I am in my car driving back from South Bend to Chicago to fly home so I had to type this in a gas station parking lot so forgive any errors. I didn't get everything up and running until about 2 minutes in. I'll add more later at the airport.
GaSouthern launched my coaching career, I didn’t know if I wanted to coach college football and I went to the JR college and when Coach Russell offered back then there wasn’t a lot of money involved, I could’ve made more money as HS coach and AD, my wife Susan told me to go for it and if I didn’t do it I would regret it. We said I’d give it until I was 30 and by then I was the OC at Hawaii.
We had Tracey Ham who rewrote every record, when I was head coach we had a ton of great players, Statesboro was a great place.
I don’t know if you ever know the right time, I was fortunate to miss all the covid stuff. I’m not sure with the transfer portal and all the NIL stuff it is not a lot of fun for those guys right now.
I’ve had a couple of opportunities to come back, but right now I’m satisfied
It gives you a chance to compete against more talented teams because you don’t have to play block everyone and if you know how to fix it, when someone would give us a problem then you would have a chance to fix. Physical superiority cancels out all other theories.
I greatly enjoyed my time at the Academy and it is a special place. We had a great run there. I was laughing, my daughter told me I said after that first year I said I’d gone to coaching hell and we had a lot of great memories and I stay in touch with a lot of former players and coaches. I had a lot of people call. Admiral Nader called me who was in charge of the fleet when I was there.
On option offense, a few years ago when I retired I visited with the Ravens and looked at their run game and you could see where it was going. They have a special guy with Lamar Jackson. Everyone runs some option elements, zone-reads are a two-man option. Football evolves and it wouldn’t surprise me if someone ends up doing what we did again. I was told we can’t recruit, the facts don’t bother me. I find it interesting at GT, we couldn’t recruit, we didn’t like recruiting, if you go back and look at it before us and after us, it is all about the same. That narrative would be dispelled. The other one is cutblock and dive at legs, that isn’t true either, if people say it enough it becomes frustrating, we had prove scoring and winning games.
On favorite game, there are a lot of games I wish we had back, our 1998 GaSouthern team might’ve been my best team we were 13-0 or 14-0 and turned the ball over 7 times, it was fluke dropping snaps, everytime we didn’t drop the ball, that once sticks in my mind, we won the championship the next two years.
Another one at Navy, when we played BC against Matt Ryan in Charlotte, we lost on the last play of the game, we had the ball got a first down, called back for holding I told the QB not to pitch the ball, and he did and he dropped the pitch.
I remember the one at UGA when we missed the PAT that would’ve tied the game up there late in the 4th QT. I’ve had to go back and look, there are multiple games you want to tie up.
The game we won in Athens with the long field goal by Butker, we had the PAT blocked in OT and then DJ White picked off the ball, DJ made a great play and pulled it out.
On what he learned from Erk Russell, Coach Russell was a great coach, the biggest thing I learned was you’ve got to be yourself. If someone had tried some of the stuff he did they would’ve been laughed out of the building, but he could pull it off. He had a rep of being a big tough guy and he was totally the opposite. I don’t think I heard him yell at anyone and discipline wise we were harder on guys than he was, he was comfortable in his skin. When I started coaching I learned, be yourself, he gave me some advice the second game I was a HC, you set it up and he came out to the practice field and he sat on his car watching practice and he said what are you doing. I was running around between drills and I said what do you mean? He said go coach the QBs and run the offense, go help the team. I thought about it, the next game we played at App State, our QB broke his hand and we had to put Greg Hill and after that point I called every play and called the offensive game plan. I think I would’ve figured it out offensively, I would’ve been thinking about why we call this or do that, You don’t have to stand there like a log you can do both.
On what he is doing now, it depends on the day, Paul Johnson we do this, I’ll walk the dog and I’ll go to the horse track. I play golf 3-4 times a week. Mike Smith is right across the line in Tenn. Kevin O’Connor who was the GM of the Utah Jazz and we go out with our wives. I’m getting settled in at Arizona. I thought we would be in Florida for the winters, but I got out voted because my daughter is here. There is no set day. When I was coaching it was hard to coach and I could go into the office early and get more done. Once everyone gets there, you get tied up, I’d get up early and my wife would go crazy, I’ll try to stay in bed at 8.
I miss calling plays, I was good at Navy at picking horses because I got to know the trainers and they were good picking.
On Erk not being eligible for the CFB HOF, they have to set the rules in some manner, he is certainly deserving, but they have a set of rules otherwise it would be impossible, but he deserves it.
On being AD at GaSouthern, I’d rather stick my hand in a fire than do that. I’ve thought about that, before I got out of coaching I was approached about that. It would be like marrying the same woman twice, I’ve been there and done that. When someone told me they were looking for a coach, they said they’d build a statue of you and I said they’d tear it down when I lost my first game. I wanted to spend the winter there if it was a little warmer. It is a special place. At one time I thought I really want to do it when I had some bad ones, I enjoy all the other sports, it would be fun, once you see how the sausage is made and the inner workings that is a tough job. I think they have a good one there and hopefully they can keep him.
I miss the relationships with the players and the staff. I miss the competition and I miss the adjustments the whole game is adjustments and doing things on the move, I enjoyed that part of it, but I stay in touch with so many of the former players. I got a flood of guys from all three schools that played that reached out and I miss that the most.
On where he will do the on-campus salute for his NFF celebration, I guess that would be tough, I haven’t thought about it, I think they’ll decide that, wherever I’ll be happy. At GASouthern they tried to get me down, I couldn’t work it out with the schedule and at Navy too, I want to do what is appropriate for everybody.
Grand Ole Opry or a favorite opera, I would prefer the operas in English I can understand, I think that is winding down, my daughter just finished her doctorate at Grand Canyon University and she is teaching so I think that is dropping down.
I’m ready to be a grandfather and everyone tells me that is the best club to join.
GaSouthern launched my coaching career, I didn’t know if I wanted to coach college football and I went to the JR college and when Coach Russell offered back then there wasn’t a lot of money involved, I could’ve made more money as HS coach and AD, my wife Susan told me to go for it and if I didn’t do it I would regret it. We said I’d give it until I was 30 and by then I was the OC at Hawaii.
We had Tracey Ham who rewrote every record, when I was head coach we had a ton of great players, Statesboro was a great place.
I don’t know if you ever know the right time, I was fortunate to miss all the covid stuff. I’m not sure with the transfer portal and all the NIL stuff it is not a lot of fun for those guys right now.
I’ve had a couple of opportunities to come back, but right now I’m satisfied
It gives you a chance to compete against more talented teams because you don’t have to play block everyone and if you know how to fix it, when someone would give us a problem then you would have a chance to fix. Physical superiority cancels out all other theories.
I greatly enjoyed my time at the Academy and it is a special place. We had a great run there. I was laughing, my daughter told me I said after that first year I said I’d gone to coaching hell and we had a lot of great memories and I stay in touch with a lot of former players and coaches. I had a lot of people call. Admiral Nader called me who was in charge of the fleet when I was there.
On option offense, a few years ago when I retired I visited with the Ravens and looked at their run game and you could see where it was going. They have a special guy with Lamar Jackson. Everyone runs some option elements, zone-reads are a two-man option. Football evolves and it wouldn’t surprise me if someone ends up doing what we did again. I was told we can’t recruit, the facts don’t bother me. I find it interesting at GT, we couldn’t recruit, we didn’t like recruiting, if you go back and look at it before us and after us, it is all about the same. That narrative would be dispelled. The other one is cutblock and dive at legs, that isn’t true either, if people say it enough it becomes frustrating, we had prove scoring and winning games.
On favorite game, there are a lot of games I wish we had back, our 1998 GaSouthern team might’ve been my best team we were 13-0 or 14-0 and turned the ball over 7 times, it was fluke dropping snaps, everytime we didn’t drop the ball, that once sticks in my mind, we won the championship the next two years.
Another one at Navy, when we played BC against Matt Ryan in Charlotte, we lost on the last play of the game, we had the ball got a first down, called back for holding I told the QB not to pitch the ball, and he did and he dropped the pitch.
I remember the one at UGA when we missed the PAT that would’ve tied the game up there late in the 4th QT. I’ve had to go back and look, there are multiple games you want to tie up.
The game we won in Athens with the long field goal by Butker, we had the PAT blocked in OT and then DJ White picked off the ball, DJ made a great play and pulled it out.
On what he learned from Erk Russell, Coach Russell was a great coach, the biggest thing I learned was you’ve got to be yourself. If someone had tried some of the stuff he did they would’ve been laughed out of the building, but he could pull it off. He had a rep of being a big tough guy and he was totally the opposite. I don’t think I heard him yell at anyone and discipline wise we were harder on guys than he was, he was comfortable in his skin. When I started coaching I learned, be yourself, he gave me some advice the second game I was a HC, you set it up and he came out to the practice field and he sat on his car watching practice and he said what are you doing. I was running around between drills and I said what do you mean? He said go coach the QBs and run the offense, go help the team. I thought about it, the next game we played at App State, our QB broke his hand and we had to put Greg Hill and after that point I called every play and called the offensive game plan. I think I would’ve figured it out offensively, I would’ve been thinking about why we call this or do that, You don’t have to stand there like a log you can do both.
On what he is doing now, it depends on the day, Paul Johnson we do this, I’ll walk the dog and I’ll go to the horse track. I play golf 3-4 times a week. Mike Smith is right across the line in Tenn. Kevin O’Connor who was the GM of the Utah Jazz and we go out with our wives. I’m getting settled in at Arizona. I thought we would be in Florida for the winters, but I got out voted because my daughter is here. There is no set day. When I was coaching it was hard to coach and I could go into the office early and get more done. Once everyone gets there, you get tied up, I’d get up early and my wife would go crazy, I’ll try to stay in bed at 8.
I miss calling plays, I was good at Navy at picking horses because I got to know the trainers and they were good picking.
On Erk not being eligible for the CFB HOF, they have to set the rules in some manner, he is certainly deserving, but they have a set of rules otherwise it would be impossible, but he deserves it.
On being AD at GaSouthern, I’d rather stick my hand in a fire than do that. I’ve thought about that, before I got out of coaching I was approached about that. It would be like marrying the same woman twice, I’ve been there and done that. When someone told me they were looking for a coach, they said they’d build a statue of you and I said they’d tear it down when I lost my first game. I wanted to spend the winter there if it was a little warmer. It is a special place. At one time I thought I really want to do it when I had some bad ones, I enjoy all the other sports, it would be fun, once you see how the sausage is made and the inner workings that is a tough job. I think they have a good one there and hopefully they can keep him.
I miss the relationships with the players and the staff. I miss the competition and I miss the adjustments the whole game is adjustments and doing things on the move, I enjoyed that part of it, but I stay in touch with so many of the former players. I got a flood of guys from all three schools that played that reached out and I miss that the most.
On where he will do the on-campus salute for his NFF celebration, I guess that would be tough, I haven’t thought about it, I think they’ll decide that, wherever I’ll be happy. At GASouthern they tried to get me down, I couldn’t work it out with the schedule and at Navy too, I want to do what is appropriate for everybody.
Grand Ole Opry or a favorite opera, I would prefer the operas in English I can understand, I think that is winding down, my daughter just finished her doctorate at Grand Canyon University and she is teaching so I think that is dropping down.
I’m ready to be a grandfather and everyone tells me that is the best club to join.
