March 1, 2024 • 44 mins
Welcome to yet another enlightening episode of the 'Demand Excellence' series. In this instalment, we are joined by the renowned football Coach Tom Causey. Originally from Alabama and now based in Georgia, Coach Causey shares valuable insights from his rich journey across several high schools.
Coach Causey, credited for his deep faith and a steadfast approach to coaching, elucidates on his notion of success in the world of football. The interview offers a deep dive into Coach Causey's early life, his triumphant journey through reputable high schools like Ola and Miller County, up to his university days. Listen as he narrates his path paved with victories and hurdles, all while attributing his sustained prosperity to his exceptional team of coaches and players.
Discover the impact of relationship-building with players, an emphasis on faith, discipline, and strong work ethics in his coaching philosophies. Authenticity and genuine care, Coach Causey suggests, are the cornerstones in nurturing successful teams.
The episode extends beyond just football, examining the journey from Demopolis to Pelham and uncovering a spiritual pathway. The evolution in coaching strategies, maintaining offensive and defensive identities and numerous unwritten rules of coaching are among many insightful topics touched upon in the conversation. Above all, Coach Causey's commitment to his TCB philosophy – Trust, Commit, and Believe – is a true treasure for fellow coaches or aspiring players and admirers of the game.
Delve into this radiant episode, filled with motivation, life lessons, and an earnest understanding of what truly shapes a winning football team, both on and off the field.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
All right, everybody, I am back for another episode of Demand Excellence,
and today I have Coach Tom Causey on the line.
Coach Causey, he was in Alabama forever. Now he is in Georgia,
was at Ola High School, and now he is at Miller County.
I met him a few weeks ago, very godly man, and as everybody knows,
(00:24):
I try to have as much as possible, godly Christian coaches who have been successful.
And Coach has definitely been successful.
Won a state championship back in 2009 in Alabama at Demopolis High School.
Won a whole bunch of games at Pelham.
He can correct me on that one if I said that wrong. But Coach,
(00:47):
tell us a little bit about you.
Where'd you go to college? Where'd you start Start out in high school and then
kind of your journey there in Alabama.
Yes, sir. So I played at University back when I was there.
I was in the Gustav Conference, played 1988 to 1991,
and I was blessed enough to get on the staff
(01:09):
there as a student assistant for a couple years and then GA
there for two years and then was the
offensive line coach there from 94 through
the 98 season season and then got engaged
to beautiful wife Tammy who was really
a godsend at the time you don't go from Minot North Dakota to Bismarck North
(01:29):
Dakota to Boise Idaho to Livingston Alabama without God's plan being on it and
we got engaged and we got into high school coaching spent one season as the
office coordinator at Daleville High School down in southeast Alabama Alabama.
And we were there for a year. And then I took the head job at Dallas County
High School, which is around Selma, Alabama.
(01:51):
I was there for three years. We were very blessed to have a bunch of really good players there.
And it's a school that had not been very successful.
And we were blessed to win 10 games in our third year there and left and went
to Andalusia High School, which had been unbelievably successful in the 70s.
But we were there in the 2000s and they They hadn't been past the second round
(02:12):
since 76, and we got there in 2003.
And in 2006, we went to the semifinals there, got beat.
And left there, went to Demopolis, Alabama, and they had been unbelievably successful
in 4A football there for years.
Doug Goodwin, a good friend of mine, had won a state championship there in 2004.
(02:33):
And they'd gone back to 5A and not found the success there in 5A that they had in 4A.
And he took a really good job up in North Alabama.
And they called me about that job, and we took it.
Lo and behold, three years later, we beat Doug in the state championship game
in Bryant-Denny Stadium, was there until 2003, the 14th season,
(02:55):
and then went to Pelham, Alabama in the Birmingham metro area.
It was really a unique situation, man. The school had split.
Pelham had gone from being a county school to a city school,
and so they lost half their student body.
It was going back to another county school they had just built.
And we got there, 6A football, we had 24 players.
(03:16):
And we struggled for
the first two years there to build that program up and we
became a playoff team there and and and i
got 30 years in and my wife was at 25 and
good buddy of mine's brother head coach at
olin they had a head coach in opening and uh we came
over and had we had two
(03:38):
two years of playoffs there and and miller county
job kind of popped open and a buddy of mine called me
about it and i think it's an unbelievable opportunity and
really felt felt like it was somewhere i
was supposed to be and so we packed it up my
wife's still in mcdonough and i'm down here in colquitt georgia so
that's kind of my career and we're how we got here
(04:00):
and when been a lot of success and the success because
of a lot of really good coaches and really
good players so you coach you know as well as i
do how important that is absolutely well i
got i got a lot of questions for you after
hearing about all you know your path but one
thing that was really interesting to me as
(04:21):
you were talking it was never that you
were going to be the head coach you kept.
Saying we talk about that a little
bit well and and i think
it is we and it's really it's i think every move has been a god god-led mood
move so that's that's part of the way but my wife and and the coaches that have.
(04:45):
That have been there with us and this this may offend some people but i can't
stand it when i hear people talk about my team or i i won,
this is the greatest team game on the planet man and there's no way one of us
is going to accomplishing things solo and uh you know you we were talking about the faith base but.
(05:05):
We don't do it without him. And so even if you're single and you travel to every
school by yourself and you just
find coaches there, you're not doing it by yourself. It's always a we.
And I think we've gotten so far away from that that I was listening to a basketball game last night.
I was actually watching a state championship basketball game in Alabama and
(05:27):
on TV, and I heard the coach say, my team.
And I cringed, man. man. And it's not your team. It's our team.
And I think the kids need to hear us say that. People need to hear us say that.
Yeah. When you think about being a Christian football coach,
you know, like the Lord is constantly, you know, one of my favorite verses is Galatians 2.20.
(05:53):
I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ
who lives in me and in the life I now live, I live by faith in the son of God.
Like I, and then, you know, John the Baptist, he said, I must decrease, Christ must increase.
Like that's a big thing. And to me, it's always really kind of telling to whether
somebody is a believer or not based upon them using the word I too much.
(06:19):
Exactly. And so, because it is, it is we,
and in all honesty, honestly in all
honesty which you have alluded to it's it's really the
lord working in your life and and
taking you from place to place so that's
that's very that's very cool that that i caught that you saying we and you said
(06:40):
we it's it's also convicting you know i'm sitting here analyzing myself like
oh my gosh but which is cool though iron sharpens iron um that that verse iron
Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
We put that between the screws on our helmets. Proverbs 27, 17,
that stays between the screws on our helmets.
(07:02):
We don't have our school logo. That's there. And I think we played a state championship
game, and our quarterback had it on his eye black, and one of the reporters
the next day called me and asked me what it said.
I said, no, no, no. He asked me what was on there, and I said Proverbs 27, 17.
And he said, well, what does that say? I said, look it up, man.
(07:25):
You need to read the Bible.
And so I guess the reporter ended up looking it up because I wouldn't tell him
I wanted to go look in his Bible to find it.
Well, you know, that's very cool.
And it's cool how, you know, that Bible verse, who knows that guy might be reading his Bible now.
And hopefully, hopefully. Hopefully.
(07:46):
So, Coach, go back to when you first got started. You know, you said your first
job as a head coach, I think you said, was in Dallas City High School.
So, you know, as you got started, what did you learn? What didn't you know? Talk about that.
There's a lot I didn't know. If I coached today the way I coached then,
(08:08):
them folks loved me there. They fired me today.
But I really think the X's and O's, we know then.
We all know that. I think managing people, managing a budget.
Knowing that you've got to go how to figure out to fix it real more.
I'd come from college football, man, and we'd never cut grass.
Somebody cut that for us and didn't know what it – when they told me I needed
(08:29):
a PO for something, I didn't have a clue what a PO was.
And so managing a staff was the biggest thing as far as on-the-field stuff goes
because I had studied the X's and O's inside and out.
And I'd been blessed to work for a guy named Bobby Johns who had played for
Coach Bryan in the 60s at Alabama, and I'd coached for him at West Al.
And he had taught me so much about how to deal with players and how every player is not the same.
(08:56):
You treat them all fairly, but you don't treat them all the same.
And I think that was the greatest thing that I carried in there because you
got to be fair with them, but they're not all the same.
And I think you treat each one of them differently.
But the off-the-field stuff, the taking care of facilities, responsibilities,
cleaning the toilets, taking care of POs, making sure you raise enough money.
(09:22):
Those things kind of hit me right between the eyes because I had never done that before.
And even when I was an assistant coach for that one year at Daleville,
I didn't realize what all went into that.
And I think today is more like running a business than it is coaching football
sometimes, but you have to run it that way.
(09:42):
Yeah. I mean, I was talking with somebody the other day and we were just talking
about, you know, the NIL and what college coaches are having to deal with.
And I mean, and I want to get your take on this.
You know, what I said is like, we've been dealing with that ever since I began
coaching, you know, 18 years ago, kids can go anywhere. They can transfer anywhere.
(10:04):
Yeah. And so, um,
Like I tell people all the time, like I don't go to a lot of coaching clinics
during the week and I don't leave school during the week.
I'm here every day because my relationship with the player is the only thing
that's keeping them here.
A lot of times, especially as they become a better player, they can go anywhere.
(10:26):
I mean, Gwinnett, right? You can think about that. I mean, you can.
