University of Arizona HC Jedd Fisch

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Schreger is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, Everybody, Welcome to
another episode of the Peter Schreger Podcast. A little later

(00:28):
in the week than usual. And there's a reason for that.
I was traveling on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in Los Angeles.
I cannot share the reason why yet, Aaron, my producer,
Aaron wankoffin, Does that get you intrigued that I have
to be talk secret about this?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I don't. I mean my nice share my eyes were
as big as dinner plates there. I mean that that's
like the oldest person phrase I've ever used.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I think, just as old as my eyes were as
wide as dinner plates.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Can't share?

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Is that some teas?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Well I'm speechless. Yeah, okay, I'm going to speculate.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm going to give you two things honest cannot share
why And here is things signed paperwork saying I cannot
talk about what went down in Los Angeles. Number two,
not NFL related? Is your head going nuts? Are your

(01:33):
eyes as wide as dinners?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
They're they're larger than serving balls. Now not NFL related.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
We don't need to guess let's just go Okay. So
I get to LA on Sunday. And the reason I
was flying out was because of something that was going
on on Monday. And as I'm with my family and
one of the last weekends we'll have together as a
family unit before I start trekking off to Los Angeles
every weekend for Fox. The people who were flying me in,

(02:06):
so someone else paid for this flight so it is professional,
said can you come in Saturday because the worst hurricane
to hit Los Angeles in over one hundred years is
coming and we want to make sure your flight's not canceled.
I rolled the dice. I said, Nope, I'm getting my Saturday.
I'm staying with my family. My son had baseball in

(02:27):
the morning, then we went to the driving range. Later
we had a great All American Saturday. And I'm like,
I'm doing it a flyout Sunday morning. Flyout Sunday morning,
get on the plane, and you would think it's mass
hysteria on this plane of all the LA people who
are on this plane, Like, am I gonna get home?

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (02:46):
And I'm not minimizing it because I was nervous too.
I'm like, wait, we're flying through a hurricane. They're like,
we're flying through a hurricane. Let's roll take off. We
get in and it's pouring rain. It's the rain is legit.
But you know we live in here. I am a
tough guy in New York, Bravado. I live in New York.
Like well that like the rainstorm, eternal local news and

(03:07):
they've got all the local correspondents out there and there,
you know, the biggest weather event. Da fine. As I'm
sitting there pooh poohing this hurricane quote unquote, the entire
hotel room just goes. I'm like, what. I look to
my left. I've got a little lamp on a nightstand.

(03:30):
It shook. There's a pen on the nightstand. The pen
fell off the nightstand. I'm like, holy crap, that was
an earthquake, Aaron, I was in an earthquake.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Had you been in one before? Or is this your
first earthquake?

Speaker 1 (03:45):
I've been in one before, but I didn't necessarily feel it.
This one was legit, this one, and like, what's your
first inclination? Like, what do you do if you're so?
The first thing I do if this tell everyone tells
you that Twitter's dead and Elon musk is awful and
all this stuff. Ignore them, because the very first thing
I did in a natural disaster was to run to
my phone on Twitter, and sure enough, every single LA

(04:09):
person on my Twitter was like, they don't feel that,
they don't feel that. It was a five point one,
which sounds legit. I'm not a Richter scale guy. I
can tell you about the wonder Lick test. I don't
know about the Richter scale tests. But it was legit.
And it was a hurricane and an earthquake all at
the same time. And the jokes were hilarious because i mean,

(04:32):
first of all, I thought it was kind of cool
to be in an earthquake. It felt kind of crazy
and you have no control, so it's like being on
a roller coaster without knowing when it's gonna end. It ended.
I survived, It was all right. But the jokes were
like this and this has like series finale vibes. That
was one of the jokes, and I laughed, I'm like,
like the end of the world vibes.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
That was it.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
The other one was, you know, there's a writer's strike
when you're getting a hurricane and an earthquake in one episode.
I'm like, Uh, it was nuts. So then it was
raining throughout Sunday night Monday, I do it. I was
there for whatever, and then I got a flight that's

(05:14):
gonna be, you know, either a red eye or a
Tuesday morning and they asked me like, what would you ratherfy.
I was like, I changed my plans. I'm like, I'll
go Tuesday morning. I text Cliff Kingsbury, who's the former
coach of the Arizona Cardinals, who if you listen to
this podcast, you know, is one of my good buds,
and I'm like, dude, I'm in LA. He's now. It's funny.

(05:36):
He's an offensive consultant for USC. So he's working with
Caleb Williams, who's the Heisman Trophy winner, and he's working
with the head coach, Lincoln Riley, who they have a
ten year friendship. And Cliff's whole deal is basically, I'm
gonna work with these players. I'm gonna do everything I
can to be the quarterback whisper. He's not looking to

(05:57):
be on the road in Tallahassee and recruiting for USC.
So he's like the football coach. When from what I
gather in college football, and we had Matt Ruhl on
and we're gonna have another coach on today. It's a
lot more than just coaching football when to the head coach.
For Cliff, he's doing that. But I'm like, all right,
I'm going out with Cliffe's he's out. He's living in LA.
He lives in a sick pad. I went there. I

(06:19):
was like, all right, this is pretty cool. And then
we're going out to go get dinner. And we go
get dinner and we go locally to where he lives.
He's living in downtown LA. And we go to a
spot and we're having dinner and sure enough, someone comes
up and comes to the table and I'm like, all right, yeah,
they recognize Cliff. And Aaron Dude is like, are you

(06:41):
Shraker from the NFL network. I'm like yeah. He's like,
you get a selfie with me. I'm like yeah, so
I'm getting selfie's taken and La Cliff is just watching.
I think Cliff took the photo for him.

Speaker 3 (06:53):
Did he ask you for your fantasy advice?

Speaker 1 (06:56):
And his yeah, exactly. I said, get out of here.
The love was real, felt great. Went to the airport
the next morning, flew back and my family they're not around,
so my wife and my two kids. We rented a
spot in Long Island and they're they're out there for
the last week here. Okay, so then I'm home alone

(07:18):
and Tuesday night whatever, get home, No big deal. Actually
watched a movie. Watched the movie that Rogers recommended in
our interview. I watched The Proceige. I'd never seen it. Okay,
it was great, it was great. Watched it, and then
watch the YouTube explainer afterwards to this, like put it
all together, too awesome, But that's not important. Wednesday, do

(07:39):
good Morning Football. All this news comes out in the
NFL on Wednesday, and I think maybe I'll hit it
up in a little bit. We'll get to it, but
I want to get to this part. I'm going to
take it easy. Wednesday night. This happens. This is why
I live in New York City, and why every other
city you might live in if you're listening, is a
second tier place to live, and why I don't live

(08:01):
in the suburbs. And every night I stare at my
mortgage and I stare at the costs of of everything
in New York City, and I look outside my window
and I see some unsavory things. I'm like, why do
I do this? Why do I do this? Why do
I do this? It's nights like this. Wednesday night, I
got a text from a dude named Adam, who I'm

(08:22):
not best buds with, but our kids were on the
same flag football team together and he knows I do
this for a living. He's a diehard Vikings fan. Adam's cool.
His kid Jack is a nice little wide receiver. Adam
texts me out of the blue, like, again, we've never
hung out socially, but like we're on the sidelines together
and he's cool. He's like, Yo, I've got two great

(08:44):
all access tickets to Dave Chappelle at the Garden if
you want to go. And I'm like, oh my god,
Chappelle at the Garden. Now, if you're not familiar, Chappelle's
at the Garden for like a five night's day and
Chappelle is bringing on musical ass. Last night was his
birthday show. And I'll get to who performed all that

(09:06):
in a second. And I'm like, I want to go
to that. I am exhausted. I really want to go
to that. I'm exhausted. Talk to my wife Erica and
she's like, look, you got the season coming up. You've
got travel like up to you. If you really need
to go to Chappelle, you know it's gonna go to
one in the morning. Do you really need to do that?

