August 26, 2025 • 42 mins
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day joins Greg Olsen for a conversation about more than just wins and losses. Day unpacks the non-negotiables that define Buckeye football, the intangibles he prioritizes over highlight reels when recruiting, and the message he gives his own son about what really matters when choosing a program. It’s a masterclass in leadership, legacy, and learning how to do things the right way—even when nobody’s watching.
This episode is presented in partnership with RCX Sports. To learn more, visit: https://www.youth.inc/learn/get-your-kid-playing-sports-with-rcx-sports
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(00:00):
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What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a really special
episode of You Think, not only because we have Ryan Day,
national championship head coachOhio State Buckeyes, but also a
guy who's become a friend of mine, someone that I've gotten
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to know personally spent time with him up at camp.
So it was coach day. The fact just taking time to
talk to us, our listeners, our followers here at You Think
can't thank you anymore, man, for joining us.
Appreciate you, coach. No, no, great to be on here.
And yeah, I know it's been great, you know, to become
friends and, and you know, I really had a great time when you
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came up and we spent time. And for those who know, know how
much, you know, Greg loves football, the XS and the OS.
And we have a really good time and hope to get you back soon.
Now I'm going to, I'm, I'm goingto try to make it an annual
every spring, try to get up there.
I just have so much respect for your program and just being
around, watching you coach, watching you lead.
And, and we're going to dive into a lot of it here on this
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conversation. So coach I, I want to start at
the top. You know, I think we hear
coaches, especially at the levelyou guys are at, talk about how
important culture is and identity.
And I think those words get thrown around loosely at times.
Give me an idea. Give our listeners an idea.
When you're building out the vision for Ohio State football,
you guys are at the top of the mountain.
(01:23):
What does that mean? Like, how would you summarize
what it means to play football to be a member at Ohio State?
Yeah, for, for, for us at Ohio State.
You know, I think about when I was at the University of New
Hampshire playing when I was at Boston College, I was at
Florida, I was at Temple, I was at with the Eagles, I was with
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the 49ers. And each place kind of has its
own identity. Each place has, you know, its
goals. And I for Ohio State, it was
easy to recognize early on that like, we want guys who want to
be the best in the world at whatthey do, and it's not for
everybody. Like, I think one of the most
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important things is having an agreement on the front end of
what the expectations are. Yeah, I, I see this a lot.
My son is in high school and he's a junior.
And I just find even in high school, when you sit down with
parents or you sit down with a player and you say, when you're
coming into our culture, here are the expectations.
It sets the bar of what, what, what, what is, what the culture
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is what we expect out of you. And then when there's a
deviation from that, it's easy to reconnect everybody and say,
you know, we, we talked about this on the front end and, and
this is what's happening. And here's where we need to go.
And here are the corrections that we need to make because we,
we, we all came to agreement on what this was supposed to look
like. And, and, and I think that's
important as a leader to individually meet and set the
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expectation of what you want that to be.
I mean, culture is really just the behavior that's in your
building. And, and I think as the leader,
it's, it's constantly talking about that, identifying that,
making sure that, you know, yourleaders are the hardest workers
and that you're, you're, you're figuring out, you know, how to.
So the, the, the thing that we use a lot of is 810-8010 and
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it's a bell curve. You know, the 10% over here of
the elite, then there's a 10% atthe bottom who are kind of the
defiant disinterested. And then there's the 80%.
And what, what happens a lot of times as we spend time on the
the bottom 10%, what we really need to do is take this middle
80 and push them over to the elite and move the mountain.
And that's the that's on the onus of the coaches and that 10%
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who are the elite to push that over there.
I felt like last year we pushed that mountain strong over here.
And because of that, we won a championship.
And so I think that's important.I think also talking about what
leadership is in building accountability is critical with
your with your culture, because when the players feel like they
have say, I think it makes a bigdifference.
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So we select a leadership committee right after the
season. We select, we then reselect one
right after the spring, spring practice into the summer.
And then we're going to select captains here right before the
season. And during that process, like
we'll talk about what the expectations are for the summer.
We'll talk about what the expectations are for preseason
camp. And I have the leadership
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committee in there and I want their feedback.
Like, for instance, Mick Morati,who, you know, runs our strength
and conditioning program, and I,we run the meetings.
And when we first started this year, the the first goal was to
reinforce the culture. And the feedback we got from our
players was how can we reinforcea culture that some guys don't
even know? We have to rebuild the culture.
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We have to knock it down and rebuild it.
And that was their decision. I thought that was great.
They, they, they, they when somebody was late for a workout,
they're the ones who decided what the what the penalty was.
So when that happens, they're not moaning and groaning.
They're like, hey, we agreed to this and this is what we're
doing. I think all those things help in
culture. It's hard to just, you know, put
in one conversation, but but those are the things that we try
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to focus on at Ohio State to make sure the culture is strong
and that can ultimately work through tough times because
that's when you're really testedis when you go through a loss.
It's it's easy when things are going well, the issues are
always there, but when you go through a difficult time like we
did last year, the resilience ofthe team has to come together
and that's when you're tested the most.
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I want to stay there because I wanted to talk to you about
that. I, I had someone once to find me
culture and they said culture iswho you are when things are at
their worst, right? To your point, it's easy to have
great culture. It's easy for everyone to be on
time. You know, the Sunday morning
workout after a set, after a bigwin on Saturday night at home
and everyone's feeling good. But your real culture is OK.
Who are who, where, where are the warts when things are not
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good, where when everyone's backs against the wall and
everyone on the outside is looking at you and everyone's
pointing fingers. So obviously you guys went
through that last year right around the holidays.
Your big rivalry game doesn't goas planned.
There's a lot of outside noise. What would you say about your
culture from that week at the what was that end of November to
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the national championship two months later?
Like what about your culture? What about the fabric of who you
guys were in that locker room? And as a coaching staff, do you
think you guys hung onto that, carried you the furthest?
I think a lot of people ask thatquestion.
They're like, so, you know, was it?
We had, we had like a big meeting that people talk about
after the game. And I think people think that
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that's what, you know, brought everybody together.
It doesn't work that way as, youknow, like your foundation for
your house, all of a sudden, you're not going to put that
together right before a storm orright after a storm like that
that's built years in advance. It's all built on trust.
And when there's trust, you can you can work through those
difficult times and and, and theway that we build trust, one is
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through character, like who you are as a person, who you are as
a man. And you can show that the most
in defining moments and when yougo through a loss, certainly at
Ohio State, and when you go through adversity, that that's
when your character shows the most.
When you say you're going to do something, do you actually do
it? When temptation's at its
highest, when, when you're really getting, you know, your
name thrown around or whatever those things are because it's
all relative. I see it happen with my son in
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in high school. I saw it when in middle school,
you know, parents are pointing fingers and all these different
things. That's an opportunity to show
your character in a big way. And everybody's watching in
those tough times, the players and I, and I mentioned it to
them. I said, guys, we go through
tough times. That's when people reveal their
character the most. So that's we have to be at our
strongest. That's the first area that we
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have to build trust. The second one is through
connection. Like these guys have to know
that you care about them. And I think as coaches, we just
assume sometimes that someone's going to think that we care
about them or listen to us because we're the coach Doesn't
work that way. It really never has.
I mean, when you and I were growing up, we we respected the
coach because that's the way it was.
But now more than ever, you know, you've got to make sure
you make connection with these guys.
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And how do you do that? You spend time with them, you
talk to them, you know you, you earn their respect.
The third thing is your competency.
Like you have to know what you're doing when you stand up.
If I'm standing up in front of you and talking about a route
for a tight end, like I better know what the heck I'm talking
about because you got to look atme sideways.
But if I know what I'm talking about, then you're going to
trust me because I, you know that I can get you better as a
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player. And when I stand up in front of
the team, they have to know thatI'm talking what I'm talking
about is going to get them to where they need to be.
They need to believe that if they follow the plan and this
path, it's going to lead to a championship.
I think that's probably the biggest thing coming off of last
year is now there's credibility because we have gone through
that and the guys has have seen that.
So they know there's competence that if they, you know, follow
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the plan that this is the resultthat could happen.
And the last one is consistently, you have to
consistently do this day out, day in and day out.
And if you build enough trust inyour program, when you go
through those difficult moments,you can bring every to get
everyone together, put a plan together, identify what the
problems are, get them fixed, and then move forward.
And it can galvanized you if youhandle it the right way.
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I I just that you couldn't summit summarize it any better
than that. The best locker rooms I were in
had those qualities. The worst locker rooms I was
ever in where we couldn't get out of our own way, had maybe
one or two of the qualities, butfor sure didn't have all four.
So I think every young coach outthere that listens to us, that
follows us like what a blueprintfor building championship
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culture. Because championship culture
doesn't mean you win the championship every year.
It doesn't mean you win every game.
It means you are built for both the good times, which hopefully
there's a lot, but more importantly that you're built
for the bad times because however good you are, no matter
how many good recruiter recruitsyou bring in, shit's hard.
Like this is, this is big boy stuff.
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So you couldn't say it any better.
I want to, I want to talk to ourcoaches here for a second coach.
Then I want to move on to some more about identifying talent
and some of the other factors. So many young coaches that I see
focus so much about how much do I know about the sport, right?
I'm a young high school footballcoach, everything's XS and OS.
I'm a young basketball coach, a baseball coach.
(10:01):
I want you to talk about the role of a coach, but not because
you draw the best offensive plays or you've got the best no
huddle offense or tell me in your mind like the role of the
best coaches you've been around,whether that's guys on your
staff or guys you coached under or like, just give an idea of
like in your mind championship coaching is.