Mill Creek is three miles from me. Buford High School is six miles from me.
So you know they can go anywhere but like the only thing that's going to keep
them with me is is that relationship that i have with them so i i believe like
successful coaches these days,
(10:48):
have really got to have great relationships and i think that is at the college level as well.
100 coach i really think i think you know when when i took this job in any job
and i think at At some point in the game's changed, right?
And it's like you were talking about the NIL. We've always dealt with that.
(11:08):
But it's become the recruiting and transferring schools, and that's really become
in vogue in the last 15 or 20 years.
And I think always, I think you're dead on with the successful coaches.
The most important thing for me in transitioning here was getting down here,
getting my hands on these kids and start back in relationships with them now.
(11:29):
And I think even simple things like
this knowing their dadgum name after being here two or three
days when you see them calling by name they
they know that you know who they are when you start I think that's huge and
and you know it's kind of a corny little saying but they don't they don't they
don't know you care how much you know until they know how much you care and
(11:50):
sometimes that means I got to put a foot in there behind but they need to know
that I care about them I'm I'm willing to fight for them.
And this is the thing, Coach, I think is huge. And you talk about relationships.
You got to tell them you love them. But you can't do that until you do, man.
Kids are like dogs. They can sense the smell when you're full of crap.
(12:12):
And so, you know, I haven't told a kid here yet I love them. I've been here a month.
And, you know, I think once you get to know them, once you do get to love them,
you got to tell them every day, man. And you don't let them walk out of here
without telling them that.
And we pray with them every day now. I pray with them after every workout,
every time we're together, this morning after Matt drills.
(12:32):
As soon as Matt drills, we stretch, we pull them up, we give them any reminders,
and we're going to pray over them, man. We're going to do that before they leave us every time.
And I think that that's part of building that relationship. And don't try to
fool them. Do not try to make it fake.
They got to know you love them and they know they'll know when it's fake, man.
They're not they're not ignorant. You can think they are, but they're not.
(12:54):
They know when you truly care.
That's that's so true. You know, coach, I'm coaching 11U. My boys is 11.
So I'm doing 11U travel baseball.
And so I selected the team and it's an assortment of different kids and I don't know them all.
I know about three and then there's there's about eight others that I didn't
(13:15):
know and I didn't have a relationship with.
And so it took so last night we've had I've had I've been working with these
these kids for 45 days, about a month and a half. Had our first tournament last weekend.
Last night was the first time I set them down and kind of did a devotion with
them and and talked about Jesus with them and prayed with them.
(13:37):
But the reason why that is, is because I didn't want to present Christ to them
until they knew that I love them as their coach.
So, you know, and of course, I'm not a high school with them.
So it just it took me longer to to kind of feel comfortable with them. Sure.
I like what you said, because that's that's what you said.
(14:00):
You know well coach you know
you you would i couldn't i
couldn't figure out if it was dallas city high school
or a different high school but you took a team and
you and you went to to the semi-finals with them talk about you know that progression
to where you built that team to where they could go to the semi-finals early
(14:24):
in your career well i think i think it takes time i mean and I know it takes time.
I think it's really – I learned this from Coach Biden. I was blessed to work
for a guy named Todd Stroud.
He's now at Miami, but he had played for Coach Biden at Florida State.
And when we'd go down and visit with him every spring, Coach Biden talked about
– really relates more to the college program,
(14:45):
but I've seen it in the high school as well where year one, if they're bad,
and we were bad, year one, and usually I've been blessed, cursed,
however you want to, to be going into programs that weren't very good.
And coach coach Lou Holtz said
that too you take one it's been really really good or really really bad don't take
one in 500 teams but anyway so we get
(15:06):
we get there and we're two and eight so you look I think you lose big early
the first year it's a lose close the second year you win close that third year
and then that fourth year you're winning big and and it is truly kind of my
career has kind of done that that way you know and,
I think because you are building relationships. There's kids who are going to
(15:29):
come and go in that first year because you're going to have to establish discipline.
You're going to have to set the ground rules, what their standards and expectations are.
And there's going to be kids on that team that are really good players,
that are really good athletes, who aren't going to rise to the standards or expectations you set.
And you've got to get rid of them. And so you're going to be playing with some
lesser kids because those kids, those studs, have been let do what they've been
(15:52):
let do for however long they've been playing.
And so you play those first couple of years and you're playing with some guys
who probably wouldn't be playing if you just turn them loose,
let them do what they want to do.
And then eventually those younger kids that are in your program,
they see this is what the standards and expectations are.
If I'm going to play, I've got to raise up to these standards and expectations.
(16:15):
And so they do. And then next thing you know, now we're winning close games.
We've got young players who are doing the things we want to do.
They're better athletes.
Now we're winning. and now we got them as juniors and seniors and man they're
they're doing the things we asked them to do on and off the field they're serving
their community they're serving each other they're true teammates and now we're
rolling man so i think it's a it's a process that you got to go through and
(16:38):
i hate to use that word because since coach saban started using it everybody uses it but,
you have to be you have to be consistent with how you're
doing things you have standards and and expectations
and you set those things from the jump and do
not flex on them and it goes back to
what we talked about you treat them all fair but they're not all the same but
your standards and expectations for those kids are and so
(17:00):
that should never change and that's why i think it takes for
you to start going playing for championships then getting the quarterfinals semifinals
and winning it you got to go through that man or
if not you just waiting on a great runner athletes who just happen
to be good kids come through there right yeah for
sure so okay so you go
you go from that team and then you go to demopolis correct
(17:23):
was it was it the same time frame i mean you won state there i mean three years
being there yeah yeah it was three years there we took over a program that was
a little a little bit ahead of where we went to andalusia in dallas county they
was just coach goodwin had done a really good job there and and they had been
really successful and so.
Then it's just a matter of getting your system in our system and
(17:46):
coach gilvin system was so much different it was just a matter of
transitioning that and we went in had immediate success not state championship
success but we were we were nine and two we were in the third quarterfinals
our second year there and then and then win it and second third round throughout
the time we were there but they had already been successful there and that program
was a lot more established and then you get to,
(18:08):
You're talking about going on down the road, go to Pelham, and Lord knows we
were 1-9, 2-8, and then I think we were 5-6 the next year and then 7-4.
So it started going. It took a little longer at Pelham because of the situation
we were in with the schools getting split.
And that was a tough job, man, because it was – like I said,
(18:30):
you walk in there and you're expecting to see some players, and there's 28,
24, 28 players in there, and you're having to build it. We played so many ninth
graders that year, Coach. It was unbelievable.
We had concussions not from contact but from their dang heads whiplashing because
their neck was too weak to hold their head up.
There were a bunch of ninth graders playing for us. But, yeah,
I think the process is about the same anywhere, and it really depends on if
(18:53):
it's two, three years or four years.
It depends on where you're going and what the success of that school has been before you got there.
I think here it would be that way. They've been pretty 65-ish.
Years past had really good success but right
right now is they were i think they were five and four six last
year four six last year so it's probably
going to be that two three four years right here to get it going
(19:15):
so coach you're at you're at demopolis and you went to state championship why
did you choose to go from demopolis to to pelham where there was only 24 players
well all right so then you talk about a god thing this is truly a god thing okay all right so So,
we had been offered the job, and me,
(19:37):
the ego in me, did not want to leave.
I wanted to be there. I knew we had gone through what we called a downtime and
getting a second, third round.
Our players were about to come back up. We were about to make some more runs, right?
And Pelham had offered me the job, and...
My wife and I, we had our banquet on Tuesday night, our football banquet on
Tuesday night. I had to let Pelham know on Wednesday.
(19:59):
My wife and I stayed up all night praying, literally all night.
We had Coach's Bible study at 6 a.m. the next morning. I just showered,
went on to the Bible study.
During the entire Bible study, that's what we prayed about. We talked about
it in there. And I felt like God was leading me to go. But I didn't want to go.
I wanted to win, man. And I knew what we were about to step off into.
(20:22):
And I didn't want to go. And so the meeting was over. Our Bible study was over.
I was blessed to not teach anything there. And so I'm in my office and she comes over.
She was a teacher. She's a teacher as well. So she comes over and we're meeting on it.
And I said, Tammy, I just feel like I need a sign.
And listen, this is an ego thing, right? So I don't want to go.
(20:45):
So God's not going to give me a sign on whether I need to go to Pelham or not.
That's what my knucklehead is thinking. And no sooner than I said that,
the phone rings, and it's a Christian coach who has been a mentor to me.
He's now the assistant head coach at Faulkner University, a Christian university in Montgomery.
He was a head coach at Trinity Presbyterian in Montgomery, a guy named Randy
(21:06):
Ragsdale, an unbelievable football coach.
And he calls me, and he says, Tom, I don't know why I'm supposed to call you,
but I'm calling you to tell you sometimes God wants us to go out on a limb.
Wow. This is a true story, man. And I say, Rags, I love you.
I'll call you back later. I got to go.
And I hung up the phone, and my wife was sitting on the other side of my desk,
(21:28):
and I said, We're going to Pelham.
And she starts crawfishing. She says, Hold on a minute now. Hold on a minute.
What would make you do that? I said, I just got my sign.
And I walked straight, me and her, walked straight to the principal's office
across the campus, walked in. He said, What are y'all doing in here?
