April 15, 2026 • 44 mins
Dusty May just won a national championship at Michigan. Curt Cignetti went undefeated at Indiana. Cale Sanderson is on his 13th title at Penn State wrestling. What do they all have in common? They're true coaches — and David Rutherford breaks down exactly what that means. David is a former Navy SEAL, CIA-trained operator, and performance coach who's worked with the Green Bay Packers, Carolina Panthers, Boston Red Sox (2018 World Series), Penn State, Oregon State, Nebraska, and a dozen other D1 and professional programs. He's also a former Penn State lacrosse player and a father whose daughter just committed to play college soccer. Today he lays out what separates a true coach from the rest — including the coaching philosophy most coaches don't even have, how the best recruiters evaluate the X-factor beyond talent, why fear and self-confidence are the two fundamentals that drive performance, and the leadership development system that championship programs build from day one. He also digs into the NIL era, the transfer portal, and what it all means for the kids caught in the middle of a system that's rapidly changing.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What a Dusty May, Kurt Signetti, and Cale Sanderson all
have in common.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
They're all true coaches.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Today, I break down what that means and more importantly,
what it means for the athletes in modern athletics today
on The David Rutherford Show.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's Up?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Everybody, Welcome back to the show. I'm super fired up
to have this one. Everybody who's ever played a sport
at any level knows absolutely hands down, the most important
thing is how good is your coach? And as a
person that's played Division one athletics, I played Penn State lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I played football my whole life.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I played basketball, I played baseball, I played soccer, you
name it, I played it as a kid as well
as I've worked with a ton of D one sports
teams and.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Professional teams.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Last two years, I've worked with the Penn State Athletic department.
Last year with the Penn State men's hockey team. I've
worked with the Penn State men's lacrosse team a bunch
over the last seven years. I've worked with the UPenn
football team. I've worked with the Oregon State Beavers baseball
team when they won a Collegiate World Series championship, I've
(01:32):
worked with professional teams like the Green Bay Packers, I've.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Worked with the.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Carolina Panthers, and I won a World Series while working
with in support of the Boston Red Sox in twenty eighteen.
So I've seen great coaching and I've seen horrible coaching.
Not only that, my oldest daughter, who just committed to
Penn State Harrisburg Soccer, played travel soccer for you know,
(02:03):
the last eight years, and I watched just a continuous
slew of horrific coaching. And I watch it at every level,
almost in high school. That's the key of whether or
not you're going to have a successful program. Do you
have a true coach? Now, when I talk about true coach,
what do I mean? Well, I believe a true coach
(02:28):
has some basic fundamentals which makes them a true coach.
And I'll get into that in a minute. But you
know why am I digging into this today? Well, last,
you know, on this past Monday was the National Championship
basketball game, and we were able to watch Dusty May,
(02:51):
the head coach of Michigan in really only a second
year there, win a national championship, not only win it,
but dominate the entire suite entire March Madness bracket right
many cases before the last game, winning by almost an
(03:11):
average of twenty points the four previous games. Now that's
a staggering level of performance for these college kids. Now,
if you don't know the Dusty May story, it's fascinating
because prior to University of Michigan, he was at our
teeny little college here where I live in Bogerratone, Florida
(03:32):
called FAU Florida Atlantic University, where he had a miracle
season and took his team to the final four of
the entire Division one bracket. And that is no small feat.
In fact, it's one of the most difficult feats that
exists in all of college sports. To be able to
(03:53):
do that, now, you know, tangentially to this, I also
just remember watching Kurt Signetti at the University of Indiana
go in an undefeated season and win the NCAA Division
One Men's College football a tournament in bowl game, you know,
not bowl game, but the championship game there and again,
(04:16):
University of Indiana not a powerhouse in the Big Ten,
not even a powerhouse in Division one football. But he
goes in, has a perfect season and wins that why
he's a true coach. And Cale Sanderson, the Penn State
men's wrestling coach, in his thirteenth national championship. I don't
even know consecutively what it was. But what do all
(04:38):
these coaches represent? They represent the ideal person that you
want coaching you, right that your coach or coaching your
kid in college or whatever that looks like. They all
seem to have these common traits about them. And in
the modern game, viously, we know with nil, we know
(05:04):
with agents, we know with the weight, recruiting practices work,
the transfer portal, we know if kind of some of
the other money that floats around out there. We've seen
just some tremendous changes, even in the last six or
(05:27):
seven years with all of what's taking place. I think
COVID was really kind of the year that broke college
Division I college apart in ways that we used to
know it. Now, what are some of the pros of this?
And I and I believe in a lot of these pros. Right,
there's fair compensation for athletes, right, you know, now where
let's say you know a place like Michigan, they're the
(05:50):
famous Fab five back in the day, would make millions
and millions of dollars not only on these kids name
engine and likenesses, their their jerseys, all the different uh
uh sports of peril and sneakers and all these deals
that the school was you know, just got having the windfall.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
These young kids.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Man, they couldn't even they didn't have cars to drive,
they couldn't live off off off you know, off campus.
They didn't have extra money. I mean, meanwhile, you know,
the school's raking in millions. And that's been the case
for many, many, many, many many years. And that's why
it was always interest to me how certain schools would
get away with it and other schools would would not
(06:30):
get away with it. And again I think that's an
example of how truly dysfunctional the NCAA has been over
long stretches of time. You know, the other aspects is
you know, you know, uh, greater athlete agency and mobility,
right you have you can get recruited come in and
(06:51):
if you don't, aren't you know you're not getting the
right playing time. The college lied to you. And trust me,
a lot of top recruits get lied. When I was
working with University Nebraska football team a few years ago,
there was a young man who'd come transferred over from Georgia,
and he told me his whole recruiting thing on what
they did and laying out the red carpet and the
(07:12):
pressure they put on him and his family to get
him in there. And then basically he sat, didn't even
get a shot, and ultimately, you know, the day before
they were playing in a national championship game, his position
coach came in and said, you need to join the
portal because you're essentially never going to play here. So
that's the way kids are treated at these institutions as
(07:34):
well too. So you know that greater athlete agency and mobility,
their ability to not only you know, combine that anil
with their ability to leave and go someplace that wants them. Hell,
we look at Dusty May and he had the young
man number twenty three who got injured last few games,
but he had gone through you know, the portal a
(07:54):
couple of times. He came from three years at juco
transferred and then transferred in again, finally find his home
with coach May.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
At the University of Michigan. All Right, the other is.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
An idea of improved talent retention and product quality. Right,
stars can stay at the college longer earning the same
money you know that some people and professional can can earn.
Right because remember the number of students playing Division one
(08:27):
is really minuscule. It's like in many cases less than
one percent or right about one or two percent of
total high school athletes playing in that in that talent pool.
Right and for you know, yeah, D one football, you
might have a roster of sixty five or whatever it is,
or ninety or I forget what the new numbers are
(08:50):
down to where your basketball roster which is very small,
or your golf roster or you know, lacrosse rosters or
soccer rosters right that are all you know, much smaller
than those bigger, bigger ones. So being able to get
on a team, stay there and succeed as there financial
professional development opportunities, right. Branding you can get branding deals.
(09:15):
I remember I saw during the March madness of those
two players from Duke the brothers, you know, doing insurance
ads or tax ads. I saw one of the Yukon
kids had a tax ad that he did during halftime.
So you know, these kids are able to cash in
on their talents earn some money that they might not
(09:35):
otherwise be able to leverage when they get to the pros,
because I remember, you're coming out of even at D
one level getting the pros even smaller than it was
getting into college and more difficult. You know, there's some
broader benefits to these programs, right, There's more efficiently see
at rebuilding programs, you know, and you've seen schools like
(10:01):
Indiana and Michigan really benefit from that being able to
rebuild programs quickly when these better coaches come in. I
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(10:21):
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(11:29):
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(11:52):
going to go out and participate in that. We'll get
some good footage and maybe a couple interviews. All right,
who yeah, all right? What are some of the cons? Right?