What, that's a great question. I, I, I wish I could, I wish
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that my, my staff could hear this right now, because you're
really boiling this down to whatreally matters the most at any
level. I think the first thing is you
teach, you know, sometimes I want to even say to our coaches,
slow down. Just talk to this young man,
coach him, ask him what, what ishe seeing?
What is he thinking? What is going through his mind?
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What is he looking at? What is he seeing?
You know, we always just like you said, want to go on to the
next play or, you know, just so you know, want to coach him
hard. And we do, we all have to coach
hard. But like, sometimes we just need
to like talk to them and teach them.
Now. We're not going to coach effort.
We're not going to coach focus like that.
That that's something that is a whole another conversation.
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But if you have guys who are willing to give great effort,
willing to focus you, you have to teach them.
And then you have to drill thosethings that you're doing and
then you have to build up this foundation.
You know, we're we have this book.
I got it right here that we're we're reading as a team.
It's called chop wood carry water and it's a great book And
and each, each chapter is only like about a, a 45 second read.
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It's really quick. And So what we did as a team
this summer is every day we had a player get up and summarize
what the chapter meant. So we had it on the on the
indoor, on the indoor, we had iton the the monitors in the
building and everybody had to kind of read that and then we
picked them out. So somebody would have to read
and explain what that was. And to me, like, it's, it's the,
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it's, it's that is a great book because it's all about the
process over the results. Like you're constantly working
on the process. And you know, like, for
instance, one of the chapters talks about how every inch
matters. Every decision that you make
matters. If you eat McDonald's today,
you're not going to get fat and overweight and sick.
But if you eat it every single day, eventually that's going to
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happen. Like who you hang out with, you
know, what you listen to, what time you wake up in the morning,
what you eat, what you focus on,all those things add up in the
end. And when you're focusing on that
process, when, when you, when you fail, it's a good thing.
Like, how do you grow? You grow by failing.
You grow by, you know, first goton a bike, what happened?
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You fell off. But how quickly can you learn
from those failures along the way?
But when I watch youth sports today, I I got to tell you, like
I watch parents who are screaming and yelling and care
if if a team wins a fifth grade basketball game like that,
That's not it. It's about the process.
Are we actually getting better at the skills that we need to
move on and grow from? And, and, and that doesn't
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really even change when we get to college.
It's the same things like we have to focus on that.
And to your point, you know, we've had games in the past, you
know, the 22 game against Georgia, we missed a field goal
in the semifinals. And if not, we'll go on to T
against TCU and probably win thenational championship.
Same thing in in in 19, like we've been a player 2 away from
winning a championship. But the focus has to be on the
process, not the result, becauseyou know, there's a lot of
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things that can happen in the game, no doubt.
So I I covered a lot of ground right there to love it.
Important. Points.
No, I love it. It's like the old adage, right?
How you do some things is how you do everything.
The brain, we, we try to tell our, our kids that we coach I, I
just had a 7th and 8th grade forour middle school football team.
We just had our summer workout this morning, 8:00 AM.
We're out there and we preach itlike our brain doesn't know
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whether this is a random Wednesday in July or if this is
the fourth quarter and against our bitter rival for the last
game of the season. We, we can't decide when it's
time to turn it on. When it's time, when does it
matter? It doesn't matter.
Our brains don't know the difference and the idea of
building those processes in those routines, and I don't.
Want to cut you off one second because I think this is
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important. I, I think and, and having three
young kids who are in sports and, and seeing them and then
seeing their peers is like not everybody has the same burn as
the other. And when you, you start to move
towards, you know, the higher levels of competition, sometimes
you need to identify like, who has that burn?
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Like you had that burn and like attaching yourself to that burn
to understand what puts 2 feet on the ground every day for you
to want to be great because not everybody's wired that way.
Now, a part of that is a coach, like if you have guys on a team
who aren't that wired that way, how do you motivate them to want
to become the best versions of themselves?
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And so that there's two conversations there.
One, you, you want to have thosepeople who are just wired that
way. Then the other part is like, how
do you motivate those that are around who maybe aren't that
wired that way to be the best versions of themselves Through
positivity and encouragement. Will Howard was the most
positive leader I've ever been around.
I learned a lot from him becausesometimes I can be negative.
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He would always make people think they could do more than
they could. He was tremendous that way and I
learned a lot from him. That was his leadership style.
But the people that you're around who want to be great, and
I see young kids like I say it to my my daughter's all the
time, like, if you don't want this, don't do it.
Like if you don't want to, then go find a sport, find an
instrument to play, go become the best musician or, or you
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know, do something else. Be an artist.
Like find what you love and yourpassion and then grab onto it.
I think sometimes parents want them more than the kids.
Like they have to find their love and their passion and then
they'll own it, and then they'rethe ones that'll wake up earlier
than you. This episode of You Think is
brought to you by RCX Sports. RCX was founded to breakdown
barriers to access and expand participation in youth sports so
(15:54):
every kid has an opportunity to play to learn more.
We spoke with RC XS CEO and Founder Isel Reese.
What was the inspiration like? Where did RCX come from?
What was the problem in the youth sports world that you guys
are trying to address and what has been that that impact that
you guys are making? Yeah, yeah, you, you so, so RCX,
you know, we launched if you will, in in 2018 when we
(16:17):
launched, we were already doing some things with the NBA and
NFLI was doing camps at the Super Bowl actually for working
with the NFL. But I'm a big fan of you
appreciate if you get a play in a playbook and you can run this
play and it continues to work. You don't change it.
So as far as what it came to league play, creating events,
it's a watch for instant repeat model for us.
(16:38):
And so we think NBA and WNBA. So that was a 2 for there.
It's league play. It's it's the same model, it's
the same concept. NHL street hockey, you know, we,
we, we, we got with NHL and, andinitially we were saying, hey,
ice and let's do three on three.We kind of got into think tank
together and then, you know, we,we came up with ball hockey,
(16:59):
street hockey and and so it's it's given opportunities, you
know, across the board, MLB, we work with pitch hit and run a a
long standing program. And so, you know, we've been
blessed to oversee that as well.Major League Soccer, I'm working
with them and now in this pilot phase with USTA of getting more
kids involved with tennis. And so we're doing some unique
(17:21):
things there. We're putting kids in jerseys,
we're putting multiple kids on on the court because my kids
play tennis and it is a very expensive sport.
And a lot of times, you know, that's the first barrier that is
there for kids. So we've built an affordable
program and also giving kids jerseys and so forth so they
feel like they're in a team environment and just getting
back to what all these sports are, which is fun and every kid
(17:44):
should be exposed to it. And also the ability to have
multi sports. So the thing that I like most
about it is, you know, when whenwe have this opportunity to work
across all these different pro leagues and our governing bodies
as well, when we all get in the room together and everybody's
saying the same thing. Everybody believes in multi
sport. Everybody believes every kid
should have a great experience and opportunity at the rec level
(18:06):
and not be priced out. You know, it shouldn't it
shouldn't come at a premium price point for kids that have a
phenomenal experience in youth sports, you know, if they want
more and other things. And I know it's a lot of things
out there, but every, every kid and every community deserves
that opportunity. And so, you know, it's, it's
things that we were accustomed to when, when we grew up, right?
And how do we, how do we get back to the basics of the kids,
(18:29):
those opportunities, what reallytook things off and, and went to
another level for us and which I'm excited and honored that
we've had the opportunity to do it overseeing NFL flag football.
We're well over 800,000 kids participating in NFL Flag and it
is truly become something greater than I anticipated.
But you know, good to to get more kids involved in the game
(18:51):
at all ages and continue to evolve NFL Flag and what it is
today. To learn more.
And find a league near you, visit rcxsports.com.
So I want to transition into another one of your roles.
Another reason, obviously you guys are so good and at the top
of the mountain, your ability toidentify talent, right?
What what does that mean? Everyone can see Jeremiah Smith
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and look at him and go, Oh my God, he's incredible.
But I want you to just take me alittle bit deeper, right?
So you guys have your pick of every five star player in
America, but you're not, you can't get them all.
You probably don't want them all.
But you guys are one of a handful of schools that really
can walk into any high school, any showcase, any camp and say
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we want you, you, you and you get your you get your fair
share. Tell me about the identification
process qualities. We all know we want kids.
You run 4/4 and they're 64. We we get the physical stuff.
Who do you recruit? The things that we can't
measure? Like what are those qualities
that go into everything you're talking about?
Championship culture, DNA, leadership, character, Who is
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Ohio State, Who is Ryan Day every day waking up saying we
got to find more guys like. What?
That's a great conversation. So that the first thing is we're
looking for is talent. And what is talent?
Talent to me is God-given. So Jeremiah is a great example.
Jeremiah is 6 three and he's 225lbs and he can run.
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And I say this all the time, like you, you've won the genetic
lottery. Did you earn that?
No, like, you know, for you likehow how tall are you, Greg?
6/5 and 1/2. Like I said it to recruits, did
you, did you earn 6/5 and 1/2? No, no, God gave you that.
Like my son's not 6/5 and 1/2, right?
Like certain things. So God's given everybody a
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certain amount of talent. And we look for guys who are
talented. There's no question about that,
But then there's the other part of it.
And the other part is what we control and that's our
discipline and our skill and discipline to me is everything
that God didn't give you your work ethic.
Like nobody. I say this to my son all the
time. Is anybody stopping you from
being the hardest working guy inthe entire country?
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No, you, you decide that you read like Goggins book and these
guys like there's, there's nothing you can't do when it
comes to work ethic, your focus,the belief in yourself, your
resilience, your preparation, what you put in your body.
Like all these things to me are very, very important.
So we look for guys who are disciplined, then we look for
guys who are skilled, the skillsto do your the player position.