And before I could get that out of my mouth, he said, Oh, no.
I said, Yes, we're going to take the job at Pelham.
And we loaded up and went to Pelham. and that's that's
(21:49):
the truth man and uh that that
and it was tough and it was tough on my ego for
a year i pouted about i'm not even gonna lie to you i
i pouted about it we're getting crushed and
and it's just trying to win a game be competitive and and i'm thinking lord
why would you do this to me and of course it was that that's the earthly me
(22:09):
right lord why would you do this to me why would you do this to me when the
relationships when you talked about that earlier the relationships that They were developed there.
Were unbelievable, man. And the lives that were impacted, including mine,
probably more than theirs, impacted by those kids that were at that program
and the people and the parents that were in that community.
(22:31):
It was phenomenal. And I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.
I know a buddy of mine said, you know, if you stayed at the Mops,
you'd have 250, 300 wins by now. I said, well, you're right.
But I wouldn't know any one of those kids. I wouldn't have them in my life and
I wouldn't be in their life.
And I really don't know how many wins I got now.
I I don't care, but it was a great thing, and I'm glad we listened and went.
(22:55):
I hate I had to push God to have him ready to call me to go do it,
but it was thanks you're worth it.
Well, I think that's, you know, I was just, you're sitting there telling the
story, and I'm thinking about Moses and the burning bush, and he still didn't want to go.
And how many times do you think he was, you know, in fact, In fact,
he got in trouble for getting aggravated with God for putting him where he couldn't.
(23:21):
It's a good story. So, you know, before we get into, you know,
Ola and Miller County, my question is, you know,
what is your identity as a coach from an offensive standpoint and a defensive standpoint?
And how have you changed since you first got into coaching?
(23:42):
Coaching well i i think how how we
how how coach the players that's definitely
changed because of because of i'm not nearly kids come watch our practices that
play for me 15 20 25 years ago and they're amazed at how how our practices have
changed we used to be so physical man monday through wednesday we'd be full
(24:03):
pads smoking each other and,
I don't know if kids today can handle that the way they used to.
And I think I've done a better job of trying to be efficient with practice and
being efficient with our coaches and time that they're out there and the time
that we have our kids out there.
We're going to be efficient with it because I think the attention span of the
(24:24):
kids today is, as a kid, even when I was a kid, my attention span wasn't great.
But the ones that we have today are even worse than we were.
And so I think you have to be intentful of how you coach that.
Every day you gotta you gotta have a
plan and have it mapped out bobby john's guy i work for he told
me he said you show me a coach practice three three and a half hours and i'll
(24:45):
show you one that ain't organized he said you go out there an
hour 45 minute two hour practice and i'll show you one that's organized and
the guys that are winning and and so i i think that's
probably been the greatest change in in how
and obviously in my faith and how i've
grown in my faith the relationship portion of it
when i first got into high school coaching i'm just gonna
(25:05):
be is completely honest with you here i would do devotionals and bible studies
where he is just because i felt like that's what the community was
expecting of us and i would do that to
make sure that i was checking the
boxes and i guess i was in andalusia my
first year there and god put it on my heart man this ain't fake man you better
do this for real and i went to a i don't know if you're familiar with it it's
(25:29):
an organization out of texas called coachesoutreach.org and a guy named Tommy
Maxwell had played at Texas A&M for Coach Dollins and played at Baltimore Colts for Don Shula.
And he started a Bible study group with coaches in Dallas.
And it's nationwide now, and we do it with our coaches. That's the Bible study we do.
And they'll set it up for you, send free books, and get you a lay leader in your community.
(25:54):
Anyway, so I go to their coaches and spouses' weekend, and Tommy stands up on
the stage and he says, you're going to have 100,000 kids cross your path in your career.
How many of them are you prepared to send to hell?
And it kind of hammered me, right? He said, coaches are the greatest youth pastors in our country.
(26:14):
And so that kind of convicted me then that what I'm doing is not a check the box thing, man.
So that probably changed. That was the thing off the field that changed me the
most. I'm not here to check the boxes.
God's put us here for a particular purpose. And this is our call.
And then we better take it serious, man. It's not a joke.
(26:34):
So, yeah, for sure, 100%. You know, one of the greats in Georgia is Jeff Herron,
and, you know, he just took Camden County.
You know, he was at Camden County forever, won three or four championships there.
Then he kind of went to different schools for a while and even went to college,
and then he went back to Camden County.
(26:55):
And so – and he retired this year, but he took that team to the semifinals in
the 7A state playoffs in Georgia, which is a great feat.
Yes, sir. But the interesting thing about Jeff Heron is, Coach Heron,
he never stopped running the wing tee.
And I went over to watch him versus Mill Creek this year, and,
(27:18):
man, he ran that wing tee like a machine. They did.
So my question is, you know, do you still run the wing tee?
I mean, what offense do you run? I didn't even answer that question, did I?
No. So we're a spread option offense.
(27:39):
We started out years ago, 25 years ago. We were under center, double wing.
We'd gone in the mid-90s. We traveled down to Georgia Southern and met with Paul Johnson.
And so we were inside veer, midline, double wing, under center.
And we did that my first three years at Dallas County, and we were successful with it.
We got to Andalusia, and we were basically
(27:59):
playing in the SEC West to a 4A football in the state of Alabama,
and we didn't have the dudes that everybody else had, and so we couldn't – we
got in the gun, and it took us – it probably took us coaches probably three
months in the offseason to figure out footwork for our quarterback in the gun with an offset back.
And so we still – we've run it since 2000.
(28:21):
Since my first year as a head coach, we've run the inside-outside veer.
Now, the formation's changed. Those things have changed how we present it to
you, but we have not changed that at all and we've,
We've added some – the RPO game, we started doing that in 2010 off a trap out of the gun.
And so that's kind of added to our offense, but we don't do it off of the option
(28:43):
stuff. We do it off our – what we call dead red runs.
And, of course, as an option guy, I don't believe you should ever try to block all of them.
You need to be reading some of them. And it don't make sense to me to run the
football and try to block everybody.
But we'll tag the reads. If we run power and we run trap and we run sweep,
we can tag it where we can reach somebody on that particular play, too, by tagging it.
(29:06):
So we've done that. And, of course, just like you or anybody else,
we involve our offense or our defense throughout the years when we get our tails
whipped by somebody who's done something to us that's caused us problems.
When people ask me and they come talk ball with us all the time,
want to know what we're doing offensively, and they'll say, well, why do you have that tag?
(29:26):
I say, because so-and-so whipped my tail twice with it and we had to figure
out a way to win, you know.
So, I think you're involved because you get your butt whipped by somebody who's
kind of taking a step ahead of you and schemes you up a little bit.
It no that's funny because i was talking to somebody
the other day and and they're like talking about coaching
clinics and this and that and i said yeah probably i mean
(29:48):
i don't i don't do that as much as i probably did but i said because you know
i learned so much this is how i learned i learned by playing good coaches so
if i were to play you i'm gonna sit there and study you and what you do i'm
gonna have three or four games of you i'm gonna study your defense your your offense.
I want to know everything about you personally.
(30:11):
From watching your film and there's things I'm going to steal from you. Absolutely.
It's like, I was like, you know, like, man, the best learning for me is when
I play a really good coach and I got to prepare for him all week.
And then if I really like him and like what he does, I said,
I'm on purpose going to build a relationship with him before the game.
(30:34):
And, and then I'm going to go back and, you know, kind of asking questions and things like that.
And that's kind of how you evolve right so i'm
always the type of person who i'm i'm always late
to the party like i need an rpo done to
me effectively before i see okay i need to put that in my offense well let me
(30:56):
let me tell you something that's good maybe some of you or somebody's might
have this uh getting getting this program right now something we started assistant
coach that i had over in demopolis and we were i don't remember what year it was us,
but I had gone to speak at a clinic in Mississippi,
and we were driving back, and he said, Coach, we need to do a clinic at our place.
I said, man, I don't want to do a clinic at our place and charge people.
(31:19):
I'd just rather get some people together and let's talk some ball.
Well, we started doing this thing where we'd get five or six different guys
that we really trusted and believed in, that we knew were good coaches,
and we would get together once a year, like on a Friday at school.
We'd rotate where we were going to go.
Get barbecue brought in. We talk ball all day long. And what you do,
we tell everybody, bring something you want to talk about. Bring something that you want help with.
(31:44):
So as we get in the table and get to the table and sit around,
you put all them topics in a hat.
You draw that topic out. Now, let's say you've got six coaches there,
six different schools, maybe not just coaches, but schools.
And you want to talk about kickoff coverage. You struggled with your kickoff coverage last year.
You're going to get five other ideas from guys who've done it really really successfully.
(32:05):
And what we ask them to do is, Hey, we're going to share this with each other.
We're going to give us all the little steps and the little things that's going
to get you butt whipped in it and don't hold back.
Right. And then if you take my idea and you go run it next year,
when we come back to meet again, the following off season,
I want you to tell me what you did with it to make it better or where you saw
(32:27):
we could be better with that concept or that, that scheme, whatever it is.
And that was some really good stuff, man.
And I think if you get with people that you know and trust, that you respect
and they are willing to share and you're open with each other,
you know, that was the that's the thing, man.
We got to share with each other. You know, we're going Friday nights.
We got to try to whip each other's tail.