(09:26):
Do you want to do that? And I'm like, I
kind of do And then I'm like, all right, cooler
heads prevail. I'm gonna say no, Aaron, I don't go Chappelle.
Last Night, John Stewart, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, The Roots,
The Baby, nas Day, Lass Soul, Jeff Ross, The Roastmaster, Earthquake,

(09:52):
one of the great comedians of all time, and I'm
probably missing one other musical act all performed. It went
to one am. And I'll tell you this, I made
the right decision. Oh there's a second chapter to my night.
I'm sitting on the couch, it's six o'clock and my

(10:13):
guy Andy reaches out to me. Who's Andy? Who are
these people? Andy works for the Brooklyn Nets. Andy's kid
is with my kid in basketball. And Andy texts me
and says, hey, late, notice I know, but I've got
a table at Lukalli, which is the hottest spot in

(10:40):
New York, a pizza place in Brooklyn that does pizza
and cal zones. But is like, you go there at
three o'clock to the line one hundred deep, they only
see a few people. There's like four tables. I've been
there twice in my life and I live in Brooklyn
a block away. It's like, do you want to join
my two friends and I or you know, do you

(11:01):
want to come to Lucali? And now it's seven o'clock.
I just said no to Chappelle. I've got the mess
shorts on, i got the T shirt on. I'm all
set to watch, you know, Wheel of Fortune and then
maybe you know, just watch a rerun of like Big
Bang Theory. I was set. I was feeling good about
that situation. I got the invite to luc Collie Aaron,

(11:21):
I'm like, all right, let's go. I meet him. We
head over to Lucali. Line is fifty deep. He works
for the Nets. We walked to the front. Naturally, there's
a group in front who know him from the Brooklyn Nets.
There's a couple of people in their marketing department. We
tap it up with them. It's great. Whatever Mark comes

(11:42):
out who runs Lukali legendary guy. If you watch Netflix
the David Chang series where they go to the different
like restaurants and what was it called.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Even though we're at acid Heat.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
I think might have been the one before that. He
had a series before that. Maybe David Chang did where
like they would go to different countries Ugly Delicious. Yes,
it was like him and his ease right, they go
to like another country with Mark from Lucali Mark Lukali.
If you don't know, google it. It's you know, jay
Z's there all the time, Beyonce is there all the time.

(12:16):
It's a spot in Brooklyn. And the pizza is unreal,
Like I would love to pooh poo it and say,
like the pizza's not good, pizza's unreal. Cal zones are insane.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Have you been ar I have not, but I mean
I've heard about it.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, And like people, it's an Instagram thing. You line
up one hundred deep and like they let in four people.
But for whatever reason, Andy's got an extra I think
I'm a fill in spot. I'm in Andy and I
don't hang like we're very friendly through the kids, and
he's got sports connections. But I'm like, hell, yeah, I'll
go out with you. We're having a blast. It's bring
your own wine. We're kicking it. We got a great table.

(12:47):
I walk in and there's like a buzz in the air.
There's a little buzz in the air, and I'm like,
all right, what's going on here?

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (12:54):
At that table is this rapper who was there? I
don't even know who it was. Fine, Okay, that's in
one corner. Now listen, there's only like four or five
tables at that table. It's Jeffrey Katzenberg, who used to,
you know, run dream Works and now is on his own,
but like Disney legend, was a chairman of Disney for
thirty years. He's got a table, he entertaining people. I'm like,

(13:16):
all right, this is a power room right now. Us
opens going on, and there's rumors that Fetterer was gonna
come through. I'm like, oh, if I met fed that
would be great, that would be pretty cool. And then
all of a sudden, door swings open. Shaggy haired guy
New York Yankees hat hugs Mark. The owner goes up,

(13:37):
DAPs up. Katzenberg looks me right in the eye, and
the guy's like, oh, what's up? Man hug him and
I'm like, what's up, dude. We exchange quick pleasantries, no
names exchange, so there's not one hundred percent confidence that
he knows who I was, but he definitely recognized me.
Tap it up.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Talk.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
I'm like, oh, I heard you're new in the neighborhood.
Ah just moved in. Love it here. It's unbelievable. It's
great British Ed Sheeran, awesome. Ed Shearan cool as hell,
talks to everyone in the restaurant, dabs it up whatever
sits right there, right next to us. We're talking throughout
the dinner. Ed Shearon is just in a This is

(14:15):
literally a week after Ed Sheeron did a show out
in Emma Gans at New York, where Howard Stern was there,
Jerry Seinfeld was there, Sir Paul McCartney was there, Billy
Joel was there, and now Shearon we're just in the
same dining room. And it was the night like this
where I look over at Andy and I'm like, yeah,
that's why we live in New York. It's happened on
a random Wednesday, and I was gonna be sitting on

(14:35):
my home watching mad Men reruns, or maybe watching Two
and a half Men, or maybe watching Suits for the
thirteenth time on Netflix. The pizza was great. The col
Zone was great, the company was great. We had a
great time hanging and Eddie Shearon was great. Aaron your thoughts.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
I mean, my takeaway from this is I very quickly
need to have children and get them on a sports
team that has great dads who will invite to other things.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Right, So we didn't do Chappelle, but I did get
to have one of the cool dinners I've had in
quite some time. And maybe the lead up to ed
sharan'ce not what the listeners want to hear. Maybe they're like, oh,
I thought you were gonna say Tom Brady, or oh
I thought you were gonna say Elon musk At. Sharon
just cool like the man. It was awesome and that

(15:23):
was fun. So that was the last few days. I
cannot share while I was in LA, but I can
share this. I did. What do you got?

Speaker 3 (15:30):
Will you share it later?

Speaker 2 (15:32):
Okay? Cool? Yes? Cool?

Speaker 3 (15:34):
So we will find out at some point.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yes, in a few weeks I will share amazing. It's
just cool. It's it's freaking cool. And that's all real quick.
Some football thoughts before we get to our guests, because
I think if you don't listen to every single podcast,
you don't watch every single day. You might miss some
of these in the Cracks headlines, and I've got good

(15:56):
insight on them. I'm sure you saw obviously that Trey
Lance has been named the number three in San Francisco.
My takeaway on that was Donald beat them out right
for that. And this is a Super Bowl contender, and
John and Kyle John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan, if they
were in a different situation, maybe Trey Lance is given
the second job because he was an number three overall

(16:17):
pick and they traded a million first round picks to
get him. But this is like, no, like, we're here
for this team in rock Perty, I could tell you
is far and away the number one, like performed better
than them in camp. Everyone in the the locker room
believes it. So then it goes to who's the number two?
Donald out played Trey and they're going with Donald. Now,
remember Donald's another number three overall pick, so it's not

(16:40):
like you're dealing with some great shame to lose out
to him. Donald signed a real contract this offseason and
Donald's played in real NFL games. So the way they're
running this offense with Party, it sounds like Kyle and
the guys there in San Francisco, were like, if our
guy goes down, who gives a better chance to win?
And who's in a better position for us to win?

(17:01):
And the answer is with this current offense, the party offense,
Sam Donald. So now you're wondering what to make of
Trey Lance. Trey Lance has already made close to and
I might be exactly, I gotta get that exact. I
think he's made close to thirty million dollars already being
a safety to go forty nine er for three years.
He still has a pretty big contract. He's number three
overall pick. It's not like a crazy contract before the

(17:23):
CBA where the rookies made nuts money. But it's still
a big contract. So it's not like you're just gonna
trade him for a fifth round pick and that be done.
The other team needs to want to take on that contract.
Problem is there's no evidence that Trey Lance is that guy.
You'd have to go back to your pre draft notebooks.
And I've talked to teams, talked to several teams over

(17:43):
the last forty eight hours, and I'm like, would you
trade for Trey Lance? And it's like, I don't know
what Trey Lance is and if the Niners are deeming
him third on the depth chart behind Sam Darnold, who
we passed on signing, I don't know if I'm rushing
to get Trey Lance. So he might end up getting
traded for like a fifth, sixth or seventh round pick

(18:03):
on a team that might want to take And the
natural fit would be the Minnesota Vikings, and that Kirk
Cousins is in the final year of a contract and
they don't have a true runaway number two that you're like,
slam dunk that's their number two guy. Also, Trey Lance
is from Minnesota. Trey Lance was drafted by the forty

(18:23):
nine ers, and that front office contains contained at the
time Kuaisia Dofo Mensa, who put a lot of work
in who is now the Vikings GM. But I don't
you're not going to do it as a charity, like
they have to want him. So the Trey Lance watch
is really interesting, and I think my big takeaway on
it is just how fed up the draft process is.

