3 Guys Before The Game - WVU Defensive Coordinator Zac Alley (Episode 640) - 3 Guys Before The Game

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It is a showtime in the big city. Welcome in.
Everyone is Three guys before the game. And have I
ever said we got a good one for you. No, never,
never have said let me tell you something, we got
a good one for you. This is episode number six
hundred and forty. We're delighted to have Mountaineer assistant head
to football coach and defensive coordinators Zach Ally with us.

(00:31):
Let's do this thing. Three guys brought to us by
Jan Dill's attorneys at Law. They won't take no for
an answer. They simply won't. They won't take no for
an answer. Like Coomac's Business Systems keeping West Virginia's business
data safe, secure and efficient for twenty five years. And
hydrate it you know it's water season. Three guys brought
to us by Gomart. Get that Gomart rewards card and

(00:53):
immediately begins saving money on your food, on your fuel.
You can download the app or just go to gomart
dot com for details. Like lou Wendell Marine at sales
in Saint Albans. You don't think it's boating season now,
I mean today today you can just go and go
and go and go. They do sell family fun visit

(01:13):
lou Wendellmarne sales dot com. Three guys also brought to
us by Tutors Biscuit World, Start your day the Homemade
way with a tutor's biscuit. Got to ask Zach if
he's had a tutor's biscuit. Yeah, I mean he's been
here several months now. Do you think maybe a GA
has kind of come back into the building and said, hey, uh,

(01:34):
a coach, I got this. If you try to tutors,
I think trick it. But at least I now have
given him a tutor.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I think although we failed, we press sure have had
him here.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
I can one right now?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
All right, question number one? Have you tried one yet?

Speaker 4 (01:47):
So I live you tutors over here on University Yeah,
a minute from there. So well, okay, so you're I've
been for you through a few times. So the first
biscuit I got up there, I was so big I
couldn't bite the name thing.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, I mean there's there's some situation. Yeah you got it.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
It's pretty large. Yeah you get Could you eat too
at a time? Big debate here, tod I or do
I need to know?

Speaker 1 (02:09):
You?

Speaker 2 (02:09):
Definitely don't need to. I don't need to you could
you could? That's what we say too.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Well, that's interesting because one of the things and looking
toward today's show that kind of stunned me. You were
an offensive defensive lineman as a player, and I I
look at you now, I'm thinking linebacker. When you think linebackers, sae.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Hit somebody safety position.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
How much did you weigh?

Speaker 4 (02:33):
I was like to high school. Now, I was like
two forty five. Yeah, I'm looking at you less than
that now. So you know, I like talking about the
freshman fifteen. Yeah, I lost the freshman thirty. Yeah, so
that happened pretty quick when I when I got the clumpson,
it kind of just dropped off.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
So what do you wait right now? I'm like, too,
ten is okay? What's the workout? Football coaches are a
beautiful I'll just I mean, as you know, talk like's
not here. Yeah, you're all notes, you're all.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
I am aware they're complete Wait, say he's aware.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
They're completely crazy. And so I was going to ask
you your workout, you know, your your plan, because it
would not be like there's someone over in that building
and I have no idea because everyone is absolutely new.
But I guarantee you there's someone that goes into work
out on the staff about two twenty two in the morning.
Where's glade, glad, plastic garbage bags, no lights on, no

(03:26):
lights on, complete suit, probably a scuba diving equipment on,
and goes on the elliptical and then the treadmill gets
off about four thirty. There's someone over there doing that.
I agree, Oh, yeah for sure. Yeah not see that's
what football is not used though, is.

Speaker 4 (03:38):
It occasionally depends on the day, what time I gotta
be ready?

Speaker 1 (03:41):
So your workout is what what do you normally do?

Speaker 4 (03:44):
Oh, I'm I'm most most days a week. I'll get
in there some kind of cardio thirty forty five minutes cardio.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
And the elliptical or treadmill.

Speaker 4 (03:52):
Both depends on the day, so I like to mix
it up. I get I get bored if I just
do one for the whole week. So the elliptical one day,
treadmill the next day. Run outside one in the days.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Okay, so you will run?

Speaker 4 (04:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Rich? I think Rich when he was here, it was
either here or somewhere attacked the elliptical.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
What does that mean?

Speaker 1 (04:09):
I think he turns his thumbs down on the.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Elect I mean didn't like the elliptical.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
I don't. I mean when he was here the first
time down the road, you'd see him running. I don't
know if the knees are still there for him. But
he's doing stuff, but I don't know where he's at
with is you see him down there at all? Oh?

Speaker 4 (04:23):
Every day?

Speaker 1 (04:24):
What's he doing?

Speaker 4 (04:25):
He's staremaster.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
That was it.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Yeah, StairMaster. It's the best best pace car equipment in
the world.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
That's exactly he tells you that, right. Oh yeah, yeah,
see I knew that that was what That's what it was.
He he crept all over the elliptical and he's a
big staremaster, a StairMaster too. So no, I'm not saying
it's bad. I'm just saying, but like when he when
he doesn't want something that he put the speed bag
in there too.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
Oh yeah, I have no rhythm. I can't get the
thing to really, but he's amazing at it. This morning,
oh every morning, just.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
He's saying, he's making the thing sing.

Speaker 4 (04:54):
Oh yeah I can't, I'll swing twice and I I'm whiffed.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Oh no, see I can do it too, you can
do it, Yeah, I can do it. Really, I love it.

Speaker 4 (05:02):
Yeah, I wish I could.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
You can do it? It just you gotta you gotta go
slow in order to go.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
Well, you can't do it.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
No I can.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
That's a stunner.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
No you can. I really care.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
You could walk over to the speedbag right now and
get it going.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Make it sing true or false?

Speaker 3 (05:17):
Used to have that, Well, I don't think he'd say
it in those terms if it weren't true. I think
if he said I can do that, no I do,
But you say you do, where's your speedbag?

Speaker 1 (05:25):
I have it? I had one. I had one growing up.
I put it in for specifically that reason, because I
would watch dudes like I would watch you know, remember
like old school when they have boxing matches, and what
would they always do. They'd show a little video of
the guy like, yeah, here comes Pepe Sanchez and like
this you know your clients, say Tim Ryan right away president,
and so this dude, They're like today it's this guy

(05:46):
and this guy's one, and I'm going like, I want
to do that. So I bought one, installed it down
in my basement and made that thing. Say why would
you ever start out.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Live there in forty five years?

Speaker 4 (05:56):
That doesn't mean you can go do it now I can't.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
I've done it. So here's the deal. When you guys
one are you guys going to learn?

Speaker 2 (06:02):
Now he's going to have to go over there, he's
gonna get a These.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Guys challenge me to do stuff. They channing. They go, oh,
you can't do that. So I told him I could
go kill a boar. You hunt over here? You do yeah?
So they said, they said, well you never shot again.
I said fine, I just lined the thing up in
the scope boom and knocked the thing out. So what
did I do? I went out first, shot, blew a
hole into a boar, killed it. And these guys still
questioned me about a stupid speedbag.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
It was already I wasn't alive when he shot it.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
It was laying down the.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Sleeping it was nine sleep.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
That's fine, Blitz to talk about's stuff.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Okay, So I find your career very very interesting, very fascinating.
I dug in. I went like, oh, this is like,
this is good stuff. Twenty eleven, you're a freshman at Clemson.
You immediately join the football program as a student assistant. Okay, listen,
I'm not bringing up January at twenty twelve, because well.

Speaker 4 (06:58):
I get to see it every day when I go
in the building, its fight there in the mirror, right
in front of me.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
So you were so you you guys had just finished
where your regular suit. So you were there. You were
on the sideline when the world champion mountaineers scored a
lot of points.

Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah, it was wasn't our best showing defensively that day, Listen,
I was. I was just happy to be there.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
I was.

Speaker 4 (07:20):
I was a freshman. I didn't know left from right,
and our coaches were yelling at each other on the
sideline and all kinds of stuff. I'm like, is this
what this is about?