(32:48):
We got to share with each other. This job is way too tough not to be good to each other.
And when we're not, it makes for really bad relationships, man.
So let's let's help each other out. my wife used to ask me all the time why
do you tell everybody what you do i said because somebody did to me somebody
helped me that's a hundred percent right hundred percent so let's let i'm talk
(33:14):
about miller county a little bit so.
You also have schools around there that can pick some of your players.
Like, so you're going in there. It's kind of, it's kind of tough to build.
I think I remember times that Miller County has been really good.
What's your plan to keep your players there and build that into,
(33:37):
you know, a team that makes it to the third and the fourth and fifth round of the playoff?
Well, it goes back to what we talked about, right? Me getting here as quick as I can.
I need to get to know the players. I need to get to know who they are.
I need to know where they're from.
One of the things I think is really important when you take over a program,
if you can get somebody from that
school on your staff that has been successful from that school, do it.
(34:03):
Because that's going to get you tie in and buy in with the community.
And now if I've got a player that's any question, especially coming in here
new, not knowing anybody, I've got a player that's any question that he's going
to be he could probably be getting recruited by somebody else to take away from me.
I want to go sit down with that mother, that aunt, that grandmother,
that daddy, whoever's that kid's living with.
(34:24):
If I've got that coach on my staff, there's a really good chance he's going
to get me in that front door.
And I think that's part of building relationships in the community as well.
So you can't just go sit in the field house all day long. You got to get out and go meet people.
And once you start doing that, then the next thing, like we talked about earlier,
coaches, you, you, You build that, again, for the process of winning.
(34:46):
And when you start winning, then that takes care of itself. I think the relationship
building and winning, those kids won't leave.
And if they do leave, it's probably one you don't mind leaving.
That's right. Now, you know, man, I do this podcast, and I try to interview
coaches that are successful and they win, you know, A, so I can learn,
(35:08):
and B, you know, for other people to learn.
But, you know, I was talking to Coach Coe at Coffey County. He's only been there two years.
And the very first thing that he said was what you said.
You know, you've got to get out in the community. I think coaches,
you think you're just going to sit up and draw on a board all day long.
You know, actually, that's probably 2% of the job. Yep. Yep.
(35:34):
You're exactly right. Like my first day here, I just rode around town.
I'm going to go around the little square and I'm going to meet people in the
business they own they think I'm coming in asking for money I walk in I just
want to introduce myself and let them know that I'm the head football coach
anything we can do for you from over to high school just let us know,
So, go ahead. No, no, go ahead.
(35:56):
No, so I'm Miller County. So, for the listener, how many players do you – and
I think it's single A, right?
And how many players on your roster do you have right now?
Single A, Division II, we've got 35 kids that are consistently working out with us every day.
And I think we carry around typically around 40, 45 kids here,
(36:16):
which is totally different from anything I've ever been a part of.
But I'm enjoying it. I really love it. Now, listen, we're in a school that's K-12, right?
So one side of the building is K-5, or sorry, yeah, K-5.
And then the other side of the building is, no, K-6, sorry. And then the other
side of the building is 7-12.
(36:37):
So every morning after our mat drills or plyos or agilities,
I get me a cup of coffee, and I am going to shake hands and fist bump the elementary
kids when they're coming down the hall because I intend on being here a little
bit, And I want those little boys and little girls to come down there and know
that the high school head coach is over here speaking to me.
And so I love that part of it, man. I get to go over there and see the little ones.
(37:00):
I'll go in the lunchrooms and sit down and eat with the fifth graders.
And I don't have to drive across town to our elementary school to go do that.
I think this is a huge advantage for us.
Yeah, that's that's very cool. Yes. I'm at a private Christian school,
so it's the same. Yeah, I love it there.
It's yeah, I mean, and and honestly, it's it's a great situation.
(37:24):
And I mean, of course, it can be a bad situation, too.
But, you know, it really you can really get on your players about.
Listen, these kids are watching you every day. Dang.
100%. You know, we do that anyway. When I was coaching those schools with 2,000
kids in it, but you still – we still carry them to the elementary schools.
But it was such – it was the task, man, to get all our kids spread out to all
(37:48):
the elementary schools.
Here, I'm going to take our boys and walk them across through the cafeteria
into the other part of the building, and we're going to go be a part of those
little kids' lives every day. And I think that builds that community.
We always thought – Coach, something I should have mentioned earlier,
But when you're spread out and you have two or three elementary schools,
middle school, or a couple middle schools and high school, I think one of the
(38:10):
most important things to do is to build that vertical relationship from the
kindergarten to the high school.
And that makes it a lot easier to place like this where we're all in the same dadgum building.
But you sure as heck, if you're in a – like even at Pelham, we had two elementary
schools and a middle school.
We're going to build that vertical relationship. I want the kindergartners at
(38:30):
our games. We would do something once a year for the two elementary schools.
It would be Pelham Oaks night one night and it would be Pelham Ridge night the next.
And we would take our players to the school and we'd give out a free ticket
to every kid in the school.
The only kicker was a parent or an adult had to be with.
Well, you always got a good turnout that night. But I wanted those kids at that
(38:52):
game. And it's usually going to be a game that we're not going to be really playing anybody.
Somebody that we had a chance to beat, we felt pretty good about.
And I wanted those kids there.
And if you got a program for the youth kids, if they come to your games,
they got their youth jersey on, let them in free, man.
Get them there to your games. Start building that community from the little
bitty ones all the way up to the big boys.
(39:14):
Yeah, I think that stuff really, really matters because I know me, I'm 44 years old.
I grew up going to Virginia Tech football games and we were huge Virginia Tech fans.
And you know what? It's still part of my heart.
I tell people that like it's still part of my heart and, you know,
I don't care as much as I used to.
(39:36):
But it's the same thing. Like what you're trying to do is create,
you know, they call it branding. But you're just trying to attach that elementary
student to the Miller County football, high school football.
So he grows up. He don't want to go anywhere else because he's been dreaming
about playing for Miller County.
There you go. He wants to be a pirate, man.
(39:57):
That's right. And and that's that's part of keeping your kids home as well.
In this new age that that we're in where they can move anywhere and we'll move
anywhere. and who knows what high school football is going to look like 10,
15 years from now with NIL and who knows how that's going to be manipulated and used.
(40:18):
So, Coach, as we end, it's been great talking to you.
I always like to ask this, like what are kind of two creeds you live by?
I mean, for me, it's demand excellence, take ownership is one of them, win the day.
Like the coach at the coach at coffee county
he said crawl the coach the other day that i interviewed
(40:39):
from cedartown his was mindset what what
is something that you use that that kind
of has a lot of meaning for you there's two things there's two things number
one is tcb okay there's three questions that i have to answer yes to if we're
going to be in any kind of relationship where we're going to work together if
(41:00):
i'm going to go into business with you coach and this is and things I'm going to ask myself of you.
Number one, T, can I trust you?
If I can't trust you, we're done right there. Number two, are you committed
to the same things I am? All right. So do I trust you? Yes.
Are you committed to the same things I am? Are we committed to the same concepts and ideas?
(41:22):
And three, do you believe the same things that I believe?
If those three things are yes, then we're going to have a heck of a relationship.
I don't care if we're selling rocks on the side of the road.
We're going to sell a heck of some rocks because we have those same values and ideas. this.
And then the other thing would be, I've used this my entire career and I absolutely
love it, but there's only two things I've seen at other places.
(41:45):
The only two things that you control on this planet are your attitude and your effort.
When those kids walk through the door, they have no control over what workout
we're going to do today, what the classroom teacher's got planned for today,
what's your opponents, the officials, the weather. You have no control over that.
The only thing you have control over each and every day is your attitude and
your effort. That goes towards your faith, your family, your football,
(42:07):
your fun, whatever it is, man.
You control that. So I don't want to hear about it. You bring that every day.
And those are the things that we've kind of built our programs on over the years.
It's TCB, trust, commit, and believe that we have those same yeses,
and then attitude and effort. That's the only things you control.
(42:29):
Well, that is very good, Coach. And, you know, I'm sitting here thinking as you talk, I love TCB.
I never heard that before, but I love that. I stole that from Coach Lou Holtz, man.
He had written a book back 100 years ago, and I got my hands on it when I was
probably in high school, and I read that, and I thought, man, that is unbelievable.
(42:49):
And I've kind of done my whole life that way with that thing. Just, can I trust you?
Are we committed to the same things? Do you believe the same things I believe?
Those things are yes, we're in it.
You better watch your back if one of them is nobody. buddy no you're
you're 100 right like i'm sitting there thinking well i can
i'm the type of person i probably trust people too easily
(43:10):
but the c and the b would really help me out
to know whether i should trust them because if they're not committed to the
same things i am i can't trust them and if they don't believe the
same things i believe i can't trust them nope and i tell
our players that listen man if i can't trust you
if i if i can't walk away tell you to do something walk away and
you not do it you can't be on this team because i can't trust
you if i can't trust you with the simple things how am i gonna put my
(43:32):
job in your hands i tell you i
tell you to tweak the locker and floor and i come back it's not swept i'm not
putting you in the game on fourth and four we got to have a first down but he
had him brother that's so true well coach man it's been awesome it's been a
pleasure talking with you and so i always like to pray for the coach as we head out absolutely.