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Like if you're playing tight end, like there's certain
skills. You don't have to know how to
kick a ball. You don't have to know how to
throw a ball. You don't have to learn how to
pass rush, but you're not going to run a route.
You don't know how to dig out a A7 technique.
You got to do these different things.
And so those skills allow allowed you to play in the NFL
for a long, long time, even though some other guys were more
talented than you were. That's how it works.
So we we're looking for the guyswho are talented, but also at
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discipline and skill. That's Jeremiah, that's Kobe
Bryant, that's LeBron James. Now, when you look at a guy
who's Uber talented, a lot of times they're not disciplined
and they're not skilled because it's easy for them to get away
with their talent. Then there's guys who maybe
aren't as talented, who are verydisciplined and very skilled
because they have to be to survive, you know?
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You know who those guys are? Absolutely.
So based on our culture, we're going to take some guys who are
talented and we feel like we cancreate their discipline and
their skill in their life, but we're not going to have too many
of them because they'll kill your culture.
We're going to take some guys who are super disciplined and
super skilled. Maybe you aren't as talented
because they're good for the culture and they're going to
give great effort and they're going to they're going to
(22:25):
maximize what they have. And then we're ultimately
looking for the guys who are very, very talented, disciplined
and skilled because those becomethe first routers and the great
players. Is there, I know it's a hard
question to maybe wrap your headaround, Is there like a
proportion of those 3 categoriesthat you found is the right
balance? I mean, you mentioned before
like 1080 ten, like, I don't know, maybe that's a good
(22:47):
starting point. Have you found like the right
balance? Or maybe does every team take on
a different blend? Well, I think before, you know,
this, this, this new age of NIL,we, we are our percentage at
Ohio State of, you know, talented discipline and skilled.
I mean, you could recruit, you know, four or five stars in the
(23:10):
same class in the same room and there was no cap to it.
Now it's a little bit different with the way things are.
So we, we kind of look at it like we're probably going to
have hope, hope to have one or maybe 2 in each class at each
position. But then we're going to
supplement that either through the transfer portal or with, you
know, some high school guys who are in that other category,
which are usually developmental.That's the way we look.
(23:32):
Again, and, and the programs like yours that can attract the
kid like Jeremiah who's ready tostep in day one and play at a
high level, but also then can also take the four, the three,
the four-star, maybe the borderline guy.
And after two years, he's ready to become an impact player
because you coach them, you workwith them, you love them, you
hold them accountable. Not everyone has to play day
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one, but everybody can't take three years, right?
So again, a lot of this is a blend that's more of an art than
a science. You got it.
I love it. You got it.
Yeah, I love it. And along those lines, you
mentioned today's day and age and I yell that you no one has a
better pulse. You walk into every high school
in America, you're at showcases,you're at camps, you're at 7 on
(24:15):
7 events. How do you recruit the families?
I I think maybe the bet the mostbeneficial aspect of hearing
from you. If I'm a mom or a dad and I've
got a a son or a daughter who's getting ready to be recruited by
a school at any level. How do I be a good?
Sports parent, like when you're recruiting these kids, what are
you looking for out of mom, dad,family support structure,
(24:37):
neighborhood. Like there's a lot more.
When you recruit a kid, you're not just recruiting them, you're
getting the entire bucket. Like, are there certain things
that you look for or certain things you shy away from in
regards to? That yeah, I think that when you
meet a family and they have theyhave core values that they
(24:58):
believe in as a family. Like we're coming in here coach
and and and and we're not looking at transfer.
Like we understand that everything that when our son
walks in the door, they're goingto he's going to have to earn
everything that he gets now thatwe'd like to know the situation,
we'd like to know what's going to happen.
But in our family, you know, we,we want to earn everything that
(25:19):
we have in our family, XY and Z,you know, like, I think when,
when parents come in and they just, you know, they just kind
of like, well, you know, is my son going to start, you know,
and, and, you know, they just start asking about all these
different things. You know, it's fine.
We, we have parents who are likethat, But the ones that I
appreciate the most look at their son and say, OK, this is
(25:40):
going to be his life. We're here to counsel him.
We're here to help him, but ultimately he's the one who's
going to have to live this life.He's the one who's going to have
to come in here and do it. And we know it's not going to be
easy along the way. We know that there's going to be
days where he's going to wake upand say, you know what?
I'm not even sure I want to playfootball.
I'm not sure I want to go to this school.
But if we go through this process the right way and and
(26:01):
understand that like this is what we're going to do.
I mean, I you told me the story about when your dad said,
listen, you're you're not leaving Miami like that made you
go back and say, shoot, I don't have a choice anymore.
I got to make this work. Like to me, those are the
stories I love because you know,as, as parents, if, if you're
enabling them or you're always giving them an out or you're
(26:22):
saying, well, you know, the coaching's no good or making
excuses for them. They're always going to count on
those excuses. They, they know they have an
escape hatch if they're forced to figure this out on their own.
That to me is where the best success stories happen, no
doubt. Do you?
Think though, and this last couple things, I'll let you go
and and again, I can't thank youenough for doing this.
(26:43):
Do you? Think that.
You now at the stage you are in your career and where the
program at Ohio State is coming off a national championship at
the top. Do you feel like now you're in a
greater position than maybe for a a young college coach who's
trying to turn a program around?He's up against the gun.
He's maybe in year two or three and he needs some results or
he's probably going to be showing the door.
(27:04):
Like, do you feel like there's aprocess in all this where when
you get to a place like you're at, you can be a lot more steady
in your principles, a lot more picky in your recruiting a lot
because you like, is that a luxury maybe that you guys have
earned that maybe years ago whenyou first started or maybe some
of your past stops before Ohio State, you maybe didn't have the
(27:25):
ability to to be in that position?
I mean, maybe, you know, I thinkwhen you're young and you don't
have the benefit of the doubt, you have to work through those
times. You know, I, I look about like
what, you know, the way that Kirk Ference has been in Iowa,
you know, that's a different place.
And he's just been so steady anddeveloping people year in, year
out. You know, everybody's at a
(27:45):
different place. But when, when you're a first
time head coach, I, I do agree with you.
I think, I think that happened to me a little bit.
You know, when you're a first time head coach at Ohio State,
you don't necessarily get the benefit of the doubt until you
win a national championship and you feel that you do.
But you can't, you can't all of a sudden start changing what you
believe in. You know, you can't start
(28:05):
becoming and cut corners and start saying, well, I'm going to
do this just to win this season because eventually it's going to
it's not going to work. Now some people's philosophy is
win and do everything they can to win right now and then either
take the next job or deal with it the next year.
And that's their own philosophy.My philosophy has always been
the decisions that we make are based on the long term.
(28:27):
Like I'd like to be here for 20 years.
So that's the way that I look atit.
And so every decision that we make is made under that lens of
like, not just for this year. Now, sometimes, you know, you
certainly want to win that year.You got to fill a hole maybe in
the transfer portal. I'm not talking about that.
I just mean the, the, the, the long term decisions of like we
want to, we want to stable, you know, program here for a long
(28:48):
time. So that's the way that I look at
the second thing about making decisions is having a son, which
we've always made these decisions this way, but it's
made it easier for me having a son that's gone through the
process is that how would I wantmy son treated?
And that brings you to every decision that you need looking
at it through the long term. And then how would I want my my
(29:09):
son treated if he was in the program?
And that really helps clarify the decision making process
before we get back to the episode.
Let's continue our conversation with RC X Sports Founder and
CEO, Isel Reese to hear how theyare working with professional
leagues to elevate the youth sports experience these clubs.
And these teams of, you know, picture sport, NBA does a
(29:30):
phenomenal job as well. They've been wanting to do more.
And so having this conduit and having us in the middle to kind
of be an extension of them. And but this is all we focus on,
right? So, because at the end of the
day, the pro leagues and their their respective teams, they
want to do more, but they also have a professional team or
(29:52):
professional club that they got to run and they got to go get a
Super Bowl or go win a championship, right?
So, so, so having us in the in the middle of the kind of be
this is all I'm thinking about. My, my Super Bowl is sports.
My Super Bowl is, you know, seeing, seeing these kids and
them getting that opportunity. So now you got somebody who has
expertise, but then also the league operator.
(30:14):
So I'm going to go to the other spectrum, that local park and
rec, that local Y those, those different type of groups,
independent groups. Those are what we call and we
say that local league operator where those those people that
are those boots on the ground, those coaches that are
volunteering those time there's officials that are involved and
and getting behind them and supporting them.
And so that's what we spent a lot of emphasis on and
(30:36):
supporting those 2000 plus league operators, creating
efficiencies for them, giving them tools and resources, truly
being at one stop shop for them and supporting them and
servicing them so that they can deliver that good, that great
experience for those kids withinthose respective communities.
So, and that's, that's kind of how, you know, again, we're,
(30:58):
we're connecting all the dots, if you will, and it's worked
extremely well, you know, still a lot of runway and continue to,
to, to grow and accelerate it and enhance it.
And I, and I think it's a constant push to get more kids
back in sport. Cause at the end of the day,
there's still a lion's share of kids that are not playing sport.
How do, how do we get them back to, you know, to being involved
(31:21):
in engaged with sports? Youth sports isn't, isn't going
anywhere, but we do know that there aren't as many kids
playing youth sports as it used to be.
And, and some of it is because of barriers, some of it because,
you know, a variety of things. And so I don't see any slowing
down because I mean, you know that you have this opportunity
(31:41):
to continue to enhance and pulling kids back in.
And every parent wants, every parents wants their kids on a on
a local giving Saturday in theirlocal community to participate
and it also to be a, a better and great experience.
And so I don't see this slowing down at at all.
