Speaking of
leadership, you have, I don't want to
say just fortunate, but in your gratitude tree,
I'm sure there's like, I got the coach
under Pete Carroll and I got a coach
under Nick Saban and be with the
Falcons and Matt Ryan and like, yeah, you've gotten
to coach great players, coach under great coaches,
but specifically two guys that just stepped away. Yeah, Pete Carroll,
Nick saban, they step away and basically the
same day, same day, same day. And those are, I would have to
imagine please correct me if I'm wrong, the most
influential coaching influences in your career, hands
down, what did each of them bring to you. Crazy to think
like I'll say this in my era of coaching the three
greatest of all time, right. If you put Coach Saban and Coach
Carroll and Bill belichick, I would agree. Right the most successful
era and those guys in their organizations that they
were part of the biggest thing I got from those two. Dramatically different
personalities. Here's Pete Carroll. He's bouncing around. He's chewing gum. He's playing catch every day. He's got his gloves on. He's creating an
environment of energy and the guys are flying around. Here's Nick Saban. It's like the methodical
regiment, the discipline of this is how we're going to
go about our business. And this is the approach. OK but in the end,
they're both striving for the exact same thing,
which is being champions. They're both highly competitive. Two of the most competitive
humans I've ever been around and both extremely successful. But what I came to find out in
my time having been with Coach Carroll, then I get
back with Coach Saban and asking those questions were
if you look at their careers. The second half of their careers
is when they really took off. Yeah, I would argue way more
successful than the first. Not even close. Right Both of them
right around 50. And then the last 20, 22
years, they're both 72 have been the greatest
years of their careers. Well, why is that. What happened. And so I asked them both
the exact same question and really got the
exact same answer. They figured out who
they were and then they coached who they were
rather than trying to be something that they're not. And because when you try
to be something you're not, when adversity strikes,
the real you comes out and then everybody around you
like, who the hell is that guy. Like, that's not who he was
yesterday and the day before. But all of a sudden, here's
this guy that comes out. And I think that
for me, was probably the biggest thing because
remember, I was 34 years old. I was the head coach at
University of Washington. I didn't know what
the heck was going on. I was one day I was like
this and the next day I was like this. I was I was at that time. And I use this analogy. I was a thermometer. I was walking into
whatever the situation was, whatever the temperature was. That's how I responded. And I've gotten to
now I'm a thermostat. I set that temperature for
how I want it to be every day. And then others can either buy
into that temperature or not. And so if you figure
out who you are and then you try to act in
accordance to who you are as consistently as possible. So everybody knows
what to expect. And I think that's the beauty
of having an opportunity to work for those two guys. They're drastically
different, but they figured out who they were. Pete Carroll wasn't following
Bill Parcells in New England anymore, trying to be how
do I be Bill parcells, but still be Pete Carroll. He didn't have to do
that anymore, right. Nick Saban figured
out who he was. I see So many coaches now
that left that those trees of those two guys that
tried to be Pete Carroll tried to be Nick Saban
and failed miserably because they weren't
trying to be themselves. But still hold on to some of
the premises of the things that were really
good in that program. And like I said, I feel like
I've been fortunate to work for two amazing men in our
sport that have been tremendous, and the life lessons I learned
from them well beyond football that I've been able to apply
but apply in a way that fits me. So there's a consistency to the
approach that I give every day. I love the analogy that you
gave there, the thermometer and the thermostat. I've used the you're
either the refrigerator or you're the Carton of milk. You're either going to turn
into everybody that whatever temperature is around you or
you're going to turn everything into your temperature. That's exactly right. Which is the exact same thing. Same exact thing. But in order to
do that, there has to not just be a self belief,
not just be a confidence. There has to be a presence in
a groundedness about, you know, those guys. Nick Saban wasn't comparing
himself to anybody else. Pete Carroll wasn't
comparing himself. And then in this
profession, what I see is guys comparing all the
time, all the time, my program, my style, my
assistants, my players to all of these other places. And inevitably it doesn't work. And I would make the argument,
I think it's why we have such. High turnover is that the
comparison in our industry is so high and now we're
seeing it with players too. Which brings me to Nick's
comments after he retired. He was and has been incredibly
forthright with his displeasure with where we're at
in college football and what he thinks that's done
to the young men participating in college football. You know, he basically
said my conversations were, how much am I going
to play and how much are you going to pay me. And he decided that
it's not for him. In this environment. How do you grow. Also adapt to not be a
dinosaur and succeed even with these things that
he was talking about. Well, I think this I think one. Why did you choose
to come to Texas. Right and there's a formula
to that if you lead with NIL. To get a young man to
come to your school, then that's why you came there. Then a year from now, what's
he going to ask about first. No And so our kind of
perspective on this and our approach
to this is we've got an amazing product here. The history and tradition
of Texas football is second to none. The education the quality of
education at UT is incredible. The coaching staff, we have,
the development of our players, the trajectory of what we've
done from year one to year, two to year three of our
program, the City of Austin, all these things that
we're talking about. That's why I want you to come
to the University of Texas. N.I.l doesn't come up. That should be the last reason
to choose to go to a school, whether it's Texas
or any other school. Because if and then if you
take players predicated off of NIL that you want them. So bad that you're willing
to go to whatever length and whatever degree to get that
kid from an NFL perspective. Of course, that's
what he's going to talk about the
very next year when you bring him into your office. And so we've tried to create
a culture that is a little bit different that way. I think we've got a
healthy NIL program here. Our Texas one fund
is fantastic, but I got a lot of players that could
probably go to another school and make more money. But I think we've
created a culture that they like being part of. They get treated really well. They feel like they're getting
developed on and off the field. They've got a brotherhood
with their teammates in that locker room
that they succeed with. And we talk to that stuff
and we work to that stuff. And I'll tell you this,
you don't play more because you have more NIL here. I think we make that
very clear as well. The best players play that
give us the best chance to be successful as a team
that do things the right way on and off the field. And you may have a great
NIL deal this year. If you don't play,
you're probably not going to have a great one next
year and maybe you're better suited for
somewhere else if that's what's important to you. And that's OK. There's nothing wrong with that.