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Coaching Mind's Podcast: Perform at your best!
Coaching Mind's Podcast: Perform at your best!
#110 - OTS #3: Navigating the Transfer Portal-Loyalty and Team Culture
On The Spot: Where the questions are pulled on the spot, no prep time just raw honest answers on the spot. Are the tides turning in college football team-building? Strap in as we tackle the game-changing dynamics of the transfer portal and its effects on loyalty and team culture. It's a wild ride through the strategies that coaches must employ, akin to planning a Grand Canyon adventure, where every step counts and preparation is key. Discover how the art of persuasion and the nurturing of a robust locker room environment are no longer mere options, but necessities for keeping a roster intact in this professionalized sports era. We don't shy away from tough conversations, either; the debate about the future of sports contracts and the idea of scholarship repayment for athletes who leave early will have you rethinking the accountability in college sports.
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Hey, you're welcome to the coaching minds podcast free resource from mental training plan. Today we are we are resurrecting OTS on the spot. We've got Zeke and Comer are still in here, and we actually just started having this conversation right after, right after we finished up recording the last episode, and just I had this question and I thought you know what, why don't, why don't we just toss the headphones back on, turn on the mics and and just I mean, this is truly what on the spot is right.
Speaker 2:Zeke, I love it, I love on the spot. But it gets me a little nervous because you just don't know what you're about to say, what the question is. But it's for all of our viewers to find out that we're just regular people, that we don't know.
Speaker 1:So here's my question, comer, like you know, because you've got, you've got all these people all across the world except Antarctica.
Speaker 1:Still we're working, knowing that yet We've got, you know, you got all these people that just heard you say you're maybe potentially interested in taking some people on this trip, on this journey. But then you know, there's also like this and and I feel like we're seeing this in this new era of college football with the transfer portal, where people can just come and go, I mean here's, you know, the most extreme example in my mind is you know, looking at Ohio State, here's a, here's a starting quarterback at the end of his junior year just took his team to an 11-1 regular season and then leaves and goes to Syracuse for his senior year. Is that there's, just there's. There's gotta be a new challenge for college football coaches to be able to build like that. You know this trust because you were talking about, you know the just the boring details, matt, about your Grand Canyon hike. You know you were talking about going through your equipment, going through your checklist, visualizing the different locations, visualizing the path.
Speaker 1:You know, in the military, they talk through every single possible scenario, every single possible. You know well what if this happens, what's our contingency plan? Is there in this, in this new era of college football, is it more difficult than ever to really truly put together a team that you know is not going anywhere and is not going to quit on you? Is it even possible? Is I mean, is it like you know, if things don't go their way, they're gonna do what's best for them, they're leaving. I'm not saying that's good, I'm not saying that's bad. I'm saying, as a coach, is it even more difficult now to put together that team? What does it look like to really truly build together that team? Because I mean, there had to have been there, had to have been a piece in your mind, matt, when you guys were on this hike that it was like, all right, no matter what happens, these guys are in it, we're finishing this together. Talk, talk to me just a little bit about your, your thoughts on this topic it's just gonna be different.
Speaker 3:It's gonna be more like professional sports. I think you need to really map out your program to who you want. I think you kind of need your culture guys, and then you go out and pick your stars as they're available. Whether that's whether the, I don't know there's a new dynamic where the group of five conferences like the Mac they're the only ones recruiting high school kids now and Then the power five.
Speaker 3:Yeah, are they the new minor leagues of college football. I think GM's head coaches of college football now have to now start look at professional models. Yeah, you're gonna be bringing guys in for one to four years and, however, I don't know how and I and I L works. You know, I know how it works, but, like, can you put them to some sort of a year contract, to your contract? Can they get out of it whenever they want? It's a whole new dynamic, but I definitely think Culture is gonna be bigger now than than ever. How can you have someone come in leave like a house date? You know they're getting this kid from Kansas State.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah quarterback.
Speaker 3:So you know he's got to come in there, presumably now, maybe for the spring semester. Obviously, get all his teammates to buy into them, Learn the system in the spring and be ready to roll by August. That's not easy, you know. So coaches now have to be even better salesmen, if you will, but their number one thing has to be that locker room. It has to be the culture of the program where kids come in. And yet you know you have to recruit the right kids.
Speaker 3:But it does seem now that they're just taking anybody Like there, unless they recruited them, maybe they're recruiting them out of high school. So they've been following this kid at LSU for two years. Like I know him, I recruited him two years ago. He's good, let's bring him on. But some of these guys jumping Like the highest eight quarterback Does he know someone at Syracuse? Did someone go there? Maybe? But that's a big jump Just to go into something. So culture is going to be more important than ever. It's got to be lasting and it's got it. The locker room has got to have some veterans in there. So you almost got to recruit some that like he's a four-year guy, yeah, and you got. You got to recruit your own players Weekly. Yeah, it seems like you rub a kid the wrong way he could be out, Mm-hmm you know, it's crazy.