I mean, I know we got our foot on the gas and we're going to
continue to do it and it's working.
(32:01):
And so there's also a lot of demand for, you know, from from
other sports that have, you know, inquired and asked, Hey,
how can we be on your platform and what you're doing?
We see what what's happening, but we want to make sure that,
you know, we can continue to deliver and dot the IS and cross
the T's and make it a good experience for for the sports
that we're involved in now to learn more.
And find a league near you, visit rcxsports.com.
(32:25):
I wanted to end there. We've talked.
About your coaching philosophy and building locker room and
cultures. But I want to talk about being a
dad for a minute. Remove yourself as the head
coach of the national champions.Remove yourself as the head
coach of Ohio State. You have a son who's going
through the recruiting process as we sit here today.
And obviously you've been on theother side of the table on now
(32:46):
on this side of the table. You just touched on in.
A minute, but I'd ask you to just explore it a little bit
more like. What?
Where? Is where else has your
perspective change now that you've said, OK, I'm now the dad
sitting next to another coach, talking to him.
Like, what is this process like for you?
Like can you, are you going to recruit your son?
Could you ever coach your son? Like talk me.
(33:08):
I, I played for my dad in high school.
Like it was no greater experience, but it was hard as
hell. Where are you?
As far as the relationship between dad, son, coach, yeah.
Yeah, I, I think that there's such a balance of if you don't
(33:28):
advocate for your son, nobody's going to and, and, and in
today's day and age, the truth of it is there's so many adults
that are involved that if you just think he's going to be fine
on his own, it is probably not going to be the case.
Somewhere along the line, you, you have to advocate for your,
your children, but there's also crossing the line.
You have to let them go and figure stuff out on their own.
(33:50):
Now, my son's in a very unique situation here.
You know, he is motivated to outwork everybody.
He almost feels like he has to work double hard because people
think just because he's my son, he, you know, he, he gets
certain opportunities and thingslike that, But the truth is he
actually has to work twice as hard and that's, that's what
motivates him. I know he's never even told me
that, but I but I know in his heart that's the case.
(34:11):
But I've really tried to help the best I can.
I've tried to come over there asa dad and, and, you know, be a
part of it. So he feels that experience.
But also taking a step back and realizing, like in this
recruiting process, it's all about people.
That's it. Like, I've raised my son to a
certain point when I hand them over to another program.
Like, it has to be the right fitfor what he wants.
He's a football junkie. That's really all he cares about
(34:34):
and he he's going to need to be be around people that love
football, but also people that care about relationships.
And I think that is important. My wife will have a very, you
know, important part of this andfeel uncomfortable with wherever
he goes. But in terms of coaching him, I,
I think here at Ohio State, it would be a huge challenge for
him to be a part of Ohio State with everything going on.
(34:55):
I'm not sure his mother would let him do it.
But who knows what I'm not goingto rule it out.
We'll kind of see where it whereit shakes out.
It's a big junior year for him. It's been fun to watch.
It's been fun to see him grow into the role, how strong he is.
I mean, the minute he gets off the bus, people are going after
him. And as you can imagine what
that's like. But, but it only motivates him
more. And it's been fun to see him
(35:17):
grow and, and it makes you more mature.
You just grow up faster when youhave to work through all those
things that he has. And so he started as a freshman,
started as a sophomore. This is a big junior year for
him, so it's been great to go through the process.
And and that's a cool thing about being a coach is that, you
know, if if you're an electrician or you know, you're
an insurance agent, your son isn't in the building, You don't
(35:40):
share those experiences. He doesn't go on the road with
you to a road game. He doesn't go to the bowl games.
He's not at morning workouts like he is here with me.
He's in this facility getting recovery every after every
practice, you know, and so we get to spend that time together,
which is been special for as as a dad and as a son.
So that that's been really cool.But I, I encourage like, and and
I know you know this, having a dad as a coach, like the more
(36:01):
your kids and your family can beinvolved in your day-to-day as a
coach, it just makes it so much more enjoyable.
The players like to see you as adad.
They like to see you as a husband.
And it makes it more enjoyable for your family because they
feel more a part of it. Yeah, they see and.
They see you as a human. They don't just see you as
coach, they see the humanity. My last question, and I'm going
to let you go bro, and I'm asking you to name a team right
(36:23):
now and compare your program to them.
I'm not looking to set off the Ohio State fans at all.
In your heart of. Hearts, when you look around the
landscape of the country, are there a couple guys that you
recognize and you go, you know what, I'm going to take my
coaching hat off as a dad. I want my son to go play for him
because I think there's probablya lot of dads around the
(36:45):
country. First thing I said to my wife
when I came home from your practice last spring, I said if
I ever had it. Now my kids are young, but I
said if I ever had a high schoolkid and I had to turn him over.
At. Her near the top of my list
would be Ryan Day like, and that's the God of the truth.
I said to my wife, I said, I don't even care about football.
I don't care about what plays they run, what offense they run.
If one guy is going to oversee your son for four years, I don't
(37:08):
know how you do better than Ryan.
So I'm going to ask you the samething.
Are there guys? You look around the country and
go, you know what, football aside, I'll turn my son over to
that guy because I've seen his programs.
I've seen the way he's coached, the way he treats his kid.
Like, is there a guy off the topof your head that you'd be
willing to share with us that you just have a lot of respect
for as a dad to say I'll turn mykid over to play for you?
(37:31):
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
And I appreciate you saying that.
It means a lot. I mean, the guy that comes to
mind a lot to me is Dabo. Dabo has has, you know, when we
first played them in 19, you know, in the in the Fiesta Bowl,
they had a great team. We had a battle, you know, it
was Justin versus Trevor and we had some really good players.
And, and during one of the events, he and his wife came
(37:53):
over and just had, you know, some real conversation.
I remember Dabo saying, listen, like you've done an unbelievable
job. You've done a great job
recruiting in your first year. He's like, you know, who who
knows what will happen in this game?
If you beat us, you know, you probably win the national
championship. If you don't, you're going to
win a national championship. And like he didn't have to do
that. I've been around a lot of
coaches that wouldn't even take the time, you know, they did
(38:14):
posture and, you know, their egos get in the way.
But the fact that he I'll never forget that.
And then we've gone on Nike trips before and, and he just,
he spends time, you know, he talks about his family, talks
about his kids, and then you seethe way he treats his players.
And we went down to visit and, and he took RJ and I around the
whole facility. Just the way that he's built it
down there. I mean, I could probably get
into a few coaches, but he's theone that comes to mind the most
(38:36):
of somebody that really has a great perspective on it.
He's a great coach, but he's a great dad and and he really
treats those guys in in the building like they're his sons
before we wrap up with. Ryan Day.
Let's close out our conversationwith our friends at RCX Sports.
I spoke to a father and daughterwho are living the youth sports
experience daily to hear how RCXhas helped them.
I get excited to. Know that they'll have memories
(38:58):
of doing some of these things. They'll know that their parents
were able to take them out to goplay these sports to.
They'll make friends all over the city with the way our city
is now with no, not really Community Schools because
everything's charter. You have like people spread all
over the city. So it gives them a chance to
meet new kids and and have thoseexperiences.
(39:19):
And so that's something that brings joy to my heart, knowing
that they're going to have a childhood that's full of joy,
that's that's full of fun and they get a chance to play all
these different sports and see what they like.
So that's been that's been really, really exciting.
It feels like I'm. A pro and it feels like I'm
actually playing for like the team I'm wearing and it feels
(39:40):
like a big league. They've done a great.
Job of going all over the city, connecting with different
schools, connecting with different with different
communities and creating a cost that allows all families to get
a chance to be a part of of playing of of getting a chance
to be to be in the sports and, and to.
(40:02):
Be a part. Of these teams and so they've
done a great job of just connecting with different
community different community members getting the word out.
I think you can tell, but what'sgoing on with 18th Ward that
they're just doing an amazing job and they're not all trying
to do just one sport. They can do many sports.
So all those things create an environment that that creates a
a great place for kids to learn and grow.
(40:24):
Having fun is. Very important because what's
the point of the primary game for that?
To learn more. And find a league near you,
visit rcxsports.com. I love it.
Living here in Charlotte, in theCarolinas, Dabos reputation
across the Carolinas is everything you just said.
(40:45):
So that doesn't surprise me at all, Coach.
On the heels of a. National championship.
I hope you guys have an awesome year.
Unless you're playing Miami thatI get a little conflicted there.
But dude, I always pull for you guys just because you talk about
people. You could be the coach at Ohio
State. You could be the coach of the
moon. I cheer for you.
I cheer for your program, what you stand for.
(41:07):
Ever since I've gotten to know you.
Thank you for joining us on You Think.
Our fans, our listeners, they have no idea how fortunate they
are to get a little insight intochampionship mindset at the
highest level, but also a level of humanity.
And I think the level of humanity in this ever
competitive world of sports is often very times lost because
everyone is just on to the next,on to the next.
(41:28):
And to take a step, step back and just be a person, be a dad,
love these kids. I.
Think it's really refreshing andI think maybe no better voice to
share with our listeners than yours, man.
So I can't thank you enough, Coach.
No, thank you. And I think what you just said
is important because like, even if you, if you watch an
interview of of Scotty Schefflerbefore the British Open and then
watch him, man, and then see himembrace his son, like, yeah,
(41:50):
that that's what it's about. It's about the humanity of all
this. And sometimes I think we all
lose that with everything that'sgoing on.
So it's an honor to be on here. You know how much I respect for
you. And I think this is a great,
great thing that you're doing tohelp, you know, young coaches,
young people. And so anything I can do to
help?
Make sure you subscribe to both our YouTube channel and our RSS
feed for all future conversations here at You Think.