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (07:28):
Yeah, that was that one changed that. I always tell everybody.
The the funny part is, despite being you know whatever,
the seventy to something, we gave up.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
That game changed my life because it brought coach Venables
to Clemson.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:40):
Uh, you know the next year, Coach Steele was our
our DC. That that game and coach feels great. But
they brought coach v in the next you know, I
think like two weeks later I came back to work
and he was a Deems coordinator now and obviously that's
kind of led to my career from that point forward,
So I'm appreciative of the beat down, even though you
didn't feel good in the moment.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
Well, in all honesty, we always kid around here that
there's always a West Virginia connection. So obviously it had
a huge impact in your life. Because Brett Venables comes in,
you guys hit it off. You're with him for sophomore, junior, senior,
then you become GA and eventually it trickles back that
you guys worked together. In fact, last season he brought
you back to OU. But even before, in the middle

(08:22):
of all that, here comes another West Virginia connection. Terry
Bowden is an intern right at Clemson. Believe it or not,
Terry Bowden is an intern at Clemson. Venables tells Terry
that you have got to get Zach because he's a
young and upcome up and coming guy. So when he's
at ULM, you get the call and you become So

(08:44):
there's another West Virginia because Terry obviously grew up in Morgantown.
So it's kind of wild how that. And then Rich
then you just meet Rich and then it's it's it's
it's simply amazing.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
You were destined to be a West Virginia.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Yeah, that's pretty much what I got from that.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Yeah, always heaven. I mean you got here so so
this point you're settled in here. You get in here
when there's snow on the ground. Now you're seeing the
trees and the grass and so far, so good. You
enjoyed this.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
I've loved it. It's been great to be here, and
I like the people, enjoy the enjoy working for rich
and he's awesome, you know, love the love our our guys,
getting to know them and you know that's obviously how
many new ones with guy, it's a lot. But trying
to get to know and understand those guys really well
and coach them up, it's it's fun. So I've I've
enjoyed the town and I'm I'm engaged. My fiancees here.

(09:35):
Crazy things. She she lived here two years ago. Excuse me,
just on a whim. Everybody's like you actually used to
laugh because used to be like, uh, everyb'd be like,
oh does that coach of West Virginia And she'd be like, no,
no he didn't.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
What was she doing here?

Speaker 4 (09:50):
So she was part of the ascend program. She's a
remote worker, and uh, she googled places that would pay
me to live there, and uh, there's like there's like
a hundred of them in the country, cities that will
remote workers come work. And she grew up in a
college town out in the state of Washington near Wazoo,
and so she was like, I'm gonna go to Morgantown.

(10:10):
And so what's funny is so she's sitting there, she
calls me and she's like, hey, guess what I'm moving.
I'm like, really, and she goes, guess where. Well, I'm
sitting across from rich and one of our jay's ash
there that he's a high school coach in West Virginia
now and what's from here? And all I went West
Virginia And she just froze. How did you know that? Honestly,

(10:33):
just a guess because of who I was sitting in
front of. So she lived here two years ago because
of that. Then we got engaged, moved to Oklahoma, and
now I brought her back.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
So I laughed for you.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
She knew the city way better than I did when
I got here. She had friends and all kinds of
people from when she was here before. Wow, So small
world for sure.

Speaker 1 (10:50):
So is she working remotely from here now? Yeah, she
is awesome. Great, great, that's perfect.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
That was that program that Brad Smith at Marshall together,
the Ascent program and yeah that's fantastic. So good. Well,
welcome home to fan and to you.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
So what was her like when she when you got here?
Like what what were her rules of engagement to you? Like, Okay,
this is what you're going to it's going to be
like this, Like what did she give you the heads
up on? Uh?

Speaker 4 (11:18):
She pointed me to a couple of good places to eat.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Okay, same thing, all right?

Speaker 4 (11:21):
And uh where to go? She likes shopping at Kroger
versus going up to Jine Eagle all that. Yeah, I
mean it's like the little the basics, the basics.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Like that, the little stuff.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
So yeah, it was it was good. It took me
a minute when I got here to you know that
we're not a grid so orienting around. Yeah, it's definitely
not a grid. Yeah, so she was helping. She helped
me with like oh no, like this house is over
in this area and that's going to be twenty minutes
from the facility, or this one's over here. So she
knew all that a lot better than I did.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
How much, if anything, did Rich talk about West Virginia
and the West Virginia guys he had with them? Like,
in other words, when you were there with them, like
did they talk about WUVU or obviously when you're in
the midst of the season, you're thinking about one thing,
But did you have any vibe at all about WUVU
besides obviously.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
The Orange Bowl deal a little bit? You know, they
they would talk about it every now and then, tell
us old stories, you know, and laugh about things, but nothing,
nothing in particular per se other than how much all
of them loved being here and enjoyed their time here
when they were here, and you know, I feel that
from them now that we're back. You know, there's that

(12:28):
kind of not just Rich, there's there's multiple guys on
staff who were here before, you know that that loved
it and had a great experience. And so I'd say,
more than anything, it was it was probably that that
we get some good old stories and talk about it.
And obviously I know it was a dream of coach
Rods to come back and get a chance to be
the head coach again. So it's been pretty awesome.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
It wasn't easy for you, I would think, to make
this move. You're the d C at Oklahoma, and Rich
gives you the call, Why did this move makes sense
for you?

Speaker 4 (13:01):
You know it was it was a really really tough decision.
I didn't know until I made the decision. But I've
got a lot of respect for coach Rod and and
I love him to death. And you know, I knew
exactly how it was to be around him, work for
him having me be the head coach because I experienced
it for you know, uh, two years at Jacksonville, and
I believe that West Virginia's a sleeping giant college football.

(13:24):
You know, the support, the people, uh, they love it
and it matters. And it's just because I really felt
like it was just going to be the right guy
I had to come back to get get the energy
and get the people involved. And and we've got all
the tools we need to be successful, you know, and
obviously we're still we got a long way to go.
But you know, I felt that from his first press

(13:46):
conference on that you know, it was a it was
a special place and he was the right type of
dude to to come in here and change things. So
I'm excited and that's really that excitement, you know, you
know led me to come back and want to work
for him, so.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
I could Could it also be that rich might be
a little more interested in the offense then the defense.
Therefore you have more autonomy as the coach of the
defensive side.

Speaker 4 (14:10):
I'd say, you know, we've I've been pretty autonomous everywhere
I've been.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
Even in Oklahoma was Venerables.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
Yeah, you know, he had obviously a ton of input,
and I welcome that because I mean, he's brilliant, really
good at what he does and understands the game and
helped make me a better coach, no doubt about it.
In the year I was there, I think he was.
He taught me a lot, you know that maybe I
didn't know when I was eighteen before, and so I'm
very appreciative of that. So obviously, you know, Coach V's

(14:38):
more hands on the defense than Coach Rod is. But
Coach Rodd has opinions about everything. You know, anytime, you know,
you obviously whatever head coach you work for, you know
you're gonna you're gonna do everything you can to be
part of the vision for what they see and what
they want within you know, both their side or my
side of the ball. However, that looks so obviously there's

(14:58):
a little bit less maybe control from Coach Rod and
coach v here, but overall, you know, it feels pretty similar.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
So give us a breakdown overview elevator pitch of what
your defense should look like, what you wanted to look like.
We heard Rich talk a lot in the spring about
having to ask you to dial back some of the
blitzers you were bringing because you brought blitzer so often
and your multiple. But you give us your elevator pitch
of what your defense should look like.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (15:23):
Coach Rod always laughs, He's like, installing not blitz today, huh. Like, yeah,
we're we're very multiple, very aggressive, you know. I think
last couple of years we've been top five in the
country and blitz percentage, you know, overall, because I want
to create tigers for loss. I want to not guys backwards,
want to create sacks. One of the linebackers, Chase Wilson,
that came. He's said the other days, like, coach, you'll

(15:44):
bring six guys on first and ten. I said, yeah,
because second and thirteen it's harder, and second and three,
you know, And so for me, we always want to
whatever the offense doesn't want to see. I want to
be able to do that. You know, whatever they say, oh, man,
hey this week, they don't like cover four, swee, they
don't like Cover three, they only cover want whatever that
is for that weekend and week out game plan. I
want to have the diversity to be able to present

(16:07):
that to them all the time and make it hard
on them to prepare for us.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
But how much of that that you want to do
is going to be personnel dependent? Because I would think
if you have a guy that can get to the
quarterback off the edge, that's a big deal. Or if
you trust the d backs to be able to cover,
you know, in isolation, would be a big deal. So
how much of it is personnel driven?