(18:46):
Like they traded two future first round picks and moved
up from number twelve to number three to get a
player that is number three on their depth chart two
years later, and because they've built such a good team
around them, Like no one's calling for John Lynch's head,
no one's saying like this is the greatest draft miss
of all time. It just is what it is. And

(19:07):
Trey Lance is the number three. My other point is this,
Zach Wilson was number two. So the Jets before them
did the same exact thing and whiffed on a pick
and it didn't work out right away and had to
make a drastic move trading picks and giving a monster
salary and trying to cover up that with a band
aid and getting Aaron Rodgers for the number two and

(19:29):
three overall picks to be Zach Wilson, whose image is
going through a great rehab this summer, and these hard
knocks clips, they make them seem like he's Rogers's little brother,
and like, aw shucks, guess what Zach Wilson's making, something like,
you know, second overall money, it's real money that could
pay in him. Zach went to Trey Lance went three,
And nobody would look at either of those teams, the

(19:50):
Jets and forty nine ers, and look at their GMS
and say, gosh, those guys messed up. Because both teams
are in really good position right now, real quick. Some
other housekeeping around the NFL, Josh Jacobs's name keeps popping
up as far as trade rumors. I'm not sure if
I see Josh Jacob's being traded. Jonathan Taylor's name keeps
being brought up.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Now.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
I don't know what Jonathan Taylor wants. Jonathan Taylor, from
what I'm told, wants a new contract and it might
blow the contracts out of the water that we saw
Dalvin Cook and zekev and potentially Saquon blow with those
guys out of the water what he wants. But I
would keep an eye on Miami in the past when
Miami does these fishing around explorations, and whether it be

(20:31):
Tyreek Hill or Bradley Chubb last year, sometimes there's more
smoke than fire. It wasn't with Dalvin Cook. It turned
out Dalvin Cook was a free agent and signed with
to the Jets, and that's all good. Jonathan Taylor is
a superstar. And if the Miami Dolphins add Jonathan Taylor
to that offense, it already has Tyreek and Waddle and
we we'd hope to have a healthy Tua that could

(20:53):
be lethal I would keep an eye on the Miami
Dolphins as much as Jim Mersey says, like, we're not
looking to trade Jonathan Taylor. He's at camp. He's there,
he's just not playing, and he apparently wants to dig
in with ten toes. Down lengthy monologue. We have an

(21:14):
awesome guest. He's been a friend of mine for a
real long time and I'm so happy for his success
and his football program is on the rise. We're going
to bring in Jed Fish to coach the Arizona Wildcats
right after this. Our next guest is a longtime friend
of mine and a longtime coach in the NFL who
is now a very established college football head coach and

(21:37):
his program is on the rise. I'm so happy he's
joining the podcast, especially right now where the college football
season is just kicking off. Jed Fish, Welcome to the
Peter Schrager The Season with Peter Schrager Podcast.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
I love it. Thanks for having me, man, It's great
to see you and great to be a part of this.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
Yeah. You and I I was thinking I was last night.
I was preparing for this and I'm like, when did
I first meet you? It was actually at the Senior Bowl,
and I think like twenty thirteen, you were the OC
for the Jacksonville Jaguars, and of coaches who do not
give a hit about me, you were like, what's up, man,
what's up? Like what do you want to talk about?
Let's talk, let's go through the list, like whatever. And
you were cool to me then and we've been friends

(22:14):
ever since. And now I see you as the coach
of Arizona in this hot program that everyone's talking about
and just straight up from the top. Couldn't be happier
for you. Man.

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Well, I appreciate that, man, And I remember I remember.
I think our friend Tony Sorrentino was the one that
introduced us. And you know, his dad was my high
school coach, and I brought up to about three different
places throughout my spots and he's doing great now with
the Vikings. But it was great to meet you then,
and obviously we've had so many opportunities to be together
throughout the year, so it's been great. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
So if the listeners are like I know that name
and I remember him on this team or that team,
I thought this would be a cool exercise because we
always talk about the life of a coach and what
that means. And some coaches are fortunate to be in
the same place for twenty years and that's it. And
other coaches are going up the ladder and constantly, you know,
being forced to uproot their families but also tackle new opportunities.

(23:05):
I think you're coaching resume might be the most fascinating
coaching resume in the history of the sports edit. And
I say that because you're my friend, and I know
when you're like, I'm actually getting an opportunity here or here,
and I'm like, God, add that to the list, can
you fit? Listeners, take us through your resume, starting with
your first gig out of college when you went to
the University of Florida.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Sure, yeah, I mean it's certainly unique. I don't know
how much time we have, but I know the biggest
thing for me is every decision that I made in
coaching was I didn't believe I was just a teacher,
but I believe I was also a student throughout my
all of my decisions. So you know, I got the
University of Florida, and I went there to learn how

(23:47):
to coach football. That was the only reason why I
chose Florida. Steve Spurrier was the head coach. He was
the best in my opinion, and probably there wasn't really
an opinion at that point in the nineties that he
was the best college coach in the country. And I said,
I'm going to figure out a way to get work
from for him. And whatever it took. It took everything
in my power, from notes on his car door to

(24:09):
trying to become an equipment manager and everything in between
to finally be allowed in the building and became a
GA at Florida and was a GA at Florida and
ninety nine through one, and then after that Dom Capers
was at Jacksonville and Dom Capers became the head coach
of the Houston Texas and they started a franchise and

(24:31):
he called Coach Furrier and he said, Hey, I need
a GA, someone that I could pay twenty five grand
to make him a quality control coach who wants to
learn how to build a program from scratch. And somehow,
some way, maybe the other ten guys coach Berrier recommended,
they didn't want to take it, but I got it.
I interviewed for the job, I got the job and

(24:52):
spent three years with Coach Capers in Houston and first
year no team. It was just Dom Capers Christmas.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Now that's cool. So you had the organ you had
the franchise, but we still have another year to We're
playing games.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Unbelievable. It was just the coolest thing.

Speaker 1 (25:05):
So you're truly build bilding an expansion franchise.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I got there in April. We had eight months. We
had no staff members other than Dom Capers, Chris Palmer
and myself and Charlie Cashley the GM and I spent
every Sunday in Don Caper's couch at his house watching
all the pro football games. I mean, you can't, you
can't get better. So the year comes to an ad

(25:28):
and he says, well, what side of the ball do
you want to be on? Offense or defense? And I said, coach,
I'm twenty four years old. You tell me what side
of the ball should I be on? Right now? He said,
where do you want to finish your career? I said, well,
I want to be a head coach and offensive coordinator.
He said, okay, I'm going to put you on defense.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yes, let's learn that first.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Let's learn that first. So Vic Fangio was the defensive
coordinator and I spent two years as his defensive quality
control coach, learning it from the studs, truly building it.
And then after three years, Brian Billick called from Baltimore
Ravens and David Shaw was on that staff and they
wanted to hire him.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Already, these names here, you're mentioning Brian Billick, super bowing
and coach David Shaw one of the best college coaches
last twenty years. Dom Caper's basically the godfather of the
three four defense. I mean, you're just naming names and
we're just getting started, all right.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, it's just wild, you know. And Vic was just
you know, we all know Vic, like he's the talk
of the town still, you know. And so I'm with
coach Billick, and so I take the job, and I
told coach Caper's, you know, it's time to get on offense.
This is a chance to get on offense. And spent
four years with the Ravens and I really thought, you know,
you mentioned those like coaches that have those long tenures.

(26:37):
I mean I was twenty seven something like that, twenty
eight at that time, and I was like, oh, this
is gonna be great. Four years, five years, we're winning,
We're thirteen and three. Now I'm the quarterback coach, coach,
and Steve McNair, you know, this is like this was gold,
This was gold. And we go thirteen and three and
oh six. We lose to the Colts in a playoff game,

(26:59):
fifteen to six. We throw five interceptions, We don't have
a good game. And the next year we have injury
after injury from Todd heat to McNair to Jamal to whatever,
and we get let go at the end of the year.
And I was in shock and I didn't know anything
about it. And Mike Shanahan called and Mike Shanahan was
the as we all know, the head coach of the

(27:20):
Broncos and offered me the wide receiver coach. So I
go to Denver. So now pick up the family. We
go to Denver. But again it's like, I'm going to
work for Mike Shannan. I'll be here for the next decade.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
I gotta do this, I gotta do it.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
And he's the most stable coaching coaching at that time,
right Brian got fired up for ten years. Now it's Mike.
So I go there and it's like, this is gonna
be great. And I have Brandon Marshall. Yeah, we draft
Eddie Royal.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
We draft Eddie Royal, loved Eddie Royle.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Oh god. Brandon Stokely was our slot and Darryl Jackson,
who I was with at Florida was our four.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
So I'm like this from Seattle, Sure and Cutler.