(43:57):
Lord, we're coming for you today. I just want to praise and thank you for loving
us. Lord, just praise and thank you for dying on the cross for our sins.
Lord, I praise and thank you for coaches like Coach Causey and everything that
you have done in his life and how you have used him to impact the lives,
not just of the football players, but the coaches who have coached with him
and the people in the community.
(44:17):
Lord, I just pray that you would bless him and his wife.
And as they go down to Miller County, that you would just continue to use him
to advance your kingdom and that people would be receptive and Lord,
that you can just continue to raise up more coaches like Coach Causey,
people who have a passion to coach football for your glory.
Lord, we love you and we praise you in Jesus name.
(44:38):
Amen. Coach, appreciate it, man. Yeah, man. Thank you.
All right, everybody, I am back for another episode of Demand Excellence,
and today I have Coach Tom Causey on the line.
Coach Causey, he was in Alabama forever. Now he is in Georgia,
was at Ola High School, and now he is at Miller County.
I met him a few weeks ago, very godly man, and as everybody knows,
(00:24):
I try to have as much as possible, godly Christian coaches who have been successful.
And Coach has definitely been successful.
Won a state championship back in 2009 in Alabama at Demopolis High School.
Won a whole bunch of games at Pelham.
He can correct me on that one if I said that wrong. But Coach,
(00:47):
tell us a little bit about you.
Where'd you go to college? Where'd you start Start out in high school and then
kind of your journey there in Alabama.
Yes, sir. So I played at University back when I was there.
I was in the Gustav Conference, played 1988 to 1991,
and I was blessed enough to get on the staff
(01:09):
there as a student assistant for a couple years and then GA
there for two years and then was the
offensive line coach there from 94 through
the 98 season season and then got engaged
to beautiful wife Tammy who was really
a godsend at the time you don't go from Minot North Dakota to Bismarck North
(01:29):
Dakota to Boise Idaho to Livingston Alabama without God's plan being on it and
we got engaged and we got into high school coaching spent one season as the
office coordinator at Daleville High School down in southeast Alabama Alabama.
And we were there for a year. And then I took the head job at Dallas County
High School, which is around Selma, Alabama.
(01:51):
I was there for three years. We were very blessed to have a bunch of really good players there.
And it's a school that had not been very successful.
And we were blessed to win 10 games in our third year there and left and went
to Andalusia High School, which had been unbelievably successful in the 70s.
But we were there in the 2000s and they They hadn't been past the second round
(02:12):
since 76, and we got there in 2003.
And in 2006, we went to the semifinals there, got beat.
And left there, went to Demopolis, Alabama, and they had been unbelievably successful
in 4A football there for years.
Doug Goodwin, a good friend of mine, had won a state championship there in 2004.
(02:33):
And they'd gone back to 5A and not found the success there in 5A that they had in 4A.
And he took a really good job up in North Alabama.
And they called me about that job, and we took it.
Lo and behold, three years later, we beat Doug in the state championship game
in Bryant-Denny Stadium, was there until 2003, the 14th season,
(02:55):
and then went to Pelham, Alabama in the Birmingham metro area.
It was really a unique situation, man. The school had split.
Pelham had gone from being a county school to a city school,
and so they lost half their student body.
It was going back to another county school they had just built.
And we got there, 6A football, we had 24 players.
(03:16):
And we struggled for
the first two years there to build that program up and we
became a playoff team there and and and i
got 30 years in and my wife was at 25 and
good buddy of mine's brother head coach at
olin they had a head coach in opening and uh we came
over and had we had two
(03:38):
two years of playoffs there and and miller county
job kind of popped open and a buddy of mine called me
about it and i think it's an unbelievable opportunity and
really felt felt like it was somewhere i
was supposed to be and so we packed it up my
wife's still in mcdonough and i'm down here in colquitt georgia so
that's kind of my career and we're how we got here
(04:00):
and when been a lot of success and the success because
of a lot of really good coaches and really
good players so you coach you know as well as i
do how important that is absolutely well i
got i got a lot of questions for you after
hearing about all you know your path but one
thing that was really interesting to me as
(04:21):
you were talking it was never that you
were going to be the head coach you kept.
Saying we talk about that a little
bit well and and i think
it is we and it's really it's i think every move has been a god god-led mood
move so that's that's part of the way but my wife and and the coaches that have.
(04:45):
That have been there with us and this this may offend some people but i can't
stand it when i hear people talk about my team or i i won,
this is the greatest team game on the planet man and there's no way one of us
is going to accomplishing things solo and uh you know you we were talking about the faith base but.
(05:05):
We don't do it without him. And so even if you're single and you travel to every
school by yourself and you just
find coaches there, you're not doing it by yourself. It's always a we.
And I think we've gotten so far away from that that I was listening to a basketball game last night.
I was actually watching a state championship basketball game in Alabama and
(05:27):
on TV, and I heard the coach say, my team.
And I cringed, man. man. And it's not your team. It's our team.
And I think the kids need to hear us say that. People need to hear us say that.
Yeah. When you think about being a Christian football coach,
you know, like the Lord is constantly, you know, one of my favorite verses is Galatians 2.20.
(05:53):
I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ
who lives in me and in the life I now live, I live by faith in the son of God.
Like I, and then, you know, John the Baptist, he said, I must decrease, Christ must increase.
Like that's a big thing. And to me, it's always really kind of telling to whether
somebody is a believer or not based upon them using the word I too much.
(06:19):
Exactly. And so, because it is, it is we,
and in all honesty, honestly in all
honesty which you have alluded to it's it's really the
lord working in your life and and
taking you from place to place so that's
that's very that's very cool that that i caught that you saying we and you said
(06:40):
we it's it's also convicting you know i'm sitting here analyzing myself like
oh my gosh but which is cool though iron sharpens iron um that that verse iron
Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
We put that between the screws on our helmets. Proverbs 27, 17,
that stays between the screws on our helmets.
(07:02):
We don't have our school logo. That's there. And I think we played a state championship
game, and our quarterback had it on his eye black, and one of the reporters
the next day called me and asked me what it said.
I said, no, no, no. He asked me what was on there, and I said Proverbs 27, 17.
And he said, well, what does that say? I said, look it up, man.
(07:25):
You need to read the Bible.
And so I guess the reporter ended up looking it up because I wouldn't tell him
I wanted to go look in his Bible to find it.
Well, you know, that's very cool.
And it's cool how, you know, that Bible verse, who knows that guy might be reading his Bible now.
And hopefully, hopefully. Hopefully.
(07:46):
So, Coach, go back to when you first got started. You know, you said your first
job as a head coach, I think you said, was in Dallas City High School.
So, you know, as you got started, what did you learn? What didn't you know? Talk about that.
There's a lot I didn't know. If I coached today the way I coached then,
(08:08):
them folks loved me there. They fired me today.
But I really think the X's and O's, we know then.
We all know that. I think managing people, managing a budget.
Knowing that you've got to go how to figure out to fix it real more.
I'd come from college football, man, and we'd never cut grass.
Somebody cut that for us and didn't know what it – when they told me I needed
(08:29):
a PO for something, I didn't have a clue what a PO was.
And so managing a staff was the biggest thing as far as on-the-field stuff goes
because I had studied the X's and O's inside and out.
And I'd been blessed to work for a guy named Bobby Johns who had played for
Coach Bryan in the 60s at Alabama, and I'd coached for him at West Al.
And he had taught me so much about how to deal with players and how every player is not the same.
(08:56):
You treat them all fairly, but you don't treat them all the same.
And I think that was the greatest thing that I carried in there because you
got to be fair with them, but they're not all the same.
And I think you treat each one of them differently.
But the off-the-field stuff, the taking care of facilities, responsibilities,
cleaning the toilets, taking care of POs, making sure you raise enough money.
(09:22):
Those things kind of hit me right between the eyes because I had never done that before.
And even when I was an assistant coach for that one year at Daleville,
I didn't realize what all went into that.
And I think today is more like running a business than it is coaching football
sometimes, but you have to run it that way.
(09:42):
Yeah. I mean, I was talking with somebody the other day and we were just talking
about, you know, the NIL and what college coaches are having to deal with.
And I mean, and I want to get your take on this.
You know, what I said is like, we've been dealing with that ever since I began
coaching, you know, 18 years ago, kids can go anywhere. They can transfer anywhere.
(10:04):
Yeah. And so, um,
Like I tell people all the time, like I don't go to a lot of coaching clinics
during the week and I don't leave school during the week.
I'm here every day because my relationship with the player is the only thing
that's keeping them here.
A lot of times, especially as they become a better player, they can go anywhere.
(10:26):
I mean, Gwinnett, right? You can think about that. I mean, you can.
Mill Creek is three miles from me. Buford High School is six miles from me.
So you know they can go anywhere but like the only thing that's going to keep
them with me is is that relationship that i have with them so i i believe like
successful coaches these days,
(10:48):
have really got to have great relationships and i think that is at the college level as well.
100 coach i really think i think you know when when i took this job in any job
and i think at At some point in the game's changed, right?
And it's like you were talking about the NIL. We've always dealt with that.
(11:08):
But it's become the recruiting and transferring schools, and that's really become
in vogue in the last 15 or 20 years.
And I think always, I think you're dead on with the successful coaches.
The most important thing for me in transitioning here was getting down here,
getting my hands on these kids and start back in relationships with them now.