They have roster instability, which I hear is the number
one thing. Right, there's huge transfer rates, thousands enter the
portal annually in football alone create a constant churne which
(12:14):
always impacts the team dynamics right at the chemistry. Right,
if some kid believes he's better than he is and
he's not getting playing time, he just leaves and goes
to another, and leaves and goes to another. I remember
hearing some stories in football there are kids that have
been at four schools in four years now. And if
I'm a coach and I'm looking at that, man, that's
not the kid that I want on my team. Right,
(12:38):
you know, if you have the revolving door, it's going
to have a negative impact. Why mean competitive and financial inequality.
Right in the wealthy power conference schools, right, you have,
you know, a ton of money going in there, twenty
million dollars or so baseline, and then you can get
these other deals from whatever. But telling you what the
(13:01):
third string guard right in football, or you know, the
fourth string long pull defensivement on your lacrosse team, you
know they're not getting paid and they're not getting endorsement deals,
and kind of that causes another problem internally, obviously academic disruption.
(13:23):
You know, frequent transfers can often result in the loss
of credits school credits, which delays graduations, has an impact
or a reduction of focus on education, which ultimately right.
Most of the kids that are going to play D
one sports are not going to the pros, are not
going to have become superstars, They're not going to be
(13:45):
making millions, and so education is at the essence of
why you're going to college in the first place. And yeah,
you can play D one and have a great career
and be able to you know, take that experience with
you and leverage it in whatever way you can leverage
it down in the future. Help man, I wasn't particularly
great in school. I didn't see the field barely at all.
(14:07):
But the experience alone has given me a core understanding
of performance and what it means to participate at that
level and what it takes to succeed and to thrive,
which I wasn't able to do.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Thankfully, my time and the team's taught me more, and
as I've gotten older, really understanding performance from my own
experiences and mostly researching working with athletes at all these
different levels from high school to college to pros.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You know, there's you.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Know, I think there's a whole level of the nil
stuff that has a really negative connotation understanding taxes. You know,
I've heard some stories about kids getting sued for breach
of contact.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Imagine you've got a big donor who really comes out
of the pocket to get this kid in and the
kid just essentially shows up, doesn't integrate well. And then
after that and the donor's like, what the hell, how
did I just spend five hundred thousand dollars on this kid?
And he's gone, you know, before the season's even out.
And what's that going to do to your donor pool
(15:11):
as well? That you can't get control or keep that
kid happy with where he's at, you know. And then finally,
this is the more subjective one. It's that erosion of
tradition or the amateur spirit, right, the school loyalty there,
pride for playing at your school. Right, These organic rivalries
(15:33):
between big conference teams the Ohio State, Michigan, right, the
Oregon whomever, right, whatever it is, these big loyal those
kind of lose it because kids are just kind of
navigating their way to a paycheck into starting so they
can leverage that and to get paid essentially, you know,
and essentially it turns your many of your college athletes
(15:56):
into semi pros and what that means for them psychologically.
Because I've actually done work with certain pro teams like
how do you prepare the kid for if he doesn't
succeed at that high level and then he only has
a short career?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Right?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Most people, you know don't realize just how short careers
can be. Through injury, through just not rising to the
occasion and making the next level jump in terms of
your abilities, right, and then the pressures of just what
it means to have to perform at that level. I
mean walking into the University of Michigan's arena or walking
(16:36):
into you know, their stadium or wherever it might be,
and you've got one hundred thousand people booing you because
you have a bad game. That's a tremendous amount of
pressure on a eighteen to twenty two year old kid. Right,
So all of these things play a role, and you
know what I think the reality is we have to
(16:57):
start thinking about is the role that the coach plays
and what that coach means.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I remember growing up in the day where he had, uh,
you know, the Don Shula's, the the Bear Bryant's the
uh Bo Schembleckler's, the you know, the Shryzhevsky's, uh, the
Bobby Knights, the you know, all these storied old school
(17:26):
coaches who were able to really you know, take these
young kids. Uh. John Wooden probably one of my favorite
coaches of all time, right, and that that pyramid of
performance that he came up with, which is a great
a great understanding of of some of what I'm going
to talk about in terms of that true coach. And
(17:47):
so one of the things that it's really critical and
for for uh, you know, players and coaches to think about,
is are what is what are what are my personal responsibilities?
And if I'm a kid, what I want to look
for is I want to look for that true coach,
the coach who has kind of the understanding. Remember, and
(18:13):
also you think about this, right, being a coach in
the modern era, Man, it's almost like you're running a major,
multi million dollar business, right, And it's not like you know,
you're doing with seasoned professionals. You're working with kids. You're
working with kids that have come from different backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds,
(18:36):
different moral backgrounds, different upbringings, different focuses, different whatever, and
you're having them integrate into this intensely rigorous schedule. You've
got to figure most D one athletic programs that's a
thirty to forty hour week in addition to your scholastic
requirements as well too, so you know, maintaining the understanding.
(19:00):
Plus the coach has to deal with the athletic department
and the ads has to deal with the press constantly
what they're doing, how they're hammering their kids. I mean,
we saw that the head coach of the Yukon women's
team really go off on the NCAA and the amount
of pressure they were putting on these young girls in
terms of meeting media requirements and outside practices where media
(19:22):
can be there. Right, all of this plays a role
in those pressures on what it means to be a
true coach. So you know, I think one of the
things that coaches are most specifically responsible for, right is
first and foremost is the ability to develop the individual kid,
(19:48):
and not just develop that kid as an athlete, but
to develop them as a human being, to develop them
as a person that can take this unbelievably this great
gift of college athletic and par that parlay that into
a confidence, right, an ability to embrace their fear where
(20:08):
they can then take that experience, leverage it, and go
pursue something that's meaningful, right, that has genuine purpose in
their life, and that is you know, they can continue
to integrate in all different kinds of teams, whatever profession
they choose, or you know, whatever person you know, sense
(20:28):
of meaning they pursue in their lives, whether they get
into stay in athletics, or they get into entrepreneurialism, or
they get into teaching or whatever career they pursue. Right,
that's the fundamental responsibility for coach. And so anytime I
work with coaches, that's one of the first places I
start with. I want to understand what your coaching philosophy
(20:53):
is behind the development of the human being. And I
definitely now knowing that Chloe's going to commit to going
and playing up here my oldest kid, and I'm going
to be like, you know, coach, you know what are
you gonna You know, I just want to understand what's
your mission for my daughter and her development not only
(21:13):
as a player, but more importantly as a human being
to take this experience and leverage it in her life, right,
So that core coaching philosophy is critical.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I know for a fact that many many coaches don't
even have a coaching philosophy, right. They might have some
type of training regimen and kind of an approach to
games maybe, but really the core philosophy of why they're
coaching and what they want to achieve within the human
being that they have under their care and responsibility, that's
(21:45):
first and foremost. The other is is how coaches assemble, right,
how they recruit, how they take these unique, driven young
people and they bring them together under the construct of
this core mission, which should be to yes, absolutely win.
(22:05):
That should be at the forefront of why anybody competes
in the first place.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
If you don't want to win, then you know.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You should go do it, you know, off to the
side in some rec league or whatever it is. But
one of the most I would say, you know, ninety
five percent of all athletes that I've ever been around
or worked with, or myself, the fundamental reason why you
do is for the competition, and the root of the
competition is to succeed, which is to win, which is
(22:33):
then to drive forward this collective mission of performance right
right where everybody recognizes that your individual drive and commitment
and performance is relative to the person who's on the
right and left you even if you're playing an individual sport,
even if you're wrestling, right, the culture of Cale Sanderson's
(22:55):
Penn State men's team is the essence of what makes
them so fundamentally good, right, and how they do that
every day in practice and out of season, and how
they recruit people for their team. And I find it
really interesting that they had one transfer in this year,
(23:16):
kid from Oklahoma, But otherwise Kale really specifically focuses on
recruiting out of high school, bringing them in the red
shirt concept, and then developing these kids as performers in
their weight class, but in an overall structure of what
Pennstant Wrestling is trying to teach these kids to become champions,
(23:37):
and in my opinion, nobody's ever done it is good
as Kale. I think it's probably the most elite college
Division IE sports program I've ever seen in my entire life. Now,
there have been great programs in the past, and to
keep those going is often challenging, but again it comes
back to these core ideas of what it means to
(23:57):
be a true coach, right, that coaching philosophy, recruiting the
right kids, the development of those kids, and really getting
them focused on that common mission right now. You know,
one of the things that I think is must be
difficult as you're out there assessing the landscape of great
(24:21):
high school players or transfer porter players, is you look
at their natural athletic talent. Obviously, right, that is a
key indicator of what that kid's going to be able
to produce when they're on the field, the court, or
where on the mats, wherever it might be. And so
you look at those baseline fundamentals of talent. How fast
(24:41):
they are, how much energy can they generate, how strong
they are, how fast they can recover their work ethic right,
their idea of fundamental skills, how competent they are in
those fundamentals, how they integrate, and you know their field
IQ if you will. All these things are evaluating grets.