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a really special
episode of You Think, not only because we have Ryan Day,
national championship head coachOhio State Buckeyes, but also a
guy who's become a friend of mine, someone that I've gotten
(00:20):
to know personally spent time with him up at camp.
So it was coach day. The fact just taking time to
talk to us, our listeners, our followers here at You Think
can't thank you anymore, man, for joining us.
Appreciate you, coach. No, no, great to be on here.
And yeah, I know it's been great, you know, to become
friends and, and you know, I really had a great time when you
(00:41):
came up and we spent time. And for those who know, know how
much, you know, Greg loves football, the XS and the OS.
And we have a really good time and hope to get you back soon.
Now I'm going to, I'm, I'm goingto try to make it an annual
every spring, try to get up there.
I just have so much respect for your program and just being
around, watching you coach, watching you lead.
And, and we're going to dive into a lot of it here on this
(01:01):
conversation. So coach I, I want to start at
the top. You know, I think we hear
coaches, especially at the levelyou guys are at, talk about how
important culture is and identity.
And I think those words get thrown around loosely at times.
Give me an idea. Give our listeners an idea.
When you're building out the vision for Ohio State football,
you guys are at the top of the mountain.
(01:23):
What does that mean? Like, how would you summarize
what it means to play football to be a member at Ohio State?
Yeah, for, for, for us at Ohio State.
You know, I think about when I was at the University of New
Hampshire playing when I was at Boston College, I was at
Florida, I was at Temple, I was at with the Eagles, I was with
(01:44):
the 49ers. And each place kind of has its
own identity. Each place has, you know, its
goals. And I for Ohio State, it was
easy to recognize early on that like, we want guys who want to
be the best in the world at whatthey do, and it's not for
everybody. Like, I think one of the most
(02:04):
important things is having an agreement on the front end of
what the expectations are. Yeah, I, I see this a lot.
My son is in high school and he's a junior.
And I just find even in high school, when you sit down with
parents or you sit down with a player and you say, when you're
coming into our culture, here are the expectations.
It sets the bar of what, what, what, what is, what the culture
(02:28):
is what we expect out of you. And then when there's a
deviation from that, it's easy to reconnect everybody and say,
you know, we, we talked about this on the front end and, and
this is what's happening. And here's where we need to go.
And here are the corrections that we need to make because we,
we, we all came to agreement on what this was supposed to look
like. And, and, and I think that's
important as a leader to individually meet and set the
(02:50):
expectation of what you want that to be.
I mean, culture is really just the behavior that's in your
building. And, and I think as the leader,
it's, it's constantly talking about that, identifying that,
making sure that, you know, yourleaders are the hardest workers
and that you're, you're, you're figuring out, you know, how to.
So the, the, the thing that we use a lot of is 810-8010 and
(03:15):
it's a bell curve. You know, the 10% over here of
the elite, then there's a 10% atthe bottom who are kind of the
defiant disinterested. And then there's the 80%.
And what, what happens a lot of times as we spend time on the
the bottom 10%, what we really need to do is take this middle
80 and push them over to the elite and move the mountain.
And that's the that's on the onus of the coaches and that 10%
(03:36):
who are the elite to push that over there.
I felt like last year we pushed that mountain strong over here.
And because of that, we won a championship.
And so I think that's important.I think also talking about what
leadership is in building accountability is critical with
your with your culture, because when the players feel like they
have say, I think it makes a bigdifference.
(03:57):
So we select a leadership committee right after the
season. We select, we then reselect one
right after the spring, spring practice into the summer.
And then we're going to select captains here right before the
season. And during that process, like
we'll talk about what the expectations are for the summer.
We'll talk about what the expectations are for preseason
camp. And I have the leadership
(04:17):
committee in there and I want their feedback.
Like, for instance, Mick Morati,who, you know, runs our strength
and conditioning program, and I,we run the meetings.
And when we first started this year, the the first goal was to
reinforce the culture. And the feedback we got from our
players was how can we reinforcea culture that some guys don't
even know? We have to rebuild the culture.
(04:37):
We have to knock it down and rebuild it.
And that was their decision. I thought that was great.
They, they, they, they when somebody was late for a workout,
they're the ones who decided what the what the penalty was.
So when that happens, they're not moaning and groaning.
They're like, hey, we agreed to this and this is what we're
doing. I think all those things help in
culture. It's hard to just, you know, put
in one conversation, but but those are the things that we try
(05:00):
to focus on at Ohio State to make sure the culture is strong
and that can ultimately work through tough times because
that's when you're really testedis when you go through a loss.
It's it's easy when things are going well, the issues are
always there, but when you go through a difficult time like we
did last year, the resilience ofthe team has to come together
and that's when you're tested the most.
(05:21):
I want to stay there because I wanted to talk to you about
that. I, I had someone once to find me
culture and they said culture iswho you are when things are at
their worst, right? To your point, it's easy to have
great culture. It's easy for everyone to be on
time. You know, the Sunday morning
workout after a set, after a bigwin on Saturday night at home
and everyone's feeling good. But your real culture is OK.
Who are who, where, where are the warts when things are not
(05:44):
good, where when everyone's backs against the wall and
everyone on the outside is looking at you and everyone's
pointing fingers. So obviously you guys went
through that last year right around the holidays.
Your big rivalry game doesn't goas planned.
There's a lot of outside noise. What would you say about your
culture from that week at the what was that end of November to
(06:05):
the national championship two months later?
Like what about your culture? What about the fabric of who you
guys were in that locker room? And as a coaching staff, do you
think you guys hung onto that, carried you the furthest?
I think a lot of people ask thatquestion.
They're like, so, you know, was it?
We had, we had like a big meeting that people talk about
after the game. And I think people think that
(06:27):
that's what, you know, brought everybody together.
It doesn't work that way as, youknow, like your foundation for
your house, all of a sudden, you're not going to put that
together right before a storm orright after a storm like that
that's built years in advance. It's all built on trust.
And when there's trust, you can you can work through those
difficult times and and, and theway that we build trust, one is
(06:48):
through character, like who you are as a person, who you are as
a man. And you can show that the most
in defining moments and when yougo through a loss, certainly at
Ohio State, and when you go through adversity, that that's
when your character shows the most.
When you say you're going to do something, do you actually do
it? When temptation's at its
highest, when, when you're really getting, you know, your
name thrown around or whatever those things are because it's
all relative. I see it happen with my son in
(07:10):
in high school. I saw it when in middle school,
you know, parents are pointing fingers and all these different
things. That's an opportunity to show
your character in a big way. And everybody's watching in
those tough times, the players and I, and I mentioned it to
them. I said, guys, we go through
tough times. That's when people reveal their
character the most. So that's we have to be at our
strongest. That's the first area that we
(07:31):
have to build trust. The second one is through
connection. Like these guys have to know
that you care about them. And I think as coaches, we just
assume sometimes that someone's going to think that we care
about them or listen to us because we're the coach Doesn't
work that way. It really never has.
I mean, when you and I were growing up, we we respected the
coach because that's the way it was.
But now more than ever, you know, you've got to make sure
you make connection with these guys.
(07:52):
And how do you do that? You spend time with them, you
talk to them, you know you, you earn their respect.
The third thing is your competency.
Like you have to know what you're doing when you stand up.
If I'm standing up in front of you and talking about a route
for a tight end, like I better know what the heck I'm talking
about because you got to look atme sideways.
But if I know what I'm talking about, then you're going to
trust me because I, you know that I can get you better as a
(08:14):
player. And when I stand up in front of
the team, they have to know thatI'm talking what I'm talking
about is going to get them to where they need to be.
They need to believe that if they follow the plan and this
path, it's going to lead to a championship.
I think that's probably the biggest thing coming off of last
year is now there's credibility because we have gone through
that and the guys has have seen that.
So they know there's competence that if they, you know, follow
(08:35):
the plan that this is the resultthat could happen.
And the last one is consistently, you have to
consistently do this day out, day in and day out.
And if you build enough trust inyour program, when you go
through those difficult moments,you can bring every to get
everyone together, put a plan together, identify what the
problems are, get them fixed, and then move forward.
And it can galvanized you if youhandle it the right way.
(08:58):
I I just that you couldn't summit summarize it any better
than that. The best locker rooms I were in
had those qualities. The worst locker rooms I was
ever in where we couldn't get out of our own way, had maybe
one or two of the qualities, butfor sure didn't have all four.
So I think every young coach outthere that listens to us, that
follows us like what a blueprintfor building championship
(09:20):
culture. Because championship culture
doesn't mean you win the championship every year.
It doesn't mean you win every game.
It means you are built for both the good times, which hopefully
there's a lot, but more importantly that you're built
for the bad times because however good you are, no matter
how many good recruiter recruitsyou bring in, shit's hard.
Like this is, this is big boy stuff.
(09:40):
So you couldn't say it any better.
I want to, I want to talk to ourcoaches here for a second coach.
Then I want to move on to some more about identifying talent
and some of the other factors. So many young coaches that I see
focus so much about how much do I know about the sport, right?
I'm a young high school footballcoach, everything's XS and OS.
I'm a young basketball coach, a baseball coach.
(10:01):
I want you to talk about the role of a coach, but not because
you draw the best offensive plays or you've got the best no
huddle offense or tell me in your mind like the role of the
best coaches you've been around,whether that's guys on your
staff or guys you coached under or like, just give an idea of
like in your mind championship coaching is.
What, that's a great question. I, I, I wish I could, I wish
(10:27):
that my, my staff could hear this right now, because you're
really boiling this down to whatreally matters the most at any
level. I think the first thing is you
teach, you know, sometimes I want to even say to our coaches,
slow down. Just talk to this young man,
coach him, ask him what, what ishe seeing?