(11:29):
And I think even simple things like
this knowing their dadgum name after being here two or three
days when you see them calling by name they
they know that you know who they are when you start I think that's huge and
and you know it's kind of a corny little saying but they don't they don't they
don't know you care how much you know until they know how much you care and
(11:50):
sometimes that means I got to put a foot in there behind but they need to know
that I care about them I'm I'm willing to fight for them.
And this is the thing, Coach, I think is huge. And you talk about relationships.
You got to tell them you love them. But you can't do that until you do, man.
Kids are like dogs. They can sense the smell when you're full of crap.
(12:12):
And so, you know, I haven't told a kid here yet I love them. I've been here a month.
And, you know, I think once you get to know them, once you do get to love them,
you got to tell them every day, man. And you don't let them walk out of here
without telling them that.
And we pray with them every day now. I pray with them after every workout,
every time we're together, this morning after Matt drills.
(12:32):
As soon as Matt drills, we stretch, we pull them up, we give them any reminders,
and we're going to pray over them, man. We're going to do that before they leave us every time.
And I think that that's part of building that relationship. And don't try to
fool them. Do not try to make it fake.
They got to know you love them and they know they'll know when it's fake, man.
They're not they're not ignorant. You can think they are, but they're not.
(12:54):
They know when you truly care.
That's that's so true. You know, coach, I'm coaching 11U. My boys is 11.
So I'm doing 11U travel baseball.
And so I selected the team and it's an assortment of different kids and I don't know them all.
I know about three and then there's there's about eight others that I didn't
(13:15):
know and I didn't have a relationship with.
And so it took so last night we've had I've had I've been working with these
these kids for 45 days, about a month and a half. Had our first tournament last weekend.
Last night was the first time I set them down and kind of did a devotion with
them and and talked about Jesus with them and prayed with them.
(13:37):
But the reason why that is, is because I didn't want to present Christ to them
until they knew that I love them as their coach.
So, you know, and of course, I'm not a high school with them.
So it just it took me longer to to kind of feel comfortable with them. Sure.
I like what you said, because that's that's what you said.
(14:00):
You know well coach you know
you you would i couldn't i
couldn't figure out if it was dallas city high school
or a different high school but you took a team and
you and you went to to the semi-finals with them talk about you know that progression
to where you built that team to where they could go to the semi-finals early
(14:24):
in your career well i think i think it takes time i mean and I know it takes time.
I think it's really – I learned this from Coach Biden. I was blessed to work
for a guy named Todd Stroud.
He's now at Miami, but he had played for Coach Biden at Florida State.
And when we'd go down and visit with him every spring, Coach Biden talked about
– really relates more to the college program,
(14:45):
but I've seen it in the high school as well where year one, if they're bad,
and we were bad, year one, and usually I've been blessed, cursed,
however you want to, to be going into programs that weren't very good.
And coach coach Lou Holtz said
that too you take one it's been really really good or really really bad don't take
one in 500 teams but anyway so we get
(15:06):
we get there and we're two and eight so you look I think you lose big early
the first year it's a lose close the second year you win close that third year
and then that fourth year you're winning big and and it is truly kind of my
career has kind of done that that way you know and,
I think because you are building relationships. There's kids who are going to
(15:29):
come and go in that first year because you're going to have to establish discipline.
You're going to have to set the ground rules, what their standards and expectations are.
And there's going to be kids on that team that are really good players,
that are really good athletes, who aren't going to rise to the standards or expectations you set.
And you've got to get rid of them. And so you're going to be playing with some
lesser kids because those kids, those studs, have been let do what they've been
(15:52):
let do for however long they've been playing.
And so you play those first couple of years and you're playing with some guys
who probably wouldn't be playing if you just turn them loose,
let them do what they want to do.
And then eventually those younger kids that are in your program,
they see this is what the standards and expectations are.
If I'm going to play, I've got to raise up to these standards and expectations.
(16:15):
And so they do. And then next thing you know, now we're winning close games.
We've got young players who are doing the things we want to do.
They're better athletes.
Now we're winning. and now we got them as juniors and seniors and man they're
they're doing the things we asked them to do on and off the field they're serving
their community they're serving each other they're true teammates and now we're
rolling man so i think it's a it's a process that you got to go through and
(16:38):
i hate to use that word because since coach saban started using it everybody uses it but,
you have to be you have to be consistent with how you're
doing things you have standards and and expectations
and you set those things from the jump and do
not flex on them and it goes back to
what we talked about you treat them all fair but they're not all the same but
your standards and expectations for those kids are and so
(17:00):
that should never change and that's why i think it takes for
you to start going playing for championships then getting the quarterfinals semifinals
and winning it you got to go through that man or
if not you just waiting on a great runner athletes who just happen
to be good kids come through there right yeah for
sure so okay so you go
you go from that team and then you go to demopolis correct
(17:23):
was it was it the same time frame i mean you won state there i mean three years
being there yeah yeah it was three years there we took over a program that was
a little a little bit ahead of where we went to andalusia in dallas county they
was just coach goodwin had done a really good job there and and they had been
really successful and so.
Then it's just a matter of getting your system in our system and
(17:46):
coach gilvin system was so much different it was just a matter of
transitioning that and we went in had immediate success not state championship
success but we were we were nine and two we were in the third quarterfinals
our second year there and then and then win it and second third round throughout
the time we were there but they had already been successful there and that program
was a lot more established and then you get to,
(18:08):
You're talking about going on down the road, go to Pelham, and Lord knows we
were 1-9, 2-8, and then I think we were 5-6 the next year and then 7-4.
So it started going. It took a little longer at Pelham because of the situation
we were in with the schools getting split.
And that was a tough job, man, because it was – like I said,
(18:30):
you walk in there and you're expecting to see some players, and there's 28,
24, 28 players in there, and you're having to build it. We played so many ninth
graders that year, Coach. It was unbelievable.
We had concussions not from contact but from their dang heads whiplashing because
their neck was too weak to hold their head up.
There were a bunch of ninth graders playing for us. But, yeah,
I think the process is about the same anywhere, and it really depends on if
(18:53):
it's two, three years or four years.
It depends on where you're going and what the success of that school has been before you got there.
I think here it would be that way. They've been pretty 65-ish.
Years past had really good success but right
right now is they were i think they were five and four six last
year four six last year so it's probably
going to be that two three four years right here to get it going
(19:15):
so coach you're at you're at demopolis and you went to state championship why
did you choose to go from demopolis to to pelham where there was only 24 players
well all right so then you talk about a god thing this is truly a god thing okay all right so So,
we had been offered the job, and me,
(19:37):
the ego in me, did not want to leave.
I wanted to be there. I knew we had gone through what we called a downtime and
getting a second, third round.
Our players were about to come back up. We were about to make some more runs, right?
And Pelham had offered me the job, and...
My wife and I, we had our banquet on Tuesday night, our football banquet on
Tuesday night. I had to let Pelham know on Wednesday.
(19:59):
My wife and I stayed up all night praying, literally all night.
We had Coach's Bible study at 6 a.m. the next morning. I just showered,
went on to the Bible study.
During the entire Bible study, that's what we prayed about. We talked about
it in there. And I felt like God was leading me to go. But I didn't want to go.
I wanted to win, man. And I knew what we were about to step off into.
(20:22):
And I didn't want to go. And so the meeting was over. Our Bible study was over.
I was blessed to not teach anything there. And so I'm in my office and she comes over.
She was a teacher. She's a teacher as well. So she comes over and we're meeting on it.
And I said, Tammy, I just feel like I need a sign.
And listen, this is an ego thing, right? So I don't want to go.
(20:45):
So God's not going to give me a sign on whether I need to go to Pelham or not.
That's what my knucklehead is thinking. And no sooner than I said that,
the phone rings, and it's a Christian coach who has been a mentor to me.
He's now the assistant head coach at Faulkner University, a Christian university in Montgomery.
He was a head coach at Trinity Presbyterian in Montgomery, a guy named Randy
(21:06):
Ragsdale, an unbelievable football coach.
And he calls me, and he says, Tom, I don't know why I'm supposed to call you,
but I'm calling you to tell you sometimes God wants us to go out on a limb.
Wow. This is a true story, man. And I say, Rags, I love you.
I'll call you back later. I got to go.
And I hung up the phone, and my wife was sitting on the other side of my desk,
(21:28):
and I said, We're going to Pelham.
And she starts crawfishing. She says, Hold on a minute now. Hold on a minute.
What would make you do that? I said, I just got my sign.
And I walked straight, me and her, walked straight to the principal's office
across the campus, walked in. He said, What are y'all doing in here?
And before I could get that out of my mouth, he said, Oh, no.
I said, Yes, we're going to take the job at Pelham.
And we loaded up and went to Pelham. and that's that's
(21:49):
the truth man and uh that that
and it was tough and it was tough on my ego for
a year i pouted about i'm not even gonna lie to you i
i pouted about it we're getting crushed and
and it's just trying to win a game be competitive and and i'm thinking lord
why would you do this to me and of course it was that that's the earthly me
(22:09):
right lord why would you do this to me why would you do this to me when the
relationships when you talked about that earlier the relationships that They were developed there.
Were unbelievable, man. And the lives that were impacted, including mine,
probably more than theirs, impacted by those kids that were at that program
and the people and the parents that were in that community.