And I'll never forget my good friend Mike Ricord, who
(25:04):
is the head of scouting at the Red Sox. You know,
they used to have a very specific scout what they
look for these six things. But Mike always talked about
the X factor too, and that X factor is, in
my opinion, the core of it.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
What a true coach looks for.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
The X factor is that social integration, right, the ability
for that kid, no matter how good they are on
that status pole, right, can they integrate into the overall
population of what that team is.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Because the team dynamics are what make it.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I remember, you know, just watching another guy that I
had a short amount of time working with a few
years ago at at Carolina, and that's Sam Donaldson who
ended up winning the Super Bowl for Seattle this year.
And you know, one of the things he's commented on
it when he was being interview was just how committed
(26:03):
the team was. It was the guys in the locker room,
the coach's commitment to the guys and really their commitment.
And you know his praise of the defense was also immaculate,
you know, the other side of the ball from him
and what they impact they had, right. And so it's
that selflessness of the player to recognize it's always a
(26:24):
team approach to comprehensive victory. Now, as you look at
all those things, right, and you look about these fundamentals,
I evaluate players from a different performance. Right. I'm not
going to go in there and coach kid had to
hit a soccer ball. Better coach kid had a shoot
lacross ball or coach kid had to throw up football.
(26:44):
You know, that's way outside. Plus, modern training techniques are
so advanced and so good and so awesome that you know,
I'm just out.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Of my league.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
But what I do understand right, as I understand that
that mental emotional, uh spirit intersection, right, what you're trying
to accomplish with these kids, right, And so fundamentals for
me are always integrated around two main components, and that's fear.
Right when you're a young kid you're showing up to
let's call it Indiana this spring ball or in the
(27:18):
fall or you know, leading into the fall ball, Imagine
the fear you have of stepping onto a national championship
team where the expectations now are, you know, to get
there again because you've done it, You've gotten there, and
or at least to get back to the playoffs and
perform well and have a winning season, like that's the expectation,
and so it's inevitable that you're going to put a
(27:40):
heightened pressure upon yourself, which generates fear, right, and fear's healthy.
Fear is good. And again, there's no such thing as fearlessness.
Everybody has fear, I don't care whatever level you're at,
even the you know McDonald's first team or not a
McDonald's but Nike First Team All Star basketball kid is
going to have fear, right, you know, and that's.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Why what drives them.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
And you know, one of the most impressive young people
I've ever seen managed that fear. And then the other
component is self confidence. I'll talk about that is Cooper
Flag last year at Duke, right, and then coming from
Duke and going to the Dallas Maverick and he's already
had multiple fifty point games as a nineteen year old
kid in the NBA, which again he's a super freak, right,
(28:24):
so he's the outer edge of performance. But most normal kids, right,
you know, the greater body of the bell curve, they're
gonna have fear. So as a coach, it's your responsibility
to help teach these kids how to embrace those things. Right,
And they're going to be afraid of not playing, They're
gonna be afraid of making mistakes. They're gonna be afraid
(28:45):
of not integrating, not being accepted by the team, not
being able to keep up with their schoolwork. All these
very common natural fears, and so you know, addressing those
commonalities across your team isn't essential to give them the
support structure to make sure you can mitigate those fears,
reduce them, or just say hey, listen, it's cool to
be afraid, but listen, you need to step into the
(29:07):
options that we provide you to help mitigate or lessen
the amount of fear you're dealing with every day. And
most great programs out there, they have mental skills coaches,
they have psychologists on staff, right, all these people to
help and support these kids with the pressure that they're
dealing with. Now. The other aspect is self confidence, right,
and that's really key when it comes to athletic performance. Right.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Self confidence is, in my opinion, is pretty basic.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Right. The biggest indicator of self confident kids are the
kids that are having fun, the kids that love to
put the work in, the kids that are grinding, the
kids that are doing the work when nobody's listening. Right,
the off practice is what they're hitting the weight room,
the stretching, they're managing their diets. They're not getting hammered
all the time, right, They're enjoying themselves, but they're really
(29:56):
committed to this experience of playing at that DE one
or D three level, whatever level it might be. And
self confidence is something that can get eradicated or knocked
down every single day. Right, you come in and have
a bad practice boom, your self confidence is destroyed.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
You're back down to zero.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You go into the game, you call a bad time out,
you miss a critical shot, you get a foul called
on you that costs you the game. All of that
is a reality of performance. Your fail failures are going
to be a huge part of that. And so when
people fail, their self confidence gets knocked down. Great coaches
are testing that day in and day out. Right, they're
(30:37):
imposing failure in those practice sessions because they're knocking these
kids down. But then what they're doing is they're not
destroying them when they're down. They're not putting their boot
on their necks and humiliating them emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
They're picking them back up.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Coaching them specific on fundamentals what they did wrong, and
then they're giving them an opportunity to get back in
and correct the mistake they did right. And they keep
doing that over and over and over. That's what true
coaches do. They're constantly forcing that self confidence to be checked,
so then the kid can come back and rehabilitate with
their assistance through better fundamental performance and team integration. Right,
(31:17):
self confidence is a key thing. The other aspect about
self confidence that I see all the time with kids
is the comparative analysis of others. Right, You're always seeing
kids compare themselves. Now, don't get me wrong, I truly
believe the old chip on his shoulder of if that
kid's good, I'm gonna go beat him, I'm gonna outscore him,
(31:37):
I'm gonna go I'm gonna go perform better.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
That's the driver. I know that works.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
I've used it myself in the past, and it is
a useful tool to rehabilitate self confidence. But it also
can have negative effects as well too. A true coach
will see that, try and mitigate that and say, listen,
stop comparing yourself to other people. Be your own player.
Be your own player in relationship to the players that
(32:03):
are around you, because their performance can enhance your performance.
And so if you're conscientious of their fragility, the fragility
of their self confidence, and are constantly supporting them, not
babing or wrongfully self grandizing other people, but really hitting
them with truth and with fundamental support and lifting people
(32:24):
up when they're down. Man, that's the essence of strong
bonds on a team.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
If one guy suffers, everyone should suffer in some capacity,
not as much as the individual, but certainly the recognition that, hey,
this player plays a critical aspect of our team is struggling.
