up.He's got something different. He's got something
different. And so what it takes, in my opinion, is it takes
a man or a person to uhthat has some of that stuff, which
all of you guys have it,or you wouldn't have to do what you've

(01:00:20):
done and be where you be oryou've been that you have that inside.
It takes a coach to find thatyou and push the button then get it
out of you. Now, thethe plan to train you in the weight
room, the way to develop you, like, yeah, you got to
have a good coach that knows thatyou got the system that you play defensively,
offensive, special teams like yeah,you got to find you got to

(01:00:44):
be able to put people in theright place so they can be the best
version of themselves. But like men, don't don't ever a mistake that it's
the player's got to do work.Players are going to do work. We
can keep pushing you and bring inthe water and and all that, all
the stuff we try to do ascoaches every pope proud and motivate, but
the kid's going to do the work. If the kid does the work,
then if we've done our job onthe front end recruiting, then typically results

(01:01:07):
are what they are from a playerdevelopment standpoint. I mean, it's a
simple, not easy process, right, It's like you follow the process and
it's generally going to work out wellfor you. Like you might not be
at all big ten, you mightnot even be a starter, right,
but you follow the process that islaid out before you. You know,

(01:01:29):
you've got a bunch of examples andolder guys that are in the locker room
that have done it, gone throughit, and are at the position they're
at there, and things just generallywork out. Right. It's the guys
who delineate from the process that that'sus right there, cav that's us.
Three, We, you, me, Drake all had guys older than us

(01:01:50):
in our Drake had a little bitof a path, you know, like
he thought maybe linebacker, but thenfull back. He had maken it.
But what's cool is that I gotto I got an opportunity to learn just
about being a football player from JamesMorris, Chris Kirksey, Anthony Hitchins.
Like, you can't have better mentorsthan that three. When I think of

(01:02:13):
our freshman year, I think ofJames Morris, and I just he freaking
wrote the book on how to succeed. And it was like to me,
it just seemed easy. It's like, Okay, do what he does and
like you, maybe not you mightnot be simple, not easy. It's
simple, not easy. He's laidout before you put your head down and
go to work. Criiter was ayou don't have to. You don't have

(01:02:36):
to. It's not a whole lotof stuff to figure out, right,
No, it's been figured out.Yeah, you just you just now have
to replicate it. And Crier wasthe same in my position, Casey.
Those four months that I got withCasey were massive, Like He's like,
this is basically how you do it. You want to have a successful career,
just follow this and like here youthere, there you go. Uh,

(01:02:58):
Bone, you haven't asked a questionyet, do Let's get in here.
What do you got for coach?Yeah? Uh? Coach, So
with your time coaching special teams,Uh, you've coached some amazing punt returners
between Emir h Cooper this year andthen even like Charlie Jones. So I
wanted to ask you, uh,what's the difference between a good punt returner
and great punt returners? Like thoseguys? Okay, so be a great

(01:03:20):
punt returner. I would throw otherguys in the Kyle Gronawig Yeah yeah,
shout out West line again, youknow which? I think I only rejected
him twice before we find for coachRose only told me twice Hey, this
is this guy can play for you. And then the third time is like,
all right, yeah, I guessyou're right. Uh, but as
a punt return, I guess itwas really good. Man. Yeah,

(01:03:43):
he's a greedy motherfucker. Yeah.To answer your question, Grant too well
makes a good punt return in mymind. And you got to you gotta
have nerves to steal to do it, and you've got to be You've got
to be able to stand back therewhen the bullets are flying and traffics come
in and be able to field theball and catch the ball after that.
Man, there are a lot ofit is just finding seems and hitting it.

(01:04:06):
But if you're not willing to goback there and and feel the ball,
feel the punt, then it's hardto be hard to be great.
I mean you talk. Micah Hideis another one who Mike and I we
laughed still this day. That wasthe first punt returner I had coached.
I'm like, man, God,I was such a bad coach. I

(01:04:27):
told him if if I was coachingyou now, and I promise you'd be
all American Department. But how doyou coach a guy like Micah Hyde who
has all this pure talent and instinctson his own, like punt turning is
a lot of instincts if you ifyou would agree, it's decision making is
who can makecisions really fast? Andthen who can feel the ball? If
you have if you can make decisionsfast, like judging the ball quick?

(01:04:49):
Okay, can I feel this one? Can I? Can I return this
one or not? Uh? Thenyou've got to go through the decision making
process. Okay, let me backup. Can I feel this one or
not? Uh? Then it's like, all right, I can feel that.
Should I return it? Or shouldI fair catch? You know?
Do I want the yards right here? Or ship? Man, I'm about

(01:05:10):
to make a play. You know, you got to go through that,
and it's got to be quick.And then the great ones have had the
ability to stand back there, Hey, I want to return this and know
they're about to get hit as theycalled it, Like Charlie had that.
I feel like like KG had thatgrown wig that Cooper we all saw that
Cooper made one of the greatest playersI've ever seen in my life. Man,

(01:05:30):
that that will never doesn't doesn't countin the statu sheet bounce in this
podcast, brother man, let mesay we didn't. We didn't touch,
we didn't block the soul on thatnot a soul, not a soul.
And if there was a penalty onthere, it wasn't. It wasn't this
in my opinion, Like, Iknow what the refs say, and they
saw we had a guy fresh reliefover the shield. That call that that