Speaker 4 (16:28):
Well, I think I'm always thinking players, not plays. You know.
Part of the reason we're so diverse is we're able
to match up the best players and put them in
the best positions to be successful. You know, I say,
if a guy is not a good man corner guy,
don't play him in man. You know, if he's not
a good blitzer, don't blitz him.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
You know.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
Like that's kind of the way I think of things
is how do we how do we take the eleven
guys that are the best players on the defense, put
them out there in positions they can be successful, and
then the scheme is dictator around on what they do well.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Okay, and so personnel than scheme rather than scheme than personnel.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
Yeah, and they blur a little bit. I mean, you know,
I obviously like, hey, this week, they really suck when
we play cover two. So we're gonna get good Cover
two this week.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
You know.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
But the diversity of how we kind of install it,
teach it, do those things allows us to put all
of these things in a in a big box and
then be able to pull out the specifics we want
for the week based on the guys we have, you know,
and what we see that week, you know. I mean, shoot,
there's you could have a game where you know, you've
got a great pass rusher, a great cover guy, and
what if he goes down injured. You know, what if

(17:34):
something happens and he's not available that week. So you've
got to have the diversity and the understanding of the
scheme across the board to be able to help guys
just step right into new roles and be able to
do some of those things as well.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Because Zach, let's dive deep into that. Then are you
aggressive by nature? Like even before you met with and
got to learn how Brett Vnables defends other teams, Like,
were you by nature? Are you aggressive? Oh?

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Absolutely?

Speaker 1 (18:00):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (18:01):
One?

Speaker 1 (18:01):
Two? Is Venables by nature aggressive? Like it's his whole
thing to cause chaos? Yes, okay?

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Hold on, how could he not be with his sideline
demetor when especially with the defensive Cordnator? How can you
know how you asked that question?

Speaker 1 (18:15):
Well? Maybe right, maybe I knew the answer. Maybe maybe
maybe it was rhetorical, But but there are guy, and
so you coach to your personality, right and and over
a period of time, like when did you have that moment?
Whether it was at Clemson or where was it? When
did you have that moment? Go like when and if
I get the chance to run a defense, it is
going to be absolute mayhem. That's going to be what

(18:37):
I want to be. Did you have that moment?

Speaker 4 (18:40):
Yeah? I think the you know, it really happened at
Boise State. Actually I was out there and we were
playing BUYU. They're like number nine in the country. Had
the Zach Wilson who went in the first round. I
mean they were talented that year, and we had we
had he'd been sacked like once all season at that point,
and we got to him three times in the first half.
And we came out in the second half and they

(19:01):
made adjustments and started max pro and stuff, you know,
just change up how they were run the offense. And
I remember about halfway through the second half, as a staff,
we're like, man, like, we're out of bullets, right, We've
called everything we got. And I remember thinking to myself, like,
if I ever have had an opportunity to be the guy,
I will never say that, you know, like I'm gonna

(19:22):
have more bullets. I'm gonna have something else to come
at you with that you haven't seen or haven't prepared for,
because we have to have answers to their answers all
the time.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
If you had to do it over again and you
had all of your bullets now and it's the second
half against BYU, what else would you have done?

Speaker 4 (19:37):
Definitely some overload pressures versus slide protection, because they were
doing a lot of that. They were sliding, yeah, seven seven,
eight man protection, nine man protection, some two man routes,
trying to let guys add on fast and you know,
get in positions to maybe beat somebody.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, when you were at Bois, you got the hell
knocked out of you by COVID. Did that scare you?

Speaker 4 (19:58):
It put me in a hospital. So yeah, wasn't great.
I remember, I thank goodness at the time, I I
like literally couldn't. I didn't know it so so early
when we had it. I'd made steaks that night at
the house and I remember thinking, like, these are the
worst steaks I've ever cooked. Like I was terrible, but
I didn't know, no taste was I was like two
weeks in the NBA shut down. Like that's how like

(20:19):
I remember COVID right start when the NBA shut down,
that was like when we started, and that it was
like four or five days after that. Like it wasn't
like it was three months later. I mean it was
early mid March, and uh yeah, it put me. I
had to go to the hospital that night and I
was over there. I was in the hospital all night
that night, and you know, I was twenty six workout

(20:39):
every day that type of thing, and like it put
me down hard. So uh yeah, it was. It was
pretty scary in the moment.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
Yeah, two at Boise, you get shifted to linebackers your
second year. There was that a coming out for you
in the sense that you went to yourself, I can
do this. I got this.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
Yeah, I think Actually so my first year I was
inside linebacker. My second year I coached what we call
it and it here the outside linebackers out there. But
the biggest thing was Coach Harson allowed me to be
the best teams coordinator my second season, and that changed
my mindset. I think having to call it, you know,
in the game, having to prepare as a coordinator and
get understanding of like they're scheming you up, how are

(21:17):
you going to scheme them up? And vice versa. You know,
I think that's really probably what felt like my moment
of Okay, like I can do this. You know, I've
got a lot of belief in who I am and
what we can do. And obviously it worked so that helped,
but we were I would say that was probably the
role that made me believe like, okay, I can I

(21:37):
can run the room, I can run the defense. That
type of thing.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yeah, twenty seven years old, you'r DC at ULM right, Yeah,
that's pretty that's pretty the youngest defensive coordinator in the country,
almost the same age.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
As some of your players.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
Yeah, So at Boise I took the job as the
linebackers coach. I think I was twenty four when I
took the job. I'm pretty sure twenty four to twenty five,
because I didn't turn that next whatever. The next year
was the laughter already gotten there, right, And I had
a linebacker out there that was had been on a
Mormon mission, you know, and he was older than I was.

(22:12):
So I used to laugh, great player, amazing and listen
to coaching phenomenal. Sure, I just laughed because I was like, yeah,
I said, I don't know if I'll ever coach a
player older than me again at any point in time.

Speaker 3 (22:22):
But you will coach players who make more money than you,
now that's definitely a possibility. So not really but okay,
all right, well all right, maybe not well maybe one.

Speaker 1 (22:34):
Day day, all right.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Point being, what is your take on the current environment
of NIL players making money? How involved are you and
how much players make and who gets what I mean?
Are you give us your breakdown on that?

Speaker 4 (22:48):
Yeah, you know, I mean I think that that's really
a collaboration between our general manager, coach Rodriguez, our staff
as to kind of how we balance the budget across
the roster. Would say, you know, we've kind of adopted
an NFL model of Okay, here's the percentage NFL pays
of their cap to each position, and here's where we're
gonna be at, and we're gonna stay at that level

(23:10):
for whoever we deem the starter of the backup those things.
And one thing I love about kind of our system
and Coach Rod's system, is we're gonna pay guys that
earn it, you know, And so he'll hold back some
every year for to give guys who, hey man, maybe
you weren't the starter going into fall camp, but now
you are, you know, and that deserves a bonus because
you've earned the right to do what you do. And

(23:31):
you know, Coach Boy talks about having a hard age
and earning success and that's part of that model of
earned success within you know, the game. And I'm all
for the guys being able to make money. I think
for a long time, like I didn't realize it until
I went to Monroe, because I've been at places like
a Clemson, a Boise State where a lot of still mattered. Yeah,
football mattered, and they were taking care of the kids

(23:53):
and all. And we got to Monroe that first year,
and I used to have mandatory eight am linebacker meetings
to give them a biscuit and send them to class
because they want eating. You know, they didn't have meal
plans and after rent or whatever, I mean, they were
literally just weren't eating. And so I'd have them come
in and here's chick flay on Monday, it was I
think Hardy's on Tuesday and McDonald's on Wednesday, you know,
and just give them something to eat. And we did

(24:14):
Pizza night on Wednesday night, you know, and so my
staff would kind of would contribute to that and bringing
food in for the guys just because they didn't have it.
And I remember thinking that moment like this is messed up,
Like this isn't night, you know. And so I'm all
for the guys' ability to make money and leverage, you know,
their abilities, you know. On the flip side of that,
like we all say, it's a business now more than

(24:36):
never has been. And it's tough.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
You know.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
You look at when some of the guys left us
after spring ball and all, I mean I cried in
a couple of those meetings. I mean, we've got walk
on guys who've given everything they have to the game
and they love it and they're here because they love it,
you know, no other reason. But man, they love football,
they love West Virginia. They want to be here, and
you know, you have to tell them, Hey, man, I'm sorry.
It's nothing you did wrong. You did nothing wrong, but

(25:00):
they've cut the roster down. Or I used to have
ten linebackers, I got seven, you know, and so unfortunately
there's just not a spot for you. And that that
part sucked. That was tough, and so the business side
of it isn't necessarily as fun as maybe it used
to be from a relational standpoint. But I'm happy the
guys have an opportunity.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
Three guys before the game is brought to us by
Tutors Biscuit World. If if there were Tutors down in
Louisiana Monroe instead of Hartis, he would have went gave
them those guys.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Tutors Bisuits might be an opportunity of avail. Franchises are available, yeah,
exactly right.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Franchises are available, and right now they are in the
midst of giving away one hundred dollars Tutor gift cards
every week they're giving away one hundred dollars. All you
have to do is be a voter to pick what
their new merchandise should be this coming fault. Just go
to the website vote tutors merch dot com. Vote tutors
merch dot com. That'll get you signed up. And then
you just say I like this, I like this, I