What is he thinking? What is going through his mind?
(10:48):
What is he looking at? What is he seeing?
You know, we always just like you said, want to go on to the
next play or, you know, just so you know, want to coach him
hard. And we do, we all have to coach
hard. But like, sometimes we just need
to like talk to them and teach them.
Now. We're not going to coach effort.
We're not going to coach focus like that.
That that's something that is a whole another conversation.
(11:08):
But if you have guys who are willing to give great effort,
willing to focus you, you have to teach them.
And then you have to drill thosethings that you're doing and
then you have to build up this foundation.
You know, we're we have this book.
I got it right here that we're we're reading as a team.
It's called chop wood carry water and it's a great book And
and each, each chapter is only like about a, a 45 second read.
(11:31):
It's really quick. And So what we did as a team
this summer is every day we had a player get up and summarize
what the chapter meant. So we had it on the on the
indoor, on the indoor, we had iton the the monitors in the
building and everybody had to kind of read that and then we
picked them out. So somebody would have to read
and explain what that was. And to me, like, it's, it's the,
(11:53):
it's, it's that is a great book because it's all about the
process over the results. Like you're constantly working
on the process. And you know, like, for
instance, one of the chapters talks about how every inch
matters. Every decision that you make
matters. If you eat McDonald's today,
you're not going to get fat and overweight and sick.
But if you eat it every single day, eventually that's going to
(12:14):
happen. Like who you hang out with, you
know, what you listen to, what time you wake up in the morning,
what you eat, what you focus on,all those things add up in the
end. And when you're focusing on that
process, when, when you, when you fail, it's a good thing.
Like, how do you grow? You grow by failing.
You grow by, you know, first goton a bike, what happened?
(12:36):
You fell off. But how quickly can you learn
from those failures along the way?
But when I watch youth sports today, I I got to tell you, like
I watch parents who are screaming and yelling and care
if if a team wins a fifth grade basketball game like that,
That's not it. It's about the process.
Are we actually getting better at the skills that we need to
move on and grow from? And, and, and that doesn't
(12:58):
really even change when we get to college.
It's the same things like we have to focus on that.
And to your point, you know, we've had games in the past, you
know, the 22 game against Georgia, we missed a field goal
in the semifinals. And if not, we'll go on to T
against TCU and probably win thenational championship.
Same thing in in in 19, like we've been a player 2 away from
winning a championship. But the focus has to be on the
process, not the result, becauseyou know, there's a lot of
(13:21):
things that can happen in the game, no doubt.
So I I covered a lot of ground right there to love it.
Important. Points.
No, I love it. It's like the old adage, right?
How you do some things is how you do everything.
The brain, we, we try to tell our, our kids that we coach I, I
just had a 7th and 8th grade forour middle school football team.
We just had our summer workout this morning, 8:00 AM.
We're out there and we preach itlike our brain doesn't know
(13:43):
whether this is a random Wednesday in July or if this is
the fourth quarter and against our bitter rival for the last
game of the season. We, we can't decide when it's
time to turn it on. When it's time, when does it
matter? It doesn't matter.
Our brains don't know the difference and the idea of
building those processes in those routines, and I don't.
Want to cut you off one second because I think this is
(14:05):
important. I, I think and, and having three
young kids who are in sports and, and seeing them and then
seeing their peers is like not everybody has the same burn as
the other. And when you, you start to move
towards, you know, the higher levels of competition, sometimes
you need to identify like, who has that burn?
(14:27):
Like you had that burn and like attaching yourself to that burn
to understand what puts 2 feet on the ground every day for you
to want to be great because not everybody's wired that way.
Now, a part of that is a coach, like if you have guys on a team
who aren't that wired that way, how do you motivate them to want
to become the best versions of themselves?
(14:47):
And so that there's two conversations there.
One, you, you want to have thosepeople who are just wired that
way. Then the other part is like, how
do you motivate those that are around who maybe aren't that
wired that way to be the best versions of themselves Through
positivity and encouragement. Will Howard was the most
positive leader I've ever been around.
I learned a lot from him becausesometimes I can be negative.
(15:08):
He would always make people think they could do more than
they could. He was tremendous that way and I
learned a lot from him. That was his leadership style.
But the people that you're around who want to be great, and
I see young kids like I say it to my my daughter's all the
time, like, if you don't want this, don't do it.
Like if you don't want to, then go find a sport, find an
instrument to play, go become the best musician or, or you
(15:30):
know, do something else. Be an artist.
Like find what you love and yourpassion and then grab onto it.
I think sometimes parents want them more than the kids.
Like they have to find their love and their passion and then
they'll own it, and then they'rethe ones that'll wake up earlier
than you. This episode of You Think is
brought to you by RCX Sports. RCX was founded to breakdown
barriers to access and expand participation in youth sports so
(15:54):
every kid has an opportunity to play to learn more.
We spoke with RC XS CEO and Founder Isel Reese.
What was the inspiration like? Where did RCX come from?
What was the problem in the youth sports world that you guys
are trying to address and what has been that that impact that
you guys are making? Yeah, yeah, you, you so, so RCX,
you know, we launched if you will, in in 2018 when we
(16:17):
launched, we were already doing some things with the NBA and
NFLI was doing camps at the Super Bowl actually for working
with the NFL. But I'm a big fan of you
appreciate if you get a play in a playbook and you can run this
play and it continues to work. You don't change it.
So as far as what it came to league play, creating events,
it's a watch for instant repeat model for us.
(16:38):
And so we think NBA and WNBA. So that was a 2 for there.
It's league play. It's it's the same model, it's
the same concept. NHL street hockey, you know, we,
we, we, we got with NHL and, andinitially we were saying, hey,
ice and let's do three on three.We kind of got into think tank
together and then, you know, we,we came up with ball hockey,
(16:59):
street hockey and and so it's it's given opportunities, you
know, across the board, MLB, we work with pitch hit and run a a
long standing program. And so, you know, we've been
blessed to oversee that as well.Major League Soccer, I'm working
with them and now in this pilot phase with USTA of getting more
kids involved with tennis. And so we're doing some unique
(17:21):
things there. We're putting kids in jerseys,
we're putting multiple kids on on the court because my kids
play tennis and it is a very expensive sport.
And a lot of times, you know, that's the first barrier that is
there for kids. So we've built an affordable
program and also giving kids jerseys and so forth so they
feel like they're in a team environment and just getting
back to what all these sports are, which is fun and every kid
(17:44):
should be exposed to it. And also the ability to have
multi sports. So the thing that I like most
about it is, you know, when whenwe have this opportunity to work
across all these different pro leagues and our governing bodies
as well, when we all get in the room together and everybody's
saying the same thing. Everybody believes in multi
sport. Everybody believes every kid
should have a great experience and opportunity at the rec level
(18:06):
and not be priced out. You know, it shouldn't it
shouldn't come at a premium price point for kids that have a
phenomenal experience in youth sports, you know, if they want
more and other things. And I know it's a lot of things
out there, but every, every kid and every community deserves
that opportunity. And so, you know, it's, it's
things that we were accustomed to when, when we grew up, right?
And how do we, how do we get back to the basics of the kids,
(18:29):
those opportunities, what reallytook things off and, and went to
another level for us and which I'm excited and honored that
we've had the opportunity to do it overseeing NFL flag football.
We're well over 800,000 kids participating in NFL Flag and it
is truly become something greater than I anticipated.
But you know, good to to get more kids involved in the game
(18:51):
at all ages and continue to evolve NFL Flag and what it is
today. To learn more.
And find a league near you, visit rcxsports.com.
So I want to transition into another one of your roles.
Another reason, obviously you guys are so good and at the top
of the mountain, your ability toidentify talent, right?
What what does that mean? Everyone can see Jeremiah Smith
(19:11):
and look at him and go, Oh my God, he's incredible.
But I want you to just take me alittle bit deeper, right?
So you guys have your pick of every five star player in
America, but you're not, you can't get them all.
You probably don't want them all.
But you guys are one of a handful of schools that really
can walk into any high school, any showcase, any camp and say
(19:32):
we want you, you, you and you get your you get your fair
share. Tell me about the identification
process qualities. We all know we want kids.
You run 4/4 and they're 64. We we get the physical stuff.
Who do you recruit? The things that we can't
measure? Like what are those qualities
that go into everything you're talking about?
Championship culture, DNA, leadership, character, Who is
(19:56):
Ohio State, Who is Ryan Day every day waking up saying we
got to find more guys like. What?
That's a great conversation. So that the first thing is we're
looking for is talent. And what is talent?
Talent to me is God-given. So Jeremiah is a great example.
Jeremiah is 6 three and he's 225lbs and he can run.
(20:16):
And I say this all the time, like you, you've won the genetic
lottery. Did you earn that?
No, like, you know, for you likehow how tall are you, Greg?
6/5 and 1/2. Like I said it to recruits, did
you, did you earn 6/5 and 1/2? No, no, God gave you that.
Like my son's not 6/5 and 1/2, right?
Like certain things. So God's given everybody a
(20:37):
certain amount of talent. And we look for guys who are
talented. There's no question about that,
But then there's the other part of it.
And the other part is what we control and that's our
discipline and our skill and discipline to me is everything
that God didn't give you your work ethic.
Like nobody. I say this to my son all the
time. Is anybody stopping you from
being the hardest working guy inthe entire country?
(20:57):
No, you, you decide that you read like Goggins book and these
guys like there's, there's nothing you can't do when it
comes to work ethic, your focus,the belief in yourself, your
resilience, your preparation, what you put in your body.
Like all these things to me are very, very important.
So we look for guys who are disciplined, then we look for
guys who are skilled, the skillsto do your the player position.