Speaker 2:I imagine a most of the coaches, older coaches for sure that you hate this new era of the athlete where, yeah, if you rub them the wrong way, if you know they didn't get to play as much as they wanted, they're out and that's. That's kind of the new, where you've kind of just seen it throughout. Maybe you know, in middle school, a kid you know here, he went and play with this a you team, with this guy, and then, but they didn't get to play much, so well, we'll just go play with this team, and they kind of bounced around. Well, that's just gonna continue and that's continued into college sports.
Speaker 1:I mean shoot. That's continued into high school sports.
Speaker 2:Sure, oh, it's bouncing around right, so like it luck. You know, whatever you hate it, that is what you have, and we have in front of us.
Speaker 2:And I don't think that's changing. No, and so, as coaches, what can you do? And I think you're right, like as far as the college scheme goes of like, well, you recruit, you know, maybe, like I hate to say lesser players, but people that you know they're gonna be here and they're gonna be solid, and then maybe they're kind of like salesmen to try to keep these guys here. But I think that we're gonna see more Change coming. I think it's like the floodgates hit the NCAA with transfer and NIL, and now You're just trying to backtrack and try to come up with a plan, because I think everybody's probably in a grand set. It's not a great system right now and what's going on? I love that the players are getting some of the money that they are bringing in to the universities, but I don't think it's good, a good system for life of. I don't like what's going on.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to leave and I'm going to go find that that like, like you're saying Coma, like grinding it out, and you're going to have to work. Yeah, we're bringing in this five star quarterback and yeah, you're a really good quarterback, but you got to get better and you got to work and it's kind of just getting to that.
Speaker 2:When you're married and you have kids, it sucks. You can't just be like I'm not happy with what you did today, my wife, I'm out, I'm gonna leave. You know people do that, but that's not what makes life great and you just got to learn that there's going to be hard times. You've got to push through those and it's going to be worth it.
Speaker 2:I mean we talked about that in your podcast, matt, of how you've got to push through it and it's the journey of getting there Right. Imagine if Ohio State is to win the national championship next year and a quarterback was like yeah, I don't know what the reasons were, he transferred, but whatever, it was like he pushed through all that. How worth it it would be. I don't think he's going to get that at Syracuse. I just don't think for whatever reason he went there.
Speaker 2:Like you said, matt, he knew somebody. So maybe there's family that's there, maybe there's a legitimate reason, but I don't think it would be as satisfying as what it was at Ohio State and that. I could be wrong. I don't know much on it. That's why we're on the spot, that's.
Speaker 1:I mean that's fair. I mean I don't know. I don't know necessarily those reasons. I know it can't. It can't feel good as a junior that just finished up an 11 and 1 regular season. When your coach is asked who the starting quarterback is next year, that his answer is I don't know open competition, but that doesn't mean, you just leave right.
Speaker 1:I'm not. I'm not disagreeing with you, but if, if I'm out at the same time, like if I'm Kyle and I'm thinking, you know, there's a chance that if I go somewhere else I can develop my game, I make it into the NFL. There's a chance that if I stay here to Ohio State with this staff that's already not happy with me I'm already, you know, behind the eight ball a little bit. Maybe I don't even play, maybe I don't even have a shot at the NFL. I don't know, I don't want to, I don't want to get into the specifics of, like, what's driving those individual athletes, because you know we'll save that for the ESPN talk shows. But I am intrigued, comer, what you were saying about like potentially being able to sign them to a one year or a two year deal. Get a little bit more commitment out of them, solidify that a little bit more. And I completely agree, zeke, what you were saying, like it's, it's the Wild West right now. Like there's. There's going to have to be some reigning in of things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's all I mean. You start giving them contracts, like I understand, like coaches leave, you should get a chance to leave to a point, but they're getting huge buyouts, like they're not leaving, like whatever reason they're leaving for they're fired or you know. A lot of times the top coaches don't leave on their own for another day. It's like the Mac schools, like if they have a great year they'll leave.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but even with the kids, like if you sign these things and they want to leave early, you know they got to pay back. Or you know, if you do something where you offer or you want them out to free at that scholarship, you have to, you owe them a buyout. I don't, I don't know what, like, I think it's just got to be a professional model where some of this is now guaranteed. Or you got to like you got to sign your name on a dotted line and stick to it. Maybe that's the thing right now is there's no, there's no accountability, there's no, there's nobody holding them to these commitments. And again, they're verbal. Every kid now you know he's happy to leave his university. Then he puts on Instagram how thankfully he was for them and I'm like, well, if you're that thankful and it was that great of experience, you don't know what's going on, so it's tough to say. But maybe you know some sort of you know we're not going to verbal, we're going to sign here.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, if you leave early you're going to pay back this scholarship. You know it's hopefully your new schools paying new NIL money. You can pay us back, however that works.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe it does become like a truly professional model where, like you know, deion shows up at Colorado and he says, all right, here's who I'm bringing in and we're going to commit to this program for this year and everybody's here for this year. Right, and that you know. Maybe, maybe that is the way that you go, but I don't know. It'll be interesting to see. I appreciate you guys being a part of on the spot.