(25:54):
like this, and then immediately you're in the hopper and
you can win one hundred dollars a week. And they're
doing that for the next several weeks, So do check
that out. Also, three guys before the game is brought
to us in part by the good folks at lou
Wendell You boat guy at all, Oh yeah, big boat Okay,
happened to have as one of our sponsors. Lou Wendol
Marine Saless been in business for over forty years. They're

(26:16):
the premiere, the number one pontoon boat dealer in the
States of Cheat Lake, which you're maybe in the world too.
We're working to confirm that. I think it is the world. Yeah, yeah,
you're right, I think yeah, I think it is the world.
They sell avalon boats which are made in the state
of Michigan, one hundred percent made in the United States
of America. So right now, the selection at lou Wendel

(26:36):
across the board, not only the pontoons, but everything is
as high and as big as it is the entire
year because we're in the midst of boating seasons. To
check them out at lou Wendellmarne Sales dot com. That's
Louwndolmrine sales dot com.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Okay, So the nil and the payments is just part
of the new world. We're in player movements the other
part of that. And you guys have certainly experienced this
with the roster turnover. You walked out of spring practice
saying what your defense as you tried to integrate all
these new parts.

Speaker 4 (27:02):
We got a lot of work to do. You know,
I think that's the the year one anywhere is hard.
I don't care where it is and what happens. You know,
you're guys adjusting to you. They're learning the scheme, they're
learning the culture. You know, guys who may have been
remaining from the previous team, how we do things is
not the same. You know, it's different, and they have
to understand that and learn that and then developing leadership

(27:25):
within the program. Obviously, you don't have a guy that's
been a cute up guy for three years in the
pipeline that you know, your next captain. That's not really
realistic to a year one, you know kind of turnover
like we've had. And so, uh, it's been it's been
a challenge. I think we've got a lot of work
to do, but obviously I feel really good about where
we're at and the improvement we're gonna make.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
What part of it surprised you, be it a position,
group or individual, what jumped to you that you said, Okay,
that's maybe not what I thought we had, but we're
pretty solid there.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
Yeah, you know, I think the D line really is
maybe better than whatever perception says. Everybody tells me that
how bad we're going to be, we're gonna suck and
all that, and I've said I've been told that my
whole life, so that doesn't really bother me. But the
the D line, you know, we retained a lot of
really good players, and you know they at times last
year maybe per circumstances of the game, you know, game

(28:15):
got out of hand, weren't in great situations to make play.
Some of those things happen, and so I think that
we'll be pleasantly surprised with the guys who've got down there.

Speaker 3 (28:23):
What was your year like with the Carolina Panthers.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
So I was there for I was only there for
a couple of months. I was actually there in spring,
so I went through OTAs, went through mini camp with them.
I was hoping to get hired, and they wouldn't open
a spot because in the NFL, the under decides either
either he makes a position or he doesn't make a position.
So I went back to Clemson for my last year
in eighteen. But the time there was amazing. I Coach Rivera,

(28:48):
who I'm still very close with now. He hired me
out there as an intern, you know kind of you're
you're basically a GA in the NFL. That's what the
interns are.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
You're a GA.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
And so I went there to be a g A
and I think I drew the whole playbook for twenty seventeen.
So that's good. On on visio there that week, but
I was fortunate to be in a linebacker room with
Luke Keikley, Thomas Davis, Shaq Thompson, David Mayo, Julis Peppers
was still there. I mean, we had some we had
some dudes, some Hall of famers, Luke and TD probably
first ballot guys. And so I learned a lot, particularly

(29:21):
from from watching how those guys do what they do.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
You know, and what do you mean, what do you
mean do what they do?

Speaker 4 (29:27):
Yeah, so you know just how to be You don't
luck up and be in the NFL for seventeen years.
You know, that's not like a oh man, that was cool. No,
there's a there's a process how you do anything. And
Thomas Davis that year uh in OTAs filled a five
subject notebook worth of notes. May have been in the
NFL for fourteen years. At that point, I said, you
don't think he knows how to play Tampa and cover

(29:48):
three to every play he can possibly get. But it's
the little habits that the elite guys like that do
that lead them to be successful over time, you know.
And Luke's the same way. That dude watches more film
than anybody than I've ever seen in my life. And
then he could they pop, the film would pop on
and I'm trying to read the call, and he's already

(30:10):
making the call, you know, those right over the left.
You know, he's already saying it and getting guys lined
up before I'm even have read it on the screen,
you know. So being around just anyone at an elite level,
that's a hall of fame type of guy at that position,
particularly when I coach, just helps you teach the younger guys. Hey,
this is you want to go be Luke Eagley?

Speaker 1 (30:31):
Just how do it?

Speaker 4 (30:32):
You know? And that helps you.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
You have the profiles of you that I've read. You
have a reputation of this rising star and coaching, probably
because of your youth, your success being at Oklahoma now
being defensive coordinator here? Are you comfortable with that? Do
you see yourself as on ascension?

Speaker 4 (30:52):
I think I probably the opposite. I'm probably harder in
myself than anybody else. And I tell everybody I will
find a reason to hate the opponent that week, and
maybe I hate myself every day so I can get
after somebody, somebody out of practice, you know. So, I
guess I don't see it necessarily is more as much
of a big picture thing for me. It's, man, how
do we how to have a great defense this year?
How do we like we've got you know on field

(31:14):
drills later today?

Speaker 1 (31:15):
All right?

Speaker 4 (31:15):
How do we make sure that's right.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
And ready to go.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
And uh, if the process is right and you enjoy
the journey, I think that those things will all lead
to themselves without having to focus on any of that.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Zach, you mentioned OTAs, which is what the NFL has
and now college has. What did you learn if anything there?
Because I would think now more so than ever before,
these OTAs are absolutely gold because you've got all these
new faces and you can expedite the process of getting
your guys ready. How much can you get done right now?

Speaker 4 (31:46):
June July A ton You know, I challenge our guys
yesterday that and when they're not in the required hours
of being up here to be around you know, if
you want to be the best, you can't get it
done in a timeframe. We're restricted. And so on top
of the ability to meet with them now be on
the field with them like we used to not be
able to obviously in today's world. Where how many guys

(32:10):
we have new from the team in the spring, But
I'm sure it's more than thirty it is. You know,
We've we've got a lot of teaching, a lot of
development to do throughout the summer, and we're counting on everybody.
I tell everybody, anybody come into red shirt anymore. That's
not a thing, you know. And so everyone's got to
be ready to play, ready to contribute in some way somehow.
And uh though, the ability to meet and get on

(32:30):
the field with them in the summer obviously really helps,
particularly the new guys learn and grow and develop getting
ready for fall camp.

Speaker 1 (32:37):
So last year Rich had sixty ish guys at jack
State and he got them together. Obviously, they stumbled those
first three games, and then he brought them together. And
you know this, in the old days, your rise freshman, sophomore, juniors,
and those guys would all become that in their next
turn to lead. How do you build together a bonded

(32:59):
team cadustry in such a short period of time.

Speaker 4 (33:02):
You know, I think you The first thing is we
try and get the right guys. We do a lot
of evaluation as far as not only the ability of
guys we bring in, whether it's out of high school
or the portal, but also who are they. You know,
it's it's hard to play college football. I think sometimes
people miss that. You know, it's it is tough, and

(33:25):
I'm always looking for guys that fit the mole we're
looking for, which is they want to be challenged, They
want to be held to a insanely high standard every
single day.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
How do they convince you of that? In other words,
jasper over there, like if he's sat down and you're
recruiting him, how do you find out if he has
the balls that it takes to play it at this level?

Speaker 3 (33:45):
Or as Rich would say, put their face in the fin.