(01:05:55):
that's a penalty, But whatever theysaid, it was not penal. You
know who the best was, LikeI've never seen I've never played with anybody
as instinctual as Desmond. He wasthat we didn't talk about Desmond. Desmond
was phenomenal with that man the key, feel the ball, real natural to
talk talk about instinct. Desmond knewwhere people were going before they were going

(01:06:17):
there. Yeah. Yeah, andhe and he would toy with people too.
Man, he was he was veryRiley McCarran. Riley, Yeah.
My hot take is I think Desmenwas better than kiper I do too.
I think you're not getting any argumentfor me. I just saw Cooper.
You know, from my standpoint asa coach, I feel like as a

(01:06:41):
coach got better. You know,you're a little bit better and you learn
a little bit more and like,hey we should try this. We should
drill this, We should work onthat and the later guys they benefit from
that. Whereas to your point,uh, psyche board, I'm not sure
that Desmond now like he wouldn't gooff just like Michael would go off.
I think right now if he was, he was playing here now. But

(01:07:04):
you know, you don't get that, you don't get those opportunities. I
want to say Desmond was built differenttoo, like he and Cooper were built
similar. They're they're thicker guys andout their legs and they don't go down.
Yeah, bounce off. Desmond wasbuilt like running back. To be
honest, Yeah, might have maybeshould have gained them all on offense.

(01:07:26):
I don't. I know. It'sa sense of subject. So we tried
that with Cooper and they tore ashuit up. Uh. Speaking to special
teams, yeah, and you've playeda lot of special teams in your tenure
in the NFL. What do youthink of the new kickoff rules? It's
gonna be different. You're talking aboutthe NFL kickoff rules, right, Yeah,
Yeah, it's gonna be different.I've had a chance to see two
different teams, their plan of attackand kind of how how it's gonna work.

(01:07:51):
And bolt the Ravens and the Chiefswho wouldn't visit their their practices,
and it's gonna be different. Ithink it's gonna be good though. Uh.
For one, it saves the play, right. The alternative was if
they don't make a rule change,they're going to get rid of the play.
Ye special teams involved. They werethey were talking about like starting drives

(01:08:14):
like you do in junior high,where hey, just put the ball in
the twenty and go no kickoffs.That would have been horrendous. I mean,
that's like some guys livelihood right there. Of course, yeah, of
course that would have been real bad. But at least they saved the play.
I think it's going to make thingsmore exciting. It's going to get
more returns, going to make alittle bit harder for to be making tackles.

(01:08:38):
I think the kicker is going tohave to be involved in making tackles,
oh man, which is going tomake things It's really interesting from roster
standpoint, like who actually kicks off? Mm hmm. I talked to Tory
had dinneratory earlier today because you knowhe's back for a couple of days.
He's like, yeah, we're goingto alternate who kicks off, Like,
well you're kicking off and then he'slike yeah, drop kicking, laughing,

(01:09:02):
and I was like, you knowyou're gonna have to tackle, right,
We're gonna to get you bummed upon on how to tackle. Or he's
big man actually the first time,like I actually met him in I knew
he was big on and they listhim or whatever. But then we went
and did one of Keith Duncan kickingcamps and I stood next him like,

(01:09:24):
Jesus, dude, you are aunit like no wonder he can absolutely missile
balls. But yeah, that wouldbe to see if Tory Taylor drop kicks
kickoffs for the Chicago Bears and thengoes down and makes tackles. Sign me
up, good guys, A legend. Man got the legend forever. I

(01:09:46):
think the rule is good man allthe way around. You know it's going
to force, It's gonna get more, better returns, more excitement, keeps
the keeps the play alive. SoI'm all for it, I hear you.
But tell me why we should bringback the wedge? Yes? Why
should we break back? We shouldbring it back? Right, I mean,

(01:10:08):
everyone loves it. You're also talkingto a guy who made his living
breaking a wedge, hence hence thescar across my nose. Hey, man,
that's what I did, like Ithink every kickoff senior year is.
I was just going into the twoman wedge. But listen, you went
to the two man wage. Iwent to a five man witch. Yeah,
all right, we are not thesame, all right, I'm not

(01:10:30):
saying that at all. So therules have changed to save people's lives.
Let's start there. Save I justI just want you to know that I
would have ran into a five manwedge for you, coach, was literally
you were literally playing a game ofsixty yard red rover. Yeah, listen,
man, you're still you're still oninstall tape too. I'm thinking about
this award on twice. So kickreturn, okay, two gap and two

(01:10:57):
gaped. My guy was still makingyour block, okay. And then you're
also on for you blew up withyou and a Mony Jones right there.
You know, you blew it upand Minie Jones came plying in and just
like wreck, some poor kid fromMan just snapped his leg. Question,
coach, do you remember the Northwesterngame at Northwestern in twenty fifteen where it

(01:11:26):
was the first time that you putme on part return and you said just
stay in the A gap and threepoint stands, and you said run as
hard as you possibly can. Andthat guy it was me and Bud Spears
having a race to see who couldfuck these dudes up the worst. You
guys are trying to split through andtrigg it your handsle trying to get our
hands on the ball. I rememberthat. Yikes, Hey, I got