Speaker 2:Number three I like it. Another question for you guys just happened here in the NFL, where they've recently finished up week 18 of the season. Dan Campbell has developed this culture and mindset with the Lions, who were really bad not too long ago, and now it's this like we're, we're grinders.
Speaker 3:We're going to get after it.
Speaker 2:You know it doesn't matter. You know they just got really screwed over in the Dallas game. Yeah, and he was like it doesn't matter, like we're going to show up. You know that game's done, we're going to show up, we're going to work harder than ever. This is going into week 18, so on and so forth. Week 18,. They've already solidified their spot as the number two seed and the playoffs. Most teams sit their players, their best players, but Dan's got these. Like, we've got this mindset that we are going to work as hard as we can. This is an opportunity to play Controversial. Him playing it, one of his star players gets hurt. What are you guys' thoughts? Like, you know, you've developed that culture, you've developed that mindset. You know, did he take it too far? Is it that gray or there? What are you guys' thoughts on that?
Speaker 3:I don't think so, because that's the culture he set. You know, luckily he's built in that culture like this is how we do things. You know, now it's going to be the next man up, so I have no problem with it, as long as that culture has been established, that trust has been established. You know, no one came out later, none of the players, and like I knew we shouldn't have played. I'm a Cleveland Browns fan so they rested a lot of guys. You know the quarterback. I understand some guys they that were hurt. They played because they need to see him play in action. Other guys were banged up and they sat him. So it's one of those things that if he doesn't get hurt and they go on to win the Super Bowl, you know it was the greatest thing ever, but you know hindsight's 50-50. So those are always tough. They're good to talk about. Almost like that the Colts play. You know, I don't think anybody disagreed with the play call, but if that guy catches it, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:It's phenomenal.
Speaker 3:Like what a what a coach to put his trust in the third string running back and give him a role. And for that guy you know what a great coaching job, what a great job by him. But since he dropped it, everybody's like why is the third string court running back in there? And I think he even said that like it's the NFL, like these things happen. I mean I've seen stories of NFL guys getting hurt at home. I don't know it's, it's definitely 50, 50, me personally, I probably just rest guys. But that's like you said, that's the culture he built, that's the way he does things. So no one's surprised by it. It's almost like you know he gets hurt. Well, that's how we do things.
Speaker 2:But I do think, like you're saying, a testament to his culture is you didn't have guys that were like I'm not playing, or that came out in the interview afterwards like yeah, we really didn't want to, but like they're bought in. I mean, you can see what the product on the field they're bought in. And I just think it's a testament to him, ben, what do you think I?
Speaker 1:feel like, since Barry Sanders left, like what have the Lions had? Like, what have the Lions done the Megatron. Look at sure.
Speaker 2:But that was a quick glimpse, sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean like they are a legit, fun team to watch. Like my inner spread the field and throw the ball all over the place, offensive coordinator self is kind of like, well, I don't know if I'd want to run this kind of offense, but I mean, how do you turn that on and not want to cheer for the guy? Like, how do you, how do you turn on this? This? You know hard nose style of football that maybe has been missing for a while as we've gotten a little more spread. You know a little bit less the big personnel, a little bit less downhill. You know power running game Many, many is fun to. He's fun to cheer for.
Speaker 1:And I almost feel like if you, if you are going to build your program around doing things tough, as hard as you can every single time and competing until the final whistle blows, and then you don't do that in week 18, I almost feel like it does more harm than good to the culture of your program. And you almost like you got guys that are like, well, is this all just a? You know a bunch of a bunch of fluff that he's thrown around, like he had a chance to put his money, his money, where his mouth was and he did, and you know, somebody got hurt. But it's the NFL next guy up, I mean in the Comer. I'm glad you brought up the Colts game, like I think yeah, me too.