Let's support him and build him back, not in a
Pollyannic way, but in a maybe tough love way or
whatever it might be, whatever the culture of the team is.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
So that's huge.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Now, once you adapt to those fundamentals of really helping
kids deal with fear right, embrace their fears and the
natural transitions they're going through and the growth as players
and performers, and then also being able to have a
real distinct program to rehabilitate self confidence after they get
knocked down. Now, the advanced concepts in this are fundamentally this, Right,
(33:13):
you want to have a kid that's really focused on
team orientation, right, and we saw that, right. I remember
listening to those young men after Indiana when they want
or listening to Michigan, or you're listening to those kids
at Penn State. You listen to the UCLA women's head
coach who just won. You listen to some of these
(33:33):
other teams that have won national championships, hockey teams, fencing teams,
track and field. Right, the great praise comes from the
acknowledgment that, hey, we all operate as team. And don't
get me wrong, I know a lot of these are
sound bites for the cameras there.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
You know, the old bull Durham for you older.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Folks, where he's teaching LaRouche how to not be dumb
when you're getting interviewed by excuse me, when you're getting
interviewed by the media, right to say something that's clever
and works. But I really what I see is this
really unique aspect in athletics out there right now, which
(34:15):
is this team orientation to give props where props are due,
the recognition. You don't get there on your own because
those kids who think that way, they're always going to
be a cancer on your team. And that's really what
you don't want unless you're a true coach, which I
believe can take that superstar that individual, break them down
and have them integrate into the team culture. Because team
(34:37):
orientation is everything, right, and what I believe team orientation
focuses on is is the kid committed to the team
and to the teammates, to the program, right, not just
committed to them seeing playing time, but committed to the
program itself. Committed to the way the coaching staff aggregates
(34:58):
the flow the development of the development of the team, right,
That's huge. The other is their training mindset. If a
kid is fundamentally committed to training and doesn't skimp on
reps and goes all in, puts and follows the training
procedure and buys into that program, that's the kid who's
really going to be integrated into the team orientation or
(35:20):
the team life I call it right. And then after
that you have great communicators teammates. Great teammates are great communicators.
They're always relaying information to each other. They're keeping each
other abreast of what's going on. If you go to
the kid and like, hey, man, did you watch game films? Now?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Man, I don't need to watch that. I got my game.
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Well, that's not what you want. You want somebody who's
willing to do the work to communicate back and forth
coaches and for the players they're playing with or competing
with in and around their sport right.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
And lastly, you know leadership.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
What I always think true coaches are looking to do
is they're looking to take these young, exceptional young athletes,
bring them in and then develop them as true leaders
for the team. And if you see those kids moving
into the willfully moving into those leadership roles, whatever they
might be. You know, a leadership role as a bench player,
leadership role as a practice player, leadership role as a starter.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Right, that's essential.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
You have to have kids that want to take up
that that that pressure, take up that that that that
rocksack of leadership and develop that alone. So what does
that take takes them the communicating and company to the coach? Coach,
what do I need to learn how to do in
order to be a great leader? And and that leadership
structure should fall within the coaching purview as well as
(36:46):
coaching development as well as the culture of the team. Now,
I will tell you this, many teams I've worked with
do not have that leadership.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Development program built in.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
And what I believe true coaches do they think about
that from the soul because it's your leaders of the
team that are going to be able to correct many
issues that the coaches don't necessarily need to get involved in.
That's why it's essential to have a great leadership development
program internal. As a coach, you want these players to
be able to govern themselves at a pretty high level.
(37:18):
Right to police up the effort to keep the kids,
everybody focused on the philosophical mandates presented by the true
coach as well as the regiment of performance required for
stepping on that court.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
All Right. The last one, right is this sense of purpose.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Right to live with purpose on the team, and that
purpose is to play the sport at the highest level possible.
Right to really explore what your capabilities are instead of
allowing your emotions or that spiritual doubt that comes into
play distract you from what you potentially could become. Because
that negative insurgency is in your head. So getting a
(37:57):
true coach will really drill that down out onto the
in a realistic manner with each player, each kid on
their team. Right, what's your purpose of being here? What's
your objective in your four or five years you're going
to be playing? Right, what's your objective in the next
week of practice, in the next hour, what's your purpose today?
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Right?
Speaker 1 (38:18):
And these are the questions that need to be presented
something much more deep, much more profound for these young
kids get their brains thinking on that level, because before
you know it, their career is over and they're never
playing a sport again, and that identity shift. If they
don't have genuine purpose about what their expectations, what the
(38:39):
intent of their commitment to playing the sport is going
to result when they're getting out or they're done playing.
If you don't have that built into that kid, those
kids can really suffer pretty substantially from one going from
an athlete from four years old to at twenty two
years old, your life is over and you have no
idea what your identity is next. And I know that
(39:00):
and vividly for multiple that time happen to be multiple
different times. So a true coach will integrate that genuine
sense of purpose in the kid and help them discover
that in real time.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
All right now, the last component of that.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Purpose that you really have to ask yourself if you're
the coach, is right, you know, does my student athlete?
Does my athlete understand what I want his impact to
be daily, both on the practice field as well as
on the game field, right that intention? What impact do
I need from you? Son, or what impact do I
(39:37):
need you from female athlete? Hey, listen, what's your intent
every day as part of this team? And then to
hold them accountable for that intent, the impact of their play,
of their commitment to the culture. Right. The other is
how are they influencing other teammates around them? That's a
big one. What tools do they use? If you're going
to have leaders emerge on your team, what tools is
(40:00):
that kid? Because many times these kids have no idea.
If I every time I ask a young player, hey,
what are the three top things you need to do
to be a leader on the team, everyone nails the
first one. My play will mandate whether or not people
respect me. So I lead on my own performance. Great,
that's fine and danny, but when you're off the field,
you're leading in practice, and someone's distracted, someone's got shit
(40:23):
going on in their personal lives. They're not eating right,
they're drinking whatever. What are the tools you're going to
use to influence that kid to bring them back so
they don't lose sight of the profound opportunity they have
to be a part of the program. Right, what are
your influencial tools? And the last one is to really
begin to give these kids a contemplation of what do
you want your legacy to be, not just with the
(40:44):
team itself, the culture of the community. And I saw
this really phenomenal thing with the new head coach at
Penn State Football. Campbell just brought back three players that
I remember when I was there who were profound, right
Keijohn Carter who I'm friends with, Kyle Bray and and
the their tight end who came back.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
I'm sorry, I'm forgetting his name right.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Now, but these guys were very powerful and it brought
him back this past week to influence the younger players
to talk about the tradition and the heritage of the
the legacy that they hope keeps going on at at
Penn State Football. So get these young kids to start
thinking about that legacy that they're going to have, not
just during you know, once they're first done, but as
(41:29):
down in the future. Right when you become a part
of a team, that's a big deal and you play
a major role on how that team's going to be
remembered for long term. And as we all know, there
are these times in history where certain teams were better
than others, and you always go back to these these
errors of certain performances of these great teams in history,
(41:51):
and you think about it and what ultimately I always
see when we look back to the profound eras during
different college sports teams, you find yourself a true coach
integrated in every one of those profound great erarors. All right,
So you know, I wanted to shift it up from
typical politics the war and I ran operators all the
(42:15):
other stuff I've been doing because if you do or
do not know, obviously, performance is a passion for me.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I love teaching. I do this in my day job.
Every day.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
I work with some of the top business people in
the country regularly. I still am available to work with
different athletes and sports teams at every level and coaching
them to really try and understand how they can maximize
their experience and really move into that role where a
true coach will seek them out, develop them and they
(42:45):
will have this profound legacy of the impact of what
they've done. If you want to know more about me
and some of my coaching, go visit David Rutherford dot
com check out the online Training Coaching. A lot of
those principles I talked about here are available there on
an individ level. If you're also interested in be working
with your team collegiately or professionally, don't hesitate to reach out.
(43:08):
Also on David Rutherford dot com. And if you know
a coach out there who could listen to this or
needs to listen, don't be afraid to share this, leave
a comment if I miss something or whatever. We just
can't thank you enough for all of your support. I
truly believe and love coaching and what it has and
(43:29):
the impact, long lasting impact it has not only on
these young athletes, but also on their parents and their
family members and on the coaching staff that they get
to participate with.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
So that's all I got. Who Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
You can follow us on any social media platform at
David Rutherford Show or on ex at Dee Rutherford Show.