Speaker 4 (33:47):
Yeah, you know, I think two things. You know. The
number one is you can see it on film. A
lot of times does a guy play I like to watch,
you know, if we watch a transfer portal guy, you
can watch his highlights, or you can go watch him
playing in an entire game. And you go watch him
play an entire game, and you realize a guy like
Fred Perry, who came from with Jacksonville State, every single

(34:10):
play he is as everything he's got on every play
is going to come out of him. If the ball
goes over there, somehow, some way he's gonna make that
tackle twenty five yards on the field, or he believes
he is. And so you can see it on film.
For a lot of guys like that just watching the tape.
And then as you bring them in not only do
we do background, I call anybody and everybody I know

(34:31):
that touches them that I can get in touch with.
Sometimes easier in high school than college because the high
school guys have such a different relationship connection and you know,
sometimes listen, sometimes I'm better too. You guys leave and
you're like, ah, you know, so like you know, they
they they don't always give you the best maybe indication
of a guy, but when you get him in the room,

(34:51):
you can, you can talk to him and I kind
of lay out the the vision for who we want
to be and what we're going to be both you know,
as a team. And then and I want to see
how they react to that. You know, I tell every
I try and talk everybody out of committing. I'm like, listen,
you us how hard it's going to be, Like, you know,
how high of a standard I hold our players to,

(35:11):
how high of a standard Coach Rod expects from you.
And so a lot of times I'm very aggressive in
uh in that meeting as well, because I want to
see how they respond. You know, do they like when
we were going to watch workouts, do they want to
get in there? You know, when we're on a recruiting
trip and they see the players working out, But I
want to do that coach, you know, like hey, let
me step over there, like you know those type of

(35:32):
things where you can kind of tell, all right, does
this dude have you know, that fire in them to
be a guy that's going to want to come in
and freaking dominate or is he going to be just well,
I'm okay with being average.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Dogs, right, I mean you're looking for dogs. Yeah, he's
in a dog hunting contest, is what he's trying to do.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
He's trying to find dog dog catching. We don't want
to kill.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
Him dog yeah. Dog catching yeah, dog catching.

Speaker 2 (35:54):
So if effort and that mental side is number one,
what's the most important physical attribute other than size?

Speaker 4 (36:00):
Probably speed? I would say, you know, like I can do.
You know, Coach Joseph's amazing this job, but it's hard
to take a four to nine to before to four.
It doesn't really happen. I've been trying my whole life.
It's the same for me either. And so I think
you know, one thing we always look for is man
kind a guy run the old days where you know,
I was laughing, like where you could be a two

(36:20):
hundred and eighty pound mike linebacker and fit a gap
to a gap like that's not a thing anymore. They're
gonna put everybody on the field in space all the time,
even the d lineman. You'll find ways to divide them
and make them make tackle the quarterback tackle to dive,
do both things. So we need guys that can can
athletically change direction and run in a way that they
have a chance to be successful.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
What is your approach coaching individuals on the field? On
the practice field, you know, Rich is pretty intense.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
Nah, come on, wow.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
Rich is pretty intense.

Speaker 4 (36:52):
And I don't usually hear him out of practice. Actually
I'm not sure. He's there very unassuming, so he'll get
after him.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
Are you in your face? Guy? Are you a intellectually
explained to the guy? I mean, what is your approach
or does it depend on the player?

Speaker 4 (37:07):
And well, well, I think, first off, I think coach
ryd likes me because of how I coach, So you
can imagine how that is. All right, I will I'm
I'll run up. I'll somebody messes up in the middle
of the play, Like, I'll run out on the field
and get in their face and get them right and
as I'm running back, I'm throwing the signal up as
we're going back to the sideline and and kind of
moving from there. So I'm definitely, I'm definitely an high energy,

(37:30):
in your face, gonna coach you hard, coach you the
way I want. And I'm a big believer that you
should be who you are when you coach. I'm like
that in a lot of areas of my life. You know,
you asked earlier. I'm an aggressive natured person, and so
i'm I'm.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
You seem like a nice guy.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
Yeah, he can choose your moments.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
Yes, okay, yeah, you can do both.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
Both things can be true.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Yeah, both things can be true. You can be absolutely
I mean, you know, Danny mosesmy to an award enter
here at center played for rich I mean he's nice
off the field. Zach Frazier now with the Steelers, he
was nice, but he goes very nice until when they
go they go, do.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
You need your own get back coach though?

Speaker 4 (38:14):
Oh yeah, yeah, I'm bad. I'm out passive. I'm out passive.
Numbers don't where I'll blame everybody else so I can
get back.

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Yeah, and the players.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
You know, you're a young guy, but there's a lot
of talking about coaches have been around for a while,
the players are different. They say that you can't get
after him the way you used to, And maybe some
of that's good. You know, you don't want to be
grabbing a face mask and stuff like that. So are
players responding to that?

Speaker 4 (38:43):
I think so, I don't. I don't think that, you know.
I would argue that I'm pretty close to their generation.
And my dad was hard on me and in a
lot of good ways, you know, and my coaches were
as well. And I think that our players respect if
we tell them the truth, you know. And and at
least the guys I want to coach, which I want
to be on the team. I want guys that want
to be coached.

Speaker 1 (39:04):
You know.

Speaker 4 (39:05):
There's a lot of places out there that maybe you know, hey,
well we don't want to coach him hard because he
might leave, he might do this, that and the other.
Well it's probably not the right guy. I know. We
went down. I think it was Kalais Campbell, who's still
playing for the for the Ravens like you're nineteen or
something as a d lineman, and he got mad at
the coach at practice because he wasn't coaching him hard

(39:26):
enough really, and you think, oh, well, yeah, he's gifted,
he's big, he's six seven, six eight, whatever it is.
But he's been in the NFL for nineteen years and
why because he wants to be coached. And I think
that that's the the guys at the end of the day,
they want to get better, they want to do more.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
You know.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
I'd say the difference now maybe than before is before
you say run through the wall, they're like, yes, sir.
Now it's like, hey, I wanted to run through the wall.
They're like, why am I run.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Through the wall.

Speaker 4 (39:50):
As long as you've got a good why, they'll they'll
back up whatever you got.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
This interesting interesting.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
Jim Crutchfield is an ultra successful Division two back ball coach,
just won the National championship West Virginia guy, and we
asked him, like, okay, how he plays absolutely five in
five out chaotic presses the whole game. And he says,
the first thing we have to do is to try
to convince players who think they're playing as hard as

(40:18):
they can that they actually have a whole different level
of how hard they can play. But they don't really
realize it. In essence, isn't that What you're trying to
do is take them to a part in place that
they didn't even.

Speaker 4 (40:30):
Know they had absolutely, you know, I think that's the
that's the mindset. You know, we're always trying to be
you know, talking about having a hard edge and I
talk on defense kind of our wards relentless, you know,
we want to play relentlessly and make people feel like
there's thirteen fourteen, fifteen guys in the field, like, where
did that guy come from? I didn't even see him,
you know. And that is a mindset.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
And how do you get the how do you get
them to that? How do you get them to a
point where they think, hey, coach, I'm maxed out here?
How do you get it to the next point?

Speaker 4 (40:57):
I think that you challenge them every single day. You know,
if it's the most important rep of my life in
this moment on Monday practice, it's the most important rep
of their life. If they know that the way I'm
going to coach them right now on you know, the
third period in the middle of June is the same
as it's going to be when the game's on the

(41:19):
line versus pit like, then they respond well to that.
They understand that the level, the intensity, how they have
to be. And so when they when they get tired
or they think that, you know, they can't give any more. Well,
the standard doesn't change. And we played with standard all
the time. And I'm trying to get those guys to
understand that, hey, if it's up here, it's always up here.
It doesn't matter where you're going to be. Uh, And

(41:41):
so sometimes it takes a little longer. You know, certain guys,
they they get it pretty quick and it comes to
them naturally, that's just who they are. Other guys, you
got to push them, you know, and and you try
and both reward them when they see it, and you know,
get on them when they don't do it. You know,
because I know what it's supposed to look like, and
this is what we're going to be every single time
we take the field. And if you're not going to

(42:03):
play or willing to play that standard, you know something
has to give.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
You have multiple national champions you have rings from Clemson.
What did those teams let's just talk about their defense.
What did those national championship defenses have that separated them
and made them the best?

Speaker 4 (42:23):
I think mindset and work ethic, you know. I remember
it was twenty eighteen things, a second NASH championship year.
We were Clemson, and we came off the field and
Christian Wilkins, who's playing in the league still has signed
a big contract for like another five years for Mayell
or something like that. He got the D line and

(42:43):
they got in the weight room right after practice and
they just started doing some extra shoulder work, rehab prehab stuff.
And then the second week it was Christian Wilkins and
the D line and a couple of linebackers, and the
third week the receivers were in there, and the fourth
week Trevor Lawrence was in there, and and it just
built and you could feel this snowball effect of Okay,

(43:05):
we're going to be pretty good.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
You want to go, we'll go, let's go.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
And so it was a contagious kind of mindset of
it's a little thing, but it just shows who we
are that when when the work's done, we're not finished.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Are you hoping Fred Perry is that guy? Can he
be that guy that goes in there and says, let's go.