Speaker 1:Sorry, let me rephrase that I'm not glad about the Colts game. I'm glad you brought up that topic because I think the thing that stood out to me culturally after that play call was when they stuck a camera in Jonathan Taylor's face. He said we trust our coach, we trust our play caller. He's been putting a masterpiece together all year. I mean the dude's been working with, he's been working with backups the entire season. Like why this isn't like he's coaching you know six man football in rural Montana. And putting in the third string kid like can barely tie his shoes. Like he's putting in the kid who was the best player at his high school, one of the best players probably at his university and now I know it was a stud Right and like, now, all of a sudden, we don't trust two grown men that are professionals to complete a past two yards downfield.
Speaker 1:Like, well, maybe they shouldn't be in the NFL then. Like, so I don't know. Like, should you hand the ball to JT and let him get you one yard? Let your $46 million running back pick up a yard for you, right, sure, is it a good play? Call to you know, put some third or fourth string guy that no one in the world is thinking, oh, the ball's going to him, hide him in the backfield and then release him out into the flats. I don't know.
Speaker 2:You could argue that's an even better play call. We're a prisoner of the moment right, absolutely. And the Colts. They threw the ball the most in the NFL on like fourth and third and less, Like it's what the Colts have done.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:And Shane. You know that's their identity. Like it or hate it, that's what they've done and you know it failed in this moment.
Speaker 3:So then you question everything I think people forget that he didn't drop a touchdown Like he dropped the first down. They still had to score.
Speaker 2:Right, like they are, assume we hadn't done much of.
Speaker 3:Right, they are assuming that, because even if he caught it, he falls down.
Speaker 3:You know it's first down, which is good, game's not over, but the defense is going to lay down, I mean they could have thrown a pick, like if that happens, and then they handed off to Jonathan Taylor any fumbles, like it's a whole different narrative but the same result. So, like this whole thing that the Colts lost on that play and then we've talked about in football before that was the play that ended the game. Yes, but there was probably a lot more plays to be made Defensively. Get another takeaway somewhere.
Speaker 1:Every single position coach will be able to go back through his guys and find if we would have done this, the outcome maybe could have been a little bit different.
Speaker 3:If you catch that, it's not like the Texans were gonna lay down and let them score on the next play. I mean they still had to win the game. They're still behind.
Speaker 1:So and if you score quickly, cj Straub has the ball in his hands again like yeah, yeah, there's no way you can blame the game on that, right.
Speaker 2:I do agree with you, though, ben, that the response from from that guy as well, yes, it was great response.
Speaker 3:That's a mentally tough guy.
Speaker 2:Like I been and I talked earlier of he could have just taken the fine and not talked to reporters.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I'm not gonna do it.
Speaker 3:He was a man about it and you got a.
Speaker 2:Sometimes you got a man up to your mistakes, yeah, and yeah, you screwed up. That doesn't make you any less of a man, right, makes you more of a man. There's just man up to it, and so I was happy. You know as as angry as I was in that moment yeah, to see that from him was like, oh okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's a human he's a man right and he said and we, we tell the kids this and tell my daughter's like. He even said, like that play does not define him.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah like.
Speaker 3:So you know you as a football player does not define you as a man like you said. So when he said that, like that was Spot on. You know from to have the composure, wanted to sit in front of all those people and answer questions right After probably the most devastating play in his life with obviously still some tears in his eyes, one of the most.
Speaker 1:Disappointing moments, yeah, maybe of his career.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's good to see. Obviously he says like go talk to my parents, probably the only people love me right now. Oh, that was great.
Speaker 1:Like. Was it Franklin that gave him a hug after the game? I?
Speaker 2:believe so.
Speaker 3:I mean, yeah, he mentioned his teammates were still just.
Speaker 1:Walked over to him, grabbed a hold of him, gave him a hug, said you know, the whatever version of this isn't your fault came out of their mouth, I mean just time after time. There's some, there's definitely some good culture pieces in that lock. Yeah, there is good stuff.
Speaker 1:That's the beauty of on the spot right. We have no idea what the questions are gonna be, where the conversation is gonna go, just Sharing some thoughts with you guys. So, as always, if you enjoyed the show would love for you guys share this was somebody would love for you just in in conversation when it's you know, hey, what are you doing this off season to? To improve yourself as a coach? Send people our way, tell them about the podcast if that's something that you find value in. If you're interested in learning More about the MTP Academy, if you're interested in learning more about how we can help Deliver the content for you so that your players can come up with a plan in your facility and you can support them, you can hold them accountable, you can help them implement these mental skills, these, these mental tools that we're talking about. Please head over to MTP dot Academy. The link is in the show notes.
Speaker 1:If you've got questions, don't hesitate to reach out social media mental t? R plan. Or if you head over to mental training plan, calm, there's contact form there. There's a contact us at the bottom. Fill that out. Would love to have a conversation with you. Hope you enjoyed the show. As always, till next time. Make your plan and put it to work.