You can follow me at Team frog Logic on both
X and Instagram. All right, everybody, many thanks to my
great coaches I've had in the past. Many thanks to
the Lord Almighty, Many thanks to you God bless you.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Who Yeah
What a Dusty May, Kurt Signetti, and Cale Sanderson all
have in common.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
They're all true coaches.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Today, I break down what that means and more importantly,
what it means for the athletes in modern athletics today
on The David Rutherford Show.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's Up?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Everybody, Welcome back to the show. I'm super fired up
to have this one. Everybody who's ever played a sport
at any level knows absolutely hands down, the most important
thing is how good is your coach? And as a
person that's played Division one athletics, I played Penn State lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I played football my whole life.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
I played basketball, I played baseball, I played soccer, you
name it, I played it as a kid as well
as I've worked with a ton of D one sports
teams and.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Professional teams.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Last two years, I've worked with the Penn State Athletic department.
Last year with the Penn State men's hockey team. I've
worked with the Penn State men's lacrosse team a bunch
over the last seven years. I've worked with the UPenn
football team. I've worked with the Oregon State Beavers baseball
team when they won a Collegiate World Series championship, I've
(01:32):
worked with professional teams like the Green Bay Packers, I've.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Worked with the.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Carolina Panthers, and I won a World Series while working
with in support of the Boston Red Sox in twenty eighteen.
So I've seen great coaching and I've seen horrible coaching.
Not only that, my oldest daughter, who just committed to
Penn State Harrisburg Soccer, played travel soccer for you know,
(02:03):
the last eight years, and I watched just a continuous
slew of horrific coaching. And I watch it at every level,
almost in high school. That's the key of whether or
not you're going to have a successful program. Do you
have a true coach? Now, when I talk about true coach,
what do I mean? Well, I believe a true coach
(02:28):
has some basic fundamentals which makes them a true coach.
And I'll get into that in a minute. But you
know why am I digging into this today? Well, last,
you know, on this past Monday was the National Championship
basketball game, and we were able to watch Dusty May,
(02:51):
the head coach of Michigan in really only a second
year there, win a national championship, not only win it,
but dominate the entire suite entire March Madness bracket right
many cases before the last game, winning by almost an
(03:11):
average of twenty points the four previous games. Now that's
a staggering level of performance for these college kids. Now,
if you don't know the Dusty May story, it's fascinating
because prior to University of Michigan, he was at our
teeny little college here where I live in Bogerratone, Florida
(03:32):
called FAU Florida Atlantic University, where he had a miracle
season and took his team to the final four of
the entire Division one bracket. And that is no small feat.
In fact, it's one of the most difficult feats that
exists in all of college sports. To be able to
(03:53):
do that, now, you know, tangentially to this, I also
just remember watching Kurt Signetti at the University of Indiana
go in an undefeated season and win the NCAA Division
One Men's College football a tournament in bowl game, you know,
not bowl game, but the championship game there and again,
(04:16):
University of Indiana not a powerhouse in the Big Ten,
not even a powerhouse in Division one football. But he
goes in, has a perfect season and wins that why
he's a true coach. And Cale Sanderson, the Penn State
men's wrestling coach, in his thirteenth national championship. I don't
even know consecutively what it was. But what do all
(04:38):
these coaches represent? They represent the ideal person that you
want coaching you, right that your coach or coaching your
kid in college or whatever that looks like. They all
seem to have these common traits about them. And in
the modern game, viously, we know with nil, we know
(05:04):
with agents, we know with the weight, recruiting practices work,
the transfer portal, we know if kind of some of
the other money that floats around out there. We've seen
just some tremendous changes, even in the last six or
(05:27):
seven years with all of what's taking place. I think
COVID was really kind of the year that broke college
Division I college apart in ways that we used to
know it. Now, what are some of the pros of this?
And I and I believe in a lot of these pros. Right,
there's fair compensation for athletes, right, you know, now where
let's say you know a place like Michigan, they're the
(05:50):
famous Fab five back in the day, would make millions
and millions of dollars not only on these kids name
engine and likenesses, their their jerseys, all the different uh
uh sports of peril and sneakers and all these deals
that the school was you know, just got having the windfall.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
These young kids.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Man, they couldn't even they didn't have cars to drive,
they couldn't live off off off you know, off campus.
They didn't have extra money. I mean, meanwhile, you know,
the school's raking in millions. And that's been the case
for many, many, many, many many years. And that's why
it was always interest to me how certain schools would
get away with it and other schools would would not
(06:30):
get away with it. And again I think that's an
example of how truly dysfunctional the NCAA has been over
long stretches of time. You know, the other aspects is
you know, you know, uh, greater athlete agency and mobility,
right you have you can get recruited come in and
(06:51):
if you don't, aren't you know you're not getting the
right playing time. The college lied to you. And trust me,
a lot of top recruits get lied. When I was
working with University Nebraska football team a few years ago,
there was a young man who'd come transferred over from Georgia,
and he told me his whole recruiting thing on what
they did and laying out the red carpet and the
(07:12):
pressure they put on him and his family to get
him in there. And then basically he sat, didn't even
get a shot, and ultimately, you know, the day before
they were playing in a national championship game, his position
coach came in and said, you need to join the
portal because you're essentially never going to play here. So
that's the way kids are treated at these institutions as
(07:34):
well too. So you know that greater athlete agency and mobility,
their ability to not only you know, combine that anil
with their ability to leave and go someplace that wants them. Hell,
we look at Dusty May and he had the young
man number twenty three who got injured last few games,
but he had gone through you know, the portal a
(07:54):
couple of times. He came from three years at juco
transferred and then transferred in again, finally find his home
with coach May.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
At the University of Michigan. All Right, the other is.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
An idea of improved talent retention and product quality. Right,
stars can stay at the college longer earning the same
money you know that some people and professional can can earn.
Right because remember the number of students playing Division one
(08:27):
is really minuscule. It's like in many cases less than
one percent or right about one or two percent of
total high school athletes playing in that in that talent pool.
Right and for you know, yeah, D one football, you
might have a roster of sixty five or whatever it is,
or ninety or I forget what the new numbers are
(08:50):
down to where your basketball roster which is very small,
or your golf roster or you know, lacrosse rosters or
soccer rosters right that are all you know, much smaller
than those bigger, bigger ones. So being able to get
on a team, stay there and succeed as there financial
professional development opportunities, right. Branding you can get branding deals.
(09:15):
I remember I saw during the March madness of those
two players from Duke the brothers, you know, doing insurance
ads or tax ads. I saw one of the Yukon
kids had a tax ad that he did during halftime.
So you know, these kids are able to cash in
on their talents earn some money that they might not
(09:35):
otherwise be able to leverage when they get to the pros,
because I remember, you're coming out of even at D
one level getting the pros even smaller than it was
getting into college and more difficult. You know, there's some
broader benefits to these programs, right, There's more efficiently see
at rebuilding programs, you know, and you've seen schools like
(10:01):
Indiana and Michigan really benefit from that being able to
rebuild programs quickly when these better coaches come in. I
just want to really talk about my incredible partnership with
one of my best friends, and that's Evan Hayfer and
the boys over at Black Rifle Coffee. I'm so honored
(10:21):
to be a part of their organization and just really
can't thank them enough for allowing me to participate. What
I want you to do is go to Black Riflecoffee
dot com and I want to check out their new
energy drinks. They have these incredible energy drinks that you
can buy at all different kinds of stores Walmart, Bath Sports.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
And others.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Or you can go online in order and if you
want to put in your little promo code Frog Logic
two zero there you get a little discount on stuff there.
I highly recommend that for me, it's my morning coffee.
I am addicted to Black Rifle Coffee's just black. I
think the Tiger Stripe Cambo definitely reels me in. The
(11:08):
Other one I love is the ak Espresso. This one
right here is phenomenal. Love these but they have so
many different things that you can get at Black Rifle Coffee.
You will love it again when you go over Black
Riflecoffee dot Com and you're checking out, type in frog
logic to zero, get your little discount quote and tell
(11:29):
them old ready rut send you. So to all those
folks out there who love coffee like I do, please
do yourself a favor and go over and check out
my brothers at b R C c oh And We've
got a cool event coming up that I'm going to
be a part of out in Vegas. It's a Staccato shooting,
big shooting event with BRCC, So Jordan and I are
(11:52):
going to go out and participate in that. We'll get
some good footage and maybe a couple interviews. All right,
who yeah, all right? What are some of the cons? Right?