(22:31):
It was phenomenal. And I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.
I know a buddy of mine said, you know, if you stayed at the Mops,
you'd have 250, 300 wins by now. I said, well, you're right.
But I wouldn't know any one of those kids. I wouldn't have them in my life and
I wouldn't be in their life.
And I really don't know how many wins I got now.
I I don't care, but it was a great thing, and I'm glad we listened and went.
(22:55):
I hate I had to push God to have him ready to call me to go do it,
but it was thanks you're worth it.
Well, I think that's, you know, I was just, you're sitting there telling the
story, and I'm thinking about Moses and the burning bush, and he still didn't want to go.
And how many times do you think he was, you know, in fact, In fact,
he got in trouble for getting aggravated with God for putting him where he couldn't.
(23:21):
It's a good story. So, you know, before we get into, you know,
Ola and Miller County, my question is, you know,
what is your identity as a coach from an offensive standpoint and a defensive standpoint?
And how have you changed since you first got into coaching?
(23:42):
Coaching well i i think how how we
how how coach the players that's definitely
changed because of because of i'm not nearly kids come watch our practices that
play for me 15 20 25 years ago and they're amazed at how how our practices have
changed we used to be so physical man monday through wednesday we'd be full
(24:03):
pads smoking each other and,
I don't know if kids today can handle that the way they used to.
And I think I've done a better job of trying to be efficient with practice and
being efficient with our coaches and time that they're out there and the time
that we have our kids out there.
We're going to be efficient with it because I think the attention span of the
(24:24):
kids today is, as a kid, even when I was a kid, my attention span wasn't great.
But the ones that we have today are even worse than we were.
And so I think you have to be intentful of how you coach that.
Every day you gotta you gotta have a
plan and have it mapped out bobby john's guy i work for he told
me he said you show me a coach practice three three and a half hours and i'll
(24:45):
show you one that ain't organized he said you go out there an
hour 45 minute two hour practice and i'll show you one that's organized and
the guys that are winning and and so i i think that's
probably been the greatest change in in how
and obviously in my faith and how i've
grown in my faith the relationship portion of it
when i first got into high school coaching i'm just gonna
(25:05):
be is completely honest with you here i would do devotionals and bible studies
where he is just because i felt like that's what the community was
expecting of us and i would do that to
make sure that i was checking the
boxes and i guess i was in andalusia my
first year there and god put it on my heart man this ain't fake man you better
do this for real and i went to a i don't know if you're familiar with it it's
(25:29):
an organization out of texas called coachesoutreach.org and a guy named Tommy
Maxwell had played at Texas A&M for Coach Dollins and played at Baltimore Colts for Don Shula.
And he started a Bible study group with coaches in Dallas.
And it's nationwide now, and we do it with our coaches. That's the Bible study we do.
And they'll set it up for you, send free books, and get you a lay leader in your community.
(25:54):
Anyway, so I go to their coaches and spouses' weekend, and Tommy stands up on
the stage and he says, you're going to have 100,000 kids cross your path in your career.
How many of them are you prepared to send to hell?
And it kind of hammered me, right? He said, coaches are the greatest youth pastors in our country.
(26:14):
And so that kind of convicted me then that what I'm doing is not a check the box thing, man.
So that probably changed. That was the thing off the field that changed me the
most. I'm not here to check the boxes.
God's put us here for a particular purpose. And this is our call.
And then we better take it serious, man. It's not a joke.
(26:34):
So, yeah, for sure, 100%. You know, one of the greats in Georgia is Jeff Herron,
and, you know, he just took Camden County.
You know, he was at Camden County forever, won three or four championships there.
Then he kind of went to different schools for a while and even went to college,
and then he went back to Camden County.
(26:55):
And so – and he retired this year, but he took that team to the semifinals in
the 7A state playoffs in Georgia, which is a great feat.
Yes, sir. But the interesting thing about Jeff Heron is, Coach Heron,
he never stopped running the wing tee.
And I went over to watch him versus Mill Creek this year, and,
(27:18):
man, he ran that wing tee like a machine. They did.
So my question is, you know, do you still run the wing tee?
I mean, what offense do you run? I didn't even answer that question, did I?
No. So we're a spread option offense.
(27:39):
We started out years ago, 25 years ago. We were under center, double wing.
We'd gone in the mid-90s. We traveled down to Georgia Southern and met with Paul Johnson.
And so we were inside veer, midline, double wing, under center.
And we did that my first three years at Dallas County, and we were successful with it.
We got to Andalusia, and we were basically
(27:59):
playing in the SEC West to a 4A football in the state of Alabama,
and we didn't have the dudes that everybody else had, and so we couldn't – we
got in the gun, and it took us – it probably took us coaches probably three
months in the offseason to figure out footwork for our quarterback in the gun with an offset back.
And so we still – we've run it since 2000.
(28:21):
Since my first year as a head coach, we've run the inside-outside veer.
Now, the formation's changed. Those things have changed how we present it to
you, but we have not changed that at all and we've,
We've added some – the RPO game, we started doing that in 2010 off a trap out of the gun.
And so that's kind of added to our offense, but we don't do it off of the option
(28:43):
stuff. We do it off our – what we call dead red runs.
And, of course, as an option guy, I don't believe you should ever try to block all of them.
You need to be reading some of them. And it don't make sense to me to run the
football and try to block everybody.
But we'll tag the reads. If we run power and we run trap and we run sweep,
we can tag it where we can reach somebody on that particular play, too, by tagging it.
(29:06):
So we've done that. And, of course, just like you or anybody else,
we involve our offense or our defense throughout the years when we get our tails
whipped by somebody who's done something to us that's caused us problems.
When people ask me and they come talk ball with us all the time,
want to know what we're doing offensively, and they'll say, well, why do you have that tag?
(29:26):
I say, because so-and-so whipped my tail twice with it and we had to figure
out a way to win, you know.
So, I think you're involved because you get your butt whipped by somebody who's
kind of taking a step ahead of you and schemes you up a little bit.
It no that's funny because i was talking to somebody
the other day and and they're like talking about coaching
clinics and this and that and i said yeah probably i mean
(29:48):
i don't i don't do that as much as i probably did but i said because you know
i learned so much this is how i learned i learned by playing good coaches so
if i were to play you i'm gonna sit there and study you and what you do i'm
gonna have three or four games of you i'm gonna study your defense your your offense.
I want to know everything about you personally.
(30:11):
From watching your film and there's things I'm going to steal from you. Absolutely.
It's like, I was like, you know, like, man, the best learning for me is when
I play a really good coach and I got to prepare for him all week.
And then if I really like him and like what he does, I said,
I'm on purpose going to build a relationship with him before the game.
(30:34):
And, and then I'm going to go back and, you know, kind of asking questions and things like that.
And that's kind of how you evolve right so i'm
always the type of person who i'm i'm always late
to the party like i need an rpo done to
me effectively before i see okay i need to put that in my offense well let me
(30:56):
let me tell you something that's good maybe some of you or somebody's might
have this uh getting getting this program right now something we started assistant
coach that i had over in demopolis and we were i don't remember what year it was us,
but I had gone to speak at a clinic in Mississippi,
and we were driving back, and he said, Coach, we need to do a clinic at our place.
I said, man, I don't want to do a clinic at our place and charge people.
(31:19):
I'd just rather get some people together and let's talk some ball.
Well, we started doing this thing where we'd get five or six different guys
that we really trusted and believed in, that we knew were good coaches,
and we would get together once a year, like on a Friday at school.
We'd rotate where we were going to go.
Get barbecue brought in. We talk ball all day long. And what you do,
we tell everybody, bring something you want to talk about. Bring something that you want help with.
(31:44):
So as we get in the table and get to the table and sit around,
you put all them topics in a hat.
You draw that topic out. Now, let's say you've got six coaches there,
six different schools, maybe not just coaches, but schools.
And you want to talk about kickoff coverage. You struggled with your kickoff coverage last year.
You're going to get five other ideas from guys who've done it really really successfully.
(32:05):
And what we ask them to do is, Hey, we're going to share this with each other.
We're going to give us all the little steps and the little things that's going
to get you butt whipped in it and don't hold back.
Right. And then if you take my idea and you go run it next year,
when we come back to meet again, the following off season,
I want you to tell me what you did with it to make it better or where you saw
(32:27):
we could be better with that concept or that, that scheme, whatever it is.
And that was some really good stuff, man.
And I think if you get with people that you know and trust, that you respect
and they are willing to share and you're open with each other,
you know, that was the that's the thing, man.
We got to share with each other. You know, we're going Friday nights.
We got to try to whip each other's tail.
(32:48):
We got to share with each other. This job is way too tough not to be good to each other.
And when we're not, it makes for really bad relationships, man.
So let's let's help each other out. my wife used to ask me all the time why
do you tell everybody what you do i said because somebody did to me somebody
helped me that's a hundred percent right hundred percent so let's let i'm talk
(33:14):
about miller county a little bit so.
You also have schools around there that can pick some of your players.
Like, so you're going in there. It's kind of, it's kind of tough to build.
I think I remember times that Miller County has been really good.
What's your plan to keep your players there and build that into,
(33:37):
you know, a team that makes it to the third and the fourth and fifth round of the playoff?
Well, it goes back to what we talked about, right? Me getting here as quick as I can.