(01:11:49):
hey, Drake, I got ajob for you. Yep, what do
you want, coach? You're perfectfor It was Drake was probably psyched.
Dude, are you kidding me?Dykes? Uh specialty Jones? I gotta
I got, I gotta ask becausehe was one of the most fun guys

(01:12:10):
to watch rundown on a kickoff.Any other any other dudes that you remember
either from your playing days or coachingdays that were like just awesome dudes to
watch on kickoff? Marcus Collins,Dude, Mark was talking min too.
Listen, man, I coached MarcusCollins at linebacker. He almost got me

(01:12:30):
fired, like every day, somy so listen Marcus Colins. Marcus Collins
on kickoffs like yeah, man,dude, make some place, but man,
a linebacker got he almost got runningback door on everything he ran.
One time, I kid you not, we had a receiver wearing a red
jersey just got back from practice orjust got back from injury, wearing a

(01:12:51):
red jersey. He's running a shallowroute. You know, you guys don't
know all the red jersey. Imean, nobody touches this guy and this
dude. Yeah, man, Idon't want to bring it up because coach
may remember in just based on twelve, this dude caught the ball on a

(01:13:13):
shallow route. Marcus Kahn's you knowbackpill breaks drives on the sky style.
He cleans him, He cleans hiskid and starts, whoa that was him?
Dude that I'm screaming like, no, Coach Farris just lost him.

(01:13:36):
Manh how funny would it be?It wouldn't be because we would be hurt.
But if Coach Farance came out randomin the summer and goes So I
listened to a podcast this past weekendand uh, you know, something was
brought to my attention that I hadforgotten about. And we we love what
coach, We love what coach whatis done for the program, but yet

(01:14:00):
he just cannot be a part ofthis organization anymore. He he allowed one
of our players in twenty twelve toactually get sent to the emergency room on
a cross route. Listen, Iwould I would take that, take it
based off. But it was sucha dumb play too. And this dude
just gotten back from injury and hejust killed him, just crushed the Collins

(01:14:25):
was good at one thing, andthat was killing people. But anybody,
anybody else back to Kevin's question thaton kickoff, on kickoff, that were
just dominant, sit again or puntor anything like? Who who did you
just love watching rundown and make playsin special teams? Bob Sanders, I
mean, for sure, kid,he's aliens. Don't count you guys all

(01:14:48):
remember like when first day installing kickoffhe is teach tape. Yeah he is
that Gableman man, That Gableman wasphenomenal kickoff. Yeah, he he was
phenomenal. And I was playing inthe NFL. I used to I couldn't
wait because I played in Arizona.The games we're at eleven in Kinnick,
but they're at nine o'clock in Arizona, so you get to see him before

(01:15:10):
you know the for Saturday walkthrough.So I'd be watching him. I can't
wait to be lining up to theTV watching number fifty one come oration down,
blowing up five VN Wedges and theClayton kids. But he was fun
to watch, I thought, Man, I mean to be honest, like
fifty two Jones, Like god man, he was good on kickoff. Oh
man, man a punt, nothanks, because he's gonna get that pump

(01:15:34):
blocked. But god man, hewas good. I always liked, especially
older Davante Young. He was reallygood. Especially Yeah, I think Devanta
Young was a victim of COVID whereyou know, he didn't have he wasn't
able to work out that year andall that stuff had everything got pushed back

(01:15:56):
a year and it just wasn't timefor I feel like if he was,
if things are a normal track forhim, I think he'd be playing for
the NFL. He was. Hewas good. Man. He could,
he could do it all. Icould return, he could, he could
block, he could be back asa kick return. He could cover,
he could hold up, tackle,He could do it all. That's that's
hard to do. Here's a slepton one. Brady or Ross Bradie Ross

(01:16:20):
bradyros Uncle Brady Man Uncle Brady.Uncle Brady's still on the instusts they talking
about Hey, man, like yousee all these things, eight nine guys
flying down the field and like thenyou see Brady Ross like just behind them.
Everybody everyone's like taking bullets but gettingknocked off, and Brady Ross just

(01:16:41):
comes down there like two guys.A guy makes a tackle. My point
is, yeah, my point is, you don't have to not everyone has
to be a speed demon. Youknow, you just got to know yourself.
You just got to eat six cheeseburgers, had snack the night before and
be willing to run through a wall, because that was one thing that kid
was willing to do, was runthrough anything that he stood in front of

(01:17:03):
him. I know it's one ofthe more dangerous plays in football, but
I hope and see it uh keepsthe kickoff rules the same because I think
it's it's still one of the moreexciting plays when when it's not a touchback.
I just I mean, obviously,I made my my career off special
teams, but I have it's gota special place in my heart, and

(01:17:23):
I hope, I hope it sticksaround the way it is for sure.
They've got I almost cried when theywent with a fair catch role. Hated
it. I was so upset aboutit. And then after I hear the
explanations of why and like why they'remaking this change the NFL. If they
either make the change or it's out, I'm like, all right, plan

(01:17:44):
make the change. Change. Whenyou uh, well, I guess you
didn't get notified you have to,that's a conversation. But when you take
over full time special teams. Thiswas during our career, I believe right
are twenty seventeen. It was inour career, twenty seventeen, our senior
year. What are the thoughts goingthrough your head as you inherit the room