(21:21):
Like if you're playing tight end, like there's certain
skills. You don't have to know how to
kick a ball. You don't have to know how to
throw a ball. You don't have to learn how to
pass rush, but you're not going to run a route.
You don't know how to dig out a A7 technique.
You got to do these different things.
And so those skills allow allowed you to play in the NFL
for a long, long time, even though some other guys were more
talented than you were. That's how it works.
So we we're looking for the guyswho are talented, but also at
(21:44):
discipline and skill. That's Jeremiah, that's Kobe
Bryant, that's LeBron James. Now, when you look at a guy
who's Uber talented, a lot of times they're not disciplined
and they're not skilled because it's easy for them to get away
with their talent. Then there's guys who maybe
aren't as talented, who are verydisciplined and very skilled
because they have to be to survive, you know?
(22:05):
You know who those guys are? Absolutely.
So based on our culture, we're going to take some guys who are
talented and we feel like we cancreate their discipline and
their skill in their life, but we're not going to have too many
of them because they'll kill your culture.
We're going to take some guys who are super disciplined and
super skilled. Maybe you aren't as talented
because they're good for the culture and they're going to
give great effort and they're going to they're going to
(22:25):
maximize what they have. And then we're ultimately
looking for the guys who are very, very talented, disciplined
and skilled because those becomethe first routers and the great
players. Is there, I know it's a hard
question to maybe wrap your headaround, Is there like a
proportion of those 3 categoriesthat you found is the right
balance? I mean, you mentioned before
like 1080 ten, like, I don't know, maybe that's a good
(22:47):
starting point. Have you found like the right
balance? Or maybe does every team take on
a different blend? Well, I think before, you know,
this, this, this new age of NIL,we, we are our percentage at
Ohio State of, you know, talented discipline and skilled.
I mean, you could recruit, you know, four or five stars in the
(23:10):
same class in the same room and there was no cap to it.
Now it's a little bit different with the way things are.
So we, we kind of look at it like we're probably going to
have hope, hope to have one or maybe 2 in each class at each
position. But then we're going to
supplement that either through the transfer portal or with, you
know, some high school guys who are in that other category,
which are usually developmental.That's the way we look.
(23:32):
Again, and, and the programs like yours that can attract the
kid like Jeremiah who's ready tostep in day one and play at a
high level, but also then can also take the four, the three,
the four-star, maybe the borderline guy.
And after two years, he's ready to become an impact player
because you coach them, you workwith them, you love them, you
hold them accountable. Not everyone has to play day
(23:54):
one, but everybody can't take three years, right?
So again, a lot of this is a blend that's more of an art than
a science. You got it.
I love it. You got it.
Yeah, I love it. And along those lines, you
mentioned today's day and age and I yell that you no one has a
better pulse. You walk into every high school
in America, you're at showcases,you're at camps, you're at 7 on
(24:15):
7 events. How do you recruit the families?
I I think maybe the bet the mostbeneficial aspect of hearing
from you. If I'm a mom or a dad and I've
got a a son or a daughter who's getting ready to be recruited by
a school at any level. How do I be a good?
Sports parent, like when you're recruiting these kids, what are
you looking for out of mom, dad,family support structure,
(24:37):
neighborhood. Like there's a lot more.
When you recruit a kid, you're not just recruiting them, you're
getting the entire bucket. Like, are there certain things
that you look for or certain things you shy away from in
regards to? That yeah, I think that when you
meet a family and they have theyhave core values that they
(24:58):
believe in as a family. Like we're coming in here coach
and and and and we're not looking at transfer.
Like we understand that everything that when our son
walks in the door, they're goingto he's going to have to earn
everything that he gets now thatwe'd like to know the situation,
we'd like to know what's going to happen.
But in our family, you know, we,we want to earn everything that
(25:19):
we have in our family, XY and Z,you know, like, I think when,
when parents come in and they just, you know, they just kind
of like, well, you know, is my son going to start, you know,
and, and, you know, they just start asking about all these
different things. You know, it's fine.
We, we have parents who are likethat, But the ones that I
appreciate the most look at their son and say, OK, this is
(25:40):
going to be his life. We're here to counsel him.
We're here to help him, but ultimately he's the one who's
going to have to live this life.He's the one who's going to have
to come in here and do it. And we know it's not going to be
easy along the way. We know that there's going to be
days where he's going to wake upand say, you know what?
I'm not even sure I want to playfootball.
I'm not sure I want to go to this school.
But if we go through this process the right way and and
(26:01):
understand that like this is what we're going to do.
I mean, I you told me the story about when your dad said,
listen, you're you're not leaving Miami like that made you
go back and say, shoot, I don't have a choice anymore.
I got to make this work. Like to me, those are the
stories I love because you know,as, as parents, if, if you're
enabling them or you're always giving them an out or you're
(26:22):
saying, well, you know, the coaching's no good or making
excuses for them. They're always going to count on
those excuses. They, they know they have an
escape hatch if they're forced to figure this out on their own.
That to me is where the best success stories happen, no
doubt. Do you?
Think though, and this last couple things, I'll let you go
and and again, I can't thank youenough for doing this.
(26:43):
Do you? Think that.
You now at the stage you are in your career and where the
program at Ohio State is coming off a national championship at
the top. Do you feel like now you're in a
greater position than maybe for a a young college coach who's
trying to turn a program around?He's up against the gun.
He's maybe in year two or three and he needs some results or
he's probably going to be showing the door.
(27:04):
Like, do you feel like there's aprocess in all this where when
you get to a place like you're at, you can be a lot more steady
in your principles, a lot more picky in your recruiting a lot
because you like, is that a luxury maybe that you guys have
earned that maybe years ago whenyou first started or maybe some
of your past stops before Ohio State, you maybe didn't have the
(27:25):
ability to to be in that position?
I mean, maybe, you know, I thinkwhen you're young and you don't
have the benefit of the doubt, you have to work through those
times. You know, I, I look about like
what, you know, the way that Kirk Ference has been in Iowa,
you know, that's a different place.
And he's just been so steady anddeveloping people year in, year
out. You know, everybody's at a
(27:45):
different place. But when, when you're a first
time head coach, I, I do agree with you.
I think, I think that happened to me a little bit.
You know, when you're a first time head coach at Ohio State,
you don't necessarily get the benefit of the doubt until you
win a national championship and you feel that you do.
But you can't, you can't all of a sudden start changing what you
believe in. You know, you can't start
(28:05):
becoming and cut corners and start saying, well, I'm going to
do this just to win this season because eventually it's going to
it's not going to work. Now some people's philosophy is
win and do everything they can to win right now and then either
take the next job or deal with it the next year.
And that's their own philosophy.My philosophy has always been
the decisions that we make are based on the long term.
(28:27):
Like I'd like to be here for 20 years.
So that's the way that I look atit.
And so every decision that we make is made under that lens of
like, not just for this year. Now, sometimes, you know, you
certainly want to win that year.You got to fill a hole maybe in
the transfer portal. I'm not talking about that.
I just mean the, the, the, the long term decisions of like we
want to, we want to stable, you know, program here for a long
(28:48):
time. So that's the way that I look at
the second thing about making decisions is having a son, which
we've always made these decisions this way, but it's
made it easier for me having a son that's gone through the
process is that how would I wantmy son treated?
And that brings you to every decision that you need looking
at it through the long term. And then how would I want my my
(29:09):
son treated if he was in the program?
And that really helps clarify the decision making process
before we get back to the episode.
Let's continue our conversation with RC X Sports Founder and
CEO, Isel Reese to hear how theyare working with professional
leagues to elevate the youth sports experience these clubs.
And these teams of, you know, picture sport, NBA does a
(29:30):
phenomenal job as well. They've been wanting to do more.
And so having this conduit and having us in the middle to kind
of be an extension of them. And but this is all we focus on,
right? So, because at the end of the
day, the pro leagues and their their respective teams, they
want to do more, but they also have a professional team or
(29:52):
professional club that they got to run and they got to go get a
Super Bowl or go win a championship, right?
So, so, so having us in the in the middle of the kind of be
this is all I'm thinking about. My, my Super Bowl is sports.
My Super Bowl is, you know, seeing, seeing these kids and
them getting that opportunity. So now you got somebody who has
expertise, but then also the league operator.
(30:14):
So I'm going to go to the other spectrum, that local park and
rec, that local Y those, those different type of groups,
independent groups. Those are what we call and we
say that local league operator where those those people that
are those boots on the ground, those coaches that are
volunteering those time there's officials that are involved and
and getting behind them and supporting them.
And so that's what we spent a lot of emphasis on and
(30:36):
supporting those 2000 plus league operators, creating
efficiencies for them, giving them tools and resources, truly
being at one stop shop for them and supporting them and
servicing them so that they can deliver that good, that great
experience for those kids withinthose respective communities.
So, and that's, that's kind of how, you know, again, we're,
(30:58):
we're connecting all the dots, if you will, and it's worked
extremely well, you know, still a lot of runway and continue to,
to, to grow and accelerate it and enhance it.
And I, and I think it's a constant push to get more kids
back in sport. Cause at the end of the day,
there's still a lion's share of kids that are not playing sport.
How do, how do we get them back to, you know, to being involved
(31:21):
in engaged with sports? Youth sports isn't, isn't going
anywhere, but we do know that there aren't as many kids
playing youth sports as it used to be.
And, and some of it is because of barriers, some of it because,
you know, a variety of things. And so I don't see any slowing
down because I mean, you know that you have this opportunity
(31:41):
to continue to enhance and pulling kids back in.
And every parent wants, every parents wants their kids on a on
a local giving Saturday in theirlocal community to participate
and it also to be a, a better and great experience.