I need to get to know the players. I need to get to know who they are.
I need to know where they're from.
One of the things I think is really important when you take over a program,
if you can get somebody from that
school on your staff that has been successful from that school, do it.
(34:03):
Because that's going to get you tie in and buy in with the community.
And now if I've got a player that's any question, especially coming in here
new, not knowing anybody, I've got a player that's any question that he's going
to be he could probably be getting recruited by somebody else to take away from me.
I want to go sit down with that mother, that aunt, that grandmother,
that daddy, whoever's that kid's living with.
(34:24):
If I've got that coach on my staff, there's a really good chance he's going
to get me in that front door.
And I think that's part of building relationships in the community as well.
So you can't just go sit in the field house all day long. You got to get out and go meet people.
And once you start doing that, then the next thing, like we talked about earlier,
coaches, you, you, You build that, again, for the process of winning.
(34:46):
And when you start winning, then that takes care of itself. I think the relationship
building and winning, those kids won't leave.
And if they do leave, it's probably one you don't mind leaving.
That's right. Now, you know, man, I do this podcast, and I try to interview
coaches that are successful and they win, you know, A, so I can learn,
(35:08):
and B, you know, for other people to learn.
But, you know, I was talking to Coach Coe at Coffey County. He's only been there two years.
And the very first thing that he said was what you said.
You know, you've got to get out in the community. I think coaches,
you think you're just going to sit up and draw on a board all day long.
You know, actually, that's probably 2% of the job. Yep. Yep.
(35:34):
You're exactly right. Like my first day here, I just rode around town.
I'm going to go around the little square and I'm going to meet people in the
business they own they think I'm coming in asking for money I walk in I just
want to introduce myself and let them know that I'm the head football coach
anything we can do for you from over to high school just let us know,
So, go ahead. No, no, go ahead.
(35:56):
No, so I'm Miller County. So, for the listener, how many players do you – and
I think it's single A, right?
And how many players on your roster do you have right now?
Single A, Division II, we've got 35 kids that are consistently working out with us every day.
And I think we carry around typically around 40, 45 kids here,
(36:16):
which is totally different from anything I've ever been a part of.
But I'm enjoying it. I really love it. Now, listen, we're in a school that's K-12, right?
So one side of the building is K-5, or sorry, yeah, K-5.
And then the other side of the building is, no, K-6, sorry. And then the other
side of the building is 7-12.
(36:37):
So every morning after our mat drills or plyos or agilities,
I get me a cup of coffee, and I am going to shake hands and fist bump the elementary
kids when they're coming down the hall because I intend on being here a little
bit, And I want those little boys and little girls to come down there and know
that the high school head coach is over here speaking to me.
And so I love that part of it, man. I get to go over there and see the little ones.
(37:00):
I'll go in the lunchrooms and sit down and eat with the fifth graders.
And I don't have to drive across town to our elementary school to go do that.
I think this is a huge advantage for us.
Yeah, that's that's very cool. Yes. I'm at a private Christian school,
so it's the same. Yeah, I love it there.
It's yeah, I mean, and and honestly, it's it's a great situation.
(37:24):
And I mean, of course, it can be a bad situation, too.
But, you know, it really you can really get on your players about.
Listen, these kids are watching you every day. Dang.
100%. You know, we do that anyway. When I was coaching those schools with 2,000
kids in it, but you still – we still carry them to the elementary schools.
But it was such – it was the task, man, to get all our kids spread out to all
(37:48):
the elementary schools.
Here, I'm going to take our boys and walk them across through the cafeteria
into the other part of the building, and we're going to go be a part of those
little kids' lives every day. And I think that builds that community.
We always thought – Coach, something I should have mentioned earlier,
But when you're spread out and you have two or three elementary schools,
middle school, or a couple middle schools and high school, I think one of the
(38:10):
most important things to do is to build that vertical relationship from the
kindergarten to the high school.
And that makes it a lot easier to place like this where we're all in the same dadgum building.
But you sure as heck, if you're in a – like even at Pelham, we had two elementary
schools and a middle school.
We're going to build that vertical relationship. I want the kindergartners at
(38:30):
our games. We would do something once a year for the two elementary schools.
It would be Pelham Oaks night one night and it would be Pelham Ridge night the next.
And we would take our players to the school and we'd give out a free ticket
to every kid in the school.
The only kicker was a parent or an adult had to be with.
Well, you always got a good turnout that night. But I wanted those kids at that
(38:52):
game. And it's usually going to be a game that we're not going to be really playing anybody.
Somebody that we had a chance to beat, we felt pretty good about.
And I wanted those kids there.
And if you got a program for the youth kids, if they come to your games,
they got their youth jersey on, let them in free, man.
Get them there to your games. Start building that community from the little
bitty ones all the way up to the big boys.
(39:14):
Yeah, I think that stuff really, really matters because I know me, I'm 44 years old.
I grew up going to Virginia Tech football games and we were huge Virginia Tech fans.
And you know what? It's still part of my heart.
I tell people that like it's still part of my heart and, you know,
I don't care as much as I used to.
(39:36):
But it's the same thing. Like what you're trying to do is create,
you know, they call it branding. But you're just trying to attach that elementary
student to the Miller County football, high school football.
So he grows up. He don't want to go anywhere else because he's been dreaming
about playing for Miller County.
There you go. He wants to be a pirate, man.
(39:57):
That's right. And and that's that's part of keeping your kids home as well.
In this new age that that we're in where they can move anywhere and we'll move
anywhere. and who knows what high school football is going to look like 10,
15 years from now with NIL and who knows how that's going to be manipulated and used.
(40:18):
So, Coach, as we end, it's been great talking to you.
I always like to ask this, like what are kind of two creeds you live by?
I mean, for me, it's demand excellence, take ownership is one of them, win the day.
Like the coach at the coach at coffee county
he said crawl the coach the other day that i interviewed
(40:39):
from cedartown his was mindset what what
is something that you use that that kind
of has a lot of meaning for you there's two things there's two things number
one is tcb okay there's three questions that i have to answer yes to if we're
going to be in any kind of relationship where we're going to work together if
(41:00):
i'm going to go into business with you coach and this is and things I'm going to ask myself of you.
Number one, T, can I trust you?
If I can't trust you, we're done right there. Number two, are you committed
to the same things I am? All right. So do I trust you? Yes.
Are you committed to the same things I am? Are we committed to the same concepts and ideas?
(41:22):
And three, do you believe the same things that I believe?
If those three things are yes, then we're going to have a heck of a relationship.
I don't care if we're selling rocks on the side of the road.
We're going to sell a heck of some rocks because we have those same values and ideas. this.
And then the other thing would be, I've used this my entire career and I absolutely
love it, but there's only two things I've seen at other places.
(41:45):
The only two things that you control on this planet are your attitude and your effort.
When those kids walk through the door, they have no control over what workout
we're going to do today, what the classroom teacher's got planned for today,
what's your opponents, the officials, the weather. You have no control over that.
The only thing you have control over each and every day is your attitude and
your effort. That goes towards your faith, your family, your football,
(42:07):
your fun, whatever it is, man.
You control that. So I don't want to hear about it. You bring that every day.
And those are the things that we've kind of built our programs on over the years.
It's TCB, trust, commit, and believe that we have those same yeses,
and then attitude and effort. That's the only things you control.
(42:29):
Well, that is very good, Coach. And, you know, I'm sitting here thinking as you talk, I love TCB.
I never heard that before, but I love that. I stole that from Coach Lou Holtz, man.
He had written a book back 100 years ago, and I got my hands on it when I was
probably in high school, and I read that, and I thought, man, that is unbelievable.
(42:49):
And I've kind of done my whole life that way with that thing. Just, can I trust you?
Are we committed to the same things? Do you believe the same things I believe?
Those things are yes, we're in it.
You better watch your back if one of them is nobody. buddy no you're
you're 100 right like i'm sitting there thinking well i can
i'm the type of person i probably trust people too easily
(43:10):
but the c and the b would really help me out
to know whether i should trust them because if they're not committed to the
same things i am i can't trust them and if they don't believe the
same things i believe i can't trust them nope and i tell
our players that listen man if i can't trust you
if i if i can't walk away tell you to do something walk away and
you not do it you can't be on this team because i can't trust
you if i can't trust you with the simple things how am i gonna put my
(43:32):
job in your hands i tell you i
tell you to tweak the locker and floor and i come back it's not swept i'm not
putting you in the game on fourth and four we got to have a first down but he
had him brother that's so true well coach man it's been awesome it's been a
pleasure talking with you and so i always like to pray for the coach as we head out absolutely.
(43:57):
Lord, we're coming for you today. I just want to praise and thank you for loving
us. Lord, just praise and thank you for dying on the cross for our sins.
Lord, I praise and thank you for coaches like Coach Causey and everything that
you have done in his life and how you have used him to impact the lives,
not just of the football players, but the coaches who have coached with him
and the people in the community.
(44:17):
Lord, I just pray that you would bless him and his wife.
And as they go down to Miller County, that you would just continue to use him
to advance your kingdom and that people would be receptive and Lord,
that you can just continue to raise up more coaches like Coach Causey,
people who have a passion to coach football for your glory.
Lord, we love you and we praise you in Jesus name.
(44:38):
Amen. Coach, appreciate it, man. Yeah, man. Thank you.
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