(01:18:10):
led by me? You've got JacksonSubert and Keith Duncan and shoot At and
Miguel Rasino. So what were youthinking back in twenty seventeen? You had
to be like God, I washanded a ste whack speed wack man,
Like, what what are the tobe honest though, handed a pretty good

(01:18:31):
set of guys, great great guysman great guys not good great, Yeah,
and there's a there's a cast ofcharacters in there that I'm still yeah,
I'm still not sure that's where theycame from or what they're doing now.
I don't know where Miguel's in medschool. He's about to be a
Miguiel. Yeah mcguil, I knowthere's another There's a couple of guys in

(01:18:53):
there that somehow like made in theroom for a semester at least that I
don't know much about. I actuallyasked Keith about it too long ago,
like, man, what were theirnames again? Yeah? Yeah, but
that was a wild time for sure. Ben Canby, Ben Camby, Yeah,
we're going to be Aaron dudes outcome on. No, no,

(01:19:14):
dude, I just didn't know themat all. We was talking to Clover
on that one. No, no, no, nothing against Ben Camby.
When he hit an a ball,he could hit it, he could smoke
it. But we just picked thisdude up off of the campus. Yeah,
we just got it. Was cool. Wild. I mean, Josh
prol is still one of my likeall time dudes at Iowa. He's from

(01:19:36):
Solan just like he was another dude, part time firefighter or something. Yeah,
yeah, wasn't he? Yeah itwas both those guys are with us
for like a spring ball because wedidn't know what kind of depth we had.
Yeah, for sure. So youwant to know, one of the
most awkward things to watch is watchingfield goal period from twenty seventeen in spring

(01:19:59):
spring fork spring field goal. Youyou guys can appreciate this and going back
and watch, I'm not sure akick was made offspring. I remind coach
Aarsbell that sometimes the coach it wasway worse. In seventeen it was Keith
and Caleb Keith and Caleb was laughedby my coach. That was like the
worst wow. And at the time, I didn't know how significant the holder
was to the kicker. And youknow, we're like, hey, anybody,

(01:20:23):
everybody want to be a holder?All right, Hey, sure get
in there. Anybody just going thereand be the holder. I never knew
how much how much that affected akick or the operation is crucial, crucial
for sure, for sure. Butthere was not a lot of kicks made.
Coach, I remember, So thisis one of the most This is

(01:20:44):
one of the things I respect aboutthe most about you is your Division one
football coach. You played in theNFL, and that year in twenty seventeen,
you brought me in as the seniorin the room on so many things.
You know, you would you wouldlike grab me and pull me into
your office or as we're walking outto the practice field and ask me questions

(01:21:09):
that I was like, I don'tthink you should be taking my opinion into
consideration here, but you knew whatyou didn't know at the time. And
I realized that as I've gotten olderhere over the you know, and I'm
slightly matured more and that is oneof the I mean, that's one of
the best things you can have asa person, is knowing what you don't

(01:21:31):
know and knowing where you can getthat information. And you knew that,
like I'll just ask Clover like heand not that I always had the answers,
but I was just amazed at howlike vulnerable not a great word,
but as a coach you were tobe like yeah, humble to like,
hey, klove, I don't knowthis, Like what do you think about

(01:21:51):
Keith? Or like you asked mea lot about like even how their days
went, how I felt like theywere doing mentally, Like that was crazy
to me, and that I that'swhat you laugh, man, But like
that's that's that sticks with me heavy. Uh. Just like a lot of
coaches, several that we played for, would not be I would not do

(01:22:13):
that. They wouldn't do that.First off, if if you're not talking
to players, you're not understanding whatthey what they think, and where their
head is at, then I don'tlike you're a bad coach in my opinion,
because the players the ones playing,and they're the ones that know you're
the one that has to go onthe field, Like I can tell you
where to go and what spot you'resupposed to do and how you're supposed to

(01:22:36):
do it, but you guys arethe ones that do it as players.
And so I think if you're notstarting there, like what's getting players feedback?
I think you're wrong. And butthen the next part is like man,
like, listen, I've never punteda ball or sent anything, and
you know I know how to snap, but I've never snapped in a game.

(01:23:00):
I've never felt that. There's twiceI thought I was going to go
in a game. One was inBuffalo and the wind is blowing sideways.
After our snapper got it was kneeout. And then one was in Tennessee
that one got concussed. The guyin Tennessee hurt his knee, and I

(01:23:20):
thought I was gonna have to goin and snap and I'm like, oh,
I got But my point is thatif you're not talking to players,
then I think you make you wrong. But part of part of everything,
man is knowing what you don't know. I mean, coach parents talks about
it all the time, right,But playing to your strengths and knowing your
weaknesses, playing your strengths and knowingwho you are. If you know who

(01:23:43):
you are, then you usually toyour point. Then you can figure out
what it is you don't know orwhat you know and find the answer.
Thank. Yeah, I mean itwas you pulled me in a couple of
times and I was like, Idon't I don't feel comfortable with this responsibility
right now, guys, I meanit was cool. It was cool.