Speaker 4 (43:22):
I think he's one of them, you know, I think
we've got to I always encourage that we have to
have at least one at every position. You know, if
you want to be great, you got to have there's
got at least gotta be one leader at every spot.
And then one guy that's dominant overall, you know, that's
not afraid to maybe make somebody upset, that's not looking
to be friends with everybody the whole time. You know,
he's got to be. I say, leadership is lonely, you know,

(43:45):
and so you got to be a shirt. Yeah that's a.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Good T shirt.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Do you have that? Do you have that yet?

Speaker 4 (43:50):
We're working on if you have that. I think we've
got a few guys who have that potential. And I've
always thought that's forged in the summer. You know, we've
only been back for six days or whatever. It is,
so little time left. But we're going to try and
help the guys that we feel like can be those
those type of dudes that provide leadership particularly and we
aren't there. You always say, man, when when when I'm

(44:13):
on the field, my job is to be the leader.
That's that's why I'm paid for, you know. But when
I'm not there, I need those guys to be able
to rally the troops and get guys through whatever is
going on.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
You said you want to help them. So is that
do you just see that emerge on the practice field
or is that a one on one you have with
a guy who maybe could be that guy and you
explain to him how he can be that guy? Do
you coach him that way? If you have a guy
that could be a leader.

Speaker 4 (44:42):
Absolutely, you know, I'll call him over and did this Thursday,
I think it was whatever was last weekend to last
week and I, man, I got higher expectations for how
you're going to do what we do. I just gave
a whole speech about some extra work, doing this, that and
the other, and everybody walked out the field and like,
I thought you guys were in charge. You know what
happened to that?

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (45:02):
And so we try and inspire and challenge and then
present situations and help coach them through like here's how
being the leader I want looks not just go do it,
you know, okay, here, all right, do this, do this,
do this, do this, and then bring these guys with you,
you know whatever that is trying to create that environment

(45:24):
where you know, we elevate those guys in the right
ways and provide opportunities for them to lead that maybe
I set up some uh, you know, for for them
to have that opportunity, and then that once they're more
accustomed to it, that naturally occurs throughout the throughout the
process of the day.

Speaker 3 (45:40):
You sound like you really have have it together as
to what you want to do, very very specific. Where
did that come from? Did that come from a specific
individual that you worked with, or is that an evolution?

Speaker 4 (45:55):
That's a great question.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
He's been around a long time. He gets paid a lot,
and they for asking those questions.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
I've been around a lot of great coaches, amazing coaches
that have taught me kind of molded me into being
who I am. You know, I like to think that
I'm I'm not one particular coach here there that I've
worked for. I'm a combination of all of them. I
try and take the best parts of everyone I'm around
and emulate the things that you wanted that made them

(46:22):
successful or made them impressive, or changed lives those type
of things. And then some of it's probably come from,
you know, myself upbringing, my parents as well, and it
all kind of blends together to to create the vision
I have for what we can be and how I
want to act.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
You said your dad was hard on you.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
He was in a great way still is probably you know,
he's he's my father, want to ask. Championship Clemson back
in the eighties, So I was involved in people Danny
Ford for Danny had played for coach Ford and g
eight afterward for the a D. So we've been around
sports my whole life, you know. That's all I knew
was growing up going to Clemson game. And I don't

(47:02):
know when, you know, sometime early on playing n Cuba
video games when I was like twelve, I thought, man,
this'd be cool to do this, you know, And so
the the opportunity, I guess, my dad would put us
in all the sports. He'd have us out there throwing
the ball in the yard, and you know, he was
loving but challenging and wanted to make us the best

(47:22):
version of ourselves. And then my mom is just her
work ethic is relentless. I mean it is all the time.
She goes, goes, goes, doesn't know how to stop. And
I definitely I definitely got that from her. She she
she can do more than an hour, and I could
do in fifteen minutes. By by a long shot. So uh,
it's it's probably some combination of both the coaches I've

(47:44):
worked for and and my parents upbringing as well.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
You know, I was thinking when you were at Ulm,
think about this. You got Terry Buden and you got rich.
I mean, those guys could write books just about the
whole business, like Terry's whole deal at Auburn, like the
unbelief run and then the craziness that happened there. He
gets blown up you just because you saw the bad
part of the business there, boosters and all that stuff,

(48:08):
and then he circles back around like here's rich and
everything that he had done. I mean, that's like a
Petri dish of of learning of all of those guys
and Venables and Dabbo. It's like, that's good stuff. I mean,
you got you got, you got injected by a lot
of different things there.

Speaker 4 (48:27):
I'm very fortunate to work for a lot of really
good people.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Yeah, it's it's it's kind of amazing. Three guys before
the game I brought to us by Goman. Let me
ask you this. You like Jolly Ranchers. Oh yeah, you
like Twizzlers, lot Twister guy?

Speaker 4 (48:40):
Really licoric in general.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
That's fine, well, here's here's the deal right now. You
can get a dollar off when you buy Jolly Ranchers
or Twizzlers at Gomar. Did you know that Brad did
because you got the app? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (48:52):
I got the app?

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Okay there a couple of times a week.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
Yeah. Well how about this deal? Dollar off any two
King size Hershey's candies, I fucking kickcat pay day Hershey's
or receps. How about it. It's hydration season, dollar off
two deer Deer Park waters, that's all good stuff. Snapple
dollar off to thirty two ouncers. Hop of you with me?

Speaker 3 (49:10):
I'm with you?

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Get a dog one Go Mart app and just money
falls out of your pocket. I mean just like you're
just picking money apps. I was like, what is money?
You rewards points and you save on gas as well.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
Deals with Snickers and M and M's out there too.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
What's the deal there?

Speaker 2 (49:24):
Well, you got to go in and do them. Marty
Summer Days is their big promotion that's coming, So only
and click on that.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
Get in there, get some.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Marty's gopher is a gopher, the Go mart Gopher, that'd
be Martin Marty, Marty M A R T Y. I
don't know where he's at.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
I mean exactly like Eminem's peanut butter oh.

Speaker 1 (49:46):
Off the board.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Yeah yeah, reached peanut bur c cups.

Speaker 4 (49:50):
Oh yeah, see we like Zach that.

Speaker 3 (49:52):
Can come back.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
Anytime you you line up for a meal, you get
to pick whatever you alluded to a stake earlier. Is
that your number one is? Like?

Speaker 4 (50:01):
Probably that? Or sushi? A big sushi, lovely. I could
eat so much sushi, I'd like passed out.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
What's your sushi order?

Speaker 4 (50:10):
Oh, the crazier it sounds, the better it sounds. Oh yeah,
like spicy? Uh, just anything I do like spicy? Yeah,
so you know if it's got eel and tuna and
crab and sparaga, all the things in there like that
sounds like the more you put in there that the
more I'm probably.

Speaker 1 (50:25):
Gonna Would you would you eat gas station sushi? Sushi?

Speaker 3 (50:28):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (50:28):
I don't know, it depends what gas station was.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
He'll put put the chin strap on.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
And what's on first down, He's gonna eat sushi and
a gas from Go.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Go mark a little sushi.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
Hey, Brent Venables said, I just loved you up man.
He said a lot of good things about you on
how you coached how you work with others on the staff.
It's kind of so was he hurt when you left?

Speaker 4 (50:58):
I can't speak to that, you know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
He was.

Speaker 4 (51:02):
I'm sure he was disappointed, you know. And uh, but
I love him to death, I really do. I mean,
I would do anything for.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
What's what's his nature that causes you to He's.

Speaker 4 (51:13):
Just uh, he's very genuine. He's always true to me,
really really well. I gave me every opportunity I've had
in this game. At the end of the day, you know,
he he taught me, gave me the foundation for for
who I am. It's the guy I wanted to emulate,
you know, through throughout my years. And you know, I
think the world of them still do you know, nothing
changed from from coming to to work here versus working there.

(51:36):
And I wish them from Mendos success. You know, I
told everybody that I have no ill will there at all.
I I love everybody on that staff and a lot
of them I've worked with multiple places, and I want
them to be successful.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
You mentioned Mike Joseph, and Mike Joseph gets a lot
of love no matter who has come through. They say
that dude is among the best, if not the best.
What's he got? What's his little magic bullet that you're
seeing down there in that weight room.

Speaker 4 (52:03):
Yeah, you know, this is crazy. I knew who Mike
Joe was before I got here. I knew. You know,
you just have the here's your top string coaches in
the country, you know, kind of those guys in your mind,
and he's one of those guys. As soon as I
heard when we were coming that that's who the strength
coach had been, I was like, Okay, I'm sure he'll
be here for the long haul. And he's just the
same kind of mindset I would say that I have.