And so I don't see this slowing down at at all.
I mean, I know we got our foot on the gas and we're going to
continue to do it and it's working.
(32:01):
And so there's also a lot of demand for, you know, from from
other sports that have, you know, inquired and asked, Hey,
how can we be on your platform and what you're doing?
We see what what's happening, but we want to make sure that,
you know, we can continue to deliver and dot the IS and cross
the T's and make it a good experience for for the sports
that we're involved in now to learn more.
And find a league near you, visit rcxsports.com.
(32:25):
I wanted to end there. We've talked.
About your coaching philosophy and building locker room and
cultures. But I want to talk about being a
dad for a minute. Remove yourself as the head
coach of the national champions.Remove yourself as the head
coach of Ohio State. You have a son who's going
through the recruiting process as we sit here today.
And obviously you've been on theother side of the table on now
(32:46):
on this side of the table. You just touched on in.
A minute, but I'd ask you to just explore it a little bit
more like. What?
Where? Is where else has your
perspective change now that you've said, OK, I'm now the dad
sitting next to another coach, talking to him.
Like, what is this process like for you?
Like can you, are you going to recruit your son?
Could you ever coach your son? Like talk me.
(33:08):
I, I played for my dad in high school.
Like it was no greater experience, but it was hard as
hell. Where are you?
As far as the relationship between dad, son, coach, yeah.
Yeah, I, I think that there's such a balance of if you don't
(33:28):
advocate for your son, nobody's going to and, and, and in
today's day and age, the truth of it is there's so many adults
that are involved that if you just think he's going to be fine
on his own, it is probably not going to be the case.
Somewhere along the line, you, you have to advocate for your,
your children, but there's also crossing the line.
You have to let them go and figure stuff out on their own.
(33:50):
Now, my son's in a very unique situation here.
You know, he is motivated to outwork everybody.
He almost feels like he has to work double hard because people
think just because he's my son, he, you know, he, he gets
certain opportunities and thingslike that, But the truth is he
actually has to work twice as hard and that's, that's what
motivates him. I know he's never even told me
that, but I but I know in his heart that's the case.
(34:11):
But I've really tried to help the best I can.
I've tried to come over there asa dad and, and, you know, be a
part of it. So he feels that experience.
But also taking a step back and realizing, like in this
recruiting process, it's all about people.
That's it. Like, I've raised my son to a
certain point when I hand them over to another program.
Like, it has to be the right fitfor what he wants.
He's a football junkie. That's really all he cares about
(34:34):
and he he's going to need to be be around people that love
football, but also people that care about relationships.
And I think that is important. My wife will have a very, you
know, important part of this andfeel uncomfortable with wherever
he goes. But in terms of coaching him, I,
I think here at Ohio State, it would be a huge challenge for
him to be a part of Ohio State with everything going on.
(34:55):
I'm not sure his mother would let him do it.
But who knows what I'm not goingto rule it out.
We'll kind of see where it whereit shakes out.
It's a big junior year for him. It's been fun to watch.
It's been fun to see him grow into the role, how strong he is.
I mean, the minute he gets off the bus, people are going after
him. And as you can imagine what
that's like. But, but it only motivates him
more. And it's been fun to see him
(35:17):
grow and, and it makes you more mature.
You just grow up faster when youhave to work through all those
things that he has. And so he started as a freshman,
started as a sophomore. This is a big junior year for
him, so it's been great to go through the process.
And and that's a cool thing about being a coach is that, you
know, if if you're an electrician or you know, you're
an insurance agent, your son isn't in the building, You don't
(35:40):
share those experiences. He doesn't go on the road with
you to a road game. He doesn't go to the bowl games.
He's not at morning workouts like he is here with me.
He's in this facility getting recovery every after every
practice, you know, and so we get to spend that time together,
which is been special for as as a dad and as a son.
So that that's been really cool.But I, I encourage like, and and
I know you know this, having a dad as a coach, like the more
(36:01):
your kids and your family can beinvolved in your day-to-day as a
coach, it just makes it so much more enjoyable.
The players like to see you as adad.
They like to see you as a husband.
And it makes it more enjoyable for your family because they
feel more a part of it. Yeah, they see and.
They see you as a human. They don't just see you as
coach, they see the humanity. My last question, and I'm going
to let you go bro, and I'm asking you to name a team right
(36:23):
now and compare your program to them.
I'm not looking to set off the Ohio State fans at all.
In your heart of. Hearts, when you look around the
landscape of the country, are there a couple guys that you
recognize and you go, you know what, I'm going to take my
coaching hat off as a dad. I want my son to go play for him
because I think there's probablya lot of dads around the
(36:45):
country. First thing I said to my wife
when I came home from your practice last spring, I said if
I ever had it. Now my kids are young, but I
said if I ever had a high schoolkid and I had to turn him over.
At. Her near the top of my list
would be Ryan Day like, and that's the God of the truth.
I said to my wife, I said, I don't even care about football.
I don't care about what plays they run, what offense they run.
If one guy is going to oversee your son for four years, I don't
(37:08):
know how you do better than Ryan.
So I'm going to ask you the samething.
Are there guys? You look around the country and
go, you know what, football aside, I'll turn my son over to
that guy because I've seen his programs.
I've seen the way he's coached, the way he treats his kid.
Like, is there a guy off the topof your head that you'd be
willing to share with us that you just have a lot of respect
for as a dad to say I'll turn mykid over to play for you?
(37:31):
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
And I appreciate you saying that.
It means a lot. I mean, the guy that comes to
mind a lot to me is Dabo. Dabo has has, you know, when we
first played them in 19, you know, in the in the Fiesta Bowl,
they had a great team. We had a battle, you know, it
was Justin versus Trevor and we had some really good players.
And, and during one of the events, he and his wife came
(37:53):
over and just had, you know, some real conversation.
I remember Dabo saying, listen, like you've done an unbelievable
job. You've done a great job
recruiting in your first year. He's like, you know, who who
knows what will happen in this game?
If you beat us, you know, you probably win the national
championship. If you don't, you're going to
win a national championship. And like he didn't have to do
that. I've been around a lot of
coaches that wouldn't even take the time, you know, they did
(38:14):
posture and, you know, their egos get in the way.
But the fact that he I'll never forget that.
And then we've gone on Nike trips before and, and he just,
he spends time, you know, he talks about his family, talks
about his kids, and then you seethe way he treats his players.
And we went down to visit and, and he took RJ and I around the
whole facility. Just the way that he's built it
down there. I mean, I could probably get
into a few coaches, but he's theone that comes to mind the most
(38:36):
of somebody that really has a great perspective on it.
He's a great coach, but he's a great dad and and he really
treats those guys in in the building like they're his sons
before we wrap up with. Ryan Day.
Let's close out our conversationwith our friends at RCX Sports.
I spoke to a father and daughterwho are living the youth sports
experience daily to hear how RCXhas helped them.
I get excited to. Know that they'll have memories
(38:58):
of doing some of these things. They'll know that their parents
were able to take them out to goplay these sports to.
They'll make friends all over the city with the way our city
is now with no, not really Community Schools because
everything's charter. You have like people spread all
over the city. So it gives them a chance to
meet new kids and and have thoseexperiences.
(39:19):
And so that's something that brings joy to my heart, knowing
that they're going to have a childhood that's full of joy,
that's that's full of fun and they get a chance to play all
these different sports and see what they like.
So that's been that's been really, really exciting.
It feels like I'm. A pro and it feels like I'm
actually playing for like the team I'm wearing and it feels
(39:40):
like a big league. They've done a great.
Job of going all over the city, connecting with different
schools, connecting with different with different
communities and creating a cost that allows all families to get
a chance to be a part of of playing of of getting a chance
to be to be in the sports and, and to.
(40:02):
Be a part. Of these teams and so they've
done a great job of just connecting with different
community different community members getting the word out.
I think you can tell, but what'sgoing on with 18th Ward that
they're just doing an amazing job and they're not all trying
to do just one sport. They can do many sports.
So all those things create an environment that that creates a
a great place for kids to learn and grow.
(40:24):
Having fun is. Very important because what's
the point of the primary game for that?
To learn more. And find a league near you,
visit rcxsports.com. I love it.
Living here in Charlotte, in theCarolinas, Dabos reputation
across the Carolinas is everything you just said.
(40:45):
So that doesn't surprise me at all, Coach.
On the heels of a. National championship.
I hope you guys have an awesome year.
Unless you're playing Miami thatI get a little conflicted there.
But dude, I always pull for you guys just because you talk about
people. You could be the coach at Ohio
State. You could be the coach of the
moon. I cheer for you.
I cheer for your program, what you stand for.
(41:07):
Ever since I've gotten to know you.
Thank you for joining us on You Think.
Our fans, our listeners, they have no idea how fortunate they
are to get a little insight intochampionship mindset at the
highest level, but also a level of humanity.
And I think the level of humanity in this ever
competitive world of sports is often very times lost because
everyone is just on to the next,on to the next.
(41:28):
And to take a step, step back and just be a person, be a dad,
love these kids. I.
Think it's really refreshing andI think maybe no better voice to
share with our listeners than yours, man.
So I can't thank you enough, Coach.
No, thank you. And I think what you just said
is important because like, even if you, if you watch an
interview of of Scotty Schefflerbefore the British Open and then
watch him, man, and then see himembrace his son, like, yeah,
(41:50):
that that's what it's about. It's about the humanity of all
this. And sometimes I think we all
lose that with everything that'sgoing on.
So it's an honor to be on here. You know how much I respect for
you. And I think this is a great,
great thing that you're doing tohelp, you know, young coaches,
young people. And so anything I can do to
help?
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