(01:24:03):
You were ready for it. Youwere ready for you just to know it
because no one ever asked you,no one ever saw that in you before.
Right, Well, well, wedidn't have anybody who there. There
was no special teams coach until then. Yeah, there wasn't a full time
coaching coach. Yeah, Coach Wallacehad us until then. But Coach Wallace
had other ship on his mind wherehe wasn't gonna it was. It was

(01:24:24):
also other you had you had othercoaches where you came in with with other
coaches that were that held the titleyou know self included. I wasn't like
I was in those meetings with youguys. I was next door in the
tight end. So you put anoffense and we had three tight end We
were playing three tight ends, threedifferent three different positions. I still want

(01:24:44):
to I still want to cut ahole in the wall and make a little
door between the At that time wasthe tight end room and the special You
go back and forth. I knowI was used to joke about that,
but at the time, man,that that's why I if you go to
a lot of universities, there aren'tmany full time special teams coaches. There's
usually specially tames coordinators here coaching anotherposition and they have an analyst that that

(01:25:11):
goes with the with the specialists.But there's a lot of trust that goes
into that, like, hey,find out who's the leader in the room.
You were the leader in the room, so hey, man, whether
you want this or not, likewe need your help, so the guys
are going to look to you regardless. And then that was true, and
then try to figure out, youknow, what's the best what's the best
way, what's how to get thehow to get the job done. And

(01:25:34):
as you mentioned, we had alot of conversation because we were we missed
a lot of kicks during that spring. There's a lot I'm talking about missing
missed a lot of kicks. Wemissed more kicks through the summer into camp.
Wait, like that was pretty solidthat year. He goes out McGill
miss four kicks that year, Miguel, Yeah, Miguel was great. We

(01:25:58):
were just coming We were just comingoff of twenty sixteen where Keith Duncan made
his his his debut and Dunk waskind of considered to be, Oh is
he our guy? And then hemissed a lot of kicks during camp and
we went to mcguell late. Iremember that we were in camp. Uh
year. Yeah, dude, duringcamp that year, in the in the

(01:26:20):
field goal practice periods, everybody wason eggshells because these dudes were missing kicks
and we did not know what wasgoing on. I would just snap it
and just hope. We didn't knowwho the part was going to be that
year either. I don't think nortry being the brand news question for I

(01:26:41):
didn't envy you. That's what I'msaying is like, you God, I
mean, I felt bad for you. I was I was yo. Our
kickoff team was elite that year though, yeah we were lead. The Turrant
team was pretty damn good too.Kickoff was elite. Man Gino Stone was
a freshman, you know, doyou know Stone running down field against Penn

(01:27:02):
State Tattoo and this this returner theyhad named Saquon Barkley. Had no idea
that Saquon Barkley was Saquon Barkley atthe time. I remember Coach O'Keefe like,
you know, because he was hewas running wild on as a running
back, but as a returner,like I didn't even know he's in the
game half the time. Penn Statejust kept rolling guys out every year,

(01:27:26):
every every return And remember Ken o'keethwas like, are we really seriously going
to kick it off to this guy? Yeah, we're going to back one.
I think we tackled on the sideof twenty like three times. We
talked about the side of the twentyand we had to kick off after Sainty
Miguel had hit a great ball,you know, went down tackled the dude
on like the seventeen. Yeah,twenty Now he had like two hundred and

(01:27:51):
sixty purpose yards outside. No,but you know, yeah we did our
get into that ship on kick return. I know that. Yeah, exactly
real. Now you've you've done aphenomenal job, and I was obviously got
a reputation for elite special teams forgood reason, for for good reason,

(01:28:14):
and your your name gets brought upas a potential successor. You know,
you've gone from linebackers to tight ends. It's pretty good stuff with the tight
ends there, and now special Teamsis performing at all pro level. What's
next for coach Woods? What uhif if when the time comes? What's
next for me is we've got camptomorrow. God, damn it, We've

(01:28:38):
got camp tomorrow, official business.This weekend, got some stuffs coming in
damn like high school camp. Ohmy brain just hit the floor. High
school camp. And then we've gotwe've got next week starts vacation, man,
five weeks. Nice just next forme? That was just a that

(01:29:00):
was just an unbelievable offenswer right there. That was so clean. That was
so clean. I mean we heardwe you know, applications aren't secret.
Obviously last summer it came out thatyou applied for the I think it was
a special teams coordinator of the Bucks. Like, is it hard to manage
your career aspirations with ship? Wegot camp tomorrow? Like, is that

(01:29:25):
is that a lot to juggle?I would say this, My my focus
is solely on getting better here atIowa and trying to win win a Big
Ten championship and trying to get theNational championship race. And that's that's really
it for me. There are youknow, some point I would like to
at some point I'd like to bea head coach where yeah, we'll deserved

(01:29:50):
our highl college you know, whateverthat is. I I don't know.
You know, I played in theNFL, So sometimes that's attractive to NFL
owners and gms that you know,hey, let's get a coach that actually
played in the NFL. So that'syou know, that's definitely stuff that comes
around. But I can tell youI'm I'm happy as heck here and Iowa.

(01:30:12):
I love it here. I lovebeing around coach parents every day.
There's great staff here, players areplayers are phenomenal, and you guys,
you know, you guys are allare all a part of that too.
That there's great dudes in this building. Man, we got some freaking studs
too that we just need to alittle bit young. And we got to
keep molding them and shaping them andgetting to the point where they can show

(01:30:32):
it and show everyone else what wesee. But it's a lot of fun
here right now. Man here,grant you hear that. He brings it
back around to the players. He'sa professional. He's a professional at this
Listen, there's no one coming towatch this coach. Man, I'm telling
you nobody. That's not true.You're you're like the best special teams coach.
There are people who are like,I haven't made a tackle in As

(01:30:58):
a matter of fact, the lastplay I played missed the tackle. I
think, so like that's been that'sa long time. So I haven't made
a tackle in Do you have onemore in? You can? We can
we get you for a quarter inpads picked man. I had to run
across the field yesterday for the emergencyand I thought I pulled the ham.

(01:31:18):
It is not. I was heelstriking too as I was running there.
There's no football left me strike in. Well, we'll take you here whatever
that whenever that comes up. Uh, I don't want to spend all your
time. It's I hope I didn'tdodge you guys, you didn't. You

(01:31:39):
didn't. We expect that you gaveus more than we expected. I'm going
to tell you this, like,there's that was. That's not the first
opportunity that's come around. I wouldthink not. And but I'm I like
it here a lot, man,This is a This is a great place.
This is a place still that Ifeel like cares about players, care
thirteen kids and like developing them andnot just hey he sucked today, get

(01:32:02):
him out. Who's the next guy? There's a lot of that going on
in college football right now, forsure. I also keep going, I
hope you don't think we're trying tobates or anything like that. No,
I know we are genuinely curious becausewe know your name gets thrown around and
a lot for a lot of headcoaching jobs and well deserved to. Yeah,

(01:32:25):
I appreciate it, and I'm nottrying to dodge at all. I'm
just like, this is my focus, you know, so, and you
know half of it. I'm tryingto be a dad too. So that's
as you guys know, at leastclue you know the other two you and
that grant. I'm not sure whatyour baby situation is like, but once
you become a dad man, it'slike game on man trying to figure that

(01:32:46):
stuff out. There's a lot thatgoes into it. But but my point
is that there's so much work goingon here, man, it's hard to
focus on those other things. There'scertainly aspirations the person last, but I
believe that's gonna that'll come to takecare of all this other stuff. I
think it's easy for us to forgetthat too, because we're out of it

(01:33:08):
now. Because I know what you'retalking about, and I remember feeling that.
I remember not even like reading articlesabout the team or looking at Twitter
really when we played, and thatlike that's all I do know because that's
how I consume the team as afan. But before that, I remember

(01:33:30):
as a player, people would asklike what about this? What about this?
And I'm like, we literally arejust trying to beat the team,
like you just like it's such abubble that is so can't be understood unless
you're in it. It's really tough. So I understand that you focusing on
camp tomorrow is quite literally all you'refocused on and that's not a bullshit answer.

(01:33:53):
I don't want to take. Everybodylistening gets like a real understanding for
what I always talk about, forwhy it's so important to have coaches that
your players like, really want toplay for. It's different to just be
a coach or be somebody who yourplayers will answer the phone eight years later

(01:34:13):
and throw the shovel in the backof the truck, no questions asked.
It's like there's a certain relationship thatgets built among Yeah. No, all
I'm saying. All I'm saying isthat if there was a coach, if
there was a coach from the staffthat called me and said, Drake,
I fucked up, don't tell anybodyhere's the address. I'm not asking questions.

(01:34:38):
I'm showing up at that address periodlike that for one second. Man,
That's just it. And I thinkthat's a fucking important thing that these
people listening really need to get throughtheir minds is how incredibly lucky the program
that they love is to have thecoaching staff that they have. They have

(01:35:01):
no idea what the coaching staff actuallymeans to the players and how much more
that the players are willing to gothrough and give because of the men leading
them. I missed you, Drake. Yeah, I missed you too,
man, I appreciate that. Butthat is the truth, man. And
like again going back to the parentpiece, right, So like when you're

(01:35:24):
looking for a place for your kidto go, you're looking for someone for
your kid to be around. Likethat's what you're looking for, right,
People that care, people that careabout you beyond beyond football. And I
mean I think you guys have allhad coaches that have done that, they
cared about you beyond football. Likefootball is a piece of it, man,
And like that's a little piece oflife, and it's a big piece

(01:35:45):
when you're in it, it's it'sbig. It feels like the whole thing.
But man, like you guys allknow, now you're out of football,
you're out of plane, like there'sa lot more life to live,
Like it's still significant. And likeDrake you said earlier, like left time
you felt alive. Like yeah,man, there's there's a lot of truth
to that, a lot there's trustme, there's lots of days I just

(01:36:06):
want to hit somebody. Yeah youthink I'm no exactly. That's why people
do what they do. But it'sgot to fill the void. Right,
whether it's coaching, Drakes does jiujitsuver compizz and CrossFit. I'm going to
do a triathlon this year just tofeel alive, you know, I don't.

(01:36:26):
You got to find something right.One of my favorite things is going
to the ocean, waiting in theocean and blasting in the ways they hit
back. Primal. It's primal.But that's that's in all of us that
played football, that played football,and that love football. Let's put it
that way. But but man,there's so much more life to live.
Man, so much more life thanthan that. And that's where to me

(01:36:49):
if you find the right coach inthe right person. I go back to
Coach Rose when I started talking offabout him, that dude like yeah,
like was he a football coach?Yeah? But that dude changed my life,
man, changed my life. ThenI go forward. I got Hayden
Fry and then you've got uh BobElliott. Then I've got Norm Parker.