(52:26):
Coach Rod has the standard of how we're going to
play and what we're going to do. Mike is as
consistent as anybody. You know, the demand is high, the
training is obviously elite, you know, and the way he
prepares the program prepares the guys, but the way he
creates the mindset of the team and the toughness of
grit that's going to take to be successful. Yeah, he's

(52:47):
really good at that.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
Yeah, he he is. He's just classic. He's same County obviously,
the riches from Marion count has got that hard edge. No,
he was a hell of a player too, in the
hell of a wrestler A hard nos hard knows, dude.
Clemson South Carolina was the big annual rivalry. How much
you know about West Virginia Pitt.

Speaker 4 (53:08):
Not a ton actually, so I'm learning now that I've
gotten here. Yeah, obviously it's a it's a big deal.
I know that all my friends want to come to
that game, so I gotta get about twenty five tickets.
It'll be it'll be a deal, make that one happens.
So obviously excited to be a part of it. And
I know it's a storied rivalry, and obviously there's a
lot of and in a lot of good ways bad
blood sure between the two programs.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Yeah, it's it's I mean, it's everything. It's everything that
you want.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
And don't worry about that game coming up. Nobody will
care what happens.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
I'll come of that game. I've heard that.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
The fact that the fact that the impression of the
new administration rests entirely on that game, don't let that
bother you. One.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
I don't think it is. Yeah, I mean, I think
the thing about these guys is like Rich, like Rich
talks about it openly like, let's go, let's bring it. Yeah,
I've got I'm not running away from anything. It'll be
uh obviously, as you well know. Man, you look at
that schedule and I mean Robert Morris to Ohio University,
I mean it ladders up and it's like sets it
up really nice, and just hope that you know by

(54:08):
that time everything's cooking.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
So, uh, who's the starting quarterback?

Speaker 4 (54:15):
Your guess as good as mine. This is so funny
you talk about how like different we are. Right in
a game, I'll finish the game and my fiance, my
friend's parents, everybody like, oh my god, it's the offense
of this and that and the other. And I'm like,
I have no idea. I am over here on the
sideline with the iPad and until they yell punt team,

(54:35):
I am given everything I got to this moment to
get whatever was fixed from that series in this particular
time and practice is the same way. I couldn't tell
you the numbers of our quarterbacks. Really, I have no idea.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
Do you have it when you have the ability? Because
you know Rich wants to go fast? Do you have
the ability at some point in the game, say coach
coach Rode we need to breather here, like run some clock,
will you?

Speaker 4 (54:57):
As long as they're scoring, I like it. So we
looked up I think we played La Tech two years
ago down there, and I looked up in the first
quarter and they were like six minutes and thirty sexons
off in the first quarter, and we were up thirty
five nothing, and we'd held them to like four straight
three and outs and they had scored in less than
two plays on like four consecutive series. And I was like,
holy cow, we got I'm like, we had like another

(55:20):
three hours of this game. I'm like, this is crazy.
And so you know, I'm I'm a big fan of
the tempo. I think that, you know, sometimes defenses, I
think a lot of times you judge, okay, total defense
that and the other. Well, obviously I'll say this, we'll
give up maybe more yards than a team that than
Iowa who's going to huddle in Staton ball one second
every time, because we can be on a field more

(55:42):
so by default, more opportunities equals It's like, hey, you
shoot three times for three or you shoot twenty times
for three, you got a better chance of scoring it
three times. And so for us, you know, I always
look at man per possession, how are we doing defensively?
You know, how are we holding up from a all right, hey,
if we're out there for fifteen possessions and we hold
them to two hundred fift yards offense, and they were
out there for eight possessions of helm tw hundred five

(56:04):
yards offense, well we're winning in that category. So, uh,
it never bothers me. The tempo, the way they play,
and you know there have been a lot of clutch
moments because of.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
That, right, So you kind of just answered it right there.
But statistically, what do you go If you mentioned blitz
rate earlier, so you know what that is. What's your
go to stat to make sure you're where you.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Want to be?

Speaker 4 (56:23):
Yeah, I think you know, points points of possession. That's
if you want a true metric of the great defenses
in college, that's probably number one as far as just holistically,
you know, if you if you've got a great offense
that stays on the field and does all that, and
you you know, you only got to traditionally, like the
why the Service academies are always pretty good on defense,
Well they play they play seventy five to one hundred

(56:45):
less posessions than I do in a year, you know,
So it's just chances of the chances of scoring goes
down because you're not out there.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
What Rich does, Let's walk you through. So let's just
say you're getting ready to play Rich. You know what
hit The method of his madness is he wants to
go really fast. He wants to wear defenses down. He's
pushing it like a damn. He's just gonna keep pushing
and pushing and pushing. At some point he's hoping third quarter,
fourth quarter, that the whole thing just comes tumbling down.

(57:13):
So just from that standpoint, what challenges does Rich put
on opposing defensive coordinators?

Speaker 4 (57:19):
Yeah, you know, I think the the play design, he
is an amazing understanding of the game. I mean he's
been calling it now for I don't know, forty years
something like that, you know, somewhere somewhere in that range. So, uh,
there's nothing he hasn't seen as far as defensive schemes
against him. So you know, always tell our defense like
and hey, listen, if he checks the sideline and we

(57:41):
show him what we're in and we don't check, we're screwed.
Like he's gonna be one hundred percent of one hundred times,
you know. So I think that the experience and the
knowledge is very difficult to prepare for as a play
caller against them. And then you know, schematically, they're gonna
make it eleven on eleven. You know, he's gonna make
you tackled a quarterback. He's going to find ways to

(58:02):
to you know, make that guy a threat, which some
offices don't do.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
Which is I like, right, that's still eleven against ten.

Speaker 4 (58:08):
Yeah, exactly. That makes it easier. So I think that's
the probably those two things really separate just from a
challenges as a defense coordinator.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Yeah, and he's and he's going to try not to
make substitutions, which doesn't allow you to make substitutions. So
it's just it's like settle in. Here we go.

Speaker 4 (58:24):
Yeah, so I'm sure, I'm sure you'll see a lot
of fake injuries earlier in the year versus US.

Speaker 3 (58:28):
So, Well, now this got that new rule, they're going
to crack down on it, right, good.

Speaker 4 (58:32):
I remember seeing something about that the other day. I'm
not big on that anyway, So it didn't really affect us.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
Plays by the rules, Yeah, you know what else plays
by the rules? Comax Business systems. They played by the rules, hoppy,
you know why why people got to hydrate right now?
They got these water machines over there at the Comax
Business Systems. Whether you want it hot, whether you want
it cold, whether you need ice, they got you taking
care of. Visit COMAXWUV dot com. That's Comax WUV dot com.
In fact, all types of business equipment. And they've got

(59:00):
in all fifty five of our counties and the three
guys brought to us by Jan Dill's Attorneys at Law.
When it comes to Jan Dill's, they specialize in two
particular areas. Number one, social Security disability benefits and military
disability benefits. If you or someone you know has an issue,
you need help, contact them before you contact the Social

(59:20):
Security folks. Because here's a stat for you, Zach, eighty
eight percent of Social Security disability claims are rejected the
first time, eighty eight percent. But if you go to
Jen Dill's Attorneys at Law, they take yet, they guide you.
They do it every single day, and your chance for
success increases significantly. Visit Jan Dill's Attorneys at Law based

(59:40):
here in West Virginia, but they're in forty eight different states.
Doing business, all right.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Breaking you get some nice Jordan's on your shoot guy.

Speaker 4 (59:46):
Or no, I am a shoe guy. Yeah?

Speaker 1 (59:48):
Oh really? How many pair? How many pair?

Speaker 4 (59:52):
Now coohol more than more shoes than my fiance has.
I'll say that, so it's in there, but I would
I don't know total number of total number of Jordan's
fifteen to twenty. Probably favorite pair, oh style? Right, all right,
here you go, favorite number twelve. Yeah, I know it's

(01:00:13):
a little different sometimes, like the twelves. I like wearing
the ones and the fours.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Yeah, so you see he got ones on today, Tony
for he's got the ones on over here.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
Spend any time with the Ren Baker. I've been around
him a few times about his you know about his
shoe select.

Speaker 4 (01:00:27):
I noticed when he came in last time. I actually
mentioned it to him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
Over one hundred and fifty pair. Wow. Yeah, when did
that start, Wren? No?

Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
I mean decades ago?

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Really? Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Now they're more readily available now. It's these are ones.

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
These are force.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
So he's got the force the ones.