They have roster instability, which I hear is the number
one thing. Right, there's huge transfer rates, thousands enter the
portal annually in football alone create a constant churne which
(12:14):
always impacts the team dynamics right at the chemistry. Right,
if some kid believes he's better than he is and
he's not getting playing time, he just leaves and goes
to another, and leaves and goes to another. I remember
hearing some stories in football there are kids that have
been at four schools in four years now. And if
I'm a coach and I'm looking at that, man, that's
not the kid that I want on my team. Right,
(12:38):
you know, if you have the revolving door, it's going
to have a negative impact. Why mean competitive and financial inequality.
Right in the wealthy power conference schools, right, you have,
you know, a ton of money going in there, twenty
million dollars or so baseline, and then you can get
these other deals from whatever. But telling you what the
(13:01):
third string guard right in football, or you know, the
fourth string long pull defensivement on your lacrosse team, you
know they're not getting paid and they're not getting endorsement deals,
and kind of that causes another problem internally, obviously academic disruption.
(13:23):
You know, frequent transfers can often result in the loss
of credits school credits, which delays graduations, has an impact
or a reduction of focus on education, which ultimately right.
Most of the kids that are going to play D
one sports are not going to the pros, are not
going to have become superstars, They're not going to be
(13:45):
making millions, and so education is at the essence of
why you're going to college in the first place. And yeah,
you can play D one and have a great career
and be able to you know, take that experience with
you and leverage it in whatever way you can leverage
it down in the future. Help man, I wasn't particularly
great in school. I didn't see the field barely at all.
(14:07):
But the experience alone has given me a core understanding
of performance and what it means to participate at that
level and what it takes to succeed and to thrive,
which I wasn't able to do.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
You know.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Thankfully, my time and the team's taught me more, and
as I've gotten older, really understanding performance from my own
experiences and mostly researching working with athletes at all these
different levels from high school to college to pros.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You know, there's you.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Know, I think there's a whole level of the nil
stuff that has a really negative connotation understanding taxes. You know,
I've heard some stories about kids getting sued for breach
of contact.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Imagine you've got a big donor who really comes out
of the pocket to get this kid in and the
kid just essentially shows up, doesn't integrate well. And then
after that and the donor's like, what the hell, how
did I just spend five hundred thousand dollars on this kid?
And he's gone, you know, before the season's even out.
And what's that going to do to your donor pool
(15:11):
as well? That you can't get control or keep that
kid happy with where he's at, you know. And then finally,
this is the more subjective one. It's that erosion of
tradition or the amateur spirit, right, the school loyalty there,
pride for playing at your school. Right, These organic rivalries
(15:33):
between big conference teams the Ohio State, Michigan, right, the
Oregon whomever, right, whatever it is, these big loyal those
kind of lose it because kids are just kind of
navigating their way to a paycheck into starting so they
can leverage that and to get paid essentially, you know,
and essentially it turns your many of your college athletes
(15:56):
into semi pros and what that means for them psychologically.
Because I've actually done work with certain pro teams like
how do you prepare the kid for if he doesn't
succeed at that high level and then he only has
a short career?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Right?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Most people, you know don't realize just how short careers
can be. Through injury, through just not rising to the
occasion and making the next level jump in terms of
your abilities, right, and then the pressures of just what
it means to have to perform at that level. I
mean walking into the University of Michigan's arena or walking
(16:36):
into you know, their stadium or wherever it might be,
and you've got one hundred thousand people booing you because
you have a bad game. That's a tremendous amount of
pressure on a eighteen to twenty two year old kid. Right,
So all of these things play a role, and you
know what I think the reality is we have to
(16:57):
start thinking about is the role that the coach plays
and what that coach means.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
I remember growing up in the day where he had, uh,
you know, the Don Shula's, the the Bear Bryant's the
uh Bo Schembleckler's, the you know, the Shryzhevsky's, uh, the
Bobby Knights, the you know, all these storied old school
(17:26):
coaches who were able to really you know, take these
young kids. Uh. John Wooden probably one of my favorite
coaches of all time, right, and that that pyramid of
performance that he came up with, which is a great
a great understanding of of some of what I'm going
to talk about in terms of that true coach. And
(17:47):
so one of the things that it's really critical and
for for uh, you know, players and coaches to think about,
is are what is what are what are my personal responsibilities?
And if I'm a kid, what I want to look
for is I want to look for that true coach,
the coach who has kind of the understanding. Remember, and
(18:13):
also you think about this, right, being a coach in
the modern era, Man, it's almost like you're running a major,
multi million dollar business, right, And it's not like you know,
you're doing with seasoned professionals. You're working with kids. You're
working with kids that have come from different backgrounds, socioeconomic backgrounds,
(18:36):
different moral backgrounds, different upbringings, different focuses, different whatever, and
you're having them integrate into this intensely rigorous schedule. You've
got to figure most D one athletic programs that's a
thirty to forty hour week in addition to your scholastic
requirements as well too, so you know, maintaining the understanding.
(19:00):
Plus the coach has to deal with the athletic department
and the ads has to deal with the press constantly
what they're doing, how they're hammering their kids. I mean,
we saw that the head coach of the Yukon women's
team really go off on the NCAA and the amount
of pressure they were putting on these young girls in
terms of meeting media requirements and outside practices where media
(19:22):
can be there. Right, all of this plays a role
in those pressures on what it means to be a
true coach. So you know, I think one of the
things that coaches are most specifically responsible for, right is
first and foremost is the ability to develop the individual kid,
(19:48):
and not just develop that kid as an athlete, but
to develop them as a human being, to develop them
as a person that can take this unbelievably this great
gift of college athletic and par that parlay that into
a confidence, right, an ability to embrace their fear where
(20:08):
they can then take that experience, leverage it, and go
pursue something that's meaningful, right, that has genuine purpose in
their life, and that is you know, they can continue
to integrate in all different kinds of teams, whatever profession
they choose, or you know, whatever person you know, sense
(20:28):
of meaning they pursue in their lives, whether they get
into stay in athletics, or they get into entrepreneurialism, or
they get into teaching or whatever career they pursue. Right,
that's the fundamental responsibility for coach. And so anytime I
work with coaches, that's one of the first places I
start with. I want to understand what your coaching philosophy
(20:53):
is behind the development of the human being. And I
definitely now knowing that Chloe's going to commit to going
and playing up here my oldest kid, and I'm going
to be like, you know, coach, you know what are
you gonna You know, I just want to understand what's
your mission for my daughter and her development not only
(21:13):
as a player, but more importantly as a human being
to take this experience and leverage it in her life, right,
So that core coaching philosophy is critical.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Now.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I know for a fact that many many coaches don't
even have a coaching philosophy, right. They might have some
type of training regimen and kind of an approach to
games maybe, but really the core philosophy of why they're
coaching and what they want to achieve within the human
being that they have under their care and responsibility, that's
(21:45):
first and foremost. The other is is how coaches assemble, right,
how they recruit, how they take these unique, driven young
people and they bring them together under the construct of
this core mission, which should be to yes, absolutely win.
(22:05):
That should be at the forefront of why anybody competes
in the first place.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
If you don't want to win, then you know.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
You should go do it, you know, off to the
side in some rec league or whatever it is. But
one of the most I would say, you know, ninety
five percent of all athletes that I've ever been around
or worked with, or myself, the fundamental reason why you
do is for the competition, and the root of the
competition is to succeed, which is to win, which is
(22:33):
then to drive forward this collective mission of performance right
right where everybody recognizes that your individual drive and commitment
and performance is relative to the person who's on the
right and left you even if you're playing an individual sport,
even if you're wrestling, right, the culture of Cale Sanderson's
(22:55):
Penn State men's team is the essence of what makes
them so fundamentally good, right, and how they do that
every day in practice and out of season, and how
they recruit people for their team. And I find it
really interesting that they had one transfer in this year,
(23:16):
kid from Oklahoma, But otherwise Kale really specifically focuses on
recruiting out of high school, bringing them in the red
shirt concept, and then developing these kids as performers in
their weight class, but in an overall structure of what
Pennstant Wrestling is trying to teach these kids to become champions,
(23:37):
and in my opinion, nobody's ever done it is good
as Kale. I think it's probably the most elite college
Division IE sports program I've ever seen in my entire life. Now,
there have been great programs in the past, and to
keep those going is often challenging, but again it comes
back to these core ideas of what it means to
(23:57):
be a true coach, right, that coaching philosophy, recruiting the
right kids, the development of those kids, and really getting
them focused on that common mission right now. You know,
one of the things that I think is must be
difficult as you're out there assessing the landscape of great
(24:21):
high school players or transfer porter players, is you look
at their natural athletic talent. Obviously, right, that is a
key indicator of what that kid's going to be able
to produce when they're on the field, the court, or
where on the mats, wherever it might be. And so
you look at those baseline fundamentals of talent. How fast
(24:41):
they are, how much energy can they generate, how strong
they are, how fast they can recover their work ethic right,
their idea of fundamental skills, how competent they are in
those fundamentals, how they integrate, and you know their field
IQ if you will. All these things are evaluating grets.
And I'll never forget my good friend Mike Ricord, who
(25:04):
is the head of scouting at the Red Sox. You know,
they used to have a very specific scout what they
look for these six things. But Mike always talked about
the X factor too, and that X factor is, in
my opinion, the core of it.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
What a true coach looks for.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
The X factor is that social integration, right, the ability
for that kid, no matter how good they are on
that status pole, right, can they integrate into the overall
population of what that team is.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Because the team dynamics are what make it.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
I remember, you know, just watching another guy that I
had a short amount of time working with a few
years ago at at Carolina, and that's Sam Donaldson who
ended up winning the Super Bowl for Seattle this year.
And you know, one of the things he's commented on
it when he was being interview was just how committed
(26:03):
the team was. It was the guys in the locker room,
the coach's commitment to the guys and really their commitment.
And you know his praise of the defense was also immaculate,
you know, the other side of the ball from him
and what they impact they had, right. And so it's
that selflessness of the player to recognize it's always a
(26:24):
team approach to comprehensive victory. Now, as you look at
all those things, right, and you look about these fundamentals,
I evaluate players from a different performance. Right. I'm not
going to go in there and coach kid had to
hit a soccer ball. Better coach kid had a shoot
lacross ball or coach kid had to throw up football.
(26:44):
You know, that's way outside. Plus, modern training techniques are
so advanced and so good and so awesome that you know,
I'm just out.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Of my league.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
But what I do understand right, as I understand that
that mental emotional, uh spirit intersection, right, what you're trying
to accomplish with these kids, right, And so fundamentals for
me are always integrated around two main components, and that's fear.
Right when you're a young kid you're showing up to
let's call it Indiana this spring ball or in the
(27:18):
fall or you know, leading into the fall ball, Imagine
the fear you have of stepping onto a national championship
team where the expectations now are, you know, to get
there again because you've done it, You've gotten there, and
or at least to get back to the playoffs and
perform well and have a winning season, like that's the expectation,
and so it's inevitable that you're going to put a
(27:40):
heightened pressure upon yourself, which generates fear, right, and fear's healthy.
Fear is good. And again, there's no such thing as fearlessness.
Everybody has fear, I don't care whatever level you're at,
even the you know McDonald's first team or not a
McDonald's but Nike First Team All Star basketball kid is
going to have fear, right, you know, and that's.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Why what drives them.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
And you know, one of the most impressive young people
I've ever seen managed that fear. And then the other
component is self confidence. I'll talk about that is Cooper
Flag last year at Duke, right, and then coming from
Duke and going to the Dallas Maverick and he's already
had multiple fifty point games as a nineteen year old
kid in the NBA, which again he's a super freak, right,
(28:24):
so he's the outer edge of performance. But most normal kids, right,
you know, the greater body of the bell curve, they're
gonna have fear. So as a coach, it's your responsibility
to help teach these kids how to embrace those things. Right,
And they're going to be afraid of not playing, They're
gonna be afraid of making mistakes. They're gonna be afraid
(28:45):
of not integrating, not being accepted by the team, not
being able to keep up with their schoolwork. All these
very common natural fears, and so you know, addressing those
commonalities across your team isn't essential to give them the
support structure to make sure you can mitigate those fears,
reduce them, or just say hey, listen, it's cool to
be afraid, but listen, you need to step into the
(29:07):
options that we provide you to help mitigate or lessen
the amount of fear you're dealing with every day. And
most great programs out there, they have mental skills coaches,
they have psychologists on staff, right, all these people to
help and support these kids with the pressure that they're
dealing with. Now. The other aspect is self confidence, right,
and that's really key when it comes to athletic performance. Right.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Self confidence is, in my opinion, is pretty basic.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Right. The biggest indicator of self confident kids are the
kids that are having fun, the kids that love to
put the work in, the kids that are grinding, the
kids that are doing the work when nobody's listening. Right,
the off practice is what they're hitting the weight room,
the stretching, they're managing their diets. They're not getting hammered
all the time, right, They're enjoying themselves, but they're really
(29:56):
committed to this experience of playing at that DE one
or D three level, whatever level it might be. And
self confidence is something that can get eradicated or knocked
down every single day. Right, you come in and have
a bad practice boom, your self confidence is destroyed.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
You're back down to zero.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You go into the game, you call a bad time out,
you miss a critical shot, you get a foul called
on you that costs you the game. All of that
is a reality of performance. Your fail failures are going
to be a huge part of that. And so when
people fail, their self confidence gets knocked down. Great coaches
are testing that day in and day out. Right, they're
(30:37):
imposing failure in those practice sessions because they're knocking these
kids down. But then what they're doing is they're not
destroying them when they're down. They're not putting their boot
on their necks and humiliating them emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
They're picking them back up.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Coaching them specific on fundamentals what they did wrong, and
then they're giving them an opportunity to get back in
and correct the mistake they did right. And they keep
doing that over and over and over. That's what true
coaches do. They're constantly forcing that self confidence to be checked,
so then the kid can come back and rehabilitate with
their assistance through better fundamental performance and team integration. Right,
(31:17):
self confidence is a key thing. The other aspect about
self confidence that I see all the time with kids
is the comparative analysis of others. Right, You're always seeing
kids compare themselves. Now, don't get me wrong, I truly
believe the old chip on his shoulder of if that
kid's good, I'm gonna go beat him, I'm gonna outscore him,
(31:37):
I'm gonna go I'm gonna go perform better.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
That's the driver. I know that works.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
I've used it myself in the past, and it is
a useful tool to rehabilitate self confidence. But it also
can have negative effects as well too. A true coach
will see that, try and mitigate that and say, listen,
stop comparing yourself to other people. Be your own player.
Be your own player in relationship to the players that
(32:03):
are around you, because their performance can enhance your performance.
And so if you're conscientious of their fragility, the fragility
of their self confidence, and are constantly supporting them, not
babing or wrongfully self grandizing other people, but really hitting
them with truth and with fundamental support and lifting people
(32:24):
up when they're down. Man, that's the essence of strong
bonds on a team.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
If one guy suffers, everyone should suffer in some capacity,
not as much as the individual, but certainly the recognition that, hey,
this player plays a critical aspect of our team is struggling.
Let's support him and build him back, not in a
Pollyannic way, but in a maybe tough love way or
whatever it might be, whatever the culture of the team is.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
So that's huge.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Now, once you adapt to those fundamentals of really helping
kids deal with fear right, embrace their fears and the
natural transitions they're going through and the growth as players
and performers, and then also being able to have a
real distinct program to rehabilitate self confidence after they get
knocked down. Now, the advanced concepts in this are fundamentally this, Right,
(33:13):
you want to have a kid that's really focused on
team orientation, right, and we saw that, right. I remember
listening to those young men after Indiana when they want
or listening to Michigan, or you're listening to those kids
at Penn State. You listen to the UCLA women's head
coach who just won. You listen to some of these
(33:33):
other teams that have won national championships, hockey teams, fencing teams,
track and field. Right, the great praise comes from the
acknowledgment that, hey, we all operate as team. And don't
get me wrong, I know a lot of these are
sound bites for the cameras there.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
You know, the old bull Durham for you older.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Folks, where he's teaching LaRouche how to not be dumb
when you're getting interviewed by excuse me, when you're getting
interviewed by the media, right to say something that's clever
and works. But I really what I see is this
really unique aspect in athletics out there right now, which
(34:15):
is this team orientation to give props where props are due,
the recognition. You don't get there on your own because
those kids who think that way, they're always going to
be a cancer on your team. And that's really what
you don't want unless you're a true coach, which I
believe can take that superstar that individual, break them down
and have them integrate into the team culture. Because team
(34:37):
orientation is everything, right, and what I believe team orientation
focuses on is is the kid committed to the team
and to the teammates, to the program, right, not just
committed to them seeing playing time, but committed to the
program itself. Committed to the way the coaching staff aggregates
(34:58):
the flow the development of the development of the team, right,
That's huge. The other is their training mindset. If a
kid is fundamentally committed to training and doesn't skimp on
reps and goes all in, puts and follows the training
procedure and buys into that program, that's the kid who's
really going to be integrated into the team orientation or
(35:20):
the team life I call it right. And then after
that you have great communicators teammates. Great teammates are great communicators.
They're always relaying information to each other. They're keeping each
other abreast of what's going on. If you go to
the kid and like, hey, man, did you watch game films? Now?
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Man, I don't need to watch that. I got my game.
I'm good.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
Well, that's not what you want. You want somebody who's
willing to do the work to communicate back and forth
coaches and for the players they're playing with or competing
with in and around their sport right.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
And lastly, you know leadership.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
What I always think true coaches are looking to do
is they're looking to take these young, exceptional young athletes,
bring them in and then develop them as true leaders
for the team. And if you see those kids moving
into the willfully moving into those leadership roles, whatever they
might be. You know, a leadership role as a bench player,
leadership role as a practice player, leadership role as a starter.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
Right, that's essential.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
You have to have kids that want to take up
that that that pressure, take up that that that that
rocksack of leadership and develop that alone. So what does
that take takes them the communicating and company to the coach? Coach,
what do I need to learn how to do in
order to be a great leader? And and that leadership
structure should fall within the coaching purview as well as
(36:46):
coaching development as well as the culture of the team. Now,
I will tell you this, many teams I've worked with
do not have that leadership.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
Development program built in.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
And what I believe true coaches do they think about
that from the soul because it's your leaders of the
team that are going to be able to correct many
issues that the coaches don't necessarily need to get involved in.
That's why it's essential to have a great leadership development
program internal. As a coach, you want these players to
be able to govern themselves at a pretty high level.
(37:18):
Right to police up the effort to keep the kids,
everybody focused on the philosophical mandates presented by the true
coach as well as the regiment of performance required for
stepping on that court.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
All Right. The last one, right is this sense of purpose.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Right to live with purpose on the team, and that
purpose is to play the sport at the highest level possible.
Right to really explore what your capabilities are instead of
allowing your emotions or that spiritual doubt that comes into
play distract you from what you potentially could become. Because
that negative insurgency is in your head. So getting a
(37:57):
true coach will really drill that down out onto the
in a realistic manner with each player, each kid on
their team. Right, what's your purpose of being here? What's
your objective in your four or five years you're going
to be playing? Right, what's your objective in the next
week of practice, in the next hour, what's your purpose today?
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Right?
Speaker 1 (38:18):
And these are the questions that need to be presented
something much more deep, much more profound for these young
kids get their brains thinking on that level, because before
you know it, their career is over and they're never
playing a sport again, and that identity shift. If they
don't have genuine purpose about what their expectations, what the
(38:39):
intent of their commitment to playing the sport is going
to result when they're getting out or they're done playing.
If you don't have that built into that kid, those
kids can really suffer pretty substantially from one going from
an athlete from four years old to at twenty two
years old, your life is over and you have no
idea what your identity is next. And I know that
(39:00):
and vividly for multiple that time happen to be multiple
different times. So a true coach will integrate that genuine
sense of purpose in the kid and help them discover
that in real time.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
All right now, the last component of that.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Purpose that you really have to ask yourself if you're
the coach, is right, you know, does my student athlete?
Does my athlete understand what I want his impact to
be daily, both on the practice field as well as
on the game field, right that intention? What impact do
I need from you? Son, or what impact do I
(39:37):
need you from female athlete? Hey, listen, what's your intent
every day as part of this team? And then to
hold them accountable for that intent, the impact of their play,
of their commitment to the culture. Right. The other is
how are they influencing other teammates around them? That's a
big one. What tools do they use? If you're going
to have leaders emerge on your team, what tools is
(40:00):
that kid? Because many times these kids have no idea.
If I every time I ask a young player, hey,
what are the three top things you need to do
to be a leader on the team, everyone nails the
first one. My play will mandate whether or not people
respect me. So I lead on my own performance. Great,
that's fine and danny, but when you're off the field,
you're leading in practice, and someone's distracted, someone's got shit
(40:23):
going on in their personal lives. They're not eating right,
they're drinking whatever. What are the tools you're going to
use to influence that kid to bring them back so
they don't lose sight of the profound opportunity they have
to be a part of the program. Right, what are
your influencial tools? And the last one is to really
begin to give these kids a contemplation of what do
you want your legacy to be, not just with the
(40:44):
team itself, the culture of the community. And I saw
this really phenomenal thing with the new head coach at
Penn State Football. Campbell just brought back three players that
I remember when I was there who were profound, right
Keijohn Carter who I'm friends with, Kyle Bray and and
the their tight end who came back.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
I'm sorry, I'm forgetting his name right.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
Now, but these guys were very powerful and it brought
him back this past week to influence the younger players
to talk about the tradition and the heritage of the
the legacy that they hope keeps going on at at
Penn State Football. So get these young kids to start
thinking about that legacy that they're going to have, not
just during you know, once they're first done, but as
(41:29):
down in the future. Right when you become a part
of a team, that's a big deal and you play
a major role on how that team's going to be
remembered for long term. And as we all know, there
are these times in history where certain teams were better
than others, and you always go back to these these
errors of certain performances of these great teams in history,
(41:51):
and you think about it and what ultimately I always
see when we look back to the profound eras during
different college sports teams, you find yourself a true coach
integrated in every one of those profound great erarors. All right,
So you know, I wanted to shift it up from
typical politics the war and I ran operators all the
(42:15):
other stuff I've been doing because if you do or
do not know, obviously, performance is a passion for me.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I love teaching. I do this in my day job.
Every day.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
I work with some of the top business people in
the country regularly. I still am available to work with
different athletes and sports teams at every level and coaching
them to really try and understand how they can maximize
their experience and really move into that role where a
true coach will seek them out, develop them and they
(42:45):
will have this profound legacy of the impact of what
they've done. If you want to know more about me
and some of my coaching, go visit David Rutherford dot
com check out the online Training Coaching. A lot of
those principles I talked about here are available there on
an individ level. If you're also interested in be working
with your team collegiately or professionally, don't hesitate to reach out.
(43:08):
Also on David Rutherford dot com. And if you know
a coach out there who could listen to this or
needs to listen, don't be afraid to share this, leave
a comment if I miss something or whatever. We just
can't thank you enough for all of your support. I
truly believe and love coaching and what it has and
(43:29):
the impact, long lasting impact it has not only on
these young athletes, but also on their parents and their
family members and on the coaching staff that they get
to participate with.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
So that's all I got. Who Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
You can follow us on any social media platform at
David Rutherford Show or on ex at Dee Rutherford Show.
You can follow me at Team frog Logic on both
X and Instagram. All right, everybody, many thanks to my
great coaches I've had in the past. Many thanks to
the Lord Almighty, Many thanks to you God bless you.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Who Yeah
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