(01:37:09):
Let me back up Mark Hendrickson,who Mark Hendrickson took John Olivar Woods like
that came came to I came toWest Line High School when no one else
has ever come, no one elsenever been another Division one player before at
that time at West Line and MarkHendrickson drove all the way up from Iowa
City off like a name in ain a magazine that he had seen to

(01:37:32):
come recruit me. And you gothere and then you got Then you get
coach Ferrence, you got norm yougo go down that list, man,
Like, that's what it takes.It takes someone to believe in you.
And that's what I feel like.Our staff is really good about and caring
about you beyond just the just thefootball football significant man, it's it's a

(01:37:55):
lot, don't get me wrong.But if but if a kid leaves,
if leaves the program, like ifyou guys left the program and said,
man, that guy all he caredabout was whether whether I made the tackle
or missed the tackle. That's that'sbad. That's gonna be a bad spot,
man, bad spot. And everyone'sto the NFL, right, everyone
chases it. Everyone thinks that that'swhy I choose this place. They're gonna

(01:38:19):
get me the NFL. Man,that's a blip in your life. Blip.
Yeah, we've tried to we've triedto get it across to the people.
Hopefully when we get to talk toyou, we got to talk to.
Who do we get last year,abdul Braithwaite. Hopefully it comes acrossdel
Liddell. Hopefully that all comes across. We talk about all the time how

(01:38:44):
coaching is potentially the most unhealthy professionever because you guys are doing stuff like
this, not all the time,this, but watching tape recruiting. You
guys never leave the building, swearto God, coach, coach read before
slept? Yeah, have you sleptthere before? Probably? Yeah, for
sure. Yeah. There was onetime. So you guys talk about twenty

(01:39:06):
seventeen, right, that was myfirst year being especially ex coordinator. Well,
I was also still coaching tight end. So I was doing a twenty
two kids or twenty kids. Iwas responsible for their academics, their social
life, their home life, likestuff that you're you know that you gotta
worry about managed for a kid.And by the way, I didn't go

(01:39:27):
to class a lot that year.I'm sorry, I'm not I passed.
But what I was to say isthat there was one and that was my
first year, right, So,like we're installing a kick return and I
realized, like, man, there'sa bunch of typos on the kick return
playbook. And I'm going back throughand then you start going on a rabbit

(01:39:48):
hole. I remember one time ata kid you not I'm wearing the same
clothes and I'm in here. Theguy leaves, like hey can I Doug
Janitor came back in and I'm stillright Here's like, oh you're in here
early this morning, and like Ididn't have a hard time, Like I
haven't left this man have a left. Where I was going with that was

(01:40:12):
I don't want to be the reasonthat we give you another one of those
nights. So I'm gonna kick itto Grant here, who usually caps off
our questions. Maybe Drake or Kevinhave one more thing to ask, but
I don't want to. I don'twant to hold you forever, So Grant
anything else that you got on yourmind? Yeah, I guess the last
question asked us to the coach.We had it on last summer. Is
there anything that you see the playershave now, like access wise in the
facility, or anything that you reallywish you had when you were a player?

(01:40:35):
Man, all of it? Areyou kidding? Meet these kids think
about this weirdly. So I hadhad breakfast a bell Hodge in Manson today,
right, and we're sitting there,we're laughing because the kids have it
there in the prime life. Right, So summer, oh up early,
Yeah, you're training, but man, you're just ten o'clock your days.

(01:40:58):
Your day's over. Really, it'sthe greatest period that a man can experience
in their life for like pure fun. Yeah. But you you get done,
and they're all they all got teatimes lined up, playing playing this
game. Uh. And but thefood's ready for them, right they're going
through picking. Uh, who's heretoday? Stella was here? So like

(01:41:20):
make your own amas, casadillas,burritos, all that, all that stuff.
So back in back in the day, it was like you got done
and then you went to your houseand you went through your pantry or your
cupboard and got your food and youmade your you made your foods. That's
another food has to be the answer. It's all answer hour and a half.

(01:41:43):
So you got that, And butit's already made for you right here.
You're just walking out with it andgoing on going on with your life.
And it tastes better, tastes better. You know, you're not having
to go to go to the storeand shop for yourself and budget that.
And first off, The money thesedays is insane compared to back to the
day. We got four hundred dollarssipe and that covered your rent and your

(01:42:06):
food for the month. That's that'swhat That's what you got. They get
now a lot. I don't know. I don't even I don't even want
to know, based off of whatwe got our senior, it's got to
be closer to or more. It'smore than two well, I think it's
in the tens of thousands these days. Glouf. Yeah, I mean some
guys, Yeah, it would havebeen It would have been two for me

(01:42:30):
too. Yeah. I think oursenior is just I have two grand a
month, two grand for real,yeah, no choice is like I don't
know what to do it too grand. We thought we were having it good
back then at two grand a month. I'm paying three fifty a month in
rent. I'm like, holy shit, what's I don't even know what to
do with time to go to riversidemabbe. I've said it. I've said
it at least a dozen times inthis podcast. I have no idea what

(01:42:53):
these kids are doing this money account. I don't even have no idea.
I know what they should be doing. If they're smart. But in four
to one k ra they've all gottenThey've all especially all all got that message
from me. Did you how wasyou this? How would do it?
Yes? And that's again just coachingthe guy beyond playing football, ye,

(01:43:15):
taking care of him for life,Like, hey, put this away,
get ten it. Do the mathon that you're a billionaire if your parents
have the money, they can paythe down payment and they're willing to do
it. Or if you if youhave an I nil deal and you have
the funds to pay the down paymenton this house or property property, man,

(01:43:36):
you collect the rent from your roommates, do it. It's advocate.
It's what I did in Arizona.Yeah, unreal, good question though,
Grant. Yeah, compared to whenCoach played, it's probably you know,
the cold tubs, the freaking practicefacility, facilities, gear, I mean

(01:43:59):
you name it, man, it'sit's way better. The Gear jerseys were
sweet. They were kind of cool. Yeah, they were kind of cool.
That's before they struck the Nike deal. Man. That's crazy. Uh.
That that summer synopsis that you justhad, Like guys walking out they
all got their tea times. Thatthat really sends me back to like the

(01:44:20):
best time of my life. Man. Everyone walked out, went to their
job. Yeah, everyone in scholarshipnon Scotish, we all had to work.
Yeah, kids around. Some guyswere doing were I was counsel for
youth leadership program up and see theRaptor and Marion. But a lot of

(01:44:42):
guys did road construction and house construction. You know they're showing up. There
was a summer where there was asummer where Bo and Travis and all worked
at the trailer park. They workedat a trailer park. Yeah that was
funny. Yeah, I remember,I remember a bower and Joe Jeweles showed

(01:45:03):
up and mulched my yard. Idon't doubt it. That doesn't surprise me
even a little bit. And youbetter have paid him the market rate otherwise
I'm telling the n C double ano trust me. Both was like,
no, it's fine. I waslike, it's not fine. To your
dad, your dad supply, whatare you talking about? Where's the invoice?

(01:45:26):
Great, keV? Anything left forcoach here before we let him actually
sleep. I just appreciate the hellout of you for coming on. And
I love you guys, man,I really love you. Man. I
appreciate you guys, There's about ahundred other questions or topics that I could
bring up maybe another time, butuh hopefully, so I just want you
to know you're tapping out first,okay, Well, to be fair,

(01:45:50):
to be fair, I'm usually asleepby now. Uh oh, yeah,
what time are you trained in themorning. I don't train in the morning.
You don't, okay, hell ha luxury of working for myself.
I like to train after lunch,after lunch. If I'm doing two days,

(01:46:13):
eight in the morning and then onein the afternoon. So what are
you doing in the mornings? Yeah? Usually cardio cardio? Yeah, what's
your what's your method of choice rightnow? Well and crossfits everything. So
wait, my youngest daughter, Whitney, Yeah, we go. I know
you've been there a couple of timestoo, working out. So yeah,

(01:46:35):
I took the kids there, myolder two for the summer one year.
I cannot, I cannot recommend jiujitsu enough, especially for females. My
lady did not think she liked jiujitsu. She went a couple of times
and said she hated it, andI didn't press it, press it on
her, and then she started goingback, what ju ju who can do

(01:47:00):
for like, the self confidence thatfor females in the crazy world is nuts.
Like Kaylee, her anxiety level isso much lower because she knows that
if she goes out in public,if something were to happen, she can
handle herself in a lot of situations. It's so good, man, I

(01:47:21):
recommend it for everybody, but females, especially if there was a martial art
or like an activity to do.It would be more jiu jitsu. Really
yeah, Like the second or thirdperson has said that, yeah, it.
Kaylee's about to compete on Saturday inher first competition, and like that's

(01:47:41):
how into it she is now.Yes, it's it's an infectious type of
thing where you're gonna meet some ofthe coolest people, very similar to football.
You'll meet people that are like familynow. And the relationship that you
build between somebody who you're trying tostrangle each other, it's pretty cool.

(01:48:09):
I told my pack, I don'tremember Pete Car's wedding, but I was
walking around with a dangly arm thatday packed two days before. Uh ship
you tore in jiu jitsu? Yeah, uh huh, man, I don't
read that in my life. Well, you just have to not be dumb,
and you won't do Kevin. Kevinwas trying to ego out of an

(01:48:29):
arm bar. Yeah exactly. Youknow, going back to that overly competitive
thing, you know, not knowingwhat you're doing, so a bunch of
things going the wrong direction and thenyou get hurt. You know, you
were powerless at once at one point, right, Yeah, I still do
that a little bit. Yeah,yeah, I just got to mix it
up. Man, I get bored. Thank you coach for giving us your
time any time. Man, happyto do it. Man, I missed

(01:48:51):
you guys for real. I knowwe were real for real. The backdrop,
the backdrop of looking out those windowsand seeing that parking lot is a
little bit of PTS like early morningPTSD. But I would still show up
for a for a six am specialteams meeting again in a heartbeat. We'll
be back again next week, hopefullyanother guest that I got lined up.

(01:49:12):
But until then, uh, seeyou later. Peace. Hey, thanks
for listening to the show. Ifyou want more, you can check us
out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube by searching Washed Up walk
Ons, and if you're interested insupporting the show, head over to patreon
dot com. Slash washed up walkons where you can find bonus podcasts,
merchandise, and other cool perks.Best part, half of your subscription benefits

(01:49:33):
the kids at UI Children's Hospital.We'll see you next time. Hawks buy a million

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