Speaker 3 (01:00:45):
See, I don't even know what any of that is.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
There's a whole new world for you now that your
semi retire. You can concentrate and start doing a whole
shoe thing.

Speaker 4 (01:00:52):
Now get you a pair, would Yeah yeah, you said
you can wear the suits.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
Now you can do it like, oh yeah, ren revolutionize.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
George.

Speaker 1 (01:01:01):
You can wear George with what's your initial thought about
the equipment guy? So I far they've been swagging you out,
all right, I mean, you feel pretty good about it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
They've been doing good, you know, I think, Uh, I'm
not sure. Danny might be here, been here longer than
than anybody else in the building.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
He has literally has Oh yeah, he literally has.

Speaker 4 (01:01:17):
So I'm sure he probably grew up in there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
These are good. These are good colors. By the way,
and with all due respect to your Alma motto, that's
a sharp orange that doesn't.

Speaker 4 (01:01:27):
Fit my skin tone perfectly, like blue, blue and gold
was great.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
It's great.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Yeah you skin tone there, Kurchin.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
Well, I mean there you go.

Speaker 3 (01:01:37):
Well, I'm saying some peoples blue.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Yeah, he looks good. He looks good at and and
look at the guy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
He would look good at anything. I know, the young,
in shape, good looking.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
I understand what I'm just saying that that Clemson orange
is a I went to I went to Syracuse, so
I got the orange whole thing. I get it. That's
those are not great colors. This gold and blue, you're
gonna it'll go long term.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
You know what you're doing on the sideline. Do you
go like a different color so you stand out? Do
you go gold? What are you doing sideline?

Speaker 4 (01:02:05):
I'll be something different. Uh, I'm still figuring that out.
Ain't something the pops so you know they can see
you and look, yeah, they can see me. I wanted
to find me, you know, as quick as they can
then come over.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Why let me ask you this, speaking to that big
hunting state, West Virginia is a big huntings why don't
we go with someone with some like some blaze orange, Like,
why don't we have a blaze orange? It'll be due
respect for the hunters out there. We got to d
C's wearing a blaze orange thing out there calling in
signals interesting idea, right, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
I've seen some guys in crazy like some guys wear
like NFL jersey, some guys wear big hats something like.
There's there's all kinds of things that that that guys do,
uh to try and get noticed on the sidelines. So
I'm usually just like a different colored shirt.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Guy, are you communication wise, with your lineback, with your
with your dot back there. How do you like that?
Does that change that helped?

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
I think, first off, this media defensive guy right now,
it's definitely competitive advance for the offense.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Why are you saying that because.

Speaker 4 (01:03:02):
You can line up fast on it? Because they control
when a ball snapped. So if they line up fast
and want to see what we get into. It used
to be the quarterback had to make the checks. The
quarterback had to see it. Well, now the OC head
coach over there is telling him, I want you to
check to this play, I want you to get to
this or so that's that's definitely, in my opinion, an
advantage for them.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
So you counter that by doing what will you not
line up right away? You'll kind of keep moving.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
Sometimes, you know, it depends that the smart ones will
they'll wait right to like they'll tell the quarterback to
play at like seventeen seconds or so, and at fifteen
it goes dead. So now I can't talk to my guy,
but he can.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
He was able to talk to a huge that's a
huge screw.

Speaker 4 (01:03:40):
There's a lot of To me, it's a decently biased
thing towards the offense. It really is, But I don't mind.
I like being able to tell the linebackers what I'm thinking,
what I both think is coming, what what I think
is going to happen. You know, we get to where
like if you huddle, will huddle like the NFL. You know,
I'm not going to give you the signal now if
you don't want to, you know you're not gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
Line up fast.

Speaker 4 (01:04:02):
You're gonna huddle up. I'll huddle my guys up, and
you know, I'll tell the linebacker to play, He'll tell
everybody to play, and we'll go from there.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
How important to you is disguise critical?

Speaker 4 (01:04:14):
I think we studied it wasn't last year's two years ago.
Of the top ten defenses in the country, which we
were one of them, eight of the ten were in
the top twelve, and disguise rate in the country. Anytime
you can change the picture pre to post snap on
a quarterback, you make him indecisive, you make him slower

(01:04:36):
in his reads, his progressions, eat in the run game,
in the past game, and you can affect the way
they play. You've got a.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Lot of things here defensively that you're trying to do.
Where do you rate your playbook difficulty picking it up
one to ten week because we've seen coaches come in
here and they have three plays and they wrap them
to death. It sounds like you've got a lot going
on here.

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
We definitely have more plays than three. I always tell everybody, man,
we're gonna look complex, We're gonna look like we do
a million things. But in reality, I think the linebackers
do ten total things on the defense. And once you
know what ten go with what calls, uh, it starts
to become real simple. So you know, I would say
somewhere around you know, four to five. Okay, yeah, definitely

(01:05:19):
a four to five great difficulty there, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:21):
Yeah, okay, yeah, And then it has to get to
that point because if you do paralysis analysis in today's game,
you're totally screwed.

Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
Well, you might have three new starters coming in.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
Like July exactly exactly a little.

Speaker 4 (01:05:33):
Bit how the NFL. You know, if you ever watch
the league compared to college football, they are generally simpler
across the board. Because you might have a linebacker show Thursday,
he got to start Sunday, like you know, he's got
to be able to learn it quick and understand it.
And we take similar approaches all.

Speaker 1 (01:05:48):
Right before we let you out here. So I get
the sense that you're kind of enjoying the fact that
people aren't thinking that the Mountaineers are going to be
too good on defense. You're kind of that's gonna be
your little chip that you're just gonna kind of build.
Is that what I'm getting?

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:06:02):
Absolutely, yeah. So I've always been the underdog, or at
least I think I am, and uh, it felt that
way my whole career and everywhere we've been, so, uh
it doesn't bother me at all. In fact, i'd probably
like it. I'd rather be playing from from a position
where they think we're gonna be terrible and all we
can do is go up.

Speaker 1 (01:06:20):
That's the essence of this state.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
And this program too.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
And this program was built exactly on that, Like tell
me what I can't do, and I want to show
you that I can do it. Like that's what the
fuel is, that's the gas, that's the and Rich Rich
You'll see Rich do a masterful job at that. He'll
he's gonna he's just gonna give him that whole thing.
And as you guys know, if there isn't something, he'll
make something up and He'll just build it and build

(01:06:46):
it and build it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
That's the essence, because you know, coach, whereas every program,
every coach talks about where the underdog everybody counts is out.
That is everybody says that. You probably said at Oklahoma
and Texas and places like, it's actually true here, Actually
is how people are like, oh my gosh, that we're
just waiting for the sky to fall.

Speaker 1 (01:07:05):
Yeah, you're probably getting a little bit of that vibe
from Casteele. Right, castile and masterful at like he knows
that in like he's from West Virginia, like he's he
is in West Virginia. He gets that, and he used
that as his gas when he had his great defenses here. Yeah,
that's how he put those things together. Yeah, good stuff, man,

(01:07:27):
We really appreciate your time. Yeah, thank you. Yes, So
it's good. I mean it wasn't painful, was it? No bad?
Not too too bad.

Speaker 4 (01:07:34):
It'll work on it next time.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
Yeah, this brand had a couple of awkward questions.

Speaker 1 (01:07:38):
No, he said, you had a really good question, hoppy. Yeah,
he done good. You've done real good. Three guys before
the game, with our special guest, Zach Alley, brought to
us in part by Jan Dill's Attorneys at Law, They
won't take no for an answer. By Comac's Business System,
keeping West Virginia's business data safe, secure and efficient for
twenty five years. By Gomart, get that Gomart Reward Words card.

(01:08:00):
Why wouldn't you? All you do is save money on
food and fuel and you get that app and those
bonus you got. All those special two for onesies are
going on now, Like get that deal.

Speaker 2 (01:08:10):
Going and check out Marty's Summer tour.

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
Yeah, I see if that gopher's in there. By lou
Wendell Marine Sales and Saint Albans they sell family fund.
Visit Lou Wendelmarne Sales dot com. There supply of stuff
right now at a seasonal high. Tutor's Biscuit World starts
your day the homemade way. Visit Tutors Biscuits. Check it out.
All right, we're out, Thanks so much for being with us.

(01:08:33):
Thanks to producer Jake for Zach Ally the Senator and
Hopy Kerchivill. Three guys before the game over and out.
See you

All Episodes

3 Guys Before The Game - WVU Defensive Coordinator Zac Alley (Episode 640)

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

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

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}3 Guys Before The Game - WVU Defensive Coordinator Zac Alley (Episode 640)