Speaker 2 (27:58):
Then we had color right, Okay. So we go to
Denver and we have the number one offense in the NFL.
We go eight and five through Game thirteen, and then
we need to win one or someone needs to lose one,
and we're in the playoffs. We lose all three and Fluke,
you know, miss a field goal. I remember.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
I remember the New Year's game. I remember they missed
the field goal at the end.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
It was crazy, man. So next thing, you know, I'm like,
all right, well, whatever it is a Nate, We'll got
to get better next year. And then make a coaching
change in Denver for the first time in what seventeen years,
I forget, and I'm like, this is the great one
of This is one of the iconic coaches in this profession,
and as we've.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
Especially synonymous with Denver too, Like you figure he's the
Supreme Court justice. He decides when he wants to leave.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
Yeah, and as you and I have learned, look at
his tree, right, I mean, who do you talk to
all the time, right from Sean to Kyle to Matt
to you name him, right, they all went through it.
So but anyway, it winds up opening up. And at
that time, I'm like, okay, well, now you got to
figure out what you're gonna do next. And I got
a call to be the offensive coordinator at the University
of Minnesota, and I'm like, all right, well done, I've

(29:06):
paid my dues. I'm now a Big ten offensive coordinator.
I'm only twenty nine or thirty. At that thirty, I'm like,
I got to take it. So I go to Minnesota
coach Eric Decker, coach Adam Weber, get to a bowl game,
and I'm like, all right, this is sweet. This was fun.
I loved it, Amber loved it. And my phone rings

(29:26):
and it's Pete Carroll and I loved Pete's like, hey, Jed,
Pete Carroll here, I'm like, you know, checking my phone.
I'm like, let me see this one more time, you know,
and he goes, I just took the job because he
was at USC you know forever, you know, and he
was never leaving and he was in his and he goes,
I just took the job of the Seattle Seahawks. I

(29:48):
want you to come here as a quarterback coach. And
I'm like, all right, Well I got home. I called Amber.
I said, I know, I told you we weren't moved,
and everything's good because it's been like move move now right.
I'm like, but like, Mount Rushmore just called, you know, seriously,
I said, the guys, I go, we just left Mike

(30:08):
a year ago coach, and now the next face on
the Mount Rushmore just called and he wants us to
go to Seattle with him in year one. You know, bab,
this is one of those great opportunities year one with
the best. So I go, So we go, and we
have that year that we go seven to nine, but
go to the second round of the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, you're the the Beast.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
The Beast game and beat the Saints who won the
Super Bowl the year before, and hassle back through like
six tugs in that game where five he was playing up.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
It was one of those Brandon Stokely you guy, yeah,
you know.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
And I'm coaching at quarterbacks and that's amazing and brought stokely.
We brought you, tried to bring Brandon and he went
to Chicago. But anyway, so go there. And at the
end of the season they let go of Jeremy bis
And Jeremy Bates was like my best friend in this profession.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
And he was the offensive coordinator.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
He was the offensive coordinator. He was with me at
Denver and now Seattle. And when Pete spoke to me,
it's like, you know, do you want to be the
office And I said, I can't do that. I said,
I don't feel comfortable with that. I said, Jeremy's my guy,
and I really don't want to stay and work for
somebody else when I know I probably could have been it,

(31:20):
but I didn't want to, you know, take the drink
at it. It was a weird dynamic because I loved it.
I loved Pete and I and he said, well, let
me give you he goes. If that's the case. You know,
my son just went to the University of Miami as
a tight end coach. They need an offensive coordinator.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
This is amazing.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
So I'm like, whoa the you? I'm a Jersey guy.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
You know, Like there's a lot of there's a lot
of procedure with that logo in Jersey.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Yeah, you know that. My brother went to University of Miami,
you know, back in the day during the thirty for
thirty and like immediately my brain went thirty for thirty
and immediately my brain went like Dennis ericson Jimmy Johnson.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Hi, we're wearing the commando outfits off the plane taking
on Penn State.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
I know. And I was ready to go Camo on
the plane. Bro. Like that was so I'm like, you
know what, I just don't want to do it. I
don't want to take my best friend. I don't want
my best friend's job. I get it, and it was weird,
but I took it. I went to University of Miami
and loved it. Man loved it, and we got good
on offense.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
Who was the head coach, Al.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Golden in his first year?

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Oh cool? Yeah? Yeah, So we had.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Philip dor Set, Travis Benjamin Lamar, Miller, Mike James, j
Corey Harritt. I mean it was a blast right college football,
iconic names of you know athletes, Sean Spence. So we
go there, spent two years there and going into our
third year, Gus Bradley, who I coached within Seattle becomes

(32:47):
the head coach Jasville and yeah, you know thon Rings
and it's like, Jed, you know, I want you to
be the offensive coordinator here. I just got the job.
You know, Mikaylic just called Amber we can all do
this together, be amazing defensive head coach. And I'm like, yeah,
I mean this is what you work for, right, go
be an NFL offensive coordinator. I go there, and we

(33:10):
just weren't very good. You know. Just the bottom line is,
for whatever reason it didn't click. We weren't as good
as I wanted us to be. We weren't as good
as anyone wanted anyone to be, whether it be we
didn't have the players, the coaching, whatever it might be.
I didn't do a good enough job. And after two years,
the humble pill hit, and you know, and for the

(33:30):
first time I was fined. Right like other times I've
had to deal with maybe a coach, head coach, yep,
but you know, I got called in and Gus was like, hey,
we got to make a change, and you know, and
I said, I get it. You know, we're playing with
the rookie quarterback and rookie receivers. But that's you know,
that's excuses. So I had a you know, for the
real it was really the first time that I was like, whoa, yeah,

(33:52):
you know it's I was what was I fourteenth thirty?
I was forty exactly for it, and now you're like,
oh my god, what happens. So luckily there was people
that called and asked about was interested in quarterback jobs
around the league. And then the phone rang and it
was Jim Harbaugh and he just left the Niners to

(34:13):
go to Michigan. And that was another double check. You know,
it's like, I've never met Jim Harbaugh in my life,
is that right? Never knew who he was.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
Yeah, and it's like you were working for Billick, not John,
so it's.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
Not like but the tie in was Vic Fangio. So Dick,
who worked with him at San Francisco franchur, said he's like, Hey,
I need a guy that's going to coach my quarterbacks
receivers and run my passing game. So Vick's like, I
got the guy. So Jim call said, how would you
have interest in coming to Michigan? I said, when's the flight?

(34:48):
Let's go. It's Michigan, man. You know, if there's certain jobs,
there are certain people. I get it, So flew to Michigan,
took the job on the phone, didn't have to. He goes,
do you want to see it around? You know what
am I going to see at college town?

Speaker 1 (35:03):
I've seen the Big House on TV my entire life.
I'm good.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
I've been to the game when Cordell Stewart through the hail. Mary.
I was at the game at you were in Boulder.
It wasn't it when they when they one hundred and
ten thousand people went quiet? I was there, so I
know it's like. Took the job there, went there for
two years, worked for Jim. We had two great years

(35:26):
and number two in the country. But it was a
split job. It was I ran the past game, the
on line coach, ran the run game, you know, Whaye
calling And Jim Mora called at UCLA and he's like, hey,
I have Josh Rosen. I want someone to coach, and
a lot.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
Because like I'm picturing, picturing the Wikipedia page which I
don't have up or anything, and it's just like program,
It's like all right, Miami, Jacksonville, Michigan, now UCLA, like
these are not like we're not going to Eastern Illinois
and nothing against Eastern Illinois, but like this, this is
major programs.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Yeah, and that's how I looked at him, Like this
is a PAC twelve coordinator job. I'm gonna do it.
Jim Morra was an NFL Coach of the Year. I've
always looked at who I'm working for. Go there, we
go six and on home, we go all and six
on the road, go to a bowl game. I was
the interim head coach the last two games of the year.
They let Jim go week eleven, So, you know, looking
back on it, I left stability for what I didn't

(36:20):
realize was instability. We were number three in the country
in offense. We did a lot of good things, but
we couldn't get it. We didn't win enough games, and
they let Jim go and they hired Chip. Chip didn't
want to keep me. You know, we off to keep me.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
You know, Chip's a beautiful mind on offense himself. He
doesn't need your Yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, so there's no reason for him to keep me.
And a lot of people in the college I had
a lot of great opportunities, yes, but I was like,
I can't do this in a family. I mean, I
can't move back to the SEC right now, Like, there
was great jobs that were offered and I took a risk,
and I'm like, I'm not doing it. I'm not picking
my family up and moving him from the hand beach again.

(36:59):
I have another year on my contract. I'll see what
it looks like. I go, I'm gonna call you and
I's mutual friend. Yeah, And I'm gonna give Shawn a call.
He just got to the RAMS. He was there one year,
and I was gonna see what his interest was in
me coming on board, and he said, give me twenty
four hours. And he caused me back at two o'clock
the next day and offers me a job to come.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
There, and.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
We went to the super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
It was amazing. Spent two years with Sean absolutely, you know,
helped him in every way he would allow me to
help him. I always tell his story and you and
I know Sean as good as anybody tell it.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
I want to hear like I drove in every single
Now you think of this, right, like, I feel like
I had a pretty good career up until that point.
Like I've you know, I was successful. I've been on
good programs, work for good coaches, Sean was I guess
thirty two maybe as a time, thirty three, thirty two.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
And got there when he was thirty, so yeah, he's
probably thirty. He went to super Bowl at thirty three,
so yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Okay, so so okay, the first Super Bowl was because
I went with he wanted to thirty three, right or
he won?

Speaker 1 (38:08):
You're right, so this is he's probably thirty two when
you were because it was your first year. It was
after the first year in Atlanta, that super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Yeah, that super Bowl? Right. So I'm there after what
and I'm driving in every single day, scared to death
about letting Sean down. You know, I'm just like this guy.
He works so hard and he's so driven and he's
so smart that Yeah, I've worked for some great coaches,
any great programs. But I left my house in my ambage.
I had to drive fifty three miles every day to

(38:37):
go two thousand dollars dang, And I was like for
two years, I was like, all I want to do
is make sure at the end of the day Sean
goes home and goes yeah, Jed did a good job today,
And that's what that's the magic of Sean. Yeah, the
magic of Sean. My office is my office was sandwich
between Shane Walden and Zach Taylor. Yep, kay, Liam was

(38:58):
next to Zac. Yeah, Clane Phillips was across from me.
So you're thinking, like, this is a great staff, but
a great group of people, you know, great people, and
I don't know. I just that's the Sean magic. Everyone
wants to know.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Well, what was the goal?

Speaker 3 (39:13):
It was?

Speaker 1 (39:13):
You wanted to beat him to work every day? Like
did you want to be in that parking lot before him?
You want to stay later? It was just I'm driving
these fifty three miles. I want to make sure this
guy knows that I'm doing my job.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
I just want him to know that, no matter what
how indebted I was to him for keeping me not
moving my family, giving me an opportunity and with it, like,
everyone wants to know. And he has this magic about him.
Everyone thinks it's his play calling. He's a good play
he's a great play caller, or you know, his football mind,
he's got a great football mind. But what his magic

(39:44):
is how hard people want to work for and how
hard players want to play for him. And that's, unfortunately,
I think that's the missing link. A little bit. When
people talk about Sean, you know, oh, he's such a
great play caller, always got such a great memory. Yeah,
that's fine. It's the other part that makes him elite.
And when I was working for him, that's how I felt,

(40:06):
and so I was. I just dove into the offense,
learned the offense. Obviously I was from the Shanahan tree,
so I knew a lot of it to begin with.
And then we put a lot of stuff together and
we talked a lot about what I've done and it
was great. Spent two years there. Season came to the
end in twenty nineteen. We didn't have as good of
a year, went nine and seven and Super Bowl the
nine and seven and we're sitting a we're on vacation

(40:28):
and Bill Belichick calls, I love this phone.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
This is like you're like the this is not exulting.
You're like the forest freaking gump of coaching when you
get these calls, like and here's this world luminary just
in my life. It's amazing Belichick calls out of the bliz.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
Yeah. And I've known coach for a very long time.
We talked a lot throughout the decade that I that
I knew him. I met him at Miami when I
was coaching at University of Miami and he calls and
he says, you know, do you want to come here
and be the quarterback coach? And a lot of other
opportunities in the future that could present and.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
You know, finished the Rushmore had on the Mountain rush, right.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
And you know the thing that always obsessed me is
when people are like, your job, you know, hopping. I'm like, no,
I'm learning hopping. I don't know what that is, but like,
you know, no, I get it.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
You're soaking up the best of all of these amazing code.
Who else has that in their back pocket?

Speaker 2 (41:20):
And what else?

Speaker 3 (41:21):
You know?

Speaker 2 (41:21):
So you turn it down. You turn it down, and
then you're like, wait a second, man, it would have
been cool to one day work for him. Well, I
had the chances to work from, So why would you
ever turn it down? And you know, it's tough on
your family, It's tough on my kids. It's not like
I'm this, you know, single guy that runs around the country, right,
It's I got it. At this point in time, a
sixth grader, ninth grader, a college graduate. You know, it's

(41:42):
like they're moving with us and Ambers, you know, the
best coach's wife in the world. And she's like, yeah,
it's coach Belichick. You know, like, what are you gonna do?
Say no, I mean the guys won. Guy's been in
ten Super Bowls. I won eight. So we go there
and I'm like, this is it. This is like my
I'm definitely not going anywhere.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Putting the bags away. That's throw the two cases away.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
We're staying, build a swimming pool, you know it. We're home.
Whatever you want to do, you got you know, we
are here and we're staying here, and COVID hits and
all this other stuff. But whatever. We're like, it's okay,
we're home, you know, three hours from home. We're in Boston. Boston,
you know, you know, get to Nantucket, get to the Hamptons,

(42:29):
get to vacation spots, you know, running to you on vacation,
all the good stuff. Go to New York City. And
week fourteen, Universey Arizona calls, not even the rest of us,
not even through the season.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
So at this point, you have never been a head
coach at college or the NFL here in your early forties,
and a major program calls, what what is that phone.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
Call, like, yeah, so it was you know, I interviewed
for this job in twenty seventeen. I've interviewed for the
univer the Arizona job. They hired Kevin's someone, but I knew,
you know, there was always going to be a chance
to come back around. And the phone rings and you're
like that one was more like are you interested in

(43:16):
this job? Versus me saying I would love this job.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
You know, I want that job. I want that job.
It was we're coming after you, We're courting you a
little bit.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
And for this one for this situation, because they were
coming off of seventy to seven loss, yes the two
Arizona state So you lose to your arrival by nine
touchdowns at home and then make a coaching change. And
I was like, oh boy, this is a lot of work,
you know, And I'm sitting here and I don't want

(43:46):
to stay with the Golden Ticket, but like you go,
McVeigh Belichick, You just you ride that bad boy out
right until some owner wants to say, this is the
type of guy that I want to hire, right. And
it's not like it was hard to get people who
want to hire offensive coaches from the McVay tree. But
it's not like right, assistant coaches hired from the Belichick tree.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
You're right, does it like the only trees that get you.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
Know, with the forest the tree kings. And I'm like, well,
that's not what I do it for. I don't do it.
I don't take a job to get a job. I'm
in a job and I got a job. So like
that didn't make like it wasn't. So I'm like, I'm
taking this job and I'm gonna go be the head
coach at Arizona. We're going to turn this thing around,
and I'm gonna live in the sunshine and coach every

(44:31):
day with a smile and build this thing from scratch.
So I got here, and let me tell you this
one quick story about Coach Belichick. So I walked into
his office at eight thirty at night and I said,
I was just offered the yeod a job. You know,
I had a zoom interview, got the job. The next
day they offered me the job. I go, I just thought,
And he's like, and I told him I was having
to the zoom interview, of course, and he's like, that's great.

(44:54):
What did you decide to do? And I said, I'm
gonna take the job. He goes, great, takes his phone out,
he goes, let's call Bruce Ki, Yes, let him know.
And then let's call Rob let him know.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
And then why don't you go back to your office,
take a deep breath, figure it out, and then tomorrow morning,
why don't we meet and why don't we talk about
what it's like to be a head coach.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
Dude, I love this. So instead of Belichick being territorial
or say it okay, give me your playbook and get out,
let's get teddy Bruce Ki maybe the Desert Storm greatest
defender or Desert swarm at the time, greatest defender in
Aarson history. Let me call Gronkowski and let's give you
those contacts and let's get you going because you're gonna
need those guys on this ride and.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
You're gonna need him to support you. And I'm gonna
give you the blessing and to support you.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
And it was that is cool. Jed is a cool story.

Speaker 2 (45:42):
It was It was like it was one of those moments.
And then I walk in the next morning, and you
never know, right how anyone handles those type things. I
spent three four days at the office. I did my
press conference in the conference room across from Bill's office.
I mean, he was amazing, and he sat there and
he went through and he's still amazing. He checks it out.
He's been to campus four times already. He brought his
team here for a week before they played the Raiders.

(46:04):
He came out here this spring to meet with team
and watches practice and spend the day with I mean,
but anyway, that the point is that that moment, those
twenty four hours of like, hey, let's talk about the
training room, let's talk about the weight room, let's talk
about staffing, roster management. You know, he gave you, he
opened up his book to you, and that was so cool.
And now we're in year three. We got a good team,

(46:27):
and I'm waking up every morning that same spilem bro So,
I'm sorry for a long story, but that is ye
I asked for it. That's what I want.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
This is the season with Peter Schrager. And there's nothing
that encapsulates, you know, two journeys more than the coach
who says, oh, well, I've just been with this team
for twenty years and here's what I've been through, than
you who says, here's my you know, for verbial man
walking in the desert and going spot to spot spot
to finally finding that home in the desert. And Arizona
is a hot team. Like everywhere I go, people are

(46:56):
talking about Arizona football and it's not just this regional
thing anymore. I feel like you guys have talent from
all over the country. Give us a quick snapshot for
a lot of NFL listeners boun to get going with
the college football season what they can expect from the
Arizona Wildcat.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
Yeah. I think what's been super cool about our program.
I had Steve Kahm talk to our guys yesterday, and
so Steve was in the building and I got.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
The selfie he sent me that I said, does that's
my guy having about tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (47:21):
And what I've told our guys is this is the
first time that you could actually take us to think
of looking the mirror and say we got some NFL
players on this team. And that's the super cool part
of it. I think our left tackle who came back
from an ACL is gonna be a first round pick.
What's his name, Jordan Morgan. He's you know, every NFL

(47:42):
guy has been through he came back for his last year,
which is an amazing deal for US. Jacob Calling has
had two thousand yard receiving yards in a row, so
he's going to star. He's on the Plit, the Coff Watchlist.
He had eighty five catches for eleven hundred yards last year.
He came back rather than go early, go in the
draft and instead of a fourth round pick, try to
be a second round pick. Mike Wiley are running back.

(48:05):
I think it's fantastic player. He's climbing the charts everywhere.
And Tanner McLaughlin our tight end, and another guy that's
climbing all those charts in the NFL. I think we
have a chance to get four guys drafted in this class,
if not maybe five, and then, uh, you know, it
all starts with our quarterback.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Let's talk about him. Because I was with Kingsbury on
Monday night. This is ty territorial for you. You're like, wait,
that's a USC coach and he was raving about this
Caleb Williams, and I'm like, what about the Arizona quarterback?
And Cliff's like, oh, that guy's good too, So tell
us about the Arizona quarterback.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
His name yeah, the DeLaura. So I got Jaden Delarea
in the transfer portal. He was the PAC twelve Freshman
of the Year a year ago, two years ago now
and was at Washington State, went into the transfer portal,
came here on his way to a bunch of other spots,
and we, you know, I always say, we just kidnapped him,
kept him, didn't leave. He was undefeated in high school,

(48:59):
played at Saint Louis High School, same high school two
in Mariota, was uh, you know, undefeated, you know, was
the Gatoray Player of the Year. You know, it was
the All Polly Bowl MVP. And went there Washington State
with Rolovich. That whole thing happened when in the portal
came here. Last year, our offense went from one hundred

(49:19):
and twenty first to first in explosive place.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Damn, damn. In explosive plays, which is what thirty yards
or more.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
No, it's eighteen yards or more, eighteen yards or more,
we went from one twenty one to one. And in
total offense or in passing offense, we went from one
nineteen to sixth in his first year, yes, okay, And
in total offense we went from one twenty two to twenty,
so he's back. He's got two years left this year
plus one. Who knows what that will look like. I

(49:46):
think this kid is special. I've been around a lot
of quarterbacks. He has completely changed his life, the way
he's focused, the way he's preparing, what he believes in,
trying to do things right all the time. But he's
also got this gift of instincts that I rarely have
been around. And I've been around really good quarterbacks and

(50:09):
coach really really good quarterbacks, but this guy's got like that.
You know, he's got two eyes in the back of
his head and he just sees things and gets the things.
And there's sometimes it's like I always look at something,
I'm like four times again, I'm like, anything can happen.
I mean, it's like, guys wide open over here, and
he's like whoa and turns and runs this way and
hits the touchdown pass over here, And I said, how

(50:30):
did you never mind? Anything can happen? Yeah, So we
got to cut down the interceptions. We got to continue
to build on his let's call it, you know, rhythm
and timing and decision making. And if we can do that,
this kid is going to be the best quarterback in
the nation. I don't know if it's or next love,
but I'm telling you, this kid is going to be

(50:53):
the best quarterback in the nation.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
All Right, give me a couple quick things here. When
you have this NFL background, this pedigle. You mentioned that
Belichick's been there, I would think that one of the
allures or one of the cool things for playing for
Arizona's that you're going to get a touch of the
NFL too. These guys are going to get back in there.
Who have you had visit campus and who have you
had speak with the team You mentioned Steve Kimon Belichick

(51:19):
so far?

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Yeah, well we've had. So we do something called we
Educate Wednesday, and every Wednesday during the year we bring
a different speaker in to talk to our program. You know,
sometimes it works out on a Wednesday, sometimes it doesn't.
But on campus, Pete Curll's been on campus three times
talking to our team. Sean McVay has been on campus
talking to our team. Was the keynote speaker at our clinic.
Brian Billick was the keynote speaker of our clinic one year.

(51:42):
Zach Taylor has been on campus spoke at our clinic
after this past year. Zach obviously spoke to our quarterback,
spent time with all of our players. He was amazing.
Mike Smith from the Falcons has been here. Howie Roseman
has been here. Coach Belichick's been here a couple of times.
Mike Lombardi has been here I think four different times.

(52:05):
Oh wow, Okay, And you know, and there's probably more
that I haven't even thought of that.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
What about some of the players you mentioned.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
Jordan has spoken Cam Jordan came to town from Chandler, Arizona,
but Doug hendrick Ston brought him in town, and you
know he was He had an amazing message. Matthew Slater
spoke to our team talking about the just character, special teams,
work ethic, doing things right. We had Cam Newton talk

(52:35):
to our team, you know, former players, former coaches, current coaches.
We tried to Mike Tannembaum has talked to our team.
So what we've tried to do is bring in guys
that can share the message and reiterate the message of hey,
it's everything you do, it's everything you do if you

(52:58):
want to. The NFL is a game of attrition. They
wait for you to screw up. In college so they
don't have to draft you. You know, That's what I
tell these all the time.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
What a what a true fact too. I'm just doing
the draft stuff every year. It's just all right, before
we even talk about heights and waits, do we have
a red flag on him or not?

Speaker 2 (53:14):
Yeah, they just wait for a screw up, right, Oh
he's not a hard worker, Okay, no problem. Oh he's
not good in the weight room, Okay, no problem. He
doesn't love football, Okay, no problem. Right, because otherwise you'd
have to evaluate a thousand players that no one has
time to do that. So what I talk to these guys, go, guys,
I've been in the draft room for thirteen years at
every role from a nobody to a moderate somebody right

(53:36):
in that draft room that you had either no opinion
or you had a big opinion. Right, you're an offensive court,
you got a lot of opinion. So it's like from
that area, I can just tell you what they look for,
and we try to reiterate it constantly, you know, with
different speakers. And you know when you have Coach Carrol,
Coach Belichick, you know, Coach McVeigh, Coach Taylor talking to you, guys,

(53:56):
they're they're saying, this is what we're looking for. It's like, guys,
that's not that hard, be a great teammate, do things
right off the field. You know they're gonna be scouts
want to know are you the last guy off the
field or not. They want to know this. And so
when you're the first got out the field, you've eliminated yourself.
No problem. They'll go to the next guy. And they
think talent overrides the talent's irrelevant. Everybody has talent. It's

(54:21):
what you do it. Steve Kims sitting beautifully yesterday, he said,
you don't miss on players, you miss on people. And
I thought that was so good, so good. So that's
what we do. That's how we recruit. Josh McDaniels will
be here next year's clinic. We'll get him down here.
We'll get you know, Vic's been here, Chris Furster's been here.

(54:42):
You know, as you start thinking about some of the
guys that have been through, Vic's been in a practice
every single year. Chris has been here at least three times.
He went to you know, he's from Tucson. Yeah, another
Shanahan disciple, probably the best offensive line.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
Coach in the NFL still doing it dominant.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
So I mean it's been awesome Peter, you know, just
to have these guys here and just continue to build
this program up.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
Let me let me do it because you've been so
gracious time. I'm loving this. I could do honestly for
three hours. Let me give you a couple of questions here.
First one, you you get to Arizona and you've got
these teams USC obviously Utah's now a power when you're recruiting.
Take a moment, look into the zoom camera, give me

(55:24):
the thirty second elevator pitch on why I would go
to the University of Arizona over some of those other
Pack twelve teams.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Yeah, I would say, real simple that you have a
chance here that you don't have other places to learn
a learn what it's like to be an NFL player,
be treated like an NFL player, Be coached by guys
that have been in the NFL, from Chuck Cecil to
Ricky Honley, Guys that you know I've been a coach
in the NFL, Bunning Carroll, myself, Scott A. Graham. You

(55:51):
have an opportunity here to truly showcase your skills in
a small town. We are at college town. You're not
fighting for billboards. You're not fighting for It's not going
to be either Matthew Stafford or Jaden DeLaura on the billboard.
It's going to be Jaden Delare And you have a chance,
I believe, with our connections and with our ties, to
always be on everybody's map. And then it's a matter

(56:14):
of do you want to be the guy that turned
around a program or do you want to guy to
be a guy that's plug and play that no one's
even gonna know. You know, you're just another guy at
the great programs to get another win, and that to
us is the biggest key.

Speaker 1 (56:27):
Love it. Quick questions, rapid fire about some of the
people you've worked with, and give me your best stories
you were. Tell me this is true. This might be
a myth or a legend, or it's been exaggerary. Were
you college roommates with Howie Roseman at Florida or just
buddies with how college roommates? This is insane. So your
college roommates kid from New Jersey and how he's from
New Jersey. Also, neither one of you played football, and

(56:48):
one of them is the reigning executive of the year
and the other one is the head coach at Arizona
with the I mean, take us into that dorm room.
What is that dorm room? Like with Howie Roseman and Gainesville,
Florida in the late nineties, so.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
We were He's one year older than I am, so
he was a class at night he was. He started
ninety three, I started in ninety four. We pledged the
same fraternity. Okay, didn't know each other, you know, it's
not like I knew how he at all. He was
from about an now up in about forty five.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
Yeah, Jeries Central, so now you know.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
So we pledge a fraternity and then at the end
of my freshman year, I needed a roommate or I
wanted a roommate to move out of the dorms into
an apartment my sophomore year, and Howie's roommate who was
going abroad, going to study abroad. So he's like so
they're like, yeah, there's a room in Oxford manor X
one twelve. So I'm like, all right, So I move in.

(57:40):
And he was a fraternity brother and we became friends
and better friends, and now we're roommates for a year
and we're living together and it started in the spring.
So the story really my favorite story in this whole thing,
because I was a you know, my freshman year and
he was a sophomore, so life didn't really happen at
that point. It's a draft day morning. It's draft day morning.

(58:03):
What year ninety fourteen, ninety okay, spring of ninety five.
When was Kyle Brady drafted? That's why I need you know.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Kyle Brady was the eleventh overall pick in the ninety
five drafts of the New York Jets, and that was
the Warren Sap Draft.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Go there you go. So it's nineteen ninety five, it's
whatever time, it is, probably eleven am. And my room
was on the bottom floor. I was on the bottom floor.
How he was above okay, and the he starts rolling
down the stairs and it's whatever. You know, it's a
Saturday morning in college.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Yeah, and you're not you're not you're not graduates yet,
your sof fores.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
And probably mess shorts and says gaitors And I'm in
some fraternity T shirt that says like tep Margaritaville. Okay,
and I'm on the couch and like kind of lying down,
and how he walks down, briefcase in hand.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
Folder in hand, ready to go, and I'm a briefcase
in folder the NFL draft or.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
What are you doing? Man? You know, probably like what
are you doing?

Speaker 3 (59:03):
Man?

Speaker 2 (59:04):
He goes, it's draft day. I go, yeah, I know,
Kuiper's on, you know, like Kuiper's on this.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
Yeah, we got like and there's and there's a fraturity
party and there's a keg in the front.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I know, we got like the nineteen inch Yeah, no
flat screens at that time, right, So we're watching TV
and I'm like, all right, yeah, the draft is on,
and he's next thing. You know, I'm not kidding you. Okay,
He's got the setup of all setups. He's got his
draft board, he's got his list, he's ready to go.

(59:37):
He's marking down, he's following draft picks are going. I'm
in awe. I'm just sitting there watching him, like what
are you doing? Man? And he's like, this guy gets taken.
This guy. He's like, all right, he's ready now we're
eleventh overall. He's ready to take his pick as the
New York Jets general manager. And oh, by the way,
he was a Jets fanatic it's.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
A Jets fanatic.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
I know that, ye fanatic.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
I don't know if it was eleventh pick. But they're
on the board and it's the draft and Warren Sapp
is falling and Kyle Brady from Penn State is available.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
And they just took a tight end and I believe
right they had Mitchell was there, of course, and they
go Kyle Brady, you know, like commissioner. Uh, I think
it's yeah, I forget which one is there, Kyle? And
the reaction was like someone killed his dog in front

(01:00:25):
of him. Okay, he's slamming his pad, he's yelling about
who is available. We have a tight end. I'm like, bro,
what are you doing? He goes, I'm gonna be a
GM in this league one day, and this is never
gonna happen on my watch.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
Wow, yeah, okay, sure you know here is bro Howie.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
Anyway, getting back through the social aspect of the draft,
I'm gonna head over back over here and he says,
and what are you gonna do? And I go, well,
I'm gonna be an NFL liked coach one day, but
this conversations for another day. Yes, And you know, we
laugh about it all the time. We played against each

(01:01:13):
other in twenty fourteen when I was the Ocia Jackson
and we played against each other when I was at
ball Shuston and O two and he was I mean.
And obviously we still spend the summer ted time together.
And it's an amazing story though, but that is the
true is the true stories.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
So how he's twenty years old, not working in football
at all and has a shirt on, like a button
down shirt, brings in a briefcase and has all his
draft lists and a highlighter. Well, there's probably a party
going on in the front lawn and we're not talking
a party in some small school, University of Florida party,
and he's busy with that.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
I had to reevaluate my life at that moment. I
want him to hire me if he's going to be
an NFL GM. I have to come back and leave
the party. I have to go to the orange juice.
I can't be mixing anything at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
I love this.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
I love this. It's so good.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
All right, we'll wrap it a little bit. I have
couple more quick rapid fire questions your funniest McVeigh football
obsessed story, because I think that's what it is it's
like this guy is wired different, but there's also comedy
that comes out of it. Do you have a good
McVeigh story. You'd be like, all right, that's that's a
good one.

Speaker 2 (01:02:21):
I mean I think I think the best ones are.
You know, you you think you have this great idea. Okay,
so you run it by Zach first, right, you have
a couple like you drop this pass up and you're like,
we're gonna do this, and you know this guy's gonna
come wide open, right, and then you go into Zach
Taylor's office, right, so he you know, he's checkbox A right, right, Zach,

(01:02:43):
you like this. Oh yeah, that's a good one right there. Okay,
good checkbox C. Going to Shane Waldon's office, all right, Shane,
Before I go into the Big Cheese, I need your
sign off. Oh yeah, that's a good one. Yeah, sign
off on that walk into the office. You draw it up. Okay,
Z's gonna run an in cut X, is gonna run
a post. F's gonna run in Challa whatever it might be.

(01:03:05):
And Sean's like, yeah, I like that. I like that.
You know, just if we had Z running out cut
X run of the corner totally he's like, I see
that though, you see that? Do you like that one
a little bit better? It's a little bit I'm like,
oh yeah, oh that's what I was thinking. Definitely better. Yeah,
I walked it. How's that? You know? Then you get

(01:03:27):
Shane and Zach just waiting for you because they know,
right this is the routine. And he's like, how'd you
think them? I go, yeah, wait, we're good, We're good
pretty well. How many changes the routes? He said, well,
you know, four of the five eligibles are running different
routes than we walked in with. And they go, it's
a win win. You would it's the best, and it

(01:03:49):
makes you feel so good. You leave the office saying
it's exactly what I think I wanted. I just needed
him to bring me to it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:58):
Here's another one. Cooper Cup walks out there as a
third round pick. Did you know right away that this guy,
like when you got your first eyes on him, this
guy was for special or was that one where it's
not it's not unnatural, it's that guy works for every
single place.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
You know. The bias was this I got there after
year one, so he was there for a year. So
you get the mcveigh's sales pitch immediately before you get
on the practice field about how great Cooper. He goes, Wait, jet,
wait till you see this guy we got, Wait till
you see this Cooper cut, Wait till you see and
then when you get out there, you're like, wow, he is.

(01:04:32):
He's everything Sean just said he was. He's unbelievable. But
he's unbelievable because of how already works, how smart he is,
whatever deficiency he made, a had, he overcomes a ten X.
He's big, he's strong, he's fast, he's run after catch,
is incredible. So you know, hats off to them taking
him the third round. But I don't know questionable decisions

(01:04:54):
by the one hundred and six people that didn't or
whatever want because this guy's ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
Yeah. I actually showed before the Super Bowl against the Bengals.
I got footage from the Rams guys. I have footage
of his Pro day workout and of all people, Zach
Taylor's the quarterback throwing a rounds and then it was
Taylor coaching again. It was pretty cool. It's pretty cool.
I love that Belichick. Outside of the work area, I
hear from all these coaches being like you would like Bill.

(01:05:21):
Bill's great, He's funny. It's not. In my twenty years
covering the sport, I have not had that interaction with him.
Like He's been pleasant to me in meetings, but like
I've not seen like funny Bill or cool Bill. But
to a man, everyone says, Belichick is just a great
hang and an awesome big brother or father figure. Your
experience with Belichick off the coaching stuff, off.

Speaker 2 (01:05:41):
The field, you know, Amber and I spend spend at
least a week every summer in Nantucket and get to
spend so much time with him when we're there, and
I'll just say, I mean he is everything to me
in terms of like, you know, my dad passed away
when I was thirty, and you know he'd be about

(01:06:04):
the same age, you know, pretty close to Bill, maybe
be a little older. But the calmness that Bill has
is very similar to what my dad had, the intelligence,
the way to speak to him, but on the same token.
I mean, you take him off the field and you're
able to talk stories and you're able to I mean,
he's funny as could be. Man, he's funny, not knowing

(01:06:25):
he's funny sometimes, but Amber loves him he's just a
fantastic person. But what makes him so special is how
much he cares about people. And I don't think everyone
realizes that, but he is. Uh. He cares and it
matters to him. And he's funny. Like I've been to
music concerts with him. I've been to I almost went
to that Swift concert with him. I missed it by

(01:06:48):
like four hours. I was flying in and I just
saw all over whatever his last radio show talking about
Taylor Swift. But he's the man. He's fun, he's cool,
and he wants to teach. He's a teacher.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Yeah. Yeah. In closing your first game this season, who
do you guys have?

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
When is it?

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
And where can we find these Arizona Wildcats?

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
Yeah? We got We open up next Saturday night against NAU.

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
At our place, Northern Arizona.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
Northern Arizona PAC twelve Network there, seven pm kick and
then we're going to Mississippi State.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
Really that's an interesting one. We okay, that's an interesting game.
How does that come about? And I know the late
Mike Leach was the coach?

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Yeah, I don't know. These things get like you know,
they get scheduled so far in advance. Yeah, but we
played them last year, we were you know, we lost
by a couple of scores, didn't play very well the
second game of the year, and we got them this year.
We gotta we gotta play better than we did. So
that's a big game for us. You know, go to
the sec C how well we can do and then

(01:07:51):
you know, UTEP and Stanford and then we got Washington
and USC back to back.

Speaker 1 (01:07:57):
So where where's the USC game? This USC, bro, I'm
gonna go. I'm going to that game.

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
It's yeah, Saturday, I'll be there. We'll be there the
rams of a home game the next day. They do
have a game the next day, and we play there
on Saturday, October seventh on ESPN, and we got to
play some really good football because last year they beat
us by eight forty five thirty seven I remember hying
touchdowns combined. So I hope it's I hope it's a

(01:08:26):
game where we all play our best.

Speaker 1 (01:08:28):
Dude, I appreciate you taking the time. You guys have
a football game next week and you're sitting here for
an hour relishing me with Pete Carroll stories. The listeners
are going to love this, Jeded. I could have done
this for two hours. This is what it's like when
we hang and can't thank you enough. Dude, good luck
this season and good luck and bear down how that sounds.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
I love it, man, appreciate you. Thanks Peter, thanks for
having me on by the best.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
I'm gonna start rocking some Arizona football gear. I think, Jed,
I hope that's okay. I love it. Jed Fish maybe
my favorite guest on this podcast. And here's what I say, Aaron,
because I think the listeners might have clicked on this
fan like, oh, Arizona coach. I guess I know that guy.
I knew there was NFL golden there, but I realize
he'd be able to storytell like he did. And gosh,

(01:09:10):
I could sit at the hip of Jed Fish and
listen to stories for the next two hours.

Speaker 3 (01:09:14):
Yeah, and he'd hit so many like every time. I
was like, wow, that's an impressive coach that he worked with.
And I was like, oh wow. And McVeigh okay, but
I mean he never worked for Bell. Oh no, he
worked like it just kept going. He was great.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Yeah, it's cool. I'm excited. I think when the ref
Arizona the year I don't have a team, I went
to Emory Division III school. You went to a small
school as well, right, no football, we.

Speaker 3 (01:09:34):
Had a football team. I went to one football game
I went to I think our first home coming.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
Well it was the school called that. You went to
Carlton College and that's in Minnesota. Yes, and they have
school Division III football.

Speaker 2 (01:09:44):
What is it?

Speaker 3 (01:09:45):
I don't even know what division we are. The only
time we really made the news for football was like
that we had a game. This is not why I
was there, and it got called off because the score
was so high like ESPN was reporting I think it
was it was tripled in it was a loss. Oh yes,
oh yeah, it was a loss.

Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
So like.

Speaker 1 (01:10:09):
I don't have a time. I mean, my wife went
to Michigan. So I'm always pulling for Blue and I
go for that. But like, I don't know, I work
at Fox and a lot of those guys are USC guys,
and so I'm like, all right, let's see them happy.
But we've got two Arizona guy. I don't know if
you know, Jason Kleinman, who works on the LA desk
and does all the great digital stuff for us, and
Matt Schneider, who also works with the NFL media group

(01:10:29):
both hit me up before we had jed on or
like bear down. So I think I'm putting my weight
behind Jaden Delora and the Arizona Wildcats this year.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
I was excited to hear him talk about the Laura.
I've never I do not follow college football, and I
am excited to see this kid now.

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
I mean that was he was all in on, very
very high praise for Jaden Dolores. We get Jaden DeLaura jerseys. Yeah,
it could be a moment in time if they lose
to Utup or they went to Northern Arizona in seven
days and they lose by thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:11:02):
That was fun?

Speaker 1 (01:11:04):
Was I insulting when I said the forest? Is that
like a I know Forrest Gump isn't exactly the greatest praise,
but I meant the way his life just intersects all
these coaches.

Speaker 3 (01:11:12):
Oh no, I think that was good. I also, I
feel like Forrest Gump is more endearing. Okay maybe now
than I would have ten years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:11:22):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
I'm not entire the Storest Gump thing. It felt like
he's like he almost stepped in. That's what I'm saying.
Like Forrest Gump didn't earn any of that. He kind
of just was like there and it's like, here's the stories.
Jed's earned everything. So Jedfish Arizona football. Who knew. I'm
all in. I got two teams this year. I'm rooting
for Nebraska because of Matt Rule, because he came on
the show and it was awesome. I was throwing flames.

(01:11:44):
We love that, and Jedfish for Arizona. If they happen
to play in the college football playoffs, I will be torn,
but we'll be going. I'll buy a ticket for you
and me and we'll go. Jason, We'll go. We'll be
all right on behalf of Jason English, who's in here
and always so quiet but such a great man and
so supportive from iHeart and you, Aaron and the aforementioned

(01:12:05):
Jason Kleinman and Matt and Meredith Batton and the crew
at LA and all of you who listen.

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:12:12):
If you bump into Ed Sheeran, don't say that he saw.
I don't know if he knows my name. I don't
want to be embarrassed and be like who, Just give
him a nod. He's pretty friendly. And if this was
a free commercial for Luke Collie. That's okay because you're
not getting a table anyway. It's impossibly. You got to
go like three o'clock. So if you're in Brooklyn, give
it a shot. This was the Season with Peter Schrager.
Plenty more stuff happening. I see the Giants just traded

(01:12:33):
for Isaiah.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
Simmons, seventh round pick.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
I think okay that they do. Trey Lance was a miss.
Isaiah Simmons was a top ten pick. I knew the Cardinals.
We're calling around a little bit and seeing who's interested.
So that one as we go. But there's preseason football
this weekend and then the real thing is coming. So
thank you for listening. Tell your friends subscribe. Let's please
make this the most popular football podcast in the world.

(01:12:56):
Thanks guys. The Season with Peter Schrager is a production
of the NFL and partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts

(01:13:20):
from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you
get your podcasts.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Host

Peter Schrager

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}University of Arizona HC Jedd Fisch