Recruitable: Hampton University Head Football - Coach Van Malone

A special thank you to Hampton University Head Football Coach Malone for taking the time to sit down withRecruitable: A Sports Family Podcast.

In this episode, Coach Malone breaks down what separates a football prospect from the athlete who actually earns a scholarship offer. He shares what it takes to stay on a college coach's recruiting board, how to position yourself to receive an offer, and why your biggest competition extends far beyond the players you line up against on Friday nights.

Coach Malone also discusses the importance of having transparent conversations, setting realistic goals, and understanding what it truly takes to compete at the next level.

If you're a high school football player, parent, or coach navigating the recruiting process, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

🎙️ Recruitable: A Sports Family Podcast
Real conversations. Real recruiting. Real insight.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

All right. Hello and welcome back to Recruitable. We are excited today. Today we have with us Coach Malone, who is the head coach of uh Hampton University, the Hampton Pirates. Coach Malone, thank you for being here. I know a coach's schedule, especially a college coach's schedule, is always super busy. So I really appreciate you being on with us today. Welcome to Recruitable.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Well, um I'm excited to be here. And uh I I thank you. Yes, uh I do have a lot going on as you see me moving from one location to the other. Um, but I do have a lot going on. But you know what? Anytime we can jump on with you and have an opportunity to wanna share, then then uh I'm excited about that.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah, so just want to go through your bio. So you've seen every angle of football from player to coach. You are a former NFL player, 57th pick for the Detroit Lions, end up retiring with the Arizona Cardinals. You spent 18 years coaching on the Power Four level, and now you're the head coach of the Hampton Pirates. Take me just through this journey and how it goes into what you do, how you recruit and teach players today, considering your extensive background.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Well, I tell you what you just exemplified is that I have a lot of stickers on my bag. You know what I mean? You used to you watch cartoons back in the day and you see that guy was traveling and he got stickers for every place that he'd been. But, you know, for me, it is exactly what you said is is some of the experiences that I've had the opportunity to have in my in my life, not just as a coach, but as a player, they they lead into who I am and how I operate as a coach, and and especially now how I operate as a head coach. I've I've had I've personally had the opportunity to be coached by some really great coaches as a player in my time with the w first of all, in in my time in high school, my time in high school, I had really good coaches, and those coaches always pushed the players, pushed myself and my teammates to be the best that we could be as individuals. But they also teet taught a team concept. So then I went on to college, and the same thing is that, you know, everybody wants to go to just like they do today, everybody wants to go to the NFL, so they're so they're driven by this individualized thinking. But but I had coaches in college that that talked about the fact that that we will accomplish more as a team than we will as individuals. And then I I go to the NFL. Well, that's the ultimate spot where people will think that there is a lot of selfishness going on because there's a lot of money behind the movements.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

But I was on a team, and I was on teams in Detroit and Arizona where where we really we had a a very strong team concept. And it was not as much through the player, uh, through the coaches as much as it was through the players. We had a lot of players on both of those teams with great character. And and so all my life as a player, I was around that. I was developed in that way, a way that that that the team always came first. So when I became a coach, it was easy to translate that to me to to be able to have my players understand the importance of forget about me, what can I do for the team. And uh, and so that's how we live our lives. We one of our core values at Hampton is selflessness. And so that's that's that's how we live our life. And and I think that it's it's a lead in, it's a key to the success that we will be able to eventually have at Hampton.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Nice. You coached a little bit on the high school level too. Coaching high school and college, what did it teach you about developing talent?

SPEAKER_01 4:16

You know, I I have had the opportunity to coach at places. Well, I I've I've had I've coached at Texas AM, and you would say that Texas AM, you kind of get whatever talent you want. I've also had an opportunity to coach at Mississippi State, and because those teams are in one of the top leagues, you would say that those teams get whatever talent they want. Well, I've also coached at some schools who are not in that conference. I've coached in the MAT conference, coached in Conference USA, I've conferenced coached in the American Conference. And so when you coach in s in leagues that are not amongst the powers, then sometimes you have to get players who might need to be developed, who might not be there just yet. And I've had players even at Kansas State where we got the players that we wanted for the most part. Well, I've had to find and coach those players who might need a little bit more development, who might not have been ready, who who might not have gotten all the recruiting that somebody else did. And and so that's what they come there for, is they come because we, especially at Kansas State, we had a reputation of development. And so for me, I take great pride in in recruiting a young man and bringing him bringing him onto our team at one point and then watching him grow through our time working together to another point. And like I said earlier, everybody wants to go to the NFL. So that is that is the measuring stick for me is can I get a young man to be able to have an opportunity to play in the NFL? And that's how I measure, that's how I've measured myself as a coach. Yeah, of course I want to win and go to bowl games, win championships, I want to do that. But when it talks when it comes to my relationship with the players in my room, I take responsibility in allowing and helping them to be able to accomplish their goals. And most of the time, that is wanting to play in the NFL.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

That's an awesome philosophy because for a lot of young men, starting out at Pop Warner High School, that's what they see is going to the NFL. So just your concept of development and the ultimate goal, if you can get them there to the NFL, is amazing. Where do you see the future of football recruitment going in the NIL and transfer portal era right now?

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Well, I I think that first of all, I've always believed that, along with others, I've always believed that student athletes should be compensated. I've always believed that student athletes, not only when I was a student athlete, of course I wanted it then, but I've always believed that if there is a lot of money being made in college athletics. And for a student athlete in 1950, for example, in 1950, what did that student athlete got? He got a scholarship, and that was good enough, right? Because there wasn't a whole lot of money being made. Well, at that time, his coaches, assistant coaches and head coaches and athletic directors, athletic departments, guess what? They were not making any great deal of money. So the playing field was was pretty much even, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Well, in today's game, there's a lot of money being made. Athletic departments make a lot of money, athletic directors, coaches make a lot of money. And so when you tell a student athlete in in in the in the era of 2000s, that, hey man, just go to school, just get you an education and that be enough. Guess what? That it educate, especially at some universities, that is a tremendous amount of money. But when you compare what's being made by the athletic department and what's being made by coaches, then there should be some compensation. There should be some sharing of the revenue. So I just believe that this, this model, this landscape that we're living in is only, it's only the beginning of it moving more to a professional model.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Right. It's like college is the new, the new pro, you know.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

And I don't even know what to say what the pro is now when when you hear about the amount of money that some of the football players are making in college now.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yeah, well, again, there it if they're getting a lot of money, there's a lot of money being made. But what what my proposal would be is that if if if you were a player and and you were this multi-million dollar player, I just want to make sure that you graduate, right? It's important to me that you graduate. So if if you were a $10 million player, then I think if you were to to receive a stipend, right? If you were to be able to get a stipend to to keep you, to sustain you, which it don't take a lot to sustain you, monthly, right? You were able to be sustained monthly with a stipend. I think that to to to have a young player experience that, and then the rest of that money, we put in a trust fund so that when you graduate, hey man, it's all yours, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

But but the but the focus is graduation, right? The focus is not is not to give you all the money while you are in college, right? The focus is to set you up for post-college, post uh graduation. Like that's what we are pushing for. That's what if before all the money was being passed around, that was the focus. The focus was to get this young man to graduate. And so that's still my focus is to graduate. But there's a carrot. I want to put a carrot at the end of it and say, listen, you got this stipend. And if you transfer six, seven, eight, ten times, you're just pushing yourself further away from your big payoff, right? And so now what we all start to do, everybody who's involved with this young man, they're starting to push him towards graduation, right? You got agents, they're gonna push him toward graduation because that's their big payoff. You got whoever, people who might be associated with him, negative or positive people, they're pushing him toward graduation so that they can get their big payoff. And so rather than, you know, student athletes moving here and moving here, chasing what we call chasing the bag, and and they're dropping trend, they're dropping credit hours along the way, moving further away from graduation. We want you to graduate. And so if you can graduate and and and get this big payoff, man, I'm I'm as ex I'm as excited as I can be for that whole process.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Right. Especially if that NFL dream does not happen. Some of these student athletes, like you said, can really set themselves up or take a portion of this money, invest it, and and just kind of almost start their future while they're still playing college ball, if you're not gonna, you know, go to the NFL.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Right. Well, and again, uh the NFL, we we everyone can have that dream, but the reality is that very few players are able to make that happen, right? And so does the fact that you are not an NFL player, with like you just said, with the amount of money that's being passed out, handed out, then there's an opportunity for a young man to be able to set himself and his family up in a very special way and not have to depend on an NFL career.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Absolutely. What do you think about this new five and five rule? What recruitable is about? We did this podcast with the high school athlete in mind, because this is a very different era for young men who want to play sports like football, basketball, it is very hard to get recruited, especially as long as, you know, NCAA was extending eligibility. So you got high school students waiting on 25, 26 year olds to free up some room for them. Do you think this five and five rule will make it easier or harder for high school recruits? And then will we see that effect with the level of college football? Will it change? Will it continue to look the same if your players start becoming younger and younger?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Well, I I actually think it's it's gonna it's going to move the opposite direction. It's going to force teams to have players on their roster who can produce now. And and you would think that a high school player, the overwhelming thought is that a high school player will not be ready to produce now. And so I think the elite level high school players, they're gonna always be right. Though those players who are the five, four-star dose players, they're gonna always be recruited. The special thing about college football over the course of time, over the years, has been that there's always the diamond in the roof. There's always that player that nobody knew about, and now all of a sudden he's discovered and he gets the opportunity. Well, that that player with with this new rule, that player is gonna be harder, it's gonna be more difficult to find. There's gonna be more risks taken. And I I just believe that you got five, and and you got five, and that's it. And and if we make mistakes on the five, then we got four. You know what I mean? And and so I see what you're saying. You you the college programs are gonna have to be more eagle-eyed, and they're gonna have to be more dead on with their choices when it comes to recruiting. There, there's not, there's not gonna be room. I'm not saying in our program, I'm just saying in the overall landscape, there's not gonna be room for the time to develop them. Coaches will be much more apprehensive about getting a developmental player, right? Again, those elite body, the every the one that everybody's recruiting, yeah, he's fine. Nothing will change for him. But the recruit who you had to go look for and dig down deep, that I gotta take a chance on. I don't because he has an opportunity red shirt. Well, that's that's kind of gone away, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

I see what you're saying. So now because you can't take a, say, a freshman out of high school that you see great potential in, but you kind of want to spend a year building them up, getting them physical, maybe he growing, gaining weight. Now you don't have that luxury because the the clock starts ticking as soon as they get as soon as they get there, as soon as they step foot on campus. Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

And so you're gonna send that that level of player, that player is gonna go to the lower levels of football, and then that's when the transfer portal starts to work, right? And so, so you'll see because you always you already see the remnants of that in that, you know, you you go in and get in the division two player, and everybody says, well, how how did that guy end how did this guy end up in division two? Well, he's division two, but now he's at so-and-so university. You know, he's at some power five, power four university, but he started in division two. And you'll see more of that happening, which I've always said to young players, man, just go play somewhere. Just go play somewhere. You you you love the game, just go play, right? Don't worry about the stars, don't worry about the hype. Yeah, I know there's money attached. So somebody said, Are you telling me, you telling me not to chase my dream? No, I'm just saying, just go play. You go play, find a place to play. You want to play the game, find a place to play, and and in this new landscape, you could be discovered. But but I want to caution. I have a a friend of our family. He he had no offers. He had no offers, and he had one school to offer him. Well, I heard him in a conversation, and he before he even got to the university, he he was already planning his exit. I heard him in the conversation say, Yeah, I'm gonna go get me a little femme, and then I'm gonna bounce. Well, I'm like, hey man, you had any first of all, you had no offers yesterday, right? And so now these people took a chance on you, and you're already planning your exit strategy. And I don't listen, everybody, go do your thing, go be you, go do all, maximize your reach, but you know, you can't be planning the exit before you even get to the place, right? Right. And not to mention, like I said, three days ago, you had no place.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

This is true. This is true. There's a small percentage of high school athletes that go on, I think it's like 3% that go on to play college sports. And that's on that's D1, D2, and D3. D2 and even D2 now, you're definitely gonna see some talent and you get there, and it's not like you gotta come in still fighting, still kind of what they call being a dog to even get a spot. Like you, you have to work to get that film you're talking about leading with. There's work to be done on every on every level.

SPEAKER_01 17:25

Yeah, and I I think again, just go and play, right? Right just go and play. And then and then understand that that everybody can't play in the SEC, right? Everybody can't be a first round pick. Everybody's not going to be so so wherever you are, and people always say this in in corporate America, you know, be where your feet, be where your feet are, right? Grow where you're playing it. And and I think that's important because when we learn that lesson as as players, when we learn that lesson as players, we find peace, we find happiness, we find a productive situation. And that, again, that that goes to coaches as well, right? I can't be at Hampton University looking over the fence at another university, looking over the fence, planning when I'm gonna leave this university, right? I have to lock in and be committed to to the task at hand here today, tomorrow, and the next day.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

How soon does the evaluation period start for football players? Is it when they start playing varsity? Is it freshman, sophomore year? What would you say that timeline is?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah, I think I think the honesty of it is, is, is once a young man, of course, you know the rules don't. Once once a person, once a young man or young woman is a high school age prospect or high school age person, then they become a recruitable student athlete, right? And so therefore all the rules begin to apply to them. But, you know, I know I've heard of supposedly people getting offered when they're in middle school. But but generally and truthfully, once you, once you begin to play on the varsity level, right, because if you're high school, if you were such a great player, then they would put you on the biggest stage, right? And so once you begin to play, no matter where you, if you're a freshman playing varsity, that's the biggest stage that we have. Then then you you get you, I think you're viable for for people to begin to look at you, right? To be able to determine where you might fit in their program. Uh it used to be back in the day, it used to be that, ah man, nobody's worried about you until you're a junior. But I I had the opportunity to play uh on the varsity level earlier in my career than that. And so if you're out there with the big guys, somebody's gonna take your name down, right? And so it's about it's about being productive wherever you might be. But but generally to answer that question, it it's once you start playing varsity football.

SPEAKER_00 20:07

Okay. Are two-way players getting more looks now? Or is specializing early still the way to go?

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Yeah, I I, you know, I'm from the old school, right? And so I I just believe in, you know, when you talk about two-way, when you tell like as much as you can do, right? Because there many, many, many, many, many years ago, I played high school football. And I played, I was a defensive bat, I was an offensive, I was a quarterback, I was a running back. And so what I think is that when I see a two-way player, it's a mark of athleticism. And if your team needs you to be a two-way player for you guys to win the state championship, and you're gonna tell me, well, I'm thinking about me. I'm not worried about state championship, so I'm just gonna play defense or I'm just gonna play offense. When you're in high school, your your operation is to win the state championship. So whatever your team would need you to do, right? And then, you know, even to that point, like of course I see guys who say, I, I, you know, I don't play any other sports. I'm totally focusing on football. And that's fine, right? But if you're if you run track, if you play basketball, if you play bait, if you play another sport, like that's a mark for me of athleticism. Not everybody can play basketball. So maybe you can't, right? Right? Not everybody's fast enough to run track. So always challenge guys and say, well, maybe you can't, right? But if you can, if you can, I believe in the recruiting process, you set yourself apart. Whereas if you have a guy who only, he only plays wide receiver, and he never, he never, I never seen him on the track. He's not gonna get out there and compete, right? In a sports that's not, in a sport, that's not his sport. Let me just see what you'll do, though, when you line up with people who this is their sport. I'm not saying that. You gotta go out there and win the races, right? You're not a track guy. But to see you out there competing, I always look for that. And I think there's a few people, there are a few people who can do that. And I I think from an athleticism standpoint, they just set themselves apart. And I always would encourage it.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Yeah, I agree. I it's great to hear about just a multi-sport, just an athlete, just the all-around athlete. They're not defined by one thing. Even in track and field, I've come to admire the field events. So my son was a long jumper and a sprinter, which I think is it's like two different, it's it's the same sport, but two different skills. That definitely shows your athleticism.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

And again, your your willingness to compete in a in a space that you are not you that you don't master, but to to compete in another area. Again, that marks of athleticism and competitiveness, they shine through in a place where you're not you're not the number one guy.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Right, absolutely. What separates a prospect from those who actually get an offer?

SPEAKER_01 23:06

You know what? From from the time uh for me as an assistant coach where I was an area coach and responsible for scouring an area and then taking back players who would fit our program from different positions, taking those guys back to a position coach. And then me as a position coach receiving players from other areas that coaches had would pass to me. What I think is that when you pass these players, you have to make a determination as an area coach is does this guy fit who we are and what we do? For example, an offensive lineman. I've worked over the years. There's some offensive line coaches, they just like them big, right? They don't necessarily have to be great athletes, but if they're big, they can road grade, they can latch on to you, and they can just drive you out of there because they're bigger than you are. Well, then I've had other offensive line coaches, they like them big for sure. Everybody likes them big, but they want them to be athletic. They want them to be able to manage movement, right, on the line of scrimmage. And so if with the road grading offensive line coach, I go to my area and I have a smaller athletic, more athletic offensive lineman, he can be as athletic as he wants to be, but he doesn't fit what this coach wants. And so for us, as we move forward, to get closer to your question, for us, if he fits what we do athletically, if we, after evaluating him academically and socially, he fits us, then we want to it's we want to determine is this guy, does he have interest in Hampton? Well then if if all those things fit and we have a spot for him, then we offer him. That's an offer.

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

The other guy who who may not who may not fit yet as an athlete, okay, he is big, but he hadn't shown us the athleticism yet. He still needs to develop. Or he is a really good athlete, but his grades, he he needs, he's at a 2.75, and he's close enough that we need to get him the three-point, and he's shown the potential to be able to get to that place. So we need to challenge him to see if he can get to that place. Or, you know, this guy is uh he's smaller, but the coaches and our coaches, as they evaluate him, they say that he's going to be bigger. He has a his brother is six, seven, and his mom is really tall. He just hadn't gotten there yet.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

So we're gonna watch him and wait on him. Neither one of those last two guys are offers yet, but but we have something, and I and I think it's important this is on the on the back side, and uh a prospect would never know about this. But on our staff, I think if you n if you wanna have him on the list, but you don't want to offer him, you gotta have a a day. You gotta have a time. There's a time limit, right? You can't just let him rot on your on your board, right? You gotta have a time limit to get him off your board.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

Did he did he make the grade? We said we said by the second semester you gotta have this certain grade. Did he make the grade? No, he hasn't. Okay, well, we got to make a decision, right? That way the player, you can let the player, I think you have to be transparent. You can let the player know, hey man, we're moving on. It's okay, right? It's okay if we don't like you for whatever reason. It's best that we tell you that so you can move on rather than we just keep on stringing you alone, keep on playing this music, keep on playing this music until we have no more data, we never got no more room on our hard drive, now we got to cut you off, right? Well, that's I think that's painful, right? I'd rather be up front with people. I'd rather be transparent. And guess what? If I'm transparent and I tell you that you don't have the grades, and then you go get the grades, now we can have another discussion, right? When I tell you we don't like you because you're not big enough, and all of a sudden something changes, well, of course it changed. So so it's different. And I but I'd rather have a transparent conversation. And if you do that with people, I just believe, no matter what the discussion was, you can always go back. And recruiting is one of those places where you always go back, right? The people you reject, you reject them on Tuesday, you find yourself chasing them on Thursday. They reject you on Wednesday, then all of a sudden they calling you back on Friday. It just happens. You can't take it personally. So therefore, I just believe you should always be up front, be transparent, and you know, keep it like the kids say, keep it 100.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Yeah, and I think that's good advice for these young recruits that you can be on a board and you can be off a board and you can get back on a board. And with those real conversations, you're giving them goals to work towards. Like you said, if it's the GPA that's 2.7 and need to be three-point next semester, you need to get a 4.0 to bring it up to a three-point something. Right. Those are real conversations. Hey, we'd like to see you a little bit bigger. Those are realistic goals that they can work towards.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

And and I you can again, it it's my job to find the best players that we can for Hampton University. But as we go through that process, it's my purpose, is also to help young people get to where they get to their goals, right? And that's if they come to Hampton or not. And so being upfront, being transparent about where we are. And guess what? We're gonna lose some co we're gonna lose some players, right? We lose them. We lose if if we tell you the truth and we lose you, I'm okay with that, right? Uh because we're not gonna lie to get you.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

And so, and so that's I would want somebody to do it for my for my kids. And so that's that's how we're gonna always operate. We don't have what we call non-committable offers, right? That's a term. And I think that goes to I hear I read a kid's X and he says, I'm committed, but my recruiting is 100% open. And how can you do that? Like, how can you be committed but want to be 100% recruited? Right. And and then we offer you, but we tell you you can't commit. Now, as I tell our staff, the only way you can offer someone and not take their commitment is if you explain to them, listen, we're offering you, but before you commit, you got to come to campus. Well, then that is a non-committable offer until he comes to campus.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

We're offering you a scholarship based on you getting a 3.0 at the end of this semester. That means if you don't get a 3.0, you don't have an offer. And and if we, if it's clear, it's explained, and it's above the board, then I'm okay. But we don't just throw out offers so that you feel good. Like, cause it I I think the offer is a is a powerful thing. It's actually so powerful. We I I was listening, I was reading something, and a kid had a term, right? The kids have different terms for when they when they get an offer, right? They say like, yeah, got one from like it ain't even called an got offered. It's used to be blessed. We were blessed. Right, right. Blessed. Now we got some other terms. Yeah, got one from so and so. Got one, huh? Well, no, man. When you get a college scholarship offer, like that should mean something. It should mean something to us as we offered it to you, and it should mean something to you. It's not just another one, right? It's not just another one. It's it's saying that, man, there's a whole university that is pushing behind you and wants you to come be a part of their program, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

And that's the way we frame it. And it's not, we don't just throw them out there.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Yeah, this is not just another like on one of your posts on X. Let's let's take it a little more serious. Tell us about the 2026 Pirates, like the identity and the culture that you're building there. What can we expect to see?

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Well, you know, I think when this is my I was about to say, you know, when you when you get to be a head coach, this is my very first time. But what what I believed, I've always believed this, is that when you go into a new environment, when you're the leader, you can't you can't be somebody else. Like I've had, I said earlier, I've had great coaches. Well, I can't be coach David McWilliams. I can't be Coach Wayne Font. I can't be Coach Mike Gundy, right? I I have to be me. And so when we talk about the culture that we're building, it first started with who I am, connected with what I thought Hampton University was all about. And so the the identity is, is one of one of our mantras is is is burn the ships. Like we have, we say that. And what that means to me is, and I'm I study history a little bit, but there were a group of pirates who would go into areas and they would say, hey man, we're about to take over this area and and we're gonna burn our ships, right? Because if we don't burn our ships, if we go in here and get our head kicked in, then we could jump back on those ships and we can leave. But if we burn our ships, again, I'm I'm ad-living here, but if we burn our ships, then there's no retreat. We can't retreat. We can't surrender, right? We gotta, we gotta take their ships. That's the only way we're moving forward is by taking their ships. And so that's one that's one thing that we say. And then, and that had nothing to do with me. I'm not a ship burner, but but but when I talk about me, I'm saying that, you know, throughout my life, I've I've prided myself on being an aggressive physical person. That's when I was a player. That was way back when. I can't do it anymore. But but that's what this team is is gonna be, this is the way this team will be built, is we're gonna outhit our opponents. And then the next thing that we talk about is this is Hampton University. And we got a lot of smart dudes at Hampton University. And so then we say, hey man, just like some of the service academies, they take great pride in being more disciplined. They take great pride in being smarter than their opponent. Well, that's the same thing I would say at Hampton. Listen, you guys are really smart. And so we're gonna outsmart our opponent, meaning we're not gonna be doing dumb things like in the game that cost you the game. A lot of teams do do dumb stuff, right? You do dumb things at the wrong time and it costs you. Well, we want to take pride in not doing that. We want to take pride in in being smarter than our opponent in in those ways. And then the third thing is that is that we want to outwork our opponent. That's that's like that word work, we we use it quite often in our in our building, and and our our players understand that every day we gotta be committed to going to work. And and when you play the game, like it's only 60 minutes guaranteed. And so you have a responsibility to fight, to work, to push. When I say work, I'm saying that when the offense comes to the sideline, we're trying to get things corrected that might have gone wrong. And there's not a moment throughout that 60 minutes where you can rest. I'm not saying you're actually physically exerting yourself throughout the 60 minutes, but every moment of the game, when you come to the sideline, you're trying to get things corrected. You're trying to make sure that you and your partner were on the same page. You're trying to make sure, hey, coach, do you know you call this play coach, you know they did this coach. There's not even much time to drink Gatorade. Because we're trying to make sure every detail is wrapped up, right? That when we go back out there, we're all on the same page. And that's offense as defense as special teams. I don't think all teams do that. I think the best teams do that. They take advantage of every minute in a game. Well, you gotta practice that way, right? You gotta practice that way where you pay attention to all the details so that when you get into the game, you you're able to operate in that way. And so those are the things that I that I would hope you would see week after week. Guess what? Hampton, since 2018, has not had the success that we're talking about, right? And so uh I I said it today. I don't know, I was maybe doing an interview today or yesterday, and I said, like, if you're if you're a Hampton fan and you think we're gonna put it in the microwave, this is not microwave cooking, right? This is going, when you rebuild a culture, then it takes time. And and we understand that on our staff, our players, man, they they understand to a certain degree. And and we would like for our fans to understand it. But we're gonna do the best we can every single day to build it to where there is sustained success, right? Will that happen immediately? I don't know, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

We we're gonna do the things that it takes to to build it the right way for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 36:25

Nice. I know when I when I post this, I got several friends and associates that will be very excited. I know quite a few Hampton alumni.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Good.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

And I haven't told anybody about this. Just kind of wanted it to be a surprise. And also, good news for you guys, you guys are building a new stadium. And so you won't be, so the first few games, you won't be at your home stadium. Can you can you tell me more about that?

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Well, you know what? We are, we are re we are replacing the field, replacing the track. And there are a lot of things. There are things that that uh that go into that that actually reach beyond football. We haven't had, we haven't had in many years an opportunity to have a home track meet, right? Okay. So as we as we recreate this facility, we're gonna be able to have a home track meet. Our soccer team has not been able to play at home in in some years. Guess what? We're gonna be able to have home soccer matches. And and and of course, to to get the football team a new feel, I'm I'm excited about that. But I'm I'm like truly gratified because of the fact that when we when we arrived at Hampton, what what my push was was for our staff and our community was to engage and our our coaches and our players was to engage with the community, right? Very important to me that that the people in the 757, the people in the seven cities in the Hampton Rose community, that they realize that, man, Hampton is not some exclusive place, that it's inclusive, that that we want to be a part of the community. So our players, they were out in the community, they visited schools, reading the kids, going to field days, two parts, so that they could be a part of the community for the community's sake, but so that they could understand they are a part of this bigger community for their sake. And I, the responses on both sides from the community and from our players who got a chance to go out and and meet young kids and get looked up to, right? And and to make friends at field days. Like that was a very cool experience for me as a head coach, being behind it, orchestrating it. Well, I couldn't, like I said, be more gratified when now we get to play games in the community, right? We get to play games away from our stadium in the community. And so it kind of, I didn't realize it would happen this way, but it kind of is all coming together for me to allow our players, and that's the way we're gonna frame it to them, is that, man, how how cool is it that the community, those people you met at the park, those people you met at the event that we went to, they're gonna get a chance, up close and personal. You're gonna play right around the corner from their house, right? And so I'm excited about that part of it. Oh, yeah, it'll be some adjustments. Yeah, it'll be a little different. And and uh guess what? The the opposing teams, they're gonna probably hate it. And I that that I like that even more. But we're we're gonna, like I said, we're taking steps forward with the remodeling of the fields, but then I think we're also taking steps forward in our engagement with the community.

SPEAKER_00 39:45

Nice. So last question is there any advice that you would give high school potential prospects, recruits right now? What should they be doing?

SPEAKER_01 39:56

So I always say this to young people when I have an opportunity to recruit them. When I have an opportunity really to speak to any young person who is a who was an at who was a student athlete, I try to make them get them to realize, you know, you you're playing, you play this week against Buckingham High School, and you know all the players on Buckingham's roster, right? You guys have been playing against each other for two or three years, whatever. But you need to realize when it comes to recruiting, the guy at Buckingham that you know all about, he's not your competition. Yeah, he's your competition this Saturday. But when it comes to recruiting, if you live in Florida, you need to realize you're competing against a guy in North Carolina for that scholarship spot. You don't even know him. You're competing against a guy in Dallas, Texas for that scholarship spot. You don't even know his team name, right? And you have to ask yourself, what is he doing right now? Is he watching film? What is his GPA right now? What is he doing to improve himself right now? Are you doing the same thing? Because you are in a heated competition for the same thing that he wants. And guess what his coach is doing right now to him? He's yelling at him, just like yours is. And guess what you did yesterday? You ran sprints. How many did you run? He ran them yesterday too. How many did he run? And so you you are in a constant competition, and sometimes what you do is you just see the players on your team, and you think, if I'm the best one on my team, I'm the man. And then you say, well, I'm better than everybody on the team that I played last week, I'm the man. You need to understand there's another 6'2, 215-pound running back in another state. There's another linebacker in another state who has three interceptions just like you do. And his team actually is undefeated. And they won the state championship last year. You're competing with him for whatever it is you want, right? And so knowing that, if you knew that, then how would you compete? How would you wake up every day if you knew that? And I say this to players in college is that you because you were all Big 12, that guy was all ACC, and that guy was all SEC. What makes you different than him? Like, like who who who is the bad who is it that the bads are gonna pick? You or him. You know what I mean? And so you're you're you're you're thinking that you got it made, so is he, you know. And so that's my advice is always be chasing the man that you can't see.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

I think that's probably some of the best advice that I've heard from a player, especially like locally. Rivalries get just so much attention, and rivalries are good for that night. But like you said, when this is over, I mean, and then usually a rivalry is against a school that's oh, you know, they ain't won no games. Y'all know y'all gonna win. Like, right who are you comparing yourself to? And it's some guy in Texas that's killing it every night, you know? He's playing against real dudes. Right. You might not be, you know. Thank you, coach, just for sharing. I can't wait to get this out um for the young people to see that's still working and and just encouraging them to continue to work even in this recruitment era that we're in. It's possible. And every day, think about how you're gonna separate yourself.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

Right. And you know, even even young people in the 2026 class, guess what? We had we we've had in the last week, we've had three young people that we didn't necessarily recruit for a long time, but but they are going to be a part of our team. They're gonna come in and fall camp. And so there is always opportunity out there. You you that's not your job, right? It's not your job to to say when the opportunity is gonna open. It's your job to be ready for.

SPEAKER_00 43:45

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, listen, I'll be following Hampton. I'll be looking at the schedule. Maybe y'all are at a classic that's near near near Illinois or something. I know you've been here like years ago, but I yeah, I'll have to definitely look up that schedule